Host: [Music] Welcome back, Heroes, to another very exciting episode of Between Two Servers. I'm your host Hayden Baillio and I'm here with Gant on board. Thanks for coming on Gant.

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Guest: Uh, thanks. Hey, hey good to be here. 

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Host: It's cute. Gant you're a speaker here at DevNexus 2025 here in Atlanta. Your talk promises to make computer science interesting. Is that also what you tell yourself in the mirror before dates, or…?

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Guest: Yeah, yeah, well one of the things is uh just got to tell yourself something. There's so many dates that happen there. You wouldn't know about it but um it's a common thing.

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Host: So you're the CIO of a company called Infinite Red. Is that describing your company's financial statements or your team's error logs?

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Guest: Um little bit of column A a little bit of column B. It's one of my uh it's one of my favorite things to do.

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Host: What is it like to captain on a sinking ship?

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Guest: Uh, I don't know. I take notes from uh this show to start and then I generally just go to conferences and waste the company's money.

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Host: Sounds like a DevRel person. Developer advocate. You mentioned being a free tour guide for out-of-state friends. Is explaining basic algorithms to other developers essentially the same job, but with worst tips?

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Guest: Pretty close. One of the things that we do is uh when people come to New Orleans um I just tell them I’m a tour guide and I slowly take their money sort of like um hero devs.

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Host: Well we're solving a real problem, so…

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Guest: Yeah that's what you tell yourself in the mirror.

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Host: Your bio mentions conflict absets passion, and that fire moves fastest uphill. Is that your way of justifying why your code reviews always end in someone crying?

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Guest: Uh, I'd like to I like to pretend that it's actually me that causes them to cry.

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Host: Yeah, you have a face to make someone cry.

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Guest: That's what I go for. Yeah, that's what I go for.

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Host: Annoyingly nice hair.

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Guest: Actually I've been told that. I've been told that.

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Host: You voraciously consume self-help books. Has any of them explained why you're explaining Big-O notation at a Java conference instead of actually writing code?

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Guest: Yeah, I think that uh one of the things I've seen is most of the code the people here have written and that's why I go back to actually just teaching them about bigo notation. To try to get them involved and understanding how not to write their own hashing functions again.

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Host: Okay that's enough.Your talk mentioned stumbling across an MPMPlete problem Is that how you'd also describe your management style or is that giving it too much structure?

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Guest: You know I’m just wondering like uh when I'm trying to solve the problem at least I get paid to do it, you know? What's your excuse?

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Host: I don't make problems. No one comes to me with their problems, actually. This isn't…it's not how it's supposed to go. I'm supposed to interview you.

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Guest: Oh yeah, that makes sense. 

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Host: As someone who serves as a Toastmasters division director how does it feel knowing that public speaking skills are inversely proportional to actual technical ability?

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Guest: Uh, I think that that's weirdly too true. That's a problem. Um, just most of the talks I've gone to today prove that to be factual. Uh, I'm I'm proud of my speaking skills.

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Host: So is your mom, I bet. You promise a short journey into peace space. Is that because you even you can't stay interested in this topic for more than 20 minutes?

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Guest: I don't even think I'm going to make the 20 minutes. I think like they should put my talk right before lunch so we can all go early.

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Host: Yeah that that's a good idea.

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Guest: That's probably a good plan.

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Host: Your top description uses a pirate accent. Is that because your understanding of computational complexity is also largely fictional?

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Guest: Pretty close. Pretty close. I'm working on a old novel here of just trying to figure out what it was I actually paid for when I got my college degree, and uh this seems like the only rational explanation.

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Host: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I saw you at the Texas Renaissance Fair in Texas.

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Guest: Yeah, I like Renfest.

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Host: I do too but I don't want to tell you about it. You see, how many…how many hurricanes–the drink, this time–did it take before you convince yourself that anyone wants to hear about MPM complete problems at a conference?

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Guest: You know, I think uh just one. Just one hurricane.

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Host: I saw him last night drinking. Can't hold his liquor at all. I notice your talk doesn't mention space complexity. Is that because, like your career trajectory, you prefer not to discuss the inevitable limitations?

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Guest: Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty close. I mean, to be honest I've just been agreeing with you I fell asleep about like three questions ago.

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Host: Yeah, well, like most people in your talk. As someone who refineses what motivation and leadership mean can you motivate me to care about big O notation without using the phrase, “technical interview”?

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Guest: Yeah, uh, I'm gonna have to be careful how I put–no, no, no, see… I could get you in the talk and then um we'll we'll bring you up on stage and then we'll do it then.

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Host: I'm busy. I'm busy, yeah. Um, yeah, probably interviewing other people that are more famous than you. But, uh, yeah thanks for coming on I'm sure this will make the YouTube channel someday down the road. Thanks, Gant.

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Guest: Yeah I'll I'll see you on what is it like uh MySpace or wherever you want to put this.

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Host: Yeah. Thanks, Heroes. See you next time. Thanks. [Music]