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Refactored
By Chris Tonkinson, Frank KoehlTechnology
Refactored episodes
- 064: Rubber Ducking
Refactored #064: “Rubber Ducking”
On this episode of Refactored…
- Chris revisits PTO policies. He found a better one… but it still doesn’t get the jerb done.
- The guys compare and contrast the Dunning-Kruger effect with Imposter syndrome.
- Rubber ducking — if you’re not doing it, you’re doing it wrong.
- Frank bought a MacBook that isn’t an M1… sooooo… why are we talking about it? Oh right, because Carbonite was acquired by OpenText and the decline has apparently already begun.
- The guys talk about giving people real ownership & accountability in their work. Turns out? Good idea.
- Chris makes a teary-eyed appeal for more feedback on the show in a rare fourth wall break. Connect with us!
- … and much more!
Don’t be shy! Reach out at [email protected].
Visit https://refactored.work/ for the full archive, show notes, and more. Hosted by Chris Tonkinson and Frank Koehl.
Direct link to RSS feed
1 hr 1 min - 063: Dark Patterns
Refactored #063: “Dark Patterns”
On this episode of Refactored…
- The FTC probes Amazon for “deliberately confusing” users during signup. Frank has a strong opinion on this one. UI screenshots that were discussed embedded below.
- Chris was annoyed at how Fruit Ninja kept shoving adds at his son.
- The guys fight about the meanging of the term satisfice. It’s sad.
- Steve Krug enters the chat retroactively as Frank remembers the name of the book Don’t Make Me Think.
- Frank then points us to the revelation of Project Iliad. Chris is upset-bordering-speechless, having just experienced the fruit of this particular labor of love loathing.
- … and much more!
Don’t be shy! Reach out at [email protected].
Visit https://refactored.work/ for the full archive, show notes, and more. Hosted by Chris Tonkinson and Frank Koehl.
Direct link to RSS feed
1 hr 2 min - 062: Schoooool's Out. For. Ever!
Refactored #062: “Schoooool’s out. For. Ever!”
On this episode of Refactored…
- Coding Boot Camps. They are numerous. They are well-funded. They… promise more than they can deliver? The guys discuss. (TLDR — the phrase “jumpstart, not a shortcut” gets used)
- Chris misses a crucial opportunity to drop a “Your mom goes to college.”
- What are entry-level qualifications, anyway? Chris offers his perspective.
- But is it web scale? [NSFW]
- A tsunami of vengeful hellfire crashes ashore the lands of Academy. Laying waste the outskirts of most modern 4 year comp. sci. degrees, razing the town of “undeclared majors,” salting the lands of “general education credits,” and rending asunder the scrolls of “this is better than technical school.”
- Graduates don’t use the degrees they get.
- Skilled trades can yield a very comfortable standard of living.
- Bachelor’s degrees don’t prepare you for industry.
- Inlfation-adjusted post-secondary education costs have been SOARING.
- People don’t have the tools they need to manage the debt.
- How does this episode NOT outtro with Alice Cooper?!
- … and much more!
Don’t be shy! Reach out at [email protected].
Visit https://refactored.work/ for the full archive, show notes, and more. Hosted by Chris Tonkinson and Frank Koehl.
Direct link to RSS feed
1 hr 2 min - 061: Career Advice
Refactored #061: “Career Advice”
On this episode of Refactored…
- The guys talk unlimited PTO. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Spoiler: unlimited PTO is not a panacea.
- Frank thinks companies that don’t pay out unused PTO are scummy. Chris thinks it encourages better utilization.
- “crunch” is a term used by the gaming industry to mask a systemtically broken corporate culture. The guys debate.
- Frank brings r/AntiWork into the discussion. The guys have different takeaways on the subject, but two things are clear:
- There are some real hardships being expressed there.
- The conclusions/solutions aren’t always pragmatic.
- Chris preaches about setting boundaries with respect to personal time. He also comes in kinda hot when the phrase “work life balance” comes up.
- Messrs cabbage and son of Anthony discuss American cultural work identity.
- … and much more!
Don’t be shy! Reach out at [email protected].
Visit https://refactored.work/ for the full archive, show notes, and more. Hosted by Chris Tonkinson and Frank Koehl.
Direct link to RSS feed
1 hr - 060: Toxic Bloviating Douchenozzle
Refactored #060: “Toxic Bloviating Douchenozzle”
On this episode of Refactored…
- In case you’ve been living some island-dwelling, soccer-ball-talking offline nightmare, Russia invaded Ukraine. Careful to avoid major political talk, the guys spend some time considering the circumstance and speaking about the people who have been, are, and will be harmed when governments clash.
- OKR, KPI, OGSM… omg wtf lmao. Frank has issues with how performance management frameworks are [usually] administered.
- Chris is drinking raspberry açaí seltzer and apparently he REALLY wants everyone to know it. Weird flex but ok bruh.
- Frank drops a SMART on Chris.
- The guys agree: there exist no honest, practical, quantitative, direct measures of individual performance for developers. (Except lines of code written, obviously.)
- Jerry Z. Muller enters the chat as Chris invokes The Tyranny of Metrics.
- … and much more!
Don’t be shy! Reach out at [email protected].
Visit https://refactored.work/ for the full archive, show notes, and more. Hosted by Chris Tonkinson and Frank Koehl.
Direct link to RSS feed
1 hr 9 min - 059: Flaming Cat Index: Redux
Refactored #059: “Flaming Cat Index: Redux”
On this episode of Refactored…
- Chris is in the middle of one computer migration when another defecates the mattress. He’s got opinions on stuff. Spoiler: Apple and LG are, collectively, 127% to blame.
- Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD. Sony won the battle, but digital distribution won the war. The guys reminisce.
- DMCA Commercial: “You wouldn’t download a car…” The rest of the world: “Like hell I wouldn’t!” (Ackshually, the guys got this wrong - the commercial said “You wouldn’t steal a car.” Which is true… but the comparison is still dumber than a box of hammers.)
- The guys muse: in a world where DisplayPort exists… why is HDMI still a thing??
- The Flaming Cat Index v1.1 Changelog:
- Multiply the base participants X functions X topics score by M/30, where M is the length of the meeting in minutes. So the v1.1 formula becomes: PFTM/30
- This penalizes meetings more than 30 minutes long, and rewards those under a half hour.
- … and much more!
Don’t be shy! Reach out at [email protected].
Visit https://refactored.work/ for the full archive, show notes, and more. Hosted by Chris Tonkinson and Frank Koehl.
Direct link to RSS feed
54 min - 058: Meeting Complexity
Refactored #058: “Meeting Complexity”
On this episode of Refactored…
- The guys play Zoom Bingo: “I’m sorry, can you repeat that? ”
- Parkinson’s Law enters the chat because “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”
- Frank makes a case for keeping meetings really tight. Tight in which dimensions? Glad you asked:
- Number of functional areas represented by attendees
- Number of topics for discussion
- Number of total participants
- The guys invent the Flaming Cat Index (or FCI), which is the product of multiplying the numbers of participants, topics, and departments for a given meeting.
- Frank flexes with a timely admission that his default meeting duration setting is 30 minutes.
- The guys agree on nomenclature for team member personas:
- Little Jimmy — the new entry-level developer
- Big James — seasoned professional; lead/architect/etc.
- Aldrich Blankenship — WASPy mustachioed executive with an underbite
- Q: How transparent should you be about discipline and terminations? A: As much as possible, and no more.
- The (unofficial) pick of the week is the Trifecta of Christmas Glory: Die Hard, Home Alone, and Christmas Vacation.
- … and much more!
Don’t be shy! Reach out at [email protected].
Visit https://refactored.work/ for the full archive, show notes, and more. Hosted by Chris Tonkinson and Frank Koehl.
Direct link to RSS feed
59 min - 057: Job Boards for Engineers
Refactored #057: “Job Boards for Engineers”
On this episode of Refactored…
- Frank triples the speed limit and commits five other misdemeanors on his way to Target for a PS5!
- StackOverflow announced a while back a savage, malicious, bad-faith attack on the entire software development industry.
- Who, what, when, where, why, and how? The guys unpack the details.
- Where do technologists go from here? No one seems to have any great ideas.
- Jim Collins enters the chat when Frank mentions Good to Great: get the right people on the bus your team, and the wrong people off.
- Joel Spolsky says every developer needs four walls and a door. Frank says this is the troo troo.
- Chris has an axe to grind with using the word “engineer” willy nilly. Turns it into a whole rant.
- Would licensing (and insuring) software developers… matter? The guys discuss whether meaningful liability would change anything about our industry.
- … and much more!
Don’t be shy! Reach out at [email protected].
Visit https://refactored.work/ for the full archive, show notes, and more. Hosted by Chris Tonkinson and Frank Koehl.
Direct link to RSS feed
1 hr 3 min - 056: Filthy Casuals With NFTs
Refactored #056: “Filthy Casuals with NFTs”
On this episode of Refactored…
- Microsoft acquires Activision for just shy of $69B.
- nice
- nice
- nice
- nice
- …
- Why are the Feds investigating? The guys discuss, but it’s probably just because, per the FTC, “current law requires companies to report any deal that is valued at more than $101 million to the agencies so they can be reviewed.”
- The guys agree, there probably isn’t a lot for gamers to worry about.
- Frank pens an article on why NFTs are total crap, and he’s 100% right. Chris brings some additional elaboration, predictions, tin foil, and insults.
- Are NFTs worth less than Beanie Babies? Probably.
- Chris predicts that NFT technology will revolutionize entire industries “overnight” in the coming decade, and most people won’t realize it happened.
- Will incumbent businesses reject decentralized technology due to the inherent transparency? Frank makes a compelling argument. Chris predicts ultimate failure of those business.
- The guys fight about the “cycle time” of financial metrics, and their impact on public companies (re: quarterly earnings calls, etc.)
- Related: YouTube removed the dislike button to increase revenue. Internet reacts. Frank opines. Chris makes unintelligible noises.
- … and much more!
Don’t be shy! Reach out at [email protected].
Visit https://refactored.work/ for the full archive, show notes, and more. Hosted by Chris Tonkinson and Frank Koehl.
Direct link to RSS feed
1 hr 13 min - 055: Frank's Red Hot Vim
Refactored #055: “Frank’s Red Hot Vim”
On this episode of Refactored…
- Frank flips out when he learns a new Zoom shortcut. His fault for not learning the software or Zoom’s for hiding stuff?
- The guys talk Zoom vs Google Meet. Then they talk Google Wave. Then they talk all the other products Google has killed.
- The guys agree - no seasoned technologist wants to be an early adopter during their 9-5.
- Shout out to a recent Coder Radio talking about the seventy three different fractured chat services Google maintains.
- Editors! Notepad++, Sublime, Atom, VSCode, Vim, and a partridge in a pear treeeeeeee.
- Modern Windows is a billboard by default, Chris contends, and surveillance capitalism creeping into core OS mechanics is morally reprehensible. Woah. Dude. Calm down.
- Totally unrelated to the above, Chris recommends you should consider taking back control of your data. He even has the audacity to drop the L-word.
- … and much more!
Don’t be shy! Reach out at [email protected].
Visit https://refactored.work/ for the full archive, show notes, and more. Hosted by Chris Tonkinson and Frank Koehl.
Direct link to RSS feed
1 hr
About Refactored
From the publisher's feed
A casual, ongoing conversation between two technology leaders with Chris Tonkinson and Frank Koehl.