Backend Banter

Today we welcome Malte Ubl, CTO of Vercel, to discuss the evolution of frontend development and the role of AI in shaping modern engineering workflows.

Malte dives into V0, Vercel's innovative tool for generating frontend code using AI, and explains how it empowers developers—especially backend engineers—to build full-stack applications.

We also explore the concept of verticalization in engineering roles, the challenges of balancing innovation with infrastructure, and how AI is redefining productivity in tech.

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Malte's X: https://x.com/cramforce

Vercel: https://vercel.com/

V0: https://v0.dev/

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro and Meeting Malte

01:23 - What is V0 and Why Did Vercel Build It?

04:00 - The Technical Challenges Behind V0

10:34 - How V0 Leverages Tailwind and TypeScript

19:15 - AI's Impact on Frontend Development

23:20 - Verticalization of Engineering Roles

32:01 - How AI is Changing Development Workflows

37:09 - The Future of Full-Stack Engineering

44:08 - How Vercel Balances Product Innovation with Core Infrastructure

46:06 - Final Thoughts and Where to Find Malte

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Today we welcome Madison Kana—a self-taught dev who defied the traditional path. From dropping out and navigating a world of homeschooling to launching the Code Book Club, Madison transformed her unconventional journey into a thriving community of coders. In this episode, she shares how bypassing the typical education route fueled her passion, the real challenges of learning on your own, and the power of mentorship in building a dynamic tech career. If you’re ready to break the mold and carve your own path in software development.

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Madison's X: https://x.com/Madisonkanna

Website: https://madisonkanna.com/

Learn out loud: learn0utloud.com

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

00:30 - Where did it all start?

01:40 - Dropping out

08:42 - How Madison started learning code

22:00 - Team leading

30:30 - Code Book Club

38:50 - Learn out loud

46:20 - AI talk

54:18 - Book recommendations

56:05 - Outro

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Today we bring Sam Aaron, the creator of Sonic Pi, a free code-based music creation and performance tool that lets you use simple code to turn your computer into a fully networked live coding music studio! It is also used to engage students in computer science and programming through music creation!

In this episode, we explore the origins of Sonic Pi, its deep connection with Raspberry Pi, and how it enables live coding for music creation, starting from it's Ruby-based language features, we discuss how Sonic Pi has evolved, the challenges of maintaining it as a sustainable open-source project and if you’re curious about coding, music, or both—this one’s for you!

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Sonic Pi - https://sonic-pi.net/

Sam's Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/samaaron

Sam's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samaaron/

Sam's X/Twitter: https://x.com/samaaron

DJ Dave: https://www.youtube.com/@dj_dave____

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

01:11 - Sonic Pi Origin Story

03:03 - Connection To Raspberry Pi

04:23 - But What Is Sonic Pi?

06:25 - Is Ruby The Primary Language Used In Sonic Pi?

10:25 - A Small Sonic Pi Showcase

17:53 - Collaboration through Git

23:12 - How Did Sam Get Involved In All Of This?

25:14 - The Feedback Loop of Sonic Pi

26:56 - How Does The Live Coding Experience Work In Sonic Pi?

32:01 - The Two Different Working Modes Of Sonic Pi

33:42 - How Does Debugging Work In Sonic Pi

38:55 - How Do The Different Components Fit Into The Architecture Of The Project

51:33 - Has Sam Been Full-Time On Sonic Pi Since Its Inception?

53:25 - Does Sam Want To Try Something Different?

56:25 - How Is Sam Finding More Sustainable Revenue?

Today, we bring a very special guest, one whose face you might recognise, one that appears on your homepages with a sporadic video and seemingly disappears. His name is Benjamin Burke, or simply Ben, he’s the co-creator of KRAZAM, a channel that consists of sketches that combine grotesque and absurdist humor with technological anxiety, satirizing the tech industry and the modern alienation of the corporate life in general.

In this episode, which admittedly is a bit different from the usual, we’ll focus on KRAZAM and its origins, creative process, and what future plans and ambitions the duo has. Both Ben and Shiva started in software engineering, met in college and started doing sketches just for fun, not expecting this project to explode in popularity in the way it did. Ben will also share their unique approach to content and why KRAZAM prioritizes loyal viewers over virality, comedic inspirations. Stay tuned!

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

KRAZAM'S Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@KRAZAM/videos

KRAZAM's X/Twitter: https://x.com/krazamtv

KRAZAM'S Website: https://www.krazam.tv/

Krazam's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/KRAZAM

Ben's X/Twitter: https://x.com/bb_fresh

Ben's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bnjmnbrk/

Shiva's X/Twitter: https://x.com/shivakilaru

Shiva's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shivakilaru/

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

01:58 - KRAZAM Origin Story

03:59 - How Much More Footage Is Left After the Recordings?

05:12 - Are Both Ben and Shiva Programmers?

06:46 - Inspiration Behind "The Hustle"

08:47 - Has Ben Read Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations"?

09:25 - The Actual Introduction to KRAZAM

10:49 - Microservices

14:04 - Sending Birthday Messages Is HARD

19:06 - On Shiva Not Being in the Microservices Video

20:48 - Favorite KRAZAM Videos

22:22 - Most Underrated KRAZAM Video

32:00 - KRAZAM's Viewers Are Very Loyal

36:03 - Ambitions for the KRAZAM Channel

39:04 - How Did You Know KRAZAM Had Product-Market Fit?

40:59 - Ben's Comedic Inspirations

43:08 - KRAZAM Does Not Aim for Virality

46:47 - Was It Stressful to Do a Live Talk?

49:40 - KRAZAM's Video Release Frequency

51:46 - Competitive Excel

55:34 - Site Reliability Engineer Video

57:50 - AI Bots on Spotify

01:00:27 - Self-Hosting and The Good Old Days

01:02:31 - What's the Churn in the Industry?

01:05:21 - Where to Find Ben and KRAZAM

Lane chats with Chris Ferdinandi—creator of Go Make Things and ADHD for the Win—a frontend dev, educator, and all-around expert in making JavaScript (and learning) simpler. Chris has built a career helping devs cut through the noise, level up their skills, and embrace ADHD-friendly ways to stay focused and productive.

We dive into his journey from discovering his own ADHD to reshaping how people learn to code. We talk about why so many devs have ADHD, how gamification can actually help (when done right), and how today’s tech is messing with our attention spans. Plus, we get into the psychology of learning and what actually works when it comes to staying engaged and motivated.

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

ADHD ftw! : https://adhdftw.com/backend-banter/

Go Make Things: https://gomakethings.com/

https://bsky.app/profile/cferdinandi.bsky.social

https://mastodon.social/@cferdinandi

00:00 - Intro

01:58 - Why so many devs have ADHD

03:21 - Quick explanation of ADHD

07:10 - Is ADHD actually more common now?

17:41 - ADHD, dopamine, and why we can’t put our phones down

20:50 - Trying meds for ADHD – what’s it like?

22:34 - How ADHDftw got started

24:21 - Why finishing big projects is so damn hard

25:54 - Best content styles for ADHD brains

28:40 - Gamification: What works and what’s just hype?

34:16 - Which gamer type fits ADHD folks best?

39:27 - Is TikTok basically junk food for your brain?

41:45 - Must-read books on focus and getting stuff done

43:43 - Where to find Chris and his content

46:26 - Is ADHD a gift or a curse?

59:30 - Brutally honest feedback for Boot.dev

01:18:58 - Outro

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We’re joined by Danny Thompson, currently Director of Technology at This Dot Labs and technical leader and organizer of the Dallas Software Developers Group, where he fosters vibrant local tech ecosystem through workshops, cohorts, and meetups.

With a passion to help others learn and find jobs, Danny shares his stories and insights that he gained throughout his extensive and fascinating career! From working as a cashier to now giving talks and organizing meetups for which people fly out to attend, Danny talks about how he got into coding in the first place and his progression, his advice to new developers, how does AI impact jobs now and his perspective on how it will change in the future and a lot more!

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player - https://www.backendbanter.fm

Danny's X/Twitter: https://x.com/DThompsonDev

Danny's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dthompsondev/

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

02:14 - How Danny Got Into Coding

05:08 - Meetups and Affordable Conferences

23:37 - Overview of This Dot Labs

29:28 - Building Apps on Top of Stripe

30:30 - Businesses Focus on Functionality Over Aesthetics

33:00 - Danny's Career Progression

38:39 - Pros and Cons of Product vs. Consulting

43:12 - This Dot Labs Regarding AI

46:46 - Interest Rates &. AI: Impact on Developer Jobs

55:31 - The Pressure to Perform at a High Level

57:51 - Why Recruiters Do Not Call You Back

01:03:41 - Getting Feedback After Interviews

01:04:49 - Danny's LinkedIn Courses and Where to Find Him

This week on Backend Banter, we’re joined by Ryan Fleury, a talented game developer currently working with Epic Games on their Rad Debugger project. Ryan shares his journey from building games to creating powerful developer tools, offering insights into arenas, memory management, and the fascinating world of programming from the ground up.

In this episode, we dive deep into memory management, exploring the differences between stack, heap, and arenas, and how they shape modern development. We discuss the trade-offs of various allocation strategies, the magic of pointer stability, and how arenas simplify managing lifetimes in both games and other applications. Along the way, Ryan shares his approach to developing tools, insights into game development workflows, and practical tips for clean and efficient programming.

Learn back-end development: https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Ryan's Socials:

Rad Debugger: https://github.com/EpicGamesExt/raddebugger

Website: https://www.rfleury.com/

X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanjfleury

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

00:54 - Ryan Fleury's Path to Game Development

02:49 - From Engines to Debugging Tools

06:51 - Arenas Explained: Memory Management Basics

16:51 - Arenas vs. Garbage Collectors

27:40 - Real-World Applications of Arenas

31:39 - Why Pointer Stability Matters

42:57 - Dynamic Allocation Made Simple

48:48 - How Arenas Streamline Development

01:01:38 - Debugging Tools and the Rad Debugger

01:09:43 - Where to find Ryan

We're back for Backend Banter Season 2, and we bring a very special guest, José Valim, the creator of the Elixir Programming Language, one of the most popular and loved functional programming languages of today. (Fun fact: it's used in production at Discord).

We cover the nitty-gritty of the language, ranging from simple topics such as the decision behind not making Elixir be statically typed, into the more complex cross-machine communication. We go over how Elixir's features compare with those of other languages, work habits of today's developers, José's own day-to-day development, and a lot more!

Today's talk encompasses a great variety of themes, so grab your coffee and tune in!

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Livebook & Elixir Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pas9WdWIBHs

Elixir Programming Language: https://elixir-lang.org/

Livebook: https://livebook.dev/

Elixir In Action Book: https://www.manning.com/books/elixir-in-action-third-edition

José's Socials:

X/Twitter: https://x.com/josevalim

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josevalim

GitHub: https://github.com/josevalim

Timestamps:

00:00 - Intro

01:06 - Embarrassing Stories with Foreign Languages

02:58 - Who is José Valim? (and Elixir's Popularity)

06:51 - Does José Use Phoenix a Lot?

08:28 - Why Isn't Elixir Statically Typed?

16:51 - External Input vs. Internal Code Logic

28:16 - Quick Overview of BEAM languages

31:23 - Elixir’s Equivalent to Golang’s Goroutines & Channels

42:43 - Cross-Machine Communication in Standard Libraries

49:15 - Do You Need RabbitMQ When Writing Elixir?

54:53 - Built-In Features in the Standard Library

01:01:52 - Why People Are Too Used To Work The Hard Way

01:04:22 - José and DHH

01:08:01 - Favorite Elixir Features & Immutability

01:17:49 - Purity in Functional Programming

01:21:35 - Where to find José

In today’s episode, we bring back Aaron Francis. If you haven’t watched our previous episode with him, he is a software developer, fellow content creator and co-founder of Try Hard Studios. In the past he’s been an accountant at a Big 4 but now he focuses on Laravel, web development and all things business and video.

This episode will step away from the usual tech focused content and we’ll talk a bit more about the business side of things, how you have to balance entertainment and education when creating courses, Aaron’s High Performance SQLite course, building a personal brand through the discomfort of centering it around yourself, how good presentation matters and how proactiveness puts you miles ahead of the majority, so stay tuned!

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Aaron's X/Twitter: https://x.com/aarondfrancis

Aaron's Website: https://aaronfrancis.com/

High Performance SQLite: https://highperformancesqlite.com/

Screencasting: https://screencasting.com/

Mostly Technical Podcast: https://mostlytechnical.com/

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:32 Podcast listening going up when having a kid

02:25 Podcast about earning the first million

08:54 You have to choose the entertainment vs education levels

10:37 You have to shape your material to the platforms

16:40 Long hour videos vs 2 minute ones

20:16 Are the videos in the High Performance SQLite in linear order?

24:19 Figuring out the metrics

28:06 Building courses on other domains

31:46 Building brands is difficult

35:55 quick disclaimer

36:30 Personal brand vs company

37:57 Is this sellable?

40:23 Do you need an audience?

44:26 The strategy is simple but it is also hard to execute

49:31 The presentation matters a LOT

51:54 On being proactive

57:00 Where to find Aaron

In today’s episode, we go to war with Sam Selikoff, co-host of the Frontend First podcast, and specialist on everything Frontend related.

We have an amazing conversation where we discuss Sam’s journey, as he also did some backend work in the past, we talk about abstractions, what JavaScript is doing differently from other languages and frameworks, why the frontend should be driving the backend and not the other way around, and finish it off with a discussion about RSCs (React Server Components).

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Frontend First: https://frontendfirst.fm/

Sam's X/Twitter: https://x.com/samselikoff

Sam's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/samselikoff

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

00:51 Who is Sam Selikoff

02:12 Abstractions - Should you go a level deeper?

06:37 What was Sam's talk about

10:51 What is JavaScript doing differently?

19:10 Do you want the frameworks to push more features out of the box for backend work?

24:04 Strong opinions on a library level

30:29 Shipping more standardized interfaces

37:06 The frontend should be driving everything in the backend

39:12 Your types should flow from the database to the frontend, but not the product decisions

46:53 React Server Components

58:49 Where to find Sam

Today we bring Thomas Ballinger, a developer at Convex, an open-source backend for application builders. We will be discussing mainly databases, and why at Convex they use Rust and Typescript.

We'll also talk about systems scalability, infrastructure and go over different practices regarding abstractions

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Convex: https://www.convex.dev/

Thomas' X/Twitter: https://x.com/ballingt

Thomas' Website: https://ballingt.com/

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

00:33 Thomas' background

02:29 Convex - what it is and why should you use it?

03:16 What are query planners?

06:32 SQL is a very high level language

07:43 The primary differentiator of Convex

10:49 Who are Convex's biggest competitors?

14:20 How do you build the infrastructure

17:11 What type of database is Convex?

19:18 Why is Convex written in Rust?

23:35 Cheap abstractions

25:47 Productivity suffering from compile times

29:47 The different approaches for a backend developer to build scalable systems

32:28 Backend for Frontend

37:21 You want to be close to your data

42:13 Are there plans to support other languages at Convex?

47:06 Does the schema update the autocompletion in the editor

48:31 Naming and behavior of the queries with Convex

51:06 Why sqlc is great

52:28 Why TypeScript is a great "shortcut" for Convex

59:34 Where to find Thomas

Today we bring anothe returning guest, Adam Elmore! An AWS Hero, Teacher and fellow content creator! You might notice today's talk is a bit different, as we don't cover too much technical details but we do cover a lot of other interesting topics that permeate our everyday lives, such as kids and family time, religion and purpose in life...

But don't worry, we also share some hot takes on indie hackers, business models of education platforms and finally content creation and how it can help you propel your career!

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Adam's Twitter: https://x.com/adamdotdev

Adam's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adamdotdev

ProAWS: https://www.proaws.dev/

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:42 Terminal Coffee

06:42 Kids' books

09:00 How serious is the Terminal Coffee business

12:51 Indie Hackers

19:11 Books

23:42 The March of Time

25:56 Commitment to the lessons

27:21 The problem with course platforms

28:31 ProAWS

35:45 The education industry isn't as cutthroat as it seems

39:13 What's Adams plan of attack with the courses?

40:00 How does streaming affect Adam?

44:05 Who is Adam's audience?

44:44 Podcasting

47:34 Who is TomorrowFM targeted at?

49:14 Burnout in podcasts

52:01 Growing up religious

57:34 Would you say that you've distanced yourself from religion for epistemological or cultural reasons?

01:03:00 Throwing the religious labels out

01:13:03 Where to find Adam

In today's episode, we bring back James Q Quick. Last time we talked about his best tips to land your first ever job as a developer. Today we talk about James' new startup and how he manages all his new tech adventures with being a parent and also provides some helpful insight as to why having an audience and personal connections in the industry is beneficial - but not strictly necessary to succeed.

We also talk about AWS, abstraction and the current (healing) state of layoffs, so don't lose hope if you're demotivated in your job search.

Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Deals for Devs: https://www.dealsfordevs.com/

James' Website: https://www.jamesqquick.com/

James' Twitter: https://x.com/jamesqquick

James' Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JamesQQuick

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

00:55 On being a parent

04:28 Idiocracy

05:47 Deals for Devs

10:09 Comparison with Dixie Direct

12:22 How do you quantify the really high quality deals

15:57 The challenge with a two-sided marketplace

22:28 Doing stuff manually is actually pretty good

25:38 Having a personal connection helps A LOT

29:12 Zeta

34:05 The Web is being modeled on AWS

36:38 You shouldn't be learning one JavaScript framework

38:30 Know how to answer a question if you don't know the technology

41:43 When you learn to code, how much layers of abstraction you should go?

43:45 Should passion be required for a job in tech?

49:02 The state of layoffs

52:29 The ease of finding a job after a layoff when you're highly talented

55:58 Do you need an audience to find a job easily?

58:40 Developers of the world - Interviews in person

01:02:12 Where to find James

In today's episode, we bring back BadCop! Since last episode, she joined Boot.dev's team and is now writing courses with us!

Today we will be discussing the approaches to writing good educational material, Bash (of course, duh), working outside cloud solutions, SSH, NAS systems, workflows with different editors and cultural shifts in different areas of programming. Enjoy!

Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

BadCop's Twitter: https://x.com/badcop_

BadCop's Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/badcop_

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

00:58 BadCop Joined the Boot.dev Team!

01:15 Writing courses is harder than it looks

03:45 Lane's approach to writing courses

05:21 What's the hardest part of writing a course for BadCop?

09:01 On writing Bash

13:19 How useful is it to know how to work outside the cloud solutions?

17:28 SSHing into the home network

20:49 What is a NAS?

23:26 Using VTuber Software off the shelf

25:55 When did BadCop start using NeoVim?

29:41 IRC talk

33:20 Cultural shift in the programming space

38:05 Getter and Setter functions

42:35 People are overusing the idea of encapsulation

48:41 Dependency Inversion Principle

51:11 The VTuber Project

52:58 Where to find BadCop

In today's episode, we welcome Ken Wheeler, a dope programmer, who creates cool projects and just gives them away for free, helping thousands of developers worldwide, a based beatmaker and just in general a cool person.

In this episode, we talk about AI, React, OCaml, why stressing over specific frameworks is not worth it, advice for new developers, HTMX, SPA's and a LOT of other stuff, so stay tuned!

Ken's X/Twitter: https://x.com/ken_wheeler

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

00:25 Do you hate AI?

02:10 How diffusion works

17:47 First impressions with writing Go

18:29 Where's the line between Backend Development and DevOps

24:11 Does anyone version their REST?

24:57 urql

25:38 Offloading the data work to the other side

29:55 Wordpress is 80% of the websites

31:15 HTMX

33:12 Single Page Apps

34:02 Is React still your go-to

36:38 Is it hard to switch from React to Vue?

39:37 Picking a first language to learn

40:43 OCaml

43:12 HEX and raw Binary Data

44:42 Bluetooth powered crossbow

52:20 What got Ken into doing talks

58:45 Where to find Ken

Today, we bring back a dear guest and friend of the podcast, ThePrimeagen! Now Ex-Netflix engineer who turned his full focus to content creation surrounding software engineering and tech.

In today's episode, we talk about his new Git course on boot.dev, where he shares motivations on why he decided to write a course on Git, how he incorporates it into his workflow and shares some hot takes regarding today's tech education landscape, his opinion on bootcamps, colleges, and what his ideal way of teaching computer science is.

To finish off, he shares some of his exciting new ventures, namely a coffee shop and a Doom game which you can play through twitch chat!

Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev

Listen on your favorite podcast player:

https://www.backendbanter.fm

ThePrimeagen's Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/c/theprimeagen

ThePrimeagen's other Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/@ThePrimeTimeagen

ThePrimeagen's Twitter: https://x.com/ThePrimeagen

Terminal Coffee Shop: https://www.terminal.shop/

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

00:27 Why teach about Git?

02:55 Was Prime taught Git?

04:50 add files individually or git add .

07:22 Hot take about git in school

10:27 What should you learn in school in the first place?

11:34 Where did school come from?

16:42 You can't become a software engineer in 3 months

19:45 Contents of Part 1 and what will Part 2 of the Git course be about

22:58 Rebase vs Merge and Prime's current workflow

24:22 Why you shouldn't merge

29:10 A lot of the times, people just don't know the tools

32:29 The advantage of rebase

34:03 Rewriting history criticism

36:30 Prime's terminal coffee shop

44:22 Doom in the terminal?

54:08 Is the bandwidth the problem with the Doom game?

55:27 Ideas for the controls for Doom

58:57 Where to find Prime

Today, we're excited to have Bashbunni join us, a software developer and fellow tech content creator currently rocking it as a DevRel at Charm, whose purpose is all about glamming up the CLI experience. In this episode, we cover a lot of ground, from diving into Charm's cool libraries and their real-world applications to chatting about the self-taught programming journey. We also touch on TikTok and addictive social media use, content creation and its intricacies, and share some insights into the world of Golang. Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm Bashbunni's Twitter: https://twitter.com/sudobunni Bashbunni's Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/bashbunni Bashbunni's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/bashbunni Charm: https://charm.sh/ Charm's video that Bashbunni mentioned: https://charm.sh/blog/100k/ Timestamps: 00:36 When did Bashbunni start working with Go? 02:10 School during COVID and education nowadays 04:23 Is self-taught still a viable way to learn programming? 08:50 Discipline can be learned 10:04 Why it is much harder to focus nowadays? 11:08 TikTok and Addictive Social Media Use 14:31 What kind of media does BashBunni consume, if not short-form content 18:14 Is creating content for Charm a bit part of the job? 21:05 On Tech content creators being technical 24:41 Quality vs Quantity 25:31 What is Charm? 29:09 Why Golang is the best language for CLI Applications 32:52 US vs Canadian Accents 34:05 Melt - One of Charm's Libraries 36:24 Soft serve - Self hostable git server 37:39 VHS - Terminal GIFs as code 39:10 How many people are behind Charm? 39:17 How does Charm make money? 42:40 GUI's are bloated, Terminal is the GOAT 45:56 Bashbunni's beef with JavaScript 48:47 Where to find Bashbunni

In this episode, we host Trash Puppy, with her amazing story of how she went from Nursing to becoming a Software Engineer. Today, we talk about her story, why she chose Golang, her exciting personal projects and her experiences and advice as a self-taught developer. As Trash Puppy is accepting job offers at the moment, we also dove into the current job market and job hunting process, as it definitely isn't an easy one to navigate these days, while also touching up on her thoughts of the threats of AI. Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm Trash Puppy's Twitter: https://twitter.com/TrshPuppy Trash Puppy's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@trshpuppy Trash Puppy's Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/trshpuppy Trash Puppy's Github: https://github.com/TrshPuppy Trash Puppy's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trshpuppy/ Timestamps: 00:31 How Trash Puppy went from a Nurse to a Software Engineer 05:06 Lane shares how his wife went from an X-Ray technician to Software Dev 07:00 When did Trash Puppy start learning to code? 08:24 Trash Puppy pivoted to Golang? 09:29 Was there anything else about the industry that motivated Trash Puppy to switch to WebDev? 10:38 NetPuppy 13:12 Coding in Cyber Security 18:10 Do you want to hire Trash Puppy? 18:27 Current Job Market and Job Hunting 22:51 You have a better chance applying to local jobs 25:25 Lack of experience in the field when searching for a job 29:26 Outlook on AI 30:15 Impact of not having a CS Degree 33:11 Building projects or studying up on foundations? 37:19 The learning happens during the struggle 41:47 What has been the hardest thing about learning Go so far? 45:27 What do you like the most about Go? 47:03 What's your least favorite part about Go? 48:20 Installing Go modules vs GOPATH 50:31 Where to find Trash Puppy

Today, we're thrilled to have Tommy Graves, co-founder of RWX, a company focusing on building tools that optimize build and test performance, reliability, and developer experience. In this episode, we're delving deep into the realm of CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment), with a special focus on Mint - their latest CI platform. We'll be exploring its unique features, how it differs from its competitors, caching, security, cost-efficiency in production pipelines. Apart from that, we'll also discuss GitHub Actions along with it's biggest flaws and finally demystifying CI/CD, as it is not the big monster a lot of developers perceive it to be. Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm Mint: https://www.rwx.com/mint Timestamps: 00:54 Who is Tommy Graves 05:14 What is Continuous Integration? 06:57 What is Mint trying to solve, that isn't solved by other CI/CD platforms 09:57 Better Semantic Output on a CI/CD platform 14:20 What's the benefit to the structure of semantic logging, apart from visualization 15:23 CI/CD course on Boot.dev 17:59 Does Mint make it cheaper for companies that have high CI/CD expenses? 19:12 Why don't other companies do caching the way Mint does? 25:49 There are security implications of using the same platform for both CI and CD 30:42 How smaller teams could benefit from Mint 33:15 Verifying changes to the deployment workflow with GitHub Actions and Mint 36:49 Is GitHub Actions dominating the space or is there still competition? 39:04 One of the biggest frustrations with GitHub Actions 42:03 Does Mint relate to the Unix philosophy? 48:07 How does configuring the CI/CD tools drive the philosophy of Mint 50:36 Just understand CI/CD, you won't need those courses dedicated to CI/CD platforms 53:45 CI/CD is not as esoteric as it sounds 58:48 Where to find Mint

Today, we bring a special "Whiskey, Web and Whatnot" edition to our podcast, where we welcome Travis Wagner and Robbie The Wagner, to talk about controversial takes regarding tech CEOs, their experiences in the field, the impact of AI and other personal preferences towards technologies Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Whiskey, Web and Whatnot podcast: https://whiskey.fm/Robbie's Twitter: https://twitter.com/RobbieTheWagnerTravis's Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/techsavvytravvy Travis's Twitter: https://twitter.com/techsavvytravvy Timestamps: 01:22 Whiskey, Web and Whatnot 01:52 Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg, which Tech CEO of 2024 is your favorite? 03:28 Robbie's Background 04:42 Travis's background 06:23 Big company or small company? 10:07 Tenures, incentives and current market 12:33 Who would you pick for your team, Steve Ballmer or Sundar Pichai 13:41 AWS or GCP? 16:25 DevOps is not a real job 20:16 Be a DevRel or a Scrum Master? 23:38 What's the difference between DevRel and Dev Advocate? 24:56 AI or VR, which is more impactful on a developer's day-to-day? 31:53 Which Big Tech Company sucks the least? 36:21 Bigger Salary but Less Equity or Less Salary but More Equity? 41:19 Is Blockchain Gone Yet? 50:52 CS Degree or Being an Open Source Maintainer on a successful project? 55:10 Remote or On-site? 01:03:19 Where to find Robbie 01:03:43 Where to find Travis

In today's episode, we bring Thorsten Ball, author of "Writing An Interpreter In Go" and "Writing A Compiler In Go". In this talk, we discuss the different clashes and responsibilities between Product and Engineering teams, reignite the topic of working with technical managers, explain why cookie banners are dumb, and on a more interpersonal note, discuss how important coolness is in education, explain why a lot of the times, highly talented people just don't know how to work and also dabble into the ideas of fulfillment, responsibility and reliability.

Thorsten's Twitter: https://twitter.com/thorstenball
Register Spill: https://registerspill.thorstenball.com/
Thorsten's Books: https://thorstenball.com/books/

• (01:08) - The idea behind Register Spill
• (02:20) - It's a Negotiation: When Product and Engineering meet
• (05:58) - Engineering vs Product
• (07:31) - Thorsten's view of the Product team
• (09:36) - Thorsten's view of the Engineering team
• (11:06) - Engineers should inform product before building something
• (14:57) - Real-life example from Thorsten
• (18:04) - Measuring completixy in T-Shirt sizes and Time Estimates
• (22:46) - Set a cap on time dedicated to a task
• (23:50) - Do we need more technical leadership?
• (27:58) - Working with Engineering Managers that are technical is a bliss
• (35:19) - Not Every Company Is For Everybody
• (41:14) - Cookie Banners are Dumb
• (50:13) - Educators underestimate how important coolness is
• (56:19) - There are a lot of highly capable people that just don't know how to work
• (01:02:20) - Getting fulfillment just from the effort
• (01:04:23) - Be reliable
• (01:06:34) - Where to find Thorsten

In this episode, we bring Daniel Roe, the Lead Maintainer of Nuxt.js, an open source framework that makes web development intuitive and powerful. Today, he shares his journey into the framework and sheds some light on intriguing questions surrounding its development and usage. Today's talk ranges from the origins of Nuxt to its unique features and practical tips for developers, deliberate naming, comparison with Next.js and technical and detailed discussion regarding performance optimization and project structuring.

Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev
Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Daniel's Twitter: https://x.com/danielcroe
Daniel's Website: https://roe.dev/
Nuxt Framework: https://nuxt.com

• (00:14) - How did Daniel Roe join Nuxt?
• (02:53) - Elk, Moose and Wilderness
• (06:07) - Was it named Nuxt intentionally to confuse people?
• (08:32) - Next.js vendor lock-in criticism and does Nuxt have any similar issues
• (11:31) - Boot.dev moved from a Vue 3 SPA to Nuxt
• (14:19) - Auto-importing by default?
• (20:01) - Using longer variable names because of global namespace
• (21:58) - Explaining the default Nuxt payload behavior
• (26:59) - Default prefetching
• (30:17) - What are the most common use cases for Nuxt apps
• (32:32) - Who has control in your project?
• (33:45) - Enabling JavaScript or not?
• (37:25) - Updating head tags in Nuxt
• (39:09) - New feature that improves script handling in Nuxt
• (41:01) - What do you prioritize? Interactivity or Scripts?
• (42:06) - Google Tag Manager
• (46:07) - What's Daniel's favorite Nuxt feature?
• (47:11) - Types are amazing!
• (49:37) - How did the Idea of Boot.dev came to be?
• (51:24) - Gamification of coding
• (53:46) - Theory is picked up from practice
• (56:05) - What's one thing you'd instantly change about Nuxt if you could
• (59:04) - Separation of what goes on in the client vs the server in the same file
• (01:04:44) - Where to find Daniel

In today's episode, we bring back Teej DeVries, the first guest ever on our podcast! Today we are discussing Teej's new course on Boot.dev on Memory Management. In this talk, we discuss the importance of memory, why Go is a C-programmer minded language, garbage collectors, among other technical topics. We also talk about why understanding the fundamentals in crucial in helping you increase your learning ability, how different it is hiring juniors and seniors and why being curious gives you the advantage over everyone else.

Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev
Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Teej's Twitter: https://twitter.com/teej_dv
Teej's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/tjdevries

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (00:57) - Teej will have a course on Boot.dev!
• (01:35) - Why Memory Management is so important
• (05:17) - Go is a C-programmer minded language
• (07:00) - 25% off on boot.dev!
• (07:22) - How far in the curriculum will Teej's course be?
• (09:13) - Should you learn Rust or C first?
• (12:43) - Dropping out of college
• (13:49) - You should know WHY you're doing something
• (15:29) - Self motivated learning
• (18:52) - Internal Boot.dev tooling for this course
• (21:59) - OCamls' garbage collector
• (23:55) - Functional language, performance and immutability constraints
• (30:24) - Roc programming language
• (32:42) - Wasm (WebAssembly) vs Machine Code
• (36:07) - C's Standard Library vs Go's Standard Library
• (37:01) - Installing dependencies
• (41:09) - C as an educational tool
• (43:27) - You have to think when using C
• (45:42) - Enterprise machines are weaker compared to local machines
• (47:43) - Why this course is before the Job Search chapter
• (49:44) - Being curious gives you the advantage
• (51:16) - Every program uses memory, so we should have at least some level of understanding about it
• (54:28) - Just being able to speak like an engineer goes a long way
• (57:14) - There are still a ton of jobs that involve embedded systems, not just WebDev
• (01:00:13) - Be eager to learn
• (01:01:51) - Hiring Seniors vs Hiring Juniors
• (01:02:50) - You learn better if you understand fundamentals
• (01:04:10) - Analogy to Dota 2
• (01:08:54) - Where to find Teej

In this episode, Lane chats with Lewis Menelaws, a Full-Stack developer and entrepreneur. Today he takes us through his coding journey and insights as a developer influencer. From his early days coding Roblox games, tech stacks, and the challenges of freelancing, to his shift into content creation and thoughts on the current programming meta. 

Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev
Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Lewis's Twitter: https://twitter.com/LewisMenelaws
Lewis's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/CodingwithLewis

• (02:01) - Intro
• (02:18) - We need to talk about developer influencers
• (02:53) - When did Lewis first learn to code
• (05:17) - Java and PHP
• (06:17) - Shift from Python2 to Python3
• (07:02) - Why Python
• (07:34) - Dynamic Typing Isn't Enjoyable
• (09:09) - Dynamic Languages are just a tool
• (09:47) - When did Lewis Start a WebDev Agency
• (12:30) - Pivotal moment at the agency
• (15:50) - Website vs WebApp
• (21:53) - Tech stacks
• (24:54) - Not so Open Source
• (27:09) - Opinion about TypeScript
• (29:13) - Understanding topics at a deeper level
• (33:23) - 1 layer deeper than where i do most of my work
• (35:45) - Be the glue
• (38:28) - Dependencies as a cost
• (39:57) - What motivated Lewis to start his own agency
• (40:52) - Freelancing is playing on hard mode
• (43:14) - Transition to content creation
• (46:42) - Confidence in your technical abilities
• (49:12) - We need to talk about developer Influencers
• (56:19) - Catering towards the algorithm
• (56:56) - Take on the current programming meta
• (58:55) - Future of Coding with Lewis channel
• (01:01:55) - Where to find lewis
• (00:00) - Chapter 28

In this episode, Lane talks to Alex DeBrie, author of the DynamoDB book. Today's talk covers various aspects such as DynamoDB's comparison with Amazon S3, its benefits, use cases, constraints, and cost considerations, while also covering other AWS and Google Cloud services. Alex also shares his insights into his journey of writing the book on DynamoDB and touches on topics like access patterns, secondary indexes, and billing modes. Alex also shares his professional experiences, including consulting vs freelancing, thoughts of entrepreneurial aspirations, and gives helpful advice for those that are considering pursuing a similar career.

Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev
Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Alex's Twitter: https://twitter.com/alexbdebrie
Alex's Website: https://www.alexdebrie.com

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (01:27) - Who is Alex DeBrie?
• (02:39) - What is DynamoDB?
• (04:15) - EC2 instance
• (05:50) - Amazon S3
• (06:25) - DynamoDB is more like S3
• (07:40) - Difference between DynamoDB and S3
• (08:20) - What do we mean when we say NoSQL
• (10:08) - BigQuery and BigTable
• (12:31) - Some of DynamoDB's benefits
• (13:15) - When to use DynamoDB
• (15:58) - Constraint of number of connections
• (18:06) - DynamoDB is a multi-tenant service
• (19:21) - How does DynamoDB shake up against something like MongoDB
• (22:22) - DynamoDB is opinionated, but it provides good results consistently
• (25:54) - You can only do certain things in DynamoDB, but they are guaranteed to be fast
• (26:42) - Relational Databases - Theory vs Practicality
• (31:08) - How Alex came to write a book about DynamoDB
• (32:15) - What happens when SQL runs, depends heavily on the system underneath
• (33:57) - DynamoDB doesn't have a query planner
• (36:08) - Access patterns
• (38:04) - Use case for Secondary Indexes
• (39:43) - Costs of DynamoDB
• (40:45) - Billing modes for DynamoDB
• (45:26) - Provisioning and planning for expenses
• (48:40) - Super Mario 64 Hack
• (49:34) - What Was Alex's Last Full Time Job
• (51:02) - Consulting vs Freelancing
• (52:23) - Does Alex see himself going back to a Full Time Job?
• (53:07) - Does Alex have any entrepreneurial urges?
• (54:01) - What you should think about before jumping into freelance/consulting
• (56:01) - Authority in the consulting world
• (57:11) - Where to find Alex

In this episode, Lane talks to Dax Raad, a well rounded engineer that is currently a developer for SST, a framework that helps people build Full-Stack applications on AWS with ease. Today, they talk about personal opinions on industry practices, scale, financial decisions, infrastructure mistakes, reflections on long-term company commitments and many more!

Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev
Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Dax's Twitter: https://twitter.com/thdxr

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (00:51) - Dax's Tweets and Personal Branding
• (01:31) - You have to learn to be yourself
• (02:56) - Intrusive thoughts
• (03:33) - When did Dax become active in the Tech Twitter scene
• (06:30) - What was the Zero Interest Rate Phenomenon (ZIRP) in the tech scene
• (09:33) - Should people choose fun early in their career?
• (12:22) - Lane's take on the expertise when abstracting
• (14:15) - SST's Philosophy in regards to abstractions
• (16:35) - Merging roles
• (19:28) - People don't want to care about the cloud
• (21:31) - Less stressed about work = better results
• (24:10) - Managers vs leaders
• (25:20) - Dax shares stories about managing vs leading
• (29:36) - Did Dax ever have users?
• (31:24) - Most Startups Fail
• (32:09) - Dax's reason for joining startups
• (33:25) - Staying at a company for decades
• (35:53) - Main downside of staying at an established company for a long time
• (36:34) - The World changes, so don't look at how already established companies do things
• (37:57) - Scale has a different meaning for different companies
• (40:07) - So much goes away when you have less people at the company
• (41:51) - Sometimes not saving money is a better option
• (43:35) - Moving off Stripe
• (46:54) - Rolling your own payment processor
• (49:05) - Which debate on Tech Twitter annoys Dax the most
• (50:52) - Stored Procedure debate
• (53:31) - What's a BIG mistake in the infrastructure space?
• (57:31) - Kubernetes
• (01:02:58) - What Dax misses from Google Cloud
• (01:03:19) - Is Sundar Pichai a bad CEO?
• (01:04:51) - Where to find Dax

Lane chats with Dev Agrawal— content creator & Developer Advocate at Clerk! Tune in as they discuss DevRel, authentication vs. authorization, JWT, and so much more in this episode. 

Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev
Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm

Dev's Twitter: https://twitter.com/devagrawal09
Dev's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@devagr

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (00:50) - Is Dev's name really Dev?
• (02:10) - What is it about writing code that scares Dev?
• (02:50) - JavaScript is one of the worst with dependencies
• (03:09) - Dev's ideal world
• (03:20) - .NET and Blazor
• (03:59) - Blazor explained
• (04:36) - WASM on the Front-end
• (05:04) - Is Blazor unique to C# ?
• (06:11) - What is a DevRel?
• (08:07) - Lane's experience
• (09:13) - You shouldn't roll your own Auth
• (11:59) - Undifferentiated work
• (13:56) - Authentication vs Authorization
• (16:19) - Regarding Auth, which is a bigger pain point for companies
• (16:48) - Pain points of Authorization
• (18:38) - Pain Points of Authentication
• (20:23) - Lane's perspective
• (22:29) - Using a third party for authorization
• (24:27) - Is Clerk used for both Authentication and Authorization?
• (26:16) - JWT explained
• (28:39) - Where is the users' data stored?
• (29:27) - Features are developed as needed
• (29:52) - Auth coupling to the rest of the system
• (30:16) - Webhooks listeners to access user session data
• (31:03) - Postgres foreign-data wrapper
• (32:09) - Microservices sharing databases
• (34:29) - CQRS
• (37:37) - Average size of a company that uses Clerk
• (40:50) - What are the most used ways to sign-in
• (42:04) - Stances on passwords
• (46:56) - OAuth
• (50:33) - Why Lane dropped Sign-in with Twitter/X
• (51:14) - What do popular services usually use?
• (52:24) - Sign-in with Google
• (57:39) - Unpopular opinion on Auth related web architecture
• (01:00:17) - 2 ways of doing authentication
• (01:05:59) - Where to find Dev

Lane chats with BadCop-- a senior Bash engineer, Twitch streamer and the mastermind behind their online presence. From the origins of 'BadCop' to the recent emergence of 'BashCop,' they explore scripting languages, focusing on Bash, shells, terminals and more. Follow the conversation in this enlightening episode, unraveling the intricacies of online identity and the technical landscape of Unix shells!

Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev
Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.com

BadCop Twitter: twitter.com/badcop_
BadCop Twitch: twitch.tv/badcop_

Lane chats with Richard Feldman, creator of the Roc programming language, about why he decided to create it. They discuss object oriented programming and whether it did irreparable damage to the industry - or not. Follow along as they talk about all of that and functional programming too!

Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev
Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.com

Richard Feldmans Twitter: twitter.com/rtfeldman
Roc Programming Language: https://www.roc-lang.org/
Software Unscripted can be found on any podcast platform!

Lane chats with Philip Winston, a software engineer with a storied history who recently published an article titled "Brain Oriented Programming". Tune in as Lane and Philip talk about the pros and cons of object oriented programming and... guitar hero? Don't miss this episode of Backend Banter!

Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev
Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.com

Philip Winston's Twitter: https://twitter.com/pbwinston
Brain Oriented Programming Article: https://tobeva.com/articles/brain-oriented-programming/

Lane chats with AJ O'Neal about giving up on Rust, the challenges of using brew from a permissions standpoint, and how, exactly, WebI is not a package manager. Tune in as they discuss why AJ developed WebI, and why you should be using it as well. 

AJ O'Neal's Twitter: https://twitter.com/coolaj86
WebI: https://webinstall.dev/

In this episode of Backend Banter, Lane chats with JLarky about React server components... in GO. Why would anyone want to do that? Find out here! They also discuss how JLarky came up with the idea to use React in the backend, what other people think about the practice, and how he uses it to streamline his process. All this is intermixed with discussing the differences between frontend and backend, and how knowing how both work can make either job easier!

Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev
Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.com

JLarky's Twitter: twitter.com/JLarky

Matteo Collina is a member of the Node.js technical steering committee and has one of the most impressive developer resumes we've ever seen. His 500 NPM modules have over 17 billion downloads. Today, he sits down with Lane to discuss Node, the future of backend web development, and Platformatic, his new startup.

Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev
Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.com

Matteo's Twitter: https://twitter.com/matteocollina

Lane and Aaron Francis sit down to talk about Laravel and PHP, and why everyone who uses them tends to make a lot of money. There seems to be something to avoiding the technical hype cycle and just shipping web apps that people want to use.

Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev
Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.com

Aaron Francis' Twitter: https://twitter.com/aarondfrancis
Aaron Francis' YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UCbixkBITOOa2XNviJLxMh2w 
Aaron Francis' SQL Course: https://planetscale.com/learn/courses/mysql-for-developers/introduction/course-introduction
Learn to make Screencasts: Screencasting.com