In this episode, we dive into the influential ideas of Simon Sinek and explore the importance of starting with “why.” From a metaphorical fresh start inspired by a haircut to real-world examples from Apple and Harley Davidson, the conversation focuses on how understanding motivations can transform personal and professional growth.

We also unpack what it means to think strategically, going beyond surface-level tasks to the deeper context that drives successful outcomes. Along the way, we share anecdotes, practical advice, and frameworks that can help you apply these concepts to everything from mentoring engineers to solving complex technical challenges.

Join us as we explore the power of leading with “why” and how it can help you align decisions, communications, and actions with your core values.

As always, we’d love your feedback! Share your thoughts, favourite moments, and topics you’d like us to cover next.

Any Likes 👍, Shares 📣, Subscriptions 🔔 and Love ❤️ & Support ❤️ go a long way to helping us continue with this podcast.

Cheers!

After cutting the last episode short catching a flight, this bonus episode concludes the two-part series, discussing the highlights of the inaugural ADAConf in Melbourne, held on the 8th of November, 2024. Liam and Matt break down standout talks, speaker insights, and the powerful atmosphere of a conference dedicated to decision-making in software architecture, team dynamics, and organisational influence.

ADAConf brought together world-class experts to share knowledge on a range of topics, all woven into the central theme of decision-making. Attendees left with practical strategies and invaluable lessons, gained through both research and real-world experience.

In this episode, Matt and Liam share their standout moments and some memorable conversations with speakers and attendees. With the conclusion of AdaConf ‘24, we’ve already made the decision to be there next year.

In the first episode of this two-part series, Matt and Liam dive into the highlights of the inaugural ADAConf in Melbourne, held on the 8th of November, 2024. They break down standout talks, speaker insights, and the powerful atmosphere of a conference dedicated to decision-making in software architecture, team dynamics, and organisational influence.

ADAConf brought together world-class experts to share knowledge on a range of topics, all woven into the central theme of decision-making. Attendees left with practical strategies and invaluable lessons, gained through both research and real-world experience.

In this episode, Matt and Liam share their standout moments and some memorable conversations with speakers and attendees. This is only the beginning—stay tuned for even more insights in part two!

Confused about auth? You’re not alone, especially considering the importance of getting authentication and authorisation right. In this episode, Matt addresses everything you always wanted to know about auth (but were afraid to ask).

Terms like OIDC, OAuth, PKCE, JWT, and cookies are often thrown around, but how many of us are confident we are doing it right? By the end of this episode you’ll have a better understanding on the processes and mechanisms that help keep our applications secure.

Matt also talks about best practices for implementing authorisation in modern SPAs, the best way to ensure your tokens remain secret, and shares some of his (secure) shortcuts.

As always, we’re eager to hear your thoughts! Share your favourite moments from our first year and let us know what topics you’d love to see in the future.

Any Likes 👍, Shares 📣, Subscriptions 🔔 and Love ❤️ & Support ❤️ go a long way to helping us continue with this podcast (and could win you a ticket to ADAConf)!

Cheers.

In this episode, we dive into the ethics of open-source software and the fine line between community-driven contributions and corporate exploitation. We focus on the recent controversy surrounding WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine, a major player in the WordPress hosting space. Mullenweg criticizes WP Engine for profiting from WordPress without contributing enough back to the project, sparking a broader discussion on the responsibilities of large corporations in open source.

We explore the motivations behind open-source contributions, the ethical dilemmas posed by corporate use of these projects, and the burnout many maintainers face. As we reflect on these challenges, we ask: How can we bridge the gap between using open-source software and actively supporting its growth?

As always, we’re eager to hear your thoughts! Share your favourite moments from our first year and let us know what topics you’d love to see in the future.

Any Likes 👍, Shares 📣, Subscriptions 🔔 and Love ❤️ & Support ❤️ go a long way to helping us continue with this podcast.

Cheers.

DDD, TDD, Agile, Scrum, layered architectures… And the list of “best patterns and practices” goes on.

As always, we’re eager to hear your thoughts! Share your favourite moments from our first year and let us know what topics you’d love to see in the future.

Any Likes 👍, Shares 📣, Subscriptions 🔔 and Love ❤️ & Support ❤️ go a long way to helping us continue with this podcast.

Cheers.

In our 26th episode, Beer Driven Devs comes full circle. Exactly one year ago, we launched this podcast by diving into the controversy surrounding Unity’s runtime fee. Now, 12 months later, Unity’s fee has been cancelled, and we’re back to where it all started—reflecting on how much has changed, both for Unity and for us.

We discuss the major shifts within Unity over the past year, from leadership changes to community backlash and what the company’s recent fee reversal means for the future of game development. We also take a moment to celebrate our podcast’s first anniversary and look back at our journey—from the spontaneous idea that led to Beer Driven Devs to the valuable lessons we’ve learned along the way.

As always, we’re eager to hear your thoughts! Share your favourite moments from our first year and let us know what topics you’d love to see in the future.

Any Likes 👍, Shares 📣, Subscriptions 🔔 and Love ❤️ & Support ❤️ go a long way to helping us continue with this podcast.

In every aspect of our lives, professional or otherwise, we face problems. As software engineers, enterprise developers, or solution architects, problem solving is at the core of what we do each and every day. This week Liam and Matt discuss their tools and experiences in problem solving, and and ask the question, is DDD right? Is there always a domain solution to every problem? Or better yet, does every problem even need to be solved?

Tell us on Twitter (we refuse to call it ‘X’) or LinkedIn your tips for tackling the difficult problems.

As always, any Likes 👍, Shares 📣, Subscriptions 🔔 and Love ❤️ & Support ❤️ go a long way to helping us continue with this podcast.

Programmers waste enormous amounts of time thinking about, or worrying about, the speed of noncritical parts of their programs, and these attempts at efficiency actually have a strong negative impact when debugging and maintenance are considered. We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil. Yet we should not pass up our opportunities in that critical 3%.

Liam 🍺 - Balter Cerveza

Matt 🍺 - Matt’s Supersonic Stout ✈️

Shameless Plug - FirstHand Brewing

Matt has been burning the candle at both ends. Taking on the roles of Tech Lead, Scrum Master and Individual Contributor in not one, but two projects. Join Liam and Matt this week as Matt learns the hard way how to manage both the Burndown chart and his own Burnout chart.

As always, any Likes 👍, Shares 📣, Subscriptions 🔔 and Love ❤️ & Support ❤️ go a long way to helping us continue with this podcast.

“work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”

- Parkinson’s law

“Organizations which design systems (in the broad sense used here) are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.”

- Conway’s law

Liam’s Lessons from a successful project

Still conflicted about Git? What’s the alternative? Is there one? This week Scott Arbeit Graces Matt and Liam with his compnay to talk about a little source control project he is working on, Grace.

Scott is a Senior Technical Architect at Github, and the founder of the Grace source control system.