One of the hottest new technologies in the frontend ecosystem is Next.js. Why is it so awesome? And what can you use it for? In this episode we’ll be talking all about it.

Show Notes

01:45 - What is Next.js 7:05 - What are some of its benefits 23:09 - SSG vs. SSR 27:38 - Routing 38:17 - Shoutouts

Resources

• Ladybug YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCakPieAEGG42zBuaf-qZCBA
• Chris Enns https://www.lemonproductions.ca/
• Teenage Bounty Hunters https://www.netflix.com/title/80244296
• DEV Toast Post https://dev.to/ekafyi/a-bite-of-toast-the-new-jamstack-meta-framework-4nel
• Toast GitHub Repo https://github.com/toastdotdev/toast
• Next.js Documentation https://nextjs.org/
• Next.js E-commerce Starter https://nextjs.org/commerce
• Gatsby https://www.gatsbyjs.com/
• Nuxt.js https://nuxtjs.org/
• Nest https://nestjs.com/

Transcript

https://github.com/ladybug-podcast/ladybug-website/blob/master/transcripts/60-nextjs.md

Season 5 is finally here and we are so excited to kick it off with a new host, Sidney! We have finally said goodbye to 2020, so what can we expect to be the new trends, the hip tech. We can't predict the future but we can tell you our predictions for trends in 2021.

• [3:47] 1) Working Remotely
• [6:50] 2) Cloud Security
• [11:36] 3) Decentralization of tech workers
• [14:54] 4) Framer motion
• [16:50] 5) Metaframeworks
• [21:42] 6) Headless CMS
• [23:39] 7) Online IDEs
• [26:37] 8) Low code
• [29:15] 9) TypeScript
• [33:16] 10) Progressive Web Apps
• [36:20] 11) Styled components
• [38:47] 12) AI/ML
• [41:56] 13) Alternative interface development
• [45:37] 14) Minimalist web frameworks
• [47:04] 15) New CSS Libraries
• [50:24] 16) Static site deployment tools
• [52:25] 17) Responsive design
• [54:58] 18) Deno
• [57:13] 19) Ecommerce
• [59:46] 20) Server-side rendering
• [1:01:50] 21) System design
• [1:04:23] Shoutouts

Resources

• A Software Engineer's Guide to Seniority - https://www.gitcuteguide.dev
• Jarvis Johnson’s Twitter Hack Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMG_KN7GMXI
• 2PM's book list for 2021 - https://2pml.com/2020/11/02/essential-reading
• Ladybug Animation Episode - https://www.ladybug.dev/episodes/micro-interactions-and-animation-libraries?rq=animation
• Ladybug Working Remote Episode - https://www.ladybug.dev/episodes/working-remotely
• Ladybug Microinteractions Episode - https://www.ladybug.dev/episodes/micro-interactions-and-animation-libraries
• Scott Tolinski’s Framer Motion Course - https://www.leveluptutorials.com/tutorials/animating-react-with-framer-motion
• Ladybug Podcast Content Creation Episode - https://www.ladybug.dev/episodes/creating-digital-content
• Code Sandbox - https://codesandbox.io/s
• Ives' Twitter - https://twitter.com/CompuIves
• Cloud9 - https://www.cloud9.gg/
• Codespaces - https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/codespaces
• Nacelle - https://getnacelle.com
• Scott Tolinski's Styled Components Course - https://www.leveluptutorials.com/tutorials/styled-components
• Styled Components - https://styled-components.com/
• Ladybug CSS Part 2 Episode - https://www.ladybug.dev/episodes/css-part-2?rq=flexbox
• Ladybug Systems Design Episode - https://www.ladybug.dev/episodes/systems-design
• Tiny Habits - https://www.tinyhabits.com/

Transcript

https://github.com/ladybug-podcast/ladybug-website/blob/e598a02a814f551cf8091729fe3b7b8944262979/transcripts/59-21-trends-2021.md

Normally, we talk about frontend development -- but there’s so many other niches within programming out there. Today we’re going to talk about Python what it’s used for, why it’s great, and how it’s different than JavaScript.

Shownotes

01:16 - Our experiences with Python 03:37 - What is Python? 15:50 - What is it used for? 23:37 - How is it different from JavaScript? 32:35 - Resources for learning more 34:15 - Shoutouts

Resources

• The Zen of Python
• Level up with JavaScript
• I'm a Snake Video
• Coursera
• Automate the Boring Stuff with Python
• Hitchiker's Guide to Python
• Practical Business Python

Transcript

Here is the transcript for this week's episode.

Blogs, YouTube videos, podcasts, e-books, and online courses are all types of digital content. If you’ve ever wondered how you can get started creating digital content of your own, then look no further. Today we’re joined by Sidney Buckner, a Software Engineer and YouTuber, to discuss how we got started creating digital content, how much you can make from publishing content, and more! Let’s get started.

Shownotes

03:00 - What kinds of content do we create? 06:08 - Pros of creating digital content 14:19 - Cons of creating digital content 19:01 - Online courses 24:27 - YouTube 37:38 - E-books 41:17 - Blogs + podcasts 44:17 - How to monetize your digital content 47:13 - Shoutouts

Resources

• Sidney’s Twitter
• Sidney’s YouTube
• Sidney’s Periscope Q&A
• Sidney’s email list
• Sidney’s Instagram
• Ladybug Blogging Episode
• Emma's blog
• Emma's blogging book
• Ali's blog
• Ali's blogging advice
• Fiverr
• Canva
• Payhip
• Leanpub
• Podia
• Blurb
• ConvertKit
• MailChimp
• How I Made $40,000 Off A Book Before I Published It
• Tube Buddy
• Kelly Stamps
• Black Tech Pipeline
• Black Tech Twitter
• Pariss Athena
• Ladybug Side Project Episode
• You are a badass book

Transcript

[](https://github.com/ladybug-podcast/ladybug-website/blob/master/transcripts/57-digital-content.md)Here is the transcript for this week's episode.

If you often find your days spiraling out of control, you’re not alone! Ensuring you have a productive workday isn’t always easy. There are many ways you can structure your day, and everyone has a different method that works best for them.

This week on the podcast we’re giving you a rundown of our favorite productivity hacks you can use to improve your everyday life, both at work and at home. Let’s dig in!

Show Notes

2:30 - Take care of your physical and mental health

11:33 - Scheduling your day and week

15:46 - Prioritizing your work

21:40 - Motivation

28:04 - Communication

37:13 - Taking notes & to-do lists

39:48 - Forming habits

41:59 - Batching

43:11 - Balancing work and life

45:20 - Shoutouts

Resources

• The Power Of Habit
• Atomic Habits
• Me & White Supremacy
• Brain Science Mireille Reece
• Get Things Done
• Ashley McNamara: The Thing About Burnout
• Becoming Super Woman
• Why We Sleep
• Notion
• Todoist
• Asana
• Radical Candor
• A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

Transcript

Here is the transcript for this week's episode.

Git is both simple and complex. You can usually get through your workday by memorizing a few commands, but under the hood there’s so much more to it. Today we will dive deep into Git with a special guest, Monica Powell. Let’s dive in!

Shownotes

• 2:08 - Monica's introduction
• 2:44 - GitHub & other remotes
• 7:50 - Common Git commands
• 22:23 - Branches
• 31:26 - Debugging
• 36:01 - Workflows
• 41:43 - GitHub features
• 47:12 - Contributing to open source
• 50:33 - Shoutouts
• 52:40 - Where can you find Monica on the internet?

Resources

• Monica's Egghead profile
• Understanding Git
• Git Lens
• Bisect conference talks
• Ladybug Testing 101
• Ladybug Hacktoberfest episode 1
• Ladybug Hacktoberfest episode 2
• Monica's portfolio
• Monica's Twitter
• Egghead.io
• Working In Public

Transcript

Here is the transcript for this week's episode.

Did you know that over one-third of the world’s workforce freelances at least part-time? As freelancing becomes more popular, you may be considering giving the freelance lifestyle a shot. This week on the podcast we’re giving you an introduction to freelancing, from establishing your rates and building a portfolio to finding your first freelance client and managing the project. We close with some final tips, including how to avoid scope creep and how to take time off as a freelancer.

Shownotes

01:40 What is freelancing? 06:28 Benefits of freelancing 10:06 How to establish your rates 13:59 Building a portfolio 20:34 Finding your first client 38:53 The project management process 51:24 Parting tips 53:56 Shoutouts

Resources

• Start Freelancing Today
• Portfolio Episode
• Fiverr
• FreshBooks
• QuickBooks
• Basecamp
• Trello
• Asana
• Monday
• The Foundling
• Rare Birds Book Club

Transcript

Here is the transcript for this week's episode.

Accessibility is the process of creating applications that are usable by everyone, especially focusing on those with disabilities. As web developers, it’s important that we design and build our applications to be usable by everyone, so in today’s episode, we’re joined by Wendy Fox, the design systems lead at LogMeIn, to discuss nine common pitfalls of application accessibility and what you can do to fix them.

Show Notes

• 4:46 - Why should we care about accessibility?
• 8:43 - Types of accessibility
• 12:24 - Semantic HTML
• 16:37 - Virtually hiding content
• 17:57 - Aria label vs. labelledby
• 21:14 - The accessibility tree
• 23:50 - Focus states
• 27:29 - Color contrast
• 32:04 - Keyboard traps
• 35:02 - Animations
• 37:38 - Time based content
• 41:21 - Placeholders vs. labels
• 47:02 - Accessibility tools

Tools

• Wendy Fox Twitter
• Google Lighthouse
• Axe accessibility checker

Transcript

Here is the transcript for this week's episode.

Have you ever worked on a team comprised of people from all over the world and wondered why you were having difficulty communicating and getting work done? That’s because every culture has their own way of communicating. Today we’ll chat about how different cultures communicate, give negative feedback, make decisions, and perceive time in the hopes that you can improve your team collaboration.

Show Notes

01:20 Does talking about culture cause us to stereotype? 10:00 Communicating 16:54 Evaluating 26:41 Deciding 27:38 Trusting 39:56 Scheduling 44:57 Shoutouts

Resources

• The Culture Map
• Emma's Talk
• Full Focus Planner

Transcript

Here is the transcript for this week's episode.

React is a frontend library that is in super high demand in the industry. But, it can be difficult to get up and running with. Today we’ll talk about with React: why it’s so great, how data flows, and the gotchas we encountered when learning it. Let’s get started!

Shownotes

02:15 What is React?
06:35 Framework vs. Library
10:43 Why is it helpful?
12:32 What is a component?
22:52 React's lifecycle
25:47 Data in React
36:34 JSX
37:24 Setting up a React app
43:34 Shoutouts

Resources

• JavaScript frameworks episode
• React lifecycle
• Design systems episode
• Tyler McGinnis React
• Kent Dodds Epic React
• Dave Ceddia React
• CodeSandbox.io
• A Complete Beginner's Guide to React

Transcript

Here is the transcript for this week's episode.

What’s the difference between a junior and senior developer? While there’s no distinct measure from one title to the next, you can measure your progress in three areas: knowledge, coding, and communication. This week on the podcast we’re doing a deep dive into the progression from junior to senior dev.

Shownotes

• 02:19 The use of "engineer" in titles
• 04:43 What levels are there for developers?
• 08:24 The importance of job titles
• 11:22 Does years of experience matter?
• 17:17 What knowledge should you have at each level?
• 27:57 What communication skills should you have at each level?
• 30:17 How do you know you're ready to be a senior developer?
• 32:05 Tips for becoming senior
• 33:33 Shoutouts

Transcript

Here is the transcript for this week's episode.

Today we’re talking about everyone’s favorite programming language: HTML! Hypertext Markup Language is the structure of a web page and while it’s not necessarily the hardest syntax to learn, it’s vital to your web applications.

Show Notes

• 01:20 What is HTML?
• 06:44 How did we learn HTML?
• 09:54 Elements
• 12:10 Attributes
• 21:59 Formatting
• 27:17 Semantic elements
• 33:04 Styles
• 38:28 CORS
• 44:57 Shoutouts

Resources

• CSS episode
• CORS
• HTML & CSS Book
• Egghead

Transcript

Here is the transcript for this week's episode.

Have you ever dreamed about selling everything you owned and moving across the world to begin a new life? In this episode we’re chatting with Rachel Nabors, an American abroad on the React Core team in London. We’ll chat about the pros and cons of moving abroad as well as the logistics. Let’s get started!

Show Notes

• 01:25 Our experiences moving
• 06:44 Immigrant vs. Expat vs. Digital Nomad
• 11:04 Pros of moving abroad
• 35:21 Cons of moving abroad
• 53:57 Logistics of moving abroad
• 01:02:39 Questions to ask
• 01:07:48 Shoutouts

Resources

• Rachel's Twitter
• Animation at Work
• Lingoda
• Deepl.com
• Rosetta Stone
• DuoLingo
• Babbel
• The Culture Map
• Ali's Accountant
• LinkedIn
• XING

Transcript

Here is the transcript for this week's episode.

There’s a classic interview question: what happens when you type a URL into the browser? To answer this question, we need to explore how the internet works. In this episode, our first of season 4, we’ll dive into URLs, DNS, basic networking, and how the browser works.

Show Notes

• 02:08 Life updates!
• 04:19 How much do we know about the internet?
• 06:11 Servers
• 12:08 DNS lookup
• 19:04 Request/Response Cycle
• 27:48 TCP/IP
• 28:46 The browser
• 33:13 Internet history
• 36:09 Shoutouts

Resources

• How the internet works
• Systems Design Episode
• Put vs. Post
• How the Browser Works

Transcript

Here is the transcript for this week's episode.

Systems design interviews are becoming more and more prevalent and can indicate your ability to work with complex systems. Many engineers struggle with the systems design interviews as a result of their inexperience developing large-scale systems.

Today we’ll teach you some of the foundational elements of systems design so you can nail your next interview.

Show Notes

• 01:30 What is systems design
• 07:20 Key characteristics of a distributed system
• 13:24 Load balancing
• 17:48 Caching
• 31:05 Data partitioning
• 35:24 SQL vs. NoSQL
• 46:50 How to learn systems design
• 48:00 Shoutouts

Resources

• Educative.io course
• Free Code Camp article
• Algo Expert Course
• Tobias VanSchneider
• Dev April Fools
• How Stack Overflow Caches

Transcript

Here is the transcript for this week's episode.

Have you ever written code to add a new feature that ended up breaking an existing feature? Or, have you ever written code that works in one scenario but breaks in a bunch of others? I think we can all admit to this as developers!

Well, this is where testing shines -- we write code to test our other code so we immediately get warned if our code breaks something else! OR doesn’t work in every scenario. In this episode, we’ll talk about a bunch of types of testing and why they’re helpful. Let’s dive in.

Show Notes

• 01:39 What is our experience with testing?
• 05:12 What types of code do you write tests for normally?
• 06:38 What different types of testing are there?
• 14:26 Why is testing important?
• 18:50 TDD vs adding tests after
• 23:33 What types of tools can you use?

Resources

• Angie Jones
• Test Automation University
• Kent C. Dodds
• Testing JavaScript
• Knowing what to test
• Types of Testing

Transcript

Here is the transcript for this week's episode.

One niche in development that we have no experience with is building mobile apps. Luckily, today we have an expert to teach us all about it: Timirah James who is the founder of TechniGal LA and a developer evangelist.

Show Notes

• 02:00 - Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
• 05:20 - What was your path to becoming a developer?
• 18:00 - What’s your day-to-day like?
• 21:00 - What technologies does an iOS dev work with?
• 33:19 - How do you get your app accepted into the App Store?
• 40:22 - What is the interview process like for an iOS developer?
• 50:50 - Shoutouts

Resources

• Timirah's Twitter
• TechniGal_LA
• Timirah's Website
• Timirah's LinkedIn
• Stanford free 101 mobile dev course
• React Native
• Flutter
• Dart
• Objective C
• Swift
• XCode
• Sublime Text
• Apple Developer Program
• Apple Design Guidelines
• The Courage To Be Disliked
• Web monetization API

Transcript

Here is the transcript for this week's episode.

Micro-interactions are small animations that delight our users and they are changing the way we design and build our applications. Micro-interactions have many benefits like enhancing perceived performance, indicating state change, and drawing users’ attention to something on the page. Today we’ll dive into micro-interactions and the animation libraries you can use to build them.

Show Notes

02:25 - What are micro-interactions? 05:48 - Why are they important? 10:55 - How do we build one? 29:07 - Animation libraries 33:16 - Shoutouts

Resources

• CSS Animation Libraries
• Eli Fitch’s Perceived Performance
• UI Movement
• Bad UI
• Ladybug Performance
• Scott Tolinski React Spring Course
• Sarah Drasner
• Hover.css
• Greensock
• React Spring
• Framer Motion
• Anime.js
• Velocity
• Three.js
• Mo.js
• Humble PI
• Bon Appetit Test Kitchen

Transcript

Here is the transcript for this week's episode.

We’ve talked a lot about interviewing and getting hired in tech from the engineering perspective, and today we’re going to build on that. We have a special guest, Hilliary Turnipseed, the founder of Hill Street Strategies to talk about hiring from the recruiting perspective. She specializes in hiring and maintaining diverse teams.

We also want to give a big shoutout to Black Girls Code, if you're able to, please donate!

Show Notes

01:13 - Tell us about yourself! 08:37 - Tell us about Hill Street Strategies 23:12 - What advice would you give to someone who is looking to get their first role in tech? 35:09 - You focus a lot on hiring a diverse tech workforce, what advice would you give to a company trying to diversify their hiring? 42:42 - You are super involved with the DC tech community, why is that involvement so important to you? 48:48 - Where can people find you online? 50:06 - Shoutouts

Resources from Hilliary

Mental Health

Rise by Jasmin Pierre & Jonathan Thompson Aweh Support Founder Mental Wealth

Workplace Culture

Work Bravely Empower Work

Allyship Reads

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table

Support Black-Owned Businesses

In Common

Job Boards

Diversify Tech Women2

Books

The Memo Resilient Management

Hilliary's Contact Info

Hilliary's website Hilliary's LinkedIn Hilliary's Twitter

Mentioned in the Episode

Human Design Chart Basic Concepts Explained of 4 Types

Transcript

Shortly after midnight on March 13, 2020, Louisville police entered the apartment of Breonna Taylor and Kenneth Walker using a battering ram to force open the door. Breonna Taylor was shot at least eight times and pronounced dead at the scene. No drugs were found in the apartment. June 5th would have been Breonna’s 27th birthday.

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was murdered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes while he was handcuffed face down in the street. And for the past week and a half protest have been held throughout the world demanding justice for not just George Floyd, but all Black people murdered from police brutality.

Police brutality is not new. It has been happening for many years as the result of systemic racism, and it must be stopped. Too many Black lives have been stolen at the hands of white police officers who walk away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

Today we’re joined by Jocelyn Harper, host of the Git Cute Podcast to discuss the Black Lives Matter movement and to learn more about how you can get involved.

For the month of May we read "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. "Outliers" examines the factors which contribute to high-levels of success and while we often attribute success to circumstance today we’ll discuss our thoughts to see if we agree.

Show notes

1:08 - What does it mean to be successful? 6:12 - How does privilege play into success? 22:12 - Practical intelligence versus analytical intelligence 30:52 - Our thoughts on the book

Resources

• Outliers
• Nader Dabit's tweet
• Goodreads Group
• The Culture Map
• Open Book
• Commerce Tea
• Dave Ramsey

Transcript

We provide transcripts for all of our episodes. You can find them here!

Today we're talking about routing and switching, starting with layer 1 of the OSI model. Let's dig in. JUST KIDDING I know nothing about that kind of networking, but we ARE talking about networking today!

Networking is a great opportunity to meet new people in the same industry, learn new skills, and develop your career. This week we’re talking all things networking: why we network, how to network, and what to do if you’re really not that into networking. Let’s jump in!

Developer community is centered around the idea of nurturing and amplifying community voices within a company and the head of developer community is responsible for leading this effort. Today we’re joined by Kim Maida, Head of Developer Relations and Community at Gatsby. We’ll discuss what her job entails, the ins and outs of developer advocacy, advice for someone looking to get into this field, and more.

Show notes

2:34 - Can you tell us a bit about yourself? 3:27 - What does it mean to be the head of developer relations and community? 6:38 - What is devrel/dev advocacy? 10:45 - Do the skills vary between these 4 roles? What do you need to know? 13:25 - How can you build empathy into your content? 16:40 - Do you need to be a software engineer first? 19:32 - What is your advice for someone looking to get into your field? 24:55 - What’s your advice for becoming a better dev advocate? 29:56 - Where do you see the field going in the near future? How does the current COVID situation impact your day to day? 36:33 - Shoutouts

Resources

• Gatsby
• Auth0
• Kim’s twitter
• Compassionate coding
• April Wensel
• technicalinterviews.dev

Transcript

We provide transcripts for all of our episodes. You can find them here!

JavaScript is notorious for being one of the most popular, yet also one of the most despised programming languages to learn, so today we’re covering some of the intermediate and advanced JavaScript concepts! We’ll discuss convoluted topics like generators, prototypal inheritance, and the rendering engine.

Knowing intermediate JavaScript concepts like the call stack, context, scope, the prototype chain, higher order functions, async programming, and the event loop is invaluable and will help with learning frameworks. The fundamentals won't change even if the ecosystem does.

Show notes

03:24 - Functional Programming vs OOP 06:28 - Prototypal inheritance 20:34 - Higher order functions 25:54 - Callback functions 27:10 - Closures 27:46 - Scope + Context 31:12 - Iterators & Generators 34:26 - Rendering engine 37:54 - Call Stack 40:33 - Event loop 43:39 - Throttle and debounce 46:21 - Asynchronous programming 52:09 - Hoisting 54:44 - Primitive vs reference 56:59 - Debugging 58:48 - Shoutouts

Resources

• Functional Programming vs OOP
• Lydia Halle’s blog post on the prototype chain
• Practical Object Oriented Design in Ruby
• Ali's What is Functional Programming?
• What Tamagotchis Can Teach You About ES6 Generators - Jenn Creighton
• CodeNewbie: How do Browsers Work?
• What the heck is the event loop anyway? - Philip Roberts
• Throttling and debouncing
• Debugging Episode

Welcome to season 3 of the LB podcast. This season we’ll cover topics ranging from advanced JavaScript to networking. We’ll chat about Git & GitHub, making money outside your 9-5 job, and many more topics.

For our first episode of this new season, we’ll be reminiscing about our coding history and discussing some advice we wished we had when learning to code ranging from asking more questions to negotiating job offers.

Show notes

01:50 - Our stories 09:29 - Find a community 10:43 - Take breaks - you don’t have to code all the time 13:36 - Ask questions 16:50 - Overcome imposter syndrome 18:09 - Sharing your learning journey can help not only yourself but others too 20:24 - Surround yourself with people who support you 21:33 - Don’t get stuck in the cycle of tutorials 23:28 - Get comfortable with being uncomfortable 25:02 - Ask for feedback early and often 26:23 - Stop being such a perfectionist 28:06 - Document your learning journey 30:00 - Learn how to Google 31:45 - Different ways to learn 32:32 - Try to be honest w/ ur manager 34:42 - Celebrate your small wins 35:20 - Interview to challenge yourself 36:54 - Talk to people who have your dream job 38:04 - Negotiate offers 40:20 - You can be a people person in tech 41:40 - Don’t fall into shiny object syndrome 42:21 - You belong in the industry

Resources

• Learning How to Learn episode
• Byteconf React Keynote
• FreeCodeCamp
• Moving Past Tutorials
• Cacher
• Stay Home Take Care

Transcript

We provide transcripts for all of our episodes. You can find them here!

There are so many ways to learn to code, and so many things to know. Today we’ll give our perspectives on different paths you can take. Whether you’re looking for your first dev job or you’re looking to advance your web development knowledge, we’ll be covering a ton of different options for you.

01:50 - What did we know before getting our first jobs?
06:40 - T-shaped knowledge
08:38 - HTML
14:07 - CSS
18:24 - JavaScript
25:00 - Backend
31:00- How the web works
32:15 - Testing
37:13 - Tooling 43:46 - Git
46:12 - Terminal
47:12 - Design patterns
48:26 - Data structures & algorithms
49:07 - How to level up

Read more on our site

Show notes

1:43 - What is the flow of the technical interview process

6:50 - The salary conversation

15:25 - Behavioral questions

27:32 - Interview prep strategies

34:17 - Red flags

45:17 - Shoutouts

Resources

• Star technique
• Data structures & algorithms episode
• Frontend interview episode
• The Culture Map
• Levels.fyi
• Thread on Negotiating
• Radical Candor
• Adam Grant podcast
• Andrew Certain
• Brotopia
• Bad Blood
• Society 6

Transcript

We provide transcripts for all of our episodes. You can find them here.

In one of our previous episodes, we talked about different jobs within tech, one of which is engineering management. Today we’re joined by the wonderful Amal Hussein, engineering manager at NPM and we’re going to chat more in-depth about her career path.

1:27 - Tell us about yourself

3:10 - Last fall you transitioned into a new role as an Engineering Manager at NPM. How did you make that leap?

5:38 - What does your day to day schedule look like?

8:32 - What’s the hardest thing about being a manager?

13:37 - Hands on vs. hands off management style

17:01- How long have you been in engineering management?

18:33 - What’s the best thing about being a manager?

21:49 - Do you think someone should be an engineer prior to being a manager?

30:15 - Do you still write code?

33:13 - Do you have any book recommendations for management?

36:53 - How do you build personal relationships w/ employees while working remotely?

42:13 - Advice for those looking to become an engineering manager

46:44 - Where can we find you online?

Imagine a world where your phone is too big for your hand, where your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body, where in a car accident you are 47% more likely to be seriously injured, where every week the countless hours of work you do are not recognized or valued. If any of this sounds familiar, chances are that you're a woman.

This month for the Ladybug Podcast book club we read Invisible Women: Data Bias In A World Designed For Men by Caroline Criado-Pérez. In this episode we’ll discuss our thoughts on the book, what shocked us, what felt a bit forced, and have a discussion about gender bias in the world around us.

Programming interviews are terrifying. There’s so much to learn and nobody enjoys answering technical questions in front of a complete stranger.

In this episode, we’ll dive into the frontend technical interview and give some tips and tricks for nailing it.

2:06 - Our experiences with technical interviews

3:36 - The interview process

14:15 - Phone screens

20:32 - Take home challenges

34:43 - In-person interviews

46:08 - Resources to get better at interviewing

49:00 - Shoutouts

Whether you’re seeking your first developer job or you’re looking to move to a new company, your resume is the first thing employers will see. Having a strong resume is what sets you apart from the competition. In this week’s episode we’re discussing all things resume-building, including what’s important to include, what can be skipped, and best practices for creating your resume.

1:24 - What do our resumes look like?

3:40 - CVs vs. Resumes

12:20 - Resume design

17:09 - What if I don’t have formal computer science education?

23:44 - Should you have an objective or a summary?

25:00 - Should you put references on there?

29:02 - How can I create a resume?

35:57 - Using social media and personal portfolio to back up your resume

37:57 - Shoutouts

Computer science concepts like data structures and algorithms can be super intimidating, especially if you’re cramming the night before an interview.

In this episode, we’ll discuss common algorithms and data structures and give you some tips for your next whiteboarding challenge.

01:44 - Our experience with data structures and algorithms

05:00 - What are algorithms?

06:17 - What is Big O notation?

13:57 - Sorting algorithms

17:55 - Graph traversal

19:20 - Searching algorithms

20:04 - What are data structures

23:05 - Arrays

26:03 - Linked Lists

29:15 - Sets

30:22 - Objects, maps, heaps

34:50 - Binary Trees

35:47 - Stacks and queues

40:08 - Graphs

41:00 - Common interview questions

43:27 - Tips for interviews and where to learn more

We're so excited for the first-ever Ladybug Podcast book club episode! This is a bonus episode which will occur at the end of each month. This month we’re discussing Atomic Habits by James Clear.

If you want to follow along you can check out our Goodreads group and ladybug.dev/books.

0:36 - Our thoughts on the book

04:15 - The importance of habits

06:16 - Systems vs. Goals

08:01 - Layers of behavioral change

09:58 - Stages of habit formation

13:43 - Steps of breaking a bad habit

15:52 - Habit stacking

17:40 - Reward systems

22:00 - What makes habits attractive

28:49 - Our ratings of the book

Every day we see companies market to us with a specific brand voice, and we can recognize the differences from one brand to the next. But what about personal brands? You as a person are a brand - it’s how you portray yourself on the internet and how others perceive you. I’m a brand, Emma’s a brand, Ali’s a brand. We’re all our own unique representations of ourselves. This week we’re discussing what it means to have your own personal brand and everything you need to know about building and managing your brand.

1:43 - What is a personal brand?

8:21 - Why would you want to build a brand?

11:10 - What are the benefits of having a personal brand?

13:29 - Who in tech has done a really good job of branding themselves?

15:29 - How did we build our brands?

18:03 - What platforms can you use to build a brand?

22:55 - The downsides of social media branding.

28:32 - How to build an audience.

32:08 - What we’re excited about in 2020.

Design for Developers

One of the biggest things that developers struggle with is design. It’s easy to look at an application and know that it looks terrible, but hard to explain why.

This episode we’re joined by Steve Schoger, co-author of the hugely popular Refactoring UI. We’ll learn some design tips and dive into the story behind the book as well as his other projects Hero Patterns and Hero Icons.

Show notes

1:40 - Who are you? Tell us a bit more about your coding/design journey.

10:22 - What is your typical day-to-day?

15:40 - What are Hero Patterns and Hero Icons?

21:25 - What is Refactoring UI?

31:40 - What area of design do you think developers struggle the most with?

34:11 - What are the differences between UX design and visual design?

36:56 - Design tips for developers.

41:40 - Where to find Steve online.

Resources

• Refactoring UI
• Steve's Twitter
• Steve's Portfolio
• Steve's YouTube
• Adam Wathan's Twitter
• Adam Wathan's Portfolio
• Tailwind CSS
• Hero Patterns
• Hero Icons
• Refactoring UI Screencasts

Transcript

We provide transcripts for all of our episodes. You can find them here!

To kick off our new season and a new year, this week we’ll be discussing 20 tips to start off strong in 2020. From mentorship to debugging to strategizing your learning, we'll give you all the advice you need for starting the year off right!

0:32 - 1. Challenge yourself to do something new.

04:30 - 2. Do a little bit each day.

07:03 - 3. Track your wins.

09:30 - 4. Get comfortable with failure.

12:08 - 5. Don't compare yourself to others.

16:28 - 6. Find a community.

19:24 - 7. People can be assholes, that's on them not you.

21:50 - 8. Find a mentor.

25:05 - 9. Take time to learn keyboard shortcuts.

30:30 - 10. Create your toolbox.

34:45 - 11. Learn how to debug.

38:30 - 12. Figure out how to stay up to date.

40:37 - 13. Overcome shiny object syndrome.

44:14 - 14. Pick one skill at a time to work on and learn it until you feel comfortable.

46:50 - 15. Decide if you want to be vertical or horizontal in knowledge.

50:09 - 16. Identify your learning style.

52:18 - 17. Take breaks.

54:29 - 18. Prioritize your values.

57:48 - 19. Use your powers for good.

59:33 - 20. Don’t forget that working in this field is a massive privilege.

01:02:59 - Shoutouts of the week

Have you ever watched or attended a conference and been in awe of the speakers? How do they know so much information? How do they prepare a talk? How do they even get the courage to speak in the first place and what is that process like?

In this episode we’ll delve into all things conference talks. This is a very special episode because it’s our last episode this season. We’ve decided to release our podcast in seasons, which gives us more time to plan out our episodes and schedule guests ahead of time. We’ll be taking the month of December off and will be back with brand new episodes in January.

Show Notes

• Our speaking experience - 1:31
• What can I speak about? - 8:03
• What is a CFP? - 11:51
• Benefits of speaking - 17:22
• Drawback of speaking - 19:53
• Speaker fees - 24:19
• Preparing your talk - 32:19
• Speaking advice - 39:27
• How do I get started? - 46:04

For full show notes, visit our website

Today we’re talking about web performance. Did you know that 40% of users abandon sites that take more than 3s to load? Turns out making your sites fast is pretty important! In this episode we’ll talk about what web performance is, why we should care, and we’ll give you tips for optimizing performance and measuring it.

Show Notes

• What is web performance? - 1:18
• Why should I care about performance? - 3:48
• The cost of JavaScript - 6:59
• What should I be measuring? - 14:02
• Performance tools - 17:46
• Performance-improving methods - 19:40
• Progressive web apps - 26:49

For full show notes, check out our website.

How often have you encountered a problem and struggled to figure out where to start? Or maybe you aren’t super familiar with the browser tools available to debug your JavaScript code. So today we’ve brought on a special guest, Rebecca Hill, to help us learn about the world of debugging.

Show Notes

• Who are you? - 1:12
• How did you learn so much about debugging? - 2:00
• Basic debugging steps - 3:12
• Is debugging language agnostic? - 6:21
• Why don't we teach debugging? - 9:36
• Different types of debugging - 13:45
• Common debugging mistakes - 17:09
• Testing - 19:39
• Browser features for debugging - 20:50
• Tips for new developers - 22:40
• Which browser is best for debugging? - 24:55
• Where can you learn more? - 26:08

For full show notes, visit our website

In recent years, working remotely has become a more popular office perk not only among startups but enterprise businesses as well. Some companies even ONLY work remotely. In this week's episode, we'll discuss our experiences working remotely, the pros and cons from an employer and employee standpoint, and provide some advice on whether or not working remotely is a good fit for you.

Show Notes

• What does it mean to work remotely? - 1:36
• What is our experience working remotely? - 2:34
• Pros & cons - 7:08
• What makes a successful remote work experience? - 21:05
• Should you work remotely as your first job? - 27:11
• Personality traits for a healthy remote work experience - 31:35
• Tips for working remotely - 33:31

For full show notes, check out our website.

If you’ve ever seen Kelly’s Twitter account then you’ve probably heard of Shopify, an E-commerce platform that gives you everything you need to sell online. This week we’re talking to JML, CTO at Shopify, and we’re giving you all the details.

Show notes

Who are you and what is your role at Shopify? - 1:05
What does a typical day at Shopify look like? - 1:41
What was your path in tech? - 3:36
What is Shopify & e-commerce in general? - 7:44 What makes Shopify different from competitors? - 12:41
Why should developers pay attention to Shopify? - 13:42
What are your favorite things that have been built by Shopify? - 22:09 How has Shopify's design system, Polaris, changed development? - 24:28 What tech stack do you recommend focusing on for new Shopify developers? - 30:06
What does the day in the life of a Shopify developer look like? - 31:01

For full show notes and transcript, check out our website

This week we're talking all things portfolios. What can a portfolio do for you? How can you build one? Do you even need a portfolio to be successful? This week we'll delve into the world of portfolios.

Show Notes

What is a technical portfolio? - 1:16
Do we have portfolios? - 8:13
Why would you want a portfolio? - 8:21
How do you build a portfolio as a backend developer? - 17:06
What can you put in your portfolio? - 18:11
What if I'm bad at design? - 20:26
What should developers focus on when building a portfolio? - 23:15
Fun portfolio examples - 25:24
Wins - 29:18

For full show notes, visit our website.

You've probably heard about some of the JavaScript frameworks that dominate the front end ecosystem. And this week's podcast we'll be discussing the pros and cons of JavaScript frameworks, go into detail about React, Vue, and Angular, and discuss tools and resources for how you can get started with these frameworks.

Difference between a library & a framework - 1:04 Do we even need a framework? - 4:37 Pros & cons of using frameworks - 13:25 Popularity of different frameworks - 16:54 React - 25:31 Vue.js - 34:14 Angular - 39:34 Which framework is right for me? - 44:23 Evolution & speed of frontend development - 45:44 Learning these frameworks - 47:31

For the full show notes, check out our website.

October means it's time for Hacktoberfest. We're talking with Shannon Crabill about what open source is, how to get involved with Hacktoberfest, and tips & tricks for maintaining open source projects.

Show Notes

• Who is Shannon? - 1:17
• What is open source? - 4:19
• How did you get involved in Hacktoberfest? - 4:55
• What is it like to maintain an open source project? - 6:27
• Tips && tricks for people wanting to work on maintaining an open source project - 7:35
• How to contribute to Hacktoberfest projects? - 8:54
• Advice for beginners getting started in open source - 11:51
• How do you find projects to contribute to? - 13:09
• Hard parts of open source - 14:30
• Best parts of open source - 15:38
• How to gain confidence to contribute - 16:52
• Advice to someone beginning their coding journey - 18:06

For the full show notes, head over to our website!

October means it's time for Hacktoberfest. Hacktoberfest is an awesome event where you can get involved in open source whether it's your first time contributing or you're a seasoned pro.

In this episode we'll discuss what Hacktoberfest is, how you can start contributing to open source, and with our special guests Peter and Jess from Dev, we'll talk about how you can maintain your own open source project.

For full show notes, check out our website.

Design systems are in the world around us from the signs on the side of the highway to the setup of a grocery store and our products are no exception. But what exactly our design systems and how do we build them? In this episode, we'll take a look at the foundations of design systems, the benefits and drawbacks, and the process for creating one from the ground up.

1:23 What are design systems? 2:58 Emma's experience with design systems 3:52 Ali's experience with design systems 4:41 Kelly's experience with design systems 5:00 Do you need a design system and who are design systems for? 7:46 Benefits of design systems 11:11 Drawbacks of design systems and team structure 13:11 How do you measure success? 14:24 Challenges of building a design system 15:34 How to build a design system 18:19 Styling components 19:03 Documentation tools 21:09 Style guides 23:42 Why design systems fail 25:08 Who builds design systems 29:20 Tools for building design systems 32:54 Notable people in design systems 36:54 Wins

For the full show notes and links to the speakers, check out our website!

Have you ever wondered what it takes to be an effective teacher in the tech industry? Well wonder no more!

We had the pleasure of chatting with Angie Jones, Senior Developer Advocate at Applitools and Director at Test Automation University about her experience as a teacher. Angie talks to us about her teaching and learning styles and shares some advice for those looking to get into the world of teaching.

In this episode, we discussed how to teach to multiple skill levels, common misconceptions about being a teacher, and much more!

For the full show notes and links to the speakers, check out our website!

GraphQL has taken this industry by storm, but what is it exactly? In this special episode of the Ladybug Podcast we’ve invited 14 GraphQL experts from the community to educate us on all things GraphQL!

2:00 - What Is GraphQL? (Erin Fox)

8:21 - Benefits Of GraphQL (Akshar Takle)

11:19 - History Of GraphQL (Brian Douglas)

14:01 - Syntax (Chris Biscardi)

17:01 - Schemas (Kurt Kemple)

20:02 - Variables (Swyx)

24:24 - Fragments (Emma Wedekind)

25:36 - Directives (Jon Wong)

32:10 - Toolkit (Alan Johnson)

38:49 - React Hooks & GraphQL (Shruti Kapoor)

46:13 - GraphQL vs. REST (Chantastic)

49:20 - When NOT To Use GraphQL (Zach Lendon)

54:37 - Useful Tools For Learning/Using GraphQL (Manjula Dube)

1:01:27 - Making GraphQL Development Easier With Hasura (Rajoshi Ghosh)

1:05:06 - Wins!

For the full show notes and links to the speakers, check out our website!

There are so many different paths your career can follow in the tech industry. There's frontend, backend, or even full-stack development. You could also be a software engineer, quality assurance engineer, UX engineer, manager, developer advocate, or something else entirely!

For full show notes and resources for today's episode, check out the episode page on our website

Today we are doing a deep dive about entrepreneurship with our in house business owner, Kelly! Everyone can benefit from thinking entrepreneurially, even people who don’t want to start their own business. We’re going to ask Kelly about all the things that we are curious about and scare us about entrepreneurship.

Check out full show notes and resources for today's episode, check out the episode page on our website

In our first part of our CSS episode, we discussed the foundations. In this special bonus episode we'll continue the conversation by covering some more in-depth areas of CSS, like layouts with Grid and Flexbox, animations, media queries, naming conventions, pre-processors, and frameworks.

Read the full shownotes and transcripts on our site: ladybug.dev/css-part-2

We all know that Peter Griffin Family Guy gif of him unable to work some blinds. This gif is always associated with the frustrations of CSS. Something changes, then something breaks. Why do people have these issues? How can you improve your CSS skills? What are the key concepts that you need to understand to write clean, maintainable styles?

In this episode, we'll talk all about the nuances of CSS -- what it is, how it works, and how to get better at it.

Read the full shownotes and transcripts at our site: ladybug.dev/css-part-1

Have you ever been scared to contribute to a conversation or publish a blog post because you were worried you weren’t qualified enough? Wondered how you got to the point you’re at in your career because you feel you don’t belong? Or that you’re a fraud? You’re not alone!

In this episode, we discuss how we have experienced impostor syndrome and our personal strategies for combatting it.

0:36 How have we experienced Impostor Syndrome

• Job Interviews (0:48)
• Quitting Computer Science & feeling like you stick out (2:04)
• Speaking for the first time at a conference (7:19)
• Feeling like you’re not qualified to teach something (11:46)
• When people say mean things about you (13:11)
• Running a company as someone young (16:32)
• Getting criticism (17:56)

21:21 Impostor Syndrome as a Business Owner

21:55 Impostor Syndrome pushing us to be better

24:40 Combatting Impostor Syndrome

• Tracking your wins
• Focusing on your personal journey instead of others’
• Being open about it and community w/ others

37:24 WINS

• Cecilia who just graduated from the full-stack software engineering boot camp at Georgia Tech and landed her first job as a junior software developer.
• Emma - Coding Coach Team is doing incredible things
• Lindsey - Survived 106 heat index for her engagement pics!
• Kelly - Started her own online store!
• Ali - Spoke at CodeLand which was her most difficult talk to date because of how personal it was

Additional Links:

• The truth about impostor syndrome
• Why I keep an 'Accomplishments / Good Stuff' List

Check out the full shownotes and transcripts on our site!

In this episode, we're getting to know the ladybug hosts, both on technical and non-technical topics. Listen in to learn about our favorite tech stacks, our biggest career milestones, favorite books, and more.

Be sure to review the show notes on our website for links to all resources we discuss. We also have full transcripts listed there!

The landscape of technologies you can learn in the development world can be overwhelming if you don't know where to go next. In this episode, we discuss the technologies we're most excited about. From CSS to GraphQL, Django to WebAssembly, and design to augmented reality - we cover it all.

Be sure to review the show notes on our website for links to all resources we discuss.

One of the most popular outlets for programmers is through blogging. In this episode, we discuss why each of us got into blogging, the pros and cons of starting your own blog, and tips on how to make your blog a success.

View the show notes and a full transcript at ladybug.dev.

Side projects are an excellent way to express yourself creatively and build up your tech stack. But how do you find time to work on your side project when you have a full-time job and other responsibilities at home? In this episode, we discuss our personal side projects, along with some useful strategies for giving your side projects the attention they deserve.

View the show notes and a full transcript at ladybug.dev.

There are several different ways you can learn how to code. In this episode, we discuss computer science degrees, bootcamps, and self-directed learning. Each has benefits and have brought a lot of people into the world of programming. Each also has challenges.

We all have had unique paths to programming, so we'll incorporate our experiences and observations.

Visit ladybug.dev for the full transcript and show notes!