Build and Learn

In this episode about webhooks.fyi, we're joined by Keith Casey from ngrok. You'll hear about webhooks.fyi an information-rich resource for learning how to build and consume webhooks. webhooks.fyi is an open source knowledge base and directory listing and analyzing different webhook providers. We discuss webhook security, signature verification, forward compatibility, and more.

Other Links from the Show

• https://webhooks.fyi
• ngrok.com
• Webhooks to Revolution the Web from @progrium
• What are Webhooks 
• The Self Provisioning Runtime 
• CaseySoftware

Build and Learn around the web
- Twitter: @buildandlearn_
- Colin: @colinloretz
- CJ: @cjav_dev

This week we are joined by Chelsea Otakan, infamously also known as @chexee on most of the internet. Chelsea is a product designer and front-end developer, currently working at Lattice.

In this episode, we learn more about Chelsea's design origin story, her philosophies on product design, and why you should "build a skateboard, not a wheel".

Chelsea's design philosophies
- Ship quickly, ship for the user
- Design is continuous
- Design and build systems, not just features
- Don't be afraid to dig deep
- Critique early, often, and with everyone

Other Links from the Show
- Shopify article on creating a "quality elevator" from Kyle Peatt: The system always kicks back
- Chelsea's portfolio and work at Chexee.me

Build and Learn around the web
- Twitter: @buildandlearn_
- Colin: @colinloretz
- CJ: @cjav_dev

In this episode of Build and Learn, we discuss code generation (codegen) and how Stripe uses it to generate SDKs for its APIs automatically. We talk about how a declarative shape of an API (such as Open API spec or GraphQL schema) can be fed into a tool to generate an SDK in a specific programming language. This process helps ensure that the SDKs are always in sync with the API and that any changes to the API are automatically reflected in the SDKs. 

Most SDKs today are still hand-written, but automatic generation is becoming more popular. 
We'll touch on the tradeoff between readable code and automatically generated code, which can be quite long and complex.  
You'll also hear how the Ruby clients for Orbit were likely written by hand and may not be up-to-date.

Resources:

• Richard Marmorstein's Strangeloop talk about codegen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgRreyw-Nlg
• CJ's RubyConf 2022 talk about codegen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm0fgIqfsO8
• Stainless API company: https://stainlessapi.com/
• Open API Spec: https://swagger.io/specification/ 
• Stripe API Spec: https://github.com/stripe/openapi
• Swagger codegen: https://swagger.io/tools/swagger-codegen/ 
• Orbit Ruby Activities gem: https://github.com/orbit-love/ruby-orbit-activities

In this podcast episode, we are diving into the world of developer advocacy and developer relations with Chris Traganos, aka "Trag."

While Chris and CJ originally met working together in developer advocacy at Stripe, Trag talks to us about his new role leading the Developer & Appstore Evangelism program at Amazon. 

• How DevRel strategies change depending on the type and size of company
• Tradeoffs that come with "where" a DevRel team is situated on in an organization
  • Sales & Marketing
  • Engineering
• The ever-evolving role of DevRel within a company
• DevRel as "on-screen talent"
• As a DevRel manager, how to advocate for advocates
• How to help dev advocates reach their personal goals
• Choosing tracks in your career
  • Dev Advocacy & Engineering paths
  • Individual Contributor & Manager paths

Resources:
- @chris_trag on Twitter
- @AmazonAppDev on Twitter

In this podcast episode, the we discuss a range of topics related to learning and building cool projects. We begin by discussing the recent snow day and share some funny tips and tricks kids use to create a snow day.

Charlie Gerard, a senior dev advocate at Stripe, introduces herself and talks about her role as a creative technologist, primarily working in JavaScript. She shares her love for solo traveling, reading, tinkering, and building. We also discuss Charlie's previous projects and how she comes up with project ideas. She rarely starts from scratch but builds on something she has built before, adding a new sensor or trying a different technology or interaction. We also discuss the challenges of working with sensors and how to connect them to a computer and figure out the different protocols.

ThoughtWorks, a company with a tool called the Radar, helps developers navigate new technologies and decide which to adopt.

We discussed the importance of starting small when learning to code and using games to learn programming. We chat about using ChatGPT for games like D&D, expressing that these games are meant to be fun and not automated.

Charlie can be found on Twitter (https://twitter.com/devdevcharlie), Mastodon (@[email protected]), and her website https://charliegerard.dev/, and regularly shares cool projects on GitHub under the username charliegerard.

Resources:
- Thoughtworks Radar - https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar
- Charlie's projects - https://charliegerard.dev/projects
- Richard's blog post about energy - https://twitchard.github.io/posts/2023-01-18-unicycles.html 

In this episode, you'll hear Lindsay's path from graphic designer to support engineer and how she now manages a team of support engineers. We discuss what this transition has looked like for her as well as the training and learnings she undertook along the way.

In the second half of the episode, we dig into more specific tactics that her and her team have encountered like supporting customers through API version migrations, authentication issues and squashing bugs with their product engineering team.

Resources

• Lindsay Barrett on LinkedIn
• LeadDev
• Support Driven Slack, Podcast, Blog, Job Board, Events
• Growth Space
• Engineering Management for the Rest of Us by Sarah Drasner
• William Vincent's Django Books

Questions or feedback for the show? You can DM us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/buildandlearn_

In this episode, you'll hear Erik's developer journey and learn about AWS Amplify. We discuss some ƒront-end trends and continue reiterating the value of rolling up your sleeves and building small things to learn new programming languages and frameworks.

We compare and contrast working with Vue and React. We touch briefly on trends seen at Vercel with server-side generation and rendering. Shopify's acquisition of Remix and the dilemma of choice. The advent of code style challenges to build more small projects to learn from.

In the second half of the episode, Erik teaches Colin and CJ all about AWS Amplify's various components that can be used to build full-stack applications.

Resources:
AWS Amplify documentation
Program With Erik YouTube Channel
@erikch on Twitter
adventofcode.com

We talk about some of the keys to building a personal brand as a software developer.
• Authenticity
• Consistency
• Why you should (or shouldn't) think about developing your brand

This Episode's Links
•Twitter and the Perils of Obedience
• Coolors: the super fast color palette generator
• BuildSpace

Creator Linked List
• Monica Lent: building profitable indie products
• Paul Jarvis: Fathom Analytics and Company of One
• Scott Hanselman: blogger, dev, speaker, author, teacher

Thanks again to Mike for joining us, you can find all things Mike Bifulco at https://mikebifulco.com

You can find the show on Twitter and at buildandlearn.dev.
@buildandlearn_
@colinloretz
@cjav_dev

• Sourcing where you want to apply 
  • Make a list of the tools/apps/companies you like to use
  • Outbound (Make a top 10 list)
  • Inbound (review inbound recruiter outreach from the past 3 months or more)
  • Networking (who do you know, try to do some coffee chats to see if they like their company and team)
  • Cold outreach is tough (numbers game)
  • Timing - interviewing such that offers come in around the same time
• Resume & cover letter & LinkedIn & Social 
  • Have these reviewed by your peers and iterate on feedback
  • Make sure you communicate the things you’ve done that add value, ideally how much value you’ve added. Situation Behavior Impact (SBI) is a good framework for bullets
  • Omit anything unrelated to the job you’re going for (hot take?)
  • Clean up social
• Preparing for Interviews 
  • Practice Interviews with friends/mentors 
    • Pairing
  • Research the company
  • Algorithms 
    • HackerRank
    • LeetCode
    • Exercism
• Communities 
  • Rands Leadership Slack
  • Reverse Job Boards 
    • https://railsdevs.com/
  • RemoteOK.com
  • WeWorkRemotely.com
  • HN Who’s Hiring - first of each month
• Resources 
  • interview cake https://www.interviewcake.com/
  • Cracking the coding interview by Gayle Laakmann McDowell https://www.crackingthecodinginterview.com/
  • Atomic Habits - James Clear https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits

Some Links

• Laravel Bootcamp 
• Rails Hackathon 
• Ruby Archaeology by Nick Schwaderer 
• "Build vs Buy" on Rails by Colin Loretz 
• Content Creation for Software Developers
• CFP Land

Why speak at a conference?

• Share your hard-won learnings
• Meet other people
• Grow an audience
• Build your talent brand to hire people

What makes a conference worth speaking at?

Do you need to be very senior to speak at a conference?

• No!

Picking a topic

• What are you interested in?
• What are you excited about?
• What do you know a lot about?

Components of a CFP

• Abstract
• Description
• Outlines

Usually a blind selection process

Other Tips

• Watch past talks from the conference you are applying to on YouTube if they are available.
• Check out speakerline.io for examples of CFPs
• On writing well - William https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Well-Classic-Guide-Nonfiction/dp/0060891548