HTML All The Things - Web Development, AI, and Developer Careers

This episode is for all of you out there that are hesitant to release your website, blog post, or whatever it is you're working on - scared to hand it over to the audience that is supposed to consume it. Instead of releasing what we have on schedule, some of us may hesitate due to perfectionism, burnout, or anxiety over what the users may think. Sometimes a delay is warranted, but often these delays can impair your future decision making on how to update/upgrade your project as you'll have no user feedback to work from. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss working towards a project that is good enough to release, without focusing on all the "what ifs" for release.

Show Notes: www.htmlallthethings.com/podcasts/good-enough-is-better-than-perfect-how-to-avoid-burnout-and-launch-your-website-faster

With the current job market seemingly handing out nothing by layoffs, it may seem like landing a junior developer job is an impossible task. While we acknowledge that it is more difficult than it was a year or two ago to land a junior developer job, all hope is not lost. There are always people hiring, even during the worst economic downturns and those that keep at it have a higher chance at succeeding. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss how to help a junior developer in your life succeed through mentorship, connections, peer code reviews, and more.

Show Notes: www.htmlallthethings.com/podcasts/helping-junior-developers-succeed

Can an AI chat bot like ChatGPT teach a junior developer web development from scratch? What about an experienced web developer looking to update his skills on a new framework? In this premiere episode of Full-Stack Struggles, Matt documents his experience getting situated with Svelte. As a beginner, he found himself needing assistance quite often and instead of reaching for a blog post, or some documentation, he instead reached for an AI chat bot - namely Bing AI. With the recent advancements in AI technology (especially chat bots), they've been the talk of the internet with how useful they can be as an alternative to Googling and sifting through countless results. Was chatting with an AI enough to answer all of Matt's questions?

Show Notes: www.htmlallthethings.com/podcasts/full-stack-struggles-1-can-ai-teach-me-web-development

In this interview episode, Matt and Mike sat down with Bob Ziroll the head of education for Scrimba to discuss all things React, escaping your comfort zone, teaching courses, and much more! Bob Ziroll is known for his React courses on both Scrimba and freeCodeCamp, he also anticipates starting a YouTube channel sometime soon.

Show Notes: www.htmlallthethings.com/podcasts/teaching-you-how-to-react-w-bob-ziroll

CSS animations are somewhat of an advanced CSS topic that many people skip out on when they're developing their site's MVP, or first few versions. Further into its life though, CSS animations (and transitions for that matter) add a level of polish to a website that can subtly bring about a premium feel for its UI/UX. It's quite easy, however, to go overboard with animations and transitions to the point where they feel out of place, sometimes looking like they're just being done for the sake of another animation instead of complimenting the content on the page. This week, Matt and Mike discussed CSS animations and CSS transitions, discussing the good, bad, and the ugly when it comes to using them on your next project.

Show Notes: www.htmlallthethings.com/podcasts/css-animations-can-make-or-break-a-site

The advanced technical nature of web development coupled with what seems like a completely new dictionary to memorize can easily overwhelm junior developers before they've completed their learning journey. There is a lot of technical jargon and technical terms that must be understood to read documentation and hold a conversation with developer colleagues. These terms include things like data structures, algorithms, syntax, and much more. This week, Matt and Mike try and help simplify these terms into easy-to-understand definitions, so you don't get bogged down in memorization.

Show Notes: www.htmlallthethings.com/podcasts/junior-developers-guide-to-confusing-terms

CSS is a crucial skill for frontend developers to learn and eventually master, but it's flanked by other tools that many employers demand skills in.  Bootstrap, TailwindCSS, and SASS are all tools that assist in the development of user interfaces, by augmenting and expanding what vanilla CSS already offers. With this in mind, it's easy for a junior developer to start questioning when to move their learning journey on from vanilla CSS to something that an employer may have interest in. Many times this question can result in analysis paralysis and over a long period of time, may result in CSS tutorial hell. This week, Matt and Mike discuss this transition from learning vanilla CSS to learning the next step that applies to your goals. 

Show Notes: www.htmlallthethings.com/podcasts/youve-learned-enough-css-heres-whats-next

Do you know enough JavaScript to move onto something else like React, or Svelte? How do you know if you'll be ready? This week, Matt and Mike discuss the vanilla JavaScript fundamentals you need to know before learning new tooling like React, or Svelte. We hope that this episode helps clear the air for any junior developers wondering if they should start the next step of their JavaScript learning journey, or if they still have more vanilla JS to learn.

Show Notes: www.htmlallthethings.com/podcasts/javascript-fundamentals-you-need-to-know-before-learning-react

The popularity of WordPress partly comes from its ability to transform into virtually any website creation tool you need. From a membership site managing tool, to an inventory control system with ecommerce, the WordPress plugin offerings seem to be able to make anything happen - with low, to no-code. This is, however, as long as everything keeps working the way it should. With critical errors like the WordPress white screen of death threatening websites at almost every turn, we discuss why knowing how to code (or at least manage hosting files) is a critical skill that many WordPress users don't realize they need...until it's too late.

Show Notes: www.htmlallthethings.com/podcasts/if-you-cant-code-dont-use-wordpress

Tech layoffs are in full swing right now, with companies shrinking their teams for a variety of reasons. This is a stark contrast to the hiring spree that we experienced and grew used to during the chaos that was the COVID-19 pandemic. Does this mean that junior developers should pack up and find work elsewhere? Should people that are still learning web development leave the field entirely?