Episode 8

Julia Silge: Part 2 Glue work, licensing, and open source in the age of LLMs

In part two of our conversation with Julia Silge, we discuss how work actually ships: the boundaries, the glue, and the tools that turn noise into signal. From there, we go macro and wonder what the LLM era means for humanity’s contributions, plus how licensing is evolving to protect sustainability without abandoning openness.

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EPISODE NOTES

Both practical and philosophical, this conversation spans workplace energy, team connective tissue, and the big questions LLMs have us asking in a shifting data science landscape.

    What's Inside:
  • Julia’s system for turning scattered community signals (GitHub, Stack Overflow, discourse) into product insight
  • The power of “glue” work, and where to find the wins
  • From Stack Overflow to LLMs: What changed when communal Q&A became model fuel — and what that means for finding answers
  • Licenses in a new era: Threading the needle between MIT-style generosity and elastic-style sustainability for platformed software
  • Try Positron: Where to download, read docs, and give feedback

HOSTS & GUESTS

Michael Chow

Principal Software Engineer, Posit

Michael Chow

Hadley Wickman

Chief Scientist, Posit

Hadley Wickham

Wes McKinney

Principal Architect, Posit

Wes McKinney

Julia Silge

Data Scientist

Julia Silge