Working Code

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054: We're So Quacked Dec 22, 2021

Show notes

At 3:30 AM the day before Thanksgiving, Ben received an emergency page about a failing API end-point. Rushing to his desk, groggy-eyed and in various states of undress, he jumped into the #incident channel on Slack to see what was happening. What unfolded over the next 30-hours was the manifestation of Ben's worst nightmare. The moment he had been dreading for the last 4-years had finally come to pass: two of his database columns had run out of storage space! Using feature flags, emergency hot-fixes, shadow tables, and a database migration being performed over a transient and unstable terminal session, he and his team somehow made it through to the other side just in time to enjoy Thanksgiving turkey and pumpkin pie!

"Hug your data engineers - they are amazing people!" — Ben Nadel

Notes & Links

Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @WorkingCodePod on Twitter and Instagram. Or, leave us a message at (512) 253-2633 (that's 512-253-CODE). New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday.

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

053: Product Management with Adam Lehman Dec 15, 2021

Show notes

On this week's show, Tim interviews Adam Lehman, the Director of Product for Marketplace Core at Spotify. Of course, many friends-of-the-show will know Adam more intimately as the former Director of Product and Engineering at Adobe where he helped drive the Adobe ColdFusion product and community forward. Or, as Tim puts it, where Adam "lead by throwing grenades". Like most Product Managers (PMs), Adam never quite envisioned himself as a PM. He started out as an engineer who ended-up falling backwards into the PM role when he maxed-out his ability to exert change as an individual contributor (IC). Adam believes that engineers ultimately make the best Product Managers because of their ability to bring a holistic set of skills to the table. Which is why he's always on the look-out for engineers that gravitate towards a management mindset.

Notes & Links

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

052: Starting Your Own Business, with Steve Rittler Dec 08, 2021

Show notes

On this week's show, Adam interviews his long-time friend and boss Steve Rittler, founder and CEO of AlumnIQ. Once a software engineer himself, Steve discusses his journey from individual contributor (IC) to business leader; and, how he sees his role as the boss from both a practical and a philosophical standpoint. For Steve, it's always been about changing the world using whichever tools he had at his disposal. And, when those tools were no longer effective, that's when he started to grow a team, a business, and a collection of trusted advisors - so that he could continue to take on and solve larger, more complex problems.

"What starts us as software developers in the first place is wanting to fix the world with whatever lever we have that we can put our hands on." — Steve Rittler

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

051: You Are Replaceable Dec 01, 2021

Show notes

Engineers like to believe that they are non-fungible. That is, that they are not replaceable - that they are special and bring a unique set of skills and perspectives to the table. And, for some engineers at early-stage companies, this may be true. However, as companies grow and evolve and become more sophisticated, the cold truth sets in: we are all replaceable. Even Apple - at this point in its trajectory - continues to innovate without the iconic Steve Jobs.

This week on the show, the crew talks about their own relationship to the notion of being replaced. On one hand, it can be very humbling. But, on the other hand, it can be very freeing, allowing us to do crazy things like "take vacation" and not have to deal with every single emergency that crops up at work.

Notes & Links

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

050: Where Do You See Yourself in 5 Years? Nov 24, 2021

Show notes

This week on the show, the crew talks about where they each see themselves in 5 years. This is not an easy thought-experiment, especially in a technology landscape that changes so rapidly. Are we getting better at the things we do today? Or, are we changing our focus, our role, and maybe even our job? Do our personality traits of introversion and extroversion influence our career trajectory? Or, can we learn to lean into and enjoy any type of position? Should we be following our "passions"? Or, should we be focusing on our natural abilities and affinities? Is it even worth thinking this far into the future? Or, should we just concentrate on making the next few weeks as effective as possible? All of us (hosts) love what we do today. But, we each have different perspectives, passions, and insecurities that affect how we look forward into the future.

Notes & Links

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

049: Revisiting Replatforming - There Is No Correct Answer Nov 17, 2021

Show notes

One of our fans on Patreon is about to embark on a large "replatforming" endeavor. His team has decided to move away from their "traditionally coded" application (think hard to maintain, big ball of mud); and, will soon rebuild the server-side aspect of their application using a new language. The team isn't yet sure what language they'll use (this is how the topic came up in Discord); but, they know that they want a statically typed language with a strong separation of concerns in the MVC (Model, View, Controller) layers.

In episode 25, we talked about breaking up with your tech-stack. But, this discussion of replatforming has rekindled our interest in the topic. On today's show, we talk about the choices that we'd personally make if we had to rebuild our application using a new language. Based on historical trends, it feels like a gamble no matter what you do. As such, we also talk about how we might go about validating some of our choices.

Notes & Links

Rich Hickey: Simple-Made-Easy

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

048: // TODO: Microwave ToDo List Nov 10, 2021

Show notes

Surgeons and pilots have known for years that checklists literally save lives. And, while programming is rarely a life-and-death stakes situation, the humble ToDo list continues to serve as a powerful tool in the developer toolbox. This week on the show, the crew talks about how they manage their ToDo lists using comments, software applications, and physical notebooks. And, while we each have our preferred methods of organization, it's clear that even in a predominantly digital world, there is something deeply satisfying about using pen-and-paper in our respective workflows.

"Let chaos reign; and then rein in the chaos." — Rich Armstrong

Note: We feel obliged to mention that NONE of the products mentioned in this episode in any way compensated us for discussing them. We mention products that we like only because we like them.

Notes & Links

Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @WorkingCodePod on Twitter and Instagram. Or, leave us a message at (512) 253-2633‬ (that's 512-253-CODE). New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday.

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

047: Email Ruins Everything Nov 03, 2021

Show notes

With an increasing amount of work being performed within a distributed or hybrid team model, there's a push to move more and more communication into an asynchronous workflow. Whether through email or collaborative document editing, there's a growing perception that collaboration becomes more efficient when each person can participate in their own time. But, is this really true? Or, are we fooling ourselves into thinking that the cost of "homework", "email fatigue", and extended delivery timelines are outweighed by one's ability to go "heads down" at work? This week on the show, the crew talks about different communication styles, Inbox zero, email as a delivery mechanism, and the not-so-surprising surprising way that Zoom calls can supercharge our ability to get stuff done!

Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @WorkingCodePod on Twitter and Instagram. Or, leave us a message at (512) 253-2633‬ (that's 512-253-CODE). New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday.

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

046: Secrets Management vs. Premature Optimization Oct 27, 2021

Show notes

When two systems have to communicate with each other, the security of transmitted messages is typically enforced through the use of shared secrets. Whether with encryption or one-way hashing, the receiving system can use a shared secret to verify that a producer's message has not been tampered with or spoofed. Rotating these shared secrets can be complicated; and, may even have to take place over an extended period of time depending on what's considered to be an acceptable window of backwards compatibility. This week, the crew talks about how they manage secrets, mistakes they've made in the past, and what best practices they'd like to put in place going forward.

Follow the show! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @WorkingCodePod on Twitter and Instagram. Or, leave us a message at (512) 253-2633‬ (that's 512-253-CODE). New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday.

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

045B: The Aftershow Oct 20, 2021

Show notes

Because this week's episode was short, and because we've wanted to give the public feed a taste of what's in the aftershow, here's a bonus episode. This is the aftershow from episode 43.

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