F
Fyodor
Guest
I listen to a lot of programming-related podcasts, that's one of the ways I both educate myself with some occasional technology aspects on the background, and keep myself acquainted with the latest and the greatest in the software development world (not much, TBH). I have a curated list of podcast episodes I get to when I'm doing chores usually, or woodworking, or dogwalking, or whatnot. Sometimes it's new stuff from shows I follow, sometimes it's something I found during targeted search about some technology I'm currently interested in.
One of my favourite tech shows of all time is "Software Unscripted" β always thoughtful and long no-bullshit conversations about different aspects of computer science, programming languages, and a lot more from the host who is themselves a great person and educator β Richard Feldman (I love their courses on FrontendMasters so much too, the cleverest and the most modest teacher on the interwebs!).
There was this guy on the show once (quite some time ago, found this episode accidentally), Casey Muratori, who's an expert in software performance selling their courses and other educational materials and considering themself proficient in different technologies including web development. And when Richard started to talk about ORMs with them, Casey admitted they were hearing this term for the first time in their life and was genuinely surprised that people do such things to SQL...
Another show I love is "Rust in production", where Matthias Endler speaks to seasoned Rust developers about their experience in building future-proof production software systems. There was an episode recently with Andrew Burkhart, Senior Rust Engineer at 1password. This episode was particularly exciting because of the clear "fake it til you make it" philosophy of the guest. When you think about Rust system engineers developing low-level software β mentally coding in assembly and then translating it on the fly to some formal language that you, as a web developer, can only have nightmares about β you imagine some Yoda-level gurus (and don't get me wrong, they often are). But as a matter of fact, usually these people have no idea what they are doing at the beginning and learn on the fly (at best!), growing their craftsmen wings in process (or pretending they do).
What this taught me was to give some perspective to my inner critic and impostor alter-ego: if the people we all admire often have no idea what they're doing on a professional level they're paid for and still are considered to be the experts, I think we all, usual software developers from the darkest corners of the software world, have a chance to some day say to ourselves, "well done, pal!"
I mean, we all constantly hear and see these memes and shitposts on social media about "hey, I'm a seasoned software developer and today I asked ChatGPT how to center a div", or "programmer's mind is constantly fluctuating between 'I am a God!' and 'I have no idea what I am doing'" but usually that's just self-deprecating humor, or a well-worn joke for the approval of fellow programming plebs. But in fact, many people in the software world pave their way to success through lots of empty stares at dark screens with blank minds over some simple programming task.
It's possible to be a know-it-all. It's just that usually we are not in a position to. There are other things to do as well. So it's fair to take it easy, slow down the pace, and give yourself some friendly pat on the shoulder and say "it's OK, you'll learn the borrow checker tomorrow, today you can just watch Netflix with the kid... or play you some harpsichord... like that guy from the Rust in Production podcast... like a PRO..."
Cover photo by Drew Gilliam from Unsplash
Continue reading...
One of my favourite tech shows of all time is "Software Unscripted" β always thoughtful and long no-bullshit conversations about different aspects of computer science, programming languages, and a lot more from the host who is themselves a great person and educator β Richard Feldman (I love their courses on FrontendMasters so much too, the cleverest and the most modest teacher on the interwebs!).
There was this guy on the show once (quite some time ago, found this episode accidentally), Casey Muratori, who's an expert in software performance selling their courses and other educational materials and considering themself proficient in different technologies including web development. And when Richard started to talk about ORMs with them, Casey admitted they were hearing this term for the first time in their life and was genuinely surprised that people do such things to SQL...
Another show I love is "Rust in production", where Matthias Endler speaks to seasoned Rust developers about their experience in building future-proof production software systems. There was an episode recently with Andrew Burkhart, Senior Rust Engineer at 1password. This episode was particularly exciting because of the clear "fake it til you make it" philosophy of the guest. When you think about Rust system engineers developing low-level software β mentally coding in assembly and then translating it on the fly to some formal language that you, as a web developer, can only have nightmares about β you imagine some Yoda-level gurus (and don't get me wrong, they often are). But as a matter of fact, usually these people have no idea what they are doing at the beginning and learn on the fly (at best!), growing their craftsmen wings in process (or pretending they do).
What this taught me was to give some perspective to my inner critic and impostor alter-ego: if the people we all admire often have no idea what they're doing on a professional level they're paid for and still are considered to be the experts, I think we all, usual software developers from the darkest corners of the software world, have a chance to some day say to ourselves, "well done, pal!"
I mean, we all constantly hear and see these memes and shitposts on social media about "hey, I'm a seasoned software developer and today I asked ChatGPT how to center a div", or "programmer's mind is constantly fluctuating between 'I am a God!' and 'I have no idea what I am doing'" but usually that's just self-deprecating humor, or a well-worn joke for the approval of fellow programming plebs. But in fact, many people in the software world pave their way to success through lots of empty stares at dark screens with blank minds over some simple programming task.
It's possible to be a know-it-all. It's just that usually we are not in a position to. There are other things to do as well. So it's fair to take it easy, slow down the pace, and give yourself some friendly pat on the shoulder and say "it's OK, you'll learn the borrow checker tomorrow, today you can just watch Netflix with the kid... or play you some harpsichord... like that guy from the Rust in Production podcast... like a PRO..."
Cover photo by Drew Gilliam from Unsplash
Continue reading...
