Runtime Rundown - JavaScript and Web Development

In this episode, we cover a few points from "Shipping to Production" by the excellent Pragmatic Engineer blog. This article outlines the many different ways code makes it into "production". We cover the extremes of too much and too little verifications, and everything in between. The article is long and we only cover a portion of it so give this episode a listen then read the s...

In this episode we cover "New GitHub Copilot Research Finds 'Downward Pressure on Code Quality'" by Visual Studio Magazine. This is a summary of a research paper put out by GitClear that looked at 153 million lines of code over 4 years to assess the impact of AI usage on code quality. The paper concluded that Copilot usage is steadily reducing code quality overall, and it looks l...

In this episode we cover "The Basics" by Thorsten Ball. This article lists out all the things we should be doing every day but aren't taught in classes, books, or courses. You want to listen to this one. These are the foundations on which your skills and expertise rest.

In this episode, we cover "Don't End The Week With Nothing" by Patrick McKenzie. We talk about three different forms of "capital" you build in your career, and how you can meaningfully speed that process up through conscious choices in your career. So many of us work for a week, collect a paycheck, and then walk away with nothing more than a bullet point on a resume. This a...

We were unprepared! This episode doesn't have an article or any of the traditional trappings of a RR episode. Instead, we talk about Evan's new job and what it's like to onboard to big and small companies. We occasionally slip in some advice as well.

In this episode, we cover "How Developers Stop Learning: Rise of the Expert Beginner" . An "Expert Beginner" is not a positive thing. It's defined as a "voluntarily ceasing to improve  because of a belief that expert status has been reached and thus further improvement is not possible". We cover how folks end up in this state, how to know if you're in it, and...

In this episode we share our thoughts on the React 19 updates from React Labs . This blog is from the React Labs and talks about a whole bunch of big changes being worked on for the upcoming React 19 major version release. If you want to stay on top of things like a new compiler, the React team destroying your beloved form libraries, a million new hooks and more, take a listen! Episode links: 1. h...

In this edition of Runtime Double Time™ we cover "The ideal PR is 50 lines long" by Greg Foster. This guy looked at 10 million PRs to find the perfect PR size using 4 key metrics: time-to-merge, revert rate, average number of inline comments, and total code changed over a year. We use it as a sounding board to talk about different PR scenarios, how our review styles have changed through...

Welcome to Runtime Double Time - a new format where cut out all the frills and get right to the article (and only the article). In this episode, we cover the classic article "Choose Boring Technology" by Dan McKinley. This is a deep dive on how and why to pick technologies for your project. Do it right, and things just work™. Do it wrong, and you might sink your team (or your company).

In this episode, we cover " The Anatomy of Shadcn/UI " by Manupa . This article is a technical deep dive of Shadcn/UI , the wildly popular new React design system. Why deep dive a design system? Because Shadcn does things differently. You don't install an NPM package, you use something weird called Class Variance Authority, and more. We get to the bottom of the question "but is...

In this episode we give you "3 questions that will make you a phenomenal rubber duck" by Dan Slimmon. The ancient art of “Rubber duck debugging” is explaining, out-loud, a difficult problem that you’re stuck on. We cover how to be the best rubber duck out there with these three great questions to ask, as well a bunch of tips and tricks from our own rubber ducking experiences.

In this episode, we go through "The Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design" by Ben Schneiderman. Yet this is a foray into user interface design. Yes, we know we are not designers, but every frontender should have at least a familiarity with design to be well rounded. We put our frontend engineering spin on each point and we think you'll come away with at least a few nuggets to apply...

"Adding human resources to a late software project makes it later" - Fred Brookes In this episode, we cover "Visualize Brooks's Law: When More People Makes a Late Software Project Later" by Adam Tornhill

In this episode we take a hard look at what's wrong with the current Open Source development landscape. We cover the the bad and ugly of OS with "Why I Quit Open Source" by Artem Sapegin. This brings us on a journey through developer entitlement and developer toxicity and ends with the three "F"s of Open Source . From this baseline, we spend the majority of our time outlini...

In this special episode, we dive into the uncharted waters of mental health in the tech industry with ⁠Savannah Hipes⁠ , a seasoned Psychotherapist and Insomnia Specialist. Discussing her three-article series, ⁠"Insomnia in the Tech Industry"⁠ , we unravel the intricate relationship between our fast-paced tech lifestyles and the way we sleep (or don't sleep for some of us). Savannah...

In this episode we cover "Where Does Complexity Go?" by Al Tenhundfeld . This article starts with the premise of Tesler's Law - all applications have a certain amount of complexity that can't be removed or hidden. We try to answer the question of where that complexity should go, to the customer or to the developer? This is the third installment in our string of episodes about com...

In this episode, we go deep on "How Platform Engineering Works" with a real life platform engineer - Joe! If you have ever wondered what platform engineering is, or more likely, if you've ever wondered what the hell platform engineers do all day - this episode is for you. We cover what platform engineering is, how to adopt the right mindset, what great platform engineering teams do w...

In this very special episode, we bring you a battle-royale between Evan, powered by ChatGPT, and Joe, powered by Lavazza Espresso. We both set out to build a chrome extension to highlight text on websites. Joe had to write it by hand. Evan used ONLY ChatGPT via copy/paste with no code written by hand. It's now up to you. Check out each of our repos and comment what you think on the episode. Re...

In this episode your two favorite frontenders cover "How to Ask Good Technical Questions" from the excellent FreeCodeCamp blog . Make no mistake - asking good questions is a critical skill to develop in your engineering career. We delve into strategies and personal experiences around how to best frame technical questions to maximize your chance at a productive answer (and also not annoy...

In this episode, we talk all about "Why I Won't Use Next.js" by Kent Dodds. Yes, the title is clickbait, but the content delivers. We cover NextJS stability issues, deployment difficulties, "too much magic" and many more reasons why we might just be souring on this famous framework. As always, visit is on RuntimeRundown to leave a suggestion, comment on an episode, and sear...

In this episode, we talk all about visual regression testing! Today's article, Upgrading frontend dependencies with confidence , is a case-study in using visual regression testing to catch UI issues in your build and deploy processes. We deep dive tooling, implementation, and try to answer the question "is it worth it"? Note to our audiophile listeners - Evan's mic switches to a...

In this episode, we dive into The Myth of the Myth of Learning Styles by Ned Batchelder. This is a short but thought provoking article on how to find the right way to learn for you. We go through a series of questions you can ask yourself to find out how to best learn. We're still shaking off the rust after a few months away but we know you listen for the flubs as much as the content. Head ove...

We're back everybody! After a multi-month hiatus, we've finally returned with a whole episode on Joe's (successful) job search. This is end-to-end coverage on the current job market for Frontend. We cover Joe's preparation, some his interview experiences, and lots of tips for getting the best possible job for you. We'll be back every week, so keep looking out for new episodes M...

In this episode we cover "How to fight super-helper syndrome" by Laetitia Vitaud . This article is a spring-board for discussing healthy practices in mentorship, general boundaries, and keeping ourselves sane in the workplace. If you've ever felt burned out from giving too much of yourself to others at work, give this a listen. Joe is learning some crazy cool rust voodoo, Evan is sub...

In this episode we cover the newest core web vital, "Interaction to Next Paint" . This is a full introduction to web vitals in general, what Interaction to Next Paint is, what it's replacing, how it's measured and more. This is a big shakeup to performance measurement so listen up! Joe's learning is somehow related to GeoGuesser again, Evan says "Falcon" way too man...