New setups, Saloon SDKs, and configuring Horizon

In this episode, Jake and Michael discuss the value of consistency, the final preparations for Laracon AU, and how AI is changing the economics of building software. Michael shares how his custom-built conference operations platform is simplifying everything from attendee registration and dietary requirements to merchandise, QR codes, and venue deliveries. This leads to a broader conversation about highly specialised software, declining costs of building apps, and whether traditional SaaS subscriptions still make sense.

Michael and Jake celebrate episode 200 in the most outlandish way possible: with no special plan whatsoever. Michael shares an update on his home renovation, including construction progress, verandah engineering, outdoor kitchen plans, landscaping, structured cabling, smoke alarms, CCTV, and the ever-growing list of "small" additions that come with a major building project.

Jake and Michael are joined by TJ Miller, David Hemphill, and Chris Gmyr to talk about the realities of working with non-technical stakeholders that are now empowered to deliver software through AI. Show links TJ Miller David Hemphill Chris Gmyr KFC's Picklecore Menu Luma Brighter Learning Zillow Rula Health Laravel Nova Lovable Laravel AI Refactoring to Collections Rector PHPStan

In this episode, Michael and Jake recap Laracon US Boston, from Malaysian food and an undefeated dodgeball run to Laraprom, the great nachos-with-rice debate, conference logistics, Aaron Francis stepping into Laravel’s VP of Marketing and Community role, and a reminder to make room for silly software. Jake shares his work rebuilding Boom Party, the fast-paced Bomberman clone his team used to play after stand-up, along with hosting decisions and a creative workflow involving Claude, Gemini, and Suno. Michael closes things out with what was supposed to be an easy Pest 5 upgrade but turned into a much bigger test-suite adventure: converting old PHPUnit-style tests, untangling inheritance, tracking down mysterious parallel test failures, discovering the pain of stray exit statements, and ultimately getting repeat runs across an approximately 18,000-test suite down to just eight seconds. Show links Pomplamoose Spindrift IZZE Laracon US Aaron Francis Sidecar Whimsy-driven development by Christina Martinez Boom Party Fly.io

Michael and Jake catch up ahead of Laracon in Boston, beginning with Michael's increasingly complicated home extension. Jake shares a family trip to Cedar Point, then the conversation moves to how a Laravel Cloud weekend challenge inspired Michael to build Fitrack, a personal app for coordinating training around a single fitness goal.