The Bike Shed

Joël and Aji reference their personal bibliographies as they compare the different influences that have shaped their programmer world view.

Our hosts discuss their most influential programming material, from books, talks and video, and how it’s impacted the way they write code, Joël hones in on the importance of confidence and dealing with uncertainty of objects in a project, while Aji dips into his knowledge of RailConf...

Our hosts discuss the pros of AI and where they find the tool genuinely useful, it’s limitations, downsides and where it’s causing harm, the differences between bad AI code and human code, before asking the question of where this AI boom could be leading us.

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To get more of an insight into today’s episode consider watching Sandi Metz's RubyConf talk to learn more about red-lighting, or read the article Aji mentioned...

Joël and Sally tidy up the place as they discuss the different ways a new codebase and team can feel welcoming to them.

Together they break down the things that help them ingrate into a new project more easily, explain why the lore of a project can be sacred to some, what you can do in the present to make things easier for a developer down the road, and why communication is crucial for keeping everyone on the same page e...

Aji and Joël talk all things hackerthons and why taking the time to have a little having fun with your work every now and then is important for developers.

Our hosts reflect on their shared experience at a previous RailsConf where they entered a mini hackerthon, why playing around in a creative sandbox is crucial to honing your skills as a dev, and how programming on the fly can teach you a lot about your own strengths an...

Joël contributes some thoughts on working with custom attributes as he follows up on last week’s discussion about ActiveModels with Sally.

Joël breaks down how he transforms various strings and objects when working with ActiveModels to simplify more advance workloads, as Sally queries their different use cases and how best to utilise them for her own workflow.

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Catch up on Sally and Aji’s episode from last week on Acti...

Aji and Sally join forces to discuss the different ways they utilise active models in their workflows.

Aji describes a new system for working with active models they’ve been using recently, Sally recalls a project where active models could have saved her a lot of time, before putting their heads together to think of new creative ways to utilise rails’ tools toolset to build other active models.

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Discover more of The M...

Joël and Aji kick off a new season by discussing the best use cases for HTTP basic auth and talking all things security.

The pair ask when and why you would use basic auth over standard HTTPS, it’s pros, cons and vulnerabilities over other forms of security, and provide some advice to help decide on what form of security you could implement on your site.

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Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale ...

Our Bike Shed trio check back in with one another to follow up on some topics that caught their attention over the course of season 1.

Sally covers her time working with React over the last few months and the challenges it still presents to her workflow, Joël goes back over typescripts and the benefits he’s found when debugging, and the cast reflect on the first season as a whole, what they liked, what went well and wh...

Joël and Sally compare various note taking styles as they set out to find which ones work best for them.

The pair break down the different ways of formatting their notes and what they’re used for, Sally explains her struggles with note taking in general and the work arounds she’s found to achieve similar results instead, and Joël provides a small update on his book as he examines the different use cases for all his notes...

Joël and Sally analyse their job titles as they try to figure out exactly which borrowed labels best define their work at thoughtbot.

Together they break down the components of commonly used titles such as engineer, architect and consultant to see which element reflects their work best, how they would describe their roles at thoughtbot, which industries they’d draw from if they came up with their own titles, and what doe...

Joël and Sally grab a flashlight to share some scary dev stories with each other to celebrate spooky season.

Sally tales the tale of the missing production database, Joël flees from some corrupted data, and each recall instances of haunted code and heart stopping moments from projects gone wrong.

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Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the link for your free gift!), and Scou...

Aji gets their priorities straight as they talks with fellow thoughtboter Jared Turner about his recent article titled The President’s Doctor.

Jared breaks down the thought process behind the president’s doctor and the wasted time we accrue when working on a project, where we can minimise pauses and delays in our workflows, and why watching cat videos while you wait may actually be the most productive thing you can do!

Aji and Sally set out to crack the problems surrounding remote working as they share their thoughts on the various aspect of working from home.

Together they discuss their time at the recent thoughtbot summit in Amsterdam, how they felt about working in-person again, what they took away from the experience, the best remote solutions they’ve found to recreate that in-person feeling, and what friction points about remote w...

Aji and Sally sit down to discuss their struggles with ADHD and the systems they have in place to stay focused at work.

They each share the note taking systems and tools they use to navigate a normal working day, how they came to fully understand and manage their ADHD, and Sally reminds us all why it’s very important to use a slash in your Slack reminders.

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This episode of the Bike Shed has been sponsored by Judosca...

Time to plan an upgrade as Joël and Aji talk about the hurdles involved with various change management in their projects.

The pair lay out some different approaches to protecting your data when planning a migration, the risks of code and data changes, the elements that will and won’t be affect in the process, and Joël gives his experience on a tough migration project and what he learnt from it.

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If you’ve not used Mer...

Joël and Sally sit down to discuss their green and red flags when it comes to PR review.

Joël breaks down the different ways humans review code vs AI, how they both break down large projects into smaller digestible PRs and clarifying your reasoning for certain decisions, as well as discussing the most common red flags they’ve encountered when looking over code.

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Take a break from coding to brush up on your Roman Hist...

Sally and Aji discuss their experiences with invisible mentorship when it comes to code review.

Together they question when is the right time to have conversations with your team in a bid to chase improvement, the importance of understanding your co-workers perspectives, as well as the best ways to initiate a mentoring moment.

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Check out some of the things mentioned in this episode - The Coding Train - Sarah Mel’s Li...

It’s board game night at the Bike Shed as Joël and Aji crack out the game pieces to assess how their work as programmers influences strategy when playing some of their favourite games.

As they make their way round the board they discuss the cycle of setbacks and iteration, finding the optimal solution to a puzzle, as well as the key skills that best links their programming work to board games.

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Thanks to our sponsors ...

Joël prepares to write his new book by asking Sally some fundamental questions about Web browsers.

Together they look to answer the deceptively simple question of what is a browser, examining what they are at their core, what they’re capable of beyond basic functions, the nuances of programming for the web across different systems and devices on the front and back end, as well as unpacking the surprising benefits of diff...