Developers Hangout: Recent Episodes
James Perkins
Developers love to just talk about things, whether its the latest project they are working on or something they learnt. In this podcast James sits down and just chats, no scripts, no agenda.
Sometimes we talk technology and sometimes we talk about our favorite new purchase, food we made or what we did last month.
Bryan is Designer, Developer, Educator and we sat down and talk about Dev Rel and writing a book!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/brob
Website : https://bryanlrobinson.com/
I sat down with Will Button this week as we talk about fitness, and challenging yourself.
Checkout Will socials:
https://twitter.com/0xWillButton
http://youtube.com/@DevOpsForDeve
willbutton.com
Are you ready to earn extra income from sharing your expert opinion? Head over to userinterviews.com/hello to sign up and participate today!
In this episode we spend our time chatting about YouTube, how it works and how we have experimented over the past couple of years.
Check out Haris' channel https://www.youtube.com/@CodingCleverly
Are you ready to earn extra income from sharing your expert opinion? Head over to userinterviews.com/hello to sign up and participate today!
In this episode I sat down with Mac who is known in the community for a lot of different projects and being a great community player.
Check out his amazing spotify project: https://github.com/maciejpedzich/spotify-playlist-archive-website
Connect with him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaciejPedzich
Are you ready to earn extra income from sharing your expert opinion? Head over to userinterviews.com/hello to sign up and participate today!
In this episode of the podcast, I sit down with Erik Hanchett known for his YouTube channel, and blog and now working for AWS.
We talk about his move into Dev Advocacy
You can check out his channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ProgramWithErik
Website: https://www.programwitherik.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ErikCH
Are you ready to earn extra income from sharing your expert opinion? Head over to userinterviews.com/hello to sign up and participate today!
In this episode of Developers Hangout, I hang out with Francesco Ciulla a developer advocate for daily.dev.
This episode Developer Advocacy and how it is different at almost every company. I work at a seeded company in the auth space unlike Francesco who works at daily.dev which curates your content and is built around a Chrome Extension.
Links for Francesco can be found here: https://francescociulla.com/
Check out daily.dev it's a fantastic roundup tool that I personally use.
I sit down and chat with Pooja Dutt, we talk about DN, Content Creation and overall just life.
IF you want to check out Pooja Dutt
Here are some links:
https://www.youtube.com/@PoojaDutt
https://www.instagram.com/fivefootraveler/
If you are looking to connect with Sarah here are here details:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sarah11918
Sarah's website: https://www.rainsberger.ca/
Sarah's Photos : https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahrainsberger/albums/72177720295657321/with/51792833621/
Pouya's Twitter : https://twitter.com/Saadeghi
Pouya's Github : https://github.com/saadeghi
DaisyUI : https://daisyui.com/
You can find Brian on Twitter @brianmmdev
You can find Guardian Forge: https://guardianforge.net/
Want to connect with Rob?
Find him on Twitter: 聽@kendalmintcode
His Website: https://robkendal.co.uk/
Below are both his e-book and his Learn react course.
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FREE ebook 馃憠馃徎 http://gum.co/WssIGB
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Learn React 聽馃憠馃徎 http://bit.ly/3fikyAm
Checkout Snipcart at : https://snipcart.com/
AI transcript:
Timestamp Speaker Transcript
00:00.00 developershangout Welcome to developers how podcast today I am met with the ceo of snp cart francois francois why don't you introduce yourself, tell people about snp cart and then we can start hanging out.
00:12.71 Francois Hey hi james thanks for having me so sn cart is a developer first shopping cart platform. It was founded in 2013 and we've been following the web dev space closely and contributing to hit. Ah, via content via integrations a whole bunch of stuff. So yeah, basically you can add snp card to any website. So we're agnostic about the technology that you choose to use snp cart lives in the Frontend. So as long as you have access to your html Source. You're good. And a lot of frontend developers and frontend centric projects use us. But also you know a lot of more traditional setups to coupled cmss of the world and whatnot I'm the ceo over there. My full name is Francois Lanthier Nadeau I've been with the business for 8 years started as a marketing intern then led marketing then became a partner product owner and then ceo and yeah I'm happy to be here sharing some thoughts and just having a chat with you. James.
01:20.29 developershangout Yeah I mean congratulations recent you guys were required um which is which is super exciting for for any business whether you're you've been around for a while or not can you talk about how that acquisition even.
01:24.48 Francois Um, yeah, yeah.
01:37.38 Francois Yeah, yeah, so snp car has always been bootstrapped for those of us who may have followed our journey wrote about it on indieacers and medium and other places but we we came to life inside of a web development agency in quebec city.
01:38.46 developershangout Came about. Nothing.
01:56.24 Francois And eventually we realized the product was deserved a life of its own and we created a different corporation and scaled that that company as a separate entity from that web dev agency. It agency is called spectrum and kuaxity. And um, you know as we scaled the only debt that we had was towards spectrum and in a few years we eventually repaid it and we we enjoyed you know, being a bootstrapped kind of the underdog competing with. Big big giants who had a lot of budget lot of money I think we we managed to to be a cool actor in this space and get some you know developer capital and some social love coming back towards us so that's kind of how we grew we became profitable I think in the. 5 years in or something like that and then as things started to stabilize revenue wise and the team started to scale a little bit more we we got hit with Covid and if you're an e-commerce business. It's bittersweet but being hit by covid means all of your numbers are just like shooting up. Um, so it was it was weird right? A lot of suffering psychologically and economically all over the world. But our revenue our sign-ups are all exploding so we figured that we should own that luck and just like keep our heads down. Take care of our mental health and keep shipping good product. Good marketing. Good support That's what we did and 2020 we had our record year we passed the 1 million ar for the first time ah stayed very profitable. So very interesting spot. That left us in and in 2021 you know for about a year or so since ah, ever since I became ceo I had I had wanted to find a way to bridge the gap between snpp car's actual position. And its potential in the Market. So many developers would come up to us and say hey frank why are you not integrated with let's say shipst station already or why isn't there a native plugin or starter kit for next js or like you know all sorts of stuff.
04:23.64 developershangout Um, this. Ah.
04:26.36 Francois And I think when I when I when I was telling people listen were like only ah barely a 10 team people 10 team 10 people team apologies. They were like oh shit like I thought you were you were bigger than that and people thought you know stamp cart was bigger and more funding and had kind of a. Came with more expectations with regards to feature development support delays and integrations and all that jazz if you couple that with the momentum. Our category was having so let's call it modern and slash headless e-commerce. Ah. It came with a lot of opportunities and I had this in my mind. How can I bridge that gap because I I love our lifestyle business I love how how cool the vibe is. There's not a lot of stress and pressure on me and my teammates you know, but but but I still want us to to actualize some of that potential. So I started looking at different avenues. Lots of vcs were knocking on our doors and you know some? How do you call these folks like ah like Saas firms that just come in and then buy your saas and work on it for 5 years and then sell it. Yeah and a few strategic acquirevers.
05:29.12 developershangout Is not.
05:39.36 Francois Yeah, you know so bigger companies bigger like sister companies that could like literally buy you out. Um vcs weren't I decided against raising some money just because I think the kind of early hypergrowth dynamics weren't a good match with my my. My own psychological profile and my teams so we we didn't want to do that and then the other firms you know was kind of a option. However, eventually we were approached by 1 strategic acquiir which is do the d u d a. It's a site builder and and and things just kind of fell into place. You know we didn't want to sell however, and I remember in the beginning telling there was this woman emailing me saying the the ceo wanted to meet me that. This was a Summer of 2020 and I was like you know what? I'm not I'm not available until next year yeah so I pushed that stuff off and at that point I didn't quite know you wanted to buy snicker but six months later when Twenty twenty 1 came around.
06:38.55 developershangout Was it.
06:50.80 Francois They reached out and I was like geez these guys not give up easy. Um, so we started the discussion. The four partners said you know what I don't we we don't want to sell so let's just throw a draw number out there that they'll probably just refuse and they said yeah sure, let's talk. So. We kind of were forced to seriously consider this and the long story short is that we validated a few things first we said are they serious about buying and by having discussions with them and other people we realized they were very serious sent thing for the price then um. Is there a technical fit like would we see a beautiful product roadmap a beautiful integration between our e-commerce product and their web building platform and surprisingly yes like the more we dug into the product the more we found like interesting avenues to explore and then last but not least was their culture fit. Duda is a bigger organization. They're around 200 to hundred and fifty people they have offices in the states in Brazil and israel so and they've been around since 2 2000 and nine I think so you know they've seen their share of like software or eating the world decades and whatnot. Um, but but we're a very small team and younger than them. So my goal was to say in no way am I going to sell snpguard to a company that makes it shit. To work at snipppard you know what? I mean like this was important for me I love I love the relationship I have with work with my job I didn't want to lose that I didn't want to lose that for employees so we pondered this you know we we looked at glassdoor reviews. We met some other people in a team. We asked people who knew them.
08:21.80 developershangout Who.
08:40.87 Francois And eventually we kind of figured out that you know these guys were cool. Ah, if for the fans of the big lebowski ah, their doda is kind of a node to the dude the the character played by Jeff bridges so for us at Nepcar we always say that.
08:50.46 developershangout Um, yep.
08:57.98 Francois We take our work seriously but ourselves not so much and there was a fit on that on that level. You know I do to and the thing that sealed the deal for us to be frank is the fact that they they really respected what we built at sn card and they were intent on letting us continue to grow it. Like with more resources more backing. It's just that as we hire a bit faster half of our team would be dedicated to building a a native custom ecommerce module inside of doda using our technology and talent. So like when are you add all of these things together. Even if you don't want to sell and you. You take a lot of pride in your independence. It becomes kind of too sweet of a deal to ignore and it's not just about you as a founder. It's also about the the team you know some people stuck around for years with us and we were offering. You know, decent wages but nothing extraordinary. Especially not in the crazy ecosystem of a job market that we have now so by with us do the acquisition we could bump everyone twenty five percent offer stock options slowly but surely upgrade the perks so that was like a net positive for the rest of my team too. So we we decided to go all in you know and it spent ah we spent we spent seven months negotiating back and forthing lawyers fiscalists accountants all that jazz due due diligence everything that that you ear about when.
10:18.79 developershangout Well.
10:30.78 Francois Hear about acquisitions. We we went through it you know and it was very very hard and there were some disagreements between the part. The founding team at Sni card. Um, there was a lot of stress personally on me I was like end theling the negotiations and and and everything. And you know the big the the more you the closer you get to that closing the deal and having the these life-changing events and amounts of money dropping on everyone. The bigger like the more important that kind of gain becomes and you're afraid to lose it so psychologically I struggled a lot but I was happypi I pushed through. Like first order of business when I announced it to the team people sung their contracts. Everything went well announced it our customers no like big backlash or whatever and first order of business. You know I went to my mom and I said all right? So now I'm taking care of the the house the car and the insurance you know so that was my first first thing and like I was very proud of myself for that. And yeah, yeah, I mean that's kind of a fast forward story. It's a long 1 so I've been rambling a bit if you have any you have any questions or input man jump in. Yeah.
11:38.65 developershangout Yeah, no, it sounds like you know with this hypergrowth in ecommerce through Covid which you know everyone was affected by covid 1 way or the other you were even in the you know net.
11:44.54 Francois Um, yeah.
11:53.65 developershangout In the job realm in the net positive or the net negative like you either lost your job or your job became more important than it was a year ago or in the space. For example, you know snp cart ecommerce really really did take off um because people didn't want to go to brick and mortar anymore or.
11:58.27 Francois Ah, ah.
12:08.80 Francois Or couldn't yeah.
12:10.63 developershangout They had to shut that. But yeah or they couldn't exactly um so that's that's awesome to hear that you know I knew you guys were bootstrapped and and when I heard the news that you guys had been acquired I was surprised because because that was it always been your attitude which was.
12:23.23 Francois Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
12:28.92 developershangout Like hey we're bootstrapped and like we're a cool group but also after doing some research of like who acquired you it. It almost felt like it made sense. It just So yeah, it it wasn't like oh it's just some random company that's bought them and now snp cart's going to go away and we'll never see them again.
12:34.81 Francois Yeah, thank you.
12:44.85 Francois Yeah, yeah, yeah.
12:47.60 developershangout It was the opposite. It was like oh they're cool. They're like a building site that you can like drop pieces in and it looks like you guys can still do what you do every day which is still be very indie which is like hey we're still a small team. We're still cranking out cool products and and.
12:55.53 Francois Oh yeah, Fairman yeah.
13:03.96 Francois Content. Yeah yeah, ah.
13:06.71 developershangout Yeah content everything all those kinds of things that you've been doing all this this whole time is not going away which to me is exciting. It allows you to still be that personality that you guys have been working on.
13:14.68 Francois Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and and thank you for saying that I mean that was 1 of my fears. You know after all these years of like expressing our our pride and our how we how we managed to get by with ah small resources and blah blah and going. Oh we sold it like ah.
13:34.38 developershangout Um, right.
13:34.41 Francois Damn am I going to look like a sellout like what are what are ah people going to think and you know that that was core to messaging when we announcedunce the acquisition where like sn card isn't going anywhere like the product the marketing the support. It's just going to keep growing and hopefully it all be so for a lot of years right? We'll see how things go.
13:49.75 developershangout Um, yep.
13:52.88 Francois But if I'm being harnessed with you every every ecommerce company that had this Covid Boom going on during the lockdowns and covid right now they have what I like to call the Covid Hangover which is like okay so there was lots of money injected in the economy people couldn't spend.
14:04.48 developershangout Okay.
14:13.11 Francois Physically in the real world so they spent a lot online e-commerce companies benefited blah blah blah now we're seeing inflation rear its ugly ed we're seeing delays and extra charges for shipping. We're seeing orders not being fulfilled. And I think just generally speaking. We're seeing a lot of uncertainty in the economy and less liquidity to invest in like ah ecommerce purchases and this has been like ah like honestly just a punch in the face for us when we realize that our our fall numbers. Things are okay, but usually when we get to fall and we near you know thanksgiving black friday holidays all that jazz like things just start to shoot up always like for for 8 years it's been like that and now it's not you know so it kind of forces you to whoa reevaluate your your. Your approach and so like I can't only ride on that macro trend that macro trend right now is against me so how can I how can I make sure I succeed and where we're who are hard at work at Snprir trying to trying to figure that out and the good news is that there's a there. There's a lot of backing behind us now right? so.
15:11.36 developershangout Right.
15:24.60 developershangout Right.
15:27.10 Francois We have not only like financial resources behind us but also Expertise like some often doing like working with the data Analyst and financial Analyst and and know product expert. You know they have they have vps for everything over there. So.
15:42.87 developershangout Right.
15:45.81 Francois So I can turn around and get that that kind of help and and learn how a bigger company like as matured which process they adopted which 1 do I want to take on or not and yeah, a big big learning experience. A big big challenge for snart these days but ah, but I welcome it. You know, um. It's It's part of the process of like solving these hard problems.
16:07.13 developershangout Yeah, absolutely so talking about you know, having these backings and now having this sort of people that you can turn to what what does the the roadmap for snp cart look like in the next you know. Year or 6 I don't know how far you're planning out right now but like what what What does the future of snp cart as a product and and what do you guys? got got in the works.
16:29.91 Francois Yeah, um, that's actually a great question. So the thing is when we pitched to do the our snp card core roadmap. We call it snp card core now like what we do with the initial business. 80 percent of the stuff in there was already like appreciated and supported by dodo meaning eventually they'd like to see these features live inside of their own platform so that was good. You know, no need to go? um. Need to go and turn around and tell your whole team listen all of these cool things we wanted to do well we're not going to do them anymore. So so that was the good news right? now we have what we call the Jewel roadmap 1 is really about integrating snp cart inside of doa. I won't go like into a lot of length about this 1 it's basically like creating like the the right apis for for 2 systems connect having a new kind of codebase where all of what snp cart affords can live inside that codebase. Yeah. But for sncart core we have a few things coming up so we did the new website recently we used the dato cms and nuxjes in the frontend but some of the more important items on the roadmap are the improvement of digital goods. Like we offer people the possibility possibility of selling digital goods. But it it was kind of limited so we're incrementally improving that feature. Um, we have ah the big big piece is ah easy post integration so by doing customer interviews and i. I tried to adopt the jobs to be done framework when doing customer interviews and I tried my head at that last year and we realized that once you're up and running with snp card and you have you you have success right? So a lot of sales. A lot of orders to be shipped then. That's kind of where snp card's job ends meaning that the amounts of features and needs you have when you're selling and shipping a lot of orders like physically like the labels the packages the freights. The.
18:38.36 developershangout Yep.
18:51.38 Francois Shipping fees choosing the best company endling returns endling updates tracking shipping you know all that this is a whole product in and of itself and being a a bootstrap company. We we logged an independent company. We decided to go This isn't the job our product.
18:57.83 developershangout Right? right.
19:08.27 Francois Let's find a product that ends this job very very well and integrate with it and we we landed on easy posts for now we might integrate with some other ones. So It's going to be interesting some of the features of easy posts will live inside of snow car's dashboard but some of them will live um of course on their on their end. And the goal is to better support merchants right? because we're developers at Heart. So We kind of have intuitions or at least proximity to a developer's Reality. We know the bugs We know the debugging. We know the and the customization challenges they'll they'll have so we can. We can really build for them. More easily merchants. However, the truth is. We're not merchants like we're not running E-commerce stores. So We have to stay closer to these people and customer interviews is is 1 way to do that to to do is do this while I'm struggling and yeah, so.
19:49.00 developershangout Right.
20:05.30 Francois That later part of the funnel of the customer journey where you're all set up. The integration is running smoothly and you're selling a lot of stuff we. We're going to improve on that especially through shipping fulfillment integration. We're we're boosting a car teaming also so this is something that comes up a lot sn cut is very very customizable. But our latest vtree like there are improvements to how we end those css that can make ah Frontend developers lives easier so we're working on that we have some new Gateways we want to support some things like. Apple paying google pay and stripe that we're still not supporting. Maybe I should call the like the pay by installments affirm I think or some yeah yeah, this and then we're going to like beef up subscriptions and make it available on other payment gateways than stripe.
20:48.17 developershangout Yeah, if um, yep, that's 1 of them. Yep.
21:00.52 Francois Because that's like a very powerful feature in snp card that is good for merchants and good for us because there's more revenue and regularity and income coming in. So um, yeah I mean this is just like a tip of the iceberg but some of the stuff we're going to be working on.
21:14.24 developershangout So it definitely sounds like you guys are are all in. We're gonna all in on improving the product because the the the product itself right now I you know I used it for a video recently and and you know I've talked to.
21:21.97 Francois Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah.
21:32.19 developershangout Me and colby faac. ah ah friends so we've talked a few times. Yeah, we're friends so I was talking to him about how how much of a joy this experience it is to just be able to drop a shopping cart into a product and be like and I'm done like there's no like big.
21:32.49 Francois Oh yeah, cool.
21:44.27 Francois Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
21:50.22 developershangout Heavy overload. It's very very simple and if you understand the core mechanics behind it it. It is very good for those you know, easy to build ecommerce sites regardless of tech like I use next year and it took me you know I think I think I sent him a message and it was like twenty minutes later I was done.
22:01.31 Francois And go.
22:08.46 Francois The.
22:09.97 developershangout And I was like this is so cool like I'm so glad that like this is what I decided to use for a video and and yeah you guys have you know I'm I'm glad to hear that that improving the product is there. Um.
22:15.45 Francois Nice. Oh yeah, for sure and and and something that people don't always kind of catch about snp cart in the beginning is that of course like it's a frontend shopping cart that can be dropped into any web app or website but it also comes with a like hosted web app.
22:38.86 developershangout Yep.
22:39.44 Francois Which is the dashboard The Merchant dashboard where you can manage orders shipping abandoned carts discounts taxes currencies. You know all the stuff you need to manage a fully blown ecommerce store already lives inside of our Merchant dashboard. So it's not just a like it's a full ecommerce solution.
22:55.60 developershangout Um, yeah.
22:57.86 Francois It's just that it's frontend implementation is very very lightweight.
23:00.27 developershangout Yeah, and and that's the the best part I think at least from a product standpoint that I've seen is that a lot of the other ecommerce merchants Even if it's they claim it to be fairly Simple. You feel like you have to build and build and build versus snp Cart. It was like drop the front end in and that part's done and hey by the way if you go to this dashboard here is everything and here's where it lives and you can just click around and everything worked really well. Um.
23:18.37 Francois Yes, yeah.
23:26.45 Francois Yeah, yeah I mean the the market is crazy these days like I've seen there's there are so many e-commerce solutions popping up and I when I was younger I used to be like scared shitless right? I'd see. Ah.
23:34.28 developershangout If yep.
23:43.79 Francois Back in the day it was the shopify's buy button came out which was kind of a add to any cart add to any site a a shopving cart and a checkout experience. We were like that's it. We're done. They're going to kill us. They're going to take away. But as I grew older I kind of realized that.
23:47.38 developershangout Yep.
24:02.27 Francois The Ecommerce Pi is just expanding right? like and if you if you look at like boring statistics of the percentage of total consumer purchase going from physical but ecommerce it just it's just going up right? So especially when you're independent and you're not trying to compete against.
24:05.92 developershangout Yep.
24:21.20 Francois Amazon or shopify all you need is a thin slice of that huge pie and like serve these people well have a product market shit with these people and and then you're good to go right? You can grow up so that's kind of what we we did at Snp Cart. And now what we're going to see like and can this keep working now that they are macro force is kind of more shaky and in in play. But yeah, fun stuff.
24:44.82 developershangout So you you talked about how you transition from being the an intern right? Thus that was your first role at sn car all the way to ceo like what was the so when you took on that from going from I guess operations to leadership like how how did you manage that like.
24:51.14 Francois Ah, hit it.
24:59.76 Francois Yeah, yeah.
25:04.34 developershangout What was I Imagine that's a very big change to go from like being a day to day guy doing day to day jobs into this like you've got to look at this huge picture of of sn cart in the future. Ah how how did that go and ah maybe you can talk about a little bit about that.
25:07.99 Francois Yeah.
25:13.87 Francois And said.
25:19.22 Francois The yeah I mean to this is this is a learning that is still in progress very much. So um, so being a very small startup in the beginning was mostly charles and me and then 3 2 or 3 other. People in the first five years. Let's say so your vision of growing the company is to say okay, what are the operational problems. We need to solve and let's solve them quick or let's experiment quickly put stuff out there ship code ship content you know marketing. See what works iterate on that and like like your your ally in the beginning is speed right? You can iterate very fast and you're very very close to your customers and you can do things that don't scale so in the beginning you kind of internalize that to grow or to solve Problems. You have to do stuff.
26:15.40 developershangout Right.
26:16.57 Francois Have to write a blog post get some backlinks ship a feature create an integration like you're very very focused on doing things and actually doing them like and not just listing them in a roadmap or something. So. This is embedded in your core when you're like 2 3 four 5 people so that's for so 5 or 6 years five let's say 5 years that's what I did and eventually I became like the lead marketing so I had people to manage. But I was still very much involved in the operations like I was doing a analytics I was doing reporting I was doing content I was doing pr the kinds of interviews I'm doing now. Ah in chess I'm doing now. So very very still in in the ups. But. When you get to ceo and you get to right now I think we're 13 people and we want to be 20 by the end internet next year so it's not huge numbers. But it's big enough for you to have to shift your mindset which is my reflex when there's a problem in the company.
27:20.46 developershangout Right? so.
27:30.97 Francois Is to go Well you what the hell I'm just gonna roll up my sleeve and then just you know Google some stuff on how to do this ping my network and say hey I got to do this ad thing or I got to do this tracking thing. How can I help me please and then get my hands dirty and try to fix it. But right now. This becomes counterproductive when I do that because this takes away from learning experiences or just opportunities to shine that that now belong to my team and not to me, you know so 1 of my good friends I was having lunch with him and I was saying.
28:01.13 developershangout Right.
28:08.88 Francois Traffic is going down I think I should get back into that like marketing game and like take four weeks to do and he was like no man your job isn't to to go and fix the problems your your job is to go and find the people find the good people motivate them give them goals. Give them incentives be around them. Find them great teammates and colleagues that they're inspired by and like you're building like a team Now you're not necessarily like building I Know Content Strategic What I used to do off Content. So This to me is still. Ah.
28:38.93 developershangout Right.
28:46.40 Francois Still a challenge and especially when it comes to marketing you know because it was my quote unquote baby and like I built ah the whole content an seo machine that that drove our growth so when I see it suffer I'm like ah shit I got I got to do something about it. But right now. Ah we we have 2 talented persons that have. Um, coaching over there and trying to put in the right direction. We got a bit of help from a consultant that I know that it's going to maybe help us move the needle organically. And yeah, so that's the bigger thing. That's the bigger thing and then taking the actual time to not do busy work. Because I like I'm a bit lazy so doing busy work is easy right? This is you open your inbox you open slack and you can do busy work all day like literally ten hours a day I could do busy work.
29:30.63 developershangout Yep.
29:37.76 Francois So replying to this supplier handssering a slack machine thing just helping out here and there but you're not achieving a lot of things and you're especially not thinking about the mid to longterm So that's something I also learned from George was my ah ah.
29:49.67 developershangout But.
29:55.44 Francois The founder of spectrum. The agency that we came from and who was my he was my my partner and him and vincent and charles. So we were four and then george and vincent existed when when we did the acquisition and but but george was always like 2 steps ahead like of like strategic Moves. So. If like something was going. Not so great with an employee he already had like 2 people in mind in his network that could maybe come in if there was like client needs coming up. He already knew who you would hire to serve this and so yeah, he was very like. Strategic in that sense and I try to do the same because you want to build you want to build with great people. But you also want to like inject a bit of redund density in your team where at 1 point if someone leaves it shouldn't impact the whole team right? You should either have processes or a big enough team in place that can support that. Or someone else that can fill in that role so trying to see in advanced a bit and the the last thing I'd say is a shift from ah looking at what works now to looking at what will work in 1 2 3 five ten years and that's that's that's harder for me because I haven't done as much. But I used to complain a lot when I was doing all the marketing that I never had time to to do big picture stuff and now I have it but it's like you have to you have to not do busy work. You have to plug away like research and think and this isn't the same kind of work. You know. but I but I love it I just have to do more.
31:30.79 developershangout Right? Yeah I can imagine that being a very hard for for anyone that's been in that but like I'm the same way right? like I I always want to solve a problem immediately like if something comes up. Yeah yeah, I'm like okay all right I'm in the code base. Let's figure out what's wrong and and you know I.
31:41.47 Francois With code hit.
31:50.25 developershangout Before the role I'm in now I was a manager and I managed a team of 3 um, which was five when I left but it was the same thing it would be like oh hey we have this problem I can't figure it out and instead of being um you know i.
31:52.20 Francois Okay, cool.
32:08.90 developershangout Get right in there in the codebase start typing away and let's fix it together I had to like learn how to step away from that slowly and be like you know what? here's a really good resource. Go and talk to that Guy. It's going to be a learning Experience. He'll be able to help you out and then you know come back and tell me what you've learned or you know. Tell me if you solve the problem or if you need more help guidance. Whatever and it was so hard for me. It took me months of like actively being like so here is somebody else that can help you even though I Really really want to be in there and helping you with the code like um, yeah so I imagine.
32:30.85 Francois Yeah, yeah.
32:41.59 Francois Yeah, yeah.
32:46.30 developershangout Even at a higher level than that going from management to like big big picture stuff and thinking about two years five years seven years from now like that must that must really be challenging for anyone.
32:55.58 Francois You know another another thing I think we could add to that is that when you hire people who are especially the junior people um like your point of reference shouldn't be how you would have done this when you were still doing this right. Because that you had a lot of experience had had fuckups in the past and new newest shit. But that new person I feel like in the beginning I was very irritated when like the the work or the the final output wasn't the way I would have done it or. Like as as tight as I would have loved to to see it and eventually I realized that there's a lot of there's actually a lot of value in letting people do ship something out that isn't perfect but isn't bret Brand damaging. Let's say and maybe it's ah 607080 percent done or great and. Just getting some stuff out there and letting them have actual to do actual work living in the wild that you can do give feedback on like this creates kind of learning momentum and I became more less. Less worried about the the degree like of quality or the because I know that like if you're investing in the person this will come you know and and and if I look back at the first blog post I was writing these were shit you know like ah like we we we had a low audience. So.
34:15.15 developershangout Um, yeah. Um, yep, hundred percent Thanks.
34:26.79 Francois Thank god for that because they didn't see the the wax stuff I was writing but like I did a lot of mistakes right? So I have and and I that's how I got good. So I have to allow this for especially for the junior people so that that helps me a bit with management to let go right. And and and the the delegating part for me has been has been kind of forced upon me because I still have residual like concussion symptoms I did a few concussions like four of them and sometimes my energy like I just can't spend more time on a computer for instance.
34:43.79 developershangout Yep.
34:59.16 developershangout That right.
35:01.76 Francois Or I'm low energy or something like that and I can't do the things like I literally can't do all the things sometimes just makes sense to rely on that that team that you're building and delegate and so um, yeah.
35:13.65 developershangout Yeah, so during the pandemic. Um it for me, you know things like mental health and personal fitness all went down the drain I think it did for everybody. Um.
35:27.61 Francois Yeah, yeah.
35:28.84 developershangout Because you know I can go to the gym that I go to down the street or whatever you know all those things kind of went away. Um you ah recently hired a personal trainer at some point.
35:39.23 Francois Yeah, so that was something I told my close friends and family if I nailed this acquisition deal I promised that I'm going to hire our personal trainer to invest some money into what really matters So what like health right? and so I did.
35:53.94 developershangout Yeah, so.
35:58.26 Francois And it was a nightmare in the first weeks I wanted to throw up and I was ah I had ah I had a lot of injuries from my wilder Past. Let's say and so I became very ah scared like I'm scared of like ah. Like ah spinning energy or pushing on something or like I'm always scared and but to like hurt myself or worsen my injuries but this dude like yeah he had had some similar injuries and he had a very like positive approach to that and like he knew went to push well went not to push and. So I think having that kind of people guiding that person guiding me was was very key for me and I saw it was art in the first weeks but now I'm seeing like honestly life changing effects on my mental health. Um the the amount of anxiety that has just gone away. And some like some obsessive like objects that I always focus on and then stress and then get anxious like some of them. You know I am able to think about them and just not not worry too much or none just stress and I mean apart from I became a vegetarian also at the same time. So this might develop who knows um. But yeah I mean that's the the most the biggest change and for my mental health like right now I go to the gym and I don't even think like oh I'm going to get some gains and like I have a bigger bigger muscle structure. Whatever I'm just like oh dude I'm going to be more healthy.
37:22.11 developershangout Right.
37:31.20 Francois But especially I'm going to be less anxious and that's very very important for me. Thank.
37:33.70 developershangout Yeah I'm I'm very much the same way. So I also go to the gm and and my thoughts aren't oh I'm gonna be huge I'm gonna be this huge dude that's like walking around um massive Mars all I'm thinking about is this gives me mental clarity.
37:43.20 Francois So yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's cool and.
37:49.54 developershangout I get ah an hour of the gym before I start my day and like I have this this this mental clarity and I almost feel calm and I lost all of that in in Covid times obviously because I couldn't go to the gym and there was you know you couldn't buy gym equipment anywhere.
38:04.71 Francois Yeah, for head right.
38:07.34 developershangout You you know you couldn't buy a single dumbbell anywhere or or a bike or a peloton or whatever like all of that had gone and and so yeah, it really did affect my my mental health and look and luckily gyms in my area where I live they've been open almost a year now
38:12.75 Francois Not right I believe you.
38:24.89 Francois Core nice.
38:26.97 developershangout So so I've been been able to go back and get into my regular routine but people that I think people don't realize how much good workout can really help mentally set from the physical part of it where you yeah you know Cardio Health whatever.
38:38.71 Francois That's crazy. Yeah yes, crazy.
38:44.10 developershangout But like the mental aspect of of working out really adds clarity to it to a day.
38:44.37 Francois Yeah, and you know like when I was a teenager and a kid I used to be a very like like sports driven guy did a lot of sports and was talented in that but I kind of lost it with adulthood then.
38:53.97 developershangout The phone.
39:02.36 Francois When I read stuff about mental health when I saw therapist and psychiatrrist everyone was saying oh this is very important. It has to be part of your life igiene and ridgiment and blah blah blah and even I when I was talking about mental health like I did some Ta Moya How you say that like some testimonials and some videos and.
39:17.92 developershangout If.
39:21.37 Francois I was saying oh this part like mental exercise and fitness is very important but I was you know taking it very seriously myself I wouldn't I would go on long walks I would do a hike here and there I would do a little but never like real physical effort and like that like. Changes the chemicals in your body and your mind and once I started doing it I was like Jesus I should have like listened to my own advice more yeah for sure. Yeah.
39:39.55 developershangout Yeah.
39:46.79 developershangout Yeah, shouldn't listen to it years ago, right? That's always the yeah for sure. Um, so outside of of you know the health stuff I guess a big part of ecommerce and and then things in general is maybe the thoughts on on sort of. Bitcoin web 3 crypto all that kind of stuff like are you you keen in that space are you ah you what what what's your thoughts on web 3 yeah.
40:05.48 Francois Ah, yeah, get there is so many things to say about this. But so when we were a bit younger soilian uni 1 of our friends. Kind of fell down the bitcoin rabbit hole that was years ago and he was kind of our local prophet. You know he he didn't he never kept his mouth shut about it. He kept going on about it told us to buy bitcoin buy bitcoin by Bitcoin explained us how the whitepaper worked out.
40:25.65 developershangout Um, even a.
40:42.40 Francois This would like the biggest things is the internet and what's funny is that dude had given us like a bad and investment advice when we were younger and we had lost I don't know maybe 80 bucks. But at that time it was very meaningful in our network. You know we're like f you dude, we're not going to buy your sketchy thing again.
40:48.29 developershangout Um, means. Right.
41:00.44 Francois And eventually it was so persistent that we kind of all did you know and that was back when bitcoin was like hundreds of dollars. You know? So what I told him is like can you promise me that this is going to help me clear my student loans or something and he was like yeah 1 hundred percent.
41:07.71 developershangout Um, right? yep.
41:20.20 Francois I said Okay, let's do it. You know and it eventually it did help me cure that but now I wish I didn't use it to clear that you know what I mean Um, and yeah I kind of got into bitcoin a lot now. It's so I'm softly involved. Let's say like I old and.
41:25.59 developershangout Um, right? yep.
41:39.60 Francois I Read about it here and there so listen to some podcasts I Really like the ethos of bitcoin and like there is so much Serendipity in bitcoin in how it was created by whom like someone unknown Entity Satoshi. And how that person or group disappeared and never moved their coins and like the mining and the distribution was very very fair in the beginning and it survived a decade more of. Social political technical attacks. You know some would say it's and and I fragile I Love It. You know I think I think it's freaking great and I think it's like the best hedge you can have against maybe more traditional systems like. Not necessarily collapsing but struggling and I'm also a big fan of its ah decentralization and like resistance to censorship and like you see you see like kind of not fairy tales but staple tales in the bitcoin.
42:30.97 developershangout Right? right.
42:47.67 Francois Evolution where take el salvador recently like the whole country that Bitcoin has a standard right? So that this is this isn't a perfect story and there's probably some some wax stuff also going on in Salvador I don't know everything but like it's such a powerful story to say oh a country which.
42:55.34 developershangout Yep.
43:06.19 Francois Like historically at a shit economy and a lot of corruption and blah blah blah now that country is like is running on bitcoin like that's like that's a powerful they think to say and it it can inspire a lot and you've seen countries with a lot of like deflated or it. Highly inflated. Sorry um currencies like ah venezuela zimbabwe and there was this other 1 that I always forget but like some people were able to like save some of their life savings by by going into this alternative economy that isn't like. Centralize and governmentment control. So yeah, it's a rabbit hole I think people should definitely just like at least start by reading the white paper is satoshi and try to understand why people are talking about this and the myth that oh it's just a financial asset and it's too late to get into it because the price is so high this is bullshit. Like ah bit bitcoin is a cap number of of course they're going to be mined and it's a deflationary currency. So like value is cargo up and utility to you see it with people say oh you can't like buy a coffee with the bitcoin know that's not true anymore. You got the lightning network and you can do it in a snap. So um.
44:15.18 developershangout Um, yeah.
44:21.30 Francois Beautiful technology and people should really get into it now that's kind of my bitcoin I'm not a I wouldn't call myself a maximalist of any sort but like my leanings and allegiances. Let's say are very much schwartz bitcom. However, um, um. Um, able to see that there is if not value enough hype and capital and excitement going on in webtree generally for for it and to result into something interesting. Like is it's a very bubblebbish situation. You have kind of nuts mechanics going on with the Nftds drop and then people reselling it and people becoming like part of ah, an ifft tribe with the you know? Ah, what's the. The ape thing and the the lion the laz li ends and the punks and like I think culturally, it's very very interesting to see and maybe nfd's like become the way we we kind of have ah status symbols in the future in 1 way or another whether it's.
45:16.86 developershangout Yep yep.
45:32.41 Francois Metaverse or just like our our profile pictures and some Twitter or whatever I think it's interesting I think it's ah it's too early to say like if this is going to be a life and world changing thing. But I think dismissing it entirely is maybe naive. And so I looked into it a little bit I'm not highly, especially involved in the nfd community. But I think it it has a lot of potential for for many use utility cases and not just ah, not just digital art which I think is like a legit use case in and of itself for what for for that matter.
46:05.50 developershangout Yeah, yeah.
46:09.77 Francois And yeah, other than that you have this whole these old other ecosystem. So yeah, ethereum that has a lot of things being built upon it and that has for better or worse like you know, survive the this't a decade I think but like a long time and yeah, and.
46:24.80 developershangout A long time. Yeah.
46:29.80 Francois Is they're going to be like a very serious utility that comes from that I don't know but they found ways to to generate developer interest and investor interest and just tons of coins living in tokens living on top of that so we'll see and yeah I kind of wonder how. How this thing is all going to play out but like why not just drop 1 hundred dollars or 2 hundred dollars into just just like give you a tiny tiny bit of st and if you can't afford to drop that don't do it like or drop twenty dollars right this is not investment advice but just like.
46:53.14 developershangout Right.
47:06.21 Francois Be curious about this this this thing we're technologists right? We build stuff online. We build stuff with technology like this deserves at least curiosity. So yeah, that's that's kind of how I feel about the whole thing you.
47:19.68 developershangout Yeah I Um I mean I'm in the same boat. So I own a small investment in in bitcoin. Um, because yeah I believe in this same vein as you that bitcoin will you know it's never too late to get into bitcoin whether you get in now at Sixty K or you got in out a hundred dollars.
47:26.10 Francois And.
47:37.51 Francois I yeah.
47:39.58 developershangout Like yeah if you got a hundred dollars. You're in a real good spot right now and you've hold this for a long time. Um, so yeah, I've always been kind of in that space. Um, just kind of dabbling here and there I think Nftts are I think there's some you.
47:42.74 Francois Yeah, yeah.
47:56.62 developershangout Utility use there. That's not being used right now like the digital art space is super cool and I think it allows people to to maybe understand a bit more behind what the crypto space is um and I own an nft I have 1 um and.
48:10.36 Francois Yeah, me too.
48:14.35 developershangout Yeah, exactly I own 1 single and nf and that'll probably be. You know the only 1 I ever own. Maybe we'll see um and I think you I think your you sort of vice there of like why not dabble, a small amount of money like if you've got a spare hundred dollars that you were thinking about investing in.
48:19.86 Francois Yeah.
48:32.50 developershangout Stocks and shares of tesla for example, like if you wanted to buy a partial stock. Um, why not invest in the crypto space instead. Um yeah, you're right with technologists. We build did people believe that react or vue or the Jamstack was going to make this big like.
48:34.64 Francois Is yeah.
48:49.16 Francois The yeah.
48:50.67 developershangout Force into web 2 point zero right? if you look when when I started out a decade ago nobody was talking about any of this technology like javascript was still seen as like this red headed step child of of of the internet and you could only use it very sparingly and like everything was built.
49:03.40 Francois Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
49:10.43 developershangout You know from the backend and you know.
49:11.10 Francois Um, yeah, no totally agree and I mean don't underestimate the power of of culture. Also right? like ah you you see it in the web tree space like whole tribes and languages and acronyms and and memes of of.
49:17.30 developershangout Um, bright. Yeah.
49:25.69 developershangout Um, yep.
49:30.58 Francois Very quickly evolved and they have significant influence right? They can ah these things like let's say like memes move markets today right? It's not just like a piece in the new york times that you read that's going to affect whatever is going on like people and memes and how it spreads.
49:38.60 developershangout Um, yeah.
49:49.47 Francois This all plays out so things could go faster than we thought and to go back to the Jamstack I Remember when Matt billman from netlify told me like oh yeah, we we've been working with ton press and warner and. We think like the modern static web is a bad name so we want to like coin something that's a bit more catchy. They'll help people rally rally and ah he said jamstack and I thought to myself. Wow, that's a shit name but like but yeah, you know so.
50:11.98 developershangout Um, yeah, right? yeah.
50:16.93 Francois But then again I was also always open to experimenting with content and like placing long bets and that's kind of what we did at snffard and to be like really honested. We dominated the serb for a bitd there like not anymore. But because but. But you know and when when we started creating content around Jamstack. The biggest search volume was around Jamstack the guitar amplifier that was still in the surp back then you know so he had like a shitty mixed serp on google results. Um, but yeah, like.
50:40.94 developershangout So.
50:49.87 Francois Many of our personal growth. Our careers. Our businesses were positively influenced by this new this new way of building. So so don't underestimate. Yeah, the the next thing I guess.
50:56.10 developershangout Um, yeah, so.
51:03.40 developershangout Yep, yeah, and I mean I owe a lot of my later you know career to to the Jamstack like I I put a long bet on next when next was still in yeah, a very good bet now it was in the infancy and like.
51:09.37 Francois Yep.
51:12.83 Francois Good bet.
51:19.94 developershangout Gatsby was still dominating the space like hard and next was like this thing that people and I was like I'm betting on this underdog I guarantee they will be the future and I built a lot of content on next before it really took off in like you know nine point 3 nine point.
51:20.59 Francois Yet it a.
51:37.76 developershangout To space of next. So I built before then so I've been reaping the rewards since then basically because I was like that's my long bet is that like next is going to be the next hot thing and I'm I'm glad that I put that bet on because here we are.
51:42.70 Francois And.
51:47.64 Francois Um, did you see did you see like that the the guy from Sveld wasisco what's rich rich harris that is now ah working with verel. Yeah, that's huge right.
51:55.84 developershangout Yes, rich. Yep yep, part the cell? Yep yeah, that's that's gonna be huge in the space and I I don't know how many people know how big that's going to be having the backing of like Grandma and ver sale.
52:05.45 Francois Um, yeah, yeah, yeah.
52:15.42 developershangout Behind sphal and having him as part of the team. It basically means that next and svel will be tightly coupled and you'll be able to build some really cool stuff. Um.
52:17.22 Francois Yeah, yeah, yeah.
52:23.47 Francois Yeah, yeah, that's gonna be insane. Yeah, um, yeah.
52:33.30 developershangout So we're basically coming to the end of the show but I want to cover your top picks that you wrote in the dock because the top picks are exciting. Ah because I'm a big I'm a big I'm a big video game fan I'm a big movie buff. Um.
52:36.46 Francois Yeah, oh yeah, yeah.
52:47.61 Francois Okay.
52:51.61 developershangout So let's start with your couple of picks that you have for video games which are super exciting for me at least.
52:54.48 Francois Yeah, okay, so yeah I picked ah I picked a that loop and then back for blood so that loop is this nuts ah like time loop. Like you kind of groundhog dating that you replay always the same day. But ah it has a road like road light vibe to it where some of the stuff you can't carry with you when the day restars and like it's it's. Insane the amount of new Details New Information. You kind of lore you get into every time you go through a whole day and the mechanics are just Crazy. It's ah arcane Studios I think it's the 1 The the people who made the dishonored 1 and 2 and like it really feels dishonored and there's even like.
53:37.29 developershangout Give him.
53:47.15 Francois Crazy theory that it is in the same universe. Not a crazy theory a good theory you can look it up on Youtube. So first person shooter I love it. It's sixty s teamed the music the calls the the design so the art direction is crazy I play this by myself mostly. And then yeah, back for blood is just this spiritual successor the left for dead a co-op zombie game that I used to play when I was younger with some friends and now it's it's a bit more sophisticated like there's a card system and whatnot. But. You know it's just good fun to plug a plugin with a friend and go through some missions and excursions and shoot zombies and talk. But it's it's actually kind of difficult or maybe I'm just like very new about it. But ah. Yeah, like you you cannot just mindlessly shoots on Bees. You kind of have to think about oh am I gonna throw this propane cane over there can over there. So yeah, back for blood of course very gory and violent. But I like I like the the multiplayer. So that's for yeah that's for a video games. Are you playing anything on your own. Oh nice, cool.
54:53.63 developershangout Um, I just started deaf loop which is yeah I I just picked it up ah like a couple of weeks ago and yeah, it's you're right? It's very much like Phil's very dishonest like you can be very sneaky and sneak around and it has that vibe to it.
55:09.83 Francois Yeah.
55:11.81 developershangout The color and the art. It's It's gorgeous and I've been really really enjoying the whole thing from the minute I started it I was like this game is going to hold my like you can just start a run whenever and like you can have a really like cool like you can just explore the world and look for tiny details.
55:21.49 Francois And yeah, it's cool.
55:27.86 Francois Yeah, ah a.
55:30.57 developershangout And the law the way that they lay out The law is so good like every time you go through the loop. You're like Ha I found something out new and then like that leads to another breadcrumb and yeah so I've been playing that a lot recently and I've been having a blast. So yeah I'm glad I'm glad it was on your list when I saw it I was like yes somebody else to talk to? um.
55:41.38 Francois Cool. Yeah, nice.
55:50.46 developershangout Yeah, and so the next topic you have for a movie is dune the movie I haven't seen it yet. But maybe give your and know thirty second review of of what you thought? Yeah, yeah, how you thought what you thought and and would you recommend.
55:52.52 Francois Oh yeah, yeah, okay, okay. Of 2 yeah, um, so ah, the director didn't even have is actually a quebecer right? if you look at any of his interviews you'll hear the strong tech quebec accent and I'm a big big fan like of his work. I think like the way creates set pieces where like ah the whole atmosphere environment kind of relies on very like specific colors and like that you can feel a scene is very. Potent like with with color and richness that I really like visually speaking I really liked it some I think some people criticize that it was too like mono chrome or monotone or something like that I didn't didn't even see that I loved it. So visually, it was a masterpiece and I'm a big science fiction fan. However, I had never read dune I kind of knew the premise I tried to watch the nineteen eighty s movie didn't kind of stick. So I I didn't know a lot about the story in and of itself and that. I rarely say that. But for me, it was a plus like I went into this movie with low regular expectations. Of course its that didn't even have movies or I had some expectations but I was blown away the actions great the way they construct the science fiction lore where there's this kind of. Not spoken about background where intelligent machines almost killed all of humanity so they banned them so there's kind of a low techch approach inside of dune where a lot of ah hint-to-hand fights and. Yeah, yeah, I really found it dope and the the score was was great too. So I think people should look into it.
57:53.31 developershangout Cool. Yeah, it's definitely. It's on my list to watch I just haven't had time I was on vacation last week I probably should have watched it then but um, yeah I also tried the same thing as you which is to watch the nineteen eighty s dune and I just it wasn't for me and um.
58:06.41 Francois Yeah I.
58:11.95 developershangout And yeah I never read the book I am a big book fan and I've never read the book and it is on my list of like old books to go back and read Um, but yeah I'm looking forward to to catching it and and seeing seeing what the hyper is about um, let's talk about robots and empire.
58:16.89 Francois Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, isaac asimov so um, um, my goal was to finish like to read all of the asm of like there's robots foundation empire I don't remember like all these series of asimov before looking watching the Amazon show.
58:29.56 developershangout Yes.
58:41.23 developershangout Um, yeah I think so yeah.
58:43.55 Francois Amazon the foundation show. Yeah so but I'm um I'm struggling to finish the Robot series I really like it. It's just like reading and not doing audio books is hard for me and this this last 1
58:58.34 developershangout Yep.
58:59.59 Francois Ah, robots and empire for the Robot series I couldn't find it on the audible or some audio version. So I had to buy the print and um I'm starting to read it and the way he develops plots that span decades centuries millenia. And it's in the same universe and it all ties back together like it's very cool. It's very very cool and it's kind of almost like a guilty pleasure of like thinking about the tree laws of robot robotics robotics and how it impacts the. Psyche of robots and what they do or don't don't do so I really I really like it I think it's ah it's interesting to see I'm I'm at a place where you know humans from earth have started colonizing utter. Other galaxies and systems and the the first the spacers the kind of the the early early humans who colonized it are kind of stuck in their ways and there might be a war looming. Um, and yeah I really like it.
59:58.19 developershangout Awesome. Yeah, it's out I haven't actually read that series I I know of the series And yeah I'm I'm the same way I haven't read them but they're definitely on I'm I'm a big like sci-fi that. That's my big thing like I grew up.
01:00:03.25 Francois Okay.
01:00:10.57 Francois Yeah, yeah.
01:00:13.20 developershangout Science My dad wrote read science fiction to me my whole like childhood and stuff. So yeah I'm I'm pretty lucky in that space and I think I'll have to add this to my list. This is why I love doing this podcast cause I find new things to read or watch um and then let's talk so you turn you said you turned vegetarian and you put a few vegan restaurants. So.
01:00:17.40 Francois That's cool. Yeah yeah.
01:00:29.18 Francois Yeah, oh yeah I I'm in quebec city but I'd say on a two thousand half away from Montreal and Montreal is a much more cosmopolitan place. You know there's much more diversity in all sorts of ways.
01:00:33.20 developershangout Where are you located just so people have an idea. Okay, right? yeah.
01:00:48.25 Francois And my my girlfriend is vegan so when we go to the restaurant we try to find vegan options and in montal is just next level compared to here so in in Montreal you have like the lola rosa which is crazy good. It's kind of a not high end but kind of fancy way to eat vegan. Bowhead pub if you want to do like nasty like junk food and like pub food but that is 1 hundred percent vegan. We were blown away by that and I went to the Green panther. They have a few restaurants I think in Montreal and like for a healthy lunch with some people was just great. So these 3 restaurants and in a manre. All I highly recommend.
01:01:29.20 developershangout Awesome! So we are at the end of the show. This is your time to plug anything you want. So what? what would you? if if if any listeners haven't checked out snp cart What? what would you tell them to just head to the website or.
01:01:32.79 Francois Yes, oh.
01:01:43.88 Francois Yeah, you can do snpar dot com and try to. There's a demo easy to access if you want to play with it if you want to learn more about the acquisition Story I wrote about it on my blog. So that's f Lainado dot com. Maybe we can links.
01:01:59.92 developershangout Yeah I'll put a link in the show notes for that 1 So that people can find it.
01:02:01.87 Francois Somewhere and and if you want to talk about product about marketing about startups about mental health. All that stuff you can dm me on Twitter I try to find some time to chat with people who have similar interests and challenges. And yeah I hope everyone's doing well keeping fit staying healthy. Oh I'm going to israel in like 2 days treelas. Yeah to see some folks that from do the so a nice trip coming up you listen james I hope things are good on your end. We haven't talked about tina maybe we can do this another time.
01:02:24.32 developershangout Nice.
01:02:31.79 developershangout Autumn.
01:02:35.34 developershangout Yeah, absolutely.
01:02:37.92 Francois But I hope things everything that are are good and I really appreciate you sharing some time with me here.
01:02:41.41 developershangout Yeah, me too I appreciate you coming out and yeah I had ah I had a blast The hour went past real quick. But thank you so much.
01:02:47.30 Francois Same yeah after real. Thanks man.
Check out Clerk: https://clerk.dev
Clerks Twitter: @ClerkDev
Colin's Twitter: @tweetsbycolin
---- Transcript ----
00:00.00 developershangout Welcome to developers hangouts podcast where today I have colin colin why don't you introduce yourself, tell people who you are and we'll start hanging out.
00:09.81 Colin Sidoti Sure. Yeah, thanks for having me um my name's Colin I'm the co-founder of clerk and clerk is basically a really easy way to add sign up sign in and user profile pages to your. New application.
00:28.28 developershangout So let's start with I'm quite familiar with clark I've been using clark on and off for for quite a while as you know and and we've collaborated on a few things and when how did you get? How did you guys decide to do clark. Because clerk is very different than any other authentication or authorization system out there. It's it's very simple. It executes well and it's easy. Easy easy to use essentially which is pretty much the opposite of any oruth product out there.
00:57.35 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you for the the kind words I think um, you know that was that was on purpose but um to to give you the high level so clark was started by my brother and I Braden. And um, you know we're both the kinds of people that kind of always had a side project. We're working on. Um and I think we just always hated the step of like oh now I need to add sign up and sign into this and like the user profile screen. Normally you wouldn't even do change Password you wouldn't do. And you kind of just cut corners and be like I I just need people to be able to get into my app somehow my app is really the exciting thing. Um, and you're you know you're always kind of embarrassed about it and I think you know just looking at tools like you know stripe checkout I was like why. Why isn't there something like that for a sign up sign in and manage my profile. Um, and so we really started with that premise um had no idea how we were going to do it I learned. A ton of things along the way about like what's actually easy for developers and um, you know what feels like it's too invasive for developers and I think that was really the line we struggled with the most early on um but. You know we had used all of like all zero ourselves. We'd use devise ourselves all the open source libraries and um I think the biggest thing that we really decided to take on ourselves that no 1 else has is session. Management. So. Lot of cases. Um, you know after someone signs in you get this token back from the authentication tool and they're just like okay yeah, like persist this token somehow and then you'll be able to authenticate future requests. And yeah, it's kind of on you to know like oh I should set that in a cookie or should I set it in local storage and what kind of cookie should it be am I introducing any cross-site scripting vulnerabilities and so on um and we decided you know what? like let's just set the cookie for them. Um, we know it should be a secure http only Cookie. We know the gold standard here. Let's just build the gold standard and I think what was really surprising was we did that for signup and sign-in and then we did the user profile page I think most people don't realize that like we're the only ones that really come with.
03:46.30 Colin Sidoti Ah, user profile screen out of the box and a lot of that is actually powered by session management like it would be much harder to do that if we didn't know who the signed in user was um and so it was really cool to see you know, just that simple decision of like I want to take. 3 more steps away from the developer. They shouldn't need to decide how to persist this ended up like unlocking whole product areas for us. Um, yeah I think that's that's kind of the the big highlights I mean we're also very front end focused. We. We very much believe that Frontend developers should be able to work uninhibited ah and they shouldn't need backend developers to integrate a developer tool and so for us, it's like you put a sign-in component on the page and you get a sign-in flow. But user profile component on the page. You get a user profile page. Um, and yeah, driving that developer experience was I think 1 of the great challenges and and also kind of the most fun challenges. We've had.
04:53.52 developershangout Yeah I mean I remember when you were like clerk zero dot whatever before before where we are today with like the v 2 stuff coming along and all that other stuff like I remember I can't even remember how I ended up even finding clark.
05:01.95 Colin Sidoti Um.
05:13.70 developershangout I think it was randomly you know I spent so much time making videos that I'm just like I'll check I'll check these guys out ah'll see how good their product is if it's good I'll make a video which is usually how I do pretty much anything and I remember using it and being like yeah this developer experience is what I've been looking for for the last decade like.
05:30.65 Colin Sidoti Yeah.
05:32.84 developershangout Finally somebody's figured out that nobody wants to do this and nobody wants to do seish management and nobody wants to make a user profile and nobody wants to do this and like yeah, it's very much just like here's a signing component here's a signup component use a profile boom done. Okay, cool I've done authentication now I can go back to actually doing the things I care about and producing a good product and like I just went through that when I built roll your tweet I didn't use clerk for it because you guys didn't have Twitter sign up flow yet and you still don't but when you do I'll just move over it. It won't won't be a big deal.
06:02.42 Colin Sidoti Yeah, have to line up.
06:09.16 developershangout Um, and I had to end up I ended up having to build the sign in flow the sign out flow and the user profile flow and I was like this is such pain like I'd been so spoiled using clerk on like every side project and all project that.
06:19.65 Colin Sidoti Yeah.
06:27.97 developershangout When it came to not using it I was like oh yeah I remember this now I remember the pain and suffering that I had dealt with for the last 10 years
06:29.69 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah. Um, yeah, First of all, really sorry that Twitter's not done yet. We will get to it see you and um, but yeah I think just delivering that moment of like oh wow it like it's it's done because is this.
06:39.33 developershangout Hey.
06:49.70 developershangout Um, right.
06:51.99 Colin Sidoti This is how I always hoped everything else would work and like for some reason it never like yeah that's exactly um, you know we shared the same frustrations trying to use other tools in the past and um I will say we did not think it would be as hard as it proved to be. Like we understand how the other tools ended up making the decisions they made um and like really a huge thanks goes out to our investors in just like letting us patiently find the answer um because i. Could not have imagined I know they could not have imagined that it would take quite so long to land on that on that dx um, but yeah, it was. It was many many months of. Pushing out new version testing developers and them hating it. Ah until we we ultimately found something that that resonated.
07:54.76 developershangout Yeah, and so talking about clark before we move on to more less work things. What what's coming up the pipe. What's next in the pipeline you guys just I know you're on v 2 v 2 stuff is coming or is cup is in Beta right now but like what what's the future. What's what's coming out that.
07:58.97 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah.
08:07.24 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah.
08:14.10 Colin Sidoti Yeah I mean so a lot of the rest of this year is really focused on um, improving the developer experience for user management even more and so we're missing some key features Ssr is 1 so ssr with react we don't have.
08:14.27 developershangout People should be looking out for.
08:30.33 developershangout Nothing.
08:33.53 Colin Sidoti Solved very well yet. Um, and then we also want to work with the new server components and that the tech there is is tied hand in hand pretty closely. Um.
08:39.21 developershangout So.
08:48.83 Colin Sidoti And kind of just like additional work on our our documentation I think there are still places where we see people coming through the onboarding funnel and and getting snagged that we want to fix customization is I say the last big thing this year that we want to improve a lot of people do drop the kind. Component on their page and they want to do more design stuff to it than we currently make easy. Um, that's this year and there's not really much left right? Just 2 months. Um, 2022 is all about this shift.
09:17.41 developershangout Yeah, just 2 months no pressure.
09:27.25 Colin Sidoti Into I call it customer management and so right now we do user management but some applications have organizations as their customers and that future set kind of shares a lot of the same qualities as user management where. Developers get to the problem and they're just like why Why isn't this a tool yet and so all of like create an organization invite people to my organization and set different roles and permissions for people. Um. And then ultimately like ah getting into the authorization side of things even more with letting the organization or the user um purchase like subscription plans and exposing to the developer really easily which subscription plan is this user on so you can. More easily gate. Um, you know which features someone has access to where yeah equally excited for the the dx of our of our gate component I Think that's what it's going to be.. It's just going to be gate.
10:24.62 developershangout Man I'm I'm excited for that feature bring me that feature.
10:37.66 developershangout Awesome.
10:40.91 Colin Sidoti And then there's a permission prop and if the user has that permission it renders if not it doesn't um.
10:45.15 developershangout Awesome! Yeah I look forward to that feature because the amount of permissioning I wrote for the strike like I have subscription on Royal tweet that allows you to do certain things if you pay and there's a free tier and the amount of permissioning I wrote that has like. Dependent components depends on what you can see was an absolute pain. It was like the worst part of the whole experience I think.
11:05.59 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah, yeah, and I think authorization is such a hot space right now in venture too and it surprises me how few are really tackling it from like the frontend developer perspective.
11:13.67 developershangout Moving.
11:22.20 developershangout Yeah.
11:25.54 Colin Sidoti Um, we do everything in reverse right? Like we we start with what should the react component be named and and build up from there. Um, and yeah I think like if if you've been tracking it all like the zanzibar paper out of Google. It's just like so.
11:30.54 developershangout Right.
11:44.20 Colin Sidoti Divorced I feel like from the things that most developers are are really focused on and so trying to bring some sanity to to that side of the problem as well.
11:52.28 developershangout Awesome! Yeah I look forward to I look forward to 202043 was a good year for you guys? Yeah, you guys had a good good year and I've always been really impressed with with you and Brandon like you've always been super friendly to me and vice versa like we've always chatted and.
11:57.94 Colin Sidoti I Know yeah.
12:11.92 developershangout And and you know bounced ideas off each other etc. Um, so talking outside of clerk when you have you know the spare few hours that you do I'm sure at this point. Um, but what kind of things Do do you like to do in your in your spare time.
12:29.35 Colin Sidoti Yeah, so I'm actually a rowing coach. Um for mit which is maybe surprising I coach the novices. Um, that's kind of my.
12:29.37 developershangout Ah, Jevany hobbies.
12:35.44 developershangout Wow.
12:44.70 Colin Sidoti My break from work in the middle of the day. It adds some structure to my day from 5 to 7 I'm I'm out on the river teaching a few kids how to row boats and um, you know that's that's I think very rewarding great for like mental health. Um. But then not on my own I I like running as well. Um.
13:05.84 developershangout So how how do you get? so before we move on to running because I'm also quite a fan of the run. Um, ah how do you become a rowing coach not just specifically a rowan coach but Roan coach for the novices at mit like how did that happen that's kind of interesting.
13:11.20 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah.
13:17.89 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah, no, it's very silly. Um I as is so I went to mit so that probably helps a little bit. Um and as a senior I had.
13:28.27 developershangout Present.
13:37.11 Colin Sidoti Finished up most of my coursework and I was like I want to try something new. Um, and the rowing team accepted walk ons and so I walked on senior year. Um, and I just loved it like I had a ton of fun. Um, it's it's. I think it's surprising how approachable the sport is like once you can find your way into a boat. Um, like you really can learn it and and take it up pretty easily. But anyway I like to so much that and. Ah, the year after I was still in Boston and um, they let me come on as a novice coach and it's funny like I still can't really teach for I coach the top boats because I was I was on I only have a road for 1 year like there's a lot that I still don't know about the sport.
14:27.48 developershangout Um.
14:34.60 Colin Sidoti Um, but I really like the um you know every year a new set of um students come in and every year I get a little bit better at at coaching them into getting the boat moving. Um. And I like that cyclic pattern I think you don't have that in startups at all right. It's very much like you know up and to the right every year is a different year um and it's nice to have that other side of things. It's just like oh I can get better at this same task 1 by 1 um.
14:56.24 developershangout Um, right? yep.
15:11.89 Colin Sidoti Yeah, that's the short story I guess.
15:12.13 developershangout Awesome! Yeah, you're very that that comment's very true that when when you work in startups and I've worked in a few is that yeah, it's always up and to the right right? that that's it. There's no like going back to the beginning. Um, and yeah I imagine that's quite nice to just.
15:24.89 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah.
15:31.51 developershangout Have that consistent every year on year I get to do the same thing that I did last year but we're just new people and those people want to learn how to move a boat down a river I assume um, so yeah, so cool. So running is that something you do just.
15:36.58 Colin Sidoti Yeah. Yeah.
15:51.22 developershangout Like randomly throughout the week do you train in particular plans like what? how do you? How do you decide? What? what your runs are going to look like.
15:57.55 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah, I'm pretty random. Um everything is more cardio based I think that's also kind of stemming out of my rowing experience. Um I like a. You know a normal run for me is like a 3 mile run around the river in Boston. So if you're at all familiar I guess 3 miles is like the short 1 the normal 1 might be the the 5 mile run. So it's the be you bridge to the longfellow bridge and it's great.
16:17.80 developershangout M.
16:30.90 Colin Sidoti We have lots of bridges and so I can kind of just add a bridge and I a little more distance. Um I Yeah, that's what I do normally I've dabbled a little like I've done a try before I'm really bad at biking.
16:31.74 developershangout Right.
16:49.68 Colin Sidoti Turns out I'm better at swimming than biking which like the only thing I did going into that try was running Um, way better at swimming than biking I'm afraid of going fast apparently on a bike.
17:00.29 developershangout Okay, yeah I could see that like once you get to a certain speed on the bike. It's scary. You've got no print no protection. No, you just got a helmet on and that's it really and if you come off that way. It's gonna hurt a lot. Um.
17:05.64 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah, yeah, yeah I think everyone else is like they get to the apex of the Hill and they're just like oh let's open it up and sprint down and I just want to like sit up. And like take it in a little bit. Ah you know ride the brakes a little bit on the way down. That's that's not the mentality of the of the race by here.
17:25.96 developershangout Yep! nope.
17:33.50 developershangout Apparently not so it sounds like I wouldn't be good at race by the race biking either. Um I have 1 of those like sort of like a peloton but just a different brand. It's cheaper does the same job and yeah, yeah, even on those things like.
17:38.48 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah, but.
17:45.70 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah.
17:51.37 developershangout I see people doing like you know 5 mile hour faster than I am and I'm like I would be scared to tip the bike over because it's stationary and there's no, there's no real like so if I'm going hard I'm going to tip this thing over.
17:57.89 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah.
18:05.73 developershangout So yeah I don't go much more than like eighteen mile an hour and that's too fast for me. Um, it's very sporadic. Um I use it as like a mental clarity thing. So I power I power lift which is my real passion. Um.
18:08.25 Colin Sidoti Um, what's your running regimen.
18:20.70 Colin Sidoti Um.
18:23.39 developershangout And then I do cardio 3 times a week and it will either be bike or running. Um, so where I live is exactly if I run the exact loop. It's 1 1 mile so I'll do anywhere between 2 five loops and it's like hilly and it's kind of different terrain.
18:33.82 Colin Sidoti New.
18:40.45 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah, yeah.
18:42.26 developershangout So it's like a nice workout and I use that for mental clarity more than anything so apart from that I don't do any racing or anything like that I just use it to to clear my head and think about what I want to do next.
18:51.94 Colin Sidoti Yeah I definitely same mindset. It's not so much about the pace. It's just about getting outside and doing it and clearing my head a bit.
19:02.30 developershangout Yeah, because ah you know you know as you know I answered Dms at random times of the day and and messages. So yeah, it's sometimes it's very hard to to have mental clarity when when you basically wake up on and go to bed on. Um.
19:08.87 Colin Sidoti Yes.
19:18.10 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah.
19:21.20 developershangout So I try and use that time I'll switch my phone to you know do not disturb I put my headphones on and I just let it go Um, which is worked really well for me and I've done it done it for numerous years and I still going So guess it still works. So.
19:35.50 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah.
19:40.58 developershangout Outside of exercising which is a common theme. Um is there anything that you do to to sort of unwind because being in a startup is it's basically go from the minute you wake up to the minute you go to bed for the most people and especially being a founder and and.
19:41.33 Colin Sidoti Um, and.
20:00.27 developershangout And in that space. Um, how do how do you switch off like at nighttime like how do you turn away from from stuff.
20:01.29 Colin Sidoti Yeah.
20:07.37 Colin Sidoti Yeah I mean so this is gonna be a bad answer because of course I've I turned it into work a little bit. Um, but so we just started this like dinners with builders thing at clerk it I think.
20:19.20 developershangout Um I saw the I saw the Twitter picture.
20:24.21 Colin Sidoti Yeah, and that's really um I think me taking what I do and and ah you know, just inviting more people to it. But yeah I have like this network of like founder friends that. Just go out and grab a drink with and chat whatever um I think that helps a lot just just talking with other people and shared experiences and um, yeah, it's it's so funny with startups because. As much as it is up and to the right. It's also like a very day by day or at least week by week thing or some weeks they're just like what how did everything go wrong this week and other weeks are like wow that went way better than I could have imagined um and kind of experiencing that roller coast here with.
21:03.80 developershangout Okay, so.
21:18.38 Colin Sidoti Some other people is really nice. Um, besides that I'd say ah Netflix and I would say I'm a proud subscriber to like Netflix and hbo and and all of them. Um, but really I have other people's logins. I can't get correct that. Ah.
21:40.80 developershangout Netflix If you're listening. You didn't hear any of that because we all know you get upset when you don't get another fifteen dollars out people. But yes.
21:46.63 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah, um, yeah, there's a lot of good a lot of good media out there I Really enjoy watching um like comedians in cars getting coffee. Um, what was the.
22:00.56 developershangout Listen.
22:05.82 Colin Sidoti Right? So to me, there's this trend between comedians and cars getting coffee like free solo the Alex Honold Climbing Yosem movie. Um a show like top Chef. Um, there's a bunch of shows out there. That's really just about like. People at the top of their craft like thinking about their craft rather than just like the craft itself. Um, and I really enjoy like the insight into.
22:30.97 developershangout Yep.
22:40.30 Colin Sidoti You know what they're doing in their day-to-day rather than just like you know Jerry Seinfeld doing standup. We've all seen but like him talking to other comedians and just seeing how you know he can't help it. He's just always on right? He's always.
22:55.86 developershangout Um, yep.
22:59.30 Colin Sidoti In his conversations in that Show. He's always trying to think of the joke um to make and it's just so fun to Watch. Um and I think ah yeah I think of Alex Homel like the same way in that movie. Um, where. Like it really doesn't feel dissimilar to founders to me watching Alex Honold doing Freesol. It's just like this irrational pursuit of something. Um, that brings you joy for whatever reason and. Um, yeah I I Love that kind of media.
23:38.14 developershangout Yeah, we're we're in the same boat. That's almost all of my favorite style of media is that media that looks at people in craft but from a different angle. So yeah, like top Chef or um, there's this. Ah.
23:49.66 Colin Sidoti Yeah.
23:57.35 developershangout Ugly delicious. Have you seen that show? Yes, yes, yeah, or chef where Jon favreau comes in and talks about the show while also doing things like talking to other chefs like that kind of stuff to me is is so interesting I could just watch it all day in some nature.
23:57.47 Colin Sidoti Um, yes, David chang yeah, it's fantastic.
24:05.64 Colin Sidoti Um, have.
24:16.61 developershangout Even like old Anthony Bourdain like his travel show where he just goes to random countries and talks to you know random street food vendors or chefs or whoever and it's just like this in in and you're very right. It's very similar to founders Builders sas.
24:18.60 Colin Sidoti Now.
24:36.70 developershangout Like providers or startups. It's very similar in that nature where it's people at the top of their game talking about similar things but from a different angle And yeah I consume that media quite quite frequently. Um, my.
24:44.47 Colin Sidoti Yeah. Very excited for me. There's a beatles documentary coming out which seems like it's going to be surreal because it's just it's just like they have this footage from 70 or 50 years ago whatever it is and.
24:53.92 developershangout Yes.
25:07.19 Colin Sidoti Yeah I I feel like it's going to bring it's going to like turn the Seventy s into the Instagram era a little bit but we just see like firsts. All was it any different I kind of suspect it like wasn't actually all that different. We just didn't have cameras back then but I don't know I'm really excited to see what it's like.
25:12.26 developershangout Yep yep.
25:19.10 developershangout Yeah, yeah, as a kid that grew up on ah beatles tv like on their movies because they did all those movies and I had a really good friend who was obsessed with like all I grew up I was born in the eighty s like late eighty s.
25:26.85 Colin Sidoti Um.
25:36.68 Colin Sidoti Um.
25:38.53 developershangout Grew up in the ninety s and my friend was obsessed with the like old rock at the time so like the stones beatles all those kinds of things. So I've seen almost every beatles movie that they ever did because he was obsessed and I go to his house and he'd be like oh you haven't seen this 1 yet and he put the vhs in.
25:48.79 Colin Sidoti Um.
25:58.46 developershangout And I'd sit there and watch it and it was just you know they are talent. That's just an easy way to describe them is it doesn't matter what error will be. It could be a hundred years from today and they'd still be talent and I I really love that that so talking about music.
26:02.85 Colin Sidoti Yeah, yeah, yeah.
26:11.15 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah. Um, yeah.
26:18.27 developershangout What what? what is your take on music. What what should do you have particularly genres or are you a free flowing kind of guy like what what is your music take.
26:28.16 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah I have maybe a less exciting take than most um now I went to a high school where there was a very big like band. Um, ah, not like. Band like high school band but like a lot of my friends were in like 4 part bands and we had a band night or like band competitions and um so I grew up with just a lot of my friends being involved in that I actually wasn't involved in it. But what's odd is that a lot of my.
26:52.88 developershangout Yep.
27:06.50 Colin Sidoti Music consumption in adulthood is like going to smaller shows like not really big artists as much. Um, just like I think I just enjoy that setting a little more um on the bigger side. So I do like the beatles I also like I love blink when eighty 2 like if if that's my 2 spotify starting points. It's like Beatles in Fliqui eighty two which is very ah Ninety s kid of me I guess.
27:35.61 developershangout Yeah, yeah, right? I guess yeah, pretty much because that's fairly similar to both mine and my wife's like listening like I'll listen to anything but I have very specific like my my dad was into heavy metal because he grew up in like the Seventy s and the 80 s so. Like I grew up with iron maiden and and black sabbath being played at full volume in my house on big speakers. That's what I remember as a kid. Um and then like that that sort of grew into me liking. Um.
27:56.91 Colin Sidoti Um. Um, yeah, that's awesome.
28:10.72 developershangout You know eric clapton and and and and cream and then moving on to blink 1 8 2 and and papa roach and you know all those all those kind of Ninety s bands and then you know Nirvana being being still up there and all that kind of stuff.
28:17.50 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah.
28:26.71 developershangout And now like yeah, that's basically my my playlists are some sort of rock music or indie music played. Um when I listen to them because I spend most my time consuming podcasts. So I don't listen to that much music anymore. So I consume more podcasts than music these days.
28:36.85 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah, yeah.
28:45.22 Colin Sidoti Fair enough.
28:46.57 developershangout Ah I think I'm a that weird person I because I listen to podcast literally from the minute I start work till I stop unless I'm doing this or or streaming or or you know making videos.
28:56.99 Colin Sidoti Yeah I don't think that's that weird I feel more like the weird 1 in that I ah, first of all I have just a ton of friends that are constantly listening to podcasts. So I I don't think that's um, super odd anymore I think it's yeah, it's just.
29:07.17 developershangout M.
29:16.68 Colin Sidoti More enriching content. So does yeah.
29:19.60 developershangout Right? Yeah, it's but I find it's like listening to short audio books about very specific topics each week. Oh I like to listen to like stuff that's not tech. Um, so that I can enrich the other side of my life.
29:28.30 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah.
29:36.50 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah.
29:38.66 developershangout Um, first versus like you know, listening to more tech and consuming more tech I I do that enough I think we all do that enough I don't think I need any more in my life. That's for sure. Um, so this is kind of the end of the show stuff. So.
29:44.46 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah.
29:55.55 developershangout Tell me about something that you've done recently. Maybe you've gone to a restaurant that you really like in Boston or maybe you've cooked something at home. Um, yeah, anything that you've done recently slash eaton that that's worthy.
30:08.93 Colin Sidoti Um, anything I've done or eaten recently. Um, oh man I I'm gonna be so sad because I'm not gonna be able to come up with anything. Good and then after this,, we're gonna come up with something great. Ah,, let's see done Recently. You know I during the pandemic.
30:44.67 developershangout Yep.
30:44.86 Colin Sidoti Um, my friends in Boston and I have been playing volleyball pretty regularly. Um I think there was like 1 person with experience and she brought a volleyball net and.
30:51.80 developershangout Okay.
31:04.46 Colin Sidoti We just go to the park. Um, there was a while like probably a 3 four month stretch where it was like every weekend. Ah, it's getting cold now. So it's it's slowing down but it was so like I had a rewarding fun like it was just like.
31:09.40 developershangout Um, yep.
31:23.75 Colin Sidoti We're trying something new. Um, you know there was like a day drinking component to it which was fun. Um, just like every Saturday 1 o'clock show up to the field and just like play some volleyball. Um, and you get better. We. We don't play with like the net rule. You canness was burnnet. Um I think a lot of sports have like rules are like more fun to play without to some extent ah except for offsides and soccer like I hate people that play without the offsizes rule like.
31:42.80 developershangout E.
31:50.91 developershangout Yeah I agree with that I'd agree with that.
31:58.23 developershangout Yeah, yeah, that defeats the whole purpose of of that. Um.
32:00.26 Colin Sidoti Like ah yeah, ah, but the net rule of viball is it's quite fun to play without Um, and yeah, that's something I've done that was unexpected. Um and just. It's just been a lot of fun really just added some joy to the pandemic I Honestly still haven't like gotten back into eating indoors I Actually love that more places have takeout now and that it.
32:28.88 developershangout Me the. Me too.
32:38.11 Colin Sidoti We've really normalized takeout more which is just fantastic. Um, because I I don't want to wait in line ever and I also don't like yeah you go to restaurant I was like oh it's an hour and a half wait for brunch like I'll just I'll just do takeout that just seems.
32:43.77 developershangout Yeah I mean.
32:50.58 developershangout Right.
32:53.53 Colin Sidoti Like the clear winning option here. Um yeah I don't know that's that's what I came up with hopefully that's interesting.
32:59.91 developershangout Oh it's there I mean it's definitely interesting I think you know you're probably the second or third person I've had on that said that like during the pandemic friends and I have done x to every week since then. You know and I know that Boston gets really cold because obviously I lived in Connecticut for a while. So I I understand there now it's like November it start to cool down but that's super cool that like you could find something to do during the pandemic which you could still do you know like you could still do safely outside.
33:19.52 Colin Sidoti Um.
33:27.67 Colin Sidoti Yeah, yeah, yeah.
33:36.69 developershangout You could still see your friends. You could still disconnect from you know, being on because once the pandemic hit everybody was working all the time because they had nothing better to do and that it's just good to find something that you can tear away from just for a few hours
33:46.27 Colin Sidoti Um, yeah.
33:51.62 Colin Sidoti Um, and that was the biggest thing too because yeah, right when it hit I was just yeah, it was just work every day it was like well what else can I do and the first time I went out for volleyball I was like well this just this is this.
33:59.84 developershangout M.
34:10.17 Colin Sidoti Just changed my life like this is so much better like I needed this a lot what I was doing was not sustainable. Um, so makes sense hope.
34:10.27 developershangout Right? yeah.
34:17.71 developershangout Awesome! So we've so we're basically at the end of the show now. Um I First of all I appreciate you coming on last minute. It was very last minute. You just showed up and here we are um this is your time ah feel free to plug whatever you want. Ah, tell people what they should be doing checking out is their Twitter accounts. They should be following youtube channels all that kind of stuff.
34:44.48 Colin Sidoti Yeah, um, so I guess on the clerk side so work clerk dev on Twitter and I am tweets by colin I think if you want like ah you know company updates the the clerk dev.
35:00.73 developershangout Listen.
35:03.40 Colin Sidoti But there is where to go. You should also just try clerk. Um, we're updating it all the time to make it even better and um, we have Discord I would love to have you there and and help get you going? Um, on. Tweets by colin side I think that's where like that's where I post things that I am like not ready to make the company. Ah the the primary speaker of yet. Um, yeah I think there's maybe more.
35:33.44 developershangout Ah, yep.
35:41.31 Colin Sidoti Like more thoughts about like where I think tech is is going and so there's a lot of like musings about you know like I believe the frontend developer is ah well basically the backend developer is like slowly disappearing and that tools should start targeting the frontend developer. Um, because yeah, like making that role more ah more productive. Um is just going to make it easier and easier to build applications. Um. Yeah, so like things like that and kind of why I believe that come out a lot on on my personal Twitter um, and yeah in terms of other things to plug start a company um or come work for clerk I I think.
36:34.60 developershangout Um, gate.
36:37.00 Colin Sidoti Working at startups is is just incredibly rewarding my advice I think there's a lot of advice out there and like which 1 to join and there are certainly things you can do to like optimize financial output or financial gain. Um, but I think the easiest thing to do is just pick 1 that that you believe in and I enjoy that that's going to be for me. It's always been the most rewarding um and. Yeah I Very much very much want more builders out there. Um, so strong Advocate. Do it use cles to do it. But ah yeah, just get out there.
37:21.75 developershangout Yeah I.
37:27.88 developershangout Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, ah you guys are hiring a Dev Rail right? is that the only where we that's the only role you have now. Ah currently or do you have anything else.
37:32.67 Colin Sidoti Yes I say devro frontend engineers are constantly in demand. Um, and then realistically when twenty twenty 2 hits you're going to see a bigger.
37:44.51 developershangout Nothing.
37:52.83 Colin Sidoti Hiring push as we expand into the organization side of things. Um, but yeah front end and devre are very hard to hire and if if you're in that role. Um, or think you can do it even.
37:55.80 developershangout Cool.
38:12.19 Colin Sidoti Happy to happy to work with you and try to make something work.
38:15.98 developershangout Cool. Awesome! Oh well I appreciate you coming on and hanging out with me. Um I will make sure to drop some show notes with clerk's main page their Twitter account calling Twitter account. Um. And some other stuff that I think are is important such as videos that will show off what clark can do um, but yeah I really appreciate you coming on and we'll see you guys next week for another episode.
38:43.95 Colin Sidoti Um, awesome. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me.
38:47.42 developershangout No problem.
Ways to see Kevin in action
YouTube Channel : https://www.youtube.com/c/kevinpowell
Scrimba Course (Free) : https://scrimba.com/learn/spacetravel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KevinJPowell
-- AI Transcript --
00:00.00 developershangout Welcome to developers hangouts podcast today I am joined by Kevin powell kevin why don't you introduce yourself tell poopoo who you are and we'll start hanging out.
00:09.85 Kevin Yeah, thanks for having me so as you said my name's Kevin powell and I'm these days primarily a youtuber of all things and with sort of my my mission I guess is to help people fall in love with css which I primarily do over on my youtube channel and. Occasional blog posts and courses and other stuff too.
00:31.17 developershangout Yes, so I think we I already knew who you were before I joined the the youtube but discord that we're all in for developers I already knew who you were through your css tutorials. Um I remember I think it was probably like flex or. Some some variant of some sort of layout thing I was struggling with as everybody does um, can you tell me how you got in to because I know that you like sort of transition to this css tutorials like how did you end up 1 picking css as your like Niche. Um, and to how it's kept you going for this amount of time.
01:12.52 Kevin Yeah, so um, I started I'm I'm terrible at remembering timelines or exact timelines. Um, so at 1 point I was hired to be a teacher at the school I actually had gone to previously which was mostly a design school. Um. And they hired me there and then pretty much as I got hired the currlu at the school got changed for the program and they added to web classes and all it was like all these old school print teachers basically with a few people that had touch. You know they'd done like table base layouts and there was me and 1 other new teacher. Both had web experience and so we were quickly given the web classes and um it was 1 thing to know how to make a website and it's a very different thing to teach it and so I quickly learned that I knew a lot less than I thought I did. Um, and started at the time watching a lot of other channels and courses and doing other things less so to understand what was happening but just to see how people were teaching it and 1 of the channels at the time that I found was ah web devs web said wrong channel was dev tips with Travis and. I absolutely loved his channel for me. It was you know it was my way of sort of staying relevant because at 1 point it went past I was teaching like intro to html and css so it was really the basics and.
02:33.40 developershangout Right.
02:37.14 Kevin Since I wasn't working I was doing some freelance stuff on the side but I was doing a lot less actual coding so that was a fun way for me to sort of keep up keep up to date on that side of things a little bit too and it was I Really like what Travis did with the channel and then when he stopped the Channel I sort of was just fell back into the world of teaching. Intro to html and Css over and over and over again and was getting a little bit bored with it and decided to start making my own tutorials. Um I'd known for a while I wanted to make a Youtube Channel or had the idea to do it. It was always just more of as a Hobby project. So at 1 point.
02:59.41 developershangout Yep.
03:12.18 developershangout Yep.
03:12.98 Kevin Because all the work I was doing freelance at the time was with wordpress I actually recorded like 10 videos and edited them and uploaded them and never published them on wordpress content and I'm really happy I Never did.
03:22.16 developershangout Nice.
03:27.40 Kevin And it was probably about six months after that I decided instead of doing that to focus on just sort of html css with primarily turned into css from there and it was just because that's what I have always enjoyed and because it was a hobby project I just wanted to focus on that side of things instead of. You know it. It was just for me to sort of keep up-to-d date learn new things make sure that I see all the new things that are coming out and it sort of reinforced things that I was teaching in the class too. So that's sort of a a very long-winded answer to how I got started with it.
03:56.00 developershangout I Mean yeah, it's It's awesome to see people basically start their Youtube Channel as a way of either keeping up to date with a certain tech or stack of some nature or because they've had the itch to teach and you basically did both.
04:13.49 Kevin Yeah.
04:15.52 developershangout Which was you already had this teaching going on but you wanted to be better at being a teacher and you also had this thought of doing youtube as a hobby which has now turned into this huge thing that you do and and it's very successful. Um, and and people look at you and you know you've had to write. And do videos on how you're not the king of css because it's been thrown around a lot. Um, and yeah I'm glad I'm glad that that the success is and the enjoyment is still there because that's always the concern right? Is you do video content for a long time and and you see it a lot where. Youtubers get bored because you're doing the same thing every day like I make jamstack content every week and I'm lucky that I have a lot of breadth because the jamstacks quite wide but html and css is very to the point. It's very very specific stuff. So I'm glad that you're still.
05:06.41 Kevin You.
05:12.47 Kevin Yeah I think I got a little bit lucky with when I started my channel too just because Css is maturing very quickly right now and there's just so much That's coming out and it looks like it's only speeding up more and more so I don't think I'll run out of anything to talk about anytime soon.
05:12.71 developershangout Enjoying every minute of it.
05:22.19 developershangout Yep.
05:31.66 Kevin The way things are going. Um, and so yeah, and and ah you know in terms of I think I also got lucky just having you know I enjoyed doing it so that's why I made the channel. It was really a hobby. No 1 was watching at the beginning. But then there's not a lot of css content out there in general people seem to focus more on.
05:47.31 developershangout Yep, let me go back.
05:50.37 Kevin A lot of the the other things so I sort of found a spot that and I didn't have a lot of competition either which I think is why I sort of got more well-known within that. But for me, it's crazy that people you know I get and now I think I've learned a lot about Css and I get to focus on that so you know it does become my specialty. Um, but just you know the whole King of css thing like it's.
06:13.20 developershangout So now that the the Youtube channel is successful and even the courses are successful. Um, let's talk bigger picture like what's the future of Kevin powell. Industries I don't know. Ah what What's the plans. Yeah, what are what are we thinking.
06:31.00 Kevin So yeah, really good question that I'm trying to figure out now. Um I went full time with this about a year ago now I guess um, just because that's when yeah I guess I could say a year ago because. Or a year and a half ago um and it was at the time was okay, my courses are doing well enough that I can do it because Youtube is you know as successful as I'm doing there. It definitely isn't replacing my my full-time income by any means. Um, so it really does become more on the business side and because I started all of this as a hobby for me.
06:59.50 developershangout Absolutely right.
07:09.00 Kevin Um, that's what you know I just went with my name. That's what my you know it's the same youtube account or my google account that I had from two thousand and six or whatever so I just left my name on there and started putting up videos and it became my brand. Um, so it's sort of becoming this thing of like.
07:15.75 developershangout Yep.
07:26.21 Kevin You know maybe should have I have gone with a brand name rather than just myself or is there a way that I can sort of have like a course or like a set of courses or something that are a little bit. You know it's still me but where like it sort of falls into ah like a subbranch or something. Um, that I can build a brand around so I'm sort of thinking on that side of things a little bit just to try and have something that's not my name necessarily not that I think there's anything wrong with that. But there's a lot of other really awesome teachers that are out there and 1 thing that's been fun with specializing so much in Css and. Because I'm on Youtube people know me because for people who watch Youtube But if you go into the blog world. There's a lot of really talented people and that are doing css stuff as well and focusing on that. So as I'm getting to know them more. Um, it would be cool to like be able to feature other people's work and things like that. Um, and not just my own necessarily. Um I see it as 1 potential way to sort of grow as well and also help you know help those people grow Hopefully um and the other side I've been thinking about for a while is also having you know employees of some sort because I think that's.
08:35.45 developershangout Meeting.
08:40.17 Kevin I'm the type of person who likes doing everything myself. Yeah, so yeah, and yeah, so it's really hard for me to let go of anything. Um I know some people are like oh you, you know if you let go of the editing side of things like you could get a lot more done and I'm like yeah I I probably could. But.
08:41.83 developershangout Me too 100 percent
08:58.66 Kevin I don't I don't mind editing it's it's not a chore for me necessarily except when I'm doing a course where I'm doing the yeah the 1 bit.
09:02.20 developershangout Yes, yep I did that 1 Well I've done 1 course and it was just the amount of edit like the amount of editing you have to do versus a regular youtube video is like Twenty x and it and it's rough.
09:16.49 Kevin Yeah, yeah, so that becomes a bit of a chore but at the same time if I were to hand off my editing I wouldn't want to do it for a course because I want to make sure that's perfect. Um, yeah.
09:20.87 developershangout For sure.
09:26.20 developershangout Right? Yeah at least with Youtube you can get away with imperfections very easily. But yeah someone who pays for a course even a free course like there's a expectation that you're a level above what you could find on youtube.
09:40.61 Kevin Yeah, 100 percent and I think it's also like I think on youtube sometimes having I see some people have editors and like then you're getting like the b-roll coming in at times and you have other things that are helpful for engaging the audience that for me isn't my strongest.
09:49.50 developershangout Need there anything.
09:56.39 Kevin So like I could see even on that. Maybe it's beneficial on youtube but that's not really something you want in a course. So anyway, but I don't mind editing the Youtube video so it's 1 of those things where is it worth it for me I don't know um I have someone? Um, actually it's my mother-in-law's now helping me with my emails just to keep track in there because it started getting.
10:11.10 developershangout M.
10:15.63 Kevin Hard for me to keep up with everything that I was getting so it's a sort of flagging the important ones that are coming through and making sure that I'm reading the ones I I need to be and not the the sponsor requests that now. Luckily I'm at a point where I can say no to all my sponsor Anybody who wants to sponsor basically um because dealing with sponsors.
10:29.77 developershangout Awesome. Yeah, yeah, sponsors can can be fun and they can also be very Crushing. Um I've been lucky my last run of sponsors of all been really great people and like just basically given me free reign to say do whatever I want with my stuff. Um.
10:35.80 Kevin Isn't fun.
10:53.15 developershangout But I have had a few where they're like yeah we this is exactly what we want in a like it in a video can you just do this only and it's like why are you paying me to do it like you've already. You've scripted the whole video here like just do it just record it yourself and and put it on your own channel. Um, yeah I've had a few of those and and then I've ended up either parting ways or saying you know, ah fine I'll do it but I'm never going to work with this person again.
11:21.60 Kevin Yeah, and I've I've been pretty lucky with the sponsors I've had to in that it's been generally speaking very positive. Not like you know I've heard of horror stories of going back for edit after edit after edit which I haven't had to do but it's still just that you know.
11:31.62 developershangout Anything anything.
11:38.22 Kevin Back and forth a little bit. It seems like those videos always take longer to make um and so yeah, if I don't have to I won't or I also like now I do have a few things coming out short-term where we have sort of done some stuff but it's with people I know it's products that I know and use so like for that like.
11:40.19 developershangout Um, yep.
11:52.82 developershangout Right.
11:56.31 Kevin Just comes up in conversation with the person I don't mind doing that as much. Um and I think for me, it's also I don't like so I mean speaking of business side of things I hate selling things so doing those like so doing a sponsored bit already. It had to be something that I actually believed in I can't just do a sponsored bit for something I've never used.
12:05.30 developershangout Yeah, me too.
12:14.11 developershangout Um, yep, what.
12:16.10 Kevin Which is why I never did hosting companies just because I'm like I get five companies requesting me to do sponsored I can't use all of you guys like so um, yeah I was always a bit picky with it but now not having to worry about it helps quite a bit on that side. Um, but yeah, I'm trying to figure out ways that I can delegate my work but I'm I'm struggling with it because I don't know what to do and even you know, ah I've seen other people come up with a community manager type things or positions as well. Even if it's a smaller role So I've sort of been thinking about that because there's some things. Either I Just don't have time to do it or I get um you know sidetracked with other stuff or it sidetracks me thinking about these little things. Um, so it's something I'm really thinking about but I'm struggling at this point in in getting to that next step of how to actually implement.
13:01.10 developershangout Yep, so.
13:08.88 developershangout Yeah, I'm currently going through because obviously my channel's much more than yours I'm now going on there. The the the thought process of okay how do I build this brand bigger like we're about to hit five k subs which you know it's been. In the works like okay how does 5 k turn into 10 n k How does ten K turn into a hundred k etc and so I'm trying to plan that out right now and um, I'm going to probably end up enlisting my wife to do social media for me because she is 10 x better than I am at all that stuff I'm just like I don't know. Tweet this out sounds good and then move on um with no care and and yeah, it's it's a hard game people people really don't unless you're in the world. It's hard to understand but like thinking of a thumbnail or a title to a video that will make someone click is a like. It. It takes a long time sometimes to think of something that's worth clicking.
14:07.29 Kevin Yeah, that's definitely and for me, it's been an adjustment there as well. Just because yeah with it once it's sort of once I started thinking about maybe making the switch to full time that becomes a lot more important as well. Um, and that was it's It's a hard thing of of balancing. The.
14:20.67 developershangout Yep.
14:25.79 developershangout Yes.
14:26.32 Kevin How clickbaity is it versus? Um, but I think in the in the Discord and I think it's something that you hear a lot about is as long as you're like if somebody clicks even if it's 1 of those like you know you get to that gray zone or was it veritassium that made a video on it. Maybe even.
14:41.47 developershangout Yes, yep.
14:44.00 Kevin Right? Yeah, so you're in that like gray zone you're approaching clickbait but you're not crossing that you know you're teasing but you're providing you're actually yeah, you're providing the value and you're you're giving this the answer to the tease instead of just getting someone to click and misleading them and you know, especially when it comes to like more educational stuff. That's.
14:49.96 developershangout Valley. Yeah.
15:01.19 developershangout Yeah, yeah, yep, it is very hard in education where you're just like how can I make a click Bait title of learn how to use this cool piece of tech. It's like yeah okay that this not as easy as.
15:03.62 Kevin It's also hard to tease and how to do something.
15:20.75 developershangout You know, ah some other youtubers were like gaming or or any of those kind of channels where it's entertainment. It's very easy to Click Bait anything. But yeah, we have to We have a very thin line between being an educational channel that doesn't use clickbait and then not. And it's It's a hard line to to figure out. Ah but talking of you know work wise is all fun and games. You know I talk to you frequently and and a lot of people know you in the world. But what do you like to do when you're not. Making tutorials or worrying about business or growth and things like that like what do you do to to to kind of zone out wind down What what?? what? What is that.
16:04.42 Kevin Yeah I'm I'm somebody who does generally so I like learning new things. So I'll pick up something new and then once I sort of I'm deset at it I'll find something else to do which drives my wife absolutely insane. Um, but I've actually gone back the most recent 1 that I've gone back to is homebrewing.
16:10.39 developershangout Um.
16:22.33 developershangout So.
16:24.20 Kevin Um, so I actually had started doing it years ago. Um, just I'm I'm already I'm a fan of beer in general so it was something and my dad had sort of talked about it because my um, my dad's from England and back then he was you know as ah, a youth would.
16:34.21 developershangout Yep, update that.
16:42.64 Kevin Would do it So it sort of intrigued me the whole idea of it and so I did get into it. The issue at the time was I was very broke and so it's not a cheap Hobby necessarily. Ah so the equipment I had wasn't necessarily the best I was bottling which isn't.
16:50.72 developershangout Correct.
16:58.80 Kevin It's okay, but it's time consuming and then you have to wash a lot more equipment and everything. So just um I didn't so I must have done it for a good year and a half or so but it was just by the end I just got really tired of having to clean everything and again it wasn't really saving me money. So when you're you know, not rolling. Um, it makes it a little bit harder to justify the time commitment I had my my kids were young too. So it becomes you know it's a good 6 hour commitment to to do a full batch and with the kids and everything being young. It just took away from family time and everything. Um, but then it's something I always enjoyed doing. And so I decided more recently to get back into it but now with a bit more disposable income I switched I got a couple of kegs I built my own sort of keyser so like converted a freezer into ah a place to keep the kegs with taps and everything. Um.
17:43.90 developershangout Um, in your point.
17:54.64 Kevin And then started getting back into it now. So it's been. It's going pretty good I had to take a bit of a break for a few I guess a month and a half now just because I had we were doing um renovations in the backyard where I where I do the home brewing but that's finished and I actually have some yeast that's.
18:11.96 developershangout Awesome.
18:11.98 Kevin Um, propagating right now. So I'm growing growing a new little batch of yeast hopefully on Friday um, get ah, get a brew day in and that's the other advantage of doing this full time is I can sort of go. Okay, this Friday I'm not going to get as much work done ahead. All. I'll make myself a beer so I don't have to sacrifice the family time either which is nice.
18:30.92 developershangout Yeah, yeah, that's always nice that is 1 feature of being either a business owner slash or a full-time youtuber or you know in the freelance world where flex schedules exist for a reason and you can in you know. You can work a little harder today to take a little time tomorrow and it's not a huge deal. You're on your own schedule. You know that you need a video on this day and this day and this day and you need to be ahead and all those kinds of things. Um hope brei sounds fun. My dad used to home brew to like obviously being from the uk like it's a big thing. You know my. My parents did it and I think his dad did it too I've never really done it I thought about it a few times but you're right? It is a hobby that has expense to do right and enjoy.
19:16.53 Kevin Yeah, that's the thing is you can. It's the basics of it are super simple and you don't It doesn't have to be expensive but the product you'll create will probably not be very good and you won't want to keep doing it.
19:28.64 developershangout Um, right? yeah.
19:32.37 Kevin Um, so it's really because I mean the most important things seem to be when the beer is fermenting just to keep the temperatures. It keep the te in control because if it gets too warm which room temperature tends to be a bit too warm. It just creates like it can taste like rubbing alcohol or like or yeah, um, and you hear a lot of people.
19:48.19 developershangout Mm. Yum.
19:52.25 Kevin Try it or you can even do it just with like there's like the really simple things you can do when you first get started with it like the the starter kits you can buy were just the ingredients are sort of lower quality and so it just makes like a really boring beer even if you sort of nail it so people sort of you're making something that's not great.
19:58.30 developershangout Are.
20:11.52 Kevin And it's really time consuming to do it. It becomes something like why? why bother with it. Um, so it's a time commitment and it's a cost. There's an initial investment that definitely goes into it. Um, but since I I do enjoy beer. It does you know as long as I'm making things that I'm enjoying to drink and as you said it's a hobby so it's something that.
20:26.17 developershangout Right.
20:31.15 Kevin It's also fine like the the soft when I was originally doing it. The software I was using um to sort of do the recipe planning and to make sure everything was okay, um, was it. It was Fine. It was sort of an industry standard at the time but it was It was an older piece of Software. Ah, the new 1 that I got now that I got back into it like you can hook into their api and pull out different things in it and so you can sort of build your own thing. But even the app itself is is so well done and it's a pwa so you can you know link it with your phone really easily and really really well done on that side and then.
20:49.70 developershangout Oh awesome. Yep.
21:04.21 Kevin To be able to sort of tinker with and and get into that side and just all the data tracking you can do and it it really does become I guess like a lot of hobbies. It's 1 of those things that you get, you know you can go all in with it or you can just have it as sort of you know I just like the beer and that's it or you can really dive into the data and the research and all the different things that go with it. So.
21:15.87 developershangout Yep.
21:23.21 Kevin I'm the type of person who likes diving in pretty deep when I do get into it.
21:23.94 developershangout Yeah, that that's that's me too when I'm in a hobby like that's it I'm all in that's how Youtube started I was all in it was like I'm going to make this a hobby. It sounds like something fun to do and then you know. It's like oh I need a better camera like okay research camera time I need a better mike okay, let's find a but different mike that's better and then you know oh it's lighting and then it's like backdrops and you know all that fun stuff that comes along with with being in Youtube space and you know I've I've only been doing it. Just over I think it's 18 months now or maybe a bit maybe a bit longer I think it's about 18 months and like you know the investment is more than probably what I made the first year at least um, this year has been a bit more lucrative. But yeah, you know the first time you get Monetized is.
22:03.76 Kevin Yeah, yeah.
22:12.74 developershangout Ah, Thousand subscribers and four thousand watch hours which it never used to be like that. But that's still a lot of you know content and the monetization isn't fantastic. Um, you make your money in other places that's for sure. Um, yeah, absolutely yeah I I'm very much the same way all in or nothing and and.
22:21.24 Kevin Um, yeah.
22:32.24 developershangout You know Youtube was all in and now it's less of a hobby and more of a second job but I still love it every day and I'm not complaining so you said that you started exercising now. Um, which is orange theory which is is that canadian thing. Like I only ever hear canadian people talk about orange theory or maybe I'm just in like the south where they don't have orange theory I don't know. Um, yeah, get what? Yeah let's talk about that for a while.
22:59.20 Kevin Yeah, so for me exercise I know I should but it's really hard to actually do it and to get motivated I've tried regular gym memberships before and it doesn't work. My wife has been wanting to start exercising and she keeps bugging me so she's the 1 actually found the orange theory.
23:04.29 developershangout Here.
23:18.26 Kevin I don't know much about it other than the 1 I go to? um but I do know it's a chain of sort of a gym and it's everywhere and the only when I first went I was like it's going to be like any other gym and I'm not really going to ah do it and it's not for me. But I'll I'll humor my wife by going to like their free trial.
23:37.26 developershangout Yep yep.
23:37.91 Kevin Um, it's it's like a highintensity 1 hour session but it's because I'm not someone who likes exercising. It's good because it's in ah like a sort of a group setting where you're going between rowing treadmill and and free weights basically are like more on that side of things and you have it's almost like no them.
23:46.17 developershangout Um.
23:56.79 Kevin What are they called the cycling ones they have a name Anyway, you have like the coach in the room who's sort of like telling you the you know like the hit spin classes. Yeah, so it's a bit like that We have a coach who's saying like you know push Now you're pushing then slow down hit these goals things like that. Um, which I sort of need just to get me.
24:01.78 developershangout Um, oh yeah, yeah, spin classes.
24:16.30 Kevin Motivated and to actually push and you also have to book your classes ahead of time and so I have to you know you book it ahead and then you're it's on the calendar and then it sort of gets to that that day when you don't feel like going but you have to go because it's on the calendar and so I actually go.
24:31.66 developershangout Yep.
24:33.17 Kevin Because I know if I just put gym on the calendar and then it gets to that I'd be oh I could just record this video and I'll go to the gym after but you don't have that option. So for me I think the reason it actually works is because I just it's on my calendar I know I have to go or I lose that class and that's sort of the main reason that for me, it's.. It's actually motivating. Um I'm I'm not well I mean the last time I did a lot of exercise was when I was still in school and I did a lot of biking but it's because I would bike to get if it was a nice day I would just bike to go and so like it. It gave me a purpose like okay I'm not going to like I'm not going to go to bike to bike it just I'm not.
25:06.93 developershangout Yep.
25:12.39 Kevin But you know I'm not going to run to run and just if I'm running I'd like to be going somewhere ideally or then I wouldn't probably wouldn't want to run but um, so like it gave me then it was like okay I'm going to I'm in a bike and that's going to be sort of my thing but it's because I need to get to where I'm going. Um, so yeah I need that sort of. I'm not the type of person who's self-motivated enough for exercising and to actually take the time out of my calendar when I could be doing other things so having I need that motivation of having it booked and then I have to go type of thing like any other appointment.
25:42.76 developershangout Yeah that's a good way of doing it. It kind of forces your own hand instead of like just being like yeah I'm just gonna I'm gonna go every day or I'm gonna go 3 times a week whatever which you know that's how I work like I get up at 5 a m I either bike on my stationary bike in my house or I go to the gym and lift weights. And like I've been able to do that for you know, a long time and I'm lucky but like yeah I think my wife would benefit from that like it's on your calendar and you're already pre-booked in like if you don't go kind of thing you know that that style. Um. Versus like having the freedom to be like if I go later. It's fine like I am very rigid like it's get up at 5 a m I'm at the gym at 155 a m like and there's no option like there's nothing else I could be doing at 155 in the morning. So that's the only way I've ever managed to to keep that rigidity because I used to go in the afternoons. And I'd find an excuse I need to record this video or ah I need to do a bit more on this blog post before tomorrow and ah yeah, that doesn't really work. Um, when you you know, start putting on well wait or you don't feel healthy or you know like you start to notice things that you're like well that's weird that didn't used to happen.
26:39.35 Kevin More.
26:56.73 Kevin Yeah, yeah, and that's I guess the the fun of getting older too is the the the other aches and pains that come along with it that you yeah.
26:57.98 developershangout Ah, but yeah. Right? Yeah, if that part could slow down a little bit like you know I'd appreciate that a lot. Ah I just read someone tweeted today. Um, that there's a. It was saying I've come to the age where I can't drink caffeine after twelve now and I was like when does that happen because I'm concerned that it might just sneak up on me and he is like yeah, you'll just find yourself waking up at 2 a m with no excuse and that's when you know and I'm like oh god that when that day happens we're in deep trouble.
27:25.94 Kevin Yeah.
27:36.78 Kevin Yeah I'm like you on that I can I could have a coffee as I you know my yeah and I'm I'm fine. My wife if it's after lunch she can't and so but she's also like I enjoy coffee a lot but she's like always having coffee and now the the problem is it'd be like.
27:37.76 developershangout Ah. Go to bed. Yep.
27:55.83 Kevin 2 or 3 in a mike she's like let's make a pot and I'm like you really shouldn't and then if she does or we end up having some then I know I'm not sleeping either because she'll keep me up. Yeah.
28:03.71 developershangout Yep, yeah exactly she's awake. So now you're awake. Yep that perpetual cycle so you and I must be on the same path in life right now because I'm also itching for a new phone. And the pixel 6 just came always is coming out. Is it out this week ah yeah and I think it comes out to I think it starts delivering tomorrow. Whatever um, yeah I mean the same boat. Um I really want a new phone I really want the pix. All my wife has a 5 a and I have a iphone.
28:19.87 Kevin You can preorder right now. Yeah.
28:32.75 Kevin Um.
28:37.36 developershangout Because we had iphones at 1 point and I like to keep mind a bit longer. Ah yeah, what it? What do you think it are you thinking about doing it or ah yeah.
28:42.69 Kevin Ah I'm so close it's in my cart and I'm just like I don't know I have my I'm on the pixel 3 right now and so it's ah um, it's actually still really functional considering how old it is which is.
28:50.00 developershangout Oh okay, yep.
28:57.88 developershangout Me. So.
29:00.53 Kevin Ah, so I'm like that's a good sign right? You know, but do I need to upgrade then um I am running into some problems because ah, it's like the Usbc only and it's something's a little bit off. So if it's not pluged like I have to use wireless earphones I can't use like the plugin ones because they'll just.
29:16.20 developershangout Right? yes.
29:19.29 Kevin Like any top and it just disconnects. So it's unusable which whatever I have wiredless ones Anyway, Um, but then even for charging like sometimes it looks like it's charging. It goes off and then like oh it didn't actually charge. Um, you know I guess it got knocked or something but it's just like a little tap on the wire and it just disconnects it.
29:36.22 developershangout Um.
29:38.68 Kevin So other than that though, the phone's fine, but it also like I don't know I'm surprised I've kept this phone this long because I'm you I don't I'm not like the type that gets a new phone every year or anything but I do like new tech and phones are always fun to play with so I'm really really really debating it but we're just.
29:49.76 developershangout Yeah, yep.
29:58.22 Kevin We're spending a lot of money these days on other stuff around the house and everything and I'm just like it's not cheap by any means So I don't know I haven't I haven't hundred percent decided but I'm very on the fence and itching to get it.
30:09.25 developershangout Yeah I'm I'm in the same boat I'm like I don't normally get like new phones every year like we're not really that kind of people. Um I had the pixel 2 xl up until. Recently which is when my wife was like I want to go back to an iphone I was like that's fine like we haven't ball phoned in Forever. We can just buy them and if you don't like it. We can probably trade into an android phone at zero cost. Um, which is what happened so my wife just got the 5 a right before the 6 came out.
30:35.93 Kevin No.
30:43.29 developershangout Because she likes a smaller phone a lighter phone so she doesn't really need to worry too much and so she ended up trading in her iphone 12 mini and she ended up getting fifty dollars in credit because they traded up it worked out quite well.
30:46.15 Kevin The.
30:53.88 Kevin Nice.
30:59.21 developershangout And I'm looking right now and if I trade mine in I can get the exact cost of a pixel 6 and I'm like do I need a new phone right now and I'm like looking at it looks so shiny and new and new tech and I'm like I might have to end up. It may end up coming from the car into reality at some point. Pretty soon? Um, but yeah, like I've always been a real big fan of like the pixel phones they they do very well you know 1 that up. They update for such a long time I think it's like 2 years minimum that they say they'll continue to push updates for it. And then just the overall like quality of the product is is done really well. And yeah I think sooner or later it'll end up in my cart and I'll end up buying it and I'll be like oops it happened and then we'll just carry on like nothing happened. Um, but yeah.
31:49.82 Kevin Ah.
31:57.30 developershangout I I think once the Usb ports start to die. That's usually when I end up getting rid of mine if it doesn't have like I used I have never plugged this iphone in I've always just done the whole wireless charging thing just because I'm so paranoid that the port will die and then I won't have it. Um, but yeah, yeah, I'm i'm.
32:00.33 Kevin Yeah.
32:07.25 Kevin M.
32:16.66 developershangout Pretty excited about the the 6 at least recently.
32:18.38 Kevin Yeah, it doesn't help for me because I've been looking it up for a while. So now in like the home feed or whatever it is on my phone. It's just like half the article showing up or just talking about it and obviously I don't know it could just be Google's doing that on their own because they're trying to promote it I'm not sure but I definitely did look it up quite a bit so now like.
32:23.77 developershangout Yep.
32:31.71 developershangout Right.
32:37.52 Kevin Everything I'm seeing is just like if I look at my phone and I basically see an article on it. So it just makes me want to get it. Yeah like oh I was trying to forget about this. Don't keep showing it to me.
32:45.33 developershangout Ah, yeah, they they they do love to do that. They do love to do that? Um, talking about other Google products Stadia is that something that you own and you're using or something you're considering to what what's the what's the.
32:59.94 Kevin So I remember when it it first launched I was I was very skeptical of it and there was a lot of bad press that came out but the other day I was I don't I must have been on my phone I don't know something popped up saying because I'm a Youtube premium user I could get four months for free. So I was like well.
33:05.31 developershangout Me.
33:15.46 developershangout Yes, yep.
33:19.24 Kevin Why not? you know? so I jumped tried it out and I'm actually really impressed with it. Obviously it depends on the Bandwidth you have and stuff like that for a usable experience. But for me like I didn't buy any games through it but you get like the with the pro you get. Ah, bunch of free stuff. So some of them are older so I'm reliving my playing hit man which I haven't done in years I was like oh cool I can play the whole hit man series. Um and a few other things that sort of tweaked my interest a little bit so I've just been playing around with it. But even. Now even when I was looking at the pixel 6 I'm like do I get the controller to because then I could play on my phone and ah because I was I loaded up on my phone just to see what the experience would be like and if you don't have a controller obviously like they give you 1 of those on-screen overlays which are terrible but I was able to play like.
33:59.45 developershangout There you go.
34:11.35 developershangout Yep.
34:15.48 Kevin Ah, alea game on my phone and I'm like oh that's that's kind of impressive and kind of cool. So that's sort of got me thinking on that front now too and every now and then I've had like a little the quality of it will drop a smidge but then it bounces back up. So I think as long as you have the Bandwidth I don't know if they've fixed.
34:15.94 developershangout Wow.
34:34.10 Kevin Problems that they had early on or if I've just been lucky but I've been really impressed with the the whole experience of it.
34:38.98 developershangout Yeah I you remember when it launched I checked it out because I think they gave I remember it being something like ninety nine cents for the first 3 months if you didn't buy anything. It was like ninety nine cents first 3 months and I already had like a bunch of xbox controllers that.
34:51.69 Kevin That's right? yep.
34:57.81 developershangout Worked with it so I was like great I can use it and I remember it being pretty good. In fact, I did the beta test which was um Assassins creed odyssey and and it was like this hush hush like we're going to do a test. We haven't actually announced that it's called stadia or anything. And I was like this is amazing like I'm using this crappy laptop that I just happen to have downstairs that can't run anything and I'm playing this aaa game. And yeah, I'm on like fiber gig fiber. So yeah, you know I have the bandwidth. Um so I'm not too concerned about that. But. I was overly impressed and then I just you know I have a p s five and I have a gaming pc so for me, it's not as prevalent to to to get because I just have those consoles and I'm lucky. Um, but yeah I heard they've done a lot since since then a lot of improvement and yeah, hopefully they.
35:39.26 Kevin Um.
35:50.96 developershangout Don't just kill it off like everything else that after a while when they get bored. Hopefully they keep it for for a long time and um, it's a good I was gonna say it's a good testament that you're saying it's definitely seems to be good like even on a phone because ah like Xbox offers their Cloud service If you have an xbox.
35:56.36 Kevin Um, it is a ah.
36:10.50 developershangout And I can't even use that on anything like I try and use it and every and I have gig fiber so I'm 1 and 1 up and 1 down and like everything is just a garbled mess whenever I play it so like my concern my concern is people are like yeah stay here is terrible x was game past like clouding.
36:10.89 Kevin Um, and.
36:18.92 Kevin No well. Yeah.
36:29.42 developershangout Gaming is great and I'm like it is not great at all I cannot play anything on this at all it just I'll get like thirty seconds in and then it's just you know I'm playing cubes at that point with no sound. So so you talking about your renovations earlier. Um.
36:39.60 Kevin Right? Yep, Nice yeah.
36:48.96 developershangout And we talked for a while because we originally had scheduled this during the renovations. Um, yeah, you had some some fun I I understand they had some fun with their renovations.
37:00.45 Kevin Yeah, so I live in a townhouse condominium. So it's like you have the whole condominium association and everything but it's townhouses so they're like it's not a vertical. It's all horizontal with like walking paths between them. Um, and we were getting.
37:07.97 developershangout E e.
37:18.20 Kevin Our patio our back patio redone and that became a complete Well I mean the job itself was fine but the where where we happen to be is the far the where I Think. If not the farthest 1 of the farthest units from like the parking area and where there's actually access for any machinery to come in. Um, so the the guy that are the the team came in and obviously you're hiring professionals you assume they know what they're doing and they have to communicate with.
37:37.46 developershangout E.
37:49.89 Kevin Condo administration before starting anyway because you have to have everything approved the plans were approved. Ah, um, so we gave them all the contact information as well to the for the contractor see you assume that everything's been handled and everything' has been fine because you have approval from everybody and then.
37:54.16 developershangout Yep.
38:07.90 Kevin First there was there were the the the path. The walking paths are relatively narrow like it's really sidewalk width and so they had their their big thing to bring in all the gravel and everything which fit on the path but just barely, but it did look a little bit big so you had all the the nosy neighbors at the beginning were coming out and sort of criticizing that there was wheel marks here or they.
38:19.60 developershangout Yep.
38:28.00 Kevin Ruined a patch of brass there and we're like don't worry like we're aware that you know of everything that's going to happen there. Um, and then it just then they came to work on a weekend because they were behind schedule like I guess contractors tend to be and then so there's more people home and then.
38:40.56 developershangout Um, yep.
38:44.64 Kevin They ended up contacting the actual administration who came and were trying then said they couldn't be coming in through the path because they could cause structural damage somehow to the the path and what's under the path and it became like this five days of complete disaster. Um. But anyway at the in the end they found a way to come in um through a different way. They had to rip some bushes out and and come in a different way and the job got finally done and it looks good. Um, but even Beyond like the drama of the whole thing which was I mean it's. And became 1 of those things where people are making like this big dramatic event out of nothing basically ah, which is always frustrating to begin with. But if if anyone listening isn't in a condo you know beware there's positives to it all, but just anything that has to do with the administration tends to be a negative.
39:23.21 developershangout Yep.
39:37.45 Kevin Um, and it's a bit where a lot of units and stuff so it becomes ah a lot of people to deal with sometimes um but you also had everybody having their own opinions on everything that was happening.
39:49.85 developershangout Yep, yeah that I was going to say that's usually the problem is everybody has their own opinion. Ah.
39:52.55 Kevin Yeah, so we even had like this is this is probably the day after we had to cancel the last 1 just because they were putting. They had their machines into flatten all the the loose rock and stuff they were putting in so they hadn't laid any tiles yet.
40:06.81 developershangout Me.
40:08.83 Kevin They just they dug out their hole filled it in and then we're we're waiting for them to put the tiles in and there's 1 person passing by in the back saying that it's 2 inches too low and that the basement's going to flood and you know it's a 7 year old woman. First of all, what do you know about? you know what? they're doing. They haven't put any tiles in yet. It's just loose gravel everywhere like I don't know then I had my ah my my direct neighbor who's ah, a little bit bored so he likes to come and just chat with task when anytime anyone's outside and so he was.
40:28.17 developershangout Right.
40:36.59 developershangout Um.
40:40.16 Kevin Like at 1 point, the contractor came to talk to my wife and he's like is this guy your dad or something because like he'd be constantly going over and talking to the contractor about how to do different things that he was working on and like oh no, that should be like this or this should be like that He's like who is this guy like what's going on and it was just this constant brash of people coming by and. And giving us their opinions on something and it was just really frustrating.
41:00.11 developershangout I Imagine it's yeah we we live in ah an association so we don't live in like townhomes. But we're in an association and ah we just had somebody take over like the association and ah they they sent me a violation already. Were like you. Yeah you you need to? Well I think it was like you need to trim your bushes and or take out the weeds that are in the front yards and I'm like that's what you're concerned about of all the things wrong with where I live. That's the 1 thing and so I like red it. And I brought it inside and I was like really like I Really don't want to deal with this like I only live in an H a because I rent this place but bla blah and so I go outside and there's literally 3 tiny weeds of about you know, an inch high and I'm like that's what you're really. So I like just pick them out and put them back down on the ground and I'm like there we go cleaned up like I don't know why you have to be that concerned about you know this small tiny thing can we can we focus on Maybe the fact that people are parking cars in the street that I can't get out my driveway. Maybe that's more Important. Um.
42:03.40 Kevin Yeah.
42:12.23 Kevin Yeah, it's amazing. It's amazing and it's I think that the the issue with this is. There's always everybody has their own opinion and in these organizations it seems to be that they all like voicing their opinion. Um, even you know without thinking ah too much about it. Sometimes.
42:14.50 developershangout But can't win him all.
42:28.74 developershangout Yeah.
42:30.56 Kevin It was even like even with us when when the grass was getting a bit ripped up on some of the corners which we were. You know we knew we would have to be dealt with and that's Fine. Um, but I came really really close like it. It became such a sticking point and there was just so many people talking to us about it. It came really close to writing an email. Ah, to the the association just to ask that we know it was our responsibility to fix that but does that mean and because some of the there was several people that were complaining to us about it who literally never watered their lawn once during the summer and just had dead grass and a little dead tree in front of their house.
42:54.68 developershangout Yep.
43:01.98 developershangout Right.
43:06.65 Kevin And as like so I don't mind paying to replace the little corners of like 6 inches of grass that got ripped up but does that mean that these people have to pay to resaw their entire lawn and plant a new tree and I was my wife's just like don't send it yet. See how things end and I was like.
43:15.39 developershangout Um, right? oh.
43:22.10 Kevin I was ready to but once once everybody sort of calmed down in the situation resolved I was like okay I'm I'm kind of glad I didn't send it but at the same time I was like though like you know it's great that you have these opinions but at least take care of your own stuff that if you want to complain about other people not taking care of it.
43:36.79 developershangout Yep, yeah, exactly exactly? yeah, it's all living living the association has its benefits. Don't get me wrong, but sometimes I just want to live in the woods somewhere where no 1 ne's gonna tell me what to do? Um, but.
43:43.99 Kevin Oh yeah, hundred percent. Yeah.
43:52.22 developershangout I'm also not close to shops then and my wife would probably kill me so we definitely can't do that 1 ah so yeah, ah I mean we're coming to the end of the show. Um, this is your time now to plug whatever you feel like Kevin please plug away anything you want to sell. Off youtube channels your course anything just saw you.
44:16.44 Kevin Yeah I guess I mean the the best thing to follow for anything would be my Youtube channel Just that's where most of my day-to-day content is um and other than that I did just put out a new free course with sccrimba. So.
44:30.24 developershangout Yes.
44:32.82 Kevin Ah, that could be a fun thing to check out. It's like a 6 hour free course where we dive in deep into css um, talk about css design systems other things like that I think it's pretty good. So I think that could be a fun 1 to check out. Plus it's free so that always helps.
44:48.21 developershangout Yep.
44:49.97 Kevin Um, and I mean that's probably the main things right now. The course that the the course that I last sold is currently closed because I want to revamp it and I'm revamping another course or redoing another course. So. Ah, in terms of actually giving me money. There's not very many options right now but that's a you know? So yeah, that mostly my Youtube or if any through my youtube you could also find my newsletter if you ever want to sort or my website to find my newsletter if you want to sort of keep up on a more regular basis.
45:21.65 developershangout Awesome! Yeah so I'll make sure to put all of those in the show notes I'll put link to your youtube channel and the sccrimba course which the sccrimba course is really good and everyone should just check it out if you've got a few spare hours floating around. Um. And then when he opens his actual pay course you should also pay for that because it's really good because I pay for the last 1 and it was awesome. Um, so yeah, ah, thanks for coming on the show. Kevin I really appreciate you coming and hanging out. Um, and yeah, everybody at home. Make sure you subscribe through your podcast feed of choice and until next time.
45:40.62 Kevin Thanks.
45:54.82 developershangout See ya.
Check out Gatsby WP Themes at: https://gatsbywpthemes.com/
Check out Alexandra on Twitter : https://twitter.com/alexadark
The screens she bought:
32 BenQ BL2420PT/ 24 BenQ BL2420PT
Portable screen : https://www.asus.com/Displays-Desktops/Monitors/ZenScreen/ZenScreen-MB16ACE/
---- AI Transcript of episode ---
Timestamp Speaker Transcript
00:00.00 developershangout Welcome to developers hangout podcast today I'm joined by a special guest alexandra why don't you introduce yourself, tell people who you are and then we can hang out.
00:10.62 alexandra Hello gem. So I'm alexandra splado I'm born in France I'm french and I live in the beautiful island in Myorca spanish island um I'm a web developer. I will say I'm a web a mix of web developer entrepreneur and designer. Um I begin in development very late in my life with their users story later and I begin with wordpress with. Buying themes and developing themes then I get into Jama and react. And lastly I have launched gatby wp themes which is the first gatsby wordpress ah theme premium. And I am so launching your remote agency specialize on Jamstack name webly it will exist but I will have the time to build the website snow and I'm happy to be here. Thank you.
01:14.85 developershangout Yeah Thanks, thanks for coming on. So let's start by talking about this gatsby wordpress themes that you have can you talk to me how you got into that space because it's like a mix of the Jamstack and the old classic wordpress. All in 1 spot and I'll make sure to link a description like the link to the site in the description so people can check it out because it is a super cool product. Um how how did you end up here. How did you end up building this this cool set of products.
01:39.73 alexandra Okay.
01:50.47 alexandra It's like ah it represent my path because I begin with I began with Wordpress I didn't know anything about about coding at this time so I were just buying themes and then beginning customizing them and Then. I Learned how to how to build custom themes in wordpress with with Za Gordon online which is fun because then later Za Codon became my friend and and we begin with gatsby the themes together. Ah and I be Creative. So I Always always want it.
02:13.58 developershangout M.
02:27.61 alexandra Create a product so in the beginning I was thinking to create some or for theme but the market was totally totally saturated um and in 2018 I I attend ah fullsag Javascript boot camp and then I learned react. And I turned I turned to react totally and then I discover gatsby and so it begins when zach proposed me to port some free workpress themes to gatsby. Ah so the tabor theme and the 2019 we did that.
03:02.81 developershangout Is it.
03:04.93 alexandra years ago two years and half and after that I said yess we need to make premium themes for gatsby and gatsby had the theme api so it was perfect and and then the market was ands still almost virgin. So big Opportunity. So then I had to find somebody to work with because it's not easy to to build a product alone and for that I has been I have been extremely lucky because my my dad associate Paulina headman.
03:24.65 developershangout Yep.
03:42.69 alexandra I knew her before from she lived in paris and she's polish and and I ask her and she was immediately on it and and yes, very lucky because in 2 years we agree on on most everything we are complementary. Um, it's it's great and it's not easy to find somebody like that. so so yes we passed 2 years developing and also working in our own work so it took it took time. Ah, and here we are since 3 months we have ah we have launched um and and now I want to pass all the time I can on that.
04:28.48 developershangout Ah, yeah, rightfully so um, so it sounds like you 2 to have sort of the a good dynamic and you you say that you're more of a um more of a designer focused person in your own sort of like more of a creative person. Um, is that is that how you how you work as a team. Ah, when you're working on the product. You are you more of that like creative sort of extroverted person and she does more technical stuff or do you kind of both take on the same kind of tasks. How how does that work.
05:04.47 alexandra It's it's both I would say yes I'm I'm not a typical dev in the sense I'm yes, a mix of designer entrepreneur and and developer as I said I'm more right? Brain creative. Um. I'm an extrovert. So and I don't drink coffee. So and I don't like puzzles. So I'm not typical, but yes, I'm not only I could not only design a know end for moment I I often design in code and paulina she's she's very special too because she's.
05:23.39 developershangout Um, yeah.
05:41.44 alexandra Has a background in math. She's doctor in math. So yes, she's really a brilliant wine but she's also very good at design and at development. Ah, but um, for example from some ad advanced features. Yes, she will take her hand or finding some bugs.
05:43.57 developershangout Mm.
05:59.76 alexandra And in the other hand to managing the business also coming extrovert communication videos talking I Love that and she loves writing so in in this position we are. We are very complementary and that's that's.
06:17.20 developershangout Yeah I mean that's the perfect kind of situation is to have that complementary person because like running a business together is almost like being in a marriage or being in a relationship where if you if you don't complement each other. It's very hard to get anything done or and you know you end up struggling.
06:17.25 alexandra That's really great.
06:22.30 alexandra Yes. Um, yes, totally. Ah.
06:36.63 developershangout To to get the business off the ground but it sounds like you guys have found the perfect sort of partnership to to really get this thing going. Ah.
06:43.36 alexandra And also having to same ideas because we are creating something and we could have really different visions and things. But I would say ninety percent ninety five percent of the time we we agree? ah. Lastly, for example, we decide. We have not done this for the moment. But I think we' are going to expand to other platforms are over wordpressed or perhaps Tina Cms was tray contentful and I think we ah think about that at the same time and and. And and things like that. So we we we agree a lot. Um on many things. Yes.
07:25.60 developershangout Awesome! Awesome! So this has been going so remind me again, you launched in what year did you launch last year
07:32.57 alexandra We launched at the best moment in the year the thirteenth of June just that beginning of the Summer. It was a marketing wise really not a good day but it was a moment when we were ready because so many details you have to fix when you launch your product and yes and and. And after that we have been overwhelmed with personal work and now we are really radically retaking the work and we are launching a free theme very soon. So also people can can try it with less functionalities less options. But.
08:12.25 developershangout Awesome! So being that you've launched in the middle of the summer and I'm sure the year has been dense like you've had a lot to do. You've been busy working a lot of hours.
08:12.66 alexandra Butly free and after that we will yes.
08:31.36 developershangout How personally do you work on things like time management because you know I work with a lot of people in the industry who work for 1518 even sometimes twenty hours a day to try and get products working like how how do you manage your time so that you can be.
08:51.40 alexandra Yeah, that's a good question and specialist is heres is here has been effectively very very dense because I was working on a huge project ayas I have the themes and of a project and everything happened at the same time and.
08:51.20 developershangout The most impactful.
09:10.84 alexandra I don't believe that is good to or possible even possible to work to add eighteen hours a day people who do that I think perhaps perhaps I'm wrong. They are super powerful. Ah, but if you really focus I try to when I say focus is. Getting you know all distractions tweeters scrolling calls etc I use ah promodoro but not twenty five minutes I I use 1 hour and a half and then I stopped ten minutes and we were and and work again. Ah, you feel when your brain cannot handle more time and at this moment if you continue you are just losing time. Um, because you are overloading again. You are not doing efficient work and if you stop for a few hours then you reset your brain. And and you begin you become more projective so in my opinion for me six hours of really focused work a day. It's enough but really focused, not scrolling and taking a call and and multitasking not really focusing I'm lucky because I I'm quite good at. Focusing? Um, but 10 I was I have done it I have done sometimes 10 hour focusing but then you end up with Insomnia and things like that and then the next day you are tired and if you are tired. You don't do good work and and you do enjoy your life and things. So. I think even it can be a discipline you know to stop working at moments and and you become more efficient and more productive. Finally, so then you just take back to to instead of wanting to do more and more and more. Think it's ah it's a good strategy the time. Ah also finding the best focused time for me in the morning when I wake up my my my is crystal career other people if during the night from a personality yet evening I don't like to work I like to have dinner to go out to look at movies. Um, but everyone is different is finding what what it's called like echstein window. Ah then I know the of techniques about time blocking and things like that I have not done it. But um, um, I'm happy to try anything to be more productive because.
11:31.39 developershangout Yep.
11:44.90 alexandra Ah, yes, time is is so precious. Yes, Okay, um.
11:46.84 developershangout Yeah, very much so my I'm very much like you so when when I wake up. That's my most productive time like when I wake up till about I'd say about 3 p m so anything after 3 p m is probably you're not going to get the best work out of me and I usually finish work at four.
12:04.21 alexandra Um, ah okay.
12:06.15 developershangout So usually at four I'm done unlike my wife who's the opposite of me so she starts being productive around I'd say 11 a m that's 10 eleven a m like much later in the day I'm already done with most of my day by the time she becomes productive. Um.
12:14.98 alexandra Ha ha.
12:23.10 developershangout I mean she sort of tapers off sort of in the late evening is when my wife starts to like become unproductive. But yeah there there are people in the world that are either productive in the morning in that afternoon thought or even at night and my wife is very much into their late day early afternoon. But productivity where I'm like 5 am is my most productive time. Yeah I got bali.
12:44.28 alexandra Oh I have changed a bit I have changed a bit because I was so obsessed with work and so I was beginning as soon as I wake up I begin to work etc and I have this is so dense here and I ah. Many insomnia I had insomia. You know when not to sleep. But ah, my brain wake ups after six hours and and and I cannot sleep anymore and then after that I'm tired and I realize I have to take distance with work for that because it's not It's.
13:16.43 developershangout Yes.
13:20.89 alexandra You become your work become obsessed with that and and I think developers wear a lot like that. That's why we have Insomnia issue and so I learned now to keep my time in the morning so now often I go running in the morning I do meditation I do things like that.
13:24.61 developershangout And then.
13:38.88 alexandra And often I don't begin before 10 or something like that. But it's not important because I know I I will not make more that 6 focus hours a day and I feel it I really feel when I pass this this truthhold that that my brain is not productive.
13:48.58 developershangout Right.
13:57.73 alexandra So yes I have learned to let oh I have to wake up early and begin immediately. You know I just take life ah taking his his path on that and and it's good for me other people they need you perhaps to disly them. Me I have a lot of autodiscipline. So I became obsessed very quickly so I get into Insomnia so it really depends of who you are.
14:19.87 developershangout Yeah, we're we're very alike I also have that same problem like I will obsess about work and then I struggle to sleep for more than 5 or six hours at a time and then as soon as I wake up my brain will immediately switch on and be like.
14:34.62 alexandra Yes.
14:37.80 developershangout Here's a thousand problems you had Yesterday. Let's fix them today and then I'm tired and sleepy and I just become unproductive. Um, right.
14:43.32 alexandra Yes, and it's not necessarily stress when we don't sleep. It can be excitement. It's excitement most of the time I'm not an anxious person or anything. But if I'm excited about something my brain just want to wake up and do things you don't want to sleep.
14:59.62 developershangout Yep, exactly? Yeah I'm the exact same way. That's exactly how I am um so when you so when you know that like 6 hours. Ah, and you're done.
15:00.47 alexandra But my body wants to sleep and say it's a mess.
15:06.26 alexandra Um.
15:16.40 developershangout That's when you become unproductive per se and the time after that you get more and more unproductive. Um, so what? So what do you do to to so at your end of your day. What what do you do to sort of disconnect from from technology and development and all those things Do you read? Do you go.
15:20.59 alexandra Ah.
15:35.60 developershangout Out. Do you go for walks like what? what do you do to sort of disconnect from the what we live in which is the go go go world of technology like how how do you disconnect on. Ah.
15:45.24 alexandra First thing I don't work at home I work at the coworking co-working space and and that for years I have work at home right away and but. Really going to this co-workings that is beautiful with really nice. People is really good because when I come back home you know I don't go to my computer you know and it's a boundary. However I work on weekends now that I do that? Um, but that's another story and it was a very special time That's the third thing so I get also into meditation since the f free monthst so I came back I did meditation and well I live with my my partners and and so I oh we go out or we go out with friends. Oh I prepare dinner take a bless of wine. And Zan or with movies. But but yes or read the book or or whatever. So so many things to do so.
16:39.96 developershangout So you have a nice boundary of having ah a co-working space because a lot of people today now now that you know with with covid and everything that happened there. A lot of people work from home and they find it hard to to make those boundaries. Um how how do you set those boundaries yourself like.
16:44.50 alexandra Um, yes. Yes.
16:59.28 developershangout What what are you like because it's very hard like for me I've worked remotely for I'd say 5 years now I think it's 5 years so for me, it's very easy like I have this big office that I just closed the door and then that's the end of the day like I'm out and then I'm I'm pretty good for boundaries. But.
17:12.27 alexandra That's it.
17:16.68 developershangout A lot of people are struggling. Is there any advice you would give people to to help deal with setting their own boundaries to to stop working and.
17:23.44 alexandra If they can go to a co workinging space. Go there. It's good for socializing to ah for for many things so it's too anurent months. Ah, if you can't I I don't know it's difficult I don't leave alone. Well these these days I'm alone my my my boyfriend is travel. But of course if you live with somebody. It's easier or if you have kids to to do other things because it's very easy if you work from home and you alone to wake up in pans and hand in pans in front of your computer and heat in front of your computer. That happens very easily I know when I do that now we is a coworking guest really changed me um in the morning game. Okay. Ah, but if I stay like that too much in the Bay at the moment I feel upset I feel I feel bad. So perhaps a good thing would be to yes, wake up ah pride yourself like if you are going out and not staying in in. Pajamas and and nor with the hair like that and no makeup. But for girls makeup. No whatever. But yes and call friends he friends do things in the evening. Go do sports if you. You you go for spot by the way for it's Insomnia so about running that it's interesting too. I don't like I don't like running I hate training and I I run a free four times a week al an hour very slow listening to podcast now audio books.
19:00.40 developershangout Mm.
19:13.52 alexandra Oh music and um, running didn't cure my Insomnia but it choose the effects it means when I have this Insomnia when I don't sleep enough often I'm in in a very bad mood, grumpy etc. And.
19:19.90 developershangout M 1
19:29.38 developershangout Um, yep.
19:32.91 alexandra Very special feeling which is not the same that when you don't sleep enough because you have decided because you have been party the same days. It's really a very special sensation and I notice that going to run. Ah. It really improves my mood and and everything and zen at 1 pm I take a twenty minute nap and often it goes it goes right? So yes, exercise is good for for the mind for the brain so that it depends of. Every people to do it in the morning or later. Ah yes, think about your hobbies that things that you work you are not your work. That's what I have discovered this year I am not my work and there is things more important and you need to cut down and take distance and. I know it's not always easy, but um.
20:27.87 developershangout It's definitely not always easy. But I have to admit like if I I so I also work out I don't run I I I weight train so I power lift 3 times a week and then I cycle the 3 times a week too
20:37.17 alexandra Okay. Um, and.
20:44.70 developershangout So alternate days I only have 1 day off a week which is on a Saturday where I don't do anything but I find that if I miss a day or 2 I can feel my mood change because I don't sleep particularly well anyway, just in general like I never have since I was a baby but if I miss out on those.
20:53.25 alexandra Her.
21:02.99 developershangout That working out like my my mood becomes you know I become you're right like you feel different than like you know if you go out and have a good night and and you get back at 3 am and then you wake up at in the morning you feel terrible but this is a different kind of yes, exactly exactly.
21:16.61 alexandra When you're happy.
21:22.32 developershangout Versus this feeling where I yeah my mood changes and then I struggle to focus and that perpetuates things. Um, but yeah, if I don't work out I definitely struggle with the the same problem which is that yeah I it doesn't cure my need for sleep. But it does cure the effects of.
21:38.56 alexandra Ah, yes, yes I was thinking ah a funny thing in a way we are lucky because we are so passionate about what we do that It takes a lot of place and it's.
21:42.23 developershangout Lack of sleep for sure.
21:48.66 developershangout Movement.
21:53.21 alexandra Ah, great look compared to most of people that go to work every day and just for the money and I'm not happy with that and so for these people they have to take discipline. You know to do the work were in the opposite.
22:06.79 developershangout Yes.
22:08.67 alexandra We have to have discipline to stop working and do Hobbies sports friends family. That's that's the opposite and it's yes, it's fun to to think like that. But we are the lucky ones we are the lucky ones because look at the world. How percentage of people that.
22:14.88 developershangout Yep.
22:20.19 developershangout It's so it's all.
22:26.88 alexandra Really do what they love and are paid for that. It's a bless. So.
22:29.94 developershangout Yeah, exactly 1 hundred percent like my mom was ah my mom was a nurse for 30 years she retired recently? Um, but yeah, she every day loved her work every day she never never complained about her work. Loved every minute of it. She would work.
22:35.44 alexandra And.
22:49.50 developershangout If she could she'd work every minute of every day helping people and I'm I'm glad I get to feel the same way every day like I'm glad I'm not 1 of those people that has to go to work for the money and that's the only reason I'm here is to pay the bills versus like.
22:51.16 alexandra I have.
23:00.22 alexandra Ah, harris.
23:05.96 developershangout I Love to work I Love to code I Love to build things I have an entrepreneurial mind I like all those kinds of things and I'm glad that every day I get to do that Unlike other people that you're right? Unfortunately there and have to be disciplined to do work.
23:09.96 alexandra Ha ha.
23:20.36 alexandra And yes, another things that it's good to that I that I do and it's not a productivity hackg but in a way it can be a do intermittent intermittent fasting since 4 years so I don't eat anything in the morning and I eat that lunch and in evening and it's.
23:31.15 developershangout Oh yes.
23:40.43 alexandra It's very predictive because you have more energy lot of people things have eating they give energy. But if you eat too much. You are just want to sleep again. Ah so it's I stay feet I I have more energy I think it's ah and it's really really good for health. So I think it's.
23:58.47 developershangout I Also intermittent fast I Also do the? yeah yeah, we are the same I do the exact same thing. Ah yes I Also don't eat breakfast and I only eat lunch and dinner and I have for a long time and yeah I.
23:59.23 alexandra Me really good things. Okay, we you where my twin you know my tweet you do everything like me. Yeah.
24:14.37 alexandra Ah, hope.
24:17.70 developershangout If I eat breakfast I feel tired I don't feel productive but whatever since I've done intermittent fasting I've always had this my morning I'm full of I work out in the morning. It's the first thing I do and I have probably 10 x as much energy as if I was to eat.
24:28.30 alexandra Ha ha.
24:36.37 developershangout Breakfast and then try and work out or yeah nope me either me either? Um, so let's talk about um we can talk about external screens for a second because I just bought new screens and we were just having a quick chat beforehand.
24:36.41 alexandra Um, oh like I couldn't I couldn't eat and and going to run at possible. But.
24:56.35 developershangout About your new screen and the fun that goes into buying new screens. Um, yeah, why why don't you start with with your story because my story is just as fun as yours I think.
25:04.97 alexandra Yes, we have the same stories. It's again. So yes, just screens I'm I really envy you know the kind of developers I can't work on a Macbook hair and nothing. Yes I envy them but I but I just can't.
25:19.61 developershangout Is it.
25:24.58 alexandra So I went from working with a my book pro and a 27 inches screen and and I remember for christmas 2 years ago I have to go to my family and I was working on a project. So I I traveled with my twenty seven inches screen in the luggage. Yes and it worked.
25:39.51 developershangout You got that.
25:43.94 alexandra And as I want to travel more last year I found a really really nice portable screen. It's ah 8 as use a c a c e well it's really light. Nice good quality and I managed to work on it for free months.
25:54.41 developershangout Okay.
26:02.42 alexandra And it was okay. It was really okay. Perhaps I didn't have so heavy work at at this moment but I I can really do it and it's a relief because I want to travel and I want to to work traveling and it's not possible with with my need of screens. Okay, so that was my minimallist time but this screen is really Great. So I'm happy to have it then I think it's because I saw a course of West Boss and I saw you had his big screen and a vertical 1 Ah, ah.
26:33.32 developershangout Here.
26:39.69 alexandra Ah, to so I say oh that's nice, but but and then I get back to gigantism so I wanted a 32 inches screen four k ah so I bought 1 on Amazon I think it was. And freeman was a brown but it was a really good price. It was 3 hundred and fifty when I recite it and I return into next day so because I'm used I have an imac too so I have so hi my at the home and see yoga screen set ah adds the coworking because the quality was not good enough and I'm I'm quite picky with colors and and and and.
27:02.62 developershangout Wow.
27:08.35 developershangout M.
27:18.23 alexandra Image Quality I'm not a backend developer. So but I hope there is backend developers that are also concerned by by the beauty of colors etc. And so I made my research and it was not easy because ah.
27:19.11 developershangout Um, yep.
27:35.71 alexandra It's not easy when you are not technical with that. So I found a forum about about screen and finally I found the bank the german Brand's I would give you so the so link.
27:45.40 developershangout Um, yeah, absolutely.
27:52.51 alexandra And it's really good for seven hundred Heroros so good price quality and the vertical 1 It's also the same survey of bank designer designer monitors but in vertical and both are you can put them in vertical mode and yes.
28:08.22 developershangout Um.
28:11.95 alexandra That really really good quality when you are used to work on mac you are not shocked to see you know so you mentioned the colors are really are really good, but it took me time to to find the right ones without spending a fortune on them. And I'm now I'm happy now. My issue. Its I want a new mac my god said 6 years and there's a Macbook here m 1 was would would be definitefinively enough. But. I cannot plug my screen so I don't know what to do? perhaps I would wait or but the or by the 14 inches or perhaps waits a future my Macbook hair next year I will see that's ah the gle of the day.
28:55.14 developershangout M. Yeah I have the same dilemma right now too. So um, so so for me, yeah I did the same thing as you like I've been researching for a while trying to find the right monitors that I wanted and I didn't want to spend a fortune um I ended up buying 3 of them.
29:02.86 alexandra Um, oh.
29:17.61 alexandra Time.
29:19.23 developershangout So my office is now I have 2 that are landscape and 1 that is vertical. Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, so same kind of idea. Um and it took me for it took me I've been looking at screens for almost six months because I couldn't make.
29:23.23 alexandra Um, like me.
29:34.13 alexandra Always.
29:37.12 developershangout Because I couldn't decide on like what was important for me. What did I need so it took me six months to finally buy the ones I have which are I think they're lg. Um, yep.
29:46.99 alexandra Um, as a first time I got the when I return was a eg but certainly not the 1 you you are they have so many different. So.
29:53.43 developershangout Oh yeah, there's so many out there. But yeah I ended up doing the same thing and and now I'm like oh I want a new Macbook because I want to ah cause my laptop that I have downstairs is slowly dying. So I'm trying to find an excuse to buy 1 of the new macbooks.
30:08.24 alexandra Yes, exactly exactly we we search excuses.
30:13.38 developershangout Yeah I'm trying to find a good excuse so I can tell my wife that like here's the reason I need 1 Um.
30:17.96 alexandra Ah, what from from how old but is your my book.
30:22.54 developershangout Ah, it's a 3 so it's 4 years four years yeah see your yours is longer older than mine so you have a better excuse than me? Yep yep yeah I can I cannot fault it. It works.
30:26.70 alexandra Oh minus 6 Yes, but it works it works and I have a I Ma and the same age. It works Perfectly. So.
30:42.10 developershangout Perfectly every day is it's fine. So I definitely can't complain about about that. Um, so you talked about you know things that you do ah hobbies things like that is there any sort of.
30:42.75 alexandra Are.
31:00.71 developershangout Go to pieces of software that you use daily that you think people should check out or look at or anything like that is there something that like your day can't You can't do your whole day's work without using the certain piece of software. Maybe it's a note taking app or. Like you said that you do the the Pompadorian effect like do you use an app for that like how do you is there anything out there. Oh yes, absolutely.
31:19.21 alexandra I would say party as vsco then all this stuff I would say spotify music I work with music Also time. Yes.
31:34.51 developershangout What what kind of a music. Do you listen to while you're working what what? what get? you is it pop music dance music like what? what are you listening to.
31:41.76 alexandra Um, independent for us days time I love rock. But I don't always listen to rock to to this Summer I have a spot fancy is the playlist of the day so they put lot of things on my taste etc it depends on the mood of.
31:53.26 developershangout Leave me.
31:59.82 alexandra What I am doing So if I'm doing arts art stuff I think you lunovico any that make music feel music. It's really calm down or that candense things like that you know that re come down.
32:08.31 developershangout E.
32:14.93 alexandra And if i' am in the mood of some things I don't know I to do what I want to be productive it. It can be anything I have a place from the cure or rock or whatever it it really it really depends. Yes.
32:31.80 developershangout It it? Ah yeah, so all always music got it right? So I'm the opposite now. So I don't I used to listen to music all the time that was how I what scheduled my day. Um.
32:33.28 alexandra Not too hard, not too not too violent to work but but always music. Yes, yes.
32:49.86 developershangout But over the last sort of 2 or 3 years I've now moved into I only listen to podcasts or audiobooks all day. So now yes while I work. Yes, yes, it took me. It took me. Yeah, it took me a while to sort of I had to sort of train. My brain.
32:55.21 alexandra But while working you can't you while working Whoa How can you do that that I cannot.
33:09.57 developershangout To to make it work. Um, but now yeah if I don't have spoken words in the backgrounds that I can listen to I can't be productive and people think I'm like the weirdest person ever and it to me. It's feels normal now.
33:18.50 alexandra Um, that's yes I had the guy like that who was working like me. He told me he was listening to but not listening I like in background Woody and movies. So yeah, that's when.
33:30.54 developershangout Um, wow.
33:36.48 alexandra And so that's that how can you listen something and code at the same time or it's things that are really automated. But when you are really thinking and coding I don't know it's.
33:44.76 developershangout I don't I don't really I don't really know like it took me I tell people all the time it took me about 3 months to actually get to a point where I could do both at the same time so versus like either I was. When I first started I'd either end up listening to the book and not doing any work or doing all the work and not listening um and then just after a while my I just got used to doing both at the same time and and now I yeah, that's how I live my life I left my life listening to spoken word and coding and.
34:07.40 alexandra Um, yes.
34:18.80 alexandra Love.
34:21.80 developershangout I I can't explain it to people I don't know how to train your brain to do it. But now that's the only way I can be be productive and it's great for me because that means I get to listen and read a lot of books so I get to increase my knowledge set. But yeah I think it's such a strange thing that I've done for for.
34:29.88 alexandra Yes.
34:38.65 alexandra Yes I don't know like um can can work I know for me I Yes I listen podcasting Module jus by running or doing other things. But even if I prefer I Love you listening to music. But yes I'm learning things so it's great, but not why coding I put music and and.
34:40.60 developershangout Few years now
34:45.71 developershangout Move them.
34:58.31 developershangout Yeah, ah so is there any movies or Tv shows that you've seen lately that you think are spectacular that people should watch.
34:58.48 alexandra And don't think that will change of.
35:11.60 alexandra I love tv shows. Yes I love as ah, you we see. We look a lot of them. Um, yeah, there is somes that not everybody knows that are great I don't know if you have seen that is is not era this a few years um a few from a few years later before heart and catch fire. You see. It's okay so this 1 is really really great. Lastly I have seen the juice on hbo.
35:34.13 developershangout Yes, yes I have seen that? Yes yes Ss yes.
35:45.30 developershangout Um.
35:48.97 alexandra Ah, begins to seventy s and times square. It's really, that's right there. Yes, it's really really good with Maggie gillen hall and jens franco.
35:51.90 developershangout Yes I I've seen the the um advertisement yes and the trailer but I haven't seen it and is is it good.
36:07.70 alexandra It's the beginning of yeah of porn and all that in the seventy s but it's really a chronicle of all these people and how it was and it followed them from the Seventy s to 1980 four and great great character. So it's this 1 was.
36:09.20 developershangout Um.
36:24.99 alexandra Was really great. Ah startup.
36:27.13 developershangout Yes, that was good I watched that that was very good. My wife like that 1
36:30.94 alexandra Yes, as there is many really is ah the Tv shows now I Love Cinema I wanted to work on Cinema I wanted to be an actress I'm at a drama school and and of life and and so I'm yes I Love Cinema but now I think as the Tv shows are. Ah, really amazing and they have the quality of of of Cinema and 1 you you find? 1 Ah you have several season. It's ah it's It's really great.
36:59.45 developershangout Yes, it is I think we owe a lot to to Netflix in the fact that now we can we get cinema quality tv shows and everybody is doing it. It's not just Netflix it's you know.
37:08.14 alexandra Um, and.
37:19.48 developershangout Hulu or the Bbc has even increased their production quality which mm yeah.
37:21.60 alexandra Ah, the bbcs a yeah, really really great as as ah, you guys is a uk movies are really great and is 1 of our favorites and we have watched it I don't know 3 times in the space of 10 years is rome. Yes.
37:35.25 developershangout Um, yes, such a good movie. Yes.
37:40.88 alexandra Um, is great, really great the historical 1 So yes I have many many that I love and and I and we love looking that and it's nice to to look when in couple because you you comment and laugh and it's the character. So.
37:54.28 developershangout Um, yep, exactly? So we're kind of coming to the end of the show. Um is there anything that you want to plug or have people go and see or check out or is it just the gatsby wordpress themes.
37:58.77 alexandra Yes.
38:09.00 alexandra Um, yes for the moment of getsby work per themes and yes I like that that we are going to launch free theme. It's almost ready So The theme will be is really nice. But he doesn't have options. It doesn't have comments. It doesn't have search and after that we are going to pre our ah ecommerce themes because people are think are waiting for that. So for certainly only woocommerce and shopify Ers Bigcommerce and more.
38:33.95 developershangout Awesome.
38:44.60 developershangout Awesome! Yeah so I'll make sure to drop description show notes everything like that will put in your Twitter handle. So people can follow as well as the gatsby theme twitter and the yeah url to to the website. Um.
38:44.67 alexandra More things to come.
38:53.67 alexandra Um, yes, yes.
39:02.28 developershangout Ah, really appreciate you coming out and and on such short notice I would like to point out that we talked yesterday and now we are talking today. So it was very quick, very quick turnaround I very much appreciate that. Um, yeah, absolutely absolutely and and.
39:09.17 alexandra Um, yes, and yes, and thank you for inviting me I love it I think I ah I'm becoming addict to podcast because it's the third one in 1 moment I love it.
39:22.27 developershangout Ah, and and yeah I Really really appreciate it and please keep in touch keep me updated with everything going on and and and everybody at home. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app and.
39:31.96 alexandra Um, absolutely.
39:38.70 alexandra Of course.
39:41.25 developershangout And until next time see ya.
39:42.86 alexandra See you.
Check out Mike on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mcavaliere
Check out his book: https://www.cutintothejamstack.com/
Want to connect with Jon?
Jon Wood Twitter: https://twitter.com/JWood
Jon Wood Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JonWood
Have Linkedin Learning, Check out Jon's Course: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/ml-dot-net-getting-started/get-started-with-ml-dot-net
Where to connect with Scott
https://scottspence.com/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/scottspenceplease聽
Twitter: https://twitter.com/spences10
Want to check out what Anna is up to:聽
Her Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnnaJMcDougall聽
Her Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjJzKrbr3WGn1xE0LAQ91yA聽
Her Video on becoming a Software Engineer in under a year https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjkdWV_g36k聽
JavaScript in less than 3 minutes playlist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9PscU1uMrA&list=PL6Xx4b2dsNzypTU0dKs24UteJ71PpE4yj
You can find Marc on Twitter: https://twitter.com/themarcba
Marc's personal site can be found here: https://marc.dev/
Marc on a one wheel : https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/42b1a961-dbad-4477-aa7e-5c7c746d80e7/F5D480D9-A985-4E51-A740-32171EF5089B_1_105_c.jpeg?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAT73L2G45O3KS52Y5%2F20210902%2Fus-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20210902T201554Z&X-Amz-Expires=86400&X-Amz-Signature=9f27341c9cee9b143b60ba4e9f3cc436eb8d8381ff10e7bf2bfb3b257bfd407d&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&response-content-disposition=filename%20%3D%22F5D480D9-A985-4E51-A740-32171EF5089B_1_105_c.jpeg%22
Marc's amazing Mustang : https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/586e5c5d-dd52-4c8f-9a6b-744751cead33/DC13EB11-4A06-4908-8660-6C9C977C1993_1_105_c.jpeg?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAT73L2G45O3KS52Y5%2F20210902%2Fus-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20210902T201614Z&X-Amz-Expires=86400&X-Amz-Signature=03ae96d9815f4a3fa5d845a0ad129f0969f6ee94cb3434f53fbecbbbe6de5773&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&response-content-disposition=filename%20%3D%22DC13EB11-4A06-4908-8660-6C9C977C1993_1_105_c.jpeg%22聽
Whiskey Bar: https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/14f3041a-2388-4237-9bc7-37569ac68b6b/21B015C1-35ED-484D-A232-38ADDB3B911B_1_105_c.jpeg?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAT73L2G45O3KS52Y5%2F20210902%2Fus-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20210902T201633Z&X-Amz-Expires=86400&X-Amz-Signature=e1056e600f347fdc34dd301395cdd29be64a78236f41e5f0279dff0156e8fe9f&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&response-content-disposition=filename%20%3D%2221B015C1-35ED-484D-A232-38ADDB3B911B_1_105_c.jpeg%22
Cute Puppy: https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/ed0320bf-f33b-47fb-a1b7-6c44718ea274/CEE54B5D-A9B8-4183-848B-FE131C2FDCCA_1_105_c.jpeg?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAT73L2G45O3KS52Y5%2F20210902%2Fus-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20210902T201654Z&X-Amz-Expires=86400&X-Amz-Signature=b26498c5a50073c85a0d6c250cac98c4d3b4abca81502143daf3a395a6485b47&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&response-content-disposition=filename%20%3D%22CEE54B5D-A9B8-4183-848B-FE131C2FDCCA_1_105_c.jpeg%22
we talk about:
- My homelab setup (Dell R720 Rack Server)
- new m1 mac mini
- space x
- hiking
- drones
Here are some links for some cool stuff including his Cross Country Trip!
Recent Cross Country Road Trip to California - https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/b42be88fc9884b459639f78bd4564e4c
Recorded entire trip, wrote a python script to extract GPS coordinates from the .mp4 dashcam videos. Script leverages exiftool CLI https://exiftool.org/
Plotted the locations on a map - https://prof-services.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=8077e614e80547f8a2fe60fa0c0eb32f
Personal Website and App that uses Strava API - https://franpolignano.com/
In this episode we are hanging out with Chris Ellis, we talk about:
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Moving from America to the UK 聽
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Freelancing even when working as a Pharmacist 聽
-
Learn Build Teach community
-
Meeting people virtually
And so much more!
Want to connect with Chris?https://twitter.com/elliscs
https://chrisellis.dev/
Welcome to the show notesIn Episode 9 of the Developers Hangout Podcast I hangout with James Cox, a new developer who moved from Restaurant management to Development. We hangout and chat about:
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Music (vinyl's still rock)
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Fitness
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Transitioning from working restaurants to working dev.
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and much more!
If you want to connect with JamesTwitter: https://twitter.com/MemRook/
Personal Site: https://www.jamescox.dev/
I sit down with Sam Sycamore, who works at hashnode and lives off the grid! We chat about how offgrid living works, why and how it happened. What the future holds and of course things we have been enjoying!
Sam's socialshttps://twitter.com/tanoaksam
In this Developers Hangout, I hangout with Kap (Kapehe), one third of Better Dev! - We talk about anime - Kitchen Garage - Working out and much more. Check out https://better.dev
This episode is sponsored by
路 Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/developershangout/support
In this episode I sit down with Alex Trost:
Alex Trost runs frontend.horse and works for Prismic we talk about all sorts of things:
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Twitter grifting
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Marriage
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Video games etc.
This episode is sponsored by
路 Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/developershangout/support
In this episode I sit down and talk to Nacho Iacovino
Twitter https://twitter.com/nachoiacovino
This episode is sponsored by
路 Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/developershangout/support
In this episode, Brad and I hangout and talk code, working out, rehabbing injuries, package creation and more!
Site: https://bradgarropy.com/
Podcast: https://webdevweekly.captivate.fm/
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/bradgarropy
GitHub: https://github.com/bradgarropy
YouTube: https://youtube.com/bradgarropy
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bradgarropy
Instagram: https://instagram.com/bradgarropy
This episode is sponsored by
路 Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/developershangout/support
I sit down and hangout with Domitrius Clark and boy do we have a lot to chat about....
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Old jobs
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Getting PS5s
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Gaming
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Anime
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Community and building communities
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The lockdown and taking breaks.
This episode is sponsored by
路 Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/developershangout/support
This episode features the great Colby Fayock, we hangout and chat about:
- Projects he worked on.
- Transitions to Developer relations
- Buying a house
- Things we love
- Our thoughts on Typescript
- Questions for the audience
This episode is sponsored by
路 Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/developershangout/support