Show notes
James Cowling is the CTO at Convex and was previously the most senior engineer at Dropbox. We discussed technical details of his past projects, simplicity vs complexity, and career advice given where AI is today.• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/Podcast links:• YouTube: https://youtu.be/3XkmNSuHFmY• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/dropboxs-former-most-senior-eng-buildingThank you to this episode's sponsor for supporting my work:• 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/Timestamps:00:00:00 Intro00:00:53 Systems work during his PhD00:13:05 Dropbox technical deep dive00:21:57 Why Dropbox migrated from AWS00:36:40 How to do massive migrations00:44:31 Simplicity vs complexity in promos00:49:23 What technical teams should be focused on01:00:25 Doing the right thing vs promo hypothetical01:08:13 Why he dipped into management sometimes01:11:36 Why you should not lead by example01:23:23 How to mentor Senior Staff engineers01:27:30 Career advice for the AI era01:37:21 Why he started his own company01:46:05 The most technically challenging work of his career01:48:10 How he got involved in Silicon Valley01:52:16 Career regrets01:55:54 Top technical book recommendation01:56:36 Younger self and permanent underclass adviceWhere to find James:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcowling/• Twitter/X: https://x.com/jamesacowling• His company: https://www.convex.dev/Where to find Ryan:• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpetermanReferenced in this episode:• His PhD Thesis: https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/atc12/atc12-final118.pdf• Masters paper: https://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/fall19/cos418/papers/vr-revisited.pdf• Papercuts writing he mentioned: https://medium.com/@jamesacowling/embracing-papercuts-e6390055dfc4• "Don't lead by example": https://medium.com/@jamesacowling/dont-lead-by-example-4f86b1174e64• His writing about orienting teams around missions: https://medium.com/@jamesacowling/your-system-is-not-a-sports-team-e17f9eb16b94
