Writing for Developers • Piotr Sarna & Glauber Costa • GOTO 2025

This interview was recorded for the GOTO Book Club. #GOTOcon #GOTObookclub http://gotopia.tech/bookclub Read the full transcription of the interview here: https://gotopia.tech/episodes/ Piotr Sarna - Co-Author of "Writing for Developers" & Founding Engineer at poolside Glauber Costa - Founder & CEO at Turso RESOURCES Piotr https://x.com/sarna_dev https://bsky.app/profile/sarna.dev https://github.com/psarna https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarna-dev https://bio.sarna.dev Glauber https://x.com/glcst https://bsky.app/profile/glaubercosta.bsky.social https://github.com/glommer https://www.linkedin.com/in/glommer https://glaubercosta-11125.medium.com Links Get 45% discount with code: *GOTOdunlop*: http://mng.bz/Y7oK https://writethat.blog https://writethat.blog/?year=2025&month=3 https://turso.tech/blog/zig-helped-us-move-data-to-the-edge-here-are-our-impressions-67d3a9c45af4 https://www.scylladb.com/2021/09/28/hunting-a-numa-performance-bug https://devblogs.microsoft.com/typescript/typescript-native-port https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42378843 https://youtu.be/hIwVqt6qtc4 https://youtu.be/vLpqq0ljawE https://youtu.be/YXrb-DqsBNU https://youtu.be/pppU--kHLP0 https://youtu.be/40d26ZGfhR8 https://youtu.be/jIZpKpLCOiU https://youtu.be/7lHtXkYnip8 https://youtu.be/wFlyUzUVFhw https://youtu.be/57UK46qfBLY https://youtu.be/GDjcP312uno https://youtu.be/dvRJmzEoJno DESCRIPTION Glauber Costa interviews engineer Piotr Sarna about his evolution from a reluctant writer to a successful technical book author. They discuss writing as an engineering discipline, common engineering blog post patterns, and why even introverted non-native English speakers should be blogging. TIMECODES 00:00 Intro 02:17 Piotr's writing journey 09:45 Technical depth vs Simplicity 18:26 Writing, refactored 20:31 What motivates you to write? 26:10 Engineering blog post patterns 28:28 Pattern 1: Bug Hunt 32:18 Pattern 2: We Rewrote It In X 36:07 Pattern 3: How We Built It 40:07 Pattern 4: Lessons Learned 42:11 More Patterns 26:25 Surviving the spotlight 51:06 Outro RECOMMENDED BOOKS Piotr Sarna & Cynthia Dunlop • Writing for Developers • https://amzn.to/3Z3rzgf Cardeneti Mendes, Sarna, Emelyanov & Dunlop • Database Performance at Scale • https://amzn.to/3ZNBqqJ William Zinsser • On Writing Well • https://amzn.to/43NvwWP Nicole Foster • How To Write In Plain English • https://amzn.to/3XaTWHf https://bsky.app/profile/gotocon.com https://twitter.com/GOTOcon https://www.linkedin.com/company/goto- https://www.instagram.com/goto_con https://www.facebook.com/GOTOConferences #WritingForDevelopers #Writing #HowToWrite #BeingAnAuthor #Blogging #TechnicalWriting #Ziglang #Zig #Rustlang #TodayInTech #SoftwareDevelopment #SoftwareEngineering #Programming #PiotrSarna #GlauberCosta #CynthiaDunlop #BookClub CHANNEL MEMBERSHIP BONUS Join this channel to get early access to videos & other perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs_tLP3AiwYKwdUHpltJPuA/join Looking for a unique learning experience? Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket at https://gotopia.tech Sign up for updates and specials at https://gotopia.tech/newsletter SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL - new videos posted almost daily. https://www.youtube.com/user/GotoConferences/?sub_confirmation=1