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Cursor · Jul 17, 2025 · 50 min

Patrick Collison on programming languages, AI, and Stripe's biggest engineering decisions

Michael Truell (CEO of Cursor) sits down with Patrick Collison (CEO of Stripe) to discuss programming languages, the role of AI in programming, and building long-lasting software. 00:15 Why Patrick wrote his first startup in Smalltalk 03:35 LISP chatbots 06:09 Good ideas from esoteric programming languages 09:12 Brett Victor and Dynamicland 16:37 Programming human organizations 20:28 A codebase's "Big Bang" moment and MongoDB 25:49 Rewriting Stripe 32:00 How do you, Patrick Collison, use AI? 38:25 Changes to GDP/TFP 41:56 Programming human biology 46:10 Unexpected beneficiaries of AI

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Michael Truell (CEO of Cursor) sits down with Patrick Collison (CEO of Stripe) to discuss programming languages, the role of AI in programming, and building long-lasting software.


00:15 Why Patrick wrote his first startup in Smalltalk

03:35 LISP chatbots

06:09 Good ideas from esoteric programming languages

09:12 Brett Victor and Dynamicland

16:37 Programming human organizations

20:28 A codebase's "Big Bang" moment and MongoDB

25:49 Rewriting Stripe

32:00 How do you, Patrick Collison, use AI?

38:25 Changes to GDP/TFP

41:56 Programming human biology

46:10 Unexpected beneficiaries of AI

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