S1:E5 - How Hobbies Like Powerlifting, Auto Repair, and Music Can Make You a Better Developer
06/10/20 • 37 min
Sometimes, as developers, we can get so wrapped up and absorbed in our work that that it becomes an all-consuming force in our lives. We get into why we shouldn't forget to have outside hobbies and passions, and how they can even help in mitigating things like burnout, imposter syndrome, and can also help with problem solving, as well as soft skills. To talk about how their own myriad of hobbies have made them better developers, we are joined by Milecia McGregor, senior UI engineer at Mediavine, and author of the DEV post, "Why It's Important To Have Hobbies Outside Of Tech," and Kayla Sween, user experience engineer at Dogly, and author of the post, "Powerlifting has made me a better developer."
Show Notes- DevNews (sponsor)
- CodeNewbie (sponsor)
- DataStax (sponsor)
- Cockroach Labs (DevDiscuss) (sponsor)
- Swimm (DevDiscuss) (sponsor)
- Stellar (sponsor)
- JavaScript
- Mediavine
- Dogly
- Front-end development
- Why It's Important To Have Hobbies Outside Of Tech
- Kung fu
- Ukulele
- Harmonica
- Automobile Repair
- Chevrolet Monte Carlo
- Powerlifting
- Powerlifting has made me a better developer. (Part 1: Interpersonally)
- Powerlifting has made me a better developer. (Part 2: Intrapersonally)
- Olympic weightlifting
- Rock climbing
- React
- Angular
- Saxophone
- Chess
- Xiangqi (Chinese Chess)
- Impostor syndrome
- Soft skills
- Improvisational theatre
- TED
- Magic: The Gathering
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game
- Pokémon Trading Card Game
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Warhammer 40,000
- Skateboarding
Milecia is a senior software engineer and has a master's degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering, with published research in machine learning and robotics. She started Flipped Coding to teach people how to code with real-world projects and she publishes articles covering all aspects of software.
Kayla SweenKayla Sween is a front-end developer who is passionate about UX and inclusive web design. She strives to make the web easier to use for everyone. Kayla also is a competitive powerlifter, proud dog mom, and wife. Job Info: UX Engineer, Dogly
Sometimes, as developers, we can get so wrapped up and absorbed in our work that that it becomes an all-consuming force in our lives. We get into why we shouldn't forget to have outside hobbies and passions, and how they can even help in mitigating things like burnout, imposter syndrome, and can also help with problem solving, as well as soft skills. To talk about how their own myriad of hobbies have made them better developers, we are joined by Milecia McGregor, senior UI engineer at Mediavine, and author of the DEV post, "Why It's Important To Have Hobbies Outside Of Tech," and Kayla Sween, user experience engineer at Dogly, and author of the post, "Powerlifting has made me a better developer."
Show Notes- DevNews (sponsor)
- CodeNewbie (sponsor)
- DataStax (sponsor)
- Cockroach Labs (DevDiscuss) (sponsor)
- Swimm (DevDiscuss) (sponsor)
- Stellar (sponsor)
- JavaScript
- Mediavine
- Dogly
- Front-end development
- Why It's Important To Have Hobbies Outside Of Tech
- Kung fu
- Ukulele
- Harmonica
- Automobile Repair
- Chevrolet Monte Carlo
- Powerlifting
- Powerlifting has made me a better developer. (Part 1: Interpersonally)
- Powerlifting has made me a better developer. (Part 2: Intrapersonally)
- Olympic weightlifting
- Rock climbing
- React
- Angular
- Saxophone
- Chess
- Xiangqi (Chinese Chess)
- Impostor syndrome
- Soft skills
- Improvisational theatre
- TED
- Magic: The Gathering
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game
- Pokémon Trading Card Game
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Warhammer 40,000
- Skateboarding
Milecia is a senior software engineer and has a master's degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering, with published research in machine learning and robotics. She started Flipped Coding to teach people how to code with real-world projects and she publishes articles covering all aspects of software.
Kayla SweenKayla Sween is a front-end developer who is passionate about UX and inclusive web design. She strives to make the web easier to use for everyone. Kayla also is a competitive powerlifter, proud dog mom, and wife. Job Info: UX Engineer, Dogly
Previous Episode
S1:E4 - Should Ruby Still Be a Thing in 2020
Ruby is a scripting language created in the mid-1990s by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto in Japan. It's popularity surged in Japan by 2000, which was also when the first English language book about the language, Programming Ruby was printed. After that, Ruby had its sunrise and sunset in terms of favor amongst developers, but continues to have a robust community of users. In this episode, we talk about the history of the language, some of its benefits and pitfalls, and why we continue to use it at DEV, with Vaidehi Joshi, senior software engineer at DEV, and James Harton, software engineer at Balena, and author of the 2018 DEV post, "Please stop using Ruby."
Show Notes- DevNews (sponsor)
- CodeNewbie (sponsor)
- DataStax (sponsor)
- Cockroach Labs (DevDiscuss) (sponsor)
- Swimm (DevDiscuss) (sponsor)
- Stellar (sponsor)
- GitHub
- Distributed system
- Ruby
- Balena
- Please stop using Ruby
- Please keep using Ruby
- Rails
- Ruby New Zealand
- Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto
- Rust
- Elixir
- MINASWAN
- JavaScript
- Open source
- https://elm-lang.org/
- Duck typing
- Node
- Shopify
- Stripe
- COBOL
- Go
- Java
- The Odin Project
- PHP
- Crystal
- Base.cs
- Python
- C
- Perl
- Smalltalk
James is a senior software engineer based in Wellington, New Zealand. He has over 20 years experience in network and software engineering, and system administration. He is strongly focused on diversity, collaboration, ethics, and mental health in the tech industry. He loves to make things.
Vaidehi JoshiVaidehi Joshi is a software engineer, creator of the Base.cs blog series, and co-host of the Base.cs podcast.
Next Episode
S1:E6 - Little-Known Productivity Tools; Big Productivity Gains
In this episode, we go through our favorite hardware and software that allows us to be the best developers and designers we can be. We invite DEV Principal Software Engineer, Josh Puetz, and DEV Lead Product Designer, Lisa Sy, to talk about their favorite desk setup, organizational, and efficiency tools.
Show Notes- DevNews (sponsor)
- CodeNewbie (sponsor)
- DataStax (sponsor)
- Cockroach Labs (DevDiscuss) (sponsor)
- Swimm (DevDiscuss) (sponsor)
- Stellar (sponsor)
- Rails
- Zoom
- Slack
- Back-end engineering
- Java
- Jarvis Laminate Standing Desk
- Apple Watch
- LG UltraFine 5K Display
- Magic Trackpad 2
- Magic Keyboard
- Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro 12.9‐inch (4th generation)
- Wacom Cintiq 27QHD touch
- Notion
- Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
- Inbox Zero
- Shape Up
- Basecamp
- Jira
- Pivotal
- Focus
- Pomodoro Technique
- Putz
- Visual Studio Code
- Notes
- Launchpad
- Spark
- Spectacle
- Magnet
- Windows 7
- cURL
- HTTPie
- JSON
- ColorSlurp
- QuickTime
- Giphy
- GIPHY Capture
- CloudApp
- Skitch
- Evernote
- Screenhero
- Screen
- Jitsi
- Moleskin
- Spotlight
- Alfred
- manish.imfast.io/
- Lucidchart
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