Casey Muratori: Surprises In Computer History And Where Bad Code Comes From

Casey Muratori is a video game developer and programming creator also known for his talks about the history of software and computing. We talked about surprising parts he found while digging through computer history, where bad code comes from, and his career story.

• My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/

• The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done

Podcast links:

• YouTube: https://youtu.be/jHLbL1Eg4gM

• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/casey-muratori-surprises-in-computer

Thank you to this episode's sponsors for supporting my work:

• Jira by Atlassian: Get more work done with your favorite agents and models all in one place, check them out at https://jira.dev/

• 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) Intro

(01:08) Digging into computer science history

(04:08) What shocked him

(16:23) Dijkstra was depressed

(26:17) The personal side of goto considered harmful

(35:09) The anatomy of a 35 year mistake

(50:12) Clean code horrible performance

(58:33) How to write high performance code

(01:01:18) Where bad code comes from

(01:06:37) Why design docs before code is a bad idea

(01:09:20) The only unbreakable law in software engineering

(01:15:57) How he got into programming

(01:21:16) Why he didnt work in big tech

(01:30:44) Should you work at a startup early on

(01:34:52) What video game engineering is like

(01:39:57) Why preventing recursion is reasonable

(01:43:24) Is vibe coding bad for the industry

(01:50:17) Technical reading recommendation

(01:54:27) Advice for his younger self

(01:56:54) Outro

Where to find Casey:

• Website: https://caseymuratori.com/

• Newsletter: https://www.computerenhance.com/

• X/Twitter: https://x.com/cmuratori

• GitHub: https://github.com/cmuratori

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MollyRocket

• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cmuratori.bsky.social

• Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/molly_rocket

• Handmade Network: https://handmade.network/m/cmuratori

• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Muratori

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/@ryanlpeterman

Referenced in this episode:

• The Root of the Root of All Evil: https://computerenhance.com/theroot

• The Big OOPS: Anatomy of a 35-Year Mistake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo84LFzx5nI

• Edsger Dijkstra's "Notes on Structured Programming": https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD02xx/EWD249/EWD249.html

• Donald Knuth's "Structured Programming with go to Statements": https://doi.org/10.1145/356635.356640

• Edsger Dijkstra's "Go To Statement Considered Harmful": https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD02xx/EWD215.html

• Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad thesis: https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/UCAM-CL-TR-574.html

• Clean Code, Horrible Performance: https://www.computerenhance.com/p/clean-code-horrible-performance

• Where Does Bad Code Come From?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YpFGkG-u1w

• The Only Unbreakable Law: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IUj1EZwpJY

• Dijkstra letter's reference: https://medium.com/@acidflask/this-guys-arrogance-takes-your-breath-away-5b903624ca5f#.1rdj838x6