Welcome to The Rabbit Hole, the definitive developers podcast. If you are a software developer or technology leader looking to stay on top of the latest news in the software development world, or just want to learn actionable tactics to improve your day-to-day job performance, this podcast is for you.
210. Developer Friendly Reminders
What is your ritual for starting the day? Are you starting out by choosing a deliberate practice that can help skyrocket your productivity? Welcome back to another episode of The Rabbit Hole, co-hosting today with me, Michael Nuñez, is Dave Anderson. Today we are giving you developer-friendly reminders! Things that you can do with your life that will take five minutes that you should be doing, every now and then. So stay tuned as we share some friendly reminders to help you get through your day!
209. Getting Started with Technical Writing with Stephanie Morillo
Many developers harbor dreams of creating content, whether it’s writing a blog, broadcasting on a YouTube channel, or posting on Instagram. In today’s episode, we get together with the esteemed Stephanie Morillo for advice and inspiration. Stephanie works as a technical program manager at Microsoft, but she is also a content strategist by trade who currently specializes in Developer Content Strategy. She is also the author of the book The Developer's Guide to Content Creation. We talk with Stephanie about all sorts of content-related topics, from how to migrate your blog posts to choosing the right platform when you’re starting out. Stephanie offers plenty of wisdom and practical tips to address common issues like ‘scope creep’ and struggling with priorities. One salient point is her observation that many people have a tendency to overthink their blog posts and that the best way to combat this is to get some distance from your writing and to approach it again as an editor when you have some perspective. It was great having Stephanie on the show and we’re inspired to apply everything we’ve learned from her! For all this and more, join us today!
208. Buy vs. Build
All developers will understand the difficulty that comes along with deciding whether to build or to buy. In today’s episode, we discuss why it’s so important to think about this decision before you make it; there are so many factors to take into consideration and you don’t want to act hastily. Co-hosts Michael and Dave discuss the pros and cons of building and buying, tiers that exist within the build or buy spectrum, and something that they would never build. They share a question that you should always ask yourself before diving in, and some red flags to look out for. If you’re in the market to buy, this episode is also full of examples of great places you can do so!
207. QWAN: Quality Without A Name
In today’s episode, our hosts cover the elusive concept of QWAN: Quality Without A Name. Hear how they first came across the term in The Art of Agile Development: Pragmatic Guide to Agile Software Development and their subsequent quest to disseminate its meaning. Michael and Dave do an impressive pull of a C2 Wiki article that breaks down QWAN’s four attributes: Usability, Readability, Configurability, and Profoundness. Tuning in you’ll gain insight into how each of these attributes presents. Learn which apps succeed at achieving the attributes of QWAN, from Instagram’s usability to ESLint’s Profoundness. You may be surprised! Join us today for a taste of just how deep the Rabbit Hole of QWAN can go!
206. Product vs. Developers with Rob O'Brien - Part 2 - Product Strikes Back
In today’s episode, we complete the ultimate showdown between product and developer! In this round, it will be the developers who are on the defensive as Dave and Michael account for their faux pas as developers. Rob O'Brien returns to the show with plenty of ammunition. Our conversation starts with a friendly exploration of the type of faux pas a developer might generally commit, as we repeatedly return to the importance of a team-based mindset and why developers need to be invested in user outcomes. We explore how a developer’s role goes beyond completing their delegated tasks and some handy tips for working with designers. The crew also outlines the many benefits of building rapport with your co-worker including having more resilience when things get stressful and having a more cohesive team working environment. Tuning in you’ll hear a thrilling, action-packed discussion on the merits and flaws of developers and how to make your team a badass trifecta of efficiency!
205. Product vs. Developers with Rob O'Brien - Part 1
In today’s episode, we have the ultimate showdown between product management and developers. Meet our guest Rob O’Brien. His career started in information science technology, giving him a good grounding in app development. He has since gained extensive experience managing engineering teams as well as coaching product employees and building product teams. O’Brien shares what he believes to be the biggest missteps that product managers can take and illustrates why product managers should be available for feedback throughout the development process. Hear why it’s important to have good communication between product management and developers and why the entire team should be present during stakeholder feedback. We also discuss how to identify what should be the company’s top priority at any given time, and how you can use the RICE or MoSCoW methods to objectively determine what to pursue at a particular point in time without conjecture. Join us for an energetic discussion on all things development, product management, and teamwork!
204. Live Coding with Melissa Wahnish
These days it seems that every Tom, Dick, and trash collector is live streaming. In today’s episode of The Rabbit Hole Podcast, we speak with Melissa Wahnish about her experiences with live coding. Melissa has been live coding for years and even has her own website full of tips and tutorials called Ruby Thursday as well as a YouTube channel of the same name. We talk all about how Melissa got started and the many ways that audience feedback can help you get unstuck when you can’t solve a problem. The experience is also useful for young coders who have an opportunity to realize that even experienced coders get stuck and need to consult Google when they run into problems. It takes bravery to take on live coding but having a sense of humor and willingness to be vulnerable online are indispensable allies that help you access the many benefits of live coding. Melissa shares some of her early stumbles and what she learned from them. We also get a great run down for first-time live coders on how to set up their first live coding session, along with plenty of tips to help make it an awesome experience. It turns out that live coding is an excellent way to access the broader community, share knowledge, and hold yourself accountable to finish projects and keep that momentum going. For all this and more, join us today!
203. Definition of Done
Today we are speaking about getting things done! What does it mean when we say something is done and how can you and your team get a better handle on the concept for better products? At times, as developers, we might feel like we are done as soon as the code is written and passed, but in reality, there are more steps in the process, and to get to a real state of being finished we need to formulate a proper framework or checklist for being done! This is one of the issues with working with different teams, as responsibility can sometimes get a bit lost, and so putting some time in, to develop an appropriate way to measure completion can lead to fewer issues and confusion down the road. In today's episode, we also look at the important aspects of feedback and corrections, and how 'done' might be a relative term, especially as your products gets increasingly complex. So for all this and a few more thoughts on how you can move things into that beautiful 'done' column, come with us, down the Rabbit Hole!
202. International bootcamps, learning programming, etc. with Alex Oh
While many companies still look for programmers who have CS degrees, there is often a gap between what colleges teach and the skills the industry requires. This is a gap that bootcamps are trying to fill and today we have Alex Oh, founder of Seoul-based bootcamp WCoding, here to share his perspectives on this newer approach to learning code. We start our conversation on the subject of the many paths into programming by sharing pieces of our own code learning journeys.
201. Metrics as Incentives
Many managers assess developer performance as if they were runners, where how many lines of code you write determines how good you are. Instead, developers are like baseball players, where a suite of metrics is needed to measure performance. In today’s episode, we unpack how metrics are used to judge coding performance and how metric incentives can create less than desirable coding behaviors. After chatting about how vaccine eligibility metrics can incentivize binge eating, we chat about the ins-and-outs of using test coverage to measure project health. We then discuss how managers are weighing their team’s efforts in the age of remote work. While reflecting on when it can be useful to look at how many lines of code someone has written, we explore how incentivizing individual performance can damage a team project. Later, we share some of our successes with AB testing. Using metrics as incentives can lead to both positive and negative unintended consequences. Join us to hear about how these knock-on effects can impact your work.
200. How to start learning tech with Beege (part 2)
While it may be true that coding is something that anybody can do, that doesn’t take away from how difficult it is to learn. Join us for the second part of our conversation with brilliant software engineer and instructor Bryan Berry as we dive into what it takes to learn to code. Early in our conversation, we focus on the extra non-language-specific skills that you need to pick up to become a fully-fledged developer. From specializing in certain roles to deciding what type of programmer you want to be, we talk about the difficult choices that beginner coders need to make. After reflecting on why programming involves continual learning, Bryan shares some anecdotes from The Codeless Code website. Later, we discuss how early coders can overcome imposter syndrome before touching on why networking is so useful to growing your skills. Tune in for more insights on learning how to code.
199. How to start learning tech with Beege (part 1)
While everybody who wants to learn how to code will approach this challenge in their own way, most programmers would agree that having the help of a supportive community is hugely beneficial. Today we talk about the process of learning programming with Bryan Berry, AKA ‘Beege’. Bryan started CodeSeoul, an international community dedicated to connecting coders of all levels and backgrounds, and today he shares a bunch of ideas that anybody interested in getting into tech would find very helpful. We discuss the different learning paths available to beginners as well as a few languages and different reasons why each one might be a good option to learn first.
198. Bus Factor
How many coders can you afford to lose to a series of inexplicable bus accidents before your project fails? As morbid as it sounds, your bus factor is an important means of measuring how risky your project is. Today we unpack the bus factor while touching on the top ways that you can boost your team’s capabilities while increasing project resilience. While exploring the topic, we look at the benefits of pair programming, documenting your coding journey, temporarily locking team members out of projects, and rotating coding roles so that your team develops a better sense of your codebase.
197. Terraform the Planet
Today we shine the spotlight on our very own William Jeffries to talk about the virtues of Terraforming and why it’s such a smart software tool for coding. Kicking things off we first dive into infrastructure as code and why we use it before we tackle the benefits of using Terraform. We find out that Terraform allows you to use a variety of languages designed for infrastructures like HCL or the HashiCorp language. We then ask William about CloudFormation and why Terraform can offer so much more. He continues by explaining how terraforming works with containers and Kubernetes, as well as explaining some of the associated limitations. Toward the end of the show, William then shares his experience with multi-clouds, what makes Terraform providers so versatile, and why the industry is moving toward Terraform. To find out more, be sure to join us today!
196. Can Good Developers Sway Companies From Evil? with Kara Swisher
Many new tech companies have dreams of changing the world. But chasing revenue and market share has led the majority of big tech companies to engage in unethical practices. Today we speak with Kara Swisher, one of Silicon Valley’s “most powerful tech journalists,” about the role that developers play in swaying companies from evil. We open our conversation with Kara by exploring what evil means in a real-world context. After sharing examples of how tech companies have failed to take responsibility for their negative impact, we unpack why these organizations are slow to change and often ‘lead from behind.’