The Laracasts Snippet
The Laracasts snippet, each episode, offers a single thought on some aspect of web development.
Episodes
I'm Done
I didn't come to this decision lightly. It took me most of 2025 to reach this conclusion, but here we are. I'm done. Let me explain.
Programming Anxiety
Let me tell you a story about the programming-induced anxiety that my former self once felt. If you are constantly online, you will have the impression that you are constantly falling behind. But...are you?
Should You Learn Laravel Before PHP?
Should you learn PHP first or jump straight into Laravel? 🤔 It’s a question every newcomer asks, and in this episode, Jeffrey breaks down both sides of the debate. We’ll talk about the benefits of mastering PHP basics, the faster “time to first win” that Laravel offers, and how beginners can balance learning without feeling overwhelmed. Whether you’re just starting with HTML/CSS or ready to build
Where Does Laracasts Go From Here?
In the last year, the way we program has changed dramatically. Perhaps, more dramatically than at any other time in my career. We can thank AI for that. So that begs the question: how does Laracasts fit into this new environment?
The AI Episode
In this episode, we dig into the subject of AI... and whether it's going to steal your job or not. Don't worry: no bait in this video. Just an honest conversation about where we are, and what it all might mean.
Big Fish, Little Fish
There was a time long ago, before the internet, when each of us had the ability to be a big fish in the small pond. At least in some small way, that's true. But not anymore. And I wonder... what does that do to our confidence levels?
Horses for Courses
We love tools: linters, type checkers, test runners, asset compilers, et al. Whilst these tools can help solve problems, they might also be a sledgehammer when all you really need is a screwdriver. Let me tell you a little anecdote about upgrading my personal site to Laravel 11, and why sometimes removing a tool is even better than adding one.
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
Tell me what you think of this. We all have certain stories about ourselves that we repeat, like mantras. "I am the type of person who is X, therefore..." But, for all the reps, I'm not sure these are doing us any good at all.
Here's Why You Should Attend Laracon
Luke, here! I recently got the chance to attend and speak at Laracon EU 2024, and it was fantastic. The venue was awesome, the talks were amazing, but what really makes the event special are the conversations you have with like-minded developers. Let me tell you about it.
Find Your Fit
It occurred to me recently that, if my job consisted exclusively of writing code 40 hours a week, I don't think I'd be a programmer today. I might go out of my mind. The secret, from my experience, is to find your fit. Figure out how to combine all of your skills into some unique concoction that gets you through the day with a smile on your face.
Juggle the Idea
If someone on your team presents a business idea to you, they've likely had it simmering in their head for quite some time. Don't be so quick to toss that idea aside. If there's such a thing as anti-patterns in business, this is one of them. Give the idea its due.
Programming is Bootcamp for Conscientiousness
Programming taught me an interesting life lesson: be a stickler for the details. You see, getting the thing to work is only half the battle. You’re not done. Not even close. Yes, make it functional. But then make it readable. Should it also be flexible? Then do so. And certainly make it beautiful.
Business Impostor
When it comes to business, I - like many developer-turned-small-business-owners, I’d imagine - am really quite green. Not just green, deep green. No MBA in sight. I’m not even sure what that stands for, to be honest. Master of Business Administration? Is that it? Yep, a master of business… yours truly is not. Can you relate?
Steal From Other Hobbies
In this episode, we'll talk about stealing techniques and approaches from other hobbies or industries. What have you learned from one hobby that might be useful for your programming career? I can think of a few.
Laracasts Q&A: 2022 Edition
It's hard to believe, but the last Q&A episode was published over two years ago. Let's fix that with a new 2022 edition. I'll answer a wide variety of questions, such as: how to initially plan a business, are lifetime accounts are worth offering, why aren't there dedicated Laracasts apps, how to avoid content creator burnout, and more.
Zoom Out
I often hear about flat organizational structures and how they lead to more autonomy and better collaboration. That could be true! It sounds appealing. But my worry is: don't you lose the zoomed out perspective in the process? From my experiences, that multi-focus hierarchy is essential.
Don't Participate
For a number of years now, I've found myself quietly mumbling the words, "Don't participate," every time I feel the need to insert myself into events or conversations that have nothing to do with me. It works wonders. Nearly every time, I delete the draft and get back to work.
Programming Bullet Points I'd Send Back in Time
In this episode, I take some time to ponder over which programming bullet points I wish had been drilled into me more in the early days of my learning. We'll discuss the psychology of learning, design patterns, SOLID, and, of course, the never-ending river of programming opinions.
If It's Not Perfect, Ship It
It's far too easy for developers to fall into a trap of never shipping new code to production. "It's not ready," we tell ourselves. "Just one more month to clean things up, and then we'll push it up." But if you're not careful, there will always be a reason why it's still not ready. In this episode, we discuss habit building and why it's necessary to not be a perfectionist.
Be the Tortoise
If you've worked in programming spaces for any period of time, you will surely have heard the advice, "It's better to go slow than fast." We all instinctively knows this, and, yet, we're simultaneously obsessed with optimizing every facet of our workflow.
Three Shapes
Whenever I ask a slightly controversial programming question, the responses often take one of three shapes. Let's talk about each of them in this episode, before taking a few moments to discuss why it's so important to play gracefully with ideas.
Trust the Process
Every time I learn something new, I have to re-remind to trust the process. I'm not sure why. That feeling of "I can't" never goes away. You would think we'd eventually make the connection that if you work on something a little bit today, and a little more tomorrow, you'll eventually become quite skilled. And, yet, why do I always begin the learning phase with a hesitation that says, "You'll never
The Best of Both Worlds
In this episode, we discuss the three-month process of converting Laracasts to a single-page application with Inertia.js.
If You Flip It, They Can Learn It
It has occurred to me that I might have made some teaching mistakes in the past. Learning sticks when it can immediately be applied to a particular task or need you have. If you don't have an immediate use case, it might as well go in one ear, and out the other. It's not going to stick.
About That Laravel 8 Controversy
I keep seeing oddly similar threads around the web that relate to Laravel 8's "increased prerequisites." They all seem to share the view that, if you want to upgrade to Laravel 8, be prepared to also learn Livewire, Inertia, and Tailwind. Of course, I find it odd...because it's not even remotely true.
Cool Kids Table
Here's an uncomfortable truth about the programming world: we all want to sit at the cool kids table. It was true in high school, and it remains true today. It makes you wonder how this might be reflected in the tools we choose.
One Thing I Love About Laravel
One thing I love about Laravel is how, for any given project or feature, there's already a clearly defined pathway I can follow to complete it. For example, we take it for granted that a robust queue system with model serialization is always at your fingertips. We take it for granted that a powerful event dispatcher with automatic event registration is available for free. We even take it for grant
If Programmers Had a Superpower
My wife recently paid me a compliment. "You're a good troubleshooter" - to which I replied, that's because it's all I do every day. Programmers are professional troubleshooters.
How to be Ignored on GitHub
After you've maintained a popular open source project for any length of time, you begin to notice a pattern. Certain issues and pull requests bubble up to the top of your todo list, and certain issues...are ignored or discarded. Let's talk about why that's often the case.
The Goodbye Debacle
We recently pushed a new "goodbye" landing page for the Laracasts website. In an effort to not succumb to the usual, boring "Goodbye, hope to see you again" copy, I opted for a different approach. Unfortunately, it didn't land for everyone the way I thought it might.
How We Work
I recently hired a new instructor for Laracasts. Now that the team has grown to four people, including myself, I thought it might be interesting to discuss my personal hands-off approach to running a small and low-stress team.
Four Words Can Derail Your Day
Four words can derail any programmer's day. Those four words are "If I could just..." Ask yourself if you frequently fall into this trap. "If I could just configure my code editor properly, then I could get some work done." Or what about this one? "If I could just get my office the way I want it, then I could begin this new feature." Have no doubt; this is a form of p
Meet Them Where They Are
As parents or teachers, if you want to instill a joy for learning or reading, it's important that you meet them where they're currently at in life. The goal, as we've discussed in past episodes of The Laracasts Snippet, is to get them excited.
It's All About the Framing
I recently came across a month-old YouTube channel with two million subscribers. The content...was fine. The audio...was fine. And, yet, two million subscribers! Often, the way in which you frame your content is significantly more important than the content itself.
TDD Dogmatism
Few topics in the programming world spark debate quite as much as TDD. There's enough dogmatism from the evangelists of TDD to warrant an equal and opposite reaction from those who aren't on board and are tired of being told they're doing it wrong.
When Programmers Run Businesses
We're living in an interesting time, when one person - anywhere in the world - can start a business without leaving their bedroom. Even better, this business has the potential to bring in revenue while the person sleeps. This is the secret sauce to wealth, and it's now available to anyone with an internet connect and a decent idea. As a result, we have now regular folks - often with little busines
How Open Source Projects Spiral Out of Control
Every open source project begins with the best of intentions. In fact, they usually begin with excitement. One developer has an idea, and thinks, "Hmm - I can do this!" So why is it that, more often than not, these projects eventually spiral out of control?
Repair Your Focus
We can all surely relate to the sense that our ability to focus has slowly deteriorated over the last decade. If this scares you as much as it does me, let's talk about how we reverse the process through habit forming.
They're Only Guidelines
I think you'll find that intermediate-level developers tend to be the most passionate and rigid of the entire community. It is at this stage of your learning when you are most susceptible and attracted to programming "rules," or instructions from above that, when followed, lead us to clean code. But that's okay. While we all eventually realize that rules are meant to be broken, in certai
This is How We Elect a President
To offer something different this week, let's tear down and inspect a recent conflict on the US presidential debate stage.
A Brain Dump on Fatherhood
In this episode, I offer a brain dump on the intricacies of raising two little kids, and fatherhood in general.
The Learn to Code Absurdity
Too often, we hear politicians spew the tired "learn to code" slogan in response to difficult questions related to disappearing jobs in remote America. Let's talk about the logistics and practicality of a middle-aged coal miner making this switch.
Thinking About Types
I've thought quite a bit about types in the last year or two. I know - borrring - but I find it interesting to observe how intensely talented developers can disagree with one another on this particular issue.
The Correct Way to Think of Objects
Developers passionately disagree with one another on most programming issues. For every tutorial on class inheritance, duck-typing, naming conventions, and mutability, I'll show you another resource that argues vehemently in the opposite direction.
Focus on Two Hours, Not Two Years
Every developer should develop and manage at least one project themselves. Doing so not only harnesses your discipline, but it also forces you to flex product-related muscles you've never used before.
Identifying CSS Animation Bottlenecks
One of the more frustrating aspects of front-end development stems from the fact that even the smallest of alterations has the potential to derail your entire week. In this episode, we'll discuss how to track browser-specific CSS performance issues.
Correlation Does Not Equal Causation
That simple rule we all learned years ago in school may not have stuck properly. Why else would we, decade after decade, incorrectly and constantly draw "cause-and-effect" lines from one variable to another?
The Screencasting Mistakes All Newcomers Make
It occurred to me recently that I've likely recorded more programming screencasts than just about anyone. In that time, I've picked up a number of small tips and techniques.
Forming Friendships When Working Remotely
Traditionally, there are three primary locations when most friendships are formed: school, the workplace, and church. But what if you're unable to tick any of these boxes, as is increasingly the case for remote workers.
To Mute or Not to Mute
A recent study found that a small percentage of individuals are largely responsible for the widespread sense that online interactions are hostile and toxic. Assuming this is true, is it possible that muting a handful of people will instantly remove the negativity in your feed?
Easy Frontend Performance Wins
In this episode, we'll discuss a series of performance improvements that you can apply to your own projects right now. You'll learn about everything from image lazy loading to inspecting the cost of an NPM package.
The Final Podcast
No, this isn't the last Laracasts Snippet. But we will be discussing PHP's final keyword and the arguments for and against applying it by default.
Conquering Eye Strain
In the last few years, I've noticed that my eyes simply aren't as resilient as they used to be. After staring at a computer screen for so many years, the daily eye strain and headaches have been getting worse. Much worse. In this episode, I discuss the steps I've recently taken to improve my situation. If you're in the same boat, have a listen!
Dogma and Personality
Each of us is born with a unique personality that defines much of how we view the world. Is it possible that this also cascades down to the code we write? Maybe!
The Four P's
Today, I have four completely unrelated topics to discuss with you today. As a (cheesy) way to connect the dots between them, we'll call this episode the four P's: Personal, Professional, Political, and Parental.
Beginners and Pros Share This Common Insecurity
As part of managing Laracasts, I've been lucky enough to speak with countless developers. Whether newcomers or seasoned veterans, they too often seem to share the same insecurity: sooner or later, they'll be found out.
Gamification
The subject of this week's episode is gamification. I'll begin by gushing over Outer Wilds, and then move on to discussing the pros and cons of general gamification elements in web apps and schools.
The jQuery Influence
I recently made a bittersweet commit that removed jQuery from the Laracasts codebase entirely. Let's discuss how important the library has been to the JavaScript ecosystem as a whole.
The Media Consolidation Dilemma
Are you as annoyed as I am that there are five different points of entry, if you want to watch a movie you own? Is it a Blu-ray? Is it on your DVR? Did you buy it on iTunes? Or was it Amazon Prime? Recently, I've been trying to consolidate all of my purchased media to a Plex server I set up. If you're in the same boat, here are some things to watch out for.
Isn't PHP Dead?
After working with PHP for over ten years now, there's one question that continues to pop up - no matter what year it is: "Isn't PHP Dead?" Let's talk about it.
The First Draft is Always Crap
The first draft is almost always crap. There's no getting around it. But once you accept this harsh truth, it can be freeing. Not everything you do is gold.
4 Things
This episode, I have four things to discuss with you: children and values, old PHP, developers and back pain, and finally a new UI component we're working on for Laracasts.
It's Still a Finish Line
I recently spent an entire day making a small, but tricky Vue component for the Laracasts forum. There's no doubt that it took longer than I would have liked. But, the fact remains: at the start of the day, I had no clue how to build it. When I clocked out that evening, it was finished and deployed. Let's talk about why this is my favorite aspect of programming, and how it can overflow into the re
A Tricky Topic to Discuss
Representation in the tech community is a tricky topic to discuss. Like a minefield, be careful where you step on this issue. But let's see if we can trace a safe path through.
Keep Your Head Down
This week, we're discussing focus, social media, and why we all need to try harder to keep our heads down.
Show Me An Example
Lately, I've been thinking about the importance of providing examples. Whether you're writing new code, or preparing documentation, or even discussing code, I'm always left with the same thought: "Give me an example."
Back Off
Developers seem to have a peculiar need to protect their peers from themselves. While I've no doubt that this desire stems from a good place, you need to let people make their own mistakes.
Protect Your Baseline
In the last year - after breaking a few of my personal rules - I've become incredibly sensitive to lifestyle creep. In this episode, we discuss why, eight months ago, I asked my pregnant wife to help me slash our lifestyle in half. We'll also talk about important considerations for your own life.
Remote Contractor Workflow Q&A
In this episode, line by line, I'll answer a recent question related to remote contractors. We'll discuss choosing an applicant, tips for getting the job, tooling, workflow, and more.
Discipline Versus Laziness
I've focused a great deal on discipline this year. I'm not sure why, but it might be related to the fact that I now have two increasingly time-consuming children that I'm responsible for. While, in the past, I'd often find myself edging toward the "I'll do it tomorrow" path, this year, I've worked hard to sprint in the opposite direction. Or, in other words, even when you're desperate to
The 2019 Laracasts Refresh
It's been over two years since Laracasts last received a fresh coat of paint. For those who know me (Jeffrey), that's two years too long. In this episode, I discuss every facet of the redesign process.
Developer Fitness
Today I completed a year long project that I'd like to talk to you about.
Basic Financial Literacy
In the United States (and surely many other countries), financial literacy is not taught in schools. You might think that basic investing and a review of compound interest would be profoundly important learning material. But according to the school board, you'd be wrong. Perhaps it's only natural then that those living in the US are deeper in debt than ever in our history.
Stream of Consciousness
While most episodes generally focus on one central idea, today is more a stream of consciousness. We'll discuss everything from the struggles of running a business, to Metroid, to social media addiction, to Cobra Kai. Grab a drink and let's hang out.
Choose the Boring Path
I've begun to find that, in so many cases, the basic, boring path - for learning a skill or achieving some result - ends up being the correct one. It's not the fancy twelve-point program that costs $899 to unlock. Nope, not even close.
Q&A - Controversial Ideas, Politics, and Code
It's time for another Q&A. This week, we'll discuss everything from how I'd build Laracasts differently today, which controversial ideas I subscribe to, reflections on having a two year old child, and, of course, code editors...
Overdoing It
Every developer goes too far at some point in their career. It's unavoidable.
Programming Truths
Too many ideas and practices in programming are accepted as basic truths. "Don't do it like that! It's dirty." What I'm concerned with is who gets to determine what is and isn't acceptable code to write. Today, I'd like to share four common practices and ideas that I tend to disagree with.
What You Should Think
Do you ever feel like you opinions are being spoon-fed to you? Even worse, what if you didn't even realize it was taking place?
Top of the Pack
You've seen the same headline all over the web: "This one technique can triple your income overnight." Really? And I only have to click through your article, split into fifteen pages full of ads? Where do I sign up!? But what if there was a simple technique to drastically improve your chances in the job market?
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