The Single Responsibility is both simple and complex to comprehend at the exact same time. In fact, many people find it to be so vague to the point of being worthless. Let's talk about that in this episode, while reviewing how I personally interpret the advice for my own projects.

Moving to a new server while upgrading to the latest version of a framework is always a scary thing. Even the smallest change can send you down a two hour rabbit hole, as you search for a solution. In this episode, I discuss my basic process, as well as the tools I prefer.

Today, we're discussing my personal workflow, when planning a new conference talk. Unfortunately, it's never quite as simple as opening your presentation app of choice, and typing away. Any typical conference talk likely took months to prepare.

"Don't use tools," they say. "It won't exist in a few years, but these design patterns will." Of course, the argument is that, if you dedicate any time at all to embracing libraries and frameworks that actually allow you to get the job done, you're somehow, as a result, doing yourself a huge disservice.

In the last six months, it has been made very clear to me that, for better or worse, we're all parrots. Whether tech, or politics, or religion, or programming, this can't be denied. How do we fix this?

Let's take a break from code this week, and talk about the person behind the code. When I found out my wife was pregnant last year, a million different thoughts and concerns went through my head all at once. Having your first child is like nothing you've ever experienced before. If you have one on the way, here's what to expect...from a male's point of view.

Over the years, I've come to realize that, what folks advertise and say they do, often bears no resemblance to what they actually do. Consider the broke financial advisor, or the event sourcing evangelist who sticks to basic CRUD and Active Record for their own projects, or the TDD expert who secretly doesn't TDD. The truth is that folks advertise what they're excited by. And, too often, what excites us is what's new and undiscovered.

Over the years, I've been party of many programming communities. And in all that time, I've found one thing that is entirely unique to the PHP world...

At all times on social media, we are surrounded by folks at the top of their game. With so much genius and success circling us like hawks, sometimes it can get you down. Even worse, around this time of year, there's so much talk about "crushing it" and "10x'ing" it.

When it comes to open source code, how exactly should you decide what to build? Will anyone even care or want to use it? Who knows! But, maybe, a secret gold mine will reveal itself, once you ask a simple question.