Developer Tea

Today's episode, I answer a listener question from Janus, who focuses primarily on User Experience and Design. Janus asks, How much code should I know before handing it to a developer? Programming isn't easy. Hard work ethic pays off. To answer this question, I turn to the experts, and a 9 step framework for checking your code. Thank you, Janus for your question. If you have a question that you'd like to have discussed on the show write me through my contact form or via twitter: @developertea. Special thanks to today's sponsor: Hired Hired is your free, no obligation resource for job searching. If you or someone you know is out there searching for a design or development job be sure to check out Hired. Here's the best part about Hired sponsoring the show, if you apply and interview using this link: http://www.Hired.com/developertea Hired will double their traditional "thank you" bonus of $2,000 to $4,000 if you accept a job offer. Know someone who's job hunting? If you refer them using the same link

Strengths and skills are two different things, but when should you learn a new skill or improve a current skill? During today's episode, I'll talk about what strengths can help you recognize which skills to become a master at, how your current resources can help, and the importance of investing time in relationships. Additional Reading Mentioned: Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham If you'd like to leave a review of Developer Tea, visit our iTunes page. I appreciate your feedback. Of course you can also contact me directly via a mail form, or twitter: @developertea. Special thanks to Today's sponsor: Code School Code School is an online learning destination for existing and aspiring developers that teaches through entertaining content. Visit www.CodeSchool.com/developertea for more information and start playing courses now. Thanks for listening and until next time, Enjoy your Tea

Have you ever felt like you've had to plan everything before beginning to write your code? In today's episode, I talk about the disposability of our computing resources, code testing tips, and how to intermingle coding with planning. Thanks to today's sponsor: Digital Ocean Today's episode is presented by DigitalOcean. Go to https://digitalocean.com to get started, and use the promo code "DEVELOPER TEA" at the checkout after you create your account to get a $10 credit! I hope you've enjoyed this episode. Until next time, Enjoy your tea.

Clients are never happy when hearing that you've underestimated how long a project will take in reality. In today's episode, I talk about how to anchor your estimations and keep your clients happy, and share a quick tip to get you there. Related Resources from this episode Estimating sandwiches: https://developertea.com/episodes/9981 Anchor Bias: http://coglode.com/gems/anchoring-bias How do you keep clients happy? If you've got a creative or noteworthy way of keeping clients happy I'd love to hear about it. You can write me via email: developertea@gmail.com or through the Developer Tea email form. Special thanks to today's sponsor: Harvest Harvest is your time tracking tool built for understanding where your time is going. You can start a timer right from issues in JIRA or GitHub without searching for your timesheet, and turn that right around into a sharable invoice. Try it out free for 30 days at getharvest.com. After your trial, enter code TEATIME at checkout to save 50% off your first month. Thanks for

In today's episode I'll talk about the importance of refactoring your software, identifying when you should refactor your code and tips and techniques for optimal refactoring to keep your code easier to maintain and easier for future extension. Martin Fowler, who wrote the Agile Manifesto and a great resource has a great stance on this when he says, "You don't decide to refactor, you refactor as a part of development process." Resource Links: Refactoring, a book by Martin Fowler Refactoring, Ruby Edition by Martin Fowler Special thanks to today's sponsor: Hired Hired is your free, no obligation resource for job searching. If you or someone you know is out there searching for a design or development job be sure to check out Hired. Here's the best part about Hired sponsoring the show, if you apply and interview using this link: http://www.Hired.com/developertea Hired will double their traditional "thank you" bonus of $2,000 to $4,000 if you accept a job offer. Know someone who's job hunti

What is the difference between a Junior and Senior Developer? In today's episode, I talk about what it takes to get from Junior level programmer to a Senior level programmer. We'll go over some basic characteristics of the two levels, and tips to get further in your programing career. Special thanks to Today's sponsor: Code School Code School is an online learning destination for existing and aspiring developers that teaches through entertaining content. Visit www.CodeSchool.com/developertea for more information and start playing courses now.

in today's episode, I get to talk with fellow developer and podcaster Patrick Hill about how to balance hobbies and work life. We talk about goals, motivation, time management and learning to focus on how to progress from one week to the next. You can follow Patrick not on Twitter but you can find him on Instagram or Letterboxd. Make sure you check out Patrick's podcast: Master of 1 and if you're a fan of Walking Dead, check out Episode 43, in which Patrick and I debate the show. Special thanks to today's sponsor: Hired Hired is your free, no obligation resource for job searching. If you land a job through Hired using this link: http://www.Hired.com/developertea Hired will double their traditional "thank you" bonus of $2,000. That's a $4,000 bonus when you accept a job. If you refer someone and they accept the job you will also get a referral bonus of $1337. Hired is a free, no obligation resource, so if you or someone you know is searching for a development or design gig, check out Hired.

I had the pleasure of talking with Grant Ingersoll. Grant is a search and NLP engineer, author of Taming Text and CTO at Lucidworks. In today's episode, Grant and I discuss his book, Taming Text, how he got into Natural Language Processing (NLP), and discover what he thinks is the next big problem to be solved in text and language analysis. If you're interested in working on text problems follow Grant @gsingers Additional Reading / Learnings Suggested by Grant: Foundations of statistically natural language processing Natural Language Toolkit for python developers GATE Thanks to today's sponsor: Code School Code School has recently launched a second course on SQL, The Sequel to SQL. In this course you'll learn the most important parts of the SQL language so you can create tables with constraints, use relationships, and write powerful join queries. Learn more at codeschool.com/developertea. Thanks for listening, and until next time, Enjoy your tea.

Today marks our 100th episode! Special thanks to you, the listener for tuning in, submitting your many listener questions, sending feedback, and for nominating Developer Tea as podcast of the year in this year's Net Awards. We've accomplished a lot in our first 100 episodes, experimenting and improving along the way. In today's episode, I'll talk about the importance of improvement as a developer and as a person and give four tips for continuous improvement. in some exciting news: Developer Tea and Design Details have joined to form the network SpecFM. You can still reach me via email at developertea@gmail.com but you can also reach me at jonathan@spec.fm. Check out Design Details and Spec.fm, and I look forward to you joining me for the next 100 episodes. Today's episode is brought to you by: OneMonth Head over to OneMonth.com/developertea to get started learning Ruby on Rails in just...one month, and receive a limited-time 25% discount! Thanks for joining and until next time. Enjoy your tea.

Today I talk about the pros and cons to the restraint bias or impulsive behaviors. Tools like a daily routine help to refocus your impulses. I'll go over routines and other helpful tools to help steer those impulsive behaviors. If you have not voted for Developer Tea in the year's Net Awards head on over to bit.ly/votetea and support the show for this year's podcast of the year. Thanks to today's sponsor: Code School Code School has recently launched a second course on SQL, The Sequel to SQL. In this course you'll learn the most important parts of the SQL language so you can create tables with constraints, use relationships, and write powerful join queries. Learn more at codeschool.com/developertea I hope you've enjoyed this episode. Until next time, Enjoy your tea.

How many times have you seen someone create a framework, realize it has bugs, and instead of adopting a bigger framework, would rather spend the extra time fixing their bugs, all for the sake of using something they'd built? This is also known as The IKEA effect. When one places more value on something they'd had a part in building, regardless of quality or function. Today, I look at the things that help us make good decisions, things that hinder our ability to make those good decisions and tips to recognize your biases so you can continue to make good decisions on a regular basis. The best way to make sure you don't miss out on any Developer Tea shows, is to go ahead and subscribe to the show. You can do that through iTunes, Stitcher, our RSS feed or any other platform you use. There's only a few days left to vote for Developer Tea as podcast of the year in this year's 16th Annual Net Awards, so if you haven't yet go to bit.ly/votetea Thanks to today's sponsor: Digital Ocean Today's episode is presented by D

In today's episode I talk about the positive and negative effects of laziness, and the overlap between simplicity and complexity, especially in your code. Don't forget to vote for Developer Tea for podcast of the year in the 16th annual Net Awards - Voting ends July 13th! Today's episode is brought to you by: OneMonth Head over to OneMonth.com/developertea to get started learning Ruby on Rails in just...one month, and receive a limited-time 25% discount! Until next time, Enjoy your tea!

Estimation is so hard to do. Today, I talk about overcoming estimation obstacles, and some tactics to help you along the way. It's difficult to know what we're capable of, especially if we haven't nailed down a routine. Even if you do have a routine down, you can't predict the future. How do we get around this when scoping a project? I'll dig into this and many other questions about estimation and how we can make estimations work in our favor. Don't forget to vote for Developer Tea as podcast of the year in the 16th Annual Net Awards! Thanks to today's sponsor: Digital Ocean Today's episode is presented by DigitalOcean. Go to https://digitalocean.com to get started, and use the promo code "DEVELOPER TEA" at the checkout after you create your account to get a $10 credit! I hope you've enjoyed this episode. Until next time, Enjoy your tea.

During today's second half of our two-part interview, Russ Taylor and I talk about the importance of testing. We dive into methods for testing like Happy Path Testing, and how to stay productive using techniques like Kanban. If you missed the first half of my interview with Russ, and listen to more episodes, you can head over to Developer Tea.com and hit Subscribe through our RSS feed, Stitcher, on iTunes or another podcasting platform that you prefer. Don't forget to vote for Developer Tea as podcast of the year in the 16th Annual Net Awards! Thanks to today's sponsor: imgix imgix is real-time image resizing as a service. It’s backed by a CDN with global presence, with response times for images averaging 70ms.sizing as a service. It’s FREE to sign up and easy to get started. Go to imgix.com and let them handle your images, today. As always, thanks for listening. Until next time, Enjoy your tea.

During today's first half of a two-part interview, I have the pleasure of talking with Russ Taylor. Russ works on the continuous integration team at Etsy. We had a chance to talk about test driven development, all of the processes that Russ is involved with at Etsy, and how big applications like Etsy come together. If you don't want to miss out on the second half of my interview with Russ, you can head on over to Developer Tea.com and hit Subscribe through our RSS feed, Stitcher, on iTunes or another podcasting platform that you prefer. This episode is sponsored by OneMonth.com. Head over to OneMonth.com/developertea to get started learning Ruby on Rails in just one month, and receive a limited-time 25% discount! I hope you enjoy the show, and until next time, Enjoy your tea.

Don't Delay In today's episode, I talk about the fatal flaw of putting things off 'til tomorrow, and the simple, yet difficult, solution to the imbalance of the demand we experience versus our capacity to accomplish those demands. Mentioned in this episode: Avdi Grimm's new language roadmap Today's sponsor is Codeship, a hosted continuous integration platform. Get started today at Codeship.com, and use the code DEVELOPERTEA for 20% off any plan when you choose the premium plan!

In the second half of this episode, Mackenzie Child and I talk about his 12 in 12 challenge, and what it was like to make the switch from designer to developer. We cover a lot of ground in this episode. Starting with Mackenzie's first job as a designer, getting the backstory on why he decided to learn code, what encouraged him to make the switch, and how designers can get coding, today through Unicasts. You can follow Mackenzie on twitter @mackenziechild and make sure you check out his work at Unicasts.com. Part one with Mackenzie: Making Concrete Goals, can be found at DeveloperTea.com If you enjoyed this episode, head on over to iTunes and give this podcast a rating, it really does help! Have a question that you'd like to explore? Send an email to developertea@gmail.com or reach out on Twitter @DeveloperTea. Don't forget to vote for Developer Tea in the 16th Annual Net Awards! Go to http://bit.ly/votetea to vote for Developer Tea now! This episode is sponsored by OneMonth.com. Head over to OneMonth.com/deve

I caught up with Mackenzie Child to talk about his 12 in 12 challenge. In which he challenges himself to learn Ruby on Rails by building 12 web apps in 12 weeks. During this first episode, we talk about why he decided to challenge himself, the overlap in skill set between design and development, and learning to recognize when you're overcommitted. If you want to learn how to build Ruby on Rails web apps from design to code , especially as a designer, be sure to check out Unicasts.com. Be sure to tune in on Wednesday, for part two of this series, when Mackenzie shares how he learned Ruby. if you've enjoyed this episode be sure to subscribe. If you have any feedback for the show, have an idea to an episode or just want to say hello, you can reach me on twitter: @DeveloperTea or via email: developertea@gmail.com Today's episode is brought to you by Raygun.io. Raygun automatically detects and diagnoses errors and crashes in your software applications and notifies you of issues that are affecting your end users. R

Today, I talk about teaching in order to learn. This isn't reserved to just those in or going through school, but anyone who has learned a skill. There aren't many excuses for you not teaching what you know. This is especially important for developers, where languages, functions, and working knowledge changes on a dime. During this episode I'll talk about when to start teaching, how to start teaching, and three benefits of teaching. If you have any questions, feedback or topics you'd like me to discuss, you can reach me via email at: developertea@gmail.com or on twitter @DeveloperTea. Thank you so much for listening, Enjoy your tea.

This is a question that I think needs to come up more often. That is, how do we integrate our professional lives with our personal lives? in today's episode, I give a very difficult answer to Matthew's very difficult question: "How do you separate your social media identities?" If you have questions for me like Matthew did, you can contact me via email: developertea@gmail.com or on twitter: @DeveloperTea. This episode is sponsored by OneMonth.com. Head over to OneMonth.com/developertea to get started learning Ruby on Rails in just one month, and receive a limited-time 25% discount! Thanks for listening, and enjoy your Tea.