The Effective Developer: Recent Episodes
Sebastian Daschner
The podcast for software developers who want to become more efficient and productive at what their doing.
Happy New Year, everyone! In this episode, I'll talk about my new year considerations, reflections and planning routines, some quiet days, different areas in life and some of my experiences.
In this episode I'm interviewing Vlad A. Ionescu. Vlad is the founder of ShiftLeft, has founded two different developer tool companies and is a former engineer at Google and VMware. We talked about all things productivity, and especially Earthly, a tool to improve CI/CD productivity.
More about Vlad & Earthly:
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Twitter @VladAIonescu
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https://vladaionescu.com/
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https://earthly.dev
In this episode, I'll talk about mindfulness and meditation, how they are connected to working productively, my own story in that topic, some research and helpful resources, and why we should care about this topic as developers.
Resources:
- Video Course: Developer Productivity Masterclass https://www.sebastian-daschner.com/courses/developer-productivity-masterclass
- Podcast: Huberman Lab by Dr. Huberman
- Paper: A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind by M. A. Killingsworth and D. T. Gilbert
- Book: Mindfulness in Plain English by Henepola Gunaratana
- Book: Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
In this episode I'm interviewing Markus Wittwer, who trains knowledge workers in modern mindfulness techniques. We talked about meditation, mindfulness, other productivity techniques, and more.
You can find Markus here:
- https://www.markuswittwer.de/
- Twitter: @MarkusWittwer
In this episode I'm interviewing Adrian Cole, an engineer working at Tetrate on Open Source projects and well-known contributor to projects such as Zipkin, OpenFeign, Apache jclouds, and wazero. We talked about all things productivity, especially working remotely and working while traveling.
You can find Adrian here:
- GitHub: codefromthecrypt
- LinkedIn: Adrian Cole
Happy New Year! In this episode I'll talk about my resolutions for 2023, how my 2022 ended, some offline time to plan & reflect.
In this episode we talk about caffeine consumption, the interesting effect caffeine has on our productivity and how we feel, other caffeinated drinks, and coffee culture.
In this episode I'm interviewing Aino Corry, a teacher, technical conference editor, and retrospectives facilitator. She has her own company called Metadeveloper. This episode was recorded as part of the Øredev conference in Malmö, Sweden.
You can find Aino here:
- Twitter: @apaipi
- https://metadeveloper.com/
In this episode, I'll talk about how taking a nap can be helpful in working effectively and some tips that might help you if you struggle to fall asleep during the day.
Developer Productivity Masterclass: https://www.sebastian-daschner.com/courses/developer-productivity-masterclass
In this episode, I'm interviewing Michele Riva, a software architect, Google Developer Expert, Microsoft MVP, and author of the book 'Real-World Next.js' from Milan, Italy. We recorded this conversation as part of the Øredev conference in Malmö, Sweden.
You can find Michele here:
- Twitter: @MicheleRivaCode
- https://www.micheleriva.it/
- Book: Real-World Next.js
In this episode, I'll talk about the importance of sleep, how sleep directly affects our productivity, and share some of my own experiences and tips.
Resources:
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Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker
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Developer Productivity Masterclass: https://www.sebastian-daschner.com/courses/developer-productivity-masterclass
In this episode, we'll talk a bit about news, worries about what's happening in the world, peace of mind, my own coping with the last few years, and how all that ties together to productivity.
In this episode, I'm sharing a few updates on my own home office and living situation, as I've just moved into a new apartment with my wife.
In this episode we'll talk about how device notifications lower your ability to focus, steal your mental energy, and in general make you less productive. We'll hear some background and tips that help you manage the flood of notifications.
In this episodes we talk about deliberate practice, why 10 years of being a developer doesn't make one senior, the work of Cal Newport and his book "So Good They Can't Ignore You" and more.
In this episode, we're talking about some tips on how to consume content more effectively, how taking notes on paper or in our editor can help us, how not to get distracted while learning, and more.
In this episode, we'll talk about a words that most developers fear - meetings. While meetings feel like a time sink for most developers, they are an important part of communication, and we'll have a closer look at what options of communicating we have, how to make meetings more effective, and when and how to avoid them.
In this episode, I'm interviewing Kelsey Hightower, Principal Engineer at Google Cloud Platform and well-known in the space of developer advocacy. We talked about his work, routines and takes on being effective as a developer, tools, user experience, Empathy-Driven Development, and more. Enjoy!
You can find Kelsey on Twitter @kelseyhightower
In this episode, we'll talk about how to minimize and/or use social media to our advantage.
In this episode I'm interviewing Lisette Sutherland, the founder of founder of Collaboration Superpowers, author of "Work Together Anywhere", TEDx speaker, and expert on all things working effectively and working remotely.
In this episode, we'll talk about the power of Unix-based systems, how commands on the command line allow us to script & automate, minimal computer setups, effective documentation using scripts, and more.
In this episode we'll talk about spoken languages, and the necessity to write, read, and to communicate in English.
In this episode, I'll share the story behind DayCaptain and why (on earth) we created yet another task management application, what the principles behind DayCaptain are, why we think it uses a very productive approach, and more.
You can try it out yourself at https://daycaptain.com
Don't make me think. In this episode, I'll talk about the principle of "don't make me think", what it is about, where we can find some potential for automation, documentation, or other improvement.
In this episode, I'll teaser the developer productivity masterclass on-demand video course. I'm in the process of producing that course on all things developer productivity, and for early birds this course is already available. It is still under development and most content is yet to arrive, but for listeners of this podcast, I want to give a special deal with 50% off the final price.
https://effective-developer.teachable.com/p/developer-productivity-masterclass
Will it make the boat go faster? In this episode, I'll talk about this quote, where it comes from, and why it is a great question to ask ourselves if what we're doing right now adds value to the situation.
Teaching is a great way of learning. In this episode, I'll talk about some reminders why "teaching" and all its forms is a great way of learning things.
In this episode, I'll talk about the importance to keep learning new things, as long as we're in this profession.
This episode is a reminder to distill what's important, in every situation, whether we're looking at new material, googling for an answer, or browsing Stack Overflow.
In this episode, we'll talking about the importance to look at the motivations and concepts when learning a technology, not just how it works on a code- or lower level.
In this episode, we're talking about a helpful method of improving our knowledge and detecting gaps in what we think we already know.
In this episode, we're talking about the famous (or infamous) "10x developers", why some of us are literally several factors more productive than others, knowledge workers, and the importance of "knowing what we're doing".
In this episode, I'll talk about willpower and how relying only on our willpower and good intention might not be sufficient for a successful day. Instead, we can control our environment, make a deliberate efforts about what is important, and set ourselves up for success.
In this episode, I'll talk about notifications and reminders, how we should avoid (almost) all notifications, a great productivity feature on our phones, and how we can use reminders or timers to get into the zone.
In this episode we'll talk about the importance to take the time to reflect and trying to get some insights about what we're currently working on.
Just taking 5 minutes every day is already immensely helpful and we can ask ourselves some questions that implicitly point us towards some improvement:
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Are you happy with how the day went? What went well, what didn't go well?
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Was your work purposeful today? Did you move the project, company, or endeavor forward?
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Did you make some improvement or long-term investment? What did you learn, from a technical, domain, or business perspective?
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What big or small problems did you solve? How did you tackle them?
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Is there something that should be documented? What would have helped you to know upfront?
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Is there something that should be automated?
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Is there something else to be improved, e.g. work environment, communication, or code quality?
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What was your energy level through the day? Would a different arrangement of your schedule have improved your productivity?
In this episode I'm interviewing Philip Riecks. Philip is a self-employed IT consultant who is regularly sharing content, recipes, tips & techniques, especially on the topics of testing and Spring Boot.
We're talking about how Philip's ideal day looks, the Pomodoro technique, schedules, keyboard, desk, work setup, testing, setup, running the test suite, testing pyramids, ping pong test development, Spring context tests, Testcontainers, Spring testing, Selenium, Selenide, Philip's book about testing, task & time management, favorite book, IntelliJ shortcuts & productivity tips.
You can find Philip on Twitter @rieckpil and rieckpil.de
Recommended books:
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Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod
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The ONE Thing by Gary Keller & Jay Papasan
Deep-dive masterclass on Testing Spring Boot applications: https://rieckpil.de/testing-spring-boot-applications-masterclass/
From Zero to Production with Spring Boot and AWS: https://stratospheric.dev/
30 Testing Tools And Libraries Every Java Developer Must Know: https://rieckpil.de/testing-tools-and-libraries-every-java-developer-must-know/
In this episode we talk about the value of self-imposed deadlines. Especially when we're quite free how we choose our goals and tasks, e.g. being self-employed or creating some work such as a book or YouTube videos, deadlines that are created by ourselves help us staying focused.
In this episode I'm interviewing Dr. Venkat Subramaniam.
We're talking about what Venkat's ideally productive day looks like, how to structure a day when you have multiple jobs, compartmentalizing, dealing with the current pandemic situation, focusing on one task, humans as state machine, starting with 5 mins, being deliberate and disciplined, day planning, delegating, cognitive load, clearing time for important tasks, automating small tasks, Continuous Integration in daily work, using travel time, timers, notifications, interruptions, avoiding Slack, valuing your own time, standing while working, desks, setups, computer setups, changing in increments, energy, standing, pacing, walking, boundaries, command line, background as system admin, Next computers, scripts, Textmate, VIM, working during COVID, presentations & training, breaks, taking walks, dealing with time zones, emotions, anxiety, self-imposed deadlines, and promoting positivity.
You can find Venkat on Twitter @venkat_s and agiledeveloper.com
In this episode I'm sharing some experiences and tips on how to handle the flood of emails effective. I'm sharing why I'm very happy with my Gmail setup, how achieving inbox zero is much more about processes than tools, and more.
In this episode I've interviewed Cliff Click, one of the core contributors of Java's HotSpot engine, an expert on all things compilers and programming languages, and inspiration on developer productivity.
In the interview, we talked about Cliff's ideal day with regards to productivity, structuring ones day, dealing with the COVID situation, distractions, notifications, AA programming language, time zones, distributed teams, editors, emacs vs. IDEs, build tools, Make, testing cycles, turnaround times, mechanical keyboards, workstation equipment, headphones, time planning, do the hard stuff first, saying no, priorities, reading, life changing events, self-improvement, T. Harv Eker, automation, cost-benefit trade-offs, and long-term investments.
You can find Cliff on Twitter @cliff_click
In this episode I'm sharing some experiences in how to do effective note taking while developing. While this topic sounds somewhat obvious, there's certainly value in knowing how to create and access notes at our fingertips.
In this episode I'm giving some examples how a simple task management process for developers could look like. As we've talked about before, it's less about using certain tools, and more about our approaches and mindsets.
In this episode we'll talk about time management, or actually task or priority management, as we should call it, how to effectively manage our todo lists, why reflecting on and planning our days is our friend, and more.
In this episode I want to share some tips how to focus better in our job. A lot of us are struggling with the current situation, myself included, and I wanted to share some things that helped me. This episode was recorded in Dec 2020.
This episode is about working remotely, some stories and tips how to stay healthy and productive, how to control the environments, and how to schedule your day, also while traveling. This episode was recorded in Dec 2020.
In this episode I'm interviewing Java Community Leader Steve Chin, who is well-known in the Java space.
We talk about productivity, work setups, keyboard devices, laptops, typing ergonomics, key switches, working from home, workstations, tools for professionals, mice, mouse acceleration, avoiding strain injuries, gaming devices, importance of rest breaks, timers and tools for breaks, body posture, standing and walking desks, treadmills, stretching, meetings and distractions, communication, calendar scheduling tricks, purposeful meetings, replacing large meetings with small ones or 1on1's, and communication advice for managers.
You can find Steve on Twitter @steveonjava
This episode is about my personal workstation setup that I'm using now. I'll talk about my keyboards, mouse devices, monitor setup, and software that I'm using and especially why.
Some resources:
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https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/
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Asus PB277Q 27" monitor
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Anker Wireless Vertical Ergonomic Optical Mouse
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https://i3wm.org/
In this episode I'm interviewing Java Guru Adam Bien, who is well-known in the Enterprise Java space.
We talk about his work projects and approaches, technology standards, pet projects, travels and conferences, online events, music for coding, keyboards, laptops and laptop keyboards, MacBooks and ThinkPads, operating systems, Linux, window managers, constraints to improve productivity, focus, frameworks and technology choices, IDEs for Java, plain-text documentation formats, command line, shell scripts, automation, breaks and balance, fun at work, blogging, and sharing knowledge.
Some links about Adam:
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https://twitter.com/AdamBien
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http://adam-bien.com
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http://airhacks.fm
This episode is about workstations and ergonomic setups. We'll talk about standing desks, monitor heights, keyboards and mouse devices, and what other tips are to be considered when building up a workstation.
Some further resources:
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https://blog.sebastian-daschner.com/entries/tips-on-working-from-home
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https://uhs.umich.edu/computerergonomics
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https://ehs.princeton.edu/book/export/html/72
This episode is about work environments and working from home, some tips how to stay healthy and productive, mentally as well as physically, and how to schedule your day.
This episode is about the importance of Continuous Delivery, its connection to efficient development workflows, and how to support building successful IT projects.
This episode is about software tests, automation, and immediate feedback.
Some more material on effective tests in Java development:
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https://blog.sebastian-daschner.com/entries/efficient-testing-video-course
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https://blog.sebastian-daschner.com/entries/thoughts-on-efficient-testing
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https://blog.sebastian-daschner.com/entries/openliberty-plugin-dev-mode
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https://blog.sebastian-daschner.com/entries/quarkus-remote-dev-in-containers
This episode is about the importance of immediate feedback and short turnaround times, and human attention spans.
Examples for development modes (short turnaround) in Java:
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https://blog.sebastian-daschner.com/entries/openliberty-plugin-dev-mode
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https://blog.sebastian-daschner.com/entries/quarkus-remote-dev-in-containers
This episode is about the experience of flow, the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and why I think developers have the best job ever.
Flow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi
This episode is about the keyboard usage beyond the command line and keyboard concepts in the IDEs and browsers.
Video course on effective keyboard usage: https://blog.sebastian-daschner.com/entries/effective-keyboard-usage-video-course
This episode is about shell shortcuts and how you can make your command line experience more comfortable.
Improving your shell productivity: https://blog.sebastian-daschner.com/entries/unix-command-line-productivity
Video course on effective keyboard usage: https://blog.sebastian-daschner.com/entries/effective-keyboard-usage-video-course
This episode is about shell aliases, how they compare to IDE live templates, and why they are probably the biggest helper in the command line.
Zsh aliases: https://blog.sebastian-daschner.com/entries/zsh-aliases
Improving your shell productivity: https://blog.sebastian-daschner.com/entries/unix-command-line-productivity
This episode is about shells, and why you should care as a developer.
Zsh aliases: https://blog.sebastian-daschner.com/entries/zsh-aliases
Improving your shell productivity: https://blog.sebastian-daschner.com/entries/unix-command-line-productivity
This episode is about the Unix command line and why, after some learning time, spending more time in the terminal will make us more effective.
Video course on effective keyboard usage: https://blog.sebastian-daschner.com/entries/effective-keyboard-usage-video-course
This episode is about the VIM editor layout and the power and productivity gain of keeping our hands on the home row of our keyboard. I'll tell my story on how I started using and appreciating the VIM editor and what are the benefits of the VIM mode of typing.
Video course on effective keyboard usage: https://blog.sebastian-daschner.com/entries/effective-keyboard-usage-video-course
VIM tutorials:
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https://danielmiessler.com/study/vim/
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https://www.openvim.com/
This episode is about keyboard layouts. We'll see why it makes to consider to program in the US keyboard layout if you're not already doing so, and why the US International layout might be helpful.
Keyboard layout: US International AltGr No Dead keys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AltGr_key#US-International
Dead keys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_key
This episode is about keyboards and keyboard devices. We'll see why it makes sense to invest some money into a proper device and what to take into consideration.
Some keyboards brands that I've used:
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https://www.daskeyboard.com/
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https://www.realforce.co.jp/en/products/realforce_rgb/
Some keyboards that also look interesting:
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https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/
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https://www.dygma.com/
This episode is about keyboard shortcuts and live templates. We'll have a more detailed look on how to become a poweruser of the programs we're often using, most of all the IDE, but also the editors and other programs.
This episode is about the keyboard where we developer should spend our time on. We talk about why specific tasks are more efficient to be performed on the keyboard, why to leverage keyboard shortcuts, and what's about the keyboard home row.
This episode is about context switches that we humans have when switching tasks. We talk about the time penalty we have to pay until we're fully productive again, after being distracted, meetings, and other tasks, and how to overcome that.
This episode is about the need to focus and eliminating distractions in our work. We will talk about different types of distractions, inefficiencies that make our job harder than required, waiting times, and some ways to overcome these.
This episode is about automation, or how I call it using the computer in the correct way. Computers are so much better at automation than we humans are. I'll give you an overview over which types of automation could help us doing our job, we hear about big and small opportunities to automate, and the "three strike principle".
Introduction to the podcast about how to become more productive and more effective as a software developer. I'm Sebastian Daschner, your host, and it's a pleasure to have you. You'll find more material at https://www.sebastian-daschner.com