Backend Banter

In today’s episode, we welcome Lawrence Lockhart, a former hospitality manager turned full stack software developer. Apart from his tech job, he’s also a developer advocate, a teaching assistant at a coding bootcamp and a tech meetup leader, so you know he spends a lot of his time helping others build and transfer their existing skills into tech, being a powerful voice in the tech space for upcoming developers. Today we talk briefly about how he managed to switch from hospitality to tech, and how that wasn’t as easy as a lot of people online make it out to be, the importance of local and in-person jobs as opposed to starting off remote, how learning with purpose is essential if you want to make progress and advice for people starting out! Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm Code Connector: https://codeconnector.io Lawrence's X/Twitter: https://x.com/LawrenceDCodes Lawrence's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawrencedlockhart Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:44 When did Lawrence start to be more involved in the online tech communities? 02:23 How did Lawrence meet James Q Quick 04:42 Transition from a Blue Collar job into Tech 10:59 6 months is not the standard anymore to get in the industry 13:44 The Timeline Discussion 15:56 Kelsey Hightower 18:09 Has Lawrence worked as a dev in non-tech companies and where he works now 23:33 It's IMPORTANT to go for local market and in-person jobs first 24:27 How networking actually works 28:46 Learning with a purpose 36:43 You shouldn't be trying to minmax your career path 39:43 Advice to people that are unsure in their skills 43:51 How to approach interviews 49:31 You have to practice interviewing 54:48 Learn the thing or get out 58:33 Disagree and commit 01:01:45 Where to find Lawrence

In today’s episode, we bring Spiro Floropoulos, a senior developer and architect with over 20 years of experience. This episode is an unusual one, as Spiro recently got laid off due to a bizarre chain of events that involved HTMX, overworking, and technical debt. But we’ll learn from this story, as we want to shed some light on how situations that Spiro described could be avoided, namely how the tech industry is obsessing over developer experience and why that’s detrimental, why abstractions should be teaching you the technology as opposed to just doing the work for you, why you should be able to train your junior devs and much more! Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm Spiro's X/Twitter: https://x.com/spirodonfl Spiro's Website: https://spirofloropoulos.com/ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:35 Why are we having this conversation 01:33 How was HTMX involved in this? 03:38 Spiro's background 05:58 Why are we focusing so much on developer experience? 13:38 The Tech Industry as a whole is headed down the wrong path 16:17 Abstractions teaching you about the underlying technology rather than hiding it 18:47 What are the long-term consequences of unresolved technical debt? 26:46 There's things you can't blame frameworks for 28:27 We have to slow down 30:46 What happened after the introduction of HTMX into the project? 40:26 Hiring juniors is great, but you should have the resources to train them 47:00 The Technical Debt 50:32 The more complex the feature became, the bigger the struggle with HTMX 53:42 The reasons why Spiro was let go 57:10 Instead of Agile we should treat our programmers like adults 57:31 HTMX was instant and testing ability was better 01:01:21 Is Spiro looking for work? 01:02:00 Where to find Spiro

In today’s episode, we go to war with Sam Selikoff, co-host of the Frontend First podcast, and specialist on everything Frontend related. We have an amazing conversation where we discuss Sam’s journey, as he also did some backend work in the past, we talk about abstractions, what JavaScript is doing differently from other languages and frameworks, why the frontend should be driving the backend and not the other way around, and finish it off with a discussion about RSCs (React Server Components). Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm Frontend First: https://frontendfirst.fm/ Sam's X/Twitter: https://x.com/samselikoff Sam's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/samselikoff Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:51 Who is Sam Selikoff 02:12 Abstractions - Should you go a level deeper? 06:37 What was Sam's talk about 10:51 What is JavaScript doing differently? 19:10 Do you want the frameworks to push more features out of the box for backend work? 24:04 Strong opinions on a library level 30:29 Shipping more standardized interfaces 37:06 The frontend should be driving everything in the backend 39:12 Your types should flow from the database to the frontend, but not the product decisions 46:53 React Server Components 58:49 Where to find Sam

Today we bring Thomas Ballinger, a developer at Convex, an open-source backend for application builders. We will be discussing mainly databases, and why at Convex they use Rust and Typescript. We'll also talk about systems scalability, infrastructure and go over different practices regarding abstractions Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm Convex: https://www.convex.dev/ Thomas' X/Twitter: https://x.com/ballingt Thomas' Website: https://ballingt.com/ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:33 Thomas' background 02:29 Convex - what it is and why should you use it? 03:16 What are query planners? 06:32 SQL is a very high level language 07:43 The primary differentiator of Convex 10:49 Who are Convex's biggest competitors? 14:20 How do you build the infrastructure 17:11 What type of database is Convex? 19:18 Why is Convex written in Rust? 23:35 Cheap abstractions 25:47 Productivity suffering from compile times 29:47 The different approaches for a backend developer to build scalable systems 32:28 Backend for Frontend 37:21 You want to be close to your data 42:13 Are there plans to support other languages at Convex? 47:06 Does the schema update the autocompletion in the editor 48:31 Naming and behavior of the queries with Convex 51:06 Why sqlc is great 52:28 Why TypeScript is a great "shortcut" for Convex 59:34 Where to find Thomas

Today we bring anothe returning guest, Adam Elmore! An AWS Hero, Teacher and fellow content creator! You might notice today's talk is a bit different, as we don't cover too much technical details but we do cover a lot of other interesting topics that permeate our everyday lives, such as kids and family time, religion and purpose in life... But don't worry, we also share some hot takes on indie hackers, business models of education platforms and finally content creation and how it can help you propel your career! Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm Adam's Twitter: https://x.com/adamdotdev Adam's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adamdotdev ProAWS: https://www.proaws.dev/ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:42 Terminal Coffee 06:42 Kids' books 09:00 How serious is the Terminal Coffee business 12:51 Indie Hackers 19:11 Books 23:42 The March of Time 25:56 Commitment to the lessons 27:21 The problem with course platforms 28:31 ProAWS 35:45 The education industry isn't as cutthroat as it seems 39:13 What's Adams plan of attack with the courses? 40:00 How does streaming affect Adam? 44:05 Who is Adam's audience? 44:44 Podcasting 47:34 Who is TomorrowFM targeted at? 49:14 Burnout in podcasts 52:01 Growing up religious 57:34 Would you say that you've distanced yourself from religion for epistemological or cultural reasons? 01:03:00 Throwing the religious labels out 01:13:03 Where to find Adam

In today's episode, we bring back James Q Quick. Last time we talked about his best tips to land your first ever job as a developer. Today we talk about James' new startup and how he manages all his new tech adventures with being a parent and also provides some helpful insight as to why having an audience and personal connections in the industry is beneficial - but not strictly necessary to succeed. We also talk about AWS, abstraction and the current (healing) state of layoffs, so don't lose hope if you're demotivated in your job search. Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm Deals for Devs: https://www.dealsfordevs.com/ James' Website: https://www.jamesqquick.com/ James' Twitter: https://x.com/jamesqquick James' Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JamesQQuick Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:55 On being a parent 04:28 Idiocracy 05:47 Deals for Devs 10:09 Comparison with Dixie Direct 12:22 How do you quantify the really high quality deals 15:57 The challenge with a two-sided marketplace 22:28 Doing stuff manually is actually pretty good 25:38 Having a personal connection helps A LOT 29:12 Zeta 34:05 The Web is being modeled on AWS 36:38 You shouldn't be learning one JavaScript framework 38:30 Know how to answer a question if you don't know the technology 41:43 When you learn to code, how much layers of abstraction you should go? 43:45 Should passion be required for a job in tech? 49:02 The state of layoffs 52:29 The ease of finding a job after a layoff when you're highly talented 55:58 Do you need an audience to find a job easily? 58:40 Developers of the world - Interviews in person 01:02:12 Where to find James

In today's episode, we bring back BadCop! Since last episode, she joined Boot.dev's team and is now writing courses with us! Today we will be discussing the approaches to writing good educational material, Bash (of course, duh), working outside cloud solutions, SSH, NAS systems, workflows with different editors and cultural shifts in different areas of programming. Enjoy! Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm BadCop's Twitter: https://x.com/badcop_ BadCop's Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/badcop_ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:58 BadCop Joined the Boot.dev Team! 01:15 Writing courses is harder than it looks 03:45 Lane's approach to writing courses 05:21 What's the hardest part of writing a course for BadCop? 09:01 On writing Bash 13:19 How useful is it to know how to work outside the cloud solutions? 17:28 SSHing into the home network 20:49 What is a NAS? 23:26 Using VTuber Software off the shelf 25:55 When did BadCop start using NeoVim? 29:41 IRC talk 33:20 Cultural shift in the programming space 38:05 Getter and Setter functions 42:35 People are overusing the idea of encapsulation 48:41 Dependency Inversion Principle 51:11 The VTuber Project 52:58 Where to find BadCop

In today's episode, we welcome Ken Wheeler, a dope programmer, who creates cool projects and just gives them away for free, helping thousands of developers worldwide, a based beatmaker and just in general a cool person. In this episode, we talk about AI, React, OCaml, why stressing over specific frameworks is not worth it, advice for new developers, HTMX, SPA's and a LOT of other stuff, so stay tuned! Ken's X/Twitter: https://x.com/ken_wheeler Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 00:25 Do you hate AI? 02:10 How diffusion works 17:47 First impressions with writing Go 18:29 Where's the line between Backend Development and DevOps 24:11 Does anyone version their REST? 24:57 urql 25:38 Offloading the data work to the other side 29:55 Wordpress is 80% of the websites 31:15 HTMX 33:12 Single Page Apps 34:02 Is React still your go-to 36:38 Is it hard to switch from React to Vue? 39:37 Picking a first language to learn 40:43 OCaml 43:12 HEX and raw Binary Data 44:42 Bluetooth powered crossbow 52:20 What got Ken into doing talks 58:45 Where to find Ken

In today's episode, we welcome Casey Muratori, a seasoned programmer who specializes in game engine research and development who is currently working on a narrative game about organized crime in the 1930s in New York. And oh boy, is this episode packed with valuable knowledge! In this talk, we go over the differences between different job positions in the Game Development Industry and how it compares to the Web Development arena, as well as dive deep on the notions of technical knowledge, is it all useful or is some of it just a waste of time? We talk about bloated systems, how we already surpassed the tipping point of code written, so that new exploits will be appearing indefinitely. Casey gives us his opinions on what a programmer should ABSOLUTELY know to be the best at what they do, and a lot of other exciting and interesting topics. Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm Computer, Enhance!: https://www.computerenhance.com/ Casey's Twitter/X: https://x.com/cmuratori Timestamps: 00:28 Casey's Background 02:43 Game Developer vs Game Designer 09:08 What are the different ways people should think about careers that exist for game developers 14:33 Is all knowledge useful or is some of it a waste of time? 16:16 Computer, Enhance! and Casey's teaching methodologies 24:00 Devil's advocate about understanding at the hardware level 29:48 Software is getting slower, bloatier and less performant 35:42 What is the primary reason behind the rise of slow software 38:20 Top 3 concepts that people SHOULD know 43:43 Do you need to know both ARM and x86? 57:03 30 million line problem 01:08:29 Is there any way to mitigate these types of problems? 01:13:39 Where to find Casey 01:14:50 Which was the best part of Twin Peaks

In today’s episode, we bring AnthonyGG, a highly requested guest, a Go developer with over a decade of experience with Golang and a fellow content creator. This episode will be all around Web Development with Go - from how Anthony started writing code with Go and why he chose this language, to tooling, migrations, integrations with databases, generics, Go job interviews and much, much more! Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm Anthony's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@anthonygg_ Anthony's Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/theanthonygg Anthony's Twitter/X: https://x.com/anthdm Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 00:29 Anthony's backstory, how he learned to code and started writing code professionally 08:55 Going from go migrate to goose 13:20 What does Anthony use in tandem with goose/go migrate to interact with databases 14:46 Bun vs gorm vs sqlc 18:26 The way boot.dev is running goose at the moment 20:14 Problems with migration tools 23:47 Should HTTP handlers explicitly return an error? 29:05 Building your own middleware and helper functions 36:00 Generics 38:09 How often does AnthonyGG use a context package and for what purposes 44:57 Golang job interviews 46:12 Developer experience with working with Go on Web Applications 54:51 You still need community-built tools 57:08 Where to find Anthony

Today, we bring back a dear guest and friend of the podcast, ThePrimeagen! Now Ex-Netflix engineer who turned his full focus to content creation surrounding software engineering and tech. In today's episode, we talk about his new Git course on boot.dev, where he shares motivations on why he decided to write a course on Git, how he incorporates it into his workflow and shares some hot takes regarding today's tech education landscape, his opinion on bootcamps, colleges, and what his ideal way of teaching computer science is. To finish off, he shares some of his exciting new ventures, namely a coffee shop and a Doom game which you can play through twitch chat! Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm ThePrimeagen's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/theprimeagen ThePrimeagen's other Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePrimeTimeagen ThePrimeagen's Twitter: https://x.com/ThePrimeagen Terminal Coffee Shop: https://www.terminal.shop/ Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 00:27 Why teach about Git? 02:55 Was Prime taught Git? 04:50 add files individually or git add . 07:22 Hot take about git in school 10:27 What should you learn in school in the first place? 11:34 Where did school come from? 16:42 You can't become a software engineer in 3 months 19:45 Contents of Part 1 and what will Part 2 of the Git course be about 22:58 Rebase vs Merge and Prime's current workflow 24:22 Why you shouldn't merge 29:10 A lot of the times, people just don't know the tools 32:29 The advantage of rebase 34:03 Rewriting history criticism 36:30 Prime's terminal coffee shop 44:22 Doom in the terminal? 54:08 Is the bandwidth the problem with the Doom game? 55:27 Ideas for the controls for Doom 58:57 Where to find Prime

In today's episode, we welcome Low Level Learning, a fellow programmer and content creator. With over 500k subscribers and his own course where he teaches low level programming topics, he came on the podcast to talk about what he knows most: C, low level concepts, AI, as well as share some of his own developer experiences and preferences that he garnered over the years. Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm Low Level Learning’s Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/LowLevelTweets Low Level Learning's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/lowlevellearning Low Level Learning's Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/LowLevelLearning Low Level Academy: https://lowlevel.academy/ Timestmaps: 00:47 Who is Low Level Learning? 01:34 C is a High Level Language 02:47 Is C lower level than Rust or Zig? 04:33 Front-end vs Back-end, which is harder? 06:34 The Boot.dev stack 07:11 The Low Level Academy stack 07:59 Low Level Academy 09:56 Project-based learning 12:18 sqlc 14:44 How do you debug C? 17:26 Fuzzing Harness vs Unit Testing 22:28 Favorite Feature of C 23:45 If you could change one thing in C, what would it be? 26:53 Where do C programmers work? 29:16 The White House and Garbage Collectors 31:19 What is a side-channel attack? 33:56 Power side-channel attack 35:41 Side-channel attack on boot.dev 37:08 What tooling does Low Level Learning use to write C? 43:59 How do you deal with the lack of a package manager? 48:12 Opinion on statically compiled and dynamic libraries 50:36 Where to find Low Level Learning

In today’s episode, we welcome Natalie Pistunovich, host of the Go Time podcast, OpenAI Ambassador and Google Developer Expert for Go. She advises companies on how to make the most of AI and adopt it properly and also teaches the Cloud and Infrastructure course for B.Sc. students at the HTW Berlin. In this episode, we talk all about AI driven development and how is Go one of the best languages suited for code generation, the future of LLM’s and how can we boost the average developer’s job with AI, creating custom GPT’s, changes in the area of AI Chips, and a lot of other fascinating topics. Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm Natalie's Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/nataliepis Timestamps: 00:47 Who is Low Level Learning? 01:34 C is a High Level Language 02:47 Is C lower level than Rust or Zig? 04:33 Front-end vs Back-end, which is harder? 06:34 The Boot.dev stack 07:11 The Low Level Academy stack 07:59 Low Level Academy 09:56 Project-based learning 12:18 sqlc 14:44 How do you debug C? 17:26 Fuzzing Harness vs Unit Testing 22:28 Favorite Feature of C 23:45 If you could change one thing in C, what would it be? 26:53 Where do C programmers work? 29:16 The White House and Garbage Collectors 31:19 What is a side-channel attack? 33:56 Power side-channel attack 35:41 Side-channel attack on boot.dev 37:08 What tooling does Low Level Learning use to write C? 43:59 How do you deal with the lack of a package manager? 48:12 Opinion on statically compiled and dynamic libraries 50:36 Where to find Low Level Learning

In today’s episode, we bring fellow developer and tech content creator NeetCode, to talk about his obstacles and observations on his path in becoming a FAANG engineer, where he shares his struggles and how he started both his tech career and content creation journeys. Among a variety of other topics, NeetCode shares his advice for anyone that’s open to receiving it, and explains the pros and cons of grinding LeetCode, if it is even worth doing it or not, while also dabbling into why networking is somewhat important and highlights the importance of standing out in today’s job market environment. Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm Neetcode's Website: https://neetcode.io/ Neetcode's Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/neetcode Neetcode's Twitter: https://twitter.com/neetcode1 Neetcode's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/navdeep-singh-3aaa14161/ Timestamps: 00:46 Who is NeetCode and a bit of his background02:24 Why did NeetCode start a YouTube Channel?03:40 People don't talk about where they mess up at these big companies04:47 Portray yourself in the best possible light at interviews07:37 Why LeetCode?08:44 Why Grinding LeetCode is not the smartest choice11:31 Why LeetCode is still important if your goal is a FAANG-level company14:47 What would be the approach for someone with CS-degree knowledge that wants to get into Google in 2024/202517:26 How to know if you're having trouble getting or passing interviews?19:01 You can put projects on a resume, not LeetCode solutions21:47 Tutorial Hell24:47 You have to be able to prove your knowledge, just putting it on the resume isn't enough29:20 You don't have to do content creation to get a developer job30:29 Social Media works well for networking33:03 NeetCode philosophy37:57 Monetizing education content42:17 How to level up the product experience44:04 Amazon vs Google's culture46:24 As usual, managers don't know what they're doing a lot of the time49:30 Managers at these companies should be technical51:17 Difference between Engineers and other Tech Roles55:40 Where to find NeetCode

In today’s episode, we welcome John Crickett, veteran software engineer, having worked at Staff, VP, and C-Suite positions over the years, and now focusing on helping thousands of engineers worldwide, through his coding challenges that have you building real applications, as well as helping with the soft skills through his articles and posts about software development. Today we cover a LOT of ground where we explain exactly what a Software Architect is, discuss different leadership types, advice to get a software job, remote work, unpopular opinions on programming languages, performance and scale, and a couple other things, so stay tuned because this episode is a true fountain of knowledge. Learn back-end development - https://boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm John Crickett's Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/johncrickett John Crickett's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncrickett/ Coding Challenges: https://codingchallenges.fyi/ Coding Challenges on Substack: https://codingchallenges.substack.com/ Research mentioned at 27:33 : https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232514133_Effect_of_self-differentiation_and_anonymity_in_group_on_deindividuation More on the topic of Deindividuation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deindividuation#Major_empirical_discoveries Timestamps: 00:12 Who is John Crickett01:13 What is a Software Architect03:04 People vs Technical Leadership03:53 What kind of decisions does a software architect make?04:43 Is there a lot of "Thought Leadership" involved?05:23 Do you prefer Technical or People leadership?07:47 How did John start his coding career?11:39 Most people don't start working at "sexy" companies13:58 Juggling off-topic14:32 What are the Coding Challenges?19:03 Remote work and downtime22:56 The wrong culture might spoil the remote environment and people care less about the work27:05 Anonymity turns people into assholes29:58 Why did we have a phone call when this could've been an e-mail?33:42 Doing LeetCode vs Building Projects36:54 Most of the time you'll be using already existing solutions40:05 Is there too much abstraction nowadays?41:56 Using the Command Line is cool again!43:44 When talking about scale, what matters most is the architecture, not the language or framework51:30 Why just switching to a "faster" language isn't enough53:48 Go vs Rust performance comparison54:44 Learning how to write performant code is more important than the programming language itself55:25 The importance of benchmarking58:33 Where to find John