Lobsters Interview with steveklabnik
Feb 2026 – Alex AlejandreSteve Klabnik wrote the Rust Book, a lovely Jujutsu tutorial, worked at Oxide and gave many interesting talks. We spoke a few times in the fall and around new years.How did you discover programming?I started programming when I was 7. I grew up on a beef farm. My dad, his dad and his dad were all butchers. My uncle was a programmer in the 70s and 80s and brought a computer over to show what he did. When I saw it, I knew I wouldn’t go outside anymore. Sorry dad. My little sister became the farm boy, she’s a veterinarian now.I learned BASIC, then C, C++, Java. I don’t remember not being able to program. I grew up reading slash dot (had a 5 digit id) and absorbed the culture around open source and free software. So I just ended up contributing to open source and…
