Computer Science: Just the Useful Bits

Latest Episodes:

With Larry Orton: Getting Started and Standing Out Aug 08, 2022

Show notes

Larry has 15 years' experience in the military under his belt, and is still training as a software developer. We talk about the up-and-coming developer experience, before his first job and what they're looking for. We also talk about social change, and how different the software world is from most of the real world. A little psychology, a little social science, a certain amount of ethics...

A great conversation, all told.

Larry is also dyslexic, and we talk about how he handles that, and how it's changed all those other things we talk about.

For show notes and links, see: http://justtheusefulbits.com/jtub/larry-orton-getting-started-and-standing-out/

With Tobi Pfeiffer: So Many Languages Aug 01, 2022

Show notes

Tobi works at Shopify and is the author of benchee, an Elixir-language benchmarking suite. He runs RUG:B, a Berlin-based Ruby group, maintains SimpleCov and... Lots of stuff. I always feel tired looking at all the stuff Rubyists do :-)

Tobi had a pretty extensive formal computer science education, and it's served him well. We also talk about a lot of different Ruby implementations, and various Ruby folks he's met.

We also manage to cover a ridiculous variety of different languages and topics, and lots of older software history. He's a very computer-history-literate fellow!

http://justtheusefulbits.com/jtub/tobi-pfeiffer-so-many-languages/

With Ross Kaffenberger: Teaching, WebPacker and Paradigms Jul 25, 2022

Show notes

Oh man, my audio quality is AWFUL here. Luckily Ross's is better and he's great at carrying the conversation!

We talk about how Ross "cheats" both to get into teaching and to get into tech, and about some overlap between the two -- we talk about Seymour Papert, of course. Later we get into different paradigms of programming and what you learn from them, as well as the balance between being a generalist and a specialist.

Ross has done a lot with WebPacker -- WebPacker and the asset pipeline are a lot like Bundler as a way to control the Wild West of dependency management.

For show notes and links, see: http://justtheusefulbits.com/jtub/ross-kaffenberger-teaching-webpacker-and-paradigms/

With Craig Petterson: Buzzwords, Pina Coladas and Centaur Chess Jul 18, 2022

Show notes

We talk about how Craig got started, of course, and about buzzwords and how he did his early job hunting. We talk a *lot* about Ruby performance - who's who, what matters, what's annoying. We veer a bit into how Pina Coladas shouldn't use dark rum (heresy!) and about the example of Centaur Chess, and how it related to other human/computer interactions.

For show notes and links, see: http://justtheusefulbits.com/jtub/craig-petterson-buzzwords-pina-coladas-and-centaur-chess/

With Akien McIain: Test Automation Engineering Jul 11, 2022

Show notes

This episode is with me, my wife Krissy and Akien McIain, a mutual friend who is also a very senior test automation engineer. When two old engineers get together to talk, you can always expect a lot of war stories... But more importantly, a lot of this is a compare/contrast between developers, QA and test automation. What's similar? What's different? How do the two groups related to each other on the job?

And when you get outside 'normal' software dev jobs, the career path is less clear. How do you prepare for something when there's not a degree program? What does the path through that career look like? We talk a lot about how to make the right kind of mistakes to keep moving forward. And that's useful for anybody.

For show notes and links, see: http://justtheusefulbits.com/jtub/akien-mciain-test-automation-engineering/

With Andrew Owen: the Culture of Programming -- If You're Raised by Missionaries Jul 04, 2022

Show notes

I barely know how to summarise this one. It's one of my favourites. Andrew is from dot-NET rather than Ruby. He was raised by missionaries, and is thus extremely literate about cultures and how to introduce yourself into a new one. He sees a lot of what I see from a very enlightened outsider's perspective. Which is like catnip to me, just so we're clear.

We talk about how often learning programming *skill* is a side effect of learning programming *culture*. Also about affordances - what particular languages, cultures and tools encourage, not just what they enable. Powerful stuff.

For show notes and links, see: http://justtheusefulbits.com/jtub/andrew-owen-the-culture-of-programming-if-youre-raised-by-missionaries/

With Andrew Mason: I Expected College to be Basically Boot Camp Jun 27, 2022

Show notes

Andrew is the founder of the Remote Ruby Podcast (now a lot more prominent than when we talked!), RubyBlend and CodeFund. We talk about the prison and court systems, why FTP is a terrible protocol, reading code, ADHD and a lot more.

For show notes and links, see: http://justtheusefulbits.com/jtub/andrew-mason-i-expected-college-to-be-basically-boot-camp/

With Shai Schechter: Hustle Hard, Do What's Practical Apr 19, 2022

Show notes

Shai Schechter, co-founder of RightMessage, has been hustling since he was 11. He believes that what's practical is very different for different people. If you see a task through a particular lens (e.g. tech) then that's the way you should do it. Do what comes naturally.

For show notes: https://justtheusefulbits.com/jtub/shai-schechter/

With Caitlyn Greffly: It's Like Being Paid to Go to School and Make Cool Things Forever Apr 21, 2021

Show notes

Caitlyn didn't want to go back and get a degree "at my age", but went to Thinkful to learn to be a full-stack software engineer, which is "like being paid to go to school and make cool things forever." It's hard to tell what to focus on when there's so much to learn. "It used different muscles in my brain," she says, as she "learn[ed] to work from a place of frustration." And in the end, "it's either a good time or a good story!"

For show notes and links, see: http://justtheusefulbits.com/jtub/caitlyn-greffly-paid-to-go-to-school-and-make-cool-things-forever/

With Jennifer Tran: Coding Paradigms, the Satisfaction of Studying and Unspoken Cultural Norms Apr 08, 2021

Show notes

Jennifer is an early-career cloud engineer. We talk about how she got into software development without having experience before university, and what that meant about picking up the unspoken cultural norms. We also talk about the dark academic aesthetic and how she improves at all of this.

For show notes and links, see: https://justtheusefulbits.com/jtub/jennifer-tran-coding-paradigms-the-satisfaction-of-studying-and-unspoken-cultural-norms/