CodeNewbie

Dave Thomas has done a lot for the programming community. He coined the phrase “DRY” (Don’t Repeat Yourself). He popularized the idea of code katas. He was one of the signers of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, and he's the founder of the Pragmatic Bookshelf publishing company. But despite all that, he refers to himself as simply a programmer. In this episode, he shares his own coding journey, gives advice to new developers on how to navigate the mountain of information available, and how he ended up becoming a publisher.

Suzan Bond calls herself a band manager, the title that captures the wide range of activities she does in her work helping developers grow their careers.

Nicole Dominguez taught herself to code at a pretty young age, and by the time she was in high school, she had paying freelance clients. At 21, she reflects on her freelance days, and what she’s learned as a teacher helping others learn coding concepts.

Una Kravets found her love of design at a young age, publishing homemade magazines and handing them out to her classmates. Now, she translates that love of design to code, building prototypes and design systems at IBM Design.

Courteney Ervin taught herself to code in her spare time. She tells us about her journey, the key moments that helped her advance her tech career, and shares advice on how others can make the most of their self-taught journey.

When you ask Kristy Tillman about design, she doesn’t just talk about designing for a screen. She touches on space, rooms, fliers, products, both physical and digital. In this episode, we talk about her design process and how she hires for design roles.

It took years for CSS Tricks to become the popular front-end and design resource it is today. Creator Chris Coyier talks about starting the website in 2007 and how it’s grown to be the incredible front end community it is now.

Programmer Earl Bey has always been a hip hop fan. He’s been rapping since he was ten, and even had his own manager. When he was later introduced to tech, he dove into coding full time. Now, he blends his new passion for code with his love for hip hop.

In part II of this two-part interview, Sandi Metz talks to us about speaking, how she prepares for her talks and her plans for her upcoming book.

Sandi Metz describes herself as an "accidental author." Accident or not, her book Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby (POODR) is beloved in the ruby community. In part I of this two-part interview, she talks to us about life pre- and post-POODR.