# Andrew Kelley Interview with JetBrains channel **URL:** \ **Category:** Media\ **Created:** [May 27, 2026, 4:35pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747 "2026-05-27T16:35:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Southporter](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/southporter/32/2500_2.png) [@Southporter](https://ziggit.dev/u/Southporter)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2026, 4:35pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/1 "2026-05-27T16:35:54Z")
[![](https://ziggit.dev/uploads/default/original/2X/9/95f43b50f80e85e919519a0451bb7da49e82112e.jpeg "Zig 2026: No-AI Policy, $670K Foundation, Left GitHub & Why Zig Isn’t 1.0 - Andrew Kelley Explains") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqddnwKF8HQ) ---
**Author:** ![selectedambient](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/selectedambient/32/8835_2.png) [@selectedambient](https://ziggit.dev/u/selectedambient)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2026, 5:11pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/2 "2026-05-27T17:11:50Z")
as a musician, i love that he came from building a DAW. ---
**Author:** ![yrds96](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/yrds96/32/9837_2.png) [@yrds96](https://ziggit.dev/u/yrds96)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2026, 5:50pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/3 "2026-05-27T17:50:58Z")
I wonder if there’s a lost SoundCloud account with things that Andrew cooked during this time. ---
**Author:** ![Quin](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/quin/32/7147_2.png) [@Quin](https://ziggit.dev/u/Quin)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2026, 5:57pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/4 "2026-05-27T17:57:59Z")
The more I learn about Andrew, the more impressed I become. Bro tried to build a DAW and ran into all the typical problems with C++ that DAW developers run into, and instead of just sucking it up to ship the code he rewrote the entire fucking toolchain and has brought us one of the best modern programming languages to ever exist. Also IIRC he participates in game jams. Keep kicking ass Andrew, thanks for all you do for Zig and the tech world at large! I’ll be setting up a donation to the ZSF in the coming months once my life stabalizes, and this interview just made me feel even better about that choice. ---
**Author:** ![g41797](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/g41797/32/3339_2.png) [@g41797](https://ziggit.dev/u/g41797)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2026, 7:07pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/5 "2026-05-27T19:07:59Z")
DAW build on Zig and std without any C lib will be criteria for Zig 1.0 ---
**Author:** ![andrewrk](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/andrewrk/32/7011_2.png) [@andrewrk](https://ziggit.dev/u/andrewrk)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2026, 7:20pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/6 "2026-05-27T19:20:30Z")
`https://soundcloud.com/superjoe30/` ---
**Author:** ![fearedbliss](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/fearedbliss/32/8875_2.png) [@fearedbliss](https://ziggit.dev/u/fearedbliss)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2026, 8:48pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/7 "2026-05-27T20:48:02Z")
@andrewrk I guess my guess of your username being `comptime007` was wrong 🫢 ---
**Author:** ![marler8997](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/marler8997/32/77_2.png) [@marler8997](https://ziggit.dev/u/marler8997)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2026, 9:02pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/8 "2026-05-27T21:02:44Z")
Great job Andrew! Very well spoken, and congrats on winning “the race” 🙂 Also that thumbnail is gold. ---
**Author:** ![filo](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/filo/32/7401_2.png) [@filo](https://ziggit.dev/u/filo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2026, 10:10pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/9 "2026-05-27T22:10:52Z")
A bit sad that he didn’t talk about groovebasin, but still, absolute legend! ---
**Author:** ![aalquaiti](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/aalquaiti/32/8651_2.png) [@aalquaiti](https://ziggit.dev/u/aalquaiti)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2026, 5:45am UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/10 "2026-05-28T05:45:55Z")
I have a Jetbrains license. I won’t be renewing my license. Its a “I use Zig btw” moment. ---
**Author:** ![pals](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/pals/32/8788_2.png) [@pals](https://ziggit.dev/u/pals)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2026, 6:36am UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/11 "2026-05-28T06:36:23Z")
“The bar that I want to hold software to is uncompromising perfection” I feel like this statement is genuine, the zig project doesn’t feel rushed or dogmatized, Andrew is chiseling away at this huge block of marble. ---
**Author:** ![chrboesch](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/chrboesch/32/438_2.png) [@chrboesch](https://ziggit.dev/u/chrboesch)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2026, 6:44am UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/12 "2026-05-28T06:44:38Z")
Really good talk! ---
**Author:** ![ericlang](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/ericlang/32/8515_2.png) [@ericlang](https://ziggit.dev/u/ericlang)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2026, 8:05am UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/13 "2026-05-28T08:05:37Z")
Message from happy user here. Very good. I like about 100% of the philosophy behind Zig we hear from Andrew. The phrase “computers serving humans” made me realize again that the world has already gone the other way in lots of areas: “humans serving computers”. ---
**Author:** ![vulpesx](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/vulpesx/32/3989_2.png) [@vulpesx](https://ziggit.dev/u/vulpesx)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2026, 9:50am UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/14 "2026-05-28T09:50:40Z")
eh, more like “companies using computers to make us server them more than we already did” Regardless your point stands. ---
**Author:** ![shahwali](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/shahwali/32/8318_2.png) [@shahwali](https://ziggit.dev/u/shahwali)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2026, 9:53am UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/15 "2026-05-28T09:53:31Z")
Enjoyed the interview and I think as a whole it was quite good. I was however a bit disappointed in how much of the interview was spent on talking about financing ZSF. Such a strange thing to fixate on for so long considering there is so much more to discuss when it comes to Zig. Would have loved to hear more about how Zig can be used as a toolchain for cross compilation, how the Io/Allocator interface was “conceived” of and what we should be excited for in the coming future. Feels like there are many good things about Zig that rarely get brought up due to fixation on what I consider to be complete nothing-burgers. The worst offender being discussions on not allowing unused variables IMO, how is this more discussed than the fact that Zig is moving towards getting rid of LLVM for debug builds? Anyways, always great to hear Andrew talk, a much needed voice in these times of slop and low-effort software. ---
**Author:** ![Kaeru](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/kaeru/32/3335_2.png) [@Kaeru](https://ziggit.dev/u/Kaeru)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2026, 2:11pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/16 "2026-05-28T14:11:40Z")
It was a really nice touch to have so many shoutouts to the community. To both projects and even individual. ---
**Author:** ![andrea-berling](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/andrea-berling/32/5401_2.png) [@andrea-berling](https://ziggit.dev/u/andrea-berling)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2026, 3:16pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/17 "2026-05-28T15:16:02Z")
@andrewrk regarding the dream you mentioned around minute 57:30, maybe you will like this project? [https://docs.grit.io/](https://docs.grit.io/). It doesn’t support Zig, but other than that it kinda sounds like what you would like to exist, based on what you said during the interview ---
**Author:** ![kartoffelsaft](https://ziggit.dev/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/94ad74/32.png) [@kartoffelsaft](https://ziggit.dev/u/kartoffelsaft)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2026, 3:42pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/18 "2026-05-28T15:42:24Z")
Yeah I’m curious what other interviews by JetBrains look like. I feel like Andrew did a good job but the interviewer seemed to be going through a checklist of questions we already know the answers to from blogposts and such. The job of an interviewer, as I see it at least, is to ask the questions that give us insight into the interviewee and/or the people they represent. I suppose my issue is a little different than yours though; I’d be interested in and even encourage a question about subjects like unused variables, _if the question was framed in a novel way_. As it is a majority of the questions felt like: > **Interviewer** : Why did Zig [title of blog post]? > > **Andrew** : [content of blog post] ---
**Author:** ![kristoff](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/kristoff/32/9_2.png) [@kristoff](https://ziggit.dev/u/kristoff)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2026, 4:34pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/19 "2026-05-28T16:34:21Z")
In defense of JetBrains, the interview was not made for people already involved in the Zig community. I do think they made some weird choices in editing (e.g. explaining what a PR is) because they themselves are a bit confused about who their target audience is (I suspect they were considering the interview also a form of thought leadership content for C-levels), but they are correct in designing an interview for the average dev rather than for hardcore Ziguanas who know every blog post already. ---
**Author:** ![ericlang](https://ziggit.dev/user_avatar/ziggit.dev/ericlang/32/8515_2.png) [@ericlang](https://ziggit.dev/u/ericlang)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2026, 5:12pm UTC](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747/20 "2026-05-28T17:12:29Z")
I thought it was quite a good ‘generic’ interview. the subs explaining things were nice as well. > [@kartoffelsaft](#): > > subjects like unused variables Too specialized I think. That saying: it only works for locals. Also there is no good way to track and delete other unused or even uncompilable stuff. A really good refactoring tool would indeed be great. (the tool maybe even could be able to track above mentioned unsused uncompilable stuff). [Next page](https://ziggit.dev/t/andrew-kelley-interview-with-jetbrains-channel/15747.md?page=2)