This time around Colin and CJ talk about learning styles and how to learn to learn. We highlight a documentation framework called "Diataxis," which provides a structured approach to content categorization, differentiating between tutorials, how-to guides, explanations, and references. The significance of recognizing and adapting to varied learning styles, such as visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. We share our personal experiences and emphasize the importance of diverse teaching methods and crea...
Sep 25, 2023•33 min•Ep. 28
It's the One Year Anniversary of Build & Learn! In this episode we chat about refreshing OAuth tokens and building CRM features with SMS/voice APIs. CJ and Colin also talk about the tradeoffs of building "calm", bootstrapped companies versus venture-backed startups. It seems like everything that is old is new again! What startups from the 2009-2012 vintages do you think could do with some disruption today? Some resources mentioned: GoRails Twilio Flex Follow along off-pod! @colinloretz on Tw...
Sep 11, 2023•32 min•Ep. 27
In this episode you'll hear about Colin's adventure of building a Google Calendar Discord bot using CloudFlare, mastering Google Calendar APIs, and navigating serverless Postgres with neon.tech. We'll also share our insights on the benefits of being part of Y Combinator, and the unexpected hiccups we faced with Rails' Turbo Streams. Dive in and learn from our experiences! Resources: * https://neon.tech/ * Jason's tweet: https://twitter.com/jmcharnes/status/1687286039356829698 * Cloudflare Worker...
Aug 21, 2023•41 min•Ep. 26
Welcome back after the summer break! CJ and Colin get caught up after a summer of adventure and... new job announcements! CJ update Tahoe Time / Family Time E-Bike with Dad Boat / Plane flight simulator Colin update Spending time on the coworking space Summer camping Role reversals and announcement We have new jobs! Context switching Colin : product & engineering → developer relations CJ : developer relations → product & engineering Fewer guard rails, much less narrow focus, wearing more...
Aug 07, 2023•42 min•Ep. 25
In this episode, we chat with Dave Paola, the founder of the Agency of Learning, an organization aimed at getting early-career developers job-ready, especially developer boot camp graduates. We delve into the history of boot camps, identify key gaps in current education methods, and explore how the Agency of Learning addresses these gaps by simulating a real-team environment and emphasizing technical and non-technical skills. Resources and Links Visit the Agency of Learning to learn more about D...
Jun 12, 2023•49 min•Ep. 24
In this episode, we talk with Chris Oliver about his deliberate approach to building GoRails and his other businesses on Rails. In a tech world that only seems to be moving faster and faster, we discuss the slow and steady path he has followed to create a fulfilling life for himself and his team while shipping awesome Rails things for his customers. Some links to things we discussed: Build Your Saas Episode: Nobody in SaaS wants to talk about this Build Your SaaS Episode: Super Fun SaaS Sales Ta...
May 30, 2023•50 min•Ep. 23
In this episode, we're joined by Alan Shreve, the founder and CEO of ngrok, to discuss the future of software development and the emergence of innovative tools that simplify complex tasks -- like ingress. We talk about ngrok's solid approach to error handling, which enhances troubleshooting and user experience by assigning unique codes to each error. The conversation also delves into the evolution of ngrok, an "ingress as a service" platform designed to streamline the setup of web application in...
May 15, 2023•40 min•Ep. 22
CJ and Colin are back to chat about getting outside, recap the recent RailsConf and discuss building and participating in developer communities in 2023. Getting Outside The Nature Fix book Outside 365 RailsCamp in Hawaii RailsConf 2023 and Webhooks Workshop Webhooks Workshop Github Repo Marp Markdown Presentation Tool Ruby Central YouTube Channel RubyConf San Diego Some other cool events/conferences that we've attended Blue Ridge Ruby Conf Rails SaaS RailsConf RubyConf RailsWorld LaraCon WordCam...
May 01, 2023•33 min•Ep. 21
In this episode, Colin and CJ discuss using the new GPT tools for work and play. Open AI Large language models Generative AI How do we use it, and is it going to be doom & gloom? How We Use It Brainstorming & riffing on ideas I was building something in React and hadn’t touched React in a few years. I had all this iteration going on in my components to generate dynamic content. Still, I wanted the topmost component to be able to have references to all these components to download them al...
Apr 17, 2023•37 min•Ep. 20
In this episode we dig into the HackerRank annual survey that was released a few months ago for 2023 including the top in demand skills from employers in this uncertain tech and economic environment. Note from Colin & CJ: This episode was recorded in November 2022. It is amazing how much changes in a few months. Languages By Volume of HackerRanks Java Python SQL C++ Javascript Bash C# Go Typescript R PHP C Swift Ruby Methodology for languages To estimate employer demand for specific programm...
Apr 03, 2023•35 min•Ep. 19
In this episode about webhooks.fyi, we're joined by Keith Casey from ngrok. You'll hear about webhooks.fyi an information-rich resource for learning how to build and consume webhooks. webhooks.fyi is an open source knowledge base and directory listing and analyzing different webhook providers. We discuss webhook security, signature verification, forward compatibility, and more. Other Links from the Show https://webhooks.fyi ngrok.com Webhooks to Revolution the Web from @progrium What are Webhook...
Mar 20, 2023•43 min•Ep. 18
This week we are joined by Chelsea Otakan, infamously also known as @chexee on most of the internet. Chelsea is a product designer and front-end developer, currently working at Lattice . In this episode, we learn more about Chelsea's design origin story, her philosophies on product design, and why you should "build a skateboard, not a wheel". Chelsea's design philosophies - Ship quickly, ship for the user - Design is continuous - Design and build systems, not just features - Don't be afraid to d...
Mar 06, 2023•49 min•Ep. 17
In this episode of Build and Learn, we discuss code generation (codegen) and how Stripe uses it to generate SDKs for its APIs automatically. We talk about how a declarative shape of an API (such as Open API spec or GraphQL schema) can be fed into a tool to generate an SDK in a specific programming language. This process helps ensure that the SDKs are always in sync with the API and that any changes to the API are automatically reflected in the SDKs. Most SDKs today are still hand-written, but au...
Feb 20, 2023•42 min•Ep. 16
In this podcast episode, we are diving into the world of developer advocacy and developer relations with Chris Traganos, aka "Trag." While Chris and CJ originally met working together in developer advocacy at Stripe, Trag talks to us about his new role leading the Developer & Appstore Evangelism program at Amazon . How DevRel strategies change depending on the type and size of company Tradeoffs that come with "where" a DevRel team is situated on in an organization Sales & Marketing Engin...
Feb 07, 2023•37 min•Ep. 15
In this podcast episode, the we discuss a range of topics related to learning and building cool projects. We begin by discussing the recent snow day and share some funny tips and tricks kids use to create a snow day. Charlie Gerard, a senior dev advocate at Stripe, introduces herself and talks about her role as a creative technologist, primarily working in JavaScript. She shares her love for solo traveling, reading, tinkering, and building. We also discuss Charlie's previous projects and how she...
Jan 23, 2023•46 min•Ep. 14
In this episode, you'll hear Lindsay's path from graphic designer to support engineer and how she now manages a team of support engineers. We discuss what this transition has looked like for her as well as the training and learnings she undertook along the way. In the second half of the episode, we dig into more specific tactics that her and her team have encountered like supporting customers through API version migrations, authentication issues and squashing bugs with their product engineering ...
Jan 10, 2023•41 min•Ep. 13
In this episode, you'll hear Erik's developer journey and learn about AWS Amplify. We discuss some ƒront-end trends and continue reiterating the value of rolling up your sleeves and building small things to learn new programming languages and frameworks. We compare and contrast working with Vue and React. We touch briefly on trends seen at Vercel with server-side generation and rendering. Shopify's acquisition of Remix and the dilemma of choice. The advent of code style challenges to build more ...
Dec 26, 2022•42 min•Ep. 12
We talk about some of the keys to building a personal brand as a software developer. • Authenticity • Consistency • Why you should (or shouldn't) think about developing your brand This Episode's Links • Twitter and the Perils of Obedience • Coolors: the super fast color palette generator • BuildSpace Creator Linked List • Monica Lent : building profitable indie products • Paul Jarvis : Fathom Analytics and Company of One • Scott Hanselman : blogger, dev, speaker, author, teacher Thanks again to ...
Dec 12, 2022•42 min•Ep. 11
Sourcing where you want to apply Make a list of the tools/apps/companies you like to use Outbound (Make a top 10 list) Inbound (review inbound recruiter outreach from the past 3 months or more) Networking (who do you know, try to do some coffee chats to see if they like their company and team) Cold outreach is tough (numbers game) Timing - interviewing such that offers come in around the same time Resume & cover letter & LinkedIn & Social Have these reviewed by your peers and iterate...
Nov 25, 2022•40 min•Ep. 10
Some Links Laravel Bootcamp Rails Hackathon Ruby Archaeology by Nick Schwaderer "Build vs Buy" on Rails by Colin Loretz Content Creation for Software Developers CFP Land Why speak at a conference? Share your hard-won learnings Meet other people Grow an audience Build your talent brand to hire people What makes a conference worth speaking at? Do you need to be very senior to speak at a conference? No! Picking a topic What are you interested in? What are you excited about? What do you know a lot a...
Nov 14, 2022•34 min•Ep. 9
Types of Content Tweet Blog Posts / newsletter Live Streaming (Twitch, etc) YouTube & YT Shorts TikTok & Instagram Resources Rubyists who tweet useful and helpful stuff https://twitter.com/websebdev https://twitter.com/siaw23 https://twitter.com/ShinoKouda Niche blogs Blended Edge on building integrations: https://www.blendededge.com/blog Newsletters Ruby Radar: https://rubyradar.dev/ Ruby Weekly: https://rubyweekly.com/ Short Ruby: https://newsletter.shortruby.com/ rendezvous with cassi...
Oct 31, 2022•42 min•Ep. 8
Disclaimer: The episode on Creating Pull Requests got lost so Episode 6 ended up being our Build vs Buy episode. Upcoming Conferences Of Note Rails SaaS - Oct 6-7, 2022 (already happened) Ruby Conf Mini - Nov 15-17 RubyConf - Nov 29-Dec 1 Chirp - Nov 16th Pull Request Guide from Thoughtbot Other Tips for giving a nice PR review Remember the person on the other end of your review is a human. As devs it’s easy to mix our identity with the code we write and any criticism of that code can be challen...
Oct 18, 2022•36 min•Ep. 7
Colin's RailsConf 2022 Talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-GDhlBTHoo Innovation tokens blog post - Choose Boring Technology ReadMe jobs - https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/readme/jobs
Oct 03, 2022•43 min•Ep. 6
- PTO & Taking Time Off - Self-care - Accrual caps - Burnout - Unlimited time off - good or bad? - Trap of not taking enough, personal guilt, fear of letting team down - Brad Feld’s 1 week a quarter - completely off grid, no work (= 4 weeks a year) - Why taking time off is good for your team / company - Marathon / not a sprint, you need to be able to take time off - Ensures you are not the blocker for things - Encourages better docs, better socializing of concepts and ownership of the code -...
Sep 19, 2022•30 min•Ep. 5
Paths Educational paths toward programming Self-taught - blogs, articles, tutorials, online platforms like Udemy, code academy 4-year computer science degree 2-year “web design” degree 12-week full-time boot camp 6-month part-time bootcamps Bootcamps that specialize in a discipline like data science, graphics design Bootcamps that serve underrepresented groups - resilient coders, shecodes.io , time, attention, resources Master in computer science Side door and back door entryways to tech Product...
Sep 05, 2022•49 min•Ep. 4
Welcome from Build & Learn! Learnings from our first full episode: The First Pancake Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2022 In May 2022 over 70,000 developers told us how they learn and level up, which tools they’re using, and what they want. Developer Profile Education Learning to code Experience Roles Where Who Technologies Most loved Most dreaded Most wanted Worked with vs Want to work with Version Control Web3 Work / Employment Community Professional Developers Interesting Highlights Daily...
Aug 22, 2022•45 min•Ep. 3
Why a podcast? Fun to hang out We learn a lot from one another. Chance to share what we’re building and learning in public Chance to meet and elevate other folks in the community Set the stage for what to expect on the show We are figuring this out, so don’t hold us to it in these first few episodes ;) Building and learning from Software Development but also life Introduction and background - Our Origin Stories First web dev moments CJ TI89 games (2003) MySpace (2004?) Perl for seismology lab (2...
Aug 08, 2022•42 min•Ep. 2
Welcome to Build & Learn, a podcast about software development and developing ourselves as software engineers. Hosted by CJ Avilla and Colin Loretz.
Aug 05, 2022•51 sec•Ep. 1
