Chris Zetter: Building a Database to Better Understand Maintainability

About this episode

Chris Zetter joins Robby to discuss building maintainable software through effective practices and understanding technical debt.

Software engineer and author Chris Zetter joins Robby to explore how pairing, documentation, and boring technology help teams build software that lasts. They unpack the real meaning of technical debt, how to guide junior engineers with confidence, and what building a database from scratch can teach us about architecture.

People in this episode

Host: Robby Russell

Guest: Chris Zetter

Topics covered

• maintainability
• technical debt
• software engineering
• junior engineers
• documentation
• architecture

Keywords

• maintainability
• technical debt
• software engineering
• junior engineers
• documentation
• database
• architecture

More episodes of Maintainable

• Sally Lait: Confidence Is the Real Metric · May 5, 2026 · 56 min
• Rein Henrichs: The Real Work of Maintenance Happens Before You Touch the Code · April 14, 2026 · 55 min
• Russ Olsen: The Hidden Cost of Forgetting Why the Code Looks Like That · March 31, 2026 · 55 min
• Joel Oliveira: Predictability Is a Maintainability Feature · March 17, 2026 · 1h 1m
• Lucas Roesler: The Fast Feedback Loop Advantage · February 3, 2026 · 54 min
• Brittany Ellich: Using AI to Maintain Software, Not Rewrite It · January 21, 2026 · 1h 1m