CoRecursive: Coding Stories

Join Mick West in a journey from creating games in Manchester to Neversoft in California. Learn about the challenges in game development, asset creation, and the intense process of crafting Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Explore Mick's resilience, adaptability, and the behind-the-scenes of game innovation.

A software engineer, Chris, shares his story of choosing engineering excellence over expediency while working at LinkedIn. The podcast delves into his challenges with remote work, company culture, and a critical incident. It explores the clash between innovation and project health, leading Chris to decide between compromising his beliefs or pursuing work aligned with his principles.

Guest Greg Wilson has spent decades revolutionizing software design education and bridging the gap between theory and practice. He shares his failures and epiphanies. Topics include the power of profilers, teaching elegance of shell scripts, creating a shared language for software architecture, and teaching software design to scientists.

Jason McDonald shares his journey of resilience after a traumatic brain injury, rediscovering his passion for coding. The podcast explores challenges faced by brain injury survivors, reframing disabilities, job hunting challenges, and finding balance to overcome burnout.

Evan You, the creator of Vue.js, shares his journey from a developer solving his own problems to leading one of today's most popular web frameworks. He discusses the challenges and successes of Vue.js, including explosive user feedback at conferences and the impact of negative feedback on his motivation.

Learn how Spotify scaled their engineering team without losing speed and independence, creating a unified developer platform called Backstage. Discover the challenges faced, including silos and communication gaps, and how they were overcome through transparency and collaboration. Hear how the development of Backstage with a plugin model transformed the engineering culture and enabled scalability.

A tale of lost treasure, conspiracy theories, and impossible tech demos. Jan Sloot's compression claims astound tech world, but doubts arise. Delve into Sloot's creation of RepaBase, his captivating demonstration day, and the concept of compression. Explore support from a senior executive at Philips and a CEO's interest in commercializing the technology. Discover the coding system for video processing and Sloot's conditions for bringing the device to Silicon Valley. Listen for acknowledgements and updates on future plans.

Adam Jacob, Creator of Chef and former startup CEO battles self-doubt and finds his footing as a leader. He shares his identity crisis as a sysadmin turned CEO, the motivational speech that left him in tears, and the challenges faced by sysadmins. The podcast explores the success and challenges of Chef, the importance of vision and commitment in startups, and the growth and confidence that comes with becoming a professional in the field.

Learning to code can feel impossible. Like facing a sheer rock wall with no ropes or harnesses. But what if there was a path up the mountain? A trail blazed smooth by master coders who went before? In this episode, we'll follow that path. We'll hear the stories of legends like Seymour Papert, who championed active, project-based learning. Of Fred Brooks, who discovered that pairing accelerates learning. And more. The research shows that with the right methods, motivation, and support, anyone can master learning curves and summit. So join me as we uncover the science behind learning to code. You'll walk away fired up, equipped with proven techniques to unlock your potential and conquer new technical skills. The climb is on! Episode Page Support The Show Subscribe To The Podcast Join The Newsletter

Have you ever been frustrated with your job? Maybe not burnt out, but getting close to there? You used to love what you did, and it felt so creative and empowering, but then it starts to feel a bit more cookie cutter. Have you ever been frustrated with your whole life? The daily grind has taken what you love and it just doesn't feel the same anymore. Some of the magic just has slowly faded away. You don't know when it started, but it did. Today's guest is Amir Rajan. He's hard to describe. Is he a developer? Yes. An artist who sold everything that he owned for indie game development. Yes. The subject of a New Yorker profile? Yes, all of that. And also, somebody who got frustrated with his life and left everything behind. Episode Page Support The Show Subscribe To The Podcast Join The Newsletter