This Developer’s Life

Life is long. A series of chapters as you move from one scene to the next. Childhood, becoming a young adult, possibly a parent at some point, and more.

But how much more? We talk to two people who are well into their later chapters. Scott talks to Lawrence Lockhart about reinventing yourself well into midlife. Rob talks to his mom, who, in her early 80s, was far from her final chapter.

Lawrence Lockhart

• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• TikTok

Music

• Whipping the Horse's Eyes - Calexico
• Yin and Yang (The Flowerpot Man), Instrumental - Love and Rockets
• Spy Always Dies Alone, 23117649
• Oleksandr Stepanov
• Yrii Semchyshyn
• NiN, Ghosts

What do you do when your voice gains an audience? Do you rattle cages or open doors? That's what we talk about in this episode.

Scott talks to Anjuan Simmons about the power of lending your privilege, lifting people up by getting out of the way.

Rob talks to April Edwards about being an ally, listening, and shutting up. April's blog post about her health battle can be found here.

Music

The music used for this show is shared, kindly, by the following artists - our thanks to them!

• Zakhar Dziubenko
• SPMusic
• OctoSound
• Alexi Action
• Nine Inch Nails (as always)
• Praz Khanal

How does our Faith drive us? Do you have Faith in yourself and your abilities, and how do you know you're on the right path? In this episode of This Developer's Life we offer you two stories. 

Rob has packed up his family and is travelling the world. He talks about his Faith in his children, recorded in a small town in Greece. 

Then we talk to Enongo Lumumba-Kasongo, aka Sammus, about her crisus of Faith. She's juggling getting a PhD from Cornell while her side career as a musician is starting to take off. Which path is the right path?

• Sammus - Mae Jemison
• Sammus - No Hands
• Sammus - The Father
• Sammus - 1080p
• Sammus - Pity Party
• Sammus - Success
• Sammus - Power Ups
• Sammus - Cybernetic Armor

In this episode of This Developer's Life we ask the hard questions about space. Why aren't we on Mars? Why haven't we gone back to the moon? We talk to Paul Lutus, Dan Bricklin, Tamar Cohen, and hear from Ray Bradbury.

Scott and Rob have not yet gone to space and don't understand why. In this episode of This Developer's Life we ask the hard questions about space. Why aren't we on Mars? Why haven't we gone back to the moon? We talk to Paul Lutus, Dan Bricklin, Tamar Cohen, and hear from Ray Bradbury.

Credits

Thank you to Jeff Goldsmith, maker of the free storytelling app Backstory, for allowing us to use his recording of Ray Bradbury from Comic-Con 2010.

Big thanks from both my wife and myself for the outpouring of support after our Cancer announcement. Last year was a long year and the Cancer part of the year was particularly long.

We were very private about the whole thing and waited to tell anyone until we knew we were mostly OK. However, to my surprise, the day of the diagnosis my wife, who has never shown much interested in podcasting announced "I want to record an audio Cancer Diary. Can you do that?"

So we did.

We honestly didn't know if we were going to publish this when we started but after a month of editing late into the night, we are.

This episode of This Developer's Life takes a half year of our lives and many, many hours of audio and turns it into a single hour show that Mo and I are happy to share it with you today.

I hope you enjoy the show and that you and yours are, and remain, healthy.

Music

The music tracks this week are used under Creative Commons. Please check out our friends on SoundCloud.

• Xinbi - Elysian Rain
• Ian Redfield Music - Thoughtful Violin (2010)
• Yogi Music - Stuff
• Lunova Labs - La Vie
• Jéan-Paul D. Jackson - Mimi
• SlightWhiteRabbit - Relax1
• Seven Lions - Days to Come
• itsjakez - Cancer

Where does drama come from? How do we react to it? How much drama can be created by simple semicolon? This week we explore The Great Semicolon Affair.

• Peter Cooper Friendly publisher, programmer and author
• Derick Bailey Consultant and aspiring microprenuer
• H. Alan Stevens Father, Geek & Speaker
• Dave Ward Software developer focusing on jQuery and web application usability.
• Sara Chipps Just a girl, standing in front of a compiler, asking it to love her.
• Tenderlove When I'm not trimming my beard, I'm hanging out with my lady.

Music

The music tracks this week are either Creative Commons from Magnatune or 30 - 60 seconds snips used as Fair Use.

How many empty brain cells do you have in your head? How capable are you of learning something completely new, and retaining what you already know? Scott and Rob talk to two developers this week who flex their ability to learn to both have fun, and succeed at their career.

• Patrick Cauldwell Liberal Arts Major and Author of Code Leader
• Zach Johnson 17-year old home-school kid who has an internship building rockets at Microsoft

Music

The music tracks this week are either Creative Commons from Magnatune or 30 - 60 seconds snips used as Fair Use. Most of the music for the show was from a single artist: Aluminum Forest. An amazing album worth your time - go check it out.

• Aluminum Forest - Aluminum Forest
• Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts
• Daft Punk - TRON: Legacy Reconfigured

Photo

This week's evocative photo is from Flickr and is used under Creative Commons.

You're so old! What a dinosaur! You're using old software and old languages to do old things! Or are you? Scott and Rob talk to David Sokol, Sean Bamforth and Pete Brown about Fortran, DataFlex and the Commodore 64. All these dinosaurs are doing useful work. Or, are they?

• David Sokol Fortran Programmer and dude with an AWESOME hover state on his home page
• Sean Bamforth Former Dataflex programmer and now beginning .NET guru
• Pete Brown Senior Project Manager, Microsoft and budding Thomas Edison

Music

The music tracks this week are all Creative Commons from SoundCloud and most are less than 10 seconds.

• djpenegre - Ibiza Sunrise 2
• MattyBlades - Midi Blues
• ~djrain~ - Ladies of the 80s Retro Mix
• mrevaaaaa - The Cogs Are Spinnin'
• WenzelRanch - Happy Feed Midi Jam
• AlexDaniels - Zimbabwe
• Lucent Zoom - 1764
• Lucent Zoom - Irish Song
• MIDI Controller - 'Xactly
• BDarner2 - 6Death of New Age
• The Apex - An Azure Night

Photo

This week's evocative photo is from Flickr and is used under Creative Commons.

What do you do when you're not staring at your computer screen? What obsession grips you as you drive home? In this episode we ask David Heinemeier Hansson and Pete Brown this very question.

• David Heinemeier Hansson Creator of Rails and budding Racer X
• Pete Brown Senior Project Manager, Microsoft and budding Thomas Edison

Music

The music tracks this week are a combination of Fair Use, Royalty-free, and Mashups. As with most of our mashups I won't link the source but you can find them on any video serving site.

• Ladytron - Ace of Hz - DJ Tiesto Remix
• Nine Inch Nails - Various Remixes of Deep and Perfect Drug
• Jerry Berlongieri - Known Bugs
• Karftwerk - Pocket Calculator
• DJs From Mars - Enter Telephone

Who cares about typefaces and why should you? Well, these guys do and you should start caring. Rob and Scott explore the world of reading online with one of the godfathers in the world of typeface and fonts.

• Bill Hill Lover of reading, of typefaces, and co-creator of ClearType
• Geoffrey Grosenbach Owner/Founder of PeepCode

Music

The music tracks this week are a combination of Fair Use, Royalty-free, and Mashups. As with most of our mashups I won't link the source but you can find them on any video serving site.

• Juno Reactor - High Energy Protons
• Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts
• Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - Pieces from the Whole
• Nine Inch Nails - The Great Collapse (Instrumental)
• Calexico - Whipping the Horses Eyes

What is taste? What is style? Do you have it? Scott and Rob have no idea what it is or how to get it - but they know it's important. In this show they talk to a designer who flexes his good taste for a living - and a developer who is committed to spreading good taste where he can.

• Michael Bach Designer at Microsoft
• Geoffrey Grosenbach Owner/Founder of PeepCode

Music

The music tracks this week are a combination of Fair Use, Royalty-free, and Mashups. As with most of our mashups I won't link the source but you can find them on any video serving site.

• Jeff Buckley - Halleluja
• Hymn - Hymn
• Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts
• Jag - My Momma Told Me
• Low and Spring Heel Jack - Hand So Small

Scott and Rob discuss the value of a degree - and talk to two developers who used their passion to pull them through school and into their careers.

• Aqueelah Grant QA Specialist at Trimmer Media
• Seth Juarez Developer Evangelist at DevExpress

Music

The music tracks this week are a combination of Fair Use, Royalty-free, and Mashups. As with most of our mashups I won't link the source but you can find them on any video serving site.

• Deftones - Change in the House of Flies - Accoustic Version
• Music Inside - Sound Objects
• The Kills - The Good Ones
• Lisa DeBenedictus / Sidetrack - DJ Cary
• Swampland - touchingGrace
• The Kills - Tape Song
• Tricky Sandman - Mark Vidler

Scott and Rob talk to a group of Top Gun developers: the StackOverflow team, about the day their database melted - and how the team responded.

• Geoff Dalgas - developer on StackOverflow
• Sam Saffron - developer and data geek at StackOverflow
• Jeff Atwood ,Mr. CodingHorror and co-founder of StackOverflow

Music

The music tracks this week are a combination of Fair Use, Royalty-free, and Mashups. As with most of our mashups I won't link the source but you can find them on any video serving site.

• Beastie Boys - Sabotage
• Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts VI
• Star Garden - Rutile
• Calexico - Whipping the Horse's Eyes
• Rildrim - Linber

In this episode we talk to three developers about criticism - some they've given and some they've received. In addition we talk to a very vocal critic of this podcast.

• Ayende Rahien - a prominent developer in the .NET community and a force of nature
• G. Andrew Duthie - a Developer Evangelist at Microsoft
• Boris Pavlović , a Serbian developer living with his wife and family in Switzerland

Music

The music tracks this week cycle around remixes of a single song: On We March by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The different faces of the music seemed to mirror the phases people go through when confronting criticism - either from others, or their very own.

• Nine Inch Nails - On We March - various Remixes
• David Bowie - Sorrow - Instrumental
• Nine Inch Nails - Perfect Drug (Grind Mix)

In this special episode we explore the Egyptian revolution. We talk to Remon Zakaria about his experience writing software for a day job and overthrowing the government at night. Big thanks to Ahmed Remy and Reem Ahmed for their help. We recorded hours and hours of content to bring you this show. We wish we could have used everyone's story - there were so many.

• Remon Zakaria works at DashSoft, a software consultancy in downtown Cairo specializing in turnkey solutions for offshore companies.

Music

The music this week, aside from the very last song, is from a single composer: Jami Sieber (Lush Mechanique). If you've listened to this show for any significant amount of time - you know that music is a big part of it. This week is no exception: Jami's music is evocative, wonderful, compelling and simply a joy to listen to. Go download these things. All of them. They're wonderful.

The final track is a song from Ramy Essam - an Egyptian folk musician who became the "Singer of the Revolution" and led the masses in Tahrir Square in song.

The track we ended with is a remix of his famous song, found on YouTube.

Rob Sullivan talks about his obsessiveness and how it helps him, and hinders him in his job. Rory Blythe and Scott then talk openly about Rory's compulsion to keep learning - which he has embraced completely.

• Rob Sullivan submitted our very first listener story about what drives him as a DBA - sometimes a bit too far
• Rory Blyth - the smartest man in the world talks openly and candidly about his obsessions - and how he can't just learn something a little bit.

Music

We featured some remixes this week from Nine Inch Nails which is issued under Creative Commons. The band allows you to download their tracks, remix, them, and then load them back to their site for common consumption. If you like the following tracks, please support the band by buying their CDs.

• Nine Inch Nails - Zero Sum - Instrumental
• Nine Inch Nails - All The Love In the World - Instrumental

Other tracks for this week are used under Creative Commons from Magnatunes. In addition we have some bootlegs and I've linked to the DJ's websites:

• Jami Sieber - Secret Heat
• Rildrim - Dead Sun

The following tracks were used under fair use (played for 30-60 seconds):

• Foo Fighters - Everlong

In this episode we talk to competitors who are also programmers. Or, programmers who also compete. Are coders pre-wired for this? Jon Skeet, David Fowler, Aaron Jensen and Danielle Banks share their stories.

• Jon Skeet shares how he stays at the top of the Stack Overflow points pile
• David Fowler talks about TopCode and flying to DisneyWorld to watch coders code
• Aaron Jensen quits his job to play poker professionally
• Daniele R. Banks is just getting started but is already building competing robots

Music

We featured some remixes this week from Nine Inch Nails which is issued under Creative Commons. The band allows you to download their tracks, remix, them, and then load them back to their site for common consumption. If you like the following tracks, please support the band by buying their CDs.

• Nine Inch Nails - Only (Richard X Mix)
• Nine Inch Nails - In Motion (Discrete Omni's Angular Momentum Mix)
• Nine Inch Nails - Heresy (Instrumental)

Other tracks for this week are used under Creative Commons from Magnatunes. In addition we have some bootlegs and I've linked to the DJ's websites:

• Stargarden - Mural
• Swivel Neck Jones - Burn
• Heavy Mellow - Maybe It'll Rain
• Matt Hite - Me and You and Yazoo

In this episode Scott and Rob talk to 4 entrepreneurs about the risks they take, and what's happened as a result. Dave Nielsen, Tom Preston-Werner, and Nate and Niki Kohari.

• Dave Nielsen tells us about working only for himself and what sleeping on a couch in a basement storeroom feels like
• Tom Preston-Werner talks to us about founding Github and turning down $300,000 from Microsoft
• Nate and Niki Kohari talks to us about starting up, and then selling, a tech company while being married

Music

Most of the the tracks for this week are used under Creative Commons from Magnatunes. In addition we have some bootlegs and I've linked to the DJ's websites:

• 2 Many DJs - Beatles Vs Kraftwerk
• Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts
• General Fuzz - Red Balloon
• Nine Inch Nails Remixes - We are Alone/On We March
• Williamson - 2 percent er
• Rildrim - Linber
• Williamson - what's on the ceiling
• Mark Vidler - Go Home Productions - The Weather Episode

The following tracks were used under fair use (played for 30-60 seconds):

• Puscifer - Momma Sed
• MC 900 Foot Jesus - Buried At Sea

In addition - we used a few clips from the movie Rushmore. If you haven't seen it - go get it.

Wes Anderson - Rushmore

In this episode Scott and Rob talk to Chad Myers, Chad Fowler, and Doug Rohrer about the scars they've received from dead end projects they've been on. In addition - Sara Chipps contributes her first story for us - interviewing Scott Reynolds.

• Chad Myers tells us about one of the first lead positions he had working for a sleazy business guy.
• Chad Fowler talks to us about being an imposter
• Sara Chipps contributes her first story to This Developer's Life, interviewing Scott Reynolds about his dream jobs
• Doug Rohrer talks to Scott about bonding under extreme, Enterprise circumstances

Music

The tracks for this week are used under Creative Commons from Magnatunes. In addition we have some bootlegs and I've linked to the DJ's websites:

• Fissunix - Whole Sex Lotta Machine
• DJ Cary - Dreaming of This
• Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts
• General Fuzz - Smiling Perspectives
• Rildrim - Linber
• DJs From Mars - Enter Telephone

This week it's just Scott and me - Scott gets to go off to Disneyland with his wife and 2 boys, and I get to hang out with my girls for a week as their mom goes on a retreat in California.

Music

The tracks for this week are used under Creative Commons from Magnatunes:

• Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts
• General Fuzz - A Spy in the House of Love
• General Fuzz - Walking Home
• John Williams - Days End
• Melissa Polinar - Perfectly Distracted. You can see more of Melissa at http://www.melissapolinar.com.
• Rildrim - Linber
• OGMA -Jasmine's Song

The following tracks were used sparingly, but are not Creative Commons. If you like them - please buy them:

Hapa - Justin's Lullabye

Hapa - Ka Uluwehi O Ke Kai