A Month of Podcasts and Meetups

It has been a busy stretch of guest appearances, spanning podcasts and an online meetup. Here is a rundown of where I have been talking shop lately.

Questioning the Value of a Personal Site

I joined Ed and Tom on A Question of Code for a wide-ranging conversation. The discussion covered why owning your own corner of the web is a serious professional advantage—something that should be standard practice but still sets people apart. The conversation also touched on how the job hunt and recruitment have shifted during COVID-19 and what remote work will mean for junior developers going forward.

Serverless on Smashing Podcast

Over on the Smashing Podcast, Drew and I dug into serverless architectures. The conversation focused on what serverless actually means and how it differs from the way we traditionally build websites. The ecosystem around it continues to evolve—the tools are getting better and cheaper, making it increasingly difficult to ignore. Our dedicated site on the topic keeps receiving a steady stream of pull requests, helping it stay reasonably current.

WooCommerce on Do the Woo

Bob and Mendel invited me onto Do the Woo. While I am not deeply embedded in the WooCommerce community, my history with the platform goes back a ways, and it is something CSS-Tricks relies on more and more, particularly for memberships and merchandise sales.

The Darker Side of Tech

I spoke with Gerry on the Human-Centered Design podcast about some of the less encouraging directions web technology is taking. Gerry’s work consistently revolves around significant, high-level ideas. We went further into one of his recent projects, World Wide Waste, on a separate episode of ShopTalk.

Front-end Career Growth

Finally, I was a guest on the Self-Made Web Designer podcast, where the topic was advancing as a front-end developer. The barrier to entry is higher than it used to be, the industry is crowded, and the definition of the role keeps expanding. We explored how to establish yourself in that environment and how to keep growing once you are in it.

I also made a virtual appearance at the Front-end Development South Africa online meetup.