Chats with Kent C. Dodds

In this episode, Kent and Mark Techson, from Google's Angular team, traverse the expansive terrain of web development, drawing parallels between coding and music. Mark, blending his industry wisdom with musical passion, provides an intriguing perspective on the structural similarities between the two. He also explores the vital role of an MC in enriching event experiences and fostering engagement....

Developer and freelancer Jacob Paris delves into his personal evolution from game to web development, noting the core similarities like database interactions that tie different development fields together. He spotlights the efficacy of Remix in streamlining web development, particularly in UI and database interactivity, which he will explore further at Epic WebConf. Paris reflects on the critical...

In this enlightening conversation, Kent C. Dodds shares his transition from a full-stack web developer to a renowned educator and community influencer within the web development sphere. He recounts his initial steps into public speaking, his experiences with rejection and eventual success in the conference circuit, and the pivotal role these platforms have played in his career. Kent also delves in...

In the podcast, Michelle Bakels, a seasoned software developer and the Program Director for Developer Health at G2i, joins Kent to explore the necessity of balancing a tech career with personal life to ensure overall well-being. Drawing on her experience with health challenges stemming from work stress, Michelle underscores the importance of the Developer Health Operating System initiative, which...

In a thought-provoking podcast with Kent, Barry McGee from Shopify shares insights on the integration of AI in web development and the evolving landscape of remote work. Having transitioned to remote working in 2016, Barry brings a wealth of experience from significant tech companies and discusses the future of web performance, AI's role in enhancing user experiences like the context-aware search...

In this illuminating episode, Scott Hanselman, with over 30 years in the tech industry, including a significant tenure at Microsoft, delves into the impact of AI on web development. He reflects on his technological journey from the early days of the internet and explores AI's potential in automating routine development tasks. Scott advises on the ethical use of AI and stresses the importance of un...

In the podcast, Saron Yitbarek, the founder of Code Newbie, shares insights into empowering developers through enhanced learning resources, financial opportunities, and community building. With Code Newbie evolving into a comprehensive media company and her successful venture into designing The Story Graph, Saron highlights the importance of newsletters for personal engagement and the benefits of...

Lina Mahrouch, a software engineer, recounts her transition from professional gaming to web development and her subsequent mastery of Remix for full-stack applications. The podcast highlights Remix's strengths in data handling, caching, and SEO, while also pointing out common pitfalls in its use. Kent and Lina stress the importance of networking in career advancement, particularly through conferen...

Kent C. Dodds welcomes Ben Ilegbodu to discuss his work with front-end platforms and the coined term "DivOps," focusing on non-UI aspects like configurations and optimizations that enhance app performance and developer workflows. Ben shares insights into why JavaScript's ecosystem fosters a unique need for DivOps, emphasizing its role as a legitimate discipline crucial for app optimization and imp...

Mandy Hartman, a front-end developer at Jenzabar, shares her insights on the importance of continuous learning in web development, drawing on her own transition from academia to tech. She discusses her hands-on learning experiences, including participation in the "#100DaysOfCode" challenge and creating personal projects for skill demonstration in job interviews. Hartman's readiness to utilize onli...

In the podcast, Artem Zakharchenko, a software engineer specializing in APIs, delves into his journey shifting from his job to focus on open-source contributions, notably the Mock Service Worker library. He emphasizes the importance of efficient testing in software development and his commitment to enhancing his knowledge and the tools he develops, such as adding WebSocket support to MSW. His upco...

Web developer Alex Anderson speaks with Kent about his side project, Thorium, an open-source spaceship bridge simulator game designed for science education, which also encapsulates the principles of Local First architecture. Anderson elaborates on the advantages of Local First design in ensuring direct data access and enhancing web syncing, all while balancing privacy with user experience. A speci...

In this insightful conversation with Kent, Chrome team's CSS and UI expert Adam Argyle delves into the transformative power of CSS custom properties in web development. Likening them to a basil leaf that elevates a meal, Adam teases his upcoming talk at Epic WebConf, promising to elaborate further on the subject. He spotlights current innovations in Chrome and CSS that include color variants, auto...

Kent C. Dodds introduces Season 5 of "Chats with Kent," highlighting its unique focus on the speakers of the upcoming Epic WebConf 2024 on April 11th. This season aims to familiarize listeners with the conference speakers through 10-15 minute intros, offering insights into their backgrounds and what they'll be discussing. Kent encourages both attending the conference in person for a richer experie...

The path of teaching yourself to code isn't for the faint of heart. It takes consistency, discipline, and the ability to recognize you're actually making progress. Tutorials are an excellent tool, but they are also a trap. If all you do are tutorials, retaining the skills you learn is going to be extremely difficult. Without applying those skills they aren't going to become ingrained, and you aren...

It's easy to become entrenched in what you already know how to do. You might have a fun project idea that requires creating really awesome CSS animations, and it might seem out of reach if you haven't done anything like that before. But getting through that mental block is an extremely rewarding experience. You gain technical skills and improve your general problem-solving abilities. If you've eve...

Scott Moss is a retired Navy Veteran who made the career change into software engineering after becoming a father. His journey wasn't an easy one, and as a dad, he had to learn many lessons in work-life balance. For us developers who have kids, his struggle is one that almost all of us can relate to. This industry has an extremely high ceiling, and there is a culture of grinding every day after wo...

There is a diverse range of philosophies when it comes to CSS. Settling on something that fits the needs of your team and application can be a real challenge. Mark Dalgleish, the co-creator of CSS Modules, has been working on an option that might make that choice less of a challenge! Vanilla Extract is kind of like "CSS-modules in TypeScript", allowing you to write CSS in your TypeScript, with loc...

Whether you know it or not, we all have a "personal brand". It's the summary of the part of yourself that you present to the public. And while there are negative connotations to the term, it doesn't have to be that way. Building a personal brand for yourself is a very useful tool for cultivating a community of like-minded people. But it's not a quick process, and it's not something that you can ha...

Constantly learning is something that we all have to do as developers. If you're a JavaScript developer then chances are CSS is something that hasn't been easy to learn for you. It doesn't have the error messages JS does and when things go wrong you can have no idea what's even happening. Well in this episode Josh Comeau gives us some effective strategies to not only learn CSS, but to learn any li...

We have to remember that we are all human beings with social and emotional needs. Our career suffers when we fall into a pit of negativity or when we put up mental barriers that prevent us from interacting with people we might've wanted to talk to. In this episode, Tracy Lee chats about the importance of remembering that everyone, even the awesome people speaking at the conference are all human. W...

Side projects are important in our line of work. They sharpen our skills and sometimes they can even take off and lead our career in a new direction. But seeing people create these amazing projects over a weekend can be demotivating as a junior developer. "How can they do that when I'm five days deep into a todo app? What do they have that I'm missing?" The answer might be a disappointment to some...

Building our apps to be accessible is absolutely necessary, but building a great a11y friendly experience is extremely challenging when we ourselves aren't in a situation that requires the use of a screenreader is keyboard-only navigation. We can't fully rely on tools to audit the a11y score of our apps. With the challenge being distinctly human, computers aren't able to get a complete picture. Th...

Everything that developers do is DX (Developer Experience). But, it can be hard to know when it is appropriate to spend the time to improve the DX at your workplace. You also might be curious about what you can do to enhance the DX. Repetitive tasks are an easy one to look out for. If you find yourself doing something again and again it's probably worth automating. This could come in the form of t...

"I should really get more involved in open-source" is something that's always on the back of our minds. You are fully aware of how rewarding it could be but that perfect opportunity to contribute never comes up. Ian Sutherland, a maintainer of Create React App and contributor to NodeJS, used to be in that position. He had always struggled with getting into open source, he wanted to do something su...