In this episode Matt and Mike discuss something that most (if not all) web developers have heard about - JavaScript. JavaScript can take your web pages to the next level with all kinds of cool animations, interactions, and more...but...if you're new to web development you may not know all the power that is behind this seemingly simplistic language. Beyond that first glance JavaScript can do all kinds of things like make mobile apps, run website backends, and even (although in its infancy) power ...
May 19, 2021•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 144
In this mystery episode, Matt quizzes Mike on how he can level up his junior coding skills after years of being a jack-of-all-trades - juggling business administration, podcast editing, client work and more. Without a stable schedule of duties to complete, Matt has fallen behind Mike a fair bit in his coding knowledge, but his knowledge across the board of running a small business have increased slowly, yet steadily. Now that the HTML All The Things website is about to be completed, it's time fo...
May 12, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 143
In this episode Matt and Mike discuss Vue and React, two major web development tools that promise to improve UI development in their own unique ways. However, as a bit of a twist, the duo won't just be discussing these two JavaScript frameworks/libraries, instead Mike has taken the stance that Vue is better than React and will be presenting his case throughout the episode. Let the React versus Vue wars begin! Show Notes You can find us on... Facebook | Twitter | Instagram RSS | Patreon | Spotify...
May 05, 2021•56 min•Ep. 142
In this episode Matt and Mike sit down with long-time friend of show, David Lindahl, to discuss all the things he's been up to since his last appearance on the show. From photography, Twitter, freelancing, and being hired again David has been super busy in the last year. After catching up the group discuss being more than just a developer, discussing things like work-life balance, hobbies, and side hustles. Show Notes You can find us on... Facebook | Twitter | Instagram RSS | Patreon | Spotify M...
Apr 28, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 141
In this episode Matt and Mike discuss weekly growth goals with a focus on the soon be released Weekly Growth Goals web app. The duo discuss the concepts and tech stack behind the web app, going through how the app was designed, how decisions were made, and the struggles that were found along the way. Show Notes You can find us on... Facebook | Twitter | Instagram RSS | Patreon | Spotify Medium | YouTube | GitHub...
Apr 21, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 140
In this episode Matt and Mike are back to basics talking all about the roots of all web development - HTML, CSS, and JS. The duo discuss the new and old capabilities of these foundational technologies, discussing what they do, and how to go about learning each of them. They cover topics like flexbox, CSS grid, box model, using specific HTML tags, and much more! Show Notes You can find us on... Facebook | Twitter | Instagram RSS | Patreon | Spotify Medium | YouTube | GitHub Reddit | Discord...
Apr 14, 2021•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 139
In this episode Matt and Mike discuss how laser focus can help drive you and your projects to the finish line quickly, but with the huge caveat that it's hard to figure out exactly what to laser focus on. Unless you're one of the lucky ones, that knew exactly what they were going to do for a career from high school onward, then the road to your passions and eventually the thing that you're going to laser focus on is a difficult one. While difficult, it is more than worth it as you'll be focusing...
Apr 07, 2021•51 min•Ep. 138
In this episode Matt and Mike discuss asking for help. Even though it sounds simple, asking for help can be an anxiety-inducing activity because you don't want to bother your fellow co-workers, or be called out for not doing enough research if you ask on an online forum. There can also be hesitation to ask because you want to solve your problem yourself, but sometimes you're just way too stuck to go it alone. Show Notes You can find us on... Facebook | Twitter | Instagram RSS | Patreon | Spotify...
Mar 31, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 137
In this episode Matt and Mike discuss dealing with large projects with rapidly approaching deadlines. We all know that managing your time and tasks appropriately can really help alleviate stress and concern over large projects, however, all that management takes time - time you don't always have. Rapidly approaching deadlines can force your hand into just diving straight into a large project with minimal (if any) task/project management - which can put a lot of pressure on you and your team. The...
Mar 24, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 136
In this episode, Matt and Mike sit down with Kilian Valkhof to discuss a browser that he made for developers called Polypane. Polypane lets you, the developer, test your website in various resolutions all at the same time - perfect for making responsive websites. But that is just scratching the surface, Polypane can help your website's accessibility, and offers a unique UI that's tailored for development over browsing. In addition to it's features, Polypane is a SaaS product so there's even some...
Mar 17, 2021•1 hr 39 min•Ep. 135
In this episode Matt and Mike discuss some of the bad habits that many web developers develop over time. Habits including procrastination, Tutorial Hell, and overengineering. These, among others, can slow down and even stop a web dev project in it's tracks - impacting your growth as a developer and "stealing" precious projects from your portfolio. Luckily, there are ways to help mitigate and correct these bad habits into good ones. Show Notes You can find us on... Facebook | Twitter | Instagram ...
Mar 10, 2021•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 134
In this episode, Matt and Mike have a special guest on the show - Monarch Wadia. Monarch is an advocate for new developers running online hackathons among other events in countries all over the world. He also runs his own software development firm out of Toronto, Canada. Show Notes You can find us on... Facebook | Twitter | Instagram RSS | Patreon | Spotify Medium | YouTube | GitHub Reddit | Discord...
Mar 03, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 133
In this episode Matt and Mike do something a little different, Matt prepared the whole episode with Mike knowing, dividing it up into smaller parts and then getting Mike's opinion on each part. The overall topic being how to support a lot of users at once using methods like documentation, phone calls, instant messaging, and more. Supporting users can be a real pain, but it's also a necessity, so it's important that you ensure your business is ready to scale from just supporting a few users, to h...
Feb 24, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 132
In this absolutely packed episode, Matt and Mike discuss a mash up of different topics from advanced data structures & algorithms through third-party server migrations. Data structures & algorithms can get very complex, but should they affect your daily web development journey? Imposter syndrome is something that almost everyone experiences in their life, web developer, or not - the duo discuss what they think might be a big cause of the syndrome. And finally, a rather niche - but import...
Feb 17, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 131
In this episode of the Web News, Matt and Mike discuss a UX tip that you can use on virtually any project. When you're in early testing of an app, or website, if you reach for something, and it isn’t there, treat that as if it’s broken. As you test with your family, friends, and colleagues you'll notice that they will instinctually reach for things, like a button, or gesture and when they do - nothing happens. While they can easily be overlooked, you absolutely should not let it slide. Instead, ...
Feb 11, 2021•29 min
In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss all the ins-and-outs of APIs including what they are, how they work, what they're used for, and more specifically - how to build them quickly using Strapi. Making your own API can easily get out of hand, as you go down the rabbit hole of functionality and usability, luckily Strapi can help you spin up APIs quickly and easily so you can get started straight away. Built on NodeJS, Strapi has free and paid options, so you can get started for free - and then sw...
Feb 10, 2021•54 min•Ep. 130
In this episode of the Web News, Matt and Mike discuss the topic that's been taking over the news lately and that is GameStop, BlackBerry, and AMC stock. Basically a war has broken out between short sellers (hedge funds) and the people over on /r/wallstreetbets over these stocks resulting in major losses for some, and incredible wins for others. You can find us on... Facebook | Twitter | Instagram RSS | Patreon | Spotify Medium | YouTube | GitHub Reddit | Discord...
Feb 04, 2021•28 min
In this episode Matt and Mike discuss the art of becoming self-taught. When you want to learn something new you basically have two options, teach yourself, or go to a traditional school/course. While self-teaching sounds like it's the easier option, it's actually oftentimes found in both. Traditional courses can't get into the weeds on every single topic they need to teach you, and furthermore self-teaching is a skill that they usually want you to learn anyway. The duo discuss the differences be...
Feb 03, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 129
In this episode of the Web News, Matt and Mike discuss the value of time versus the value of money. Many people will put in $100 of effort in to save $10, and whilst there are some situations that call for that sort of imbalance of value, in general all that extra effort just isn't worth the time. Some people treat time like it's unlimited and that money is limited, whilst in fact time is limited, and money is unlimited (you can always get another job, or start another side hustle - you can't ma...
Jan 28, 2021•26 min
In this episode Matt and Mike discuss the eagerly anticipated topic of web bundlers with a specific focus on Webpack and Snowpack. While making websites with vanilla code can be great, sometimes you gotta call on a bunch of plugins and frameworks to put together something really special in a reasonable amount of time. When all that stuff has to work together web bundlers can make compiling a breeze. This episode features a tonne about web bundlers including what they are from the most basic of e...
Jan 27, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 128
In this episode of the Web News, Matt and Mike discuss a potential UX problem across the board. As UX increasingly makes things easier in tech, it makes very difficult tasks easy - and furthermore makes easy tasks even easier (or even completely automated). The result of this is a generation of people that grew up with tech, that seem to be "tech savvy" but in reality they're moreso just "familiar with tech" having no idea what's actually going on in the background - even at a high level. Is thi...
Jan 21, 2021•28 min
In this episode Matt and Mike discuss how to avoid being overwhelmed when you're already busy. Almost everyone has been there before - you have a full plate, and the phone calls just keep on rolling in. During these stressful times it's easy to become overwhelmed and break down which isn't good for you, or your work. Luckily the tips, tricks, and tactics discussed in this episode will have you powering through these difficult times. You can find us on... Facebook | Twitter | Instagram RSS | Patr...
Jan 20, 2021•47 min•Ep. 127
In this episode of the Web News, Matt and Mike discuss something that's been cropping up on social media, and in the tech news recently - the WhatsApp policy changes. Due to the nature of the changes and of course the affiliation with Facebook, many of you are probably being told to switch to other apps, such as Signal. While Matt doesn't care about the situation, having used WhatsApp and Facebook for a number of years - Mike has done a small amount of research and has a different (yet very simi...
Jan 15, 2021•31 min
In this episode Matt and Mike discuss how to start a new side project, with a heavy emphasis on how Mike takes his side projects from concept through production including discussions on free versus paid tools, side projects versus side hustles, and much more. Then in the Weekly Growth Goal, Mike failed to reach his by around 2%, but Matt finished his successfully and will be moving on to yet another section of the new HATT website. You can find us on... Facebook | Twitter | Instagram RSS | Patre...
Jan 14, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 126
In this Web News, Matt and Mike discuss Matt's recent email detox. After several years of having consistent access to his work email, Matt finally took a week away by turning off his work device for the entire holiday season. While there were times of anxiety and desire to turn it back on, he never did. Find out out if it helped, or hurt by tuning in! You can find us on... Facebook | Twitter | Instagram RSS | Patreon | Spotify Medium | YouTube | GitHub Reddit | Discord...
Jan 07, 2021•24 min
In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss the technologies that caught their eye in 2020 including things like TailwindCSS, Vue 3.0, Snowpack, and much more. Then the duo discuss their sort of personal/professional year-in-review, focusing on some of the defining moments of 2020. You can find us on... Facebook | Twitter | Instagram RSS | Patreon | Spotify Medium | YouTube | GitHub Reddit | Discord...
Jan 06, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 125
In this edition of Web News, Matt and Mike discuss releasing buggy products to the public including some offerings that Google has released, and of course the very topical Cyberpunk 2077 (especially on PS4 and Xbox One). Iterative design is nothing new in tech, but lately it seems like it has been taken to the extreme, where even very large mega corporations are releasing basically alpha, or beta, software into the public without any sort of "early access" tag that lets people know that it is un...
Dec 17, 2020•30 min
In this episode Matt and Mike discuss the difference between side hustles and side projects so you can choose which is right for you! It's easy to assume that a side hustle is something that is "just on the side" and can be ignored whenever you're not feeling it, but a side hustle is a business and ultimately cannot be ignored if you want any consistent success. However, if you're just going for a personal goal, the very similarly named side project might be just what you're looking for. All the...
Dec 16, 2020•45 min•Ep. 124
In this episode Matt and Mike discuss revisiting old projects, whether they be for personal use, or for a longtime client, we all have those projects that are on old codebases, or using a completely different technology from what we use in the moment. Going back to these old projects can be like a time capsule for how we used to code back in the past and while the results may (or may not) be pretty, getting back into the groove can be a real pain. The duo discuss this and much more about old cod...
Dec 09, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 123
In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss one of the most overlooked requirements of running a web agency - customer support. It's very easy to think that the biggest hurdle to your business will be learning and keeping up with all the new tools and skills that you'll need to deliver modern websites to your clients, but in reality, support can be equally if not more of a challenge especially when it can derail your entire day's schedule and have you helping someone for little to no money. Then in t...
Dec 02, 2020•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 122