Developer Tea

Unless you're extraordinarily lucky, you'll be rejected multiple times in your life. Whether in your personal or professional life, rejection is a normal part of life, even for the best of the best (like the Beatles). In this episode, I encourage you to move past your rejection.

Should you be a generalized programmer or a specialized programmer? Generalized programmers learn a wide range of languages and/or frameworks, while a specialized programmer becomes an expert in something very specific. There are pros and cons to both, and in this episode, we'll discuss both.

In this episode, I answer a question I've received from many listeners: How do I come up with an idea for something to build? This question is somewhat complex, but we'll cover 5 basic tips for idea generation.

Scott Jehl is a designer and developer working at Filament Group. Scott is also an author and speaks regularly at conferences like An Event Apart. In this interview, Scott and I discuss progressive enhancement and his book, Responsible Responsive Design. Mentioned at some point in the interview: ScottJehl.com , Scott's Twitter , Scott's GitHub Filament Group Responsible Responsive Design (book) De...

Today, I talk about coding for humans in this special Inspiration episode. Remember, computers are only what you tell them to be!

Scott Jehl is a designer and developer working at Filament Group. Scott is also an author and speaks regularly at conferences like An Event Apart. In this interview, Scott and I discuss progressive enhancement and his book, Responsible Responsive Design. Mentioned at some point in the interview: ScottJehl.com , Scott's Twitter , Scott's GitHub Filament Group Responsible Responsive Design (book) De...

In today's episode, at the request of a listener I discuss the tradeoffs of choosing to adopt a new technology versus using what you already know, even when what you already know might not be the best tool for the job.

In today's episode, I discuss even further why it's important to create a brand for yourself. Make sure you check out my interview with John Sonmez to hear more about why a developer might want to build their own brand!

Today's bonus episode is the first weekly inspiration mini-episode! Today's quote comes from Steve McConnell, author of Code Complete. Thank you for supporting Developer Tea with your listens! We just reached the 200k unique listens mark, and that's thanks to you!

In this episode, I answer a listener question about what route he should take in his technical education. Spoiler: I actually do have an opinion and recommendation to this question. For a significant part of this episode, I discuss the concept of the famed "unicorn" developer, and why they're in such high demand. Note: I accidentally called the listener a "guest" - probably bec...

I'm excited to be interviewing Ben Orenstein from Thoughtbot . Ben is a brilliant craftsman of a developer, and in this episode we discuss what it takes to be a craftsman. This is the second part of the interview, so be sure to check out the previous episode for the first part! Giant Robots Smashing into Other Giant Robots (podcast) Upcase Vim for Rails Developers Vim resources on Upcase Trailmix....

I'm excited to be interviewing Ben Orenstein from Thoughtbot . Ben is a brilliant craftsman of a developer, and in this episode we discuss what it takes to be a craftsman. This interview is split into two parts, so be sure to check out the next episode for the second part! Giant Robots Smashing into Other Giant Robots (podcast) Upcase Vim for Rails Developers Vim resources on Upcase Trailmix.life...

Around 1:00, Brett asks how to become an “advanced developer.” Programming Paradigms Stanford Course: https://itunes.apple.com/us/course/programming-paradigms/id495054064 Paul Graham’s essays on Lisp Python Django Wordpress Whiteboard Around 8:10, Daniel asks how to make writing tests less boring and more joyful. Justin's article about adding tests to a non-TDD app

Today I'm joined once again by Ryan Stout, the developer behind the powerful new Ruby web framework Volt. Ryan and I continue discussing why he created Volt, and some of the motivations for developers to move towards "isomorphic development". Check out Volt: VoltFramework.com

Today I'm joined by Ryan Stout, the developer behind the powerful new Ruby web framework Volt. Ryan and I discuss why he created Volt, the motivations for developers to move towards "isomorphic development", and how Volt addresses some of those motivations. Ryan Stout on Twitter: @ryanstout (note: not to be confused with @stoutryan , the comedian.) Check out Volt: VoltFramework.com Suppo...

In this episode, we talk about stigmas and stereotypes. As developers, and as humans, we have a responsibility to treat each other fairly. We also have a responsibility to our craft. In this episode, I discuss the one thing that developers should be measured by.

The first month of Developer Tea was officially marked yesterday, and in this episode, I'd like to thank you. I also challenge you towards the end of the episode. Thank you so much for listening to the show!

What was the last time you practiced writing code? Any expertise arguably requires an intentional, focused effort on practicing a set of exercises. Kata acts as the practice exercises for programming. In this episode, I talk about code kata, and I also talk about the danger of being addicted to problems, and making sure we keep our kata efforts separate from our real problem-solving efforts. codek...

In this episode, I interview front-end developer Daniel Kao. Daniel has been running his site, Diplateevo.com, since his freshman year in high school. Mentioned: Diplateevo (Daniel's site) One year without sweets @Diplateevo @DeveloperTea

In this episode, I discuss flexibility. Why is flexibility important, and what can you do to make your code and your workflow more flexible? I'll share something I did recently that made creating this podcast a bit easier to accomplish. @developertea If you are enjoying the show, would you consider buying me some tea?

On this episode, I continue the interview Chris Coyier. Chris is the creator of CSS-Tricks.com, Codepen.io, and hosts Shoptalk Show with Dave Rupert. In this second part of a two-part interview, Chris and I talk about getting good at being a musician (or at cutting hair), why we rewrite code we've already written, and lots of other necessary things. Mentioned: ShoptalkShow.com Codepen.io css-trick...

On this episode, I interview Chris Coyier. Chris is the creator of CSS-Tricks.com, Codepen.io, and hosts Shoptalk Show with Dave Rupert. In this first part of a two-part interview, Chris and I talk about how he got started with CSS Tricks. We also talk about what it's like to make such a massive amount of freely available resources. Mentioned: ShoptalkShow.com Codepen.io css-tricks.com DeveloperTe...

Ruby developer and author Justin Weiss joins me to talk about his experience working with Avdi Grimm on a guest episode for Ruby Tapas, why he chose Rails, and his book. Then, Justin gives you his 30-second suggestion to help you become a better developer. Mentioned: Justin's book, Practicing Rails https://www.justinweiss.com/book/ Justin's Blog: http://www.justinweiss.com/ Sign up for Justin's aw...

In this episode, I talk about how I approach programmatic problems, and I give all developers my opinionated understanding of the most important factor of problem solving: imparting knowledge into your problem solving mechanisms. Note: there was a bit of an audio issue with the compression on this episode; we'll be fixing it in future episodes. Sorry about that! If you are enjoying the show, would...

In this episode, I share some of the stuff I've been using. None of these folks are sponsoring the show. Mentioned: Ruby - https://www.ruby-lang.org Rails - http://rubyonrails.org Grape - https://github.com/intridea/grape Sinatra - http://www.sinatrarb.com Focus at Will - https://www.focusatwill.com vim - http://vim.org Sublime Text 2 - http://www.sublimetext.com/2 Thoughtbot's thoughts on vim: ht...