
Radia Perlman: You’re Solving the Wrong Problem
From The Art of Network Engineering by Andy and Friends
March 25, 2026 · 1h 1m
About this episode
Radia Perlman discusses the misconceptions in networking and the importance of understanding the right problems to solve.
What if the biggest problem in networking is that we’re solving the wrong one? In this episode of The Art of Network Engineering, Andy and Lexie sit down with Radia Perlman, one of the most influential figures in networking history and the inventor of Spanning Tree Protocol. This conversation goes far beyond protocols and configurations. Radia shares how networking evolved, through constraints, tradeoffs, and human decisions, and why so much of what we learn today is incomplete without unders...
People in this episode
Hosts: Andy, Lexie
Guest: Radia Perlman
Topics covered
- networking
- protocols
- evolution
- tradeoffs
- human decisions
Keywords
- networking
- Spanning Tree Protocol
- evolution
- tradeoffs
- human decisions
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