The Bike Shed
On The Bike Shed, hosts Joël Quenneville, Sally Hall, and Aji Slater discuss development experiences and challenges at thoughtbot with Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, and whatever else is drawing their attention, admiration, or ire this week.
Episodes
510: Technical Debt is Technically Risk
Debt metaphors abound! In this week’s episode of The Bike Shed, Aji and Joel ponder the question, what are risks in a code base?
From looking at technical risk as a different lens on the idea of technical debt, to the perils inherent with introducing debt into a system, this is certainly the episode to listen to if you don’t want your own projects to blow up in your face.
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Your hosts
509: Bringing Back Rails Generators with Rachel Wright-Munn
Joël takes Bike Shed out onto the conference floor at RailsWorld as he interviews programer and streamer Rachael Wright-Munn, aka ChaelCodes.
Rachael talks about her efforts to index all ruby events around the world with RubyEvents.org, how she augments her workflows with years old generators rather than LLMs, the rising cost of tokens and why AI may not always be your best solution to a
508: The Wonders of Static Analysis
In this week’s episode of The Bike Shed, Aji and Joël dive into the distrust around the phrase ‘programmer discipline’, why you cannot just rely on willpower, and how Static Analysis tools can help with not crossing boundaries.
From competing priorities and team member changeovers to documentation not being read, things can still fall through the cracks, so having a tool that can check t
507: Stacked Vertical Slices
The Bike Shed is BACK! Aji and Joel kick off this week’s episode with a fantastic combination of component bugs and how much headspace they take up, historic heraldry vs ChatGPT’S anchoring bias, before diving into the latest big development of the Dev world, Github’s release of stacked PR’s.
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Read more about Joël’s adventure in Europe with ChatGPT, and how to structuring conditionals
506: The Muppet Software Team
It’s time to play the music, it’s time to… get Aji and Sally together again. This week’s episode is a radical one, and a listener suggestion no less; let’s Muppet-cast a software development team!
Who would you hire as the content designer? Which of the Muppets would do their best work as the QA? And the most important question of all - which role would be played by the human?!
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Your
505: What is a “principal” or “staff” engineer?
Sally and Joël join forces to discuss the different ways to interpret the role of a ‘principle’ or ‘staff’ engineer, and the handwaving around what those titles mean in terms of the gradation.
Whilst Joël dives into career progression within the industry, what a staff engineer does and the different archetypes within it, Sally talks about the importance of having principle engineers in t
504: AI Ethics (with guests!)
Aji is joined by thoughtbot’s own Tess Griffin and Jimmy Thigpen, two members of the recently established AI Ethics Taskforce, to talk about what kind of conversations are going on in the company around AI.
With AI becoming an omnipresent entity in the industry, Tess and Jimmy take a deep dive into how and why the taskforce got started, figuring out what thoughtbot’s stance is around AI
503: Seeing the Graph for the Trees
Aji and Joël join forces to discuss graph and tree structures, and their connection to the emergent properties, attributes and qualities you can find from a largely connected group of data.
Joël dives into their recent graphs and tree work through a contracting system, whilst Aji looks back at when he previously tried to serialise a graph or tree to a database.
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Watch Joël’s Blue Ridg
502: Apps That Make Our Work Go
Aji and Sally are back together again, this time to discuss the different apps they use to make their workflows and To Do lists easier and quicker to achieve.
Sally dives into the Notion calendar system which she uses to coordinate her many Google calendars, Aji looks back on using Jira to co-ordinate their international move, before they both reminisce about the benefits of using Alfred
501: What makes for good technical writing?
Sally and Joël get technical as they lay out their thoughts on blog posts.
Our hosts pick apart what makes a good technical blog post, why consistent terms are more important than you might think when communicating with your audience, and how to improve your own writing to ensure your reader remains engaged.
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There’s still time to secure your place at thoughtbot’s upcoming UK meet
500: Celebrating with past hosts
The Bike Shed celebrates its 500th episode with hosts new and old as they reflect on the show’s history and ask, what’s new in your world?
Our past hosts look back at their time on the show, their favourite moments while hosting, what they took away from producing the Bike Shed, and what they might do today if they were still in the hosting chair.
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Your hosts for this special episode
499: BikeTube ShedTacular!
Take a trip through Joël and Aji’s YouTube recommended list as they go over the media that has inspired their work the most over the course of their careers.
Our hosts highlight different creators that feature regularly in their YouTube rotation, the long standing channels that have had the most impact on them, the video essays that inspire their work, as well as a small detour Into the
498: Season 2 Recap
Our hosts come together to wrap up season 2 and share some of their highlights along the way.
Our trio expand and recap on some key topics covered over the last few months, Sally and Joël provide updates on their work with typescripts and LLMs, and Aji accidentally stumbles into an idea for a new keynote topic.
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Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quennevill
497: Diagrams we love
Aji and Joël get into a flow as they discuss the different diagrams that help guide their thought processes when working.
Together they compare their go to diagrams and why they find them so useful, the different analysis tools a diagram can offer and the alternative perspective on your work it provides, as well as how using diagrams can help communicate your mental models more effective
496: Test suite performance
Joël and Sally cover all the bases as they look at improving their test suite performances times.
Our hosts lay out some spicy takes on various different test suites, comparing the key differences across the different forms of testing, where you might encounter pitfalls in each method, and how to make the most of each test.
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Interested in exploring different test suites to see if the
495: A shortcut to years of experience
Sally and Aji flick through thoughtbot’s guide to best practices in a bid to brush up on their coding habits.
Our hosts discuss key ideas from the guides that stand out to them the most, why they’re considered to be good practice, as well as reviewing the cons of complex writing and the benefits of simple coding.
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Be sure to check out Sally’s new repo Michel if you’re looking to cre
494: Primitive Obsession
Joël and Sally examine the simpler components of programming and why using basic data structures may not always be the best approach to solving a problem.
Our hosts cover all the telltale signs and symptoms of primitive obsession, what it is, it’s drawbacks and limitations, and how to avoid it creeping into your own work.
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Want to learn more about primitive obsession and readability i
493: Suspenders with Steve Polito
Joël talks with guest thoughtbotter Steve Polito about his recent work rewriting Suspenders, an old thoughtbot gem from the 2000s.
Steve discusses his role on the rewrite and the steps he took in optimising it for modern rails, Joël dives into some of the new features found in the gem, before discussing with Steve the use cases for Suspenders and why you might choose it over other rails
492: Defining value within your team
Sally and Aji assess some common metrics for success when working a project and how they may not always provide the clearest picture of how things are going.
Together they discuss how to communicate effectively with stakeholders who are less technical to fully appreciate certain decisions and choices being made on a project, as well as the different metrics you can use to better reflec
491: Influences that shaped our thinking
Joël and Aji reference their personal bibliographies as they compare the different influences that have shaped their programmer world view.
Our hosts discuss their most influential programming material, from books, talks and video, and how it’s impacted the way they write code, Joël hones in on the importance of confidence and dealing with uncertainty of objects in a project, while Aji
490: Large Language Misadventure
Our hosts discuss the pros of AI and where they find the tool genuinely useful, it’s limitations, downsides and where it’s causing harm, the differences between bad AI code and human code, before asking the question of where this AI boom could be leading us.
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To get more of an insight into today’s episode consider watching Sandi Metz's RubyConf talk to learn more about red-lighting, or
489: What makes a codebase welcoming
Joël and Sally tidy up the place as they discuss the different ways a new codebase and team can feel welcoming to them.
Together they break down the things that help them ingrate into a new project more easily, explain why the lore of a project can be sacred to some, what you can do in the present to make things easier for a developer down the road, and why communication is crucial for
488: The Playful Portland Programming Paradigm
Aji and Joël talk all things hackerthons and why taking the time to have a little having fun with your work every now and then is important for developers.
Our hosts reflect on their shared experience at a previous RailsConf where they entered a mini hackerthon, why playing around in a creative sandbox is crucial to honing your skills as a dev, and how programming on the fly can teach yo
487: ActiveModel custom attributes
Joël contributes some thoughts on working with custom attributes as he follows up on last week’s discussion about ActiveModels with Sally.
Joël breaks down how he transforms various strings and objects when working with ActiveModels to simplify more advance workloads, as Sally queries their different use cases and how best to utilise them for her own workflow.
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Catch up on Sally and A
486: ActiveModel Everywhere
Aji and Sally join forces to discuss the different ways they utilise active models in their workflows.
Aji describes a new system for working with active models they’ve been using recently, Sally recalls a project where active models could have saved her a lot of time, before putting their heads together to think of new creative ways to utilise rails’ tools toolset to build other active
485: HTTP Basic Auth
Joël and Aji kick off a new season by discussing the best use cases for HTTP basic auth and talking all things security.
The pair ask when and why you would use basic auth over standard HTTPS, it’s pros, cons and vulnerabilities over other forms of security, and provide some advice to help decide on what form of security you could implement on your site.
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Thanks to our sponsors for
484: The Season 1 Recap
Our Bike Shed trio check back in with one another to follow up on some topics that caught their attention over the course of season 1.
Sally covers her time working with React over the last few months and the challenges it still presents to her workflow, Joël goes back over typescripts and the benefits he’s found when debugging, and the cast reflect on the first season as a whole, wha
483: Comparing notes on note-taking
Joël and Sally compare various note taking styles as they set out to find which ones work best for them.
The pair break down the different ways of formatting their notes and what they’re used for, Sally explains her struggles with note taking in general and the work arounds she’s found to achieve similar results instead, and Joël provides a small update on his book as he examines the di
482: Labels for our job
Joël and Sally analyse their job titles as they try to figure out exactly which borrowed labels best define their work at thoughtbot.
Together they break down the components of commonly used titles such as engineer, architect and consultant to see which element reflects their work best, how they would describe their roles at thoughtbot, which industries they’d draw from if they came up
481: Dev Horror Stories
Joël and Sally grab a flashlight to share some scary dev stories with each other to celebrate spooky season.
Sally tales the tale of the missing production database, Joël flees from some corrupted data, and each recall instances of haunted code and heart stopping moments from projects gone wrong.
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Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the
480: The President's Doctor with Jared Turner
Aji gets their priorities straight as they talks with fellow thoughtboter Jared Turner about his recent article titled The President’s Doctor.
Jared breaks down the thought process behind the president’s doctor and the wasted time we accrue when working on a project, where we can minimise pauses and delays in our workflows, and why watching cat videos while you wait may actually be the
479: Hardly Strictly Remotely In-Person
Aji and Sally set out to crack the problems surrounding remote working as they share their thoughts on the various aspect of working from home.
Together they discuss their time at the recent thoughtbot summit in Amsterdam, how they felt about working in-person again, what they took away from the experience, the best remote solutions they’ve found to recreate that in-person feeling, and
478: ADHD at work
Aji and Sally sit down to discuss their struggles with ADHD and the systems they have in place to stay focused at work.
They each share the note taking systems and tools they use to navigate a normal working day, how they came to fully understand and manage their ADHD, and Sally reminds us all why it’s very important to use a slash in your Slack reminders.
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This episode of the Bike
477: Change Management
Time to plan an upgrade as Joël and Aji talk about the hurdles involved with various change management in their projects.
The pair lay out some different approaches to protecting your data when planning a migration, the risks of code and data changes, the elements that will and won’t be affect in the process, and Joël gives his experience on a tough migration project and what he learnt
476: Green Flags for Code
Joël and Sally sit down to discuss their green and red flags when it comes to PR review.
Joël breaks down the different ways humans review code vs AI, how they both break down large projects into smaller digestible PRs and clarifying your reasoning for certain decisions, as well as discussing the most common red flags they’ve encountered when looking over code.
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Take a break from co
475: Invisible Mentorship
Sally and Aji discuss their experiences with invisible mentorship when it comes to code review.
Together they question when is the right time to have conversations with your team in a bid to chase improvement, the importance of understanding your co-workers perspectives, as well as the best ways to initiate a mentoring moment.
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Check out some of the things mentioned in this episode
474: Board games and programming
It’s board game night at the Bike Shed as Joël and Aji crack out the game pieces to assess how their work as programmers influences strategy when playing some of their favourite games.
As they make their way round the board they discuss the cycle of setbacks and iteration, finding the optimal solution to a puzzle, as well as the key skills that best links their programming work to board
473: Mental models for browsers
Joël prepares to write his new book by asking Sally some fundamental questions about Web browsers.
Together they look to answer the deceptively simple question of what is a browser, examining what they are at their core, what they’re capable of beyond basic functions, the nuances of programming for the web across different systems and devices on the front and back end, as well as unpack
472: What is the skill in software development?
Sally and Joël kick off a new season of the Bike Shed by asking the question, what exactly is it that we as developers even do around here?
Together they discuss their roles as developers, how their workflows and skills have changed over time, the value of context and experience when evaluating different solutions to a problem, why so much of their work revolves around googling error co
471: New Hosts Join the Show
Joël is joined by some familiar faces in today’s episode of the Bike Shed to help reveal some exciting changes to the show as he asks his new co-hosts, what’s new in your world?
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Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring.
Joining Joël Quenneville as your new co-hosts are Aji Slater and Sally
470: All about queues with Adam McCrea
Joël talks with Adam McCrea, founder of Judoscale, about the best ways to manage your queues and autoscaling.
Adam discusses some tough lessons he learnt recently during a technical outage at Judoscale, what exactly autoscaling is and how it works, the best signals to assess when working with an autoscaler, and provides some simple tips to better organise your own queues.
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You can c
469: How are we using AI? with Jimmy Thigpen
Joël and fellow thoughtbotter Jimmy Thigpen assess their AI workflows and question whether LLM partners really are as helpful as they claim to be.
Joël points out the blindspots AI can have when processing certain requests, they each share the ways they utilise AI into their workflow and pros and cons of doing so, as well as looking at some of the areas of improvement they would each li
468: RailsConf Recap with Tess Griffin
Joël sits down with Tess Griffin as they take a moment to recap the very last RailsConf together.
The pair discuss their favourite moments from final conference, how their love of D&D has crossed over to shape their experiences attending RailsConf, and the future of the show as a whole.
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Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the link
467: How to get the most out of attending a conference with Matheus Richard
Joël continues his preparations for the last RailsConf as he talks with Matheus about how to make the most of your time at the conference.
Hear their tips to connect and communicate with other attendees, the different ways to take notes at the various talks you can attend, what to do when your discussions have a lull, as well as how to draw inspiration from others talks and using it to
466: All about keynotes with Aji Slater
As the final RailsConf draws near Joël and Aji Slater sit down to discuss its varied and interesting history of keynote presentations.
The pair reminisce on their previous trips and talks at RailsConf, share some tips on creating the perfect keynote, as well as discussing the strong community that’s rallied behind RailsConf for so many years and how to best connect with others at simila
465: What is quality software with Elaina Natario
Elaina Natario returns to talk with Joël about what makes good quality product design and the priorities that shape development.
The pair discuss the importance of certain elements such as security and accessibility, maintaining certain standards throughout development, as well as judging the practical applications of prototypes within a project and the broad role they play.
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The Spo
464: Modelling the stars with Rémy Hannequin
Joël and Rémy draw inspiration from the stars as they discuss Rémy’s new open source Ruby gem, Astonoby.
Rémy reveals the challenges he faced in taking on this project, the scientific translation work that went into making it accessible for everyone, as well as the key lessons he learnt from modelling the cosmos.
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The Sponsor for this episode has been Judoscale - Autoscale the Right
463: All about modals with Elaina Natario
Joël strikes up a dialogue with fellow thoughtboter Elaina Natario about the various use cases of modals.
Together they discuss their pros and cons, the dos and don’ts, their functionality and accessibility to the end user as well as the subtle differences you'll notice when compared to dialogs.
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The Sponsor for this episode has been Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way. Check out the
462: Decomposition as a key developer skill with Steve Polito
Joël and Steve sit down to discuss the ins and outs of decomposition within their respective workflows and how they use it to their advantage when working on certain projects.
Together they look at working with vertical slices over other decomposition methods, when and how to break down code as efficiently as possible, and Joël lays out his three key principles that help him write code
461: Writing new vs existing code with Sara Jackson
Joël talks with fellow thoughtboter Sara about the different ways developers can help one another across the various stages of an app’s lifecycle.
They highlight the importance of utilising notes early on to clarify your work for others who may need it later down the line, how tooling can aid with this at all stages of development, and what lessons can be learnt from coding decisions ma
460: Programer Productivity with Valerie Burzynski
Start taking notes in this episode as Joël and Valerie discuss the different ways in which they structure their note taking systems to improve their workflows.
Together they cover the best ways to get started with serious note taking, how to best map out your thoughts so they make the most sense when you come back round to them, as well as examining the different use cases they have for
459: Paper Data Structures with Sally Hall
Joël and thoughtbot colleague Sally Hall set out to find an answer to the question, what exactly are the differences between paper data structures and digitals ones?
They compare the different ways humans store and access data, from rolodexs to the dewey decimal system, browsing a system vs searching it, and how the digital age has changed the way we assess and look at data stored in tho
458: Learning Typescript with Aji Slater
Joël and fellow thoughtboter Aji Slater examine the unfamiliar world of Typescript and various ways of working within it’s system.
They lay out the pros and cons of Typescript over other environments such as Ruby and Elm and discuss their experience of adopting LLM partners to assist in their workflows. Using ChatGPT and Claude to verify code and trim down syntax, all while trying to ap
457: Time Zones with Sally Hall
Joël enlists the help of thoughtbot colleague Sally Hall as they dive into the complex world of time zones, daylight savings, measurements and coding.
Together they discuss their struggles with daylight savings throwing off their recent project reporting, the constant struggles of writing for different time zones and why writing your own code is never worth the hassle, and the similar ba
456: Typescript with Jimmy Thigpen
Joël turns to fellow thoughtboter Jimmy Thigpen as he looks to expand his knowledge about the wide world of Typescripts.
Together they discuss the differences between Typescript and other common systems such as Elm and Javascript, how to best handle their edge cases and error flags, as well as the benefits of using Zod as your typescript library.
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Just starting out in Typescript? Try
455: Noisy Animals Kata with Fritz Meissner
Joël talks with fellow thoughtboter Fritz Meissner about the thinking process behind his latest kata project and the vast world of coding problems.
Fritz explains why he developed the noisy animals kata and how it helped to better understand and streamline his code, the best ways to break down conditionals and how to clean them up efficiently within your workflow, as well as knowing wher
454: Workshop design with Aji Slater
Joël is joined by fellow thoughtboter Aji Slater as they discuss their previous experiences in designing content for workshops.
Learn how to best structure your workshop for an audience, the benefits of a workshop over a talk and vice versa, as well as how to tackle the different hurdles your audience might face when working through your presentation.
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Try your hand at Joël’s recommen
453: The Bike Shed Wrapped 2024
Happy New Year from The Bike Shed!
Tune in to the one wrapped edition that really matters this holiday season, The Bike Shed Wrapped! Recap the year with Joël and Stephanie as they reminisce over their favourite moments of 2024.
The pair discuss ways they’ve stepped outside their comfort zone to gain a different perspective on their work, the growth they’ve each achieved as a result, an
452: Hotwire Essentials with Steve Polito
Stephanie is joined by follow thoughtbot-er Steve Polito as they discuss his latest GitHub resource, Botcasts.
Find out why Steve was so keen to make the app, what he learnt about Hotwire in the process and why he thinks you should stop listening to the show in your current pod-catcher and pick it up in Botcasts instead!
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Try building Botcasts for yourself over on Github!
Your ho
451: Making Time for and Managing Focus
It’s officially the holidays at the Bike Shed! Defrag your hard drives and take a break with Joël and Stephanie as they breakdown different ways to manage your focus during the day.
The pair discuss separating coding time from thinking time when working, the pros and cons of blocking out time for different tasks and clever ways to move seamlessly from one project to the next without losi
450: Javascript-Driven Development?
Joël and Stephanie go back to fundamentals as they pick apart some recent conversations they’ve been having around the office.
Together they discuss the advantages of GraphQL over a REST API, how they utilise JSONB over a regular column or table, and the use-cases for and against a frontend framework like React.
But what’s the theme that ties all these conversations together?
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The a
449: Evergreen skills for new-ish developers
One of the most challenging things about starting out as a developer is how much you need to master all at once. And with so much to learn, it can be difficult for experts to guide fresh developers and advise them on where to focus first. Luckily, some skills will always be useful, no matter what language you’re coding in. In today’s episode, Stephanie and Joël tackle this topic by unpack
448: Other Uses for Tests
How can tests serve beyond just catching bugs in code? In this episode, Stephanie and Joël dive into the various roles that tests can play in a developer's toolkit. Covering all the fundamentals, from aiding knowledge transfer and documentation to ensuring accountability in code reviews, they explore the unexpected ways that tests support developer workflows. They also explain the balance
447: How to (not) implement impersonation
For developers, impersonation can be a powerful tool, but with great power comes great responsibility. In today’s episode, hosts Stephanie and Joël explore the complexities of implementing impersonation features in software development, giving you the ability to take over someone’s account and act as the user. They delve into the pros and cons of impersonation, from how it can help with d
446: All about rewrites
When is it time for a rewrite? How do you justify it? If you’re tasked with one, how do you approach it? In today’s episode of The Bike Shed, we dive into the tough question of software rewrites, sharing firsthand experiences that reveal why these projects are often more complicated and risky than they first appear. We unpack critical factors that make or break a rewrite, from balancing d
445: Working Iteratively
Does having smaller, more frequent iterations help to ease your cognitive load? During this episode, we discuss the benefits and challenges of working iteratively and whether or not it can prevent costly errors. You’ll hear about juggling individual pieces effectively, factors that incentivize and de-incentivize working iteratively, and how Joël gauges whether or not a project should be b
444: From Solutions To Patterns
What’s the difference between solving problems and recognizing patterns, and why does it matter for developers? In this episode, Stephanie and Joël discuss transitioning from collecting solutions to identifying patterns applicable to broader contexts in software development. They explore the role of heuristics, common misconceptions among junior and intermediate developers, and strategies
443: Rails World and Open Source with Stefanni Brasil
Learning from other developers is an important ingredient to your success. During this episode, Joël Quenneville is joined by Stefanni Brasil, Senior Developer at Thoughtbot, and core maintainer of faker-ruby. To open our conversation, she shares the details of her experience at the Rails World conference in Toronto and the projects she enjoyed seeing most. Next, we explore the challenge
442: Paradigms - What is a Program?
What is a program? Your answer to this question will determine the paradigm through which you view programming. During this episode, you’ll come to understand how things change once you develop an awareness of your paradigm, and what. To kick off this episode, Stephanie shares key insights she took from Planet Argon’s 2024 Ruby on Rails survey and dives deeper into her history with Ruby o
441: The Pickaxe Book with Noel Rappin
For a long time, Programming Ruby was the authority in the developing world. Now, a much-needed update has been published. During this conversation, we are joined by Noel Rappin, who shares how his frustration at the idea of static type in Ruby motivated him to investigate why he felt this way, as he published his findings in The Pickaxe Book. We discuss how this book differs from previou
440: When we stray from Rails defaults
When does it make sense to step away from Rails conventions? What are the limits of convention over configuration? While Rails conventions provide a solid foundation, there are times when customization is necessary to meet specific project needs. In this episode, Joël and Stephanie dive into the tradeoffs of breaking away from Rails defaults. They explore the limits of convention over con
439: Async Ruby & Rails with Trevor Turk
How can asynchronous programming transform your Ruby on Rails applications? Today, Stephanie sits down with Hello Weather co-creator Trevor Turk to unpack asynchronous programming in Ruby on Rails. Trevor Turk is a seasoned software developer known for his work on Hello Weather, a minimalist weather app that delivers essential weather data quickly and precisely. He’s also the creator of W
438: Writing abstractions in tests
Writing abstractions in tests can be surprisingly similar to storytelling. The most masterful stories are those where the author has stripped away all of the extra information, and given you just enough knowledge to be immersed and aware of what is going on. But striking that balance can be tricky, both in storytelling and abstractions in tests. Too much information and you risk overwhelm
437: Contributing to Open Source in the Midst of Daily Work with Steve Polito
Are you passionate about open source but struggling to find time amidst your daily work? Today on the podcast, Joël Quenneville sits down with Steve Polito to discuss practical strategies for making meaningful contributions to the open-source community, even when your schedule is packed. Steve is a developer with extensive experience in the open-source world seamlessly. He’s known for his
436: Creating Conditions For Your Best Work with Steph Viccari
How can we optimize our time and environment to do our best work as developers? In today’s episode, we are joined by Stephanie Viccari, former co-host of The Bike Shed and Senior Developer at thoughtbot, to unpack the steps for creating work conditions that enhance productivity. In this conversation, we delve into her unique communication style and approach to optimizing productivity with
435: Cohesive Code with Jared Norman
How easy is it for a layperson to understand your systems? Jared Norman is a software consultant, speaker, and host of the Dead Code Podcast who specializes in building e-commerce applications in Ruby on Rails. This episode follows two recent talks at RailsConf and covers a theme that emerged from both of them: coupling and cohesion. Tuning in, you’ll gain insights on how to create more c
434: Git and GitHub Workflows
It's Calls for Proposals (CFP) season, and in the process of helping our friends and colleagues flesh out their CFPs, we came up with a few questions to help them frame their proposals for success. After learning about the importance of finding your audience and angle of approach for your CFP, we dive into today's main topic – our Git and GitHub workflows. Joel and Stephanie walk us throu
433: Riffing with Kasper Timm Hansen
Have you ever wondered how improvisation can revolutionize coding? In today’s episode, Stephanie sits down with Kasper Timm Hansen to discuss his innovative “riffing” approach to code development. Kasper is a long-time Ruby developer and former member of the Rails core team. He focuses on Ruby and domain modeling, developing various Ruby gems, and providing consulting services in the deve
432: The Semantics and Meaning of Nil
The term ‘nil’ refers to the absence of value, but we often imbue it with much more meaning than just that. Today, hosts Joël and Stephanie discuss the various ways we tend to project extra semantics onto nil and the implications of this before unpacking potential alternatives and trade-offs.
Joël and Stephanie highlight some of the key ways programmers project additional meaning onto ni
431: Developers Are Professional Question Askers
Stephanie shares her newfound interest in naming conventions, highlighting a resource called "Classnames" that provides valuable names for programming and design. Joël, in turn, talks about using AI to generate names for D&D characters, emphasizing how AI can help provide inspiration and reasoning behind name suggestions. Then, they shift to Joël's interest in Roman history, where he
