engineering
#75 - From Pandemic Pastime To Real VC-Funded Startup, with David Khourshid
March 30, 2024
In this episode of The Work Item, I had a conversation with David Khourshid, founder of Stately.AI. You might know him as @DavidKPiano on social media. Today, we're breaking new ground around unconventional paths of building an engineering career, entrepreneurship, and leveraging your audience as the potential first customers for your product. And of course - we talk a bit more about state machines (David is also the developer behind XState) and lessons learned from launching and growing a startup in the midst of a pandemic.
#72 - Give People What They Came For, with Jerod Santo
February 5, 2024
Today I got the pleasure to chat with Jerod Santo, the Managing Editor at Changelog Media. Picture this – a podcast that not only uncovers the intricacies of Jerod's career but also shares some unconventional lessons learned from his work. From navigating the ever-evolving tech landscape to spearheading Changelog, Jerod brings a wealth of experience that transcends your typical engineer expectations and taps into the heart of what it means to build a sustainable developer community.
#71 - Going Solo As A Developer Educator, with Kent C. Dodds
January 29, 2024
Kent C. Dodds is a developer, educator, community organizer, and above all, a person that is passionate about making the world a better place by giving as many folks as possible the opportunity to learn web development. I sat down with Kent to chat more about his career, what bootstrapped his interest in programming, and what his takeaways from building his path as an entrepreneur are.
#70 - Building a Career In Developer Tools, with Kenneth Auchenberg
December 31, 2023
Today, you're in for a treat as I sit down with Kenneth Auchenberg, a seasoned product manager - you might know him from his work at Microsoft on Visual Studio Code as well as on developer tools at Stripe. He is also a developer and overall a very nice person to know.
#63 - Beyond Just Engineering Skills, with Adrienne Braganza Tacke
November 8, 2023
If you want to be intentional about your career and become a multidisciplinary professional, this conversation with Adrienne Tacke is for you.
#62 - Building Sustainable Practices, with Jason Fried
October 23, 2023
Jason Fried is the co-founder and CEO of 37signals, the company behind Basecamp and Hey. I chat with Jason about his path to entrepreneurship, the lack of value in a lot of meetings, and generally building sustainable practices that enable businesses and their employees to thrive.
#61 - Career Moats And Beyond, with Cedric Chin
October 9, 2023
In this episode, I am chatting with Cedric Chin - the founder of the CommonCog blog and business series. You might've read some of Cedric's writing on career moats before.
#60 - Defining A Force Multiplier, with Sam Saccone
December 28, 2022
When we choose our career path, we often try to optimize for one specific bucket - you're a product manager, or a project manager, or a UX designer, or any other variation of an expertise area in tech. Sam Saccone defies the expectations of a single role and instead believes in being a "plumber" - doing whatever work is necessary to enable others to do their own version of great work. I sat down with Sam to learn more about his path to a Senior Staff Engineer at Google, what it means to brute-force your way through problems, and what the best avenues are to become a force multiplier for your team.
#59 - Building On Your Own, with iOS Developer Donny Wals
December 22, 2022
Leaving your full-time job behind and starting your own business based on your own brand is a somewhat scary proposition. And yet, this is exactly what Donny Wals, a prolific iOS developer and technology teacher, is doing. In this episode I sat down with him to talk more about his work, what was his thinking in going solo, and what one needs to learn quickly in an ever-changing technology space.
#58 - Becoming a Game Studio Co-Founder, with Moon Studios' Gennadiy Korol
November 2, 2022
Working on games is hard. It's even harder to go from an engineer to a founder of a game studio that is able to produce two blockbuster titles in a row. In today's show I chat with Moon Studios co-founder Gennadiy Korol about his work on Ori (if you're near an Xbox or a PC - the game is worth your time), learning the complexity of graphics engineering, and navigating the uncertainty that comes from starting a zero-to-one effort where you have nothing to fall back on.