Working Code

This week, the crew talks about "premature optimization". As Ben explained it to his wife, this is when you  "solve problems that you don't have yet" . But, what kind of problems are we talking about? Missing features? Missing methodologies? Missing performance characteristics? It seems that every aspect of the development life-cycle offers up potential pitfalls in which we may...

This week, the crew sits down to talk about interviewing, both from the side of the interviewer and from the side of interviewee. What are we looking for? What are the red flags? What kinds of questions should we be asking? Are we putting too much faith in the sanctity of the interview process? And, why the heck does  Zappos offer to pay you $2,000  not to work there ?! This discussion is particul...

This week, we're trying something new: each host has brought with them a topic for the crew to discuss. Topics range from considerations about data-context; what does and  does not  make for a good manager; code that we're proud to have written; and, what it looks like when a team develops a strong bias for action. One particularly thought-provoking matter is the fact that 20% of Tim's...

Ben has  "feelings"  about many aspects of web application development. And, after working with  git  and  GitHub  for the last 10-years, he's formed a lot of  strong opinions  - oftentimes  strongly held  - about how Pull Requests (PRs) should be created and managed within a team context. For example: Code completed is more important than code being written. As such, if an open PR sit...

A friend of Ben's once said,  "If you hate your job, you'll spend 5-7ths of your life waiting for the weekend."  This is a dark way to think about existence. And, to address the flip-side of that coin,  Mingo Hagen  suggested that we talk about the phrase,  "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life."  This is a significantly more optimistic view on the...

Many programming languages have a sense of idiomatic code: the "blessed way" to solve a particular set of problems with a language's native constructs. These patterns exist to help people work more effectively together; and, to help new developers adapt to the language. But, unfortunately, the expression of idiomatic code in some communities shifts  from "carrot" to "stick&...

Cunningham's Law  states: The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer. The crew recently experienced a bit of this law  first hand  in response to  their episode on Testing .  Adam Cameron  - friend of the show and long-time friend of the hosts - posted a  scathing (but loving) rebuttal  of  basically  everything that Ben sai...

An engineer at SquareSpace once referred to his company as "an overnight success, 7-years in the making." This cheeky insight pays homage to the  marathon of work  that is often required when building a successful product and / or business. Which begs the question: when is it appropriate to start thinking about scale? Should you be taking it into account during early ideation and the const...

There are very few people in the programming world who will argue against the idea of  testing software . But, when it comes to the mechanisms though which code is tested, the conversation starts to get interesting. There are those who feel that TDD - Test Driven Development - is "the way"; and, that any divergence from TDD is not only laziness but is, in fact, borderline malfeasance. At t...

All super heroes have an origin story. And,  so do nerds . Many of us can remember back to that moment when we realized that there was magic in the world - magic that we could be part of; and, magic that we could help create. This week, we get personal with the crew and learn more about where they came from, what kind of stuff makes them tick, and what it is that they love about being web applicat...

All super heroes have an origin story. And, so do nerds . Many of us can remember back to that moment when we realized that there was magic in the world - magic that we could be part of; and, magic that we could help create. This week, we get personal with the crew and learn more about where they came from, what kind of stuff makes them tick, and what it is that they love about being web applicati...

Oxford Dictionary included "doomscrolling" in their "word of the year" report for 2020; we're all feeling pandemic fatigue; many people still believe in wide-spread election fraud; the Georgia senate race was a nail-biter; and - oh yeah - we recorded this show the day after the storming of the United States capitol building . It's all been more-than-a-bit surreal. But, in t...

Monoliths are bad! Microservices are good! These are the "obvious" truths that many engineers hold close to heart. So, why is it that Ben Nadel has been slowly merging some of his Microservices back into his Monolith ? It turns out that a Monolith - like a Microservice - is a valid architectural choice that carries its own set of pros and cons. And, for him, his team, and their particular...

Impostor Syndrome is a psychological pattern in which people doubt their skills, talents, and accomplishments. Most of us have felt something like this in our careers, whether it's a fleeting moment or a persistent fear that we're going to be discovered as frauds. These feelings can be overwhelming, even debilitating; but, they can also drive us towards self-improvement. This week, the cre...

Your hosts Adam Tuttle -- Twitter , Website Ben Nadel -- Twitter , Website Carol Hamilton -- Twitter Tim Cunningham -- Twitter Follow the show! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @WorkingCodePod on Twitter & Instagram . New episodes weekly on Wednesday. Triumphs & Fails Carol's Triumph: Her college freshman son, majoring in computer science, called mom to ask for comp-sci hel...

Your hosts Adam Tuttle -- Twitter , Website Ben Nadel -- Twitter , Website Carol Hamilton -- Twitter Tim Cunningham -- Twitter Follow the show! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @WorkingCodePod on Twitter & Instagram . New episodes weekly on Wednesday. Triumphs & Fails Ben's Triumph and Failure: He finally backs up his computer! Only 5 years in the work. Tim's Triumph: H...

Your hosts Adam Tuttle -- Twitter , Website Ben Nadel -- Twitter , Website Carol Hamilton -- Twitter Tim Cunningham -- Twitter Follow the show! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @WorkingCodePod on Twitter & Instagram . New episodes weekly on Wednesday. Triumphs & Fails Adam's Triumph: His team realized that they could write a tool that would log, per controller method, how m...

Your hosts Adam Tuttle -- Twitter , Website Ben Nadel -- Twitter , Website Carol Hamilton -- Twitter Tim Cunningham -- Twitter Get subscribed, share with your friends and coworkers, and follow the show! We're on Twitter & Instagram . New episodes publish weekly on Wednesday morning! (US/Eastern)