Step into a quantum realm of confusion as Ian attempts to explain Google's new Willow chip, a computer so powerful it makes regular supercomputers look like pocket calculators from the 1980s. Listen in amazement as our hosts try to wrap their heads around quantum computing using everything from Schrödinger's cat to hand-waving explanations of mysterious "quantum gates" that may or may not be Bill Gates' cooler brother.

But wait! Just when you thought your brain couldn't take any more, Ash whisks us back to the glory days of rubber keyboards and screeching cassette tapes. Relive the high-stakes drama of typing in magazine code listings where one wrong character could spell DISASTER, and discover why modern gaming just isn't quite the same without the constant threat of losing everything when your RAM pack wobbles.

Plus: Ian's lightning-fast speaking adventures, Ash's suspiciously unopened Christmas present, and the eternal quest to explain why testing isn't just something you do at the end (even when Ian looks really, really attentive).

Links

• Google Blog: Meet Willow, our state-of-the-art quantum chip
• Jill Platts' Medium article: A Quantum Programming Quest for Newbies with 10 Use Cases
• Photo of a quantum computer
• Leeds Testing Atelier, back in 2025!
• Ian's presentation about his podcasting life
• The Guardian: The Spectrum review – a tactile trip to the 1980s
• Metro: Retro video games are a waste of everyone’s time and money – Reader’s Feature
• Capcom Edition Super Pocket with its 12 highly acclaimed arcade games from the Japanese publisher
• Ian's YouTube hit: 3d Monster Maze on the Sinclair Timex ZX81
• DECTalk sings "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" by Tom Lehrer
• Granny's Garden on the BBC Micro, featuring a beepy version of Irish fiddle tune The Rights of Man (this one on an actual fiddle)

Your favorite tech podcast stretches out for a luxurious 75 minutes this time, like a cat in a sunbeam (speaking of which, meet Ash's new rescue cat Bauhaus).

Ian and Ash dive into McKinsey's latest thoughts on measuring developer productivity, leading to some choice words about their take on "quality assurance testers." Things get wonderfully weird when Ian introduces the Clock of the Long Now - a 10,000-year timepiece being built inside a Texas mountain, complete with never-repeating chimes and powered by temperature differences between day and night.

Fresh from running 100km at God's Own Backyard Ultra (where you run a loop every hour until you can't), Ash contemplates the value of doing things slowly in our rush-rush world. Ian makes a triumphant return to public speaking with an AI talk (using the intriguing IA Presenter), and recommends The Bear - a stressful but compelling show about a high-stakes restaurant kitchen that might just teach us something about team dynamics. Yes chef!

Links

• Why embracing complexity is the real challenge in software today
• DORA’s software delivery metrics: the four keys
• The SPACE of Developer Productivity
• Yes, you can measure software developer productivity
• Wikipedia: Goodhart's Law
• God's Own Backyard Ultra 2024 – Results
• Bauhaus - the movement, not the band.
• IA Writer and IA Presenter
• Ian's talk: Enhancing Team Effectiveness with AI: A Squadify Case Study and Squadify where Ian is CTO
• The Bear
• The Clock of the Long Now, and the prototype in the Science Museum in London
• The Long Now Foundation and Danny Hillis
• Svalbard Global Seed Vault
• Utopia for Realists–the book Ash couldn't remember the title of.

Step into the festive spirit as Ian and Ash invite you to join them for the first ever What A Lot Of Things Christmas party!

After a remarkably productive year with 14 (soon to be 15) episodes released, the podcast duo are inviting listeners to a yet-to-be-determined pub in Ilkley on Wednesday, 18th December. Whether you want to join Ash's cheerful tirade against Figma and Christmas songs, share Ian's fondness for "Stop the Cavalry", or would simply enjoy raising a glass to the podcast's roots in Ilkley's scenic landscape, all listeners are warmly welcome. Just drop an email to IanAndAsh@whatalotofthings.com and we'll let you know which pub and what time just as soon as we've figured it out.