The Bike Shed

Elaina Natario returns to talk with Joël about what makes good quality product design and the priorities that shape development. The pair discuss the importance of certain elements such as security and accessibility, maintaining certain standards throughout development, as well as judging the practical applications of prototypes within a project and the broad role they play. — The Sponsor for this episode has been Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way. Check out the link for your free gift! You can read more about about inaccessable prototypes here, or listen to the episode Joël mentioned with Aji about different typescripts here! Your guest for this week has been Elaina Natario and you host has been Joël Quenneville. If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube - LinkedIn - Mastodon - BlueSky © 2025 thoughtbot, inc. — Credit: Ad-read music by joystock.orgSupport The Bike Shed

Joël and Rémy draw inspiration from the stars as they discuss Rémy’s new open source Ruby gem, Astonoby. Rémy reveals the challenges he faced in taking on this project, the scientific translation work that went into making it accessible for everyone, as well as the key lessons he learnt from modelling the cosmos. — The Sponsor for this episode has been Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way. Check out the link for your free gift! If you’re enthusiastic about space and want to try out Rémy’s new gem tool, you can find it here. Alternatively you can read more about astronomical computing here. Your host for this episode has been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville and was accompanied by Rémy, who can be found over on LinkedIn, or through social media under the handle @rhannequin If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube - LinkedIn - Mastodon - BlueSky © 2025 thoughtbot, inc. — Credit: Ad-read music by joystock.orgSupport The Bike Shed

Joël strikes up a dialogue with fellow thoughtboter Elaina Natario about the various use cases of modals. Together they discuss their pros and cons, the dos and don’ts, their functionality and accessibility to the end user as well as the subtle differences you'll notice when compared to dialogs. — The Sponsor for this episode has been Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way. Check out the link for your free gift! Your guest for this week has been Elaina Natario and you host has been Joël Quenneville. If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube - LinkedIn - Mastodon - BlueSky © 2025 thoughtbot, inc. — Credit: Ad-read music by joystock.orgSupport The Bike Shed

Joël and Steve sit down to discuss the ins and outs of decomposition within their respective workflows and how they use it to their advantage when working on certain projects. Together they look at working with vertical slices over other decomposition methods, when and how to break down code as efficiently as possible, and Joël lays out his three key principles that help him write code dubbed “The Triangle of Separation”. — The Sponsor for this episode has been Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way. Check out the link for your free gift! Learn more about Joël’s triangle of separation and working with vertical slices! Your guest this week has been Steve Polito, and your host for this episode has been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville. You can find Steve’s work over on GitHub, or dive into more of his thought processes over on his thoughtbot’s blogs. If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube - LinkedIn - Mastodon - BlueSky © 2025 thoughtbot, inc. — Credit: Ad-read music by joystock.orgSupport The Bike Shed

Joining the conversation is Sara Jackson, a developer at Thoughtbot, who shares her insights on supporting colleagues through each phase of app development. She emphasizes the power of clear documentation and notes to assist future developers. The discussion covers the balance between new project excitement and the challenges of maintaining existing code. Sara also highlights the significance of automation tools and coding standards in reducing complexity, underscoring the need for empathy and collaboration among developers.

Start taking notes in this episode as Joël and Valerie discuss the different ways in which they structure their note taking systems to improve their workflows. Together they cover the best ways to get started with serious note taking, how to best map out your thoughts so they make the most sense when you come back round to them, as well as examining the different use cases they have for them both over the course of a working day. — The Sponsor for this episode has been Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way. Check out the link for your free gift! Take notes like a pro with Obsidian and then read what Joël has to say on his own note taking. Your guest this week has been Valerie Burzynski, and your host for this episode has been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville. If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube - LinkedIn - Mastodon - BlueSky © 2025 thoughtbot, inc. — Credit: Ad-read music by joystock.orgSupport The Bike Shed

Sally Hall, a Thoughtbot expert with a master's in information science, joins Joël to dive into the fascinating world of paper vs. digital data structures. They explore how historical systems like the Dewey Decimal System shaped our understanding of data organization. The conversation reveals the serendipitous joys of analog systems compared to the efficiency of digital searches. There's also a deep dive into biases inherent in classification, and an appreciation for classic tools like the Rolodex in data management. It's a fun and enlightening discussion on information access!

Joël and fellow thoughtboter Aji Slater examine the unfamiliar world of Typescript and various ways of working within it’s system. They lay out the pros and cons of Typescript over other environments such as Ruby and Elm and discuss their experience of adopting LLM partners to assist in their workflows. Using ChatGPT and Claude to verify code and trim down syntax, all while trying to appease the type checker. Discover the little tips, tricks and bad habits they picked up along the way while working with their LLM buddies in an effort to improve efficiency. — Check out Ruby2D for all your 2D app needs! You can connect with Aji via LinkedIn, or check out some of the topics they have written about over on thoughtbot's blog. Your host for this episode has been Joël Quenneville. If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube - LinkedIn - Mastodon - Bluesky © 2025 thoughtbot, inc.Support The Bike Shed

Joël enlists the help of thoughtbot colleague Sally Hall as they dive into the complex world of time zones, daylight savings, measurements and coding. Together they discuss their struggles with daylight savings throwing off their recent project reporting, the constant struggles of writing for different time zones and why writing your own code is never worth the hassle, and the similar battle of writing for different units of measurement. — Check out the idea behind "If Hemingway Wrote Javascript" and how it could help you with your coding. Watch Tom Scott’s own slow decent into madness over timezones and coding. Your guest this week has been Sally Hall, and your host for this episode has been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville. If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube - LinkedIn - Mastodon - Bluesky © 2025 thoughtbot, inc.Support The Bike Shed

Joël turns to fellow thoughtboter Jimmy Thigpen as he looks to expand his knowledge about the wide world of Typescripts. Together they discuss the differences between Typescript and other common systems such as Elm and Javascript, how to best handle their edge cases and error flags, as well as the benefits of using Zod as your typescript library. — Just starting out in Typescript? Try enabling Strict Mode! Try out Zod for yourself in their browser playground, or check out Zod's homepage for more info. If you’d like to contact Jimmy about all things Typescript he can be found over on LinkedIn Your host for this episode has been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville. If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube - LinkedIn - Mastodon - Instagram © 2025 thoughtbot, inc.Support The Bike Shed