The Peterman Pod
The Peterman Pod
Ryan Peterman
Creator of C++: Bell Labs, Negative Overhead Abstraction, Mistakes | Bjarne Stroustrup
1 hour 59 minutes Posted May 18, 2026 at 10:00 am.
Intro0:50 - The origin of C++8:46 - What Bell Labs was like17:24 - Dennis Ritchie24:00 - When to build a programming language31:59 - Bootstrapping a language33:58 - C++ is not object-oriented37:32 - Discussing type systems46:20 - Memory safety49:26 - Standards committee anecdotes1:09:40 - Adding automatic garbage collection to C++1:18:25 - Template instantiation is Turing complete1:21:57 - Abstraction and performance1:28:51 - AI writing code1:35:54 - His motivation1:39:18 - Famous quotes1:46:48 - Reflecting on building C++1:49:12 - Top C++ book recommendation1:50:59 - Advice for his younger self1:58:06 - Outro๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—•๐—ท๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ป๐—ฒ:โ€ข Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bjarne_Stroustrupโ€ข Personal Website: https://www.stroustrup.com/๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฅ๐˜†๐—ฎ๐—ป:โ€ข Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/โ€ข X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpetermanโ€ข LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/โ€ข Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpetermanโ€ข Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpetermanโ€ข TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ:โ€ข "A History of C++": https://www.stroustrup.com/hopl2.pdfโ€ข "Evolving a language in and for the real world": https://www.stroustrup.com/hopl-almost-final.pdfโ€ข "Thriving in a Crowded and Changing World": https://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2020/p2184r0.pdfโ€ข The lecture where he mentioned he lost half his hair: https://youtu.be/69edOm889V4?si=IAZxYNwlUALodEV7&t=474โ€ข Quotes I pulled: https://www.stroustrup.com/quotes.html
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Bjarne Stroustrup is the creator of the C++ programming language and a former researcher at Bell Labs. We talked about what Bell Labs was like, programming language design, and interesting anecdotes from his experience.โ€ข My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/๐—ฃ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ธ๐˜€:โ€ข YouTube: https://youtu.be/U46fJ2bJ-coโ€ข Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835โ€ข Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/creator-of-c-bell-labs-negative-overhead๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ธ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ'๐˜€ ๐˜€๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐˜€๐˜‚๐—ฝ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—บ๐˜† ๐˜„๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ธ:โ€ข Cursor 3: a unified workspace for building software with agents, check it out at https://cursor.com/โ€ข WorkOS: makes your app Enterprise Ready with easy to use APIs to add SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more in just a few lines of code, check them out at https://workos.com/๐—ง๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐˜€:0:00 - Intro0:50 - The origin of C++8:46 - What Bell Labs was like17:24 - Dennis Ritchie24:00 - When to build a programming language31:59 - Bootstrapping a language33:58 - C++ is not object-oriented37:32 - Discussing type systems46:20 - Memory safety49:26 - Standards committee anecdotes1:09:40 - Adding automatic garbage collection to C++1:18:25 - Template instantiation is Turing complete1:21:57 - Abstraction and performance1:28:51 - AI writing code1:35:54 - His motivation1:39:18 - Famous quotes1:46:48 - Reflecting on building C++1:49:12 - Top C++ book recommendation1:50:59 - Advice for his younger self1:58:06 - Outro๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—•๐—ท๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ป๐—ฒ:โ€ข Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bjarne_Stroustrupโ€ข Personal Website: https://www.stroustrup.com/๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฅ๐˜†๐—ฎ๐—ป:โ€ข Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/โ€ข X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpetermanโ€ข LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/โ€ข Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpetermanโ€ข Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpetermanโ€ข TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ:โ€ข "A History of C++": https://www.stroustrup.com/hopl2.pdfโ€ข "Evolving a language in and for the real world": https://www.stroustrup.com/hopl-almost-final.pdfโ€ข "Thriving in a Crowded and Changing World": https://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2020/p2184r0.pdfโ€ข The lecture where he mentioned he lost half his hair: https://youtu.be/69edOm889V4?si=IAZxYNwlUALodEV7&t=474โ€ข Quotes I pulled: https://www.stroustrup.com/quotes.html