Let's do another Q&A episode today. I'll answer the following community questions. Why won't Laracasts expand to cover more technologies and languages? What are your top three favorite podcasts? Are Forever Plans smart business? What's one piece of advice that you'd offer entrepreneurs starting their first business? Will there be a Laracasts series on what's new in Laravel 5.3? Vue or jQuery?
We have enough data to show that the typical 9-5 work day schedule is entirely arbitrary. The reality is that humans simply aren't good at holding their attention for such long spans of time. So - with a two-week-old baby in my house, I've begun re-thinking my work schedule. Is it possible that we can get the same amount of output from two hours of work, two times a day?
If I were to pick my most favorite aspect of programming, it's this: no matter how difficult or confusing a bug/feature/refactor may be, if you stick with it long enough, you will figure it out. Every single time.
I'm a big fan of the tv show, "30 Days." I even apply it, at a lower level, to things in my own life. Whether it's contributing to open source every day for a month, or working out six days a week for a month, I've done a bunch of them.
Whether we like it or not, humans have a tendency to insert themselves into small communities or factions. In the coding world, it's certainly no different. And that's specifically why it's so important that we think long and hard about which tribes we choose for ourselves. That single choice can have huge ramifications, when it comes to how we approach and think about code.
I use task apps religiously for, mostly, two specific reasons: I want permission to forget about it, and I believe the process of checking off items gets you in the habit of being productive for the day. Listen to me ramble, if you'd like to hear more.
We forget that there was a time when the terms "introvert" and "extrovert" didn't mean anything to the common person. Naturally, the internet has shined a huge spotlight on these personality types, but, yeah, a decade or so ago, things were a bit different. Some of us thought we simply awkward, detached individuals.
Every six months or so, it pops up again: "Frameworks are dead." But...is that the case? What does that really mean? Let's chat.
This week's episode takes a detour, as we talk discuss the alien living inside my wife's belly.
The vocal consensus in the PHP community seems to be that, unless a class is perfectly unit-testable in isolation, it's inherently poor code - and in need of refactoring. But are we sure this is true? Let's talk about it.
If you're a developer launching your first product, it sometimes easy to forget that it's now exclusively your job to tell the world. Luckily, you don't have to reach into your pocket and spend thousands of dollars to get the word out; there are free - and more effective - alternatives.
In the early days of my coding career, I had a tendency to spike things out. Go fast, toy around, get it to work, and then hit deploy...all while quietly saying to myself, "I'll go back and clean this up later." But I rarely actually did...
What do "PostRepository", "TooManyMembersException" and "StaticallyTriggeredHydratorFactoryInterface" all have in common? The suffix! Are you sure that you really need to tack on the name of the pattern to each class?
Here's the thing about code-focused workshops, magazines and commercial blogs: they may not always have your best interests at heart. Let me explain...
The topic of discussion for this episode is a pet peeve of mine: treating developers like children. "Bobby, you're likely to cut yourself, so, no, you may not use sharp knives." Is that really the type of community we wish to foster? I hope not. DHH was talking about these issues a half-decade ago. Give it a listen .
I keep a list of frequently asked questions, related to Laracasts and being a programmer in general. In this episode, we'll breeze through a long list; everything from Jim Henson, to DHH, to facades! What music do you (Jeffrey) listen to when coding? Why not branch out and teach more subjects on Laracasts? Should I be using Laravel facades? Should I test every single class? Sublime, PHPStorm, or Vim? Why do developers disagree so much on best practices? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a best ...
So you're a developer planning to launch your first SaaS or subscription site? The business side of things get really complicated... really fast, right? In this episode, I rattle off ten tips and notes to be aware of, as you prepare for launch. We're less focused on code-specifics, and more the realities of starting and running a business. Your naivety is your greatest weapon. As soon as you make enough revenue to consider going full-time, get a good accountant fast. Many business books are irre...
One of the things I've been tinkering with these last few days is a mechanism for performing Russian-Doll caching in Laravel. In addition to determining if I can even make it work, I've been pondering whether this truly has a place in your future projects, or if there simply isn't enough value to warrant its usage. Who knows - let's talk about it. Here is the series of videos mentioned in the podcast: https://laracasts.com/series/russian-doll-caching-in-laravel
An interesting question popped up recently. Should college be mandatory for your children? We all bring our own pasts and experiences to the table, when a question like that pops up. Here's what I think...
Remember, back in high school, when your English teacher prescribed countless rules and techniques for writing well? Remember how we all quietly applied these rules? Why not? Who are we to disagree at that age? However, fast forward a half-decade or so, and you start to realize that so many of these "rules" are simply...gibberish. Does that remind you of any other industry?
Even a site as innocent and helpful as Laracasts has had its fair share of malicious users. It's a simple fact of the business. Are you lucky enough to have built a relatively popular product? Excellent! Now, get ready for the attacks.
Particularly when building open source tools, I think it's important to remember that the 100% goal is wrong. Or, in other words, when you repeatedly make compromises to make everyone happy, it might just turn out that you've made no one happy.
Rather than big New Year's Resolutions, I prefer to make three simple lists. Prioritize the things you love to do, incentivize the things you need to do, and optimize the things you hate to do. It's cheesy as hell, but stay with me...
There's no two ways about it: taking things too far is simply a rite of passage. Whether it's developers over-evangelizing microservices and command-oriented architecture, or guitar players forcing newly learned modes into their solos, we all take it too far...before finally pulling back.
So my wife and I recently took a trip into Nashville to see Amy Schumer perform. And wouldn't you know it: the moment we arrived, Bugsnag began sending me error reports. No laptop, and two hours from home. ...Crap.
90% of developers don't test their code. Made up percentages aside, I think you'll find that this is fairly accurate, when you gather the entire development community. How come? With so much evangelism across the board, what's the reason behind this hesitation?
If we're being frank, in the last month, I've felt somewhat burned out. As developers, it happens to us all at some point or another. Let's talk about that for a bit.
The concept of mental debt is something that developers never talk about. We're obsessed with pointing out technical debt, but isn't there value in worrying about our limited mental energy? There's only so much complexity we can take in.
Making the transition from employee to business owner is, to be frank, scary as hell. If you're not careful, you'll freeze. The "what ifs" will quickly assume command, and you'll once again fall back to the safe path. But, if you can fight it, there just might be something better on the other side.
I'd love to tell you about the most dangerous app I've ever built. To say I was in over my head...is the understatement of the century.
