Rubber Duck Radio
Podcast episodes on software development, architecture, and technology — exploring the craft of building great software.
Fable 5 Banned: The Multi-Model Escape Plan
Tim Williams, Paul Mason
Anthropic launched Claude Fable 5 with huge expectations, only to see the US government order it pulled globally three days later. Tim and Paul dig into the swirling conspiracy theories: was it retali...
AWSAI Didn't Invent These Problems
Tim Williams, Paul Mason
Tim and Paul break down Anthropic's Fable 5 pricing disconnect, the dav1d assembly decoder that outraced higher-level implementations, and why Agile's 2001 playbook stumbles when agents build apps in ...
OpenAI
Ollama*MCP +2 more 
Agile Methodologies
Technology EvaluationWhy 95% of AI Pilots Fail (And How to Fix It)
Tim Williams, Paul Mason
Tim kicks things off with an AWS agent nightmare that couldn't tell dev from prod, sparking a deep dive into where deterministic pipelines end and true LLM reasoning begins. Using a clever flight-trac...
AWS
Lambda
Architecture PlanningTechnology EvaluationThe Tools That Got Us Here Won't Get Us There
Tim Williams, Paul Mason
Tim and Paul dissect why CI/CD pipelines are buckling under the speed of AI-generated code, sharing strategies like pre-commit hooks, intelligent test selection, and ephemeral preview environments to ...
AWS
DevOps*Cursor
CI/CD Implementation
Developer ExperienceRAG Isn't Dead, You're Just New Here
Tim Williams, Paul Mason
In this episode, Tim and Paul dismantle popular 'RAG is dead' and 'MCP is over' hot takes, revealing what these declarations actually say about the author's place on the AI learning curve. They explor...
AI's Demos vs. Dev Reality: The Bill Is Coming Due
Tim Williams, Paul Mason
Tim and Paul dissect the real story behind Anthropic's locked-down Claude Mythos and OpenAI's public GPT-5.5 release, hint: it's about compute, not danger. They expose the coming end of AI's VC-subsid...
Vue.js
ReactWhere Open Source LLMs Are Actually Ahead
Tim Williams, Paul Mason
Open source LLMs just hit a stunning milestone: Kimi K2.6 tied GPT-5.5 on the industry's toughest coding benchmark — and costs a fraction of the price to run. But this episode goes beyond the headline...
JavaScriptOpenAIOllama
Technical LeadershipTechnology Evaluation +2 more GPT-5.5 vs Reality: Do Benchmarks Lie?
Tim Williams, Paul Mason
Tim and Paul dissect the GPT-5.5 launch, weighing state-of-the-art benchmarks against real-world user vibes and token efficiency to determine if the upgrade is truly worth the increased cost for devel...
OpenAIJavaScriptTechnology EvaluationArchitecture PlanningThe Bar Has Moved: Junior Dev Survival Guide in the Age of AI
Tim Williams, Paul Mason
Entry-level tech hiring is down 25%, but opportunity isn't dead—it's evolved. In this episode, Tim and Paul break down what's actually working for junior developers in 2026. We cover: the Claude Opus ...
OpenAI
Stakeholder Management
Technical Communication +1 more The Fear Is the Product
Tim Williams, Paul Mason
Anthropic says "too dangerous to release." Sam Altman thanks developers on the way out. The job market says something completely different. Tim and Paul dig into the growing gap between AI marketing a...
OpenAIThe $600B AI Bubble: A Developer's Reality Check
Tim Williams, Paul Mason
Fresh from DC's Smithsonian museums—where dinosaur fossils and moon landings tell stories of deep time—Tim shares a striking realization: while developers live and breathe AI, most of the world isn't ...
OpenAITechnology EvaluationArchitecture Planning +1 more AI Isn't Taking Your Job—It's Taking the Easy Stuff
Tim Williams, Paul Mason
Tim and Paul explore an unexpected reality: AI isn't replacing developer jobs, it's stripping away the satisfying 'easy wins' and leaving only constant high-stakes problem-solving. They discuss buildi...
OpenAIArchitecture PlanningDeveloper ExperienceHarnessing Habits: From Code to Life
Tim Williams, Paul Mason
Dive into a candid discussion about the power of habits in shaping our personal and professional lives. Join Tim and Paul as they explore the intersection of developer culture, AI's impact on workflow...
Technical LeadershipTechnical Communication +1 more Apple's App Store Dilemma & AI Tool Showdown
Tim Williams, Paul Mason
Dive into the latest episode of Rubber Duck Radio, where Tim Williams and Paul Mason unravel the complexities of Apple's App Store policies and their impact on indie developers. Explore the fascinatin...
Project ManagementStakeholder Management +1 more Walled Gardens vs. Open Code: The Future of Development
Tim Williams, Paul Mason
In this episode of Rubber Duck Radio, hosts Tim Williams and Paul Mason dive into the controversial launch of Gemini 3, dissecting the viral marketing tactics that have developers buzzing. They explor...
Vue.jsReact*Cursor +1 more Technical LeadershipArchitecture Planning +2 more AI's Future: Tools Over Intelligence?
Tim Williams, Paul Mason
Join Tim and Paul on Rubber Duck Radio as they dive into the evolving landscape of AI, debating whether smarter models or smarter systems hold the key to the future. Discover insights into AI-enabled ...
OpenAIOllama
Docker +1 more Technical LeadershipArchitecture Planning +1 more AI Layoffs or Reallocations?
Tim Williams, Paul Mason
Join Tim Williams and Paul Mason on Rubber Duck Radio as they dissect AWS's massive layoffs and the true role AI plays in the tech industry's ongoing transformation. Dive into the real reasons behind ...
AWSOpenAIDeveloper Experience
Resource Planning +1 more The Pipes, Not the Puppets: Navigating AI in Dev
Tim Williams, Paul Mason
In this Halloween edition of Rubber Duck Radio, hosts Tim Williams and Paul Mason dive into the intricate world of AI in software development. Discover how context management, legacy code, and the hig...
JavaScript*MCP*Cursor +1 more Developer ExperienceArchitecture Planning +1 more Subscribe to Rubber Duck Radio
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