Codenewbie

Julia Nguyen was diagnosed with OCD when she was in high school. It took a long time for her to talk about it, but soon she was writing and giving talks on mental health. She’s even created an open source project to help those dealing with mental illness. In this incredibly open and honest interview, she talks about her own struggles with mental health and how she hopes to help others through her open source project, “if me.” Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) OCD Neopets if me if me README Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

Have you ever heard of a scrum master and wondered what that was? Anjuan Simmons, certified scrum master and project manager, breaks it down for us in this highly informative interview. He explains the practical applications of agile, the different tools and processes used to apply its key principles, and how you can apply the agile philosophy to your learn-to-code journey. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Manifesto for agile software development Principle 2: Welcome Changes 4 Ls Retrospective Dan Savage AutoCAD Lean Scrum Velocity Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

Carina C. Zona helps us understand algorithms, both what they are and how they are used. She walks us through fascinating examples of how they've been used in technology over the years, exploring the benefits and unintended consequences they've had along the way, and how we as developers can boost those benefits and decrease those unintended consequences. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Consequences of an Insightful Algorithm Schemas for the Real World Cracking the Coding Interview (book) How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did Google's Autotagging Feature Flickr's Autotagging Feature Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

A lot can happen in a year. For high school biology teacher Aurelian Sennett, that time was spent writing his first program that launched his tech business to help schools solve scheduling problems. Long-time listener and codenewbie, Aurelian tells us how he started learning to code, how he built his education app, and what it's like to have thousands of people pay for and use the first product he's ever built. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) AJAX Github VPN Ep. 20 - Accessibility Laravel DRY Stack Overflow Tech Crunch Cribs Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

Jacob Kaplan-Moss is often credited for co-creating Django, one of the most popular web frameworks written in python. But that’s not exactly true. He’s also given credit for being an amazing developer. But that’s not very accurate either. Jacob tells us the true story of Django’s creation, why he calls himself a mediocre programmer, and unpacks the concept of the talent myth. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Saron's Vlog Channel The Difference MySQL Django Found Fellowship Program Hypercard HyperTalk AppleTalk Adrian Holovaty Simon Wilson CodeNewbie Newsletter Sign up CodeNewbie Community Newsletter Submission Guidelines Django Python Software Foundation Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

For our special 100th episode, CodeNewbie founder gets interviewed by her husband, Rob Frelow, on creating CodeNewbie, her own coding journey, and shares info on upcoming projects for CodeNewbie. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) New York Tech Meetup CodeNewbie Gina Trapani on CodeNewbie Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

Last episode we talked to Gina Trapani about her Lifehacker days. In this episode, we look to the future and hear about her work at Postlight, what it’s like to work with Paul Ford (Episode 82), and what she looks for when she’s hiring an engineer. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Postlight Lifehacker IBM PC Junior Track Changes Paul Ford episode Meet the Twitter API (book) The End of ThinkUp ThinkUp Anil Dash TWiG (This Week in Google) Leo Laporte TWiT Danny O'Brien "father of life hacks" CodeNewbie Newsletter Sign up Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

Once upon a time, Gina Trapani started Lifehacker. It got big, really big, with the ups and downs of being the sole editor responsible for a website that millions of people read. But after awhile, she wanted to get back to coding. In part one of our two-part interview, Gina talks to us about her journey going from famous blogger to product creator, the risks of building an app based on APIs, and what it felt like to shut down her company. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Danny O'Brien "father of life hacks" TWiT Leo Laporte TWiG (This Week in Google) Anil Dash ThinkUp The End of ThinkUp Meet the Twitter API (book) Paul Ford episode Track Changes IBM PC Junior Lifehacker Postlight Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

Ashley Lewis used to light stages. She worked as a theater technician working shows like Hamilton (when it was much smaller) and New York Fashion Week. But after some introspection, she realized that her passion wasn’t in light design, and she searched for other career options. She talks to us about the similarities between coding and her art background, what it’s like working as a theater technician, and how being introspective has helped her on her coding journey. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Savannah School of Art and Design MIT Open Courseware Planet Money podcast Viking School Hamilton Musical Lin-Manuel Miranda OSCON Ira Glass Quote Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

Nickolas Means talked about airplanes, and in doing so, he connected them with code in beautiful and interesting ways. In this interview, Nick explains how to take seemingly disconnected subjects and put them together in compelling talks, and how he uses his public speaking training to turn these talks into inspiring performances. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Ruby Conf 2015 Brandon Hays Strunk and White's Elements of Style Here Be Dragons Scott Hanselman Conway's Law Skunkworks by Nickolas Means CodeNewbie Logo Contest NPR One App Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

When one man decided to crowdfund a bailout for Greece on Indiegogo (a feat that required over a billion dollars), Stella Cotton and her team found themselves in trouble. The site went down, and they had to figure out what to do. Stella takes us through the journey of getting the Indiegogo site back up, shares what she’s learned about site availability and what CodeNewbies can do to be ready for their own heavy traffic. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Apache bench REDIS Heroku Indiegogo Cache Etsy Feature Flag Latency RSpec Kaya Thomas Episode W3C Michael J. Fox Foundation Data Challenge Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

Lil Chen has been in gaming for years. She started by playing video games, then become a competitive Super Smash Brothers player, and now works as a UX Designer at YouTube Gaming. We talk about how her long history in gaming affects her work as a designer and vice versa, and how she keeps up with her coding skills at night. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) YouTube Gaming TED Talks Xanga MVP car graphic Sailor Moon Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

Michael Rau didn’t want to build an app, he wanted to create an experience. So he constructed a physical room, and with the help of a Rails app, created a theater show called “Temping.” He talks through his concept, how he used his new coding skills to make it happen, and the surprising emotional reactions he’s witnessed from audience members who’ve tried his creation. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Hue lights Storytelling with Code talk Mail Gun API AppleScript General Assembly Temping Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

Fereshteh Forough wanted to help women in Afghanistan. She knew that attaining education was difficult, let alone technical training, and the cultural attitudes towards women didn’t help. But she tackled these issues head on by starting the first coding school for women in Afghanistan. She talks to us about how she started the program, how she took on the different challenges her students face, and how her training in computer science and her previous role as a computer science professor affected her decision to open Code To Inspire. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Google RISE Awards Code To Inspire Technical University of Berlin Herat Universiy Laboratoria - Maria Costa Coding In Colombia - Juan Pablo Buriticá Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

In part two of our interview with Yehuda Katz, we talk about how he created EmberJS, and what it means to build a web framework. We also talk about what it means to be a beginner, and how growing up poor has influenced his perspectives as a coder today. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Liz Bailie YAGNI EmberJS John Resig's Interview on CodeNewbie jQuery FrontPage Visual Basic Q Basic GW Basic Glimmer Oauth Skylight Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

Yehuda Katz has done many, many code things. He co-created Ember.js, co-founded a tech startup Tilde, is a frequent contributor to open source projects including Handlebars, Bundler, and Thor, and is a member of the Rust Core Team. But it took years of playing with tech before he finally felt like coding was something he could do. In the first half of our two-part interview, he talks about what he looks for when he hires, how it took him years to feel like he could code, and why he doesn’t like the term “junior developer”. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Skylight Oauth Glimmer GW Basic Q Basic Visual Basic FrontPage jQuery John Resig's Interview on CodeNewbie EmberJS YAGNI Liz Bailie Linode (sponsor) Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

Kaya Thomas has done a lot in a short period of time. She’s met first lady Michelle Obama, she’s a mobile app developer, and she was selected as Glamour’s Top Ten College Women of the Year. She talks about how she’s managed to be so successful while still a college student, the role of luck and hard work, and her process for learning new coding skills so quickly. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Processing.js Tilt Factor Labs GitHub Pages Professor Mary Flannigan Meta data games We Read Too 2048 Black Girls Rock Reshma Saujani Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

In December, CodeNewbie put out applications for the CodeNewbie Apprenticeship, and in 10 days received 322 applications from all over the world. Many interviews later, Sharon Siegel was chosen to be the first apprentice. She talks about her coding journey, her passion and active involvement in building coding communities, and her goal of moving into a full-time developer role. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Project Euler RailsBridge Rails Pair programming Firehose Project Skillcrush PyLadies Girl Develop It Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

Plenty of organizations work to help vets. But what vet Jerome Hardaway noticed about these organizations is that they were mostly reactive. While they responded to problems, few worked to prevent them. So Jerome decided to create a non-profit to teach vets how to code, making it easier for them to start a tech career and better adjust to life back at home. We talk about the program, the stigma of being a vet, and Jerome’s own journey to being a developer. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Vets Who Code SQLite Rails MVC Framework React GI Bill Basecamp Rework Eloquent JavaScript Atom Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

Mark Nadal was a front end developer looking for a better database. So he built his own. He walks us through the different types of databases, the limitations you might run into as you use them, and why he decided to build his own graph database. Show Links DevDiscuss (sponsor) DevNews (sponsor) Cockroach Labs (sponsor) Retool (sponsor) CodeLand 2021 (sponsor) Twitter Fail Whale Redis Alan Turing Turing Completeness neo4j Titan (distributed graph database) Joe Armstrong GunDB Tuple Codeland Conf Codeland 2019