Appreciating the Virtuous Cycle of Nerdery with Mike Wilkerson

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Jul 11, 2023

Matt talks with Mike Wilkerson, lead programmer at Font Awesome, about his love for coding, the design tool used by Font Awesome's designers, and his fandom for the Marble Machine X music project. They also discuss the importance of appreciating good curves and circles, finding motivation in mundane work, and the virtuous cycle of nerdery in building community.

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Introduction

00:00 • 3min

Return to Tech: Dabbling, Learning, and Overhauling

02:35 • 11min

Beer Preference and Childhood Summer Job

13:38 • 3min

The Fascination with Meditation

16:27 • 7min

Appreciating the Virtuous Cycle of Nerdery and Building Community

23:29 • 6min

🧠 From Walmart to Wobbly Circles: Mike Wilkerson Talks Code, Creativity, and Curves

In this episode of Podcast Awesome, host Matt Johnson chats with Mike Wilkerson, lead programmer at Font Awesome, about the beautiful overlap of programming, design tools, and quirky obsessions like the Marble Machine X.

Mike walks us through his journey from an unexpected start in tech (thanks, Walmart!) to becoming the mastermind behind the internal tools our design team uses every day. Ever wonder what makes an icon wiggle just right? Mike’s got a thing for circles, curves, and SVG perfection — and he explains how even the simplest shapes require complex problem-solving.

🎧 What We Cover in This Episode

🛠️ The origin story of Font Awesome’s custom design tools
🔵 The mystery of SVG circles and their natural imperfections
🌀 Mike's obsession with getting the "wobble" just right
🧘 His approach to mindfulness and how it improves his work
🥁 Why Martin Molin’s Marble Machine X is his creative muse
💡 How loving your work can emerge from the mundane

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00:36 – Design Tools for Font Awesome’s Icon Team
00:07:24 – SVG Circles That Just Won’t Behave
00:07:48 – The Art of Perfecting Imperfections
00:12:12 – Mike’s Favorite Font Awesome Icons
00:16:57 – Meditation as a Developer Superpower
00:19:30 – Fanboying Over the Marble Machine X
00:23:40 – Finding Joy in the Everyday Tasks
00:26:17 – Loving Good Curves (In Code and Life)

Noteworthy Quotes

🎯 On Falling in Love with Code

“I didn’t really fall in love with computer programming until after college. I had to be at my desk at Walmart at 7:30 a.m. in a tie… so I’d wake up earlier just to get a couple hours of coding in for fun.”
— Mike Wilkerson

🛠️ On Font Awesome’s Internal Design Tool (The Factory)

“The factory is what I worked on this past split… It's the tool that our icon designers use to import their designs and convert them into the right format. Everything from naming and unicodes to search tags — it all flows from there.”
— Mike Wilkerson“

🔵 On Perfect Circles & SVG Wobble

“Some of the icons are supposed to be circles… but the design tool was approximating circles from the start. By the time they get to font glyphs, you end up with something that looks a little bit wobbly — if you look close enough.”
— Mike Wilkerson“

🎼 On Marble Machine X & Creative Nerdiness

“It’s both art and engineering… music and engineering. And I’ve lived in both of those worlds. So seeing all that come together in one project — that’s pretty great.”
— Mike Wilkerson“

💡 On What Makes Great Work

“That’s the thing about nerding out — it’s appreciating, caring, and loving what you do. That kind of love makes a better product… and it makes creating it more enjoyable.”
— Mike Wilkerson

“Circles gotta be curvy.” — Mike Wilkerson

🔗 Links & Resources

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