The Stack Overflow Podcast

In this week's episode, we chat about our annual company meetup, which took place this year in the sometimes sunny Philadelphia, and featured a now-viral talk. Our very special guest this week is Fereshteh Forough, the founder and executive director of Code to Inspire, which is celebrating its one year anniversary this week. Code to Inspire uses technology, education and outreach to support Afghan women in their fight for social, political, and economic equality.

Grab a cookie (before Joel eats them all) and listen to the Stack Overflow podcast #94, recorded Thursday, November 10, 2016 at the Stack Overflow Headquarters in NYC. Today's podcast is brought to you by the Electoral College since this podcast usually loses the popular vote.

Joel actually doesn't have a rant today. gasp Instead, we chat about our annual company meetup, which took place this year in the sometimes sunny Philadelphia. The gang explains why getting everyone together at least once a year is so important in such a heavily remote company. Hint: it's mainly to assure Jay to his face that no one hates him.

One of the coolest things to come out of this year’s meetup was a Tiny Talk by Stack Overflow developer Bret Copeland titled "How to Land the Space Shuttle… from Space" that has gotten over 87,000 (as of 11/14) views on YouTube. He wears a flight suit and everything…

This week's constitutional amendment question (along with way too much talk about stickers) is: Should you be allowed to comment out code and check it in? Jay (tries to) explain what this means while Joel and David try very hard not to laugh. Post your answer to Twitter using the hashtag #stackoverflowpodcast, with either PRO if yay, or CON if nay, along with your explanation. Keep it short but convincing! The best explanation, whether on the winning side or the losing side, will be read on next week's podcast and win a fabulous STACK OVERFLOW STICKER courtesy of the Stack Overflow Podcast.

Our very special guest today, with her Developer Story, is Fereshteh Forough, the founder and executive director of Code to Inspire, which is celebrating its one year anniversary this week! It uses technology, education and outreach to support Afghan women in their fight for social, political, and economic equality. In 2015 she founded Code to Inspire, the first coding school for girls in Afghanistan, with the mission of educating Afghan women with in-demand programming skills, empower them to add unique value to their communities, and inspire them to strive for financial and social independence.

"During my life journey, as a student and as a teacher in computer science, I definitely felt that there is a huge educational gap... We had students that never touched a computer and didn't know about a keyboard or mouse… Now they are at the level where they are developing a responsive website. So it's amazing to see how resources and providing this situation for women can really change their lives." - Fereshteh Forough

Thanks and see you next week!

Notable Links:

Code to Inspire - 1 Year Anniversary Celebration is happening Friday 11/18 in NYC! Sign up HERE if you would like to attend.

"How to Land the Space Shuttle… from Space"

One-Minute Tech Review: Kayak Trips

Twitter: @stackpodcast

Facebook: The Stack Overflow Podcast

Our website is now live: http://stackoverflow.com/podcast

In this week’s frightening episode, Joel gets a visit from his very own Annie Wilkes, er, number one fan: Genius.com CEO Tom Lehman. Meanwhile, it wouldn’t be a Halloween show without something dying: This year, it’s the Experts Exchange paywall. Finally, David forgets to turn off his phone and gets called mid-recording by a recruiter, and we decide to tape their increasingly odd conversation so we can share it with you, our listeners.

A warning to all souls before you go further: We know you’ve been dying to hear this special Halloween edition of the podcast, but due to its frightening nature, we recommend you proceed with caution and put all small children and ghosts to rest before hitting play. But if you are so adventurous as to continue…

Welcome to the Stack Overflow Podcast #93, recorded October 25 in our New York City offices. This week’s episode is brought to you by the Society for for Responsible Use of Jack-o-lanterns. Did you know that jack-o-lanterns are the leading cause of smashed pumpkins in this country? Do your part, and say, “Jack-NO-lanterns!” to Big Pumpkin this holiday season.

In this week’s podcast, Joel tells a scary story about the time he crafted an easter egg for Juno email, and then deviously hid it in the build server. Does the steady beating of the easter egg’s hideous heart give him away? Huddle closely and listen carefully, boys and ghouls, to hear his fate.

It wouldn’t be a successful Halloween special without something dying. This year, the victim is the Experts Exchange paywall - as of this month, it’s been taken down and is gone forever. Joel, David, and Jay discuss while dancing on its grave.

Additionally, we’ve long suspected that our studio was haunted, and during the recording of this episode, we experienced what we thought may have been a poltergeist at play: At the start of Joel’s One Minute Tech Review, the table started vibrating… although in this case it turns out to just have been David’s phone, which he forgot to turn off. While we didn’t ask, we assume the caller, a recruiter from a startup looking for a new VP of Engineering, will understand that we recorded her and David’s conversation to share with all our closest friends and listeners. Fair warning: things get dark in this segment.

As part of our on-going series, Developer Stories, Genius.com CEO Tom Lehman stops by to talk to us about his journey as a programmer and founder. Tom, aka Joel Spolsky’s own Annie Wilkes superfan, has spent years learning everything about Joel, and wants him to never stop writing. Ever. Tom tells us how he went from making such projects as BetterMetroNorth.com to Genius.com. He also sets Joel up for a classic Shakespeare hip hop joke, which you get the pleasure of hearing over and over again.

Regardless of whatever spooky things may be going on in the world, we continue each week to build our Stack Overflow Constitution. This week’s question: If somebody drops a scrap of paper on the subway and they don’t notice, do you tell them?

Tweet your answer, pro or con, using hashtag #StackOverflowPodcast for the chance to win a nifty Stack Overflow sticker. And if you have a question of your own you’d like us to use in building this constitution, tweet @stackpodcast. If we like your suggested amendment, we’ll share it on the show and name it after you.

Last week’s winner for the question, “Do you hold the door for a colleague if you know it’s going to make them run?” was…

“Pro. Not only am I being polite, I'm helping improve their health.” - Andrew Bickerton, @coder4hire

Please note: We’re taking a one-week break from the podcast and will resume episodes on November 14.

Notable Links:

Twitter: @stackpodcast

Facebook: The Stack Overflow Podcast

Our website is now live: http://stackoverflow.com/podcast

In this week's episode, the gang talks about terrible, awful, no good, very bad recruiter questions, and how to actually interview developers. Additionally, the gang plays our new game, Startup or Shut Up. Jay doesn't do very well.

Welcome to The Stack Overflow Podcast #92, brought to you by the The Facsimile Association of America. Since the late 1800s, faxes have solved the infuriating problem how to get a message to someone quicker than physical mail, and since the late 1900s, slower than just sending an email. The Facsimile Association of America: When Was the Last Time You Needed to Fax?

In this episode, you’ll learn how to identify fake New Yorkers from real New Yorkers by simply asking, “What is Gray’s Papaya known for?” You’ll also learn how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop. Finally, you’ll learn a new word: Recruitersplaining.

Launching this week, Startup Or Shut Up, our new game where Joel, Jay, and David have to guess which one of three startup descriptions are fake. Spoiler: Jay gets a participation award for “trying.”

But what really grinds our gears? This week, the gang rants about awful recruiter questions and responses, specifically from Google's (alleged, possibly outdated) "Director of Engineering" hiring test, such as

Recruiter: Why is Quicksort the best sorting method?

Interviewee: It's not always the case, nor even suitable.

Recruiter: Quicksort has the best big-O.

Interviewee: "big-O" ignores data storage latencies, topology, volume, available memory, and even the computational cost of every CPU instructions involved in a given implementation – instead, it merely counts the number of algorithmic operations! Big-O can be a valuable indication when designing algorithms but the best performing and scaling solution depends on the particular constraints of any specific problem and environment.

Recruiter: Wrong, you had to give me the Quicksort big-O score.

Aside from listening to the episode, if you want to learn how to do interviews the right way, go to Joel on Software and check out The Guerilla Guide to Interviewing. And if you're looking to apply to a similar job, (hopefully with a better interview), check out these senior software engineer postings.

More important that interviewing, however, is our future legal system. As you all know, we’re preparing the Stack Overflow Constitution week by week, amendment by amendment in this podcast. This week’s amendment: Should you hold the door for a colleague if you know it's going to make them run? Go to Twitter and use #StackOverflowPodcast to vote Pro if you hold the door, and Con if you don’t.

Notable Links:

Twitter: @stackpodcast

Facebook: The Stack Overflow Podcast

Our website is now live: http://stackoverflow.com/podcast

In this week's episode, everyone tries to stump Nick Craver. Today's episode also stars Dr. Omoju Miller, data scientist extraordinaire, talking about media representations of developers and how the evil or geeky hacker stereotype hurts us.

Welcome to The Stack Overflow Podcast #91, recorded Tuesday, October 11 at Stack Overflow headquarters in NYC. Today's episode is brought to you by Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles. (חג סוכות שמח) Sukkot is the Jewish holiday where you have to eat and sleep in a temporary hut that you build in your backyard. "Oooh" - David Fullerton

In this episode you can learn way too much about the New York Transit Museum, the word "Stack" at Microsoft, and the etymology of Channel 9, where Joel was interviewed last week with the help of gender neutral robot cameras.

We have two new segments debuting this week:

Introducing Stump Nick Craver! Here's how it works, we call Nick Craver (@Nick_Craver) and he will have 60 seconds to answer 5 questions about servers. If he answers all correctly, he will win a 6 month supply of Clorox Toilet Wands. As it turns out, a 6-month supply is exactly one wand.

Developer Stories! Where we talk to developers who have cool or interesting stories to tell about how they got into computers and what they build with them. Our very first guest to tell us her developer story is the brilliant Dr. Omoju Miller (@OmojuMiller), a data scientist who is interested in data-driven, machine learning approaches to solving business problems. In discussing one of her blog posts that Jay was particularly struck by, she says:

"I am the kind of person that had a very different, non-stereotypical upbringing. I had toys that were not gender specific. I had planes that I could fly down the street... I had robotic little rats… I had Legos, I had Barbies, I had Easy-Bake Oven… In our house when we were playing it was like we were building worlds. So you had to do the engineering to figure out how to build your building, you had to figure out what was going to be your power generation supply. After you built the house, you had to figure out what you were going to eat, what you were going to wear... It was a very holistic thing. Maybe because of that kind upbringing I have the ability to imagine worlds that don’t exist and just invent them. However, for a lot of people they’re bound in their imagination by what they’ve seen. And a lot of the ways in which we consume knowledge about who we can be is actually true media. If you keep on seeing images that don’t reflect a certain gamut of who you can be, then you have a very narrow view of what you think you can actually do in the world, especially when it comes to technical professions.”

For this week’s installment of building Stack Overflow’s Constitution, our hosts ask the controversial question, “Are you allowed to stand over the IT person while you wait for them to reset your password?”

Listen as our hosts talk it over and then tweet to us using #StackOverflowPodcast: PRO if you think that you should be able to stand over them and wait, or CON if you think that you should go back to your desk and wait for them to notify you. The best explanation, whether you are on the winning or losing side, will be read next week on air as well as win a fabulous Stack Overflow sticker and no Clorox Toilet Brushes.

Last week's winner for the question, "When you are at the supermarket, should you be able to eat an item BEFORE you get to the cash register?" is:

"Pro, the only problem is fitting on the scales after snacking by the bulk bins. #StackOverflowPodcast" - Jonathan Lisic,

@jlisic

Congrats Jonathan, you win a thing!

See you next week!

Notable Links:

Developer Story

Backchannel.com on Medium

Stack Overflow Salary Calculator, now with International flavor!

Le.Taxi info. (Editor's note: We are really, really sorry about the bad accents in this segment.]

Twitter: @stackpodcast

Facebook: The Stack Overflow Podcast

Our website is now live: http://stackoverflow.com/podcast

In this week's episode, the hosts talk about the launch of Stack Overflow's latest product, Developer Story. They also talk about Jay's unique vernacular, and what angers programmers the most.

Welcome to The Stack Overflow Podcast #90, recorded October 3 at Stack Overflow Headquarters in NYC. This week’s podcast is brought to you by the QWERTY keyboard: "Since 1878, it's not so bad!" Enough said. The podcast is also brought to you by Thinkful. Thinkful provides coding education with one-on-one mentorship. Rated #1 Coding Bootcamp by Course Report with over 6,000 students mentored.

In this episode: Rant Soup™, now with Trello! If you would like to make your own Trello board of rants, or soup, go to Trello.com. Also, according to Joel, Jay is still not getting a raise. (Don't worry buddy, you'll get there someday…)

Today's special guest, calling in from not-so-sunny London, is Stack Overflow PM Kit Karrau. Kit is the driving force behind our new product, the Developer Story, launching today. Developer Story shows what you’ve built, not just where you’ve worked or went to school. It’s your story; tell it your way. Go to s.tk/story to create yours now.

As part of our favorite story about a developer in this week’s episode, we learn that Joel's hands are very small in a certain photo on a certain website (so you should definitely NOT go there right now to point and laugh).

In the News this week, the gang finds out that developers rant the most about product managers, and that AI is going to put tax preparers out of business.

It's also the third week of the Stack Overflow Constitution. Vote on this week's amendment: When you are at the supermarket, should you be able to eat an item BEFORE you get to the cash register? Listen to our hosts' points of view and then tweet to us using #StackOverflowPodcast: PRO if you think that you SHOULD be able to eat it before you leave the store (and pay for it at the register using the wrapper), and CON if you think that you SHOULD NOT, along with a brief explanation. The best answer will be read on the air next week, and by best, we mean which one made us chuckle the most.

Last week's winner is Michael Berkowski with a great tweet story culminating with:

"My request was denied, so I got to learn a little French instead #StackOverflowPodcast" - Michael Berkowski, @mberkowski 9:33 AM - 3 Oct 2016

See you next week!

Notable Links:

Developer Story: s.tk/story

Devrant: https://www.devrant.io/

Twitter: @stackpodcast

Facebook: The Stack Overflow Podcast

Our website is now live: http://stackoverflow.com/podcast