The Stack Overflow Podcast

Latest Episodes:

You down with GPT-3? Yeah you know me! Jul 28, 2020

Show notes

If you're wondering why GPT-3 matters and how it compares to prior efforts in this area, here is a good summary.

If you want to dive deeper into the effect anxiety has on the interview process and hiring in tech, you can read up on the research here.

This week's lifeboat badge goes to PerformanceDBA, who left an incredbily long and detailed answer, complete with charts and code snippets, on the following question: how to organize a relational data model for double entry accounting?

Forming new habits with 100 Days of Code Jul 24, 2020

Show notes

You can learn all about 100 Days of Code on their website.

Alex also published a newsletter about habit forming and self-improvement. You can learn more about that and subscribe here.

If you want to follow Alex on Twitter, you can find him here.

This week's Lifeboat badge goes to Chris, who helped a user understand why ComponentDidCatch was not working in their react-native app.

Code Newbie's approach to education and community Jul 21, 2020

Show notes

Saron explains how she went from working in the marketing department of a startup to learning code, creating a supportive community for novice developers, and founding two podcasts about the art and science of learning to program.

You can read more about the Dev acquisition and what the dynamic duo have planned here.

Sara and Paul spend some time bantering with Saron on that classic developer debate: why learn computer science? Besides the ego boost and the desire to avoid imposter syndrome, how much of a four-year-degree is actually useful when you're a new graduate trying to land your first job?

Later on, we dig into the debate over toxic positivity. During these challenging times, it can be addictive to watch others flaunt their hustle and hard work on social media. But there is a downside to tuning out the failures and negative emotions we all live with. You can read more about it here.

Ever wondered about the difference between a subview and a superview? Find out more with this week's lifeboat badge.

Is Scrum making you a worse engineer? Jul 17, 2020

Show notes

What began as a question on our Software Engineering Stack Exchange graduated into a blog post for further discussion.

Paul points out that modern tooling has internalized so much of agile methodology that developers tend to work this way without having to explicitly create a culture or process around Scrum.

And as Sara points out, if it turns out you're being driven to optimize for finished work over quality work, the problem may not be Scrum, but the pressures of your particular manager or company.

Our lifeboat of the week goes to an old school Excel question with over half a million views. Thanks to Michelle for earning a badge while answering this query: How do I append the same text to every cell in a column in Excel?

A conversation on diversity and representation Jul 14, 2020

Show notes

Syeeda and Ian talk with Sara and Paul about how affinity groups came to exist within Stack Overflow, and how the BNB group helped to lead the design of the company's short and long response to issues of systemic racism. You can find more about Stack's plans here.

More generally, the group discusses how people at all levels of their organizations are putting a renewed emphasis on diversity and inclusion, and how individual contributors, managers, and executives can come together to find new ways to listen and learn.

You can find Ian on Twitter and Github. He has also written for the Stack Overflow blog. You can find Syeeda's images and writing on Instagram and more about her education and career on LinkedIn.

Our lifeboat badge for this episode goes out to IsVForAll, who answered the following question: How to check if a value exists in an object using JavaScript?

How to interpret the compiler Jul 10, 2020

Show notes

This is a great crash course on just-in-time compilers written by Lin Clark, who works in advanced development at Mozilla on Rust and Web Assembly. It references the film Arrival and kicked off our discussion on the podcast.

Paul talks about his first love, XSLT, and how that language actually foreshadowed a lot of what would become popular staples of modern programming languages.

Sara and Paul share their thoughts on what it takes to craft a new language as a programmer and why they have never embarked on this arduous intellectual adventure.

This brought to mind a well written essay from one of the creators of Redis, who is stepping back from managing the project to work on something new. Here is, in my opinion, a profound quote from that piece:

"I write code in order to express myself, and I consider what I code an artifact, rather than just something useful to get things done. I would say that what I write is useful just as a side effect, but my first goal is to make something that is, in some way, beautiful. In essence, I would rather be remembered as a bad artist than a good programmer."

Our lifeboat badge of the week goes to Farhan Amjad, who answered the question - How can I implement PageView in SwiftUI?

How We Hire Developers at Stack Jul 07, 2020

Show notes

When it comes to hardware that cranks, Paul is a fan of Micro Center's in-house brand - PowerSpec.

This week we chew through a great post from Jon Chan about how Stack Overflow hires developers. Sara recalls flunking her first few code screenings while applying for jobs. The hard lesson she learned? Sometimes, it pays to skip the collaboration and just show off. Ben wishes that he had known about real-time tests back when he was hiring bloggers.

Last but not least, this week's lifeboat goes to Yigit, who answered the following question:

"In Android Rooms persistence library, how would I write the following SQL statement: SELECT * FROM table WHERE field LIKE %:value% As a @Query? This syntax is invalid, and I can't find anything about it in the docs."

Thanks Yigit for sharing your knowledge and helping the Stack Overflow community to grow and thrive.

Java goes to outer space Jul 03, 2020

Show notes

From Mars rovers to Minecraft to the makeup of our DNA - these are some of the Java apps that may leave a mark on the world of software for decades to come.

Thanks to Hizbul25, our winner of the week, for answering a question and earning a lifeboat badge: query to order by the last three characters of a column.

Can't Pay Your Taxes if The Website Won't Load Jun 30, 2020

Show notes

You can read about the IRS and its Sisyphean efforts to modernize its computer systems here.

Ben's Twitter thread on amazing and obscure trade periodicals you can find online is here.

You can read more about what Apple is doing with biometric identity on the web here.

Paul Explains It All Jun 26, 2020

Show notes

This week, Ben and Paul are flying as a duo, a true dad-cast. We walk through the slow build of increasingly complex keyboard macros, followed by the inevitable cleansing and renewal of an empty slate. Pus, type systems and type safety, the galaxy brain edition.

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