OpenAI Codex Tech Lead: How His Career Grew And How He Uses Codex | Michael Bolin

This is Michael Bolin, the tech lead for the open source Codex repository and a former distinguished engineer at Meta. We talked about his career path, how OpenAI engineers use Codex and the difference between research-led vs engineering-led company cultures.

🔸 My keyboard project: https://read.compose.llc/p/our....-keyboard-design-rev

𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episo....de/2Z1CEf8FVMIJE7M3q
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/....podcast/the-peterman
• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/o....penai-codex-tech-lea

𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:56 - Chickenfoot
00:02:45 - Working at Google
00:06:34 - Overhauling Facebook's build system
00:16:36 - Rewriting Facebook's IDE
00:26:01 - Struggles after Principal Eng (E8) promo
00:28:39 - Building a virtual filesystem for Facebook
00:35:47 - Delayed Distinguished promo (E9) and learnings
00:39:56 - Joining OpenAI
00:43:05 - Research-led vs engineering-led cultures
00:44:53 - The story behind Codex
00:51:00 - How he uses Codex
00:57:00 - Why Codex's harness is open source
00:59:50 - Top technical book recommendations
01:05:02 - Why deep technical skills are still valuable (for now)
01:11:07 - How to start projects well
01:14:27 - Advice on writing better and career planning
01:17:06 - Advice for his younger self
01:19:10 - Outro

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗲𝗹:

• His personal blog - https://blog.bolinfest.com/
• Twitter/X - https://x.com/bolinfest
• Threads - https://www.threads.com/@bolinfest
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-bolin-7632712

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻:

• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/
• X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/
• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman