DevRel, Linux, and the Shrinking Path for Junior Developers w/ Ali Diamond

This week, Robbie and Chuck talk with Ali Diamond about her journey through tech, cybersecurity, and community building. They sip tequila, swap hot takes on programming languages and developer culture, and dig into the realities of junior engineering paths, DevRel’s evolution, and how passion—not tools—shapes meaningful work.

In this episode:

• (00:00) - Intro
• (02:39) - Tequila rating & review: Espolon Tequila Blanco
• (13:46) - From tequila to other favorite drinks
• (16:11) - Hot Take: Why junior engineers should focus on - fundamentals
• (18:57) - Hot Take: MacOS or Linux?
• (22:25) - Ali’s take on Linux flavors (and her own twist)
• (25:22) - Hot Take: Is DevRel really dead?
• (27:28) - Software developer vs. software engineer: does it matter?
• (31:45) - Hot Take: Rails vs Laravel
• (35:14) - The shrinking path for junior developers
• (47:34) - Life outside coding: Ali’s passions and projects
• (54:34) - Ali’s journey into tech and family background
• (57:40) - Plugs & where to find Ali online

Links

• Espolon Tequila Blanco: https://www.espolontequila.com/
• Minecraft: https://www.minecraft.net/
• Java: https://www.java.com/
• Lua: https://www.lua.org/
• Spindrift: https://drinkspindrift.com/
• Costco: https://www.costco.com
• All Things Open: https://allthingsopen.org/
• The Net Gala: https://x.com/_thenetgala
• 1942 Tequila: https://www.donjulio.com/our-tequilas/don-julio-1942-tequila
• Clase Azul: https://claseazul.com/
• Fresca Mixed: https://www.frescamixed.com/
• LaCroix: https://www.lacroixwater.com/
• Diet Coke: https://www.coca-cola.com/us/en/brands/diet-coke
• Monster: https://www.monsterenergy.com/
• Celsius: https://www.celsius.com/
• Django: https://www.djangoproject.com/
• Rails: https://rubyonrails.org/
• MacOS: https://www.apple.com/macos/
• Linux: https://www.linux.org/
• Andriod: https://www.android.com/
• iPhone: https://www.apple.com/iphone/
• Vim: https://www.vim.org/
• VS Code: https://code.visualstudio.com/
• Omarchy: https://omarchy.org/
• DHH: https://x.com/dhh/
• Arch Linux: https://archlinux.org/
• Debian: https://www.debian.org/
• Ubuntu: https://ubuntu.com/
• Kali: https://www.kali.org/
• Twitch: https://twitch.tv
• CactusCon: https://www.cactuscon.com/
• Ep 114: Privacy, Cyber Crime Stories, and Tech with Jack Rhysider: https://whiskey.fm/privacy-cyber-crime-stories-and-tech-with-jack-rhysider
• Laravel: https://laravel.com/
• PHP: https://www.php.net/
• Scala: https://www.scala-lang.org/
• Guillermo Rauch: https://x.com/rauchg
• Vercel: https://vercel.com/
• Taylor Otwell: https://x.com/taylorotwell
• Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/
• WordPress: https://wordpress.org