freeCodeCamp Podcast

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Ben Awad, a game developer who creates developer tutorials on YouTube and TikTok.

I hope you enjoy our conversation. Can you guess what bass line I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's from a 1979 song.

Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Also, I want to thank the 8,983 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

Links we talk about during the interview:

Ben's game, Void Pet on Android and iOS (Built in React Native): https://voidpet.com/

XKCD coming on "Real Programmers" that Quincy mentions: https://xkcd.com/378/

React Native course by Ben Awad: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/create-an-app-that-works-on-ios-android-and-the-web-with-react-native-web/

I can't find my Mac Control hotkeys video tutorial that I mentioned anywhere, so I wrote a quick article explaining how to use these: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news//mac-control-keyboard-shortcuts-hotkeys-macos

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Andrew Brown, a CTO-turned co-founder of ExamPro.co.

Andrew created this cloud certification exam prep website with another Andrew ? also from Canada, who also loves Star Trek.

We talk about Andrew's early career fixing computers in the 90s, and his early freelance web development work. These ultimately lead to jobs and promotions that leveled him up to CTO.

Andrew also shares his advice to devs who want to learn DevOps and Cloud Engineering, and which certs to prioritize.

Andrew suffers from Muscle Tension Dysphonia, a disease that causes voice loss. He shares how he's using AI tools to get around this.

Andrew also talks about his love of Tetris Attack (also known as Panel de Pon or Pokémon Puzzle League). He built a frame-perfect port for competitive online play.

And of course, Andrew's favorite Star Trek episodes of all time.

Can you guess what bass line I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's the theme from a 90s cartoon.

Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Also, I want to thank the 8,933 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

Links we talk about during the interview:

Just a few of Andrew's many freeCodeCamp cloud cert prep courses. (He has dozens more on freeCodeCamp's YouTube channel): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/author/andrew/

His website, ExamPro.co: https://www.exampro.co/

American Mall simulator browser game by Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/american-mall-game/

The Greatest Generation podcast: https://maximumfun.org/podcasts/greatest-generation/

On this week's episode of the podcast, I interview Jabril. He's an indie game developer who's building a turn-based fighting game called ultrabouters.

Jabril has developed tons of other games as well. He runs the popular Jabrils gamedev focused-YouTube. He's also published a 5-hour introduction to programming course on freeCodeCamp.

We talk about:

- How Jabril got into gamedev as a kid when he got a copy of GameMaker
- Jabril's career working at a comedy club and a radio station
- The anime that Jabril's been working on for years
- Jabril's advice to gamedevs who want to make a career out of building video games

Can you guess what bass line I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's a 2009 song that became popular in the 2010's by being associated with a meme.

Be sure to share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Also, I want to thank the 8,909 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

Links we talk about during the interview:

Jabril's full length Programming for Beginners course on freeCodeCamp: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/programming-for-beginners-how-to-code-with-python-and-c-sharp/

That time Quincy angered the entire BTS army with a confused tweet: https://twitter.com/ossia/status/993171422863417344

"The best episodes of Shark Tank are the bad ideas." How Jabril created a Fake Shark Tank Episode Generator using AI tools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcGjYivktyc

Subscribe to Jabril on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Jabrils

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp Founder Quincy Larson interviews Leon Noel, founder of 100Devs and head of engineering at Resilient Coders.

Growing up, Leon had it drilled into him that he had to become a doctor, lawyer, or dentist. But his ambitions grew and he went on to have an exciting career in tech.

After a successful exit from a startup, Leon wanted to help folks who were struggling during the pandemic. He started 100Devs, a charity which has helped 10,000s of people learn to code.

We talk about:

dropping out of Yale getting into the selective Tech Stars startup accelerator Getting involved with Resilient Coders, a charity that helps court-involved youth learn coding Starting 100Devs and building a Discord server with 60,000 people learning to code together

Quincy recorded this podcast live and hasn't edited it at all. We want to capture the feel of a real live conversation, with all the human quirks that entails.

Can you guess what song he's playing on my bass during the intro? It's his arrangement of the intro to a 1990s cartoon.

Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Also, we want to thank the 8,427 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

Links we talk about during the interview:

The video that changed Leon's life on Spaced Repetition, by Ali Abdaal: https://youtu.be/Z-zNHHpXoMM

The official Anki app, which is free on web / desktop and doesn?t lock you into a subscription. Leon's advice: "Only create cards on one device, but review on any to save you from weird syncing issues." https://apps.ankiweb.net

Dr. Barbara Oakley?s Learn How to Learn course, which Leon calls "a masterpiece": 
https://coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn

The 100Devs website (new cohort starting in early May): https://100devs.org/about

Trailer for X-men '97: https://youtu.be/pv3Ss8o9gGQ

Thelonious Monk [pianist Quincy mentions] "Straight No Chaser" documentary trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx0E9-ThvKc

Leon on YouTube: http://leonnoel.com/youtube

Leon on Discord: http://leonnoel.com/discord

Leon's Twitch for his live streams: http://leonnoel.com/twitch

Leon's website: https://leonnoel.com/

In this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Jessica Lord, AKA JLord. She's worked as a software engineer for more than a decade at companies like GitHub and Glitch. 

Among her many accomplishments, Jessica created the Electon team at GitHub. Electron is a library for building desktop apps using browser technologies. If you've used the desktop version of Slack, Figma, or VS Code, you've used Electron.

I recorded this podcast live and I haven't edited it at all. I want to capture the feel of a real live conversation, with all the human quirks that entails. As with all my podcast episodes, I start by performing a classic bass line. Can you guess what song this bass line is from? It's a "cult" hit from 1990.

Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Also, I want to thank the 8,427 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

Links we talk about during the interview:

GitIt, Jessica's interactive Git course on Node School: https://github.com/jlord/git-it

Jessica's old craft blog (you may get an HTTPS warning from your browser but the site is just an old Blogspot site): http://www.ecabonline.com/

JSBin founder Remy Sharp's blog about JSBin and how he "lost his love of his side project": https://remysharp.com/2015/09/14/jsbin-toxic-part-1

Subdivisions song by Rush that Quincy mentions. Great early morning listening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYYdQB0mkEU    

This week freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Phoebe Voong-Fadel about her childhood as the daughter of refugees, and how she self-studied coding and became a professional developer at the age of 36.

Phoebe worked from age 12 at her parent's Chinese take-out restaurant. She was able to study history at the London School of Economics, before working in higher ed.

She left her job to raise two kids due to the high cost of childcare in the UK, and spent years self-studying coding before becoming a software developer at age 36.

I recorded this podcast live and I haven't edited it at all. I want to capture the feel of a real live conversation, with all the human quirks that entails. As with all my podcast episodes, I start by performing a classic bass line. Can you guess what song this bass line is from? It's from 1989.

Phoebe has earned multiple certifications from freeCodeCamp, and also published a number of articles on our publication.

How Phoebe went from stay-at-home mom to Front End Web Developer at age 36: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-i-went-from-stay-at-home-mum-to-front-end-web-developer-39724046692a/

Phoebe's review of Harvard CS50: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/cs50-course-review/

The BBC Take-away Kids documentary, which Phoebe said is what her childhood was like, working from age 12: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/stories-47007812

Phoebe's website, with her portfolio and links to her socials: https://www.thecodinghamster.com/

You can watch a video version of my interview with Phoebe here: https://youtu.be/WomQr-jRO1c

If you've read this far, consider supporting our 501(c)(3) public charity, and aiding us in our mission to create more free learning resources for everyone: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

 

She's worked in tech for over a decade as a developer at several tech companies, including Microsoft, Amazon and Netlify. She has gradually progressed to senior developer and now CTO.

Links we talk about during the interview:

Cassidy's newsletter: https://cassidoo.co/newsletter/

Cassidy on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cassidoo

Cassidy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cassidoo

The National Center for Women and Information Technology: https://ncwit.org/

In this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson discusses AI and the future of education with Seth Goldin. Among other things, Seth is co-founder of College Compendium, an education charity, and studies computer science at Yale.

Also, the quote Quincy mentioned isn't by Ben Franklin. It's by William Blackstone in 1769 who said: "the law holds that it is better that 10 guilty persons escape, than that 1 innocent suffer (innocent person be convicted)."

Seth's free "Google Like a Pro" course: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-google-like-a-pro/

Seth's free "The Ethics of AI and ML" course: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/the-ethics-of-ai-and-ml/

Follow Seth on Twitter: https://twitter.com/seth_goldin

Seth's recommended article "ChatGPT is a Blurry JPEG of the Web": https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/chatgpt-is-a-blurry-jpeg-of-the-web

Klara and the Sun book Seth recommended: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klara_and_the_Sun

Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

On this week's episode of the podcast, I interview Logan Kilpatric, a software engineer and ChatGPT creator Open AI's first-ever Developer Advocate hire. The week Logan started, ChatGPT hit 1 million users. (It now has 180 million monthly users.)

During our conversation, Logan shares his journey from Illinois to Harvard, NASA, and now the world's most-watched tech company, Open AI. Along the way, he joined the board of NumFOCUS, which oversees Data Science Python libraries like NumPy, Pandas, and Matplotlib.

This is my long, intimate conversation with an emerging star in the AI and Machine Learning world. Logan is also a prolific freeCodeCamp.org contributor. It was a blast talking with Logan for nearly two hours. I think you'll dig it.

You can follow Logan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/OfficialLoganK

 

On this week's episode of the podcast, I interview orchestral musician-turned software engineer Jessica Wilkins.

Jessica found success in the extremely competitive field of classical music, playing the Oboe in orchestras, recording sessions, and even at major events such as the NFL awards on national television.

She started her own business ? a sheet music e-commerce website. This not only helped her survive in the high cost of living city of Los Angeles ? it also helped her learn web development.

During the pandemic, many of her performance and recording gigs were cancelled. This inspired her to dive much deeper into coding. She now works as a software engineer at freeCodeCamp, and has contributed substantially to freeCodeCamp's core curriculum. Also, her many freeCodeCamp tutorial articles have more than 400,000 readers each month.

During our conversation, Jessica talks about the insane pressure she faced as a musician, where standards are incredibly high. So many people want to be professional musicians, and there is so little money in the industry. Jessica was a rare case of finding success. But even that success could not dissuade her from diving into software development.

This is a long, intimate conversation with one of the sharpest minds behind freeCodeCamp.org. It was a blast talking with Jessica for more than two hours. I think you'll dig it.

Some timestamps in case you want to skip some our lengthy discussion about music education and the music industry:

- 0:00:00 My bass intro. See if you can guess this 1970 classic bassline.
- 0:01:00 Our discussion of Jessica's upbringing by a school teacher and single mom, and her journey into classical music
- 1:07:00 Jessica Learns to code and builds a profitable sheet music e-commerce business
- 1:35:00 Jessica's decision to go all in on software development
- 1:44:00 Contract work and thoughts on what caused recent tech layoffs

Links we talk about during the interview:

One of Jessica's articles - 40 JavaScript Projects for Beginners ? Easy Ideas to Get Started Coding JS: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/javascript-projects-for-beginners/

The Black Excellence Music Project, Jessica's first React project: https://blackexcellencemusicproject.com/

Danny Thompson freeCodeCamp Podcast interview: https://freecodecamp.libsyn.com/site/were-back-danny-thompsons-journey-from-chicken-fryer-to-software-engineer

Danny's LinkedIn course that Quincy mentions: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/linkedin-profiles-for-technical-professionals/main-visuals-on-your-profile

In this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Per Borgen about AI engineering and interactive developer education. Per is the co-founder and CEO of Scrimba and is a software engineer.

Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Links we talk about during the interview: 

Per's HTML + CSS course: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-html-and-css-from-the-ceo-of-scrimba/ 

Per's JavaScript course: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/full-javascript-course-for-beginners/

In this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Robby Russell. Robby created the open-source project Oh My ZSH. 

Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Beau's YouTube course style guide: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-create-a-great-technical-course/

How I got a second degree and earned 5 developer certifications in just one year, while working and raising two kids https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-i-got-a-second-degree-and-earned-5-developer-certifications-in-just-one-year-while-working-and-2b902ee291ab/

Beau's personal website: http://carnes.cc/

I'm Quincy Larson, teacher and founder of freeCodeCamp.org. And each week, I'm bringing you insight from developers, entrepreneurs, and ambitious people who are getting into tech.

Today I'm joined by Kylie Ying. She's a software engineer and a teacher at freeCodeCamp.

We talk about Kylie's 5 years at MIT, her time at CERN working on the Large Hadron Collider, competitive figure skating, and even poker-playing AIs.

I hope these weekly freeCodeCamp podcasts are firing you up about learning more about technology.

Tell your friends about the freeCodeCamp podcast. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Links to things we discuss: 

- Kylie review of her 5 years at MIT (20 minute watch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtujJjKmfN0

- Kylie's video about CERN's Large Hadron Collider (17 minute watch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmJ44z9hl8c

- Kylie's Machine Learning for Everbody course (2 hour course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/machine-learning-for-everybody/

- Kylie's Hot Dog or Not Dog Neural Networks course (2 hour course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/convolutional-neural-networks-course-for-beginners/

- Real Genius movie trailer ? classic 80s movie about graduate school (2 minute watch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuv7SIVNkx8

Dhawal Shah is creator of Class Central, a popular search engine for online courses.

Dhawal talk about the history of online courses and the Massive Open Online Course revolution of the early 2010s. We also talk about his childhood growing up in India, and how his life changed one day when he won a computer from a Cartoon Network sweepstakes.

Tell your friends about the freeCodeCamp podcast. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Links we discussed:

Dhawal's article: Here are 850+ Ivy League Courses You Can Take Right Now for Free: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/ivy-league-free-online-courses-a0d7ae675869/

Dhawal's article: I uncovered 1700 Coursera Courses that Are Still Completely Free: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/coursera-free-online-courses-6d84cdb30da/

Dhawal on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dhawalhshah

Dhawal's 3 recommended Massive Open Online Courses:

- Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects: https://www.classcentral.com/course/learning-how-to-learn-2161

- University of Alberta's Mountains 101 Course: https://www.classcentral.com/course/mountains-101-7455

- Stanford's Data Structures and Algorithms Course: https://www.classcentral.com/course/algorithms-18869

I interview Bruno Haid. He's a software engineer and tech founder from Austria.

We talk about growing up in the European countryside, his early passion for computers, and ultimately his move to San Francisco, where he's founded several tech companies.

Bruno's super excited about embedded systems and custom hardware. He's building home appliances that incorporate open source software and open datasets.

We talk about so many topics here. From Star Trek to the European Pirate Party.

I hope these weekly freeCodeCamp podcasts are firing you up about learning more about technology.

Tell your friends about the freeCodeCamp podcast. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

A couple interesting links from our discussion: 

"Only Amiga" song from Comdex 1987: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWeO5IkCssk

Halt and Catch Fire TV Show trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWrioRji60A

 

Today I'm joined by Dr. Curran Kelleher. He's a data visualization expert and has taught a number of in-depth data visualization courses on freeCodeCamp's YouTube channel.

We talk about what it's like to get a Ph.D. under one of the pioneers of data visualization. 

We also talk about how he uses his visualization skills in industry, his many years living in India, and his love of teaching.

I think you're going to walk away with a deeper understanding of data, the human brain, and how we process information. You'll also learn some practical career tips.

I hope these weekly freeCodeCamp podcasts are firing you up about learning more about technology.

Tell your friends about the freeCodeCamp podcast. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Some relevant links from our discussion:

Curran's 20-hour Data Visualization with D3 course on freeCodeCamp: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/data-visualizatoin-with-d3/

"Semiology of Graphics: Diagrams, Networks, Maps" book Curran mentions: https://www.esri.com/en-us/esri-press/browse/semiology-of-graphics-diagrams-networks-maps

Curran's portfolio of work: https://github.com/curran/portfolio

Bret Victor's talk "Inventing on Principle"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGYGl_xxfXA

On this week's podcast, I meet with Arian Agrawal in New York City to talk about her journey into tech startups.

Arian grew up in New York and studied at MIT. She worked in finance for a few years, then built her own Ecommerce Marketplace startup with a friend.

Along the way, Arian went through the South Park Commons startup accelerator, and she now leads their New York City branch as a partner.

We talk about technology, startups, and her journey from finance to building products.

I hope you're digging these weekly freeCodeCamp podcasts. Be sure to leave us a review. And download a few episodes so you can learn on the go.

Tell your friends about the freeCodeCamp podcast. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Arian on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AgrawalArian

Arian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arian-agrawal-46639439/

South Park Commons: https://www.southparkcommons.com/

 

Today I'm joined by Joel Spolsky. He's co-founder of Trello and Stack Overflow, and author of the iconic developer blog Joel on Software.

I hung out with Joel in his New York City home to discuss his 4-decade-long career as a developer and a CEO. He shared his insights on software engineering, product design, running companies, and how he uses AI as a tool.

This interview is the culmination of years of learning from Joel through his blog and using the tools he's helped make. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

The Joel Test: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/08/09/the-joel-test-12-steps-to-better-code/

Making Better Software video course series from the early 2000's playlist on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBfisaHMr-8&list=PLcIkt5s7w8D0ywp0CBmNFWRTFZic3pWNn

The ESP-32 microcontroller Joel mentioned: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP32

Today I'm joined by Kevin Miller. He's a senior developer and host of the Coder Conversations YouTube channel.

Kevin studied accounting in Texas and worked overnight for 7 years at hotels, making only $11 an hour. But his knowledge of spreadsheets lead to him learning more about programming and automation.

After spending a year living with his parents and teaching himself to code full time, Kevin landed his first developer job. He immediately tripled his income. 

Kevin has since worked as a dev at several Fortune 500 companies. But it's been a bumpy ride. He's been laid off 3 times due to mergers and employers just running out of money.

He started Coder Conversations as a way for him and fellow developers to talk about technology and share career advice. He now has 200 episodes.

I hope you're digging these weekly freeCodeCamp podcasts. Be sure to leave us a review. And download a few episodes so you can learn on the go.

Tell your friends about the freeCodeCamp podcast. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech.

Coder Conversations: https://www.youtube.com/@coderconvos254

Kevin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevm254

 

 

This is it ? my full FREE 2023 book in audiobook format. How to Learn to Code and Get a Developer Job. Written, read, edited, mixed, and mastered by me, Quincy Larson.

The text version of the book (also free): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-to-code-book/

Table of Contents:

Preface: Who is this book for?

500 Word Executive Summary

Chapter 1: How to Build Your Skills

Chapter 2: How to Build Your Network

Chapter 3: How to Build Your Reputation

Chapter 4: How to Get Paid to Code ? Freelance Clients and the Job Search

Chapter 5: How to Succeed in Your First Developer Job

Epilogue: You Can Do This

Song "From the Ground Up" by Quincy Larson from the Learn to Code RPG Original Soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TDsGUFFXSY

Additional Reading:

Article: How to Contribute to Open Source: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-contribute-to-open-source-projects-beginners-guide/

Article: We fired our top talent. Best decision we ever made: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/we-fired-our-top-talent-best-decision-we-ever-made-4c0a99728fde/

Article: How to negotiate your developer job offer salary: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/salary-negotiation-how-not-to-set-a-bunch-of-money-on-fire-605aabbaf84b/

Article: How to ask for a raise as a developer: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/youre-underpaid-here-s-how-you-can-get-the-pay-raise-you-deserve-fafcf52956d6/

Article: Why recruiters are an underrated tool in your toolbox: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/the-tech-recruiter-red-pill-967dd492560c/

 

Today I'm joined by Lynn Zheng. She's a software engineer at freeCodeCamp and at Salesforce.

Lynn grew up in Shenzhen, China ? the computer hardware capital of the world. Both of her parents were engineers. And from an early age, they encouraged Lynn to learn math and computer science. She got into the prestigious Computer Science program at University of Chicago, where she earned both Bachelors and Masters degree ? all by the age of 21.

I met up with Lynn at the Redwood City Public Library in the heart of Silicon Valley. But they didn't have any study rooms available. so we climbed to a nearby rooftop and recorded there.

We talk about Lynn's many game development projects, which culminated in Learn to Code RPG, a Visual Novel game where you learn to code and get a developer job. And we talk about her experience working as an engineer at one of the largest tech companies in the world, even as she's stuck in work visa limbo.

Next week will be our 100th episode, and I've got something extra special in store for you.

Tell your friends about the freeCodeCamp podcast. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themsleves in tech.

Learn to Code RPG: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-to-code-rpg/

Lynn's Stable Diffusion course: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/stable-diffusion-crash-course/

Lynn on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lynnzheng08

Lynn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruolin-zheng/

 

Ben Dunphy studied international relations and had a short career in finance. Among other things, he co-authored a bill that eventually got passed in his state of New Hampshire.

But Ben saw the writing on the wall ? that technology was becoming one of the most powerful ways to affect change. He learned to code and moved to San Francisco, where he and I first met back in 2013.

He built Real World React ? a series of evening events and corporate training programs ? and ultimately helped launched conferences like Reactathon and JAMstack conf. And now he's helping run the upcoming AI Engineer Summit.

I talk with Ben about his journey into tech and the lessons he's learned along the way. And if you're considering creating a tech event in your city, boy has Ben got some tips for you.

I hope you're digging these weekly freeCodeCamp podcasts. Be sure to leave us a review. And download a few episodes so you can learn on the go. Not only do we have Spanish and Chinese podcasts, but we just launched our Portuguese podcast as well.

And tell your friends. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themsleves in tech.

Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Benghamine

Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamindunphy/

The Rise of the AI Engineer article by Shawn Wang AKA Swyx: https://www.latent.space/p/ai-engineer

The AI Engineer Summit Oct 9, 2023 through Oct 11 in San Francisco: https://www.ai.engineer/summit

The Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston: https://www.gardnermuseum.org/

 

 

Eric Leung grew up in Oklahoma and learned a lot of math in high school. His friends wanted to go to medical school and he originally planned to join them. But instead he got interested in the emerging field of bioinformatics ? math applied to medicine.

After 6 years in graduate school, he made the big decision to leave without completing his Ph.D. But he was able to transition into the field of data science, and he now works as a data scientist at Disney.

Eric and I met up at a public library here in Dallas, Texas to talk about his journey into data science, including his time spent learning through freeCodeCamp and ultimately contributing to our open source codebase.

We also share our love of the US public library system, where we met to record this and where Eric worked when he was younger. And we talk about the ancient board game of Go.

If you dig this podcast, you should leave us a review in whichever podcast player you're listening. It helps more people discover the show.

Download some of our previous podcasts to your phone so you'll have something to listen to the next time you're offline.

And tell your friends. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themsleves in tech.
 
Eric Leung's freeCodeCamp articles: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/author/erictleung/

Eric on Twitter: https://twitter.com/erictleung

The Standup Maths Minecraft Speed Run Cheating Scandal we talk about during the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ko3TdPy0TU

The AlphaGo documentary about Deep Mind's efforts to conquer the ancient game of Go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXuK6gekU1Y

XKCD comic on when to automate things: https://xkcd.com/1205/

Math for Programmers book: https://www.manning.com/books/math-for-programmers

Street Fighting Math MIT course: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/18-098-street-fighting-mathematics-january-iap-2008/

Today I'm joined by Patrick San Juan, a software engineer who first learned to code in his 30s.

I've known Patrick since the early days of freeCodeCamp. He has always been a positive, supportive force within the community.

Patrick grew up the son of first-generation immigrants from the Philippines. His family didn't have much money, and what they did have, they plowed into his education. He studied economics at the University of California at Santa Cruz, then went to work at a charity focused on helping underserved youth.

After 5 years, Patrick decided to transition into a career where he could better support his family. And for him, that meant learning to code.

I hung out with Patrick at the Alameda Public Library, in the San Francisco Bay Area where Patrick lives. We talk about the ups and downs of his journey into tech. Patrick doesn't sugarcoat anything. Getting a job as a developer is hard. But he's proof that with sustained effort, you can build a career for yourself in tech.

I'm proud of Patrick and his achievements. And I'm proud to be the first person to ever interview him for a podcast.

If you dig this podcast, be sure to leave us a review. And tell your friends about this show. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themsleves in tech.

Patrick on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patricksanjuan/
 

Today I'm joined by Malindi Colyer. Among her many skills, she's a Python developer and AI engineer.

Malindi grew up on a farm in rural Kansas, in the middle of the US. She trained to become a diplomat, and volunteered overseas. But along the way, she discovered a love of math and computer science. That passion has landed her jobs in New York City, London, and San Francisco.

I met up with Malindi in downtown Manhattan to learn all about investment banking, and how she modernized her department at JP Morgan using her software engineering skills. We talk about the high-stakes world of global finance, where she was executing trades sometimes worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

We also talk about her time as a venture capitalist. She researched thousands of startups to decide which ones her fund should invest in.

This is one of the most technical interviews I've done. I've done my best to make Malindi's world of math, AI, and high finance as accessible as I can. I hope you enjoy it.

Malindi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-malindi-colyer-46b95589/ 

#94 Killing Cancer with Machine Learning with Dr. Amit Deshwar

 Today I'm joined by Dr. Amit Deshwar. He uses machine learning to discover new drugs to cure various diseases including cancer. He's a scientist who works in the growing field of Computational Biology, and has risen through the ranks at the Canadian biotech company Deep Genomics.

During College, Amit got two internships at Google as a platform engineer. He then decided rather than working in big tech he wanted to go back to school and get his Ph.D. He studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, and had his work published in Nature, one of the most prestigious scientific journals.

I met up with Amit at the Glen Park library in San Francisco, at the exact table where the FBI arrested notorious Slik Road Darknet marketplace founder Ross Ulbricht. 

We talk about how scientists and developers use machine learning to speed up drug discovery. I ask him a lot of my totally naive questions about how these therapies work and how they can fight various types of cancer and other diseases.

Photo of Amit arresating me at the Glen Park Library where the FBI arrested Ross Ulbright: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15B8HD4SGErnOd8zA-9gYW2MabAQFG58Q/view?usp=sharing

Photo of me arresting Amit:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OWyaVyzqT8YgLFYUVi5kqY9te6ShSdgr/view?usp=sharing

Amit on Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=QGCYxysAAAAJ

Amit's Twitter: https://twitter.com/amitdeshwar

 

Today I'm talking with programmer legend Jeff Atwood. Jeff co-founded Stack Overflow with Joel Spolsky back in 2008. And software development has never been the same.

Jeff also co-founded Discourse, a beloved forum tool used by Apple, Roblox, and of course the freeCodeCamp community. And Jeff is a prolific writer through his blog, Coding Horror.

I met up with Jeff at his home in the San Francisco Bay Area, and interviewed him in the room where he builds so many of his software projects.

We talked about software development and community building. Among other things, he shared his thoughts on Large Language Models, VR, and Self-Driving Cars.

If you dig this podcast, be sure to leave us a review. I'm excited to read any feedback you have for me.

And tell your friends. It's a huge help for us. We're still early days with The freeCodeCamp Podcast. I'm interviewing so many other inspiring developers in the coming weeks.

Jeff's Blog, Coding Horror: https://blog.codinghorror.com/

Today I'm talking with Sean Smith, one of freeCodeCamp's earliest graduates. Sean's also a prolific open source contributor, having helped develop freeCodeCamp's original React curriculum.

Sean grew up in Tenessee and was an avid outdoorsman and rock climber. He went to college hoping to become a doctor. He even interned at the National Institutes of Health and published in the Journal of Virology.

But one day he decided to leave the field ? with no clear plans for the future ? Leaving his friends and family puzzled.

For two years, Sean worked at climbing gyms across Tenessee as a route setter, climbing the walls and installing climbing holds. And one day he decided he needed to learn to code.

I caught up with Sean in downtown San Francisco, in a café that both he and I had coincidentally worked out of early in our developer careers.

I learned a lot about Sean's journey into tech that took him from working in San Francisco to Singapore to Taipei.

And spoiler alert: during the podcast we talk about Sean's job search. I'm happy to report that since I interviewed him last month, he's landed a developer job at a company focused on AI and e-commerce.

If you dig this podcast, be sure to leave us a review. I'm excited to read any feedback you have for me. And tell your friends. It really helps us inspire more people.

Sean Smith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanmatthewsmith/

Today I'm talking with Sasha Sheng. She's a software engineer who worked at Yahoo and at Facebook. During her 9 years working at big tech companies in San Francisco, she worked on mobile apps and AI systems.

Sasha grew up in rural China, and was the first person in her family to attend university. She studied hard and was able to get into one of China's most competitive schools. She was able to move to the US and finish out her Mechanical Engineering degree at University of Michigan.

When Sasha got laid off 8 months ago, she hit the ground running. She immersed herself in learning the new wave of AI tools. And she applied those new skills at hackathons, winning several competitive events.

I caught up with Sasha to hear her thoughts on AI engineering, AI safety, and how we can get more women into tech.

If you dig this podcast, be sure to leave us a review. I'm excited to read any feedback you have for me. 

Check out Sasha on Instagram: www.instagram.com/hackgoofer

Follow Sasha on Twitter: and www.twitter.com/hackgoofer

One of Sasha's Hackathon projects: Chat Out Loud: https://github.com/ytsheng/chat_out_loud_gpt

Today I'm joined by Shawn Wang, AKA Swyx. I first interviewed Shawn in 2019. Back then, Shawn had quit his $350k a year finance job and taught himself to code using freeCodeCamp. He was working as a full stack engineer. It's a wild interview that you should go back and listen to... after of course you finish listening this.

Now a lot of people thought Shawn was crazy leaving finance. But this dude knew what he was doing. He has now risen through the ranks as a developer at tech startups. And now he's starting an AI startup of his own. He's already off to a strong start, having raised a $3 million pre-seed round from investors.

This is the first time I've ever invited a guest return to the freeCodeCamp podcast for a second interview. And there was so much to talk about, I feel like I could have interviewed Shawn for days.

The man has been eating, sleeping, and breathing AI engineering for the past year. I learned so much from talking with him. I'm confident that you will, too.

Watch Swyx's AI Engineering conference live stream: https://ai.engineer

The Latent Space Podcast: https://www.latent.space/podcast

Follow Swyx on Twitter: https://twitter.com/swyx

Today I'm interviewing a long-time friend and role model of mine, Megan Kaczanowski. We met up in Brooklyn to talk about her journey into information security.

She studied economics at University of Michigan before working in finance in New York City. But her ambitions lead her into cyber security ? first as a threat analyst at a credit rating agency, and later as a Security Architect at a bank and a startups.

Over the years, she's volunteered at charities around New York, and she's authored dozens of security tutorials as a contributor to freeCodeCamp.

We talk about her journey into tech and her advice for folks getting into security ? especially women. As with every time I talk with Megan, I learned a lot. And I hope you'll a lot, too.

If you dig this podcast, be sure to leave us a review. I'm excited to read any feedback you have for me. 

And tell your friends.

Megan's many information security tutorials on freeCodeCamp: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/author/megansdoingfine/

Follow Megan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/megansdoingfine

Read the book she mentioned about the first ever worm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo%27s_Egg_(book)

Watch Mr. Robot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U94litUpZuc

 

today I'm joined by Brian Douglas. He's a software engineer who's worked at tech companies like GitHub and Netlify. And now he's an entrepreur runs his own startup ? OpenSauced.pizza.

Brian grew up in a small town in Florida, and his family was the only black family in town. He worked hard in school and earned a full scholarship to Florida State University, where he studied business.

He started off working in sales, but gradually taught himself how to code. It took a while to get into the software, but he was ultimately able to move his family out to the San Francisco Bay Area.

If you dig this podcast, be sure to leave us a review. And tell your friends.

Follow Brian Douglas on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bdougieYO

And check out his open source tool: https://opensauced.pizza

Today I'm joined by Sarah Shook is a software engineer who started out as a recruiter, then started learning system administration on the job at a school.

She didn't finish university. She learned to code on the job, from studying freeCodeCamp, and from attending a short bootcamp that she won free admission to. And she did all of this while raising 3 kids.

She is a career-long remote worker, and insists she will never work somewhere where she needs to be away from her kids. Today she runs software development agency and works with clients. 

Sarah and I talk about her coding journey, how she's worked to overcome depression and severe shyness, and her love of front end libraries like Tailwind CSS.

If you dig this podcast, be sure to leave us a review. And tell your friends. It really helps.

Without further ado, my interview with Sarah Shook.

Sarah Shook on Twitter: https://twitter.com/shookcodes

Welcome back to the freeCodeCamp Podcast.

I'm Quincy Larson, teacher and founder of freeCodeCamp.org. And I'm bringing you insight from developers, entrepreneurs, and ambitious people getting into tech.

It's been 4 years since we published a podcast episode. It's good to be back.

This is the first of three interviews I'm publishing this week ? my interview with Danny Thompson. Danny's a bit a legend among career changers. 

He had a kid early in life. For 10 years he worked at a gas station in Tennessee, frying chicken for people to eat. He sometimes worked 80 hour weeks just to provide for his family.

And yet, Danny had ambition. He taught himself to code using freeCodeCamp. He built his network through local tech events. And eventually, he landed his first job as as software developer. 

Danny's since worked at tech companies like Google and Front Door, and he's now a software engineer at AutoZone, a major US retail chain.

Danny has helped so many people along the way. He's developed a free course on how to leverage LinkedIn as a developer. And he's helped start a ton of local developer meetups.

I couldn't dream of a better interview to kick off this new season of the freeCodeCamp podcast.

New season. That's right. I've got dozen interviews lined up, and I'm recording these all in-person, in public libraries across Dallas, San Francisco, and New York City.

I'm publishing 3 episodes this week, and then a new episode every Friday.

We're talking about DevOps, cybersecurity, AI ? tons of topics that I know you're gonna find helpful as you continue to expand your skills.

If you dig this podcast, be sure to leave us a review. And tell your friends.

Danny on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DThompsonDev

In this special crossover episode, we celebrate 10 years of The Changelog. It's the home of the biggest podcast focused on open source, and a favorite of freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson.

This 4-hour episode is actually 2 interviews:

1. For the first 2.5 hours, Quincy interviews Changelog co-hosts Adam Stacoviak and Jerod Santo about how they got into software development and podcasting, and the history of their legendary podcast.

2. Then we end with Adam and Jerod turning the tables and interviewing Quincy about the past and future of freeCodeCamp.org.

If you haven't heard of The Changelog before, it is website that hosts a podcast about open source software. Each week they interview new developers from around the software galaxy and explore what makes those projects tick.

Adam Stacoviak founded The Changelog exactly 10 years ago. And Jerod Santo joined as co-host 7 years ago. Together - across 370 episodes - they've interviewed everyone from programmer legends, to the maintainers of open source projects you may have never even heard of.

Quincy has listened to hundreds of The Changelog episodes over the years, and credits The Changelog with giving him such a broad view of open source, and the philosophies of the developers who started these projects.

These interviews were conducted in-person in Adam's Houston-based studio.

If you haven't yet, you should subscribe to The Changelog podcast. They have a variety of shows. We recommend starting with their Master Feed, which lets you explore all of their shows: https://changelog.com/master

And check out the special website they built to celebrate their 10 year anniversary: changelog.com/ten

Follow Adam on Twitter: https://twitter.com/adamstac
Follow Jerod on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jerodsanto
And Quincy is: https://twitter.com/ossia

This week, for the last podcast episode of 2019, Abbey chatted with freelancer and content creator Jessica Chan - known as CoderCoder on social media - about how she got into tech and started her educational website and YouTube channel.

Quincy interviews Jeff Meyerson, the creator and host of the Software Engineering Daily podcast.

Jeff grew up in Texas, played competitive poker, and ultimately worked as a software engineer at Amazon.

We talk about how he got into tech, how left Amazon to become an entrepreneur, and the many lessons he learned along the way.

Follow Jeff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_prion

And subscribe to software engineering daily: https://softwareengineeringdaily.com

In this week's podcast episode of the freeCodeCamp podcast, Abbey chats with Harry Wolff, an engineering manager at MongoDB in New York City.

Harry has been in the world of tech for over a decade, holding jobs in various startups before ending up at Mongo. They discuss his journey to his current managerial role, what it's like to work at Mongo, how to start a meetup, and dos and don't for migrating from legacy codebases.

Harry started his tech career working for startups. He liked the excitement, he liked learning new things, and he liked showing off his skills. After working for a few startups, he stumbled upon a position at MongoDB. One short week after beginning the interview process, he was in.

The decision to leave his previous job was easier than he expected, and he reflected on the reasons he made the change:

"For me, it was a matter of taking what I could from my job at the time, but knowing when it was time to move on. One of the ways you know it's time to leave is when the company's getting more out of you than you're getting out of the company."

Once Harry was settled in at Mongo, he got right to work. After a couple years as an engineer working on various projects, he achieved one of his major goals and became a manager.

Harry and I discussed his relatively new position in detail, and while he's still figuring things out, he has some valuable insights into his transition.

"One of the most difficult things about being a manager is that there's no easy way to evaluate the success of your day. There are no milestones to say you've accomplished a lot. You might have a eureka! moment where you figure something out, but you're definitely living in the grey a lot more. Because it's people - they change by the day and hour and minute."

But one of the best things for Harry is how much he gets to learn - constantly, from many different people, and about many different things. In addition to reading about new programming languages, discussing what's new in the JavaScript ecosystem in his podcast, and making every effort to stay on top of new tech, Harry has learned more nuanced skills as well.

"One hard skill I needed to learn was being assertive and truthful when I needed to be. Most humans prefer that uncomfortable situations just resolve themselves...but if you wait six months [to deal with something], it becomes a dealbreaker."

In addition to managing his team, working on his podcast, YouTube channel, and blog, and reading programming handbooks for fun, Harry has been working to update MongoDB's tech stack and move away from their legacy codebase. In the process, he's developed some insights into such migrations.

"You have to have a good reason for doing it. And part of this is scolding my former self who would say 'yeah, just do it!' But having learned more, you need to have a good reason. For us, it's more maintainable, less error-prone, and better for recruiting." "But don't rewrite everything - that's seldom the right answer. Occasionally there are exceptions, but they're exceptions."

When Harry isn't working or creating content, he hangs out with his wife and new son in New York. He encourages people getting into tech to keep at it and not get discouraged.

       "Never give up. Just keep hustling. Take with a grain of salt the            feedback you get from companies and have confidence in what            you do and don't know. And stay humble. It's hard but you have          to just want it and keep hustling and stay curious."

Find Harry on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/hswolff

Find Abbey on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/abbeyrenn

On this week's episode of the freeCodeCamp podcast, Abbey chats with London-based software engineer Linh about how she left the field of biochemical engineering, taught herself to code, struggled to get her first dev job, and now gets to work at LEGO.

Linh moved to England when she was 11 years old. She spoke no English, but quickly learned and settled into her life there. She became fascinated with cosmetics and wanted to learn how to create them, so she decided to study biomedical and biochemical engineering in college - she even got her Master's degree in the subject.

But something didn't feel right - she didn't have the passion for it she thought she had. So she looked elsewhere. After briefly considering banking, and teaching for a bit, she stumbled into the world of tech through one of London's many fintech meetups.

As she started to learn more and meet more people, she realized she'd found her new passion: coding. So she decided to teach herself to code...and the rest is history. Just kidding - but you'll have to listen to find out what comes next :)

In this episode of the podcast, you'll learn all about how Linh taught herself to code, how she persevered through a long job search and got her first (and second and third) dev job, what exciting projects she's working on at LEGO, and how she'd advise anyone wanting to break into tech to go about it.

Find Linh on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/pinglinh

On this week's episode of the freeCodeCamp podcast, Abbey chats with front-end developer Joe Previte who lives and works in Arizona. Joe shares the story of how he made the tough decision to leave grad school, how he discovered coding, and how he stays motivated and continues to learn.