Chats with Kent C. Dodds

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Serene Yew Provides Mentorship May 19, 2020

Show notes

Serene Yew runs Pixeltree, a software consultancy that focuses on sourcing junior talent and providing them with the mentorship that they need so they can bridge the experience gap and get a job.

What better way to incite change than to be that change? You can have a huge influence on someone by taking on a mentorship role. And, not only does mentorship benefit who you're mentoring, but it also benefits you. Serene finds that every single person that she's mentored has changed her in some way for the better. They all taught her something that she didn't even know she needed to learn.

A good mentor is going to listen to you, understand who you are as a person. They're going to guide but, more importantly, they're going to listen. A mentor is compassionate, empathetic, and personally invested in their mentee's success. They're humble and they recognize that they also have more to learn in this ever-changing world. Mentors are to be the cheerleader in the mentee's corner to support them and maybe provide a network connection or even just a good book recommendation.

Homework

Reach out to a local college and ask about mentorship programs or attend a meetup and find a mentee.

Guest: Serene Yew

Twitter: @s0serene
Github: @serene

Host: Kent C. Dodds

Website: kentcdodds.com
Twitter: @kentcdodds
GitHub: @kentcdodds
YouTube: Kent C. Dodds
Epic React: epicreact.dev

Saron Yitbarek's Path Into Tech May 19, 2020

Show notes

Saron Yitbarek started a company called Code Newbie, which started as a Twitter community and grew into a couple of podcasts and a conference.

Saron first became interested in technology after she read the Steve Jobs book, it was the first time she got introduced to technology in a way that she could relate to, where tech was talked about through the eyes of design, art, and storytelling. So, she started calling CEOs of startups until she got an internship, which led to a job. Saron wanted to get into development, though, so she quit her job, started to learn to code, and joined a code boot camp.

Saron's path wasn't always financially secure. She realized that she needed to save and create a safety net. These days to help her budget, she uses a tool called You Need A Budget. The tool enables you to be more critical about where your money is going. Think of it as a digital envelope system.

What if you wanted to get into tech but don't know where to start? Saron's one piece of advice for you is go look up your dream job. What is the dream job you have, the dream company you want to work for? Write down five options for yourself. If you could have any job right now at the best company you could think of, what are those jobs? Find those job postings. Put them in a spreadsheet. Figure out the keywords and what the required skills are for each job. See what each job has in common, and then that's your list, that's your curriculum. That's the stuff that you need to learn. Out of that list, pick one technology, one tool, one language that you recognize that has been repeated across these job postings and start learning that one thing.

Homework

Start a gratitude journal (write 5 things you're grateful for every day).
Search for 5 dream jobs and figure out what they have in common and learn one of those things.

Resources

Guest: Saron Yitbarek

Twitter: @saronyitbarek
Website: saron.io
LinkedIn: @saronyitbarek
GitHub: @sarony

Host: Kent C. Dodds

Website: kentcdodds.com
Twitter: @kentcdodds
GitHub: @kentcdodds
Youtube: Kent C. Dodds

Preethi Kasireddy Reinvents Herself May 19, 2020

Show notes

Software development isn't limited to "nerds." During her time at Andreessen Horowitz, Preethi met thousands of entrepreneurs. What she realized was that software engineering is what these entrepreneurs use to change the world. They're able to code the future they believe in using software engineering.

A lot of people were surprised that Preethi gave up a promising career in venture capital to become a developer. But, Preethi says that the greatest artists reinvented themselves often. There's something unique and special about the periods in our lives where we are working on improving ourselves. We kind of lose that after going through everyday life. And so we must continue to find new hobbies and interests that we enjoy and grow with.

The world is driven by logic and what is objectively measurable is what ends up being valued. The hedge fund manager making millions a year is doing something objectively measurable while the artist isn't. But, beyond a certain point, money doesn't make you happier. You have to look out for your happiness. Your happiness is your incentive for choosing to pursue your passion over choosing the option that makes you more money.

Homework

Go back and think about dreams you had as a child and re-evaluate those dreams now.

Guest: Preethi Kasireddy

Twitter: @iam_preethi
Github: @iam-peekay

Host: Kent C. Dodds

Website: kentcdodds.com
Twitter: @kentcdodds
GitHub: @kentcdodds
YouTube: Kent C. Dodds
Epic React: epicreact.dev

Michael Chan Encapsulates State May 19, 2020

Show notes

One of the things Michael loves about React is that it's a lot easier to make a black box of abstraction with iron-clad React components that don't leak.

Something that concerns Michael deeply about any technology is when we put too much inside of it. We saw this pretty early on in React, where everyone was taking all manner of state and putting it into Redux. We have to think about the principle of co-location and the fact that the closer you put related things together, the easier it will be to maintain in the longterm.

In React, we've got this excellent encapsulation model that allows us to do this thing for the first time. But, you have to be very strict about what you let in there. The encapsulation model is only as good as you are at encapsulating a single piece of information.

Homework

Take one of your small css-in-js components and use regular css to back it up.

Guest: Michael Chan

Twitter: @chantastic
Github: @chantastic

Host: Kent C. Dodds

Website: kentcdodds.com
Twitter: @kentcdodds
GitHub: @kentcdodds
YouTube: Kent C. Dodds
Epic React: epicreact.dev

Michael Chan Teaches You How To Break Into The Industry May 19, 2020

Show notes

It was around 2008-2010 when Michael's family's business went under due to the recession. From that point, Michael spent every spare second he had reading whatever he could. He'd be reading Ruby and JavaScript documentation while he pushed his son on the swing.

In this episode, Michael talks about what it takes to break into the tech industry. He explains how interviews are a hackable skill and the importance of building relationships in the industry.

Homework

Sit down for 5 minutes and think about what you really want to do with your life and figure out how you can sell that. Get one customer.

Justin McMurdie Breaks Apps Into Micro-Services May 19, 2020

Show notes

Most applications on the backend and the front end get built as a monolith, but you could improve your developer experience and performance if you broke your applications out into microservices.

The pros and cons are the same for monorepos and microservices. Microservices is a different paradigm. And so, there's a lot of training that goes involved for different people to understand the various deployment processes. The microservices system is slightly more complex in some ways, but on the pro side, you gain some performance benefits where you can scale up services by themselves.

A part of the improved developer experience is you get a better context of what you're working on. So say you need to fix a bug in the e-mail service. You don't have to dig through a mountain of code to find it. It's in the e-mail service.

Homework

Watch this single-spa intro video

Resources

Guest: Justin McMurdie

Twitter: @justinmcmurdie
Github: @TheMcMurder

Host: Kent C. Dodds

Website: kentcdodds.com
Twitter: @kentcdodds
GitHub: @kentcdodds
YouTube: Kent C. Dodds
Epic React: epicreact.dev

Talia Nassi on Testing in Production May 19, 2020

Show notes

What does it mean to test in production? Simply put, testing in production means testing your features in the environment where your features will live. So what if a feature works in staging, that's great, but you should care if the feature works in production, that's what matters.

An excellent tool for testing in production is feature flagging. Feature flagging allows you to separate your code deployment from your feature release. So, when you use a tool like future flagging, you're able to target specific users to see your feature, and you can test your feature and make sure it works and fix any bugs.

Homework

Watch Talia's talk and read her blog post
Nordic.js 2019 • Talia Nassi - Testing in Production
Set Up Feature Flags with React in 10 Minutes

Resources

Guest: Talia Nassi

Twitter: @talia_nassi
Github: @talianassi921

Host: Kent C. Dodds

Website: kentcdodds.com
Twitter: @kentcdodds
GitHub: @kentcdodds
YouTube: Kent C. Dodds
Epic React: epicreact.dev

Dr. Michaela Greiler Makes Code Reviews Your Team's Superpower May 19, 2020

Show notes

Dr. Michaela Greiler is focused on helping teams make code reviews their superpower!

During Dr. Michaela's time at Microsoft, they found that developers were spending six hours a week doing code reviews. You have to ask yourself if that time is really being well spent.

How do you ensure that code reviews are worth the time? There is a huge variety of experiences with code review. It can be really good, and it can be really, really horrible as well. There is not a lot of formal training around it.

Formal training would improve the consistency and value of code reviews, and it would be especially helpful for Junior Developers. It would give them such a self-esteem and confidence boost if they would know, "This is what we're actually looking for, this is how we give code review feedback"

Homework

Watch 10 Tips for Respectful and Constructive Code Review Feedback then take a previous code review you gave and critique your own review.*

Resources

Code Review Workshops

Guest: Dr. Michaela Greiler

Twitter: @mgreiler
Github: @mgreiler
Website: michaelagreiler.com

Host: Kent C. Dodds

Website: kentcdodds.com
Twitter: @kentcdodds
GitHub: @kentcdodds
YouTube: Kent C. Dodds
Epic React: epicreact.dev

Courtney McCleve On Developing Empathy May 19, 2020

Show notes

The internet is one of those resources that we have available to us, and it's fantastic at what it does. However, there's a lot of content that isn't super curated and isn't in a format that makes it digestible. Courtney is interested in making the web accessible not only in the way we typically think of accessibility for people with disabilities who need screen readers and other assistive technologies but also for people with mental disabilities or difficulty learning.

We can help by improving the way we present the information, make it more accessible, and use words and phrases that are more inclusive. It enhances the experience for everybody, not just those who have learning disabilities.

Courtney is starting a Salt Lake City chapter for Devs with Disabilities. They are creating a support system for people with disabilities wanting to get into development and using the community around to assist those people.

Homework

Attend an event (like a meetup) where you're a little outside of your comfort zone.
If you already go to meetups, talk with people who you don't typically talk with.

Resources

Guest: Courtney McCleve

Twitter: @courtneyyen
GitHub: @courtyenn

Host: Kent C. Dodds

Website: kentcdodds.com
Twitter: @kentcdodds
GitHub: @kentcdodds
YouTube: Kent C. Dodds
Epic React: epicreact.dev

Amelia Wattenberger Breaks The UX Mold May 19, 2020

Show notes

In her free time, Amelia Wattenberger enjoys creating "code sketches." On the surface, they might just look like silly examples, but she's learned concepts or ways of doing things through these tiny code examples. You can learn a lot by playing with something in isolation and then trying to see how you can apply it to a production application later.

Amelia then goes on to share her process of creating a blog post. Step one is thinking of the main idea she wants to communicate. Step two is asking herself who she is trying to communicate with and what context are they in. Step three is sketching out her ideas.

People remember things better when they're flashier and more novel. We kind of ended up just porting newspapers into web format. But, the web is so much more powerful than it used to be, which gives us this fantastic opportunity to create unique experiences for people when communicating our ideas.

Homework

Do something unconventional

Resources

Guest: Amelia Wattenberger

Twitter: @Wattenberger
GitHub: @Wattenberger
Website: wattenberger.com

Host: Kent C. Dodds

Website: kentcdodds.com
Twitter: @kentcdodds
GitHub: @kentcdodds
YouTube: Kent C. Dodds
Epic React: epicreact.dev

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Guest: Serene Yew

Host: Kent C. Dodds

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Guest: Saron Yitbarek

Host: Kent C. Dodds

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Guest: Preethi Kasireddy

Host: Kent C. Dodds

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Guest: Michael Chan

Host: Kent C. Dodds

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Guest: Michael Chan

Host: Kent C. Dodds

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Guest: Justin McMurdie

Host: Kent C. Dodds

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Guest: Talia Nassi

Host: Kent C. Dodds

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Guest: Dr. Michaela Greiler

Host: Kent C. Dodds

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Guest: Courtney McCleve

Host: Kent C. Dodds

Homework

Resources

Guest: Amelia Wattenberger

Host: Kent C. Dodds

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