The Beer Driven Devs

Matt and Liam pick apart the persistent myth that custom software is only for big enterprises. From SMB access to risk, lock-in, and the manufacturing roots of enterprise software, they argue that bespoke isn't the dangerous option — homogenising your business to fit someone else's product is.

Matt and Liam unpack the EuroOffice scramble, the US CLOUD Act, and what data sovereignty actually means in 2026. It's a tour through Sun, Oracle, LibreOffice, the Microsoft Ireland case, and the uncomfortable questions every consultant should be asking about where their clients' data really lives.

Matt and Liam dig into Anthropic's unreleased Mythos model and the security implications everyone's talking about — then pull back the lens on AI hype cycles, data de-anonymisation, and whether we're sleepwalking through the biggest privacy breach in history.

Matt finally snaps. After a faulty GPU, a laptop that keeps rebooting itself, and a pre-installed audio driver that hides in System32 and reinstalls itself after every Windows Update, the only sensible move is nuclear — wipe the drive and switch to Linux. A deeply personal saga of hardware woes, vendor frustration, and one very stubborn rootkit.

Matt finally gets to debrief on .NET MAUI Day London — meeting the team in person, the talks that blew the room away, and why .NET 10 has him genuinely excited about mobile again. Plus: Liam's fully agentic AI game studio, and Matt's vibe-coded YouTube filter that may or may not be called the Fluff Slicer.

An AI agent submits a pull request, gets rejected, and publishes a hit piece. We unpack what happened, what it means for open source, and whether software engineers still have a job in 2026.

In this episode, Matt and Liam talk about hype cycles in modern tooling, using AI and Aspire as examples of what happens when tools are used outside their intended context. They explore why frustration often comes from misaligned expectations rather than broken technology.

A deeper follow-up to our earlier JavaScript discussions, this episode digs into why the ecosystem keeps tripping over the same problems. We unpack supply-chain risk, package culture, governance gaps, and the uncomfortable truth that some issues aren’t technical at all: they’re cultural. JavaScript isn’t going away, but that doesn’t mean it should remain the default foundation for everything we build.

Matt and Liam debate whether AI is making software better or just faster, exploring how AI impacts developer workflows, platform quality, and the real value it brings to people versus companies. A candid discussion on tech debt, productivity, and what we actually want from our tools.

A reflective end-of-year conversation about decency, responsibility, and the small choices that quietly shape our workplaces and communities.

The Beer Driven Devs attended ADAConf again, this time with Matt presenting. In this episode Liam and Matt reflect on what they learned about change at this year's conference.

Matt and Liam unpack the stubborn stereotype of the socially inept specialist, how it still shapes expectations today, and why great leadership has nothing to do with whether you can code — and everything to do with how much you care.

This week Matt introduces Cabinet — a lightweight, encrypted offline data store for .NET apps — and shares the story, design decisions, and trade-offs behind it.

Matt and Liam share how they actually use AI day-to-day—from code assistants to creative projects—and explore whether AI is really coming for our jobs, or just changing what those jobs look like.

Matt and Liam pull apart the reflex to start with tables and let an ORM shape your code. We talk aggregates, normalisation vs denormalisation, many-to-many pain, and when a document or relational store actually fits the job.

We keep using these words—agile, governance, risk, contracts—but do they mean what we think they mean? This episode digs into the trouble with shared language and mismatched definitions.

The recent nx exploit grabbed a lot of attention for using a novel AI prompt injection attack. This episode unpacks what happened, the dangers of blind trust, and some ways to minimise risk.

Matt and Liam are joined by Jimmy Bogard for a deep dive into the ethics and commercials of maintaining sustainable open-source software in the .NET ecosystem.

In this episode, we explore the impact of interruptions on deep work and productivity, discussing the hidden costs of meetings and the importance of maintaining focus.

Why do we keep getting estimates wrong? We explore the psychology behind estimation, planning fallacies, and the real reasons tasks feel harder than they should.

In Part 2 of our chat with Ulysses Maclaren, we dive deeper into AI, agency, and the big existential questions — with plenty of laughs along the way.

In part 1 of this 2-part series, we welcome back Ulysses Maclaren to discuss AI, agency, and the big existential questions — with plenty of laughs along the way.

Lucy Quinlan shares the story of Villey — building a tech company without a tech background, bootstrapping, and the power of trust and community support.

Fresh from /NEW conference, we explore financial independence, Aussie defense tech, merit narratives, and how to back founders who’ve overcome more.

A vulnerable chat on leadership under pressure, balancing empathy and steadiness, and what it really means to be the calm center of a team storm.

With guest Sarah Kenyon, we break down personal branding myths, navigating LinkedIn noise, and why 'just let the work speak' isn’t always enough.

Matt gets personal on Superman, hope, and why stories matter — plus reflections on practical effects, mythology, and backyard birthday laser tag.

We unpack the hype and snake oil behind AI marketing, questioning authenticity and what real, trustworthy engagement should look like.

We tackle the wave of open-source projects going commercial in .NET, community trust, and what it means for the future of the ecosystem.

A fiery debate on REST conventions, idempotence, and when breaking the 'rules' of API design is genius — or just lazy.

Drawing lessons from classic cars and modular design, we explore why software ages so quickly — and whether truly timeless apps are even possible.

A candid discussion on entitlement, burnout, and the blurred lines between community and commerce in the open-source ecosystem.

We challenge the traditional linear career path, exploring staff engineering roles, motivation, and how 'moving back' can actually be moving forward.

A passionate rant on the quirks and limitations of JavaScript, and whether emerging tech (like WASI and Rust) might finally set us free from it.

We celebrate those brave enough to change careers later in life, unpacking privilege, resilience, and the value of diverse perspectives in tech and beyond.

A New Year’s chat on setting realistic goals, exploring new dev tools, and balancing growth with maintaining foundational skills.

A short, festive wrap-up to close the year — looking back with gratitude and raising a glass to all our listeners. Cheers!

We unpack the hidden dangers of tech debt, why it's like financial debt, and how to communicate its impact to non-technical stakeholders before it sinks your project.

A reflective episode on Simon Sinek’s 'Start with Why', personal motivations, and how thinking strategically can transform careers and team dynamics.

Wrapping up ADAConf highlights, hallway chats, and what we’re taking into next year’s events — plus bonus stories from the flight home.

A recap of ADAConf Melbourne — standout talks, decision-making in architecture and teams, and why this conference left such an impression.

A practical, approachable guide to authentication and authorisation — demystifying OIDC, OAuth, PKCE, and helping you finally understand those tokens and cookies.

We unpack the ethics of open source, corporate freeloading, and how maintainers balance community goodwill with burnout and business realities.

A no-holds-barred debate on best practices — DDD, TDD, Agile, layered architectures — and whether we’ve been getting it all hilariously wrong.

A year after Unity’s big fee fiasco, we reflect on game dev, community backlash, and what we’ve learned after 12 months of podcasting.

From technical puzzles to life’s big challenges — we explore mindsets, DDD, YAGNI, and whether every problem really needs a solution at all.

Matt shares the hard lessons of juggling multiple roles, avoiding burnout, and why sometimes your own wellbeing deserves a place on the backlog.

Scott Arbeit joins to discuss Grace, a potential Git alternative — merging philosophy, cleaner code, and whether the industry is really ready for change.

We unpack the largest IT outage in history, explore how tech debt and leadership contributed, and discuss what it means for trust and resilience in ops.