David Heinemeier Hansson (aka DHH) is a legendary programmer, creator of Ruby on Rails, co-owner & CTO of 37signals that created Basecamp, HEY, & ONCE, and is a NYT-best-selling author (with Jason Fried) of 4 books: REWORK, REMOTE, Getting Real, and It Doesn’t Have To Be Crazy At Work. He is also a race car driver, including a class-winning performance at the 24 hour Le Mans race.

Thank you for listening ❤ Check out our sponsors: https://lexfridman.com/sponsors/ep474-sc

See below for timestamps, transcript, and to give feedback, submit questions, contact Lex, etc.

Transcript:

https://lexfridman.com/dhh-david-heinemeier-hansson-transcript

CONTACT LEX:

Feedback – give feedback to Lex: https://lexfridman.com/survey

AMA – submit questions, videos or call-in: https://lexfridman.com/ama

Hiring – join our team: https://lexfridman.com/hiring

Other – other ways to get in touch: https://lexfridman.com/contact

EPISODE LINKS:

DHH’s X: https://x.com/dhh

DHH’s Website: https://dhh.dk/

Ruby on Rails: https://rubyonrails.org/

37signals: https://37signals.com/

DHH’s books:

Rework: https://amzn.to/44rSKob

Remote: https://amzn.to/44GFJ91

It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work: https://amzn.to/46bzuwx

Getting Real: https://amzn.to/4kzoMDg

SPONSORS:

To support this podcast, check out our sponsors & get discounts:

UPLIFT Desk: Standing desks and office ergonomics.

Go to https://upliftdesk.com/lex

Lindy: No-code AI agent builder.

Go to https://go.lindy.ai/lex

LMNT: Zero-sugar electrolyte drink mix.

Go to https://drinkLMNT.com/lex

Shopify: Sell stuff online.

Go to https://shopify.com/lex

NetSuite: Business management software.

Go to http://netsuite.com/lex

OUTLINE:

(00:00 ) – Introduction

(00:58 ) – Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections

(08:48 ) – Programming – early days

(26:13 ) – JavaScript

(36:32 ) – Google Chrome and DOJ

(44:19 ) – Ruby programming language

(51:30 ) – Beautiful code

(1:09:31 ) – Metaprogramming

(1:12:52 ) – Dynamic typing

(1:20:10 ) – Scaling

(1:33:03 ) – Future of programming

(1:50:34 ) – Future of AI

(1:56:29 ) – Vibe coding

(2:05:01 ) – Rails manifesto: Principles of a great programming language

(2:29:27 ) – Why managers are useless

(2:38:48 ) – Small teams

(2:44:55 ) – Jeff Bezos

(3:00:13 ) – Why meetings are toxic

(3:07:58 ) – Case against retirement

(3:15:15 ) – Hard work

(3:20:53 ) – Why we left the cloud

(3:24:04 ) – AWS

(3:33:22 ) – Owning your own servers

(3:39:35 ) – Elon Musk

(3:49:17 ) – Apple

(4:01:03 ) – Tim Sweeney

(4:12:37 ) – Fatherhood

(4:38:19 ) – Racing

(5:05:23 ) – Cars

(5:10:41 ) – Programming setup

(5:25:51 ) – Programming language for beginners

(5:39:09 ) – Open source

(5:48:01 ) – WordPress drama

(5:59:18 ) – Money and happiness

(6:08:11 ) – Hope