Mozilla Firefox CTO on Browser War Stories and the Path to Distinguished Engineer

Bobby Holley went from an intern to the CTO of Mozilla Firefox. I asked him about everything he learned in that process. We cover his full career including some interesting stories on living through the browser wars and advice on career growth. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/mozilla-firefox-cto-on-browser-war • Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0MX9PyeCzDhdlyRv6slwIX • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • NYT article link: https://www.livemint.com/Industry/q2EjgGX6d5Ouwec479WSqM/For-Mozilla-Google-group-hugs-get-tricky.html • Mozilla VP twitter thread: https://www.computerworld.com/article/1722183/former-mozilla-exec-alleges-google-torpedoed-firefox-with-oops-excuses.html • Internal memo on writing: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1518xKjijjEWHQb6wZjAWJrUN8liZGGI9v5pRFr9eFHo/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.1gfr5hva69qx 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:57 - Starting at Mozilla 00:04:57 - Browser wars history 00:10:55 - Google relationship changing 00:16:11 - Why work for free 00:19:02 - Projects that drove his career 00:33:12 - No performance reviews 00:34:42 - Rust adoption 00:43:33 - Career progression 00:47:54 - Should you focus on promos 00:57:14 - Distinguished promo rejection 01:00:56 - Examples of distinguished engs 01:10:54 - Advice for aspiring distinguished engs 01:14:40 - AI browser wars 01:26:32 - Biggest technical regret 01:29:11 - Book that impacted his career most 01:32:09 - Advice for his younger self 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗼𝗯𝗯𝘆: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbyholley • X/Twitter: https://x.com/bhology 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman