Talking Tech while Poking Smot

Inebriated again this week, is it becoming a pattern? Only you can find out by tuning in again this week to the Talking Tech while Poking Smot podcast featuring your host, chad_$yntax. This week we discuss dependencies, and when I say discuss I mean waste the first 5 minutes ranting about some bullshit that I can't even remember. I do eventually start talking about dependencies. How they are important, annoying, somehow complicated and potential vulnerable. We then pivot to retreading some ground from last week about docker, kubernetes and environment variables. Then we quickly move on to a question about "web dev basics" which really sounded like "dev ops basics" to me. We end on a question about databases which I give somewhat of an answer to. I'm not entirely sure I answered the question, but to be fair I am also not entirely sure what the question is asking. Who is to say. Not me. See you next week!

It's me again, Chad $yntax, back again for some good ol' rootin' tootin' SOFTWARE_ENGINEERING. This episode we discuss GraphQL and it's pros and cons. After going over time like usual, we quickly segue gracefully to the modern junior dev stack. What you need to know as a full-stack engineer is usually database, back-end language, back-end framework, front-end language, front-end framework. We then go over some example of such. We then somehow spend the rest of our time talking about front-end performance again. I like front-end performance. I like seeing the little checkmark in the lighthouse be green. I like fast loading pages. I like optimizing. Maybe that's why we talked about it too much this week. There's always next week for more coherent answers! 

This week I dump on stadia but not necessarily on video game streaming. It's kind of a solid rant without any main points. Like a 4/10 kind of rant. I blame the edibles, I should not have taken the indica ones. We then hard pivot to a classic question of "how would you do it all again" that I regretfully took seriously, but at least I didn't make a whole fucking youtube video about it. We answer a quick question on a utility function without a return in javascript and just as quickly have an existential crisis with the next question on "the sheer volume" of required knowledge. We cap it all off with a question on debugging dev vs. production builds. Those are never fun, I hate those bugs. Half the bloody time it's some asshat recklessly upgrading shit. 

Until next time.

This week's rant is about the amount of RAM I don't have. Silver lining is that the rant has a purpose: to educate you on the prevalence of our lord and savior, JavaScript. Lots of desktop apps nowadays are powered by the same stuff in the browser, you can't escape JavaScript! We then move onto questions about documentation and what it is and why it is important. We go over certifications and whether or not they are worth getting. Then we go over a not-so-stupid question about deciding css values. Then we move onto programming outside of work and how to avoid burnout. I think the real trick is to know that you will burn out so you can control it. Then again I do have ADD so my brain might work different than yours. SEE YOU NEXT WEEK.

We explain what a CLI is and how a lot of the processing in our world is done through scripting. You will most likely run into shell if you haven't already. It's used from ops to front-end and it's worth learning. At least the basics. You also get to look cool like a hacker man I guess. We then move onto questions. I finish the second part from last week, "what aspects really get under your skin [of software engineering]?" We then move onto the daily routine for a senior guy like myself and what I remember my routine being like as a junior. Turns out I mostly remember Imposter Syndrome. We cap it all off with a question about MongoDB usage in the year of our lord 2022. 

Why did I get absolutely blitzed last week? Find out now by using a tactic used by software engineers! We talk about Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and what that means to an incident. If only I could describe the abject terror one feels when receiving a PagerDuty notification. We go over that for quite some time before I finally move my ass on to half-answering a half-question from last week about software as a passion, a.k.a. (SaaP). Logistics brother. Figma is dead. Long live Figma. We then move onto a question about what to learn for being a front-end dev and cap it all off with a question about passion again wow, would you look at that. Two SaaP's in one episode. Perhaps I will elaborate on the things that absolutely KILL my passion next episode...

Happy Listening

In this episode I get absolutely cross-faded. If you listen you will understand what that means and why I'm having such difficulty writing this description right now. Auto-correct is doing a LOT of work lmao. We talk about the Ballmer peak and what it's like to get absolutely blasted and still write code. In short: It's cool to write code inebriated, I guess. We talk about the cons of using javascript frameworks, and then seamlessly transition, out of order to the next query about side-activities to improve as a software engineer. We find our way back to the age old question of "It's always been done that way" and how to answer it. Then we end with a slight rant that is somewhat tbd about the secret to becoming a god programmer or some shit. I sweat I'lll tell you next episode. So stay tuned.

A lot of software requires a GUI (Graphical User Interface), and we as software engineers will sometimes have to work with a totally adjacent role. We talk about what the process is like at a high level. Everything from brainstorming to product launch. You may think you implemented that design correctly on the first try and I can almost guarantee you, you are wrong. Next we talk about 😱 THE EDGE 😱. Ooo scary term. Spoiler: It's like 😲 THE CLOUD 😲 but it's the edge of the cloud. We answer a question about wasting time on stupid ass meetings and spending less time coding. We cap it all off with a quick rant about why you should learn a JS framework instead of just working with vanilla. I forgot to answer the cons part of the question. Whoops. That's for next time now. 

Nothing is quite as sobering as a pagerduty alert on a quiet evening. We talk about the alerting process for software engineers and dealing with production outages. It feels nice to be needed, but when I am needed I end up reading a lot of logs. I then make a hard right turn to describe the effects of chronic marijuana use and addiction. It's a bit of a ramble, I'll admit, but you should be warned that you stop having dreams. It's kinda nutty when you stop smoking weed because you get an influx of dreams and they are kinda strong.

Then we answer some questions about good habits for development and collaborating with others. I put about 20 dollars in the swear jar answering a question about using paper when writing code. Stupid. I kinda run out of time because I want to talk more about "the edge" since it was a good question. There are a lot of SaaS companies popping up offering edge computing. Even Deno is doing it. But at least I define what "the edge" is. 

Might have had a bit too much of the ol' giggle smoke this time, but we press on nonetheless. We talk about games like Factorio or Satisfactory and how they are similar in gameplay to standing up software systems. Then I do a quiiick rant on the idea of logging right before I effortlessly segue into questions. We start with a little bit of career advice and the different paths one could take. We then jump into imposter syndrome where my best idea of advice is like "just 4get 4head". All you can really do is be the sponge. We then cap it all off with me trying my best to articulate the traditional workflow of writing software for a product. Now that I'm more sober I have this list, lol:

1. Requirements Gathering, scope definition, writing a PRD (Product Requirements Document) (also at this time the design team starts their process)
2. Defining user stories (As a user, I should be able to log in)
3. Working with stakeholders to itemize and prioritize requirements (usually done in a ticketing system)
4. SPIKE for choosing Tech Stack based on above (Spike is a type of task, means "do research into")
5. Proof of Concept (Prototyping) and subsequent decisions
6. Building and Iteration
7. MVP (Minimum Viable Product) 
8. Release a.k.a. v1.0

So yeah, pretty similar to what the question had, just with different terms and a few extra steps.

And remember! Always pet the lizard doggo.

I sort of bitch and moan about front-end testing and how I think it sucks ass. In my defense, I have some pretty strong points. If you are a front-end testing wizard scoffing at my notions, feel free to hit me up and tell me all about it. Portfolio websites come up a few times and we talk about the job struggle. We then talk a bit about diagrams and why they are important to framing your mind as an engineer. Ever have to navigate a massive repo to add something just to satisfy the ticket? I have! I talk a bit about some tricks to navigate a big repo and find the right place to edit the code. We cap it all off with another question about portfolio websites and the virtues of being your own boss.

In this episode we talk about self-teaching and the importance of learning from others. Learning from college courses and bootcamps are finite, but learning from senior engineers is eternal. We define what a "gotcha" is in the programming world. Spoiler: you want to avoid them. Start ups are laying people off and it is not the end, just a correction in fat, overvalued companies. We also take a moment to dump on crypto a bit and even at the time of recording bitcoin was at 30k and at time of writing this it's at like 20k. Yee hee heesh!