Whiskey Web and Whatnot

From Astro, Vite, and Snowpack, to VR, and some favorite TV shows, today's episode is the perfect opportunity to catch up on technical whatnots and a few exciting life updates from Chuck and Robbie. Plus, if you've ever wondered what NFTs, co-working spaces, and whiskey all have in common, today's episode is for you.  In this episode, Robbie and Chuck dive into the frameworks they're using, the dashboards they're analyzing, what's new in the gaming universe, and the co-working space to check out if you happen to live near Middleburg, VA. And if you don't, here's how a virtual space can come to you.  Key Takeaways [00:09] - A non-traditional introduction. [01:35] - A whiskey review.  [09:00] - What Robbie's working on. [14:41] - What it's like working in Astro. [18:56] - What Chuck's working on.  [24:36] - Why Chuck is taking a break from VR.  [36:00] - What's new in games and TV.  [47:40] - When Robbie's getting a Tesla.  [49:53] - An update on Robbie's co-working space.  Quotes [16:26] - "[Astro] is probably not quite as fast as if you'd literally gone through and written everything in Vanilla HTML and CSS. But it's pretty dang close with conveniences." ~ @rwwagner90 [https://mobile.twitter.com/rwwagner90] [19:50] - "Apollo Studio gives you some excellent metrics and traces into what's going on and where things are slow and even down to the resolvers for each individual key, things like that, and some interesting cache stuff. But, at the end of the day, you've really bought into their way and their ecosystem." ~ Chuck Carpenter [https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckcarpenter/] Links Blue Run Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey Holiday Batch [https://www.delmesaliquor.com/products/blue-run-holiday-rye-cask-strength-rye-whiskey]  Heaven Hill Distillery [https://heavenhilldistillery.com] Willett Distillery [https://www.kentuckybourbonwhiskey.com] Seelbach's [https://seelbachs.com] Brach's candy [https://www.brachs.com] Ember [https://emberjs.com] JavaScript [https://www.javascript.com]  Edward Faulkner [https://twitter.com/eaf4] Cardstack [https://cardstack.com] Blockchain [https://www.blockchain.com] Web3 [https://web3js.readthedocs.io/en/v1.5.2/] Astro [https://astro.build] Snowpack [https://www.snowpack.dev] Vite [https://vitejs.dev]  SWC [https://swc.rs] React [https://reactjs.org] web.dev [https://web.dev]  Lighthouse  [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lighthouse/blipmdconlkpinefehnmjammfjpmpbjk] Google Fonts [https://fonts.google.com] Next.js [http://next.js] next/image [https://nextjs.org/docs/api-reference/next/image] nuxt-img [https://image.nuxtjs.org/components/nuxt-img/] Remix [https://www.remix.com] RedwoodJS [https://redwoodjs.com] GraphQL [https://graphql.org] Apollo [https://www.apollographql.com] Apollo Studio [https://www.apollographql.com/docs/studio/] Helios [https://github.com/spotify/helios] The Guild [https://www.the-guild.dev] Hive GraphQL [https://graphql-hive.com] runspired [https://www.instagram.com/runspired]

In a world of invaluable yet intangible artwork and every developer fighting for a space on the blockchain, it's hard to sort out what's adding value to our brave new world and what's taking up space. Juan Palomino, founder of Full Speed Media [https://fullspeedav.com], has spent the last year knee-deep in his own NFT experiment. Along the way, he's learned what to embrace and what to forget when it comes to making his mark in the digital economy.  Juan started Full Speed Media as a way to provide live streaming services throughout the pandemic. While it began as a way to simply satisfy a growing demand, through his business, Juan began developing relationships with local organizations in Phoenix and realized the need for other web-based projects geared toward fundraising.  A true lover of building cool stuff and experimenting with the latest tech trends, Juan eventually developed an NFT drop in partnership with a local artist. Since launch day, his community has minted almost 100 tokens and raised just under $10,000 for the Valleywise Health Foundation [https://valleywisehealthfoundation.org], the largest provider of mental health services in Arizona.  In this episode, Robbie, Chuck, and Juan discuss the technicalities of building an NFT, where most developers miss the mark in blockchain, and the real beauty of a growing minted marketplace.  Key Takeaways [01:13] - A quick introduction to Juan. [02:37] - Two truths and a lie.  [06:25] - A whiskey review.  [14:19] - Chuck's two truths and a brief history of Philadelphia.  [17:54] - Juan's groundbreaking NFT fundraising project.  [23:17] - How tech trends like NFTs and smart contracts actually work.  [27:11] - How Juan algorithmically generates NFT images. [31:20] - The right way to approach NFTs and why fees.wtf missed the mark.  [45:40] - What's the deal with DAOs?  [46:50] - Where the blockchain truly belongs. [49:06] - Why Chuck is back on Twitter.  [52:13] - The beauty of the NFT space.  Quotes [41:31] - "Blockchain in itself is not this secret ingredient that now makes everything better. It has become this buzzword that people want to do a land grab for but realistically, this is just the building blocks of how we're going to build bigger, better, more decentralized, more trustless applications and systems." ~ @JuanForTheMoney [https://twitter.com/juanforthemoney] [52:47] - "The NFT space, for all its quirks and mishappenings and lost gas fees, has really turned me onto the art world and has exposed me to a whole different way of creating stuff and connected me with a lot of people I might not have been connected with otherwise. If nothing else, it has been a really great experiment." ~ @JuanForTheMoney [https://twitter.com/juanforthemoney] Links Juan on Twitter [https://twitter.com/juanforthemoney] Full Speed Media [https://fullspeedav.com] Si Se Puede Foundation [https://www.sisepuedefoundation.org] Smooth Ambler [https://smoothambler.com] Lost Lantern Smooth Ambler West Virginia Straight Bourbon Whiskey [https://seelbachs.com/products/lost-lantern-2021-single-cask-7-smooth-ambler-west-virginia-straight-bourbon-whiskey] Seelbach's [https://seelbachs.com] Coffee Zona [https://coffee-zona.business.site] Geno's Steaks [https://www.instagram.com/genossteaks] Lin Manuel Miranda [https://www.linmanuel.com] Encanto [https://movies.disney.com/encanto] Viva Muertos! [https://www.vivamuertos.com]

Runspired's journey with Ember began just like Chuck's, Robbie's, and many who've come before them — with confusion, hesitancy, and gradual infatuation.  The year was 2008 and runspired was launching an app. Somewhere along the way, he realized that if he wanted to build the collaborative web-first application he envisioned, he needed to build in JavaScript.  Sifting through Angular and React, nothing stuck. When he finally stumbled upon Ember, the pitfalls and confusion were obvious and almost immediately he abandoned the framework. But runspired soon realized that features within Ember matched the ideas he began developing in his own framework years prior. Suddenly, everything clicked and today runspired is an Ember aficionado with big ideas on the future of framework and the secrets to cutting edge optimization. In this episode, Robbie, Chuck, and runspired discuss flaws in the developer community, why Orbit is useful, shifting the approach to API frameworks, and why JSON:API and GraphQL are a match made in developer heaven.  Key Takeaways [01:37] - A whiskey review. [11:26] - How runspired's journey in the Ember community evolved.  [20:22] - What runspired thinks about RedwoodJS and API frameworks.  [24:03] - Why Orbit is flawed but incredibly useful.  [29:45] - What's missing from the developer community.  [36:01] - Why JSON:API and GraphQL are a perfect marriage.  [41:59] - What Ember Data cares about. [48:01] - A conversation about whatnot including Chris' dive into professional running.  [55:55] - A cause runspired cares about in the Ember community.  Quotes [18:30] - "I've never found a reason to want to re-evaluate Ember as my main framework. Every time I've had a complaint, it's evolved to satisfy that complaint with time." ~ runspired [https://www.instagram.com/runspired/] [23:00] - "So many of the problems that I see applications encounter late in their life cycles are problems where the API framework just wasn't set up well in the first place. And if they had had a better framework for building APIs and understanding how applications are maybe going to mature, and how that API is going to need to evolve as the application matures, they probably would have been set up for better success." ~ runspired [https://www.instagram.com/runspired/] [24:42] - "Orbit, in my opinion, is the gold standard of data libraries for the front-end right now. Because it solves every problem that you don't know you have yet. But that's also its big flaw because it has found the end architecture that you've got to evolve to if you end up with those problems." ~ runspired [https://www.instagram.com/runspired/] Links EmberFest [https://emberfest.eu] Balcones Whiskey [https://balconesdistilling.com] Ember [https://emberjs.com] Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Chuck's Origin Story: Career Pivots and Learning to Love Ember [https://www.whiskeywebandwhatnot.fm/chucks-origin-story-career-pivots-and-learning-to-love-ember/] Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Robbie's Origin Story: Learning to Code, Learning to Hire, and Taking the Entrepreneurial Leap [https://www.whiskeywebandwhatnot.fm/robbies-origin-story-learning-to-code-learning-to-hire-and-taking-the-entrepreneurial-leap/] Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Ember vs. React, Jamstack, and Holes in the Hiring Process with Chris Manson [https://www.whiskeywebandwhatnot.fm/ember-vs-react-jamstack-and-holes-in-the-hiring-process-with-chris-manson/] Whiskey Web and Whatnot: RedwoodJS, Develo [https://www.whiskeywebandwhatnot.fm/redwoodjs-developer-experience-and-developing-for-scale-with-tom-preston-werner/]

What do web development, Twitch, VR, and blockchain all have in common? More than you might think. After years as a game developer, Ship Shape's longest-tenured employee Rob Cary was bound to put those unlikely virtual dots together and today he's here to share a few original insights.  After meeting Robbie Wagner in an elementary school play as a couple of accountants, their lives continued to overlap. From a choice in college to a knack for web development, making sweet beats, and ultimately, their careers, an intro to Rob may sound identical to an intro to Robbie. But unlike Robbie Wagner, Rob Cary has years of VR experience under his belt. Not to mention, some interesting ideas about the future of our virtual metaverse.  In this episode, Robbie, Chuck, and Rob discuss the wonders of WebStorm and IntelliJ, what on earth decentralized gaming is, how VR has transformed the gaming world, and the mostly unknown link between Twitch and web development.  Key Takeaways [00:28] - Introduction to Rob. [01:27] - A whiskey review.  [06:57] - Rob, Robbie, or both?  [13:05] - Rob's technical background and the state of decentralized gaming. [16:12] - A game of Stumped. [24:50] - What Rob likes about WebStorm and IntelliJ. [30:16] - A conversation about the VR universe, how it's transformed, and where we're headed.   [39:10] - Why NFTs are everywhere.  [43:20] - Rob's hobbies outside of gaming and websites.  Quotes [26:35] - "VS Code is one of the few examples I've seen of an IDE that's really universally been adopted really quickly." ~ @r0bc4ry [https://twitter.com/r0bc4ry] [34:50] - "Some of the things you can do on VR, you could just never do in a traditional game. The technology has a ton of promise, there are just fundamental issues that still are being worked on that I think need to be fixed." ~ @r0bc4ry [https://twitter.com/r0bc4ry] Links Rob Cary [https://twitter.com/r0bc4ry] React [https://reactjs.org] Ember [https://emberjs.com] Dojo [https://dojotoolkit.org] Vuori [https://vuoriclothing.com] Lululemon [https://shop.lululemon.com] Widow Jane Rye Mash, Oak & Applewood-Aged Whiskey [https://widowjane.com/whiskey/oak-and-apple-wood] Twitter [http://twitter.com] Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Next.js 12, React vs. Svelte, and the Future of Frameworks with Wes Bos [https://www.whiskeywebandwhatnot.fm/nextjs-12-react-vs-svelte-and-the-future-of-frameworks-with-wes-bos/] Virginia Tech [https://vt.edu] StarCraft [https://starcraft.com/en-us/] Zoom [http://zoom.com] Unity [https://unity.com] Blockchain [https://www.blockchain.com] Halo [https://www.halowaypoint.com] Syntax [https://www.syntax.fm] Web3 [https://web3js.readthedocs.io/en/v1.5.2/] DoorDash [https://www.doordash.com] Uber Eats [https://www.ubereats.com] Async/await [https://javascript.info/async-await] NativeScript [https://nativescript.org] BlueJ [https://www.bluej.org] JSON [https://www.json.org/json-en.html] IntelliJ IDEA [https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/] WebStorm [https://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm/] Visual Studio Code [https://code.visualstudio.com] Atom [https://atom.io] yarn install [https://classic.yarnpkg.com/en/docs/cli/install/]

After diving into Robbie’s backstory in episode 017, today we’re panning the camera to Chuck. If you’ve ever wondered how he ended up at Ship Shape and where Chuck first discovered the world of the web, today’s episode explores his digital origin story. Like Robbie, Chuck’s foray into software development began in Photoshop. In fact, for a period after graduating college, Chuck considered going to photography school. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you ask Robbie), shelling out cash for grad school seemed daunting and impractical. So he stumbled into a startup instead. After gigs at multiple startups, MLMs, a national network, and a non-profit abroad, a new baby sent Chuck searching for something with fewer hours and more flexibility. Spoiler alert: he ended up at Ship Shape. In this episode, Robbie and Chuck discuss Chuck’s gradual love for Ember, the frameworks that shaped his career, the developers who impressed him, and Chuck’s ideas on the future of the web. Key Takeaways [00:27] - A whiskey review. [08:41] - Where it all began for Chuck. [11:48] - Chuck’s foray into the digital space. [15:19] - Where Chuck went post-grad. [19:08] - A turning point in Chuck’s career. [21:27] - Why Chuck headed to Europe. [23:14] - Chuck’s career with National Geographic and the software that shaped him. [29:33] - When Chuck met Ember. [33:30] - Why Chuck left the startup world. [37:56] - How Chuck found Ship Shape. [46:22] - Where Chuck’s headed next. [48:30] - How to send suggestions our way and a brief chat on NFTs. Quotes [20:25] - “For me, and I think for a lot of people, jQuery was kind of the entryway into JavaScript programming.” ~ Chuck Carpenter [39:01] - “What was the next rung on the career ladder? I decided that instead of more middle management, getting my hands dirty and building a business sounded pretty great, or at least worth a try. I needed to check that box off.” ~ Chuck Carpenter [41:55] - “It feels like things are going in a direction, even if it’s not Next, where there’s more opinionation.” ~ Chuck Carpenter Links Catoctin Creek Roundstone Rye Seelbach Whiskey MOD Pizza Adobe Photoshop GoDaddy WordPress Vanilla JS jQuery Adobe ColdFusion Homeless World Cup National Geographic LinkedIn Angular React Backbone PHP Slack Ember EmberConf Acquia Droopl Edward Faulkner Cardstack Amazon Alexa Next.js NuxtJS GraphQL AWS CDK Kubernetes Astro llamajs Gary Vaynerchuk Myspace Facebook Damien Hirst Kent C. Dodds Connect with our hosts Robbie Wagner Chuck Carpenter Ship Shape Subscribe and stay in touch Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Whiskey Web and Whatnot Top-Tier, Full-Stack Software Consultants This show is brought to you by Ship Shape. Ship Shape’s software consultants solve complex software and app development problems with top-tier coding expertise, superior service, and speed. In a sea of choices, our senior-level development crew rises above the rest by delivering the best solutions for fintech, cybersecurity, and other fast-growing industries. Check us out at shipshape.io.

If you’ve ever wondered where Ship Shape got its shape and how Robbie became Ember’s number one fan, this episode is for you. Robbie and Chuck revisit the early chapters of Robbie’s career, including the gigs he loved and the corporate structures he hated. They talk about lessons learned, taking the entrepreneurial leap, and what’s on the horizon. While Robbie’s career has hardly been a linear path, the most exciting and fulfilling journeys rarely are. Key Takeaways [00:44] - Whiskey review and a brief overview of Pinhook. [06:23] - Robbie’s introduction to the digital world. [13:15] - College and his bridge to JavaScript. [16:06] - The first startup Robbie worked at. [18:30] - The start of Robbie’s post-grad gigs. [21:20] - A proud whiteboard-ing moment. [24:23] - What Robbie learned at Red Hat. [30:28] - Where Robbie fell in love with Ember. [34:56] - The next step in Robbie’s Ember career. [36:55] - Where Robbie had the stereotypical startup experience. [37:22] - Robbie’s return to Ember. [45:25] - The start of Ship Shape and the value of networking. [49:52] - Robbie’s thoughts on React. Quotes [23:39] - “I think all of computer science boils down to understanding the Big O notation of the thing you’re doing. That’s it. If you know what’s most efficient, you can look up how to do it.” ~ @RobbieTheWagner [25:14] - “It comes back to my approach to hiring anyone. You hire good people who want to learn things and will do well, and they’ll do well at any technology.” ~ @RobbieTheWagner [45:39] - “Honestly, there were a lot of times, and you’ve been around for some of them, where I’ve been like, ‘alright, let’s just stop and go back and get real jobs because we don’t have enough money and we’ll just stop doing this.’ But it always works out. And we continue to grow and you just have to trust that it’s going to work out.” ~ @RobbieTheWagner Links Pinhook Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey Pinhook Tiz Rye Time MGP of Indiana The Boss Hogg Pinhook AR Noli Novak GDB Adobe Photoshop Myspace Angular Virginia Tech KnowledgeWorks PHP Prototype JavaScript jQuery Mail Pilot Ember Kickstarter ListServe Red Hat Microsoft Amazon Lauren Tan Create a repo on GitHub Linux Fedora .Net Geico Virtana (formerly Metricly) CoffeeScript JIRA Berico Technologies Internet Explorer Google Chrome Firefox Leaflet Esri Shepherd.js HubSpot Tether Addepar Chris Garrett pzuraq Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Kamiki Whisky, Ember/Glimmer updates and whatnot w/ Chris Garrett (pzuraq) Glimmer Slack Ember Shepherd Diablo Destiny Jibe RSA - Ember Group Ember Learning Team Chris Manson Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Ember vs. React, Jamstack, and Holes in the Hiring Process with Chris Manson Orbit.js Expel React Next.js Svelte SvelteKit RedwoodJS Preact Connect with our hosts Robbie Wagner Chuck Carpenter Ship Shape Subscribe and stay in touch Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Whiskey Web and Whatnot Top-Tier, Full-Stack Software Consultants This show is brought to you by Ship Shape. Ship Shape’s software consultants solve complex software and app development problems with top-tier coding expertise, superior service, and speed. In a sea of choices, our senior-level development crew rises above the rest by delivering the best solutions for fintech, cybersecurity, and other fast-growing industries. Check us out at shipshape.io.

Kent Dodds spends much of his professional life helping emerging developers learn. Earlier this year, as he began refreshing a stack of educational resources, Kent realized that simply switching to Remix eliminated most of the problems he was teaching his students to avoid or solve. Not long after he fell in love with the framework, Kent landed a job at Remix.  Now the Director of Developer Experience, Dodds educates and troubleshoots. From eliminating loading and error states, easy adoption, and the mutations API, Dodds' passion for Remix is abundantly obvious. He credits the success of Remix to its premium user experience and believes wholeheartedly that (almost) everything is simpler without JavaScript.  In this episode, Robbie, Chuck, and Kent discuss the standalone features of Remix, a new stack on the Remix block, avoiding JavaScript, and why Kent can't code without Tailwind.  Key Takeaways [01:51] - An eggnog review.  [06:20] - Kent's journey to Remix.  [09:13] - What makes Remix unique. [13:13] - Remix's true niche.  [16:51] - Remix vs. Astro vs. Qwik. [21:21] - What you can't do with Remix.  [22:14] - Why working around JavaScript is the way to go. [26:15] - More ways that Remix improves the user experience.  [27:44] - The beauty of Tailwind.  [36:56] - Remix's mutations API.  [41:51] - Kent and Tesla.  [50:25] - What Kent likes outside of coding and clean energy. [53:51] - Why NFTs are a scam.  Quotes [09:57] - "Right now [Remix] is all server-rendered. And we do that because we feel like that provides the best user experience. It objectively provides the best user experience. It's way better to just see your stuff than to see spinners while you're waiting for your stuff. So if you can just make it so fast that you don't need spinners, then that's a better user experience." ~ @kentcdodds [https://twitter.com/kentcdodds] [15:40] - "I haven't yet found a use-case for building on the web that Remix isn't really well-suited for. It doesn't have a bunch of abstractions useful for someone who's going to build a game, but neither does any other framework like Remix. It sure has a lot of useful things for you if you want to build an excellent user experience on the web." ~ @kentcdodds [https://twitter.com/kentcdodds] [22:30] - "I feel like with Remix, we've found another way to make things faster without having to make all these trade-offs on different architectures with having to completely change the framework that you're using." ~ @kentcdodds [https://twitter.com/kentcdodds] Links Kent C. Dodds  [https://twitter.com/kentcdodds] Kent's website [https://kentcdodds.com] Kent's 'Transparency' page [https://kentcdodds.com/transparency] Ryan Florence [https://ryanflorence.com] Remix [https://remix.run] Next.js [https://nextjs.org] Redwood JS [https://redwoodjs.com] Gatsby [https://www.gatsbyjs.com]  Jamstack [https://jamstack.org] Netlify [https://www.netlify.com] JavaScript [https://www.javascript.com] React [https://reactjs.org] Damien Hirst  [https://www.damienhirst.com] Blockchain [https://www.blockchain.com]  Cloudflare Workers [https://workers.cloudflare.com] Amazon Web Services (AWS) [https://aws.amazon.com] Fly.io [https://fly.io] esbuild [https://esbuild.github.io]

Between constantly changing frameworks, updates, and languages, web dev life is anything but stagnant. Shiny object syndrome is a real thing, and it's easy to feel like there's too much to keep up with. Wes Bos has his own point of view on the shifting landscape. Wes has spent years as a developer and has created a catalog of courses to help other developers improve their skills. Despite having his favorites, Wes argues there's a place for everything in the melting pot that is modern web development.  In this episode, Robbie, Chuck, and Wes discuss the rise of specialized frameworks, the future of frameworks like TypeScript, and Wes' views on technology outside the workplace.  Key Takeaways [00:27] – Who is Wes Bos? [01:40] – Wes or Robbie or Both?    [05:42] – Whiskey review [18:46] – The benefits of Next.js 12 [21:03] – React vs. Svelte  [26:20] – Wes' thoughts on TypeScript  [30:26] – Commiserating over IE 11 [33:52] – What Wes does in his free time  [39:16] – Wes' vintage road bikes [40:54] - Wes' tech-free BBQ saga [50:59] - Wes' thoughts on tech podcasts Quotes [19:08] - "I don't think that Next.js is the SDK of the web. The whole point of the web is that it's open and it's just the standard language that you can build whatever you want on top of it. But that said, I'm probably the biggest Next.js fanboy out there." ~ @wesbos [https://twitter.com/wesbos] [19:24] - "Next.js is making things really really simple for us. They're sort of taking a lot of the hard parts of React and doing away with them and making this really nice framework for building websites." ~ @wesbos [https://twitter.com/wesbos] [20:19] - "That's really important with these tools that it does the code splitting and all the performance stuff for you. Because the average web developer is not gonna spend any time trying to implement these things themselves. They don't have enough time, they've got deadlines to hit, or they just don't know how. So the tools doing it for you really is the way forward." ~ @wesbos [https://twitter.com/wesbos] Links Wes's Website [http://wesbos.com] Syntax Podcast  [https://syntax.fm] JavaScript [https://www.javascript.com] John Deere [https://www.deere.com/en/index.html] LCBO [https://www.lcbo.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/en/lcbo] 1792 Small Batch Bourbon [https://1792bourbon.com/our-bourbon] Glencairn Whiskey Glass  [https://www.totalwine.com/accessories-more/accessories/glassware/spirits-glasses/glencairn-whisky-glasses-4pk/p/111127920?glia=true&s=1106&&pid=cpc:Core+Catalog+-+Shopping%2BUS%2BCALI%2BENG%2BSPART::google::&gclid=Cj0KCQiAnaeNBhCUARIsABEee8UJejxE6NcLgMFoYR0O21iYJLJr4tqk08DRJIL7QUV0vWLxmiVGTnkaAtNcEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds] Property Brothers [https://www.hgtv.com/shows/property-brothers] Income Property [https://www.hgtv.com/shows/income-property] Island of Bryan [https://www.hgtv.ca/shows/island-of-bryan/] Starlink [https://www.starlink.com] Spectrum [https://www.spectrum.net] Acquia  [https://www.acquia.com] Next.js [https://nextjs.org] Syntax 405: Hasty Treat - Next.js 12 [https://syntax.fm/show/405/hasty-treat-next-js-12] React [https://reactjs.org] Rich Harris [https://twitter.com/Rich_Harris] Vercel [https://vercel.com] Svelte [https://svelte.dev]  SvelteKit [https://kit.svelte.dev]

They say if it's not broken, don't fix it. But if it is broken...keep iterating? While not everyone may agree on how to solve the technical headaches that come with one language or another, developer and Empress Creator Chris Manson has a few ideas. As more apps emerge, more problems inevitably appear. Chris has several non-negotiable best practices for keeping it simple and helping the developers who follow in his digital footsteps.  Also a member of Ember's core team, Chris has been working with the framework since December of 2011. After beginning his startup with Angular, Chris threw in the towel and pivoted to its simpler and more intuitive counterpart. Nevertheless, Ember is far from flawless and, as with most things, could always improve for the users who need it most. In this episode, Robbie, Chuck, and Chris discuss the fatal flaws of several old and emerging frameworks, the breakthrough shifts in the Ember community, why comparing Ember to React isn't always a fair match-up, and holes in the developer hiring process.  Key Takeaways [00:32] - Whiskey review and a history of Glendalough.  [14:14] - How Chris was introduced to Ember. [25:10] - Chris's thoughts on Husky. [29:41] - What Chris is working on now. [32:55] - Why Chris has a vendetta against ember-cli-addon-docs. [37:34] - What's changing in the Ember community. [54:28] - The complexities of hiring developers. [64:50] - The future of frameworks. [73:04] - Chris's problem with TypeScript. [77:18] - Chris's hobbies outside of developing. Quotes [26:42] - "This is one of the things that I don't like about repos or projects where you get to make 1,000 decisions because new people who don't know the decisions you've made, don't know the structure of your app, don't know your repo, go into your repo and go, 'this is too complicated', bounce, and don't contribute, and that's not ok for me." ~ Chris Manson [https://twitter.com/real_ate] [28:49] - "The amount of times that we get people who are actual juniors bouncing against something that you've built and then you realize, 'oh actually, I did build that in a kind of complex way, I shouldn't have,' and then you internalize that, and then the next time it comes across you go, 'I could do this fancy and save 10 lines of code, or I can be verbose and simple.' Always pick verbose and simple." ~ Chris Manson [https://twitter.com/real_ate] Links Glendalough Whiskey [https://us.glendaloughdistillery.com] Jamstack [https://jamstack.org] The Essential Scratch & Sniff Guide to Becoming a Whiskey Know-It-All: Know Your Booze Before You Choose [https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Scratch-Sniff-Becoming-Whiskey/dp/0544520602] Angular [https://angular.io]  Ember.js [https://emberjs.com] Some Deprecations seem to side-step the deprecation workflow [https://github.com/emberjs/ember.js/issues/19753] Alex Matchneer [https://twitter.com/amatchneer] Ember Conf [https://emberconf.com] Husky [https://www.npmjs.com/package/husky] Ember Learning Core Team [https://emberjs.com/teams/] ember-cli-addon-docs [https://github.com/ember-learn/ember-cli-addon-docs] simplabs [https://simplabs.com] Jen Weber [https://twitter.com/jwwweber] Melanie Sumner [https://github.com/MelSumner] Empress [https://www.npmjs.com/package/empress]  Embroider [https://github.com/embroider-build/embroider]

Every developer straddles the fine line between creating a unique space and reinventing the wheel. Tom Preston-Werner has lived between those two lines for much of his career, most recently while developing an app framework for startups, RedwoodJS.  Tom has always pushed himself to think outside the box rather than follow competitors. This aversion to groupthink kickstarted the creation of Redwood. It also helped Tom with the second-hardest part of app development: choosing a name. Tired of the physics names flooding the React world, Tom turned to nature for his framework. Not just a staple of the Bay Area, Redwoods start as tiny acorns and grow into enormous trees – a fitting analogy for an app designed to grow alongside expanding ventures.  In this episode, Robbie, Chuck, and Tom discuss the other ways Tom's outsider thought-process contributes to his creativity, the importance of helping users through the upgrade process, and his tried and true philosophy as a software developer. Key Takeaways [16:46] - The origins of RedwoodJS.  [22:02] - Tom's approach to the upgrade process.  [24:26] - The dangers of reinventing the wheel. [29:25] - What developers should stop focusing on. [30:55] - The relationship between apps and scale.  [36:14] - Tom's philosophy as a developer.  [41:18] - How RedwoodJS got its name.  [51:35] - Tom's creative outlet outside of software development.  Quotes [19:24] - "Stay a bit naive of how everyone else does it just so that your solutions really are as novel as they can be. I think the risk of being boring and repetitive is way higher if you're spending a lot of time with the competitive things." ~ Tom Preston-Werner [https://twitter.com/mojombo] [22:01] - "That's one thing that we're not gonna do. We're not gonna stop innovating, we're not gonna stop trying new things, bringing in better things that we've found. We can't. We may as well give up now if that's the case." ~ Tom Preston-Werner [https://twitter.com/mojombo] [38:10] - "Most people who are building stuff, their primary concern is not eeking every last ounce of render speed out of their app, it's getting something built quickly that the users are going to take advantage of. And so that's been the bulk of our focus so far. That's really where the bar is." ~ Tom Preston-Werner [https://twitter.com/mojombo] Links Tom Preston-Werner [https://twitter.com/mojombo] Redwood JS [https://redwoodjs.com] Lagavulin Scotch 8 [https://www.malts.com/en-us/products/single-malt-whisky/lagavulin-8-year-old-single-malt-scotch-whisky-750ml/] Nelson's Green Brier Distillery [https://greenbrierdistillery.com]  Penn & Teller: Bullshit! [https://www.sho.com/penn-and-teller-bullshit] Mythbusters [https://go.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/]  Laphroaig Scotch [https://www.laphroaig.com/en/] Octomore Whisky  [https://www.bruichladdich.com/octomore-super-heavily-peated-whisky-range/] Next.js [https://nextjs.org] React Podcast Episode 117: Tom Preston-Werner on RedwoodJS [https://spec.fm/podcasts/reactpodcast/6_mirYS8] Meteor  [https://www.meteor.com] Ruby on Rails  [https://rubyonrails.org] Ember.js [https://emberjs.com] Svelte [https://svelte.dev]  React [https://reactjs.org] Prisma [https://www.prisma.io] Jest [https://jestjs.io] Storybook [https://storybook.js.org]