talkingshop.dev

[00:00:00] Rapid Reviews Roast & Founder Intro[00:00:33] smile.io Sponsor + Discount Warnings[00:01:13] Riverside Bugs & Tab Chaos[00:03:20] Tab Groups Are a Lie[00:05:14] Girlfriends, Surveillance & Live Anxiety[00:06:43] Shopify Outage: Who Cares?[00:08:07] Garage Office, Mattress Confessions[00:09:08] Surfing vs Work Schedules[00:10:14] Secret Builds & AI Projects[00:12:27] Cyber Monday Fallout Debate[00:14:00] Shoppable Video App Pitch[00:15:00] Live Shopping vs PDP Video[00:17:53] Shopify Key Rotation Failure[00:19:13] Shop App Growth Explained[00:21:47] Shop Minis: No Incentives?[00:23:28] Gamification, WeChat & Wordle[00:25:00] Pickleball Fight Story[00:29:46] Shop Mini AI Product Finder[00:30:03] Reviews Apps & Page Speed Wars[00:31:37] Shopify Review System Is Broken[00:34:01] Fake Reviews & Partner Crackdowns[00:38:25] PostHog, Session Replays & AI[00:44:18] AI Slang Mode Is Dumb[00:45:27] NYC Office Dreams[00:49:07] Marketers vs Developers[00:55:48] UX vs Performance[00:57:01] Page Speed Roast (Live)[01:03:18] Elon, Builders & Burnout[01:05:02] Horizon Theme & AI-Friendly Code[01:12:06] Web Performance Deep Dive[01:19:15] Free Tools, Real Costs[01:24:09] Frontend Anti-Patterns[01:27:16] AI Agents Writing SQL[01:35:18] Data Pipelines & DuckDB[01:41:23] Clickstream Analytics Explained[01:47:31] Final Chaos & Sign-Off

[00:00:00] Cold Open & Community Praise[00:00:25] Sponsor: Smile.io (Black Friday Sponsorship)[00:01:05] Pre-Show Chaos & Stream Setup[00:02:00] Stress, Vision, and “Taking It to the Moon”[00:03:20] Bros Vibes, Community Energy & Coralie Joins[00:03:54] Shopify Community Royalty & Pronunciation Debates[00:05:01] Mapping the Shopify Ecosystem (Who’s Best at What)[00:06:43] Europe vs USA, Vacations, and Work Culture[00:07:09] What It’s Like Working at Shopify[00:07:55] Black Friday Internals & The Mystery of Dashboards[00:08:40] Shopify Secrecy, Leaks, and Transparency[00:08:59] Guests Roll In & Chicken Nuggets Lore[00:10:21] Social Media Detox & Twitter vs LinkedIn[00:17:31] Shopify Forums vs Slack & Community Evolution[00:19:31] Global Time Zones, India at 4AM[00:20:15] Freelancing, Prepay, Storetasker & Real Hourly Rates[00:22:00] Black Friday Performance: Up, Down, or Flat?[00:23:46] Enterprise Clients, Aggregated Data & BF Trends[00:24:48] Layers, Search Scale & Massive Volume Numbers[00:25:11] Shopify Search vs Enterprise Reality[00:26:01] Tagless, Merchandising & Server-Side Tradeoffs[00:27:29] Jake’s Search Architecture Deep Dive[00:29:12] Burnout, AI Agencies & What Comes Next[00:30:19] Toronto, New York, London & Meetups[00:31:21] AI Fixing the Economy & The Future of Work[00:33:09] Shopify Secrecy Revisited & “Fake Leaks” Debate[00:36:46] Black Friday Horror Stories (Logs, AWS Bills)[00:44:31] Cloudflare vs AWS vs Edge Performance[00:47:03] Databases, D1 Limits & Scaling Nightmares[00:50:03] React, Search Tech & Platform Economics[00:54:01] Web Performance, Core Web Vitals & Client Myths[00:57:00] Freelance Pricing, Bespoke Builds & Reality Checks[00:59:49] The React vs Signals / “sin.js” Argument[01:02:26] Shopify Innovation: Reality vs Perception[01:07:27] Enterprise Truth: Why Brands Really Leave[01:10:53] B2B, Markets & Shopify’s Hardest Problems[01:14:31] Centra vs Shopify: Architecture & Scale[01:18:34] Big Brands, Market Concentration & the Future[01:22:29] AI Commerce, Neural Links & Buying With Thoughts[01:23:46] Wrapping Up, Sign-Offs & Sleep Deprivation[01:24:05] Shopline Conspiracy & Final Chaos

00:00 - Intro & Smile.io Sponsorship 01:22 - Programmer or whatever we are 01:52 - Dave’s alter-egos and promo quotas 03:15 - Wizard hats and Halloween strategy 05:10 - Token Dave and the AI leaderboard 08:00 - Kalen’s Shop Minis experiments 11:40 - Mystery boxes, swipes, and feedback loops 18:00 - Product descriptions and brand voice 24:30 - Checkout testing and PDQ deep dive 27:20 - Claude Code, Codex, and context hoarding 33:10 - Git work trees, DBT, and late-night agent coding 38:30 - Modal debugging and test automation pain 44:00 - Cookie banners, Nacho Libre, and existential dev talk 47:00 - Hiring stories, fashion jobs, and North Carolina dreams 50:40 - Claude reading secrets and the security rabbit hole 51:55 - “Find the Shopify PM” 52:45 - ShopifyQL and analytics tinkering 53:57 - AI-driven emails and the LTV flashback 1:01:00 - Brand voice and prompt tuning 1:07:00 - Testing at scale with AI 1:10:00 - SaaS vendor therapy and A/B test chaos 1:13:00 - Wrapping up: Minis, optimism, and candy plans

[00:00:00] Cold Open & Smile.io Ad Spot[00:01:23] Rocker Glow-Up & Compliments[00:03:24] Viral Tweet & Rails Rants[00:06:24] Spam DM Revenge Plots[00:09:27] Anthropic’s Ship-It Culture[00:12:56] Claude Power-User Tips[00:15:48] Parallelizing Dev Workflows[00:21:19] Hallmark-Sora Mashups[00:24:02] Meetups, BBLs & Cringe[00:27:32] Hunky Bill Appreciation Day[00:33:17] Reading Code vs Writing Code[00:40:17] 2,048 Variants Drop[00:46:04] Etsy Beats Shopify to GPT[00:50:22] Weekend Plans & Confidence

00:00 – Cold open + Smile.io sponsor 01:13 – Friday vibes + late-night Claude sessions 02:09 – GCloud + SQL wizardry 03:47 – The nightmare that is Google Cloud’s UI 06:02 – Teaching Claude to remember stuff (and failing) 08:56 – Capturing AI context before it disappears 10:19 – Docker pain, Postgres pain, all the pain 12:32 – “I don’t read docs, I just ask Claude” 14:06 – Visualizing the LLM brain 15:18 – Sora jailbreaks itself and writes on a chalkboard 17:09 – The rise of AI social feeds 18:24 – Meme theory + Lord of the Riz 19:43 – Tobi’s been keylogging himself for 10 years 🤯 20:37 – Linus Torvalds: still committing daily 22:12 – Kalen admits he’s bad at working with people 23:27 – AI wireframes + prompt-based design 25:58 – Figma MCP dreams 27:46 – Flow builders that make you click too much 29:59 – A 5-year-old AWS site still running somehow 31:17 – Shoutout to Gil for fixing Shopify checkboxes 32:09 – Bulk editor blues + the $15 SaaS pitch 36:54 – Hidden variants + Tobi promises salvation 43:12 – Builder Sundays envy (do Austin next!) 46:49 – Meetup ideas + social dread 49:57 – Onboard B2B app vs rolling your own 57:22 – Getting warned in the Shopify Slack 😅 59:03 – Are we good people? (short therapy break) 1:02:18 – Pop Mart addiction + blind box economics 1:05:07 – Medusa vs Shopify + the B2B dream 1:07:26 – Pickleball + Scout weekend plans

00:00:00 – Lost in your own repo (zero-to-one brain fog)00:01:24 – Country vs. metal: what’s actually more emotional?00:03:11 – Never trust a web app turned desktop app00:05:00 – Memory cores, ++i crimes, and C code nostalgia00:09:07 – Luxury blow-up couches & festival life00:10:17 – Smart glasses hit different: Meta, Oakleys, and the PR spin00:12:27 – Privacy weird: everyone recording, everyone paranoid00:13:55 – Cry-bait memory videos and why they always work00:14:58 – Oakleys as pickleball uniform (my whole personality now)00:15:44 – Listener shoutout: Peanut Butter Collective00:16:40 – Villain marketing, underdogs, and community antagonists00:21:22 – Analytics Monday: checkout funnel wins & bot filtering00:25:32 – Shopify Knowledge Base app: query logs = secret FAQ gold00:28:20 – AI follow-up calls (customers don’t even notice)00:31:16 – Customer support at scale: doomed or fixable?00:36:17 – Claude as the code filing cabinet00:40:03 – GPT Pro, Cursor, and codebase indexing confusion00:43:40 – Shopify forums > support tickets (Liam shoutout)00:44:20 – Shop Worker news: first npm package & create-shopworker00:46:03 – GPT-personalized quiz landing pages00:48:15 – Declarative metafields: greenfield yes, migration nope00:51:22 – Personal READMEs & ways of working00:55:40 – Optimizing disagreeableness (and knowing your spectrum)00:57:20 – Parenting, video games, and six-year-old attention spans01:04:12 – Bitcoin, conspiracies, and oversharing online01:10:26 – Healthy relationships, sharing ideas, and not just tweeting01:13:18 – Wrapping up… and the recording dies

[00:00:00] X.com? Nah, It’s Still Twitter[00:05:00] Beating Algorithmic Sludge & Viral Trash[00:09:30] Forums, Flows & Community Hustles[00:14:00] Killing the Flow Checksum—Sidekick Dreams[00:21:00] RVShare Days & Birth of Real-ID[00:29:00] Review Anxiety and App-Store Politics[00:34:00] Claude, Multitasking & Git Work-Trees[00:40:00] Building a Mobile Admin from CLI Scripts[00:50:00] AI That Actually Ships Features[01:00:00] Burnout, TRT, and Lifestyle Refactors[01:11:00] BMX Wrecks, Lake Surfing & Sign-Off

[00:00:00] Benchmarking the Benchmarks[00:03:40] Grok, Slack—Did We Record That?[00:06:00] Linear Side-Quest vs Jira[00:10:30] Living in the Terminal[00:15:20] Multi-Tasking with Work Trees[00:21:00] Vibe-Coding Envy at Shopify[00:27:00] Notebook LM Mind-Blown[00:35:00] Ads, Models & Monetization Rants[00:42:30] MedSync CLI Glow-Up[00:49:50] AI Downtime Meltdown[00:55:40] Retirement: Surf & Pottery Futures

[00:00:00] Homework Sheet Notes & Grade-School Flashbacks[00:01:30] Dad Jokes Meet Stone-Faced Kids[00:04:50] Listener Mail, Robotics & $400 Lego Sets[00:07:00] "Fix Bluetooth, Prove AGI" Rant[00:09:35] The Mythical Podcast Topic List[00:10:30] Spinning Up Claude Headless in Docker[00:21:40] Discovering Claude Code Cleanup Agents[00:24:55] Anthropic Drama & Golden Gate Claude Legend[00:38:00] Will AI Spawn Endless Shopify Apps?[00:45:30] Remote-DOM, Agent Commerce & ChatGPT Checkout[00:52:30] Parallelizing Claude and Context-Switch Fatigue[01:06:15] Five-Person Billion-Dollar Startups & Future Workflows

[00:00:00] Claudeputer & the 10K MRR Challenge[00:01:45] Small-Town Escapes and Dune Buggies[00:04:00] Broken Hand, Buddy Loops & Voice Coding[00:07:38] WhisperFlow Beats Mac Dictation[00:12:06] Costly Love Affair with Claude Code[00:17:54] Fully-Autonomous SaaS Pipe Dreams[00:19:00] Will Super-Smart AI Grow a Will?[00:26:42] Shipping a Swift Notes App in an Hour[00:34:10] Google Cloud vs Cloudflare Workflows Smackdown[00:45:30] POS vs Online Inventory Nightmares[00:51:40] Indie App Hustle & Flow-Guy Wisdom[00:58:30] Crashing the SDA Slack Club[01:00:19] Fantasy: Unhinged Shopify Twitter[01:05:15] Do Robots Deserve Vacations?[01:12:45] Lex-Length Podcasts & Sign-off

[00:00:00] Cold Open & Pen Detox[00:00:54] Sponsor – Smile.io[00:01:45] Key & Peele, Horror, and AI Doomscrolling[00:05:30] Two-Sentence Horror & Memory Glitches[00:06:30] Live MCP + Claude Demo[00:10:00] Remote DOM & Storefront AI Futures[00:14:15] Dirty Data and the AI PIM Rabbit Hole[00:23:40] n8n, MCP Buzzword Bingo & Monetization[00:30:45] Toby’s AI Memo and Org-Wide Adoption[00:35:50] Metrics Day Bubble-Chart Bragging Rights[00:41:00] Grok’s Tweet Search Magic[00:48:30] Coding Music with LLMs[00:52:00] Vendor Lock-In Pain Stories[00:57:50] NetSuite Sync Nightmare[01:03:00] BuiltWith Panic & Store Count Reality Check[01:08:25] Wrap-Up & Random Sighs

[00:00:00] Headphone Heists & Peripheral Pain[00:01:37] Friday Vibes[00:04:27] Shopify as 100-Year Kool-Aid[00:05:51] Rick Rubin Meets Tobi[00:07:43] In-Person at Editions[00:09:47] Grilling Shopify PMs[00:13:59] Taylor’s Community Superpowers[00:17:19] Sidekick Naming Crisis[00:20:12] Flow, Functions & AI Dreams[00:27:00] Charlie’s Omni-Channel POS[00:32:23] Meta-field Translation Hell[00:35:05] Bot Traffic Nightmares[00:43:06] GPT Voice Gets Smarter[00:45:33] Tabs vs Trackballs[00:51:16] Keyboard Rabbit Holes[00:52:59] Cloudflare Log Retention Woes[00:55:22] Wrap-Up & Weekend Plans

Two Shopify devs swap jet-lagged war stories: losing voices in Toronto, escaping e-com burnout, and chasing 10× performance with renegade stacks like Syn.js, SPX and Centra. Expect rants about "plugin parasites," Shopify’s review purge, AI-generated code, TRT injections, fat-bike commuting, and why every theme deserves a skeleton. Pure dev-therapy with sarcasm, heart, and way too much caffeine.

[00:00:00] Golf-Ball Hail & Garage Panic[00:03:00] Editions Event FOMO Begins[00:07:45] Party Invites, Runs & Rooftops[00:10:45] Review-Purge Heartbreak[00:14:00] Sidekick Queries + Theme Upgrade Rants[00:18:00] SaaS Cart vs Own-Your-Code[00:22:00] Wishlist King Rebrand Saga[00:24:45] David’s BigQuery Cleanup Odyssey[00:31:00] ShopWorker: Cloudflare Automations[00:38:30] Flow vs Logs vs Rate Limits[00:43:00] "Drink Your Own Champagne" Rant[00:45:30] GraphQL Linter & MCP Mysteries[00:50:00] Claude-Powered Code Reviews[00:54:00] Liquid Email Template Nightmares[00:56:30] Travel Logistics & Event Wrap-Up

[00:00:00] Game Boy Easter Eggs & Nostalgia[00:03:45] Dad Germ Warfare & Vitamin-D Maxing[00:05:30] Methylene Blue, Science Curveballs[00:06:50] Shopify Editions & Vibe Conferencing[00:11:00] Intelligent Price-Testing Deep Dive[00:16:00] Discount Feature Heartbreak[00:18:40] Open Source vs SaaS Soul Search[00:24:30] Meta-Object Sync CLI Nerd-Out[00:26:00] Spotlight vs Raycast Workflow Rumble[00:28:20] AI Coding Routines & Cursor Tips[00:35:40] ChatGPT Therapy & Privacy Dilemmas[00:41:30] Copy-Paste Sections Roll-Out Reaction[00:43:50] Flexport→NetSuite Google Apps Script Win[00:47:40] Devin the Dev-Bot Possibilities[00:51:00] Ubiquiti Wi-Fi Upgrade Hype[00:54:00] Retro Mini-Games on Shopify[00:57:20] Cloudflare & D1 Love Letter[01:01:10] Wrap-Up & Random Clickers

From AI‑powered coding epiphanies to unexpected Objective‑C detours, this episode is equal parts tech therapy and hacker joyride. Kalen and David tame verbose Claude 3.7, celebrate Flow’s new multi‑step loops, and brainstorm auto‑styled Shopify widgets that design themselves. They rant about Figma’s “Dev Mode” trademark, debate whether kids should let ChatGPT ace biology homework, and plot a sabbatical‑fuelled walkabout. Grab headphones and join the chaos; the future of dev life has never sounded messier—or more fun.0:00 Intro1:16 Riverside audio struggles4:02 Mac‑app dreams & Objective‑C fears5:57 ChatGPT let‑downs, meet DBT7:21 Claude bracelets & AI‑tool banter8:56 Dependency hell → modeling wins15:17 Native Shopify vs external data models20:40 Dialing in Claude 3.7 prompts24:38 Model‑name confusion marathon28:07 AI untangles messy theme‑JS30:15 AI terminal tools & cost talk32:32 Rapid Polaris UI building34:46 Grappling with Shopify MCP36:26 Dezi.dev & AI layout builders38:03 Multi‑step loops land in Flow39:48 AI‑powered app‑theme styling45:15 Figma “Dev Mode” trademark rant49:04 Theme price‑tracker insights55:07 Kids, AI & education debate58:58 OpenAI “Yeets” rumor mill59:58 Sabbatical plans & sign‑off

00:00:00 - Kicking Things Off: To-Do Lists and Mega Tasks00:01:40 - Proof of Concept: Matching Big SQL Numbers00:02:20 - Low on Juice: Nap Strategies and Brain Refreshes00:03:40 - Hailstorm Panic: Moving Cars and Garage Mayhem00:05:00 - Tesla Regrets and Trash Can Truck Debates00:08:00 - The Secret Admin Block Project Reveal00:12:00 - Building Drag-and-Drop Admin Blocks00:15:00 - Shopify App Blocks Limitations and Challenges00:19:00 - Rant Alert: Hackathon Frustrations00:21:00 - Last-Minute Hotel Booking Disasters00:24:00 - Shopify Platform Fees Confusion00:27:00 - Getting Charged for Historical Order Imports00:30:00 - Knowledge Base Dreams and Empty Data Dictionaries00:33:00 - Lightweight Tools for Client Support00:35:00 - SaaS Hall of Shame: 48-Hour Free Trials and Forced Contracts00:38:30 - Influencer Management Software Gripes00:41:00 - Are Developers Doomed? AI and Combine Harvesters00:46:00 - Will AI Replace Jobs or Transform Them?00:50:00 - Rant: ShopifyQL API Deprecation Drama00:53:00 - Missing the Good Old Forum Days00:55:00 - Better Reports App and 4-5-4 Retail Calendars

• 00:00:00 – Introduction: Testing the “Push” Approach• 00:01:03 – Cadence & Scheduling• 00:02:04 – Work-Life Balance & Personal Updates• 00:02:15 – Fidget & Precision Engineering• 00:03:10 – Finding Calm with a Rock• 00:04:09 – Productivity & Schedule Adjustments• 00:05:01 – NetSuite Integration & Product Ideas• 00:06:42 – Iterative Development & Discovery• 00:08:01 – Indie Game Inspiration• 00:10:00 – Shopify Update & Community Feedback• 00:11:11 – Built-for-Shopify Engagement• 00:12:09 – Forum Dynamics & Moderation• 00:16:23 – Payment Processing & Vaulted Cards• 00:18:05 – High-Value Transaction Challenges• 00:21:01 – Social Media & Flow Glitches• 00:23:55 – Debugging API Mutations• 00:26:03 – Meta Fields & Discount Strategies• 00:30:22 – Transition to AI & Data Projects• 00:31:10 – Returns & Order Transfers• 00:33:01 – Developer Workflow & Refactoring• 00:35:07 – AI Tools for Code Review• 00:36:12 – Balancing AI Costs & Productivity• 00:39:25 – Efficient Use of OpenAI Credits• 00:40:15 – Evaluating GitHub Bots• 00:41:51 – AI Chat & “Vibe Coding”• 00:42:21 – NetSuite vs. Modern Coding• 00:43:12 – Quick App Script Projects & Badge Design• 00:45:14 – Displaying Discounts on Product Pages• 00:46:10 – Discount Strategies• 00:47:03 – Shopify Discount Challenges• 00:48:01 – Discount Apps & Alternatives• 00:49:06 – Testing Discount Options• 00:50:21 – Discount Meta Objects & Background Jobs• 00:51:08 – Front-End Discount Integration• 00:52:03 – Final Thoughts on Discount Testing• 00:55:01 – App of the Week & Collection Sorting• 00:56:01 – Wrapping Up Collections & Integrations• 00:57:08 – Conclusion

• 00:00:00 – Intro & Sponsor Message• 00:00:44 – Sponsor Details: smile.io & Benefits Overview• 00:01:25 – Travel & Logistics Update (Hedge Purchase, Passport, IT Budget)• 00:02:00 – Pre-Event Discussion: Conference Name Change (Predis to Tectonic)• 00:03:15 – Conference Schedule & Pre-Event/After-Party Details• 00:05:00 – Casual Chat: Business Networking & Meeting Plans• 00:10:04 – Technical Deep Dive: JavaScript-to-Rust Conversion• 00:16:00 – Exploring Cursor, Code Migration & API Integration Ideas• 00:20:36 – NetSuite Integration: SOAP vs. REST and Schema Changes• 00:27:00 – Shout Outs & Episode Highlights (Editor, Social Clips)• 00:41:37 – Fun Segment: Duck Hunt Mini-Game Concept• 00:46:00 – AI Insights: Sprite Generation, Developer Tools & Support Challenges• 00:55:31 – Wrap-Up & Final Thoughts

00:00:00 – Introduction & Episode OverviewKickoff of TSD #11 – Mutate and Dip00:01:18 – Hedge Booking, Discounts & Tariff TalkDiscussion about hedge booking tickets, discount inquiries, and potential legal/tariff issues00:03:00 – Conference Experiences & In-Person NetworkingChat about meeting online contacts face‑to‑face at conferences and the magic of real-life interactions00:07:00 – Travel Booking, Airbnb Deals & Flight SafetyStories on snagging an Airbnb deal, flight booking quirks, and nonstop vs. layover debates00:11:00 – Live Podcast Ideas & Operator DemoIntroduction to the concept of live podcasts and a demo of the browser‑controlling operator00:15:00 – AI Models, Integration & Operator LimitationsInsights on current AI model integrations (GPT, Claude, Cursor) and the need for more seamless automation00:17:30 – Investment Updates & Industry BuzzTalk of recent investment news—including a billion-dollar boost into Anthropics—and industry dynamics00:18:55 – App of the Week: Live Meta Fields on ShopifyOverview of the new Espresso Live Meta Fields app and its live data features for Shopify00:24:00 – E-Commerce UX: Filtering, Registration Flows & A/B TestingDiscussion on meta field filtering, multi‑step registration flows, and early A/B test insights00:34:00 – UI/UX Optimizations: Button Colors, Videos & Warranty MessagingExploration of simple UI tweaks, the impact of product videos, and warranty language experiments00:39:00 – Shopify Flow, Webhooks & Infrastructure InsightsDeep dive into how webhooks are handled in Hydrogen, Shopify Flow’s queuing system, and related infrastructure00:45:00 – New Customer Accounts, Loop Exchanges & Store CreditTalk on new customer account features, the loop exchange process, and the nuances between store credit and gift cards00:52:00 – Mutate and Dip: GraphQL Tools & Automation HighlightsShowcasing GraphQL mutations (“mutate and dip”) along with a cool Chrome extension and automation challenges00:56:00 – Dev Environment Sync & Meta Field HandlingExperiences with Postman, syncing development environments, and tackling meta field reference issues00:59:00 – NetSuite Integration & Data Pipeline OverhaulVentures into NetSuite’s changing APIs, data pipeline revamps, and the evolution of reporting systems01:01:00 – Wrap-Up & Episode Title ConfirmationFinal thoughts, a nod to “Mutate and Dip,” and closing remarks