It’s officially the holidays at the Bike Shed! Defrag your hard drives and take a break with Joël and Stephanie as they breakdown different ways to manage your focus during the day.

The pair discuss separating coding time from thinking time when working, the pros and cons of blocking out time for different tasks and clever ways to move seamlessly from one project to the next without losing momentum.

Joël has some more timezone facts to share, while Stephanie reveals her worst enemy when it comes to productivity.

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Try out the Pomodoro system in your workflow and let us know if it works for you!

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Stephanie Minn and Joël Quenneville.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: [email protected]

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.

© 2024 thoughtbot, inc.

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Joël and Stephanie go back to fundamentals as they pick apart some recent conversations they’ve been having around the office.

Together they discuss the advantages of GraphQL over a REST API, how they utilise JSONB over a regular column or table, and the use-cases for and against a frontend framework like React.

But what’s the theme that ties all these conversations together?

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Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Stephanie Minn and Joël Quenneville.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: [email protected]

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.

© 2024 thoughtbot, inc.

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One of the most challenging things about starting out as a developer is how much you need to master all at once. And with so much to learn, it can be difficult for experts to guide fresh developers and advise them on where to focus first. Luckily, some skills will always be useful, no matter what language you’re coding in. In today’s episode, Stephanie and Joël tackle this topic by unpacking several key evergreen skills that will always be valuable, from reading error messages to deciphering a stack trace. They break down how new-ish developers can start acquiring these skills, key obstacles they’re likely to encounter, and how to ask for help when you hit a block. Their conversation covers the ins and outs of debugging, how to feel comfortable in your editor as a new developer, the art of asking for help, and much more. They also share plenty of valuable tips to help you on your journey – including one that will help you commit more frequently. Tune in now to hear it all!

Key Points From This Episode:

Stephanie’s time at the Ruby Conference in Chicago.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

What technologies should I learn?

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How can tests serve beyond just catching bugs in code? In this episode, Stephanie and Joël dive into the various roles that tests can play in a developer's toolkit. Covering all the fundamentals, from aiding knowledge transfer and documentation to ensuring accountability in code reviews, they explore the unexpected ways that tests support developer workflows. They also explain the balance between writing detailed tests for documentation and managing complex code, and how effective testing practices can help developers become more confident and informed in their work. Gain insights about the impact of test suites on team collaboration, code readability, and project handoffs, and discover how tests can provide a “living specification” that evolves with your application. Join us to learn how to make the most of your tests and unlock new ways to elevate your development process. Tune in now!

How test suites can act as living documentation that changes with the codebase.

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For developers, impersonation can be a powerful tool, but with great power comes great responsibility. In today’s episode, hosts Stephanie and Joël explore the complexities of implementing impersonation features in software development, giving you the ability to take over someone’s account and act as the user. They delve into the pros and cons of impersonation, from how it can help with debugging and customer support to its prime drawbacks regarding security and auditing issues. Discover why the need for impersonation is often a sign of poor admin tooling, alternative solutions to true impersonation, and the scenarios where impersonation might be the most pragmatic approach. You’ll also learn why they advocate for understanding the root problem and considering alternative solutions before implementing impersonation. Tune in today for a deep dive into impersonation and the best ways to use it (or not use it)!


What’s new in Stephanie’s world: how Notion Calendar is helping her manage her schedule.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

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When is it time for a rewrite? How do you justify it? If you’re tasked with one, how do you approach it? In today’s episode of The Bike Shed, we dive into the tough question of software rewrites, sharing firsthand experiences that reveal why these projects are often more complicated and risky than they first appear. We unpack critical factors that make or break a rewrite, from balancing developer satisfaction with business value to managing stakeholder expectations when costs and timelines stretch unexpectedly. You’ll hear about real-world rewrite pitfalls like downtime and reintroducing bugs, as well as strategies for achieving similar improvements through incremental changes or refactoring instead. If you’re a developer or team lead considering a rewrite, this conversation offers a pragmatic perspective that could save your team time, effort, and potential setbacks. Tune in to learn how to make the best call for your codebase and find out when a rewrite might actually be necessary!

Key Points From This Episode:

Accessible selectors versus test IDs: best practices in Capybara and React Testing Library.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

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Does having smaller, more frequent iterations help to ease your cognitive load? During this episode, we discuss the benefits and challenges of working iteratively and whether or not it can prevent costly errors. You’ll hear about juggling individual pieces effectively, factors that incentivize and de-incentivize working iteratively, and how Joël gauges whether or not a project should be broken up into smaller tasks. It can be hard to adopt small iterations, and this conversation also touches on the idea of ‘good enough code’ and discusses how agility can reduce the cost of making changes. Tuning in, you’ll hear about some of the challenges of keeping up with changes as they evolve and why it is beneficial to do so. You will also be equipped with a thought experiment involving elephant carpaccio to build your understanding of working iteratively, explore the challenge of keeping up with evolving changes, and more. Thanks for listening.

Key Points From This Episode:

Stephanie shares a recent mishap that happened at work and what she learned from it.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

WorkOS

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What’s the difference between solving problems and recognizing patterns, and why does it matter for developers? In this episode, Stephanie and Joël discuss transitioning from collecting solutions to identifying patterns applicable to broader contexts in software development. They explore the role of heuristics, common misconceptions among junior and intermediate developers, and strategies for leveling up from a solution-focused mindset to thinking in patterns. They also discuss their experiences of moving through this transition during their careers and share advice for upcoming software developers to navigate it successfully. They explore how learning abstraction, engaging in code reviews, and developing a strong intuition for code quality help developers grow. Uncover the issue of over-applying patterns and gain insights into the benefits of broader, reusable approaches in code development. Join us to discover how to build your own set of coding heuristics, the pitfalls of pattern misuse, and how to become a more thoughtful developer. Tune in now!

Key Points From This Episode:

Stephanie unpacks the differences between patterns and solutions.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

WorkOS

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Learning from other developers is an important ingredient to your success. During this episode, Joël Quenneville is joined by Stefanni Brasil, Senior Developer at Thoughtbot, and core maintainer of faker-ruby. To open our conversation, she shares the details of her experience at the Rails World conference in Toronto and the projects she enjoyed seeing most. Next, we explore the challenge of Mac versus Windows and how these programs interact with Ruby on Rails and dive into Stefanni’s involvement in Open Source for Thoughtbot and beyond; what she loves about it, and how she is working to educate others and expand the current limitations that people experience. This episode is also dedicated to the upcoming Open Source Summit that Stefanni is planning on 25 October 2024, what to expect, and how you can get involved. Thanks for listening!

Key Points From This Episode:

Introducing and catching up with Thoughtbot Senior Developer and maintainer of faker-ruby, Stefanni Brasil.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Stefanni Brasil

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What is a program? Your answer to this question will determine the paradigm through which you view programming. During this episode, you’ll come to understand how things change once you develop an awareness of your paradigm, and what. To kick off this episode, Stephanie shares key insights she took from Planet Argon’s 2024 Ruby on Rails survey and dives deeper into her history with Ruby on Rails. Next, we dive into the definition of a paradigm and unpack three different paradigms you might hold as a developer: procedural, object-oriented, and functional. Considering how each of these impacts the way that you might approach your work as a developer, and what you can learn from the ones that are less familiar to you. Joël describes his scripting style and evaluates the concept of pure functions and their place in development, and we close by digging deeper into how your paradigm might impact the code that you write. Tune in to hear all this and more.

Key Points From This Episode:

The EPI feature that Joël has started to build out for his client.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

2024 Ruby on Rails Community Survey

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