The Showstopper Show
Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal of Oxide Computer Company host a discussion with G. Pascal Zachary, author of 'Showstopper!', and Jessamyn West, daughter of Data General engineer Tom West, about the human cost of building Windows NT and the Eclipse minicomputer. Zachary and West analyze how the 'cult of the hotshot programmer' and the lack of modern software engineering practices led to severe personal anguish and family breakdowns for the teams at Microsoft and Data General. The conversation contrasts the 1990s 'battleship' development model with today's open-source, service-oriented software landscape, highlighting the shift from software as a static artifact to a continuous, often stressful, service.