Web development, JavaScript, careers. Each week starts with an article and and ends with good news.
The podcast Runtime Rundown – JavaScript and Web Development is created by Joe Boyle and Evan Cooper. The podcast and the artwork on this page are embedded on this page using the public podcast feed (RSS).
Another guest! In this episode, we cover Cap Watkins' "The Sliding Scale of Giving A F*ck" with designer Daniel Casey. This episode is all about a framework of how engineering and design can work together when everyone cares about the end product. It's a great listen for anyone wanting to learn how to have productive disagreements. Listen through to the end for some spicy AI takes...
Daniel has been a principal designer at CVS, a senior director at Ticket Master, and is currently a principal designer at Proximity Lab. Check out his profile!
In this episode we cover "Locked doors, headaches, and intellectual need" by Max Kreminski. This article outlines the concept of problem-solution ordering issues and how they are the reason no one understands monads. We soon realize these problem-solution ordering issues are everywhere, and figuring them out is the key to true teaching.
Here's the article Joe mentioned that does a way better job of explaining monads than he did: Functors, Applicatives, and Monads in Pictures.
We decided to cover this article based on a wonderful user comment by @cebamps (gently) calling us out for our flippant take on functional programmers. Thank you so much for writing in!
We have another guest! This time it's Shea Belsky - host of Autistic Techie, former CTO of Mentra, and long time friend of the show. We dive into how TypeScript can empower neurodivergent engineers and explore ways we can all work together more effectively. Join us for a conversation that combines practical insights with heartfelt discussions about creating a more inclusive tech community.
In this special guest episode, we bring on the definitive best Bieber in the world. Aaron Bieber is a both seasoned technologist and excellent career coach. We talk about the art of listening, how we can apply coaching principles to every work life, and more. Also, Aaron does some live coaching magic and makes Evan break out in a cold sweat.
If you want more of Aaron, or to book him as a coach (Evan did!) check him out here:
In this episode we cover "Software development topics I've changed my mind on after 10 years in the industry" by Chris Kiehl. This is a fun one where we riff on things we still believe to be true, things we've changed our mind on, and opinions we've picked up over the years.
In this episode we cover "How To Write Complex Software" by Grant Slatton. If you've ever struggled wondering how to approach a big problem, this one's for you. We go over a mental framework of "top to bottom" engineering, how to maximize parallel efforts, and more.
This is a spiritual successor to our "Speedrunning Projects" episode where we covered a much looser approach. Try them both out and get back to us!
We're back! After almost 3 months of paternity leave, Runtime Rundown is kicking off our 4th season with everyone's favorite topic - performance reviews. We're just getting back in the saddle, so this is a free-form episode without an article. We cover the pros and cons of peer reviews, tech incentive structures and more.
In this episode we cover "Why I'm skeptical of rewriting javascript tools in faster languages" by Nolan Lawson. This is an interesting intersection between tech problems and people problems. There's been a recent wave of venerable JS-based tools being re-written in Rust, Go, Zig, etc. They come out "faster", but are we better or worse off for it?
In this episode, we cover "Pair Programming" written by the inimitable Matt Hamlin. We talk about what pair programming is, why you might do it, and when you maybe shouldn't.
In other news, Joe forgets how to intro the show and Evan drank too much coffee before recording.
In this episode we cover "The T Shaped Engineer" by Alex Kondov, and make a few references to Adam Savage's video How to Ask for a Job (Without Asking). As usual we go off on many tangents and eventually circle back around to the article.
Have an idea for an article we should cover? Head on over to https://runtimerundown.com/suggestionshttps://runtimerundown.com/suggestions and drop us a line!
In this episode we dive into another awesome article from Abi Noda, Using AI to encourage best practices in the code review process. This article covers a recent research paper released from Google outlining the performance, pitfalls, and process of their in-house AI code review bot. We talk about the role of AI in code reviews, our personal views on what code review is all about, and get existential on AI taking our jobs (again). Despite the AI title, this one is just as much about code review in general as it is about AI so if you're sick of AI content - there's still something here for you.
In this week's episode we cover "Using your own product is a superpower" on the PostHog engineering blog. Using your own software, AKA "dogfooding", is one of those topics thrown around by engineers all the way up to CEOS. We talk about what dogfooding looks like, why you would want to implement it (if you can), and some pitfalls of working it into your day-to-day.
In this follow-up to our Speed-running Projects episode, we talk about our ongoing effort to speed-run building a SaaS business from the ground up! We cover what we're building, how we approached it, and what we've learned along the way. We also dive into some of our technical choices and pivots.
Get ready for a knock-drown, drag-out brawl! Just kidding. Joe and I calmly debate the merits of Vim vs No Vim development and Joe nearly converts me.
In this special episode of Runtime Rundown, we tackle a bunch of listener questions from the one and only Matt H. He's been dropping wisdom-bombs all over our suggestion and episode pages and it was time we answered them all. We cover feature toggles, data-driven decisions, Shadcn (again), and working on side projects. If you want us to answer your questions, leave on our suggestions page and we will get to it!
In this episode we cover "Docs-as-code, a brief introduction" by Ezinne Anne Emilia. We talk about what "docs-as-code" means, why we love it, and how to get started. No matter how good at documentation you are, we can always use a refresher on best practices. This is it!
This week we read and discuss How to Build Anything Extremely Quickly by an author known only as dnbt777 on the Learn How to Learn blog. The premise is simple, and you probably learned it in high school: Write an outline. Write it recursively until the outline items are small enough that they can't have sub-items, then fill things in as quickly as possible starting at the smallest items. Don't perfect until done.
If you liked this episode, leave a comment! If not or if you have an idea for an article for us to cover, drop us a suggestion!
Music by Hina
In this episode, we dive into "Why data-driven product decisions are hard (sometimes impossible)" by Andrew Chen. This piece leans heavily towards Product Management and is packed with valuable insights on leveraging data at various stages of company growth. Now, if you're an engineer thinking, "Where's the tech stuff? This is about Product Management!"—I hear you. But remember, being an engineer is about more than just one dimension. Also, if you hate it and want to suggest a new topic, drop us a suggestion!
Do you love two guys rambling while making semi-cogent points? We've got the perfect episode for you! Today we loosely cover "I'm a Good Engineer, but I Suck at Building Stuff" by Lionel Barrow. This is a super short article asking us all to focus more on building and less on bike shedding. We make some decent points, ramble a bit, and do some classic Cooper preaching on caring more about users.
In this episode we cover "How to talk about deadlines at work" by Wes Kao. This is is a super practical guide for two sides of the same coin - missing deadlines. We cover the perspective of IC's and how we can best communicate deadline misses, and we also cover the manager perspective on setting the right culture around deadlines. We've got scripts for you to use, tactical tips, and personal advice so make sure to listen to the end!
In this episode we use "Engineers Are Not A Commodity" by the Stay SaaSy blog to jump into a range of topics including Agile (and how we disagree on estimates), what good managers look like, and why you can't just swap us out like cogs in a machine. This is a bit rant-y, but packed with good information and hot takes!
In this episode, we cover the tc39 Signals standards proposal written by a powerhouse group of influential figures in the JavaScript community and key contributors from various popular frameworks. This is a short but sweet breakdown of what Signals are, what it might mean to the industry, and what we think about the tech and the proposal itself.
Links:
In this episode, we cover Getting Things Done In A Chaotic Environment by the Stay SaaSy blog. This is a practical guide on how to move fast and get things done using Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a metaphor.
We cover 4 pitfalls to avoid when trying to get things checked off your list and add a bunch of tips from our experience fighting Shredder (AKA corporate bull$%^&).
In this episode, we cover a few points from "Shipping to Production" by the excellent Pragmatic Engineer blog. This article outlines the many different ways code makes it into "production". We cover the extremes of too much and too little verifications, and everything in between. The article is long and we only cover a portion of it so give this episode a listen then read the source article for practical advice on your own deployment processes.
In this episode we cover "New GitHub Copilot Research Finds 'Downward Pressure on Code Quality'" by Visual Studio Magazine. This is a summary of a research paper put out by GitClear that looked at 153 million lines of code over 4 years to assess the impact of AI usage on code quality. The paper concluded that Copilot usage is steadily reducing code quality overall, and it looks like it's only going to get worse. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the paper, our own personal feelings on this, and Evan gets a little too existential.
References from the episode:
- Why I'm No Longer Using Copilot by Dreams of Code on YouTube
In this episode we cover "The Basics" by Thorsten Ball. This article lists out all the things we should be doing every day but aren't taught in classes, books, or courses.
You want to listen to this one. These are the foundations on which your skills and expertise rest.
In this episode, we cover "Don't End The Week With Nothing" by Patrick McKenzie. We talk about three different forms of "capital" you build in your career, and how you can meaningfully speed that process up through conscious choices in your career. So many of us work for a week, collect a paycheck, and then walk away with nothing more than a bullet point on a resume. This article describes a way to flip that script and always end the week with something just for you.
We were unprepared! This episode doesn't have an article or any of the traditional trappings of a RR episode. Instead, we talk about Evan's new job and what it's like to onboard to big and small companies. We occasionally slip in some advice as well.
In this episode, we cover "How Developers Stop Learning: Rise of the Expert Beginner". An "Expert Beginner" is not a positive thing. It's defined as a "voluntarily ceasing to improve because of a belief that expert status has been reached and thus further improvement is not possible". We cover how folks end up in this state, how to know if you're in it, and how to get out.
Make sure to head on over to RuntimeRundown.com/suggestions and hit us with article suggestions, ideas, and feedback!
In this episode we share our thoughts on the React 19 updates from React Labs. This blog is from the React Labs and talks about a whole bunch of big changes being worked on for the upcoming React 19 major version release. If you want to stay on top of things like a new compiler, the React team destroying your beloved form libraries, a million new hooks and more, take a listen!
Episode links:
1. https://learn.cantrill.io/ for cloud courses
3. So You Think You Know Git (YouTube)
4. Julia Evans' Git Options blog post
Music by Hina
In this edition of Runtime Double Time™ we cover "The ideal PR is 50 lines long" by Greg Foster. This guy looked at 10 million PRs to find the perfect PR size using 4 key metrics: time-to-merge, revert rate, average number of inline comments, and total code changed over a year. We use it as a sounding board to talk about different PR scenarios, how our review styles have changed through the years, and why people are afraid of <10 line changes.
Welcome to Runtime Double Time - a new format where cut out all the frills and get right to the article (and only the article). In this episode, we cover the classic article "Choose Boring Technology" by Dan McKinley. This is a deep dive on how and why to pick technologies for your project. Do it right, and things just work™. Do it wrong, and you might sink your team (or your company).
In this episode, we cover "The Anatomy of Shadcn/UI" by Manupa. This article is a technical deep dive of Shadcn/UI, the wildly popular new React design system. Why deep dive a design system? Because Shadcn does things differently. You don't install an NPM package, you use something weird called Class Variance Authority, and more. We get to the bottom of the question "but is it any good".
In this episode we give you "3 questions that will make you a phenomenal rubber duck" by Dan Slimmon. The ancient art of “Rubber duck debugging” is explaining, out-loud, a difficult problem that you’re stuck on. We cover how to be the best rubber duck out there with these three great questions to ask, as well a bunch of tips and tricks from our own rubber ducking experiences.
In this episode, we go through "The Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design" by Ben Schneiderman. Yet this is a foray into user interface design. Yes, we know we are not designers, but every frontender should have at least a familiarity with design to be well rounded. We put our frontend engineering spin on each point and we think you'll come away with at least a few nuggets to apply to your everyday work.
Want to suggest an article for a future episode? Drop us a line at RuntimeRundown.com
"Adding human resources to a late software project makes it later"
- Fred Brookes
In this episode, we cover "Visualize Brooks's Law: When More People Makes a Late Software Project Later" by Adam Tornhill
In this episode we take a hard look at what's wrong with the current Open Source development landscape. We cover the the bad and ugly of OS with "Why I Quit Open Source" by Artem Sapegin. This brings us on a journey through developer entitlement and developer toxicity and ends with the three "F"s of Open Source.
From this baseline, we spend the majority of our time outlining a "Healthier Way to Open Source" by Artem Sapegin. This is a practical, positive guide to working in Open Source in a healthier way.
If you hate our clickbait title, want to yell at us for our sub-par takes, or just want to reach out make sure to drop us a line over at Runtime Rundown.
In this special episode, we dive into the uncharted waters of mental health in the tech industry with Savannah Hipes, a seasoned Psychotherapist and Insomnia Specialist.
Discussing her three-article series, "Insomnia in the Tech Industry", we unravel the intricate relationship between our fast-paced tech lifestyles and the way we sleep (or don't sleep for some of us).
Savannah sheds light on how the relentless pace of technology affects our arousal systems, the curious case of disrupted circadian rhythms specifically in tech work, and the concerning trend of insomnia among tech professionals.
Tune in for an enlightening discussion that merges technology with psychology, offering unique insights and practical advice for navigating the mental challenges of the digital age.
Savannah Hipes, LCSW is a Psychotherapist and Insomnia Specialist in Winter Park, Florida. She helps highly driven, sleep-deprived professionals who feel exhausted and on edge to finally sleep through the night. Licensed in both Florida and New York, Savannah sees clients virtually and in-person and treats anxiety, insomnia, nightmares, and eating disorders. She also does public speaking, corporate wellness, and provides clinical training on sleep and eating related topics. She's known for laughing loudly and doing a secret happy dance when clients leave the office sleeping better than they have in years.
Reach out to Savannah:
Insta, FB, Linkedin: @savannahhipeslcsw
In this episode we cover "Where Does Complexity Go?" by Al Tenhundfeld. This article starts with the premise of Tesler's Law - all applications have a certain amount of complexity that can't be removed or hidden. We try to answer the question of where that complexity should go, to the customer or to the developer?
This is the third installment in our string of episodes about complexity in software engineering - make sure to check out the other two!
In this episode, we go deep on "How Platform Engineering Works" with a real life platform engineer - Joe! If you have ever wondered what platform engineering is, or more likely, if you've ever wondered what the hell platform engineers do all day - this episode is for you. We cover what platform engineering is, how to adopt the right mindset, what great platform engineering teams do well, and more.
Even if you aren't interested in platform engineering, this is a great listen for improving your everyday approach to building software at scale.
In this very special episode, we bring you a battle-royale between Evan, powered by ChatGPT, and Joe, powered by Lavazza Espresso.
We both set out to build a chrome extension to highlight text on websites. Joe had to write it by hand. Evan used ONLY ChatGPT via copy/paste with no code written by hand.
It's now up to you. Check out each of our repos and comment what you think on the episode.
Repo links:
Interesting links:
In this episode your two favorite frontenders cover "How to Ask Good Technical Questions" from the excellent FreeCodeCamp blog. Make no mistake - asking good questions is a critical skill to develop in your engineering career. We delve into strategies and personal experiences around how to best frame technical questions to maximize your chance at a productive answer (and also not annoy everyone you ask).
In this episode, we talk all about "Why I Won't Use Next.js" by Kent Dodds. Yes, the title is clickbait, but the content delivers. We cover NextJS stability issues, deployment difficulties, "too much magic" and many more reasons why we might just be souring on this famous framework.
As always, visit is on RuntimeRundown to leave a suggestion, comment on an episode, and search through our back catalogue.
In this episode, we talk all about visual regression testing!
Today's article, Upgrading frontend dependencies with confidence, is a case-study in using visual regression testing to catch UI issues in your build and deploy processes. We deep dive tooling, implementation, and try to answer the question "is it worth it"?
Note to our audiophile listeners - Evan's mic switches to a poor quality one mid-episode. You will not enjoy this.
Some Related articles:
In this episode, we dive into The Myth of the Myth of Learning Styles by Ned Batchelder. This is a short but thought provoking article on how to find the right way to learn for you. We go through a series of questions you can ask yourself to find out how to best learn.
We're still shaking off the rust after a few months away but we know you listen for the flubs as much as the content.
Head over to runtimerundown.com and let us know what you thought of the show!
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
We're back everybody! After a multi-month hiatus, we've finally returned with a whole episode on Joe's (successful) job search. This is end-to-end coverage on the current job market for Frontend. We cover Joe's preparation, some his interview experiences, and lots of tips for getting the best possible job for you.
We'll be back every week, so keep looking out for new episodes Monday / Tuesday.
Be sure to check out RuntimeRundown.com and drop us a suggestion or ask questions on a particular episode. We love hearing from you all!
In this episode we cover "How to fight super-helper syndrome" by Laetitia Vitaud. This article is a spring-board for discussing healthy practices in mentorship, general boundaries, and keeping ourselves sane in the workplace. If you've ever felt burned out from giving too much of yourself to others at work, give this a listen.
Joe is learning some crazy cool rust voodoo, Evan is submitting to our AI overlords, and Joe has some of the best good news yet.
Also, we're going on a break! We will see you all in a few weeks/month. Enjoy the rest of your summers and we will catch you all in the next episode. Thank you for listening!
In this episode we cover the newest core web vital, "Interaction to Next Paint". This is a full introduction to web vitals in general, what Interaction to Next Paint is, what it's replacing, how it's measured and more. This is a big shakeup to performance measurement so listen up!
Joe's learning is somehow related to GeoGuesser again, Evan says "Falcon" way too many times and also randomly complains about React Hooks.
In this episode we cover two articles for the price of one in our attempt to answer the question - does software quality even matter?
First up, "Are bugs and slow delivery ok?". This may be a thinly veiled advertisement for a consultant but it does pose some soul-search-worth questions. We reflect on them through a response article full of rage and resignation - "Responding to “Are bugs and slow delivery ok?”: The blog post that I’ve hated the most, ever".
Evan is failing to learn how to estimate tasks better, and Joe is improving in Japanese!
In this episode, we cover "Thoughts from “Meet Safari for Spatial Computing” by Jim Nielsen. If you haven't seen Apple Vision Pro yet, it's the future of dystopian wearables. The big question is how does this 3D AR/VR website view and interact with the 2D internet? For the answer to that question you'll have to listen to the episode. Here's a teaser - to enable the future we need to look back 30 years....
Joe and Evan both pronounce regex weird (or right depending on the audience), we have our sound effects back, and Joe nitpicks a listener for leaving a comment in the "wrong" place because he's a real nerd.
Links:
TOTALLY not a clickbait title to drum up listeners....
In this episode, we dive deep into "Imaginary Problems Are the Root of Bad Software". It starts off small - why is there such a difference between acceptance criteria and deliverables? Why is it we tend to solve X when we're asked to build Y? It goes bigger and bigger from there and eventually asks the question, do any of our jobs even matter? This is hopefully a cathartic listen for all you devs out there. If not, yell at us over at Runtime Rundown.
Joe is learning how to hack passwords, Evan is forever learning accessibility (and making flashcards like the old man he is), and we lost our sound effects so this one is a bit weird. Enjoy!
In this episode we cover "Hands on with the Node.js test runner" By Phil Nash. Joe and Evan take a hard look at the now stable release of the Node.js native test runner. We talk about what it can do, what it can't do, and how it stacks up against the biggest player in the space...Jest.
Evan is learning wayyy too much about making espresso, and Joe is finally back on track and learning via HackAttic.
In this episode, we cover "The Cognitive Load Developer's Handbook" by Artem Zakirullin (and contributors). This is a practical episode on making your code as easy to read and follow as possible. We give tips for reducing complexity and being kind to the next developer to work where you left off.
Joe once again weasels out of learning (this is the last one or he's fired), Evan is getting lost on purpose, and our good news gets a little weird.
Go to our suggestions page and tell Joe to learn something.
In this episode, we cover "The JavaScript Ecosystem Is Delightfully Weird" by Sam Ruby on Fly.io blog. This article and episode are a loose continuation of last week's episode "Did The Web Go Too Far" where we yelled at the internet for going too far with Javascript and how there is an endless stream of new things to keep up with. This time we look back at the same progression of the web, but ask "what if that endless stream of innovation is a good thing"?
Joe learned one thing, and Evan is learning more things that you almost definitely don't care about.
Go to RuntimeRundown.com and leave us a suggestion if there is a topic you want covered!
In this episode, we cover "The Web I Want" by Chris James. This article is an excoriating take on what's wrong with the modern web. Spoiler alert: it's too much Javascript (according to Chris). As a couple of certified old guys™ and current JS devs, Joe and I are uniquely qualified to talk about where we are in the evolution of the web and where, if at all, we all went wrong.
Get ready for some hot takes including a classic TS downvote-fest by Evan.
Joe is learning how to implement DNS in a weekend while Evan goes deep on horticulture and learns about grass seed for different climates and sun exposures. You're welcome.
Check out RuntimeRundown.com for all your commenting and suggestion needs and don't forget to rate us in your favorite podcast player!
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
In this episode, we cover "Ups and Downs of A Side Project" by Jereme Greze. We cover some of the things you should and shouldn't do when starting and sustaining a long-term side project. Should you build something super specific, or cover a wide use-case? Should you build "quick-and-dirty", or start with scalability in mind? Check out the episode for a full breakdown.
Evan is still learning accessibility, Joe is somehow learning something nerdier than "bloom filters", and we have some faith-restoring good news.
Go to our suggestions page to drop us a note with feedback, suggestions, grievances, praise (we love that) , or just to say hey. We will shout you out in an episode!
We're switching it up again - this time with a grab bag where we cover a trio of topics.
We start with a listener request and get deep into our feelings on SCSS in 2023. Spoiler alert, it's serious. Then we move on to "Just Simply" and cover all the words you shouldn't use in your technical communication. Finally, we round it out with "Writing Tips for Improving Your Pull Requests" and give our two cents on the importance of crafting a great pull request (with some tips).
Links from the show:
• Natali Vlatko - Documenting the (Ancient) History of your Project
• Dan Abramov's Preact Signals bug report comment
As always, head on over to RuntimeRundown.com and let us know what you think of the new episodes with the suggestion box.
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
In this episode we cover "How to Lead a Project - as a Software Engineer" by Gergely Orosz. This is a practical, step-by-step guide on crushing the soft-skills portion of a project. We cover how to set a good foundation of communication, how to effectively manage risk, best practices for updates, and a whole lot more.
No matter what level you are in your career, following this guide for your next project (big or small) will definitely set you apart as an effective leader.
We get back to our roots and deliver some new learning and some great news to sail away on. Also, we are still tinkering with our into and outtro...so we're sorry about that.
As always, visit Runtime Rundown to drop us a suggestion, listen, and comment on episodes. Thanks for listening!
Welcome to season 2 of Runtime Rundown! Read to the end for info on some of our season 2 changes.
We're trying a new format this week with no article, fireside chat style. Joe and Evan discuss some things to think about when making big technical decisions - how to know when to make a change, how to plan out and execute the project, and how to prevent against getting it really wrong.
Joe is learning another obscure programming topic, and we wait until the way end to shout out an awesome person.
Season 2 changes:
As always, please drop us a suggestion over at Runtime Rundown if there are any changes you want to see, new things you don't like, or topics you would like us to cover. We love feedback!
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
In this episode, we cover "The End of Front-End Development" by Josh Comeau ... and that's the end of the podcast because Front-End development is over folks!
Just kidding (we hope). We take a hard look at what AI can and can't do right now, we prognosticate about what it might be able to do in the future, and we predict what we think will happen to junior, mid, and senior level developer roles moving forward.
In other news, Joe and Evan continue to try new introductions, Evan is learning prompt engineering, and Joe learned how to stand on Jupiter.
Go to www.runtimerundown.com and give us a suggestion for what you want to hear, and make sure to comment on an episode!
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
In this episode, we talk about "Deploys Are the ✨WRONG✨ Way to Change User Experience" by Charity Majors (one of the best bloggers out there, check out more here).
Do you need to make a deploy to show a new user experience? Do you not use feature toggles? Do you hate pedantic questions for the sake of making a point? If you answered yes to any of these, listen to this lightning-fast episode on how to separate your deploys from your releases and make your customers happier.
In other news, Evan is done learning and hates lots of books, Joe is getting Rusty again, and we have some of the good-est good news yet.
Make sure to check out the Runtime Rundown site to drop us a suggestion, comment on episodes, and listen to our back catalogue!
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
In this (two days late) episode, we welcome special guest Sully Martinez to talk about “The Dos and Don’ts of Coding Bootcamps” by…Sully Martinez. We discuss the bootcamp Sully attended to get her start, Resilient Coders, and we cover general tips for succeeding at any software bootcamp. If you are thinking about going to a bootcamp or if you have preconceived notions of what a bootcamp graduate is like - this is worth a listen.
We go down memory lane about building community around engineering, what life was like back in our Wayfair days, and what we are all up to now. Evan is learning another keyboard because he didn’t learn his lesson the first time, Joe is still our resident Japanese expert, and Sully is deep in the cloud.
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
Programming is terrible, At least according to the author of this week's article: "Repeat yourself, do more than one thing, and rewrite everything," on the Programming is Terrible blog. We talk about our experience with some of the pros and cons of some of these, and then delve into Dyson Spheres, oyster wool, and how Adele disrupted the vinyl industry.
In the show we mention:
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
In this QUICK episode, we cover "The Great Gaslighting of the JavaScript Era" by Jared White. This article is a series of spicy takes on how Javascript frameworks took over the world of web development, and how it didn't happen by accident. If you're even remotely interested in the state of JS on the web, this one is worth a listen.
We attempt to present a modest viewpoint on the proliferation of frameworks but Evan ends up adding a conspiracy theory of his own. We bring in one article in support of frameworks - "The case for frameworks" by Laurie Voss, and two articles that rail against frameworks - "The Market for Lemons" by Alex Russel and "A historical reference of React criticism" by Zach Leatherman.
Also, we talk about space solar.
Make sure to check out Runtime Rundown to suggest new ideas, comment on episodes, and yell at us about mistakes!
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
In today's episode, we cover "Willingness to Look Stupid" by Dan Luu. We talk about how being comfortable "looking stupid" can help you improve faster, and cover a few examples and tips on how to apply this in your day-to-day.
Evan tries a new intro, we fumble every segment transition, Joe has some excellent good news, and Evan read a bunch of books recently.
Book links:
Plugging Ourselves:
Get involved at Runtime Rundown! You can make a suggestion for an episode, ask a question for us to answer, and comment directly on episodes.
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
This week we read Please Developers, Don't be D**ks and talk about being nice to your coworkers. Evan is becoming a certifiable a11y ally and Joe is saving the world with coffee.
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
In this speedy episode we cover "How to Misuse & Abuse DORA Metrics" by Abi Noda, with a little flavor added by "How DORA Metrics Can Measure and Improve Performance".
We talk about how DORA metrics can help and hurt you, the trap of "vanity metrics", and why metrics should be tied to tangible goals to really matter.
Joe gives two shoutouts to friends of the show, Evan's dogs interrupt his learning, and an owl has escaped the central park zoo!
Code review! We've all done it, but we don't all do it the same. This week we talk about how Netlify does it, from their article Feedback Ladders: How We Encode Code Reviews at Netlify. Everything from Mountains to Boulders to Pebbles to Dust, we cover it all! We also have a new segment with a very special guest!
Along the way, we mention GameShell: https://github.com/phyver/GameShell
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
In this episode, we cover "Why is My Jest Test Suite So Slow" by Steven Lemon and completely nerd out on it. This one is chock-full of practical tips for improving your Jest suite time as well as your general understanding of how Jest works "under the hood".
Evan does a "Cookie Corner" and hyper-speaks through a bunch of reasons why you shouldn't use client side cookies. Joe talks about memory leaks while sounding mildly depressed, and we actually have good news this week!
Extra resources for Jest testing:
1. Use the time shell built-in for enhanced timing. time npm run <your test command> --takeyourtime
2. See this issue on why Jest workers are slow sometimes
3. See this issue on why userEvent.type is slow all the time
4. Check out this package for reporting slow individual tests
5. For finding Jest memory leaks, try node --inspect-brk --expose-gc ./node_modules/.bin/jest --runInBand --logHeapUsage
This week we read Things They Didn't Teach You About Software Engineering by Vadim Kravcenko. Along the way we mention the #NoEstimates movement and this talk by Allen Holoub. Joe talks about games that make him sick, Evan talks about GraphQL, and Good Gripes goes WAY off the rails.
Books we mention this episode:
• Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke
• System Design Interview: An Insider's Guide by Alex Xu
• So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
In this episode, we cover "Cultivating depth and stillness in research" by Andy Matuschak. We go over tons of actionable strategies and tips to optimize your brain for longer periods of focus. The article is chock full of graphs and data, so make sure to check it out.
Along the way, Joe and I realize we suck at deep work (for now), we make New Year's Resolutions (even though we just claimed we don't like them in a recent episode), and Evan has an epiphany about ChatGPT.
The time has come for a feature length episode on Typescript with guest star Scott Kaye! In this magnum opus, Scott, a Typescript Wizard, details some of the stronger points of Typescript through the lens of two conflicting articles - "Typescript is Terrible for Library Developers" and "Stop Using 'any', There's a Type for That". Evan yells at clouds nearly the entire time.
To be serious for a minute - this is a good two-sided conversation about the strengths and (gasp) weaknesses of Typescript - it's worth a listen if you want to finally hear something other than "tYpESCripT Is tHE bESt!!!!!!"
Scott introduces Scott's Principles of Typescript™, Evan claims Typescript is an elaborate scheme perpetrated on the developer community by Microsoft, and Joe loses us all talking about "bit shifting".
Also, Scott will blow out your eardrums at some point so it's best you just live in fear the entire episode in anticipation.
Some links we mentioned:
1. ThePrimeagen on "making an algorithm faster"
3. HackerNews thread about "Typescript is Terrible For Library Developers"
In this episode, we talk about "Writing docs well: why should a software engineer care" by Lorin Hochstein. We cover the importance of technical writing, how to structure your docs for maximum impact, and some of the secondary benefits of writing things down. No matter where you are in your career in software, there's something in here to help you improve how you put your ideas on paper.
In other news: Joe isn't learning anything and Evan is starting an evil plan to break the blogging industry.
Oh, and use Hemmingway Editor to make your writing punchier.
Happy New Year!
In this episode, we talk about "The Five Challenges to Building an Isomorphic Javascript Library" by Nick Fahrenkrog. If the word "isomorphic" scares you this is a must-listen because we do a sort-of decent job explaining it.
Joe corrects himself on a V8 Isolates comment from last episode (Cloudflare article here) then proceeds to talk wayyy more about them. Evan babbles about nutrition stuff and is skeptical about VILPA.
Oh, and Joe's audio isn't great. Happy New Year!
This week we look back at 2022! The show goes off the rails a bit, but we get back on track and read The New Stacks's yearly retrospective, talking about JavaScript at the edge, static site generators, and frameworks. We have an uninformed discussion about V8 isolates and have a lovely fireside chat!
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
This week we talk about web performance basics and read A Web Performance Audit Checklist (not as dry as it sounds!) by David Gilbertson. This week we cover the whole spectrum:
As always, send your questions/comments/hamburger recipes to https://runtimerundown.com!
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
In this episode we break from tradition and cover a few different articles through the general lens of "Frontend ain't what it used to be". We kick off with a discussion on change-resistance with "Familiarity Bias is Holding You Back: It’s Time to Embrace Arrow Functions" by Eric Elliot. Evan dumps on typescript again via "The TypeScript Tax" by Eric Elliot. Finally, Joe and Evan give their expert (/s) opinion on the future of AI and ChatGPT.
Oh, also Joe has no good news again so enjoy the pain.
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
In this episode, we cover "Addressing Tech Debt" by Abi Noda. This article is a summary of a much larger paper on the common bottlenecks of scaling up engineering orgs.
Joe and Evan politely disagree on something, Evan yells at Typescript again, and we have literally no good news. Also, robots are going to kill us all (thanks San Francisco).
Questions? Comments? Ideas for future articles? Send them to us at runtimerundown.com!
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
This week we skip the article and talk about all the things we're thankful for in tech and our careers so far. Evan gets edited and Joe second guesses a segue. Thanks to all of you for listening!
Questions? Comments? Ideas for future articles? Send them to us at runtimerundown.com!
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
In this episode, we teach you how to be a programmer in 24 hours!
...Psych. We cover "Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years" by Peter Norvig, an article calling out "fast learning" marketing and paving a real-world path to programming excellence. Joe and Evan walk through a bunch of things you can do to learn / excel in programming. Joe gets a little mad at computer science degrees. Evan attempts to sound smart by talking about how the brain works (based solely on google knowledge).
Books we mention:
"Outliers" by Malcom Gladwell
"The Little Schemer" by Daniel Friedman
"Code" by Charles Petzold
We dive deep into the "use" hook RFC , a proposal by the React team to give first-class support for promises in React.
Evan mouth codes (poorly), Joe definitely doesn't talk about bloom filters again, and we both lament the volatility of the Frontend ecosystem.
Links:
• React Server Components blog post
• <Suspense /> documentation (beta)
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
What did we talk about
In this episode, we’re talking about “The Wrong Abstraction" by Sandi Metz. We go against years of programming best practices and propose copy-pasting code….sometimes.
Along the way, we mention "AHA Programming" by Kent Dodds and "The Wet Codebase" by Dan Abramov, and generally rail against speculative generality.
If you listen long enough, you’ll hear Joe mouth-coding something called a “bloom filter” and Evan makes an offer you can’t refuse.
In this episode, we cover Tanya Reilly's powerful talk - "Being Glue".
Deep down, we all (hopefully) know there's a lot more to a successful software project than code. There are planning meetings, design reviews, architecture deep dives, getting buy-in from partner teams, and the list goes on. All of this is the glue that holds a team and their work together and someone needs to do it. But who should do it, and how do we properly reward them for doing it (spoiler: we get this part wrong a lot)?
If you've ever done thankless work like this for your team, listen to this episode. If you have never done this kind of work for your team - also listen. There's a decent chance you're forcing someone else into it.
This week we read The 10X Programmer Myth by Justin Etheredge. Point Hogs and Rocket Turtles, Code Fountains and Obsessors, this article is a menagerie of developer archetypes. Evan examines whether Preact Signals might actually be exactly what he needs, and Joe learns something about NextJS he probably should have known already. Let's go!
Do you have a suggestion for an article we should read? A question nobody will answer? Get in touch at https://runtimerundown.com!
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
This week we get into one of our favorite topics: Testing! We read Software Testing Anti-patterns from the Codepipes blog and see how much we agree. We also mention the talk Please Don't Mock Me (mocking and test doubles) from the AssertJS conference. Evan has one or two Typescript hot takes, and Joe tells us about a headline he read.
Questions? Article suggestions? Go to runtimerundown.com and tell us what's on your mind!
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
In this episode, we do some serious science stuff! Well not exactly. We read an article called "Does Experience Matter" where Abi Noda breaks down a new scientific study on what makes an effective programmer. If you want to dive into the study yourself, check it out here.
We talk about how you can’t go wrong with mentorship, code review, tests, and learning. We dump on typescript for a while, and Evan talks about hating cats.
Also, go to runtimerundown.com and leave us some comments or post a question!
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
This week we read Introducing Signals from the folks at Preact. We discuss whether or not the world needs another state management library when it already has a million libraries such as recoil, zustand, and zingaling. We learn a bit about Panda Planners and Supabase and take you on the Good News Cruise as always!
Here are the Signals docs: https://preactjs.com/guide/v10/signals/
Here's the Hacker News discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32743078
If you're interested in seeing where they update React.createElement, here's the source for that!
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
In the second part of our two-part series on interviewing in tech, we cover the perspective of the interviewer. We talk through "The Anatomy of A Perfect Technical Interview", share some experiences as interviewers, and come to the realization that we may never be able to get hiring "right".
For some follow-up information, check out this youtube video from the guys over at HTTP203 on conducting tech interviews.
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
This week is the first part of a two episode miniseries on interviewing! We brave the thunder and lightning to talk about the candidate's point of view and share some tips and interviewing horror stories. We try out a new "What are you learning?" intro, Evan has good news about trees and Joe has good news about a cloud.
This week's article: F*** you I Quit, Hiring is Broken
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
Our first guest! Seraphina Orsini drops in to talk about open source sustainability with this week's article Sponsoring Dependencies. We reminisce about the time we were all on the same team, Joe forgets to introduce Seraphina with her full name, and Evan forgets where Antarctica is.
The other article we mention is Don't be that open source user, don't be me.
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
This week we read Write Code Every Day by James Resig and talk about our own experiences keeping up a coding habit. We also mention 180 websites in 180 days by Jennifer Dewalt, Evan learning to type again, and Joe feeling unprepared for his upcoming exam.
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
In this episode, we talk about one person's journey to becoming a staff engineer. We talk about the good traits of senior+ engineers, a bit about how to get there, and some things we think a senior+ shouldn't do.
Also, Joe shamelessly self-promotes his new Let's Build Tetris! youtube series (jk, he paid me to introduce it "naturally").
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
In this episode, we talk about the cost of convenience by surma.dev. We discuss what makes a good abstraction, go off on a few philosophical tangents, and bring it all back together with a staggering quote of heartbreaking genius in the middle (you'll have to listen for it).
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
This week we talk about Hyperscript and HTMX, a new-ish scripting language and its HTML-based cousin. Will it be the language that usurps JavaScript? Only time will tell. We also talk Vim and VSCode, tree structures and Tetris, and bring you some cruise-based news on the Good News Cruise.
The article: Reimagining front-end web development with HTMX and Hyperscript
The sources: HTMX and Hyperscript
Joe's Tetris video series: Let's Build Tetris!
Music by Hina and Kevin MacLeod
In this episode, we have another multi-article adventure. We start by talking about The Collapse of Complex Software, an article about how developers don't know how to delete code, then add depth by getting into a Build Your Own Framework hacker news flame war.
We also apologize to Syntax, Evan compares engineers to farmers (then archeologists), and Joe experiments with terrible sound effects.
Other references:
- Natali Vlatko's video on Code Archeology
- How Standard Ebooks Serves Millions of Requests per month with a 2GB VPS
In this episode we read an article about Bun, a new JS runtime that has the community abuzz. We talk about the hype and the downsides of using beta software, and the trap of simple performance tests. We also talk about puppet master hamsters and Evan's part-time job as Reddit Batman.
Here's the article if you want to follow along: https://techsparx.com/nodejs/bun/1st-trial.html
Fireship's 3 minute intro to Bun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMhScnY0dME
The video where ThePrimeagen breaks Bun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAYFepR4GcE
Bun on GitHub: https://github.com/oven-sh/bun
In this episode, we talk about this article, "The End of Localhost" by Swyx.
We cover what the world will look like in 2030, the challenges of ephemeral dev environments, and how we are both old farts who like coding on our personal machines (for now). Also, Joe refers to the internet as "Internet".
Joe and Evan talk about hydration with Quik, and some other stuff.
The article: https://thenewstack.io/javascript-hydration-is-a-workaround-not-a-solution/
En liten tjänst av I'm With Friends. Finns även på engelska.