From the importance of pet projects to organizing conferences, come join us as we learn a metric ton from a friend of many developers.Chantal, Kenneth, Kevin & Len are joined by Simon Stewart for a journey through his career as a developer. Simon is a respected and loved figure in many tech communities and arguably best known for organizing the fantastic [JSinSA](http://jsinsa.com) conference.How did Simon get here? We start at beginning in Cape Town, travel to Port Elizabeth, jump to Durban and finally land in Johannesburg where Simon lives to this day. We learned that PE is the birth place of another conference organizer too! We play with a ZX spectrum, tell tales of surviving classic ASP and dabble in some Delphi along the way.Simon has a love for community and we explore what inspired JSinSA and what has kept it running for the past 6 years. We chat about presenting at conferences and Simon shares some fantastic tips for speakers of all levels to build their way up to speaking at conferences. We explore issues around diversity and aging and ways to get communities to cross pollinate, and the importance of participating in community events.We also learn about the importance of pet projects as a great way to learn and sharpen your skills, and Simon shares some of his that he has actually shipped and maintained over time.Follow Simon and his pet projects online:* https://twitter.com/simonstewart* http://www.codeskills.co.za/* http://www.jsinsa.com/* http://www.brokenkeyboards.com/* http://www.findfreewifi.co.za/* http://www.findabookshop.co.za/And finally our picksSimon:* Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28259132-chaos-monkeysKenneth:* 22seven - https://www.22seven.com* Productive - http://productiveapp.io/Chantal:* Classic Programmer Paintings - http://classicprogrammerpaintings.com/Len:* µLisp - http://www.ulisp.com/Kevin:* intermezzOS - https://intermezzos.github.io/Thanks for listening!Stay in touch:* Website & newsletter - https://zadevchat.io* Socialize - https://twitter.com/zadevchat & http://facebook.com/ZADevChat/* Suggestions and feedback - https://github.com/zadevchat/ping* Subscribe and rate in iTunes - http://bit.ly/zadevchat-itunes

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