Show Notes
Why are so many developers suddenly talking about Zig? Is it just another systems language, or is something deeper happening?
Scott sits down with Loris Cro, one of the community voices behind Zig, to explore why this relatively young language is getting so much attention from systems programmers, game developers, and performance-obsessed engineers alike. We dig into Zig’s radical focus on simplicity, explicitness, and control...and why not having features like a garbage collector or hidden magic is actually the point.
Loris explains how Zig approaches memory safety, cross-compilation, and interoperability with C in a way that feels refreshingly honest, and why Zig’s philosophy resonates in a world increasingly shaped by complex toolchains and opaque abstractions. Along the way, we talk about the cultural moment Zig is emerging into, what developers are really asking for in 2025, and whether Zig represents a return to fundamentals, or a glimpse of the future.
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Maynard Holliday spent 30+ years at the intersection of robotics, nuclear security, and defense technology, most recently serving as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Critical Technologies. He's worked on everything from helping remediate Three Mile Island to securing tons of Soviet nuclear material in post-Cold War Ukraine to overseeing the Pentagon's critical technology portfolio including AI, hypersonics, and microelectronics. He shares what "trusted AI" really means, why he co-founded Black in Robotics, and how T'Challa and Tony Stark shaped his career more than you'd expect.
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