Wenjing Zhang, VP of Engineering, and Caleb Johnson, Principal Engineer at LinkedIn, sit down with Ryan to discuss how semantic search and AI have transformed LinkedIn’s job search feature. They explore the engineering efforts behind transitioning from keyword-based search and the impact of AI models on LinkedIn’s job seekers and employers.
Episode notes:
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with more than one billion members.
Join us on YouTube at pythonbytes.fm/live to be part of the audience. Usually Monday at 10am PT. Older video versions available there too.
Finally, if you want an artisanal, hand-crafted digest of every week of the show notes in email form? Add your name and email to our friends of the show list, we'll never share it.
What nox-uv does is make it very simple to install uv extras and/or dependency groups into a nox session's virtual environment.
The versions installed are constrained by uv's lockfile meaning that everything is deterministic and pinned.
Dependency groups make it very easy to install only want is necessary for a session (e.g., only linting dependencies like Ruff, or main dependencies + mypy for type checking).
Brian #4: A couple Django items
Stop Using Django's squashmigrations: There's a Better Way
Johnny Metz
Resetting migrations is sometimes the right thing.
Overly simplified summary: delete migrations and start over
dj-lite
Adam Hill
Use SQLite in production with Django
“Simplify deploying and maintaining production Django websites by using SQLite in production. dj-lite helps enable the best performance for SQLite for small to medium-sized projects. It requires Django 5.1+.”
Extras
Brian:
Test & Code 237: FastAPI Cloud with Sebastian Ramirez
will be out later today
pythontest.com: pytest fixtures nuts and bolts - revisited
A blog series that I wrote a long time ago.
I’ve updated it into more managable bite-sized pieces, updated and tested with Python 3.13 and pytest 8
What if your code was crash-proof? That's the value prop for a framework called Temporal. Temporal is a durable execution platform that enables developers to build scalable applications without sacrificing productivity or reliability. The Temporal server executes units of application logic called Workflows in a resilient manner that automatically handles intermittent failures, and retries failed operations. We have Mason Egger from Temporal on to dive into durable execution.
Ranjan Roy from Margins is back for our weekly discussion of the latest tech news. We cover: 1) OpenAI's launch of GPT-5 2) Whether GPT-5's tool calling ability is its hidden strength 3) GPT-5 is good at 'doing stuff' 4) But GPT-5 is not AGI 5) Do AI models need more than book smarts to thrive? 6) OpenAI's medicine play 7) GPT-5's coding use case 8) We need AI tables for travel 9) Do the big model players now subsume AI startups? 10) Gemini has a breakdown
---
Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.
Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here’s 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b
Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com
Ryan welcomes Paul Everitt, developer advocate at JetBrains and an early adopter of Python, to discuss the history, growth, and future of Python. They cover Python’s pivotal moments and rise alongside the internet, the increased adoption from transitions like Python 2 to Python 3, and the significant role Python plays in academia and data science today.
Episode notes:
JetBrains is improving the developer experience through a rich suite of tools.
Brad Lightcap is the Chief Operating Officer of OpenAI. Lightcap joins Big Technology to discuss the launch of GPT-5, how it works, what sets it apart from previous models, and whether it's AGI. We also cover scaling laws, post-training breakthroughs, enterprise adoption, health care applications, pricing strategy, and the company’s profitability outlook. Hit play for a front-row seat to OpenAI’s thinking on the future of AI.
---
Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.
Trevor Stuart was born in Florida, but raised in Seattle. He was the son of a tech CFO and an Episcopalian minister - so he learned life at many different angles. He graduated from Boston College, and went into investment banking at Morgan Stanley. Beyond that, he worked at RelateIQ prior to being acquired by Salesforce, which then led him to start his own thing. Outside of tech, he's married and expecting his first child soon. He lives in Sonoma, and loves wine - which type depends on his mood and the time of year.
At RelateIQ, Trevor and his team had a core problem - pushing more code, and looking to move faster, but limiting the amount of quality issues. His co-founder built the early workings of a system he had seen at LinkedIn, around gate keeping features. Eventually, post acquisition of this company, they decided to start building this solution on their own... which led them toward their own acquisition.
Amjad Masad is the CEO of Replit. Masad joins Big Technology podcast for a frank discussion about vibe coding, or building software via prompt. We discuss all the use cases, whether anyone can do it or whether it's just a tool for already-technical builders, whether vibe coding replaces saas, and what the role of the engineer becomes in the future. Stay tuned for the second half where we discuss whether the AI coding business is sustainable given the costs of delivering the technology.
---
Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.
Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here’s 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b
Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com
Amita Prabhu, Amber Lao, and Kaila Cage from Adobe’s Public Sector Digital Strategy Group join the show unpack the inspiration, methodology, and key findings of the report, which benchmarks digital maturity across U.S. state governments. Together we discuss the origins of the DGI and how it evolved from a side project into a strategic benchmarking tool and why the three pillars of digital maturity – customer experience, site performance, and digital self-service – are so vital to digital government maturity. We also discuss why citizen expectations are outpacing government digital improvements—and what states can do about it and the growing influence of AI and ML in service delivery—from chatbots to fraud detection.
Dave Berner grew up in London, and got into coding through music. He used to be the lead singer in metal and hardcore bands. His bands couldn't afford a webmaster, so he learned how to code in order to launch his band's website, along with setting up friend's custom MySpace profiles. Beyond that, he partook in many startups and side projects, loving to build on the internet. Outside of tech, he's married with 3 kids. He mentions his family is a "low tech" family, teaching their kids fundamental education without a screen. The live in Australia, in a sleepy surfer town, though he admits he hasn't learned to surf just yet.
Dave has always been building side hustles, but none of them really got off the ground. What he noticed about the process was that the process of building the infra of an app - the auth, the billing, support, etc. - always took too long. Eventually, he thought that maybe the best product would be something combining these things.
