I always wanted to find someone who is more positive about AI than I am, while having solid “can deliver working stuff at scale” credentials. Andrew Yourtchenko definitely fits the bill. I first met him (online) when he was still an engineer in Cisco TAC, and when we finally met in person, he was busy automating the deployment of Cisco Live networking infrastructure. He was also instrumental in bringing us closer to ubiquitous IPv6 deployment with Happy Eyeballs.

After reading his LinkedIn posts, I thought he was all-in on AI, but it turned out our views are mostly aligned—we’re both very cautious optimists, well aware of many of the new tools’ shortcomings. For more details, listen to Episode 207 of Software Gone Wild.