Nathan Hessler, organizer of ExMex and RBQ Conf, is back four weeks out from ExMex 2026 in Austin. We cover MCing Rails World, how he picks speakers and keynotes for a single track, what running a Ruby conference taught him, and the free CFP he built on Google Sheets that's turning into an agent friendly event harness. Then we get into TUIOS and agents that talk to each other, why PR review still matters, bootstrapping vs VC, and why conferences beat job boards for landing your next role.

Use code MentoredFriends for $50 off your ExMex ticket (enter it in the promo code field on the site, not the checkout pop-up).

00:00 - Introduction

01:38 - MCing Rails World and introducing DHH

05:45 - Picking speakers for a single track

08:26 - What makes a great keynote

10:41 - Why he doesn't curate topics

14:01 - Four weeks out: hurry up and wait

16:14 - How RBQ Conf went

18:42 - Scheduling a single track

19:50 - Using AI for conference marketing

21:58 - Privacy and what agents can see

25:36 - A free CFP built on Google Sheets

32:30 - An agent friendly event harness

38:52 - TUIOS and agents that talk to each other

43:23 - Why PR review still matters with agents

45:03 - MCP, skills, and usage rules

51:23 - Building is the easy part

56:30 - Bootstrapping vs VC

59:01 - ExMex promo code and swag

1:06:47 - Why go to conferences

1:09:00 - Hiring, AI slop, and referrals

1:14:02 - Do conferences make money?

1:18:27 - MicroConf comes to Austin

1:23:33 - Remote work still needs in person

1:27:07 - Free community tickets

Resources Mentioned:

- ExMex: https://exmexconf.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- ExMex community tickets: https://exmexconf.com/community-tickets?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- RBQ Conf: https://rbqconf.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- KinSwitch: https://kinswitch.app/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

Connect with Nathan:

- X: https://x.com/spune?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhessler/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- Hessler Consulting: https://hesslerconsulting.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

Sponsors:

- BEAMOps: https://beamops.co.uk/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- Jido: https://agentjido.xyz/discord?utm_source=elixir-mentor

SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR

- Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

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Alex Koutmos, CTO of EagleMMS and author of Elixir Patterns, is back with two books in beta: Programming Nerves, which gets web developers building hardware from Livebook, and Elixir For Finance, written with his brother Dimitri on real market and Federal Reserve data. Then we ask whether anyone still buys technical books, and get into running on one server, what canceled trials teach you, and a laid off engineer with 1,000 applications.

00:00 - Introduction

02:41 - Programming Nerves: from Etch A Sketch to joystick

05:36 - The Patio Defender

07:40 - Why the book starts in Livebook

13:12 - Is anyone still buying technical books?

14:40 - DHH's Campfire rewrite and knowing your tools

18:00 - Shipping without a staging environment

20:42 - Cold outreach and email reputation

28:27 - Elixir For Finance: Yahoo Finance and FRED data

33:57 - Info products after AI

38:51 - Start on a single server

43:05 - Lessons from a failed two sided marketplace

47:04 - Splitting EagleMMS with his brother

51:55 - What canceled trials taught me

58:03 - Putting your work out there and ignoring trolls

1:04:45 - Laid off, 1,000 applications, and the death of software engineering

1:10:10 - Standing out in a tough job market

1:15:37 - Niche SaaS for the trades

1:20:21 - Grok Bots for clips and cold email

1:23:21 - AI pricing and platform risk

1:28:08 - Writing books without AI, and where books go next

1:30:18 - AI training and the authors' class action

1:35:24 - Where to find Alex

1:37:24 - What to buy for Programming Nerves

Resources Mentioned:

- Programming Nerves: https://www.programmingnerves.dev/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- Elixir For Finance: https://www.financialelixir.dev/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- Nerves Livebook: https://github.com/nerves-livebook/nerves_livebook?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- Killswitch: https://killswitch.app/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

Connect with Alex:

- X: https://x.com/akoutmos?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/akoutmos.bsky.social?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-koutmos-b8b2bb93?utm_source=elixir-mentor

Sponsors:

- BEAMOps: https://beamops.co.uk/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- Jido: https://agentjido.xyz/discord?utm_source=elixir-mentor

SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR

- Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

#ElixirLang #MyElixirStatus #ElixirMentor

Mike Hostetler, creator of Jido and ReqLLM, is back for round three. Jido 2.0 hit the top of Hacker News and took his docs server down with it, and Jido v3 betas are already on Hex. We get into agentic back pressure, why models write better declarative Elixir, why most actors don't need an LLM at all, durable workflows with Jido Flow, and the multiplayer harness he's building on OTP.

Plus Grok Bots and personal agents, reverse engineering bad IoT apps, and live questions from chat.

00:00 - Introduction

02:56 - The Jido 2.0 launch and a Hacker News hug of death

06:27 - Lessons from Ralph Wiggum loops

08:51 - Why models write better Elixir

11:44 - Agentic back pressure

14:22 - Jido v3's Spark DSL

20:48 - When do you need 10,000 agents?

26:28 - Q&A: A public actor mesh?

27:59 - Actors vs agents: Jido without an LLM

30:38 - Halo 2 NPCs and classical AI

33:36 - What's new in Jido v3

35:03 - Durable workflows with Runic and Jido Flow

39:34 - Property and fuzz testing with agents

42:27 - Who's building on Jido

44:27 - Q&A: TermUI and the Jido harness

48:28 - DASP, the Durable Actor Session Protocol

50:39 - Q&A: Pods, topologies, and the signal bus

55:01 - Grok Bots, Dots, and personal agents

57:20 - Reverse engineering IoT apps with an LLM

1:06:24 - LLMDB and LLM Catalog

1:07:51 - 600 PRs a month and vibe coded PRs

1:12:12 - The Founder Playbook skills repo

1:14:37 - Teaching and community after LLMs

1:17:31 - Will AI replace engineers?

1:22:57 - A hard lesson migrating Killswitch data

1:25:01 - What's next for Jido and the harness

Resources Mentioned:

- Jido: https://jido.run/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- Runic: https://github.com/zblanco/runic?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- LLM Catalog: https://llmcatalog.dev/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- Founder Playbook: https://github.com/getagentseal/founder-playbook?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- Killswitch: https://killswitch.app/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

Connect with Mike:

- X: https://x.com/mikehostetler?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikehostetler?utm_source=elixir-mentor

Sponsors:

- BEAMOps: https://beamops.co.uk/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- Paraxial.io: https://paraxial.io/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

- Jido: https://agentjido.xyz/discord?utm_source=elixir-mentor

SUPPORT ELIXIR MENTOR

- Elixir Mentor: https://elixirmentor.com/?utm_source=elixir-mentor

#ElixirLang #MyElixirStatus #ElixirMentor