Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
In Part 2 of our conversation with Wes McKinney, we go beyond the code and into the mission-driven world of open source funding, community-building, and product strategy. Wes talks about what it takes to make critical tools like Arrow sustainable — from pitching to mavericks at Two Sigma to navigating the politics of Apache Software Foundation governance. Also, Wes gives a peek behind the curtain on the origins of Positron. And, yeah, metal.
In part two of our conversation with Wes McKinney, we dig into the challenges and realities of sustaining open source software. Wes shares how funding actually works (or doesn’t), why corporate buy-in is essential, and what it’s like building tools across languages, communities, and IDEs. We also talk about the Apache Software Foundation’s role in open governance and the origin of the Positron IDE.
What’s Inside:
• Why passion isn’t enough for open source to scale
• Apache Arrow’s origin story and how it was pitched
• How open governance enables trust between competitors
• The thinking behind Positron, Posit’s next-gen IDE
• Polyglot programming – Designing tools that bridge the R/Python divide
• LLMs and data UX: Why modern IDEs need to serve both humans and models
• Day-to-day coding, advising, investing, and context-switching
• Metalheads unite
In Part 2 of our conversation with Wes McKinney, we go beyond the code and into the mission-driven world of open source funding, community-building, and product strategy. Wes talks about what it takes to make critical tools like Arrow sustainable — from pitching to mavericks at Two Sigma to navigating the politics of Apache Software Foundation governance. Also, Wes gives a peek behind the curtain on the origins of Positron. And, yeah, metal.
In part two of our conversation with Wes McKinney, we dig into the challenges and realities of sustaining open source software. Wes shares how funding actually works (or doesn’t), why corporate buy-in is essential, and what it’s like building tools across languages, communities, and IDEs. We also talk about the Apache Software Foundation’s role in open governance and the origin of the Positron IDE.
What’s Inside:
• Why passion isn’t enough for open source to scale
• Apache Arrow’s origin story and how it was pitched
• How open governance enables trust between competitors
• The thinking behind Positron, Posit’s next-gen IDE
• Polyglot programming – Designing tools that bridge the R/Python divide
• LLMs and data UX: Why modern IDEs need to serve both humans and models
• Day-to-day coding, advising, investing, and context-switching
• Metalheads unite
