Working Code

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The less code you write, the easier it is for people to review, the less likely it is to contain bugs, and the more likely it is to merge cleanly into your main integration branch. The converse of this tends to also be true: the more code you write - particularly within a long-lived feature branch - the harder it is to review and the more likely it is to contain bugs that cause production issues. We all basically hold this to be true; however, that doesn't mean that we can simply choose to do the former. Shipping less complexity is a byproduct of both team and technology constraints. This week on the show, the crew talks about how they try to reduce the complexity of their code shipping process.

Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @WorkingCodePod on Twitter and Instagram. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday.

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

Sponsors

• Audible - get a free audiobook from Audible with no strings attached at https://workingcode.dev/audible

This week on the show, we interview Jason Henriksen who works alongside Carol as a Software Architect at Clear Capital. According to Jason, every engineer does some degree of architecture, whether they know it or not. In fact, there's a lot of overlap between what Jason does and what your average web developer does. Which is why he calls his team the "Architecture Support" team. Their goal isn't to hand down edicts and pass out proclamations. Instead, Jason's goal is to build bridges between teams, help identify common pain points, propagate best practices, and lovingly guide the company in the right technical direction.

Also, special thanks to Tim for only asking great questions!

Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @WorkingCodePod on Twitter and Instagram. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday.

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

Sponsors

• Audible - get a free audiobook from Audible with no strings attached at https://workingcode.dev/audible

We all love writing code. Honestly, here on the show, it's hard for us to imagine doing anything other than building beautiful digital products for our beloved customers. But, as a thought experiment - in these post-pandemic times - the crew wanted to share some of the other professions that could have been. From ice cream truck driver to organic chef to movie theater entrepreneur, we dive into the untapped world of alternate realities.

Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @WorkingCodePod on Twitter and Instagram. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday.

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

Sponsors

• Audible - get a free audiobook from Audible with no strings attached at https://workingcode.dev/audible

This week on the show, the crew talks about GitHub Copilot. After being in private beta for several months, this "AI pair programmer" is now generally available as a paid product for $10/month or $100/year. But is this something people want to pay for? Will a price put the kibosh on grassroots adoption? Are there pros-and-cons to different pricing models? And, is there ever going to be a world in which Ben can get past his own fanatical formatting tendencies?

Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @WorkingCodePod on Twitter and Instagram. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday.

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

Sponsors

• Audible - get a free audiobook from Audible with no strings attached at https://workingcode.dev/audible

This week on the show, the crew shares some of the random stuff that they've been dealing with at work. Carol is about to submit a PR (Pull Request) that accounts for 8-weeks worth of commits; and, she's already warning her engineers that it's gonna be beefy! Ben wonders if he's been fooling himself into his love of Lucee CFML's "Tag Islands"; or, if there's something fundamentally more enjoyable about the developer ergonomics of the CFQuery tag. And, Tim's been working on remaining PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant by scrubbing credit card numbers out of his customer's "name" fields; because, as it turns out, customers will jam a credit card number in just about any form field that they find!

Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @WorkingCodePod on Twitter and Instagram. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday.

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

Sponsors

• Audible - get a free audiobook from Audible with no strings attached at https://workingcode.dev/audible

In each role, there are the responsibilities that get listed on the job board; and then, there's all the random stuff that they ask you do to once you show up. On today's show, the crew discusses the latter: those strange and wondrous "extras" that sometimes get rolled-up into an honest day's work. Topics include: buying nipple cream, picking up cigarette butts, cleaning bathrooms, taking out trash, driving to remote server locations, restocking photocopiers, and - perhaps worst of all - getting pushed into Sales.

Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @WorkingCodePod on Twitter and Instagram. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday.

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

Sponsors

• Audible - get a free audiobook from Audible with no strings attached at https://workingcode.dev/audible

This week on the show, Adam and Ben examine a variety of random topics: Adam loves watching conference videos on YouTube; Ben is feeling terribly insecure about falling behind in the field of web development; neither of us can believe that Elon Musk is forcing his employees back into the office; and, how is it possible that some people seem have so much free time - what the heck is their secret?!

Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @WorkingCodePod on Twitter and Instagram. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday.

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

Sponsors

• Audible - get a free audiobook from Audible with no strings attached at https://workingcode.dev/audible

This week on the show, Adam and Ben talk about the "unhappy paths" in software design. An unhappy path - also known as a "sad path" - is anything that can go wrong during the consumption of a product. Some unhappy paths are nothing more than unanticipated edge-cases in the code while other unhappy paths are caused by poorly designed user interfaces (UI) that lack necessary constraints and affordances. But of course, it doesn't much matter why something is breaking, if our customers are unhappy, it is our job to fix it.

Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @WorkingCodePod on Twitter and Instagram. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday.

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

Sponsors

• Audible - get a free audiobook from Audible with no strings attached at https://workingcode.dev/audible

This week, on the show, we check-in with Carol to see how she's adjusting to her new role. Carol was recently promoted to a position in which she is a Manager some of the time and an individual contributor (IC) the rest of the time. This setup has a lot of advantages; but, it is not without its challenges. Just last week, she was deep in the coding zone, on the cusp of solving a hard problem, when she had to stop what she was doing and jump into a meeting. This left her with a residue of resentment (in the moment), especially when the first few minutes of the meeting were nothing more than water cooler banter. To be clear, Carol absolutely loves what she is doing; and, she loves being a force-multiplier for her company; but, she's still in the process of finding a comfortable equilibrium.

Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @WorkingCodePod on Twitter and Instagram. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday.

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.

Sponsors

• Audible - get a free audiobook from Audible with no strings attached at https://workingcode.dev/audible

If Ben crushes it in the woods, and no one is there to see it, is he truly crushing it? Such are the philosophical questions that go through Ben's brain as he continues to pour his heart and soul into a legacy product that no one else at the company cares about. That is, except for the customers that still log into the legacy platform on a daily basis. Don't those customers deserve something? Ultimately, Ben just wants to hear that he's doing a good job.

Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @WorkingCodePod on Twitter and Instagram. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday.

And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon.

With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media.