Does A Frog Have Scorpion Nature?

Hosted by Nikhil Suresh

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Episodes

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-AU

About the show

A podcast where I interview interesting people that work in the technology space, who have managed to retain their sense of humor, don't take themselves too seriously, and aren't on book tours or selling cryptocurrency.

Listen to episodes

13 recent

October 13, 2026Episode 141 hr 49 min

"Crazed Lawyer Endorses Nolan's Star Trek" with Iain McLaren

I'm in the market for a new lawyer, by the way. Today's guest is Iain McLaren, who is a certified Competent Programmer and also currently working as special counsel at HWL Ebsworth. He does all the legal things our company needs and has always steered us right! You might be wondering how this was possible. Well, by sealing a legal professional in a Zone of Truth prior to commencing recording, it is possible to have an honest conversation with the lawyer for up to two hours, assuming that they fail their Will saving throw and that they are not permitted to leave the spell's area for the duration.

August 19, 2026Episode 131 hr 22 min

"Fisher-Price Management" with Cory Doctorow

It's Cory Doctorow, I'm not going to waste your time explaining who he is. You can find him at pluralistic.net, but I'm going to link you to this post specifically because it talks about how cool and hip I am. Also, you can grab the book mentioned by Will at the beginning here !

July 16, 2026Episode 121 hr 55 min

"Crisis Engineering" with Layer Aleph

Someone recently put me onto the book Crisis Engineering by Marina Nitze, Matthew Weaver, and Mikey Dickerson. It is unfortunately not about how to engineer a crisis, which would be very fun, but about how to leverage a crisis as one of the rare moments where a company is actually open to change. It is one of the rare contemporary books that is ostensibly about "business" that is going to last for longer than two weeks and probably become compulsory reading for operators everywhere. You can read more about Layer Aleph here . Call them in an emergency! Read their book and print out copies of their faces to wear during a crisis! These are all reasonable courses of action. This podcast is still not monetized and I didn't get paid or whatever, I just like their book.

June 15, 2026Episode 111 hr 21 min

"4:30 AM Is An Evil Hour" with Ed Zitron

Listen, it's Ed Zitron, he doesn't need an introduction. If you live under a rock (very reasonable mental health decision in the year of our Lord, 2026) you can find his work at Where's Your Ed At? or his own podcast, Better Offline .

April 18, 2026Episode 102 hr 13 min

"This Episode Is A Cognitohazard" with Efron Licht

This episode is with Efron Licht! I met Efron about a year ago, and I make the time to have a call with him every Thursday morning despite the myriad obligations of running a business because he's so goddamn good at programming (and also funny). His writing removed a lot of wild industry dysfunction from my brain around actually programming, and you can find it all eblog.fly.dev . Pick a random article and have fun, they're all great. Also many thanks to Sarah for editing this episode! We have a paid editor now, everyone! (But also, many thanks to Lisa Lorenzin for getting us this far on volunteer hours!) And finally, if you're a podcast description reader, the guest next month is Ed Zitron -- shhhhhhh, calm down, don't tell anyone, okay, this is between us.

March 16, 2026Episode 81 hr 11 min

"Security's Fuckin' Weird" with Dan Tentler

Here's the second part of the episode! Why is it in two parts? Someone speculated that this might be a better format for people that don't want to get blasted by two hours of rambling without a natural break. Many thanks to Lisa Lorenzin for editing this episode!

March 16, 2026Episode 71 hr 11 min

"Hunky Sales Dudes" with Dan Tentler

We have Dan Tentler on the podcast, a guy that I once (this is a true story) referred to outside of a security meetup wherein my interlocutor revealed that he's considered a "rockstar" by lots of security people. So you know, we're going up in the world. Many thanks to Lisa Lorenzin for editing this episode!

June 17, 2025Episode 61 hr 35 min

"Damn Chatbots" with Demetrios Brinkmann

Today I'm chatting with Demetrios Brinkmann, certified Cool Dude (TM) with lots of experience in the machine learning space. I recorded this a million years ago and must thank Demetrios for his patience. Topics we touch on are: machine learning hype in businesses, job searches, and the pros/cons of authenticity in a career. Also, in a desperate attempt to feel like this is a responsible thing to produce while running a business, you can get advice on all sorts of software problems from my team at hermit-tech.com or email me personally at nik.suresh@hermit-tech.com Many thanks are also extended to Lisa Lorenzin for taking my garbage audio and turning it into something passable.

October 21, 2024Episode 51 hr 31 min

"Improvisation" with Felipe Velez

Today we've got Felipe Velez on the podcast, a close friend of mine from the improv theatre scene here in Melbourne. I know, I know, weird topic, but I want everyone to know about it. We're catching Felipe as he's on his way back to Columbia for the next big chapter of his life. He's easily amongst the funniest and most wholesome people I've ever met. If anything we talk about sounds interesting, look up a local improv school, preferably one that uses Keith Johnstone's material quite heavily. I attend a place called Impro Melbourne, which I highly recommend. And finally, thanks to Dennis Crenshaw for helping with the audio. As always, all good things are Dennis and all bad things were probably me.

June 21, 2024Episode 41 hr 56 min

"The Million Dollar Curtain Pull" with Simon Swords

Today we've got Simon Swords, the managing director at Fundipedia and all-around extremely cool guy. His first email to me had this at the start, middle, and end: "DO NOT START A BUSINESS THAT DOES NOT HAVE A LARGE AMOUNT OF ANNUAL RECURRING REVENUE." And I cannot begin to describe how much suffering he has saved me. With my newfound internet fame, I am going to upgrade my recording setup substantially after this one - so this is and the next episode (already recorded) are hopefully the last times I apologize for the audio. Sorry Simon!