Beyond Coding
By Patrick Akil
Common topics are: technology, software engineering, philosophy, communication, self-improvement and happiness.
Patrick Akil and his guests share their journeys and perspectives for you to take with you and form your own.
Authentic, informative and inspiring. That's what we aim for with every episode.
Beyond CodingMay 31, 2023
Passion, Day in the Life, YouTube and Patrick’s NYC trip with Patrick Akil
The more I do these AmA’s, the more privileged it feels. I get to share my experience, introspect, reminisce, laugh and hopefully add value and perspective.
Thank you for making it possible :)
#AmA nr. 4, counting them 😂🙌
Enjoy 🎙
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for sponsoring this episode!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:35 - What do you look for in a guest?
00:02:25 - How do you keep your skills up to date?
00:05:33 - What programming languages do you currently use?
00:06:22 - Balancing work and the podcast
00:08:26 - ChatGPT roasted my work
00:11:11 - From a hobby to part of a job
00:13:40 - Common misconception about software engineering
00:15:08 - Most unexpecting learnings through the podcast
00:17:39 - Paying for podcast guests
00:18:46 - Day in the life when recording an episode
00:20:10 - One of my favourite things
00:24:13 - Memorable feedback and messages
00:27:22 - personal goals
00:31:24 - Gaming and listening to PKA
00:34:23 - Listening to the Joe Rogan Experience
00:35:01 - Patrick's NYC trip
00:35:58 - Casey Neistat video inspiration
00:37:23 - Nigahiga and Internet Icon
00:38:38 - NYC trip part2
00:41:16 - This was a lot of fun
Hackathon Awesomeness, Career Benefits and Culture with Sashrika Kaur
I’ve never heard someone talk bad about hackathons. Everyone loves it.
The projects that’ve been built during hackathons have even been the start of a company, of something big.
But what about hackathons make people like it so much. Is it the people, the format, the culture?
Sashrika Kaur comes on to discuss all these things and more!
Enjoy! 🎙
Connect with Sashrika Kaur:
https://linkedin.com/in/sashrika-kaur
https://twitter.com/sashrikakaur
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for sponsoring this episode!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:29 - Sashrika moving to London
00:02:37 - Friendships across the world
00:03:09 - How Sashrika got involved in Major League Hacking
00:05:51 - Innovation Days vs. hackathons
00:09:13 - People love hackathons
00:13:36 - A focus on collaboration
00:15:04 - Building things from scratch
00:18:14 - The perfect duration of a hackathon
00:20:07 - hackathon skills that translate to your career
00:23:47 - The benefit of reading code
00:25:05 - Competitiveness in developing software
00:27:01 - Personal insecurities in hackathons
00:32:21 - It's about the outcomes
00:32:57 - Good vs. great hackathons
00:37:16 - Why the term "hacker"?
00:39:57 - Optimal team sizes
00:41:49 - What do you become a hackathon coach?
00:44:04 - Why Sashrika works in big tech
00:48:23 - Balancing the workload
00:51:41 - More or less hackathons?
00:55:21 - Go to hackathons!
Blogging, Teaching and Sharing Knowledge with Andrew Duthie
Andrew comes on to share his love for blogging and knowledge sharing in general. Especially with regards to teaching. Whether it’s in tech, or anywhere else, it’s incredibly rewarding and fulfilling to see people grow and overcome challenges with your guidance.
Enjoy! 🎙
Connect with Andrew:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/devhammer
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for sponsoring this episode!
Product Strategy, Feedback Cycles and Laser Focus with Andreas Prins
Andreas Prins comes on to share the pivot and journey he’s gone through with StackState, a product company. My biggest takeaway is how much more effective you can be by solving one problem, and solving it really well. By maintaining focus on a single use case, things become simpler and more clear. Both from a customer perspective, as well as from the teams that build the product.
“If you need 6 web pages to explain what you do, you might want to rethink your solution”
One of my favourite quotes from the episode.
It was a real pleasure to learn from his journey and I hope it’s a good listen as well :)
Enjoy! 🎙
Connect with Andreas Prins:
https://linkedin.com/in/andreasprins
https://twitter.com/andreasprins
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:28 - The day to day of Andreas
00:01:14 - Market Research
00:02:31 - Taking ideas from open source
00:03:45 - What problem is StackState solving?
00:06:45 - How has StackState evolved?
00:09:46 - Building the right thing
00:12:55 - Engineers adopting solutions
00:16:17 - Breadth vs. depth
00:17:54 - Feedback from the engineering team and customers
00:20:26 - Who talks to customers?
00:21:55 - Pitfalls of technical founders
00:25:49 - Super focus on one problem
00:27:20 - Getting great engagement at demo's
00:30:30 - Processing feedback
00:32:51 - Understanding the big picture
00:35:56 - Entrepreneurial mindset
00:37:41 - Entrepreneurial environments
00:40:18 - Open core and building a community
00:45:52 - Not accepting the status quo
00:47:29 - Outro
Insecurities, Judgement, Behaviour and Self-Care with Alex Østergaard
Insecurities, everyone has them, but not everyone deals with them the same. And interestingly enough, behaviour and insecurities can originate from experiences you’ve had as a child.
This is one of the many takeaways I had from chatting with Alex Østergaard on this episode.
With an interest in coaching myself, it was a real pleasure to learn from his perspective and how he does things. Active listening, zero judgement and self-compassion being a few ingredients to his success.
Enjoy! 🎙
Connect with Alex Østergaard:
https://linkedin.com/in/alex-life-coach
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:38 - Patrick's managers
00:01:42 - Resources to help with coaching
00:03:27 - How to build up trust
00:04:40 - No Judgement
00:06:03 - Criticism and drive
00:06:48 - Self-compassion
00:09:04 - Feeling of being not good enough
00:12:55 - Self-care
00:15:36 - Getting out of a slope
00:18:09 - Control how you feel
00:20:55 - Alex's LinkedIn profile is amazing
00:21:48 - Big Tech Tunnel Vision
00:24:18 - Toxic relationship with your company
00:25:50 - Weight of gold
00:26:47 - Fulfilment vs. compensation
00:28:52 - Self doubt and trusting yourself
00:32:38 - Patrick's past insecurities joining Xebia
00:35:38 - None of us know what we're doing
00:36:24 - What people think of you
00:38:26 - Fear of judgement
00:39:19 - Judgement from the podcast
00:40:30 - Asking for help
00:41:41 - 5 types of imposter syndrome
00:43:28 - Pride
00:45:37 - Behaviour explained through the past
00:47:30 - No one is to blame
00:49:00 - It's not right or wrong
High Performance Mindset with Reiner Kraft
Managing your mind. It’s not something I thought you could do, or would need to do. But after chatting with Reiner Kraft, I think doing so can have a profound impact on bringing focus and increasing performance.
Reiner shares his journey of becoming aware of mindfulness to now helping others to manage their minds with data and through coaching.
Enjoy! 🎙
Connect with Reiner Kraft:
https://linkedin.com/in/reiner
https://www.themindfulleader.net
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3uuWfXcVNWOG1g59f9520Q
Epigenetics:
https://www.epigenetikpraxis.de
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:25 - Work Culture USA VS EU
00:00:25 - Career path
00:01:32 - Changing Your Work environment
00:02:31 - Stress & Mindfulness
00:04:06 - Working culture in Europe
00:07:25 - Pressure at work
00:12:56 - A state of flow
00:17:04 - Measuring present awareness
00:20:05 - Becoming more mindful
00:27:46 - Mental work vs. physical work
00:32:59 - Growing up and focusing
00:37:56 - Influence of technology on body and mind
00:43:39 - Performance of the mind and body
00:49:44 - Changing your lifestyle
00:54:39 - Outro
AmA: Personal Development, Podcast Goals & More with Patrick Akil
We're back with another AmA episode! 🙌
Or is this the first one? 🤔
Tons of great questions and a very special guest jumps in here and there as well!
The man with many names, my friend and producer: Roald Willemsen
🎙Enjoy! 🤗
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/srJp0N9_iLc
New episodes every Wednesday with me 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:47 - If you could start your career over what would you do differently?
00:05:00 - How valuable did you find the podcast in terms of personal development and giving back to the community?
00:05:07 - Personal Development
00:10:07 - Giving back to the community
00:11:49 - What’s next for the podcast?
00:13:05 - Patrick Akil Podcast
00:14:55 - Are you a native English speaker?
00:17:33 - How much do you work remote and how much do you go to the office?
00:20:31 - If you couldn’t do the podcast anymore what would you do?
00:22:17 - How does a new software engineer make themselves valuable as an employee in this era of AI and machine learning?
00:27:12 - As a software engineer, what is the one thing you'll never actually want to do?
00:29:23 - Who or what has inspired you in your career?
00:33:53 - How would your 10 year old self react to what you are doing now?
00:35:14 - What do you remember most about your first job?
00:43:53 - Outro
Changing Culture, Career Insights and Outcomes with Jason Lengstorf
Our 100th episode special with Jason Lengstorf!
It's been a while since we've done an in-person episode, but Jason happened to be in the neighbourhood, so we made it happen 🙌
We had a blast and kept rolling longer than usual with exciting discussions on various topics 🚀
Thank you so much for tuning in for this milestone episode, I truly appreciate your support! 🤗
Connect with Jason Lengstorf:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlengstorf
https://twitter.com/jlengstorf
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnty0z0pNRDgnuoirYXnC5A
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/RNW7S9U7VkA
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:37 - Live podcasts
00:01:48 - In person podcasts
00:03:15 - Public speaking
00:05:28 - Finding your topic
00:07:21 - Preventing a burnout
00:11:48 - Work-life balance
00:15:01 - Creative outlets
00:16:38 - Different ways to consume information
00:19:41 - Authenticity and integrity
00:22:35 - Relationships throughout your career
00:25:23 - Type of work and the scale of the organisation
00:31:27 - Mapping out your core values
00:36:10 - Understanding the politics of an organization
00:39:57 - The challenges with big organisations
00:42:37 - Strategically levering relationships
00:44:45 - Stress and weird behaviour
00:48:37 - Big picture thinking
00:52:22 - Outcomes vs output
00:57:00 - Culture and marketing
01:04:08 - Engaging media
01:15:48 - Company cultures
01:19:43 - Changing perception
01:23:48 - Amazing USPs
01:32:32 - Customer value
01:37:54 - Come build with me
01:41:36 - Streaming in front of people
01:47:27 - Riding the waves
01:50:17 - Big thank you!
Main vs. Side Hustle, Work Ethic and Leveling Up with Vanessa Sanyauke
What started out as a passion project turned into a full-fledged global organization for Vanessa Sanyauke. She shares how to level up in your career, set realistic expectations and how she started
a side hustle which later became her main hustle.
What really stuck with me is how far hard work and dedication can bring you, but not without sacrifice.
Enjoy! 🎙
Connect with Vanessa Sanyauke:
https://www.vanessasanyauke.com
https://linkedin.com/in/vanessa-chiedza-sanyauke-9b41171a
https://twitter.com/vanessasanyauke
https://www.girlstalklondon.com
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/NFALtI3_vcA
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil! Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:32 - Remote working internationally
00:01:58 - Working from the office
00:02:28 - Raising investment
00:03:14 - Controlling your nerves while pitching
00:03:59 - Minorities and the chance of getting funded
00:04:31 - Day to day Business
00:05:48 - Running a global organisation
00:06:57 - Challenges of running a global organisation
00:09:12 - Remote working vs in-person working
00:10:10 - Building a community
00:13:01 - Ethics around picking your sponsorships
00:15:43 - Building a network
00:17:13 - Companies and networking
00:19:13 - Starting your career
00:22:23 - Talking with people
00:23:23 - Leveling up in your career
00:24:49 - Working for yourself
00:27:31 - Starting a side hustle
00:29:12 - Preventing a burnout
00:33:03 - How to say NO?
00:36:26 - Invest in yourself
00:39:38 - Work ethic
00:44:04 - Outro
ChatGPT, Research vs. Experience and Teamwork with Forrest Knight
Forrest Knight shares how his perspective towards ChatGPT has shifted as we discuss the benefits of having AI as a team member, its place in a team, and the tasks that AI can handle.
Next to that we cover the benefits of working in a team in comparison to working on personal projects, the value of creating, and the differences between learning from research and experience.
You’ll really like this one!
Enjoy 🎙
Connect with Forrest Knight:
https://youtube.com/c/@fknight
https://twitter.com/forrestpknight
https://www.linkedin.com/in/forrestpknight
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:28 - ChatGPT
00:02:10 - Coding with ChatGPT
00:03:04 - What kind of tool is ChatGPT?
00:09:00 - ChatGPT as Team Member
00:10:08 - AI's Place in the Team
00:12:35 - Tasks for AI
00:17:07 - Research in Content Creation
00:21:04 - Coding outside of work
00:27:39 - Benefits of working in a team
00:31:19 - Asking for help inside a team
00:36:09 - Scheduling Research
00:41:22 - Working by yourself VS working in a Team
00:43:49 - Changing Workflows
00:48:22 - Research, experience and learning
00:49:27 - The Value of Creating
00:51:59 - Don't be afraid of AI
00:53:13 - Outro
Personal Development, Goals and Career with Milan Milanović
Milan Milanović shares his structured approach to personal development. A fundamental aspect of that is personal goals. He explains why setting the right goals is crucial for success, and how to sustainably achieve them over time.
Next to that, we touch upon the significance of mentoring and coaching and how a regular cadence can accelerate your personal development and career growth.
Enjoy 🎙
Connect with Milan Milanović:
https://milan.milanovic.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/milanmilanovic
https://twitter.com/milan_milanovic
Full episode on YouTube ▶️ https://youtu.be/vW3w3CWyI7w
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:23 - Milan is an avid reader
00:02:27 - Putting theory into practise
00:04:43 - How Milan organizes knowledge
00:06:33 - Finding your life path
00:09:19 - Ikigai
00:12:19 - Companies should invest in your growth
00:13:57 - Measurable goals
00:16:39 - Patrick's experience with goals
00:18:42 - Where will you be in 5 years?
00:19:59 - How to find a mentor or coach
00:21:20 - Mentoring process
00:23:49 - The benefits of mentors and coaches
00:25:02 - Soft skills are necessary
00:27:50 - Milan's love for hands-on tech
00:31:59 - Milan's 5 year plan
00:33:08 - Inspiration vs. output
00:35:04 - Passion and opportunity
00:37:15 - Sustainable work
00:38:00 - Condensing content and sharing
00:41:12 - Patrick's horrible note taking system
00:44:05 - Systems are better than goals
00:46:02 - Consistency > motivation
Data Analytics, Building a Product and Big Data with Alex Freberg
Alex Freberg comes on and shares his experience of pursuing content creation and consultancy full-time, along with the thought process behind his decision.
Additionally, he gives us a little sneak peek into the product he's building with his startup.
We also discuss the various analyst roles you might come across and what the differences are between them.
Finally, we touch on big data challenges and the best practices for companies to collect and store data effectively.
Enjoy 🎙
Connect with Alex Freberg:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-freberg
https://www.youtube.com/@alextheanalyst
https://twitter.com/Alex_TheAnalyst
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/y6EDBUNS_UI
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:32 - Alex is a dad and husband first
00:01:11 - Quitting a stable job
00:03:10 - Hyperbolic concerns
00:04:15 - Alex had a YT channel reviewing watches
00:05:09 - Where did Alex the analyst come from?
00:06:43 - Data analyst vs. Business analyst
00:08:39 - Every company is different
00:09:40 - Generalist vs. Specialist
00:12:34 - Alex's passion for education
00:13:59 - 1-1 sessions vs. YouTube
00:15:08 - Re-evaluating priorities
00:18:05 - Saying no
00:18:49 - Alex's startup
00:21:00 - The best client to work with
00:23:27 - Things don't go perfectly
00:24:39 - Feeling part of the team
00:25:27 - Learning collaboratively
00:26:17 - What happens post go-live?
00:27:37 - An authentic feeling
00:29:57 - Saying NO to sponsorships
00:31:06 - Sponsorships gone bad
00:33:27 - Great sponsorships and collaborations
00:34:44 - Patrick's take on Udemy
00:35:48 - What data to collect and store
00:37:54 - Issues with storing data you don't use
00:39:55 - No company has perfect data
00:41:13 - YOU CAN DO IT!
Changing Careers, Listening and Podcasting with Bart Farrell
Probably the most fun conversation I’ve had while having the most connectivity issues 😂
Hopefully nothing noticeable :)
Bart Farrell comes on and shares his non-linear journey to the tech industry. I love how he leverages his previous experience in what he does now and isn’t afraid to jump into the unknown.
Next to that, we discuss our learnings from having had many conversations with different. Listening is one of the key takeaways there.
Enjoy 🎙
Connect with Bart Farrell:
https://twitter.com/birthmarkbart
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bart-farrell
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/qAvZ1gBg3eU
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:28 - Bart's non-linear path to the tech industry
00:02:15 - Bart's YouTube channel
00:04:06 - Teaching and organising events
00:06:25 - Changing careers in Bart's environment
00:09:09 - Leveraging previous experience
00:11:00 - Baby steps
00:11:55 - Breaking things down into small pieces
00:15:16 - Patrick's podcasting journey
00:17:02 - Starting vs. Finishing
00:19:38 - Grinding it out
00:20:37 - Self reflection
00:22:48 - What Patrick has learned through talking to people
00:24:24 - Creating great environments
00:26:31 - Training for listening
00:29:02 - Listening as conference topic
00:30:38 - The feeling of being heard
00:32:25 - Powerful silences
00:34:50 - Podcasts we've listened to
00:37:04 - Why are people listening?
00:38:30 - Bart loves Ear Hustle
00:40:02 - Making notes while listening
00:41:38 - Facing imposter syndrome
00:44:28 - Suffering from not knowing
00:46:16 - Mentoring & Feedback
00:48:46 - Bouncing perceptions
00:51:10 - Bart has his calendly link open
00:53:44 - Truly helping people
Platform Engineering & Platform as a Product with Luca Galante
What is Platform Engineering, why does it exist and why should you care? Those are the main questions we discuss in this episode and who better to do that with than Luca Galante 🙌
He shares his journey with platform engineering, the different flavours he's seen in organisations and how the DevOps is dead controversy developed.
Enjoy! 🎙
Connect with Luca Galante:
https://twitter.com/luca_cloud
https://linkedin.com/in/luca-galante
More on Platform Engineering:
https://platformengineering.org
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/x8kDNO1Pjc0
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:26 - How Luca got into Platform Engineering
00:04:01 - Shared identity
00:07:00 - What is platform engineering?
00:08:35 - Platform as a product
00:11:34 - Platform team structures
00:14:42 - The right level of abstraction
00:17:02 - Frustration in complex landscapes
00:18:46 - Ideal starting point for platform teams
00:21:23 - Platform teams competing
00:24:32 - Falling in love with your platform
00:26:09 - Managed solutions
00:28:31 - Blueprints and reference architectures
00:31:22 - Being sustainable
00:33:19 - Zero to one and one+ people
00:35:45 - No platform team yet?
00:38:14 - Tragedy of the commons
00:40:05 - Why platform initiatives fail
00:42:13 - Technical product owners
00:45:05 - Feedback & solving real problems
00:47:02 - The DevOps is dead controversy
00:50:32 - DevOps is dead booth on KubeCon
00:53:26 - Having a healthy conversation
Knowledge Sharing through Writing with Luca Rossi
I know many developers that blog, or have ever thought of blogging. I’m in that group as well.
But the people I know that have turned writing into their full-time gig is a lot smaller.
Luca Rossi belongs to that group and he comes on to share how he started refactoring.club, how he optimised his process and also what challenges he faces: ivory tower writing, solo perspective and being a liability to name a few.
I’m happy to have had such an open and honest conversation with him about his process, learnings and these challenges. I’m sure you’ll love it!
Enjoy! 🎙
Connect with Luca Rossi:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucaronin
https://twitter.com/lucaronin
https://refactoring.club
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/ZkU1TZU0d8s
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:30 - Flexible schedules
00:02:15 - Accountable to deliver
00:03:34 - How Luca started his newsletter
00:05:54 - Newsletters that inspired Luca
00:07:30 - Deciding to write full-time
00:09:20 - How people find Luca's newsletter
00:11:19 - Getting feedback
00:12:42 - Finding your niche
00:16:16 - Connecting with the person
00:17:46 - Editing the podcast episodes
00:18:57 - Tying feedback to your vision
00:20:18 - Advice & feedback that stuck with Luca
00:22:07 - Skills you develop while writing full-time
00:24:36 - Should engineers write?
00:26:39 - Writing to stand the test of time
00:30:03 - Staying away from ivory tower writing
00:32:36 - The challenges of a single perspective
00:35:04 - Luca's optimized writing process
00:38:54 - Increasing quality incrementally
00:40:30 - quality AND consistency
00:42:19 - to push or go easy on yourself
00:43:21 - Conversations can energize you
00:44:49 - long-term planning vs. enjoying the ride
00:46:13 - Treating the newsletter like a product
Ethics, Values, and Layoffs in Big Tech with Dorothea Baur
Can companies afford ethics in bad times? Looking at the recent mass layoffs in big tech, it looks like they couldn't.
Dorothea Baur shares how she combines ethics and strategy to bring value to organisations. Next to that, we discuss the relationship between ethics, purpose and company values. Through this lens, we discuss the reputational damage of the big tech layoffs.
Enjoy! 🎙
Connect with Dorothea Baur:
https://baurconsulting.ch
https://twitter.com/DorotheaBaur
https://linkedin.com/in/dorotheabaur
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/KxS2THT7rM4
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
0:00:00 - Intro
00:00:25 - The sea of fog in Switzerland
00:03:12 - Dorothea's day to day
00:04:06 - Synthetic media and plagiarism
00:06:24 - The EU AI Act
00:07:52 - Dorothea is an Ethics Strategy Consultant
00:09:07 - Combining Ethics and Strategy
00:10:45 - Company Values and Ethics
00:13:13 - Ethics and Core Business
00:16:02 - Interpretation of Ethics
00:18:08 - What is fair?
00:19:55 - Making money from ethical actions
00:21:57 - Ethics help create a strong culture
00:23:21 - Purpose
00:25:14 - Younger generations care about purpose
00:27:56 - Awareness of world impact
00:29:42 - Patrick lives under a rock
00:30:29 - Ethically sound and integrity
00:33:49 - Incentives and Ethics
00:34:58 - Layoffs in Big Tech
00:37:09 - Using the law to your advantage in firing people
00:39:00 - Can companies afford ethics?
00:41:25 - Reputational damage
00:42:43 - Employee protection & gaps in regulations
00:45:22 - The impact of ChatGPT
00:48:47 - Rounding off
Kubernetes, DevOps and SRE the right way with Nana Janashia
What stuck with me from this chat with Nana is that curiosity and hunger for learning & sharing will bring you further than anything else.
In her case, learning Kubernetes and AWS and sharing that knowledge eventually lead to becoming Docker Captain, AWS Hero & CNCF Ambassador.
Those were never goals, but always a result of focussing on efforts.
In doing so she managed to grow a YouTube community of 700k subs.
Enjoy! 🎙
Connect with Nana Janashia:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nana-janashia
https://twitter.com/Njuchi_
https://www.techworld-with-nana.com
https://www.youtube.com/c/techworldwithnana
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/KFZjl1gofXs
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:31 - Who does what on the YouTube channel
00:00:59 - How Nana started on YouTube
00:03:15 - Split responsibilities
00:04:34 - How Nana got into DevOps technologies
00:08:19 - Nana's first Kubernetes experience
00:13:47 - Accommodating for requirements
00:14:30 - Trial and error with Kubernetes early on
00:16:10 - How to make it run & how to make it right
00:20:46 - How Nana stays on top of production level knowledge
00:25:56 - Nana's love for teaching and simplifying
00:29:20 - The difference between DevOps and SRE
00:33:07 - SRE and DevOps engineers in teams
00:36:55 - Cloud Engineers in a seperate team
00:38:44 - Different solutions
00:39:31 - the DevOps is dead controversy
00:42:00 - Docker Captain, AWS hero and CNCF ambassador
00:43:21 - Nana's YouTube channel goals
00:44:56 - Focussing on efforts
00:46:03 - Nana's early in career advice
00:48:04 - You take learnings with you
00:51:29 - Curiosity and learning new things
Q&A: First Job Advice & Tips and Skills vs. Degree with Patrick Akil
We're back with another Q&A episode! 🙌
Had a blast answering your questions 😁
Let me know if I should do more of these 💬
Xebia Essentials: Resource about Software Development Done Right (not for sale):
https://essentials.xebia.com/cards
Books & Resources by Pat Kua:
https://www.patkua.com/blog/book-recommendations-by-engineering-leaders
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/IqcFUeOJ3qE
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Getting ready
00:00:39 - What was your first software development job experience?
00:04:22 - Do you have any tips or advice for new engineers entering the field?
00:07:39 - Is a degree actually required, or are skills enough?
00:09:50 - Drink water advice
00:09:59 - How does a junior developer get their first job?
00:13:39 - What books / resources would you recommend to improve problem solving?
00:17:13 - What resources and practises did you use to improve your problem solving skills?
00:20:42 - What motivates you in your career?
00:24:14 - What is some of the best advice you’ve ever gotten on the podcast?
00:28:38 - What is your new year's resolution for the podcast?
00:30:49 - How do you stay motivated in doing the podcast?
00:32:21 - Do you think you will ever run out of topics for the podcast?
00:34:30 - What is your advice for those that are thinking of starting a podcast?
00:36:19 - Who is your main inspiration in life?
00:38:06 - Mic drop
A Career as Manager with Wim den Besten
“If people see you as a leader in a good way, then you’re doing a good job as a manager”
Having been a manager at Oracle for 20+ years, Wim shares his unique experience on leadership, how to inspire and how to add value as a manager.
Enjoy! 🎙
Connect with Wim den Besten:
https://www.wimdenbesten.nl
https://www.linkedin.com/in/wim-den-besten-9635b4
https://twitter.com/wimdenbesten
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/hXvytR0UuiA
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:30 - Investing in people
00:01:35 - Early learnings as manager
00:03:59 - Wim's advice to managers & leaders
00:06:16 - Situational Coaching
00:08:08 - Hiring for diversity
00:13:03 - The next step for someone
00:17:33 - How to inspire people
00:19:44 - Dealing with people
00:22:26 - Wim's drive as manager
00:25:49 - Not being able to add value
00:27:48 - Hard times and pressure
00:29:30 - Transparency and honesty
00:32:47 - Delegating
00:34:35 - Decision making
00:36:54 - Micromanagement
00:39:11 - Getting feedback as manager
00:42:33 - Salary conversations
Rememberable Presentations and Personal Branding with Sabine Wojcieszak
Sabine shares how to give presentations people will remember. How to leverage storytelling, stay authentic and create your content in a goal-oriented way.
On top of that we discuss the importance of personal branding and being more visible. Both for employees and organisations.
Enjoy! 🎙
Connect with Sabine Wojcieszak:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabineberneckerbendixen
https://twitter.com/SabineBendixen
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/SV6tneTIdSE
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:32 - Personal branding becoming more important
00:04:10 - A company can have multiple faces
00:05:30 - Bad preparation
00:07:49 - 2 perspectives on a presentation
00:09:29 - The presentation is for the audience
00:10:47 - Finding a sparring partner
00:12:28 - How important is the storyline?
00:13:51 - Visuals are what we remember
00:15:51 - 2 usecases for slides
00:17:50 - What people struggle with in public speaking
00:19:45 - Human beings on stage
00:20:49 - Nervousness
00:22:24 - Being authentic on stage
00:24:42 - Looking outside in
00:25:41 - Should everyone be more visible?
00:26:37 - Sabine's love for presentations
00:28:16 - Sabine's first conference talk
00:29:29 - Getting feedback
00:30:55 - What feedback has stuck with Sabine
00:34:06 - Team goals vs. personal goals
00:36:46 - Transparency
00:37:32 - How can organisations facilitate more w.r.t. personal branding?
00:40:58 - Just try it
Job vs. Career, Content Creation & Motivation with James Q Quick
James shares how developer advocacy experience and content creation has helped him throughout his career, especially early on. Next to that, we discuss the difference between a job and a career, motivation and passion.
Enjoy! 🎙
Connect with James Q Quick:
https://www.jamesqquick.com
https://twitter.com/jamesqquick
https://www.learnbuildteach.com
https://www.youtube.com/@JamesQQuick
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/tdvuAbc7P7U
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:25 - Finding your voice
00:01:41 - James's experience as evangelist
00:03:05 - Content strategies
00:04:57 - Consistency vs. Quality
00:07:08 - Listening to feedback
00:10:56 - Feedback that has stuck with James
00:15:44 - James's early in career experience
00:19:29 - Job vs. Career
00:20:42 - Comparing yourself to others
00:26:35 - From evangelist to full-time programming
00:29:51 - Stepping away from the developer role
00:32:07 - Content creators are at the forefront
00:36:56 - Advocating for yourself
00:37:44 - Work ethic
00:40:20 - Work life balance
00:44:10 - Flexibility and overworking
00:48:02 - Advice for early in career in tech
00:50:37 - Changing teams and companies
00:53:40 - Make sure you're happy
00:56:16 - Last thoughts
SexTech Startup with Emilie Wiersma
Tailoring to a user group which hasn't traditionally been tailored much to, Emilie aims to create the biggest sex-positive marketplace in the world with Konfettie!
Like any other founder, she's had to overcome challenges, but not everyone deals with being slandered and banned from social media. The way she picks back up in the face of adversity is admirable and I'm really happy she's sharing her learnings along the way.
Enjoy! 🎙
Connect with Emilie Wiersma:
https://nl.linkedin.com/in/emiliewiersma
https://twitter.com/sextechsavvy
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/Pz3xe4Y10cA
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:28 - Emilie has 3 mentors
00:03:47 - Emilie's first business
00:05:24 - Not working for a boss
00:06:37 - Creating fantasies for people
00:09:37 - Sex toys are unregulated
00:11:14 - Etsy and censorship
00:14:10 - Cheap materials
00:15:07 - Onboarding sellers on Konfettie
00:16:23 - Issues with products
00:17:46 - How to set up a marketplace
00:18:48 - Failing to deliver
00:19:57 - Everything custom
00:21:17 - People don't know what they want
00:24:15 - Emilie was doing everything
00:26:02 - Getting kicked off of social media
00:28:37 - Sex toy collectors
00:30:41 - Marketing that doesn't scale
00:33:04 - Airbnb was funded with cereal boxes
00:34:07 - Smut Slam
00:36:18 - Finding a co-founder
00:39:14 - Investment rounds
00:42:22 - Different dynamics with a team
00:44:18 - It's just a company
00:45:54 - Listening to customer feedback
00:50:34 - What is the end goal?
Dedicated Teams, Autonomy and Effectiveness with Serge Beaumont
“What people want the most is to be useful, be effective and have an impact on the world. The specific responsibilities that come with it, tend not to be as important as that.“
Serge Beaumont shares how to achieve dedicated teams, the importance of autonomy and how to be effective together.
A great listen for those that love effective teams!
Enjoy! 🎙
Connect with Serge Beaumont:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergebeaumont
https://mobile.twitter.com/sbeaumont
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/bfEA96mGe1A
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:26 - 20 projects
00:01:18 - Unclear priorities
00:04:50 - Teams and common goals
00:06:18 - Sociocracy 3.0 Delegation Canvas
00:07:52 - Delegating power
00:11:21 - Who are we as a team?
00:13:04 - Clarity and responsibilities
00:15:11 - Sanitisation canvas
00:18:54 - Role and Soul
00:23:09 - Responsibility and accountability
00:25:01 - Why does scrum only have 3 roles?
00:29:04 - Shared mental model
00:31:42 - Teams that are big
00:34:44 - Autonomy
00:36:17 - Partitioning a team
00:39:17 - Technical autonomy gone wrong
00:41:27 - Loose coupling
00:43:17 - Falling back to old behaviour
00:45:17 - Agile transformation at bol.com
00:48:30 - Leadership vision
00:50:33 - Keepers of the culture
00:52:22 - Lack of mandate
00:53:53 - Psychological safety
00:54:50 - Fear is the great killer
00:56:29 - How interesting
Open Core, Pricing and AI product development with Dat Tran
Dat Tran shares how he co-founded Priceloop, what problem it solves and how he's choosing to open source the core product.
I've seen more and more organisations choose this open core strategy. It removes lots of the hurdles for customer and developer adoption. On top of that, you join forces / create a community to make the product better.
Enjoy! 🎙
Connect with Dat Tran:
https://dat-tran.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dat-tran-a1602320
https://twitter.com/datitran
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/5DbJhv7ikIk
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:23 - Playing around with ChatGPT
00:02:11 - ChatGPT is a building block
00:03:38 - AI Product Development
00:08:05 - What problems does Priceloop solve
00:14:49 - Different visualisations than spreadsheets
00:20:02 - Building the right thing
00:24:31 - Open sourcing the code
00:31:26 - What parts are still closed source?
00:34:14 - Managing services
00:36:04 - Sticking to your core
00:37:15 - The open core model
00:40:37 - How much time is spent on coding as CTO
00:44:26 - Hiring the first person
00:47:46 - How did Dat grow his network
00:53:47 - Dat wants more tech founders from Europe
A Career as Tech Lead or Engineering Manager with Patrick Kua
Engineers can get promoted to leadership positions without knowing what is expected of them. It's less of the same and more of a sidestep.
Pat Kua and I discuss the tech lead and engineering manager roles and what makes a person effective being in that role. On top of that we give perspective for people interested in those positions.
Enjoy! 🎙
Connect with Pat Kua:
https://www.patkua.com
https://twitter.com/patkua
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patkua
Pat's newsletter:
https://levelup.patkua.com
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/QMS4anI_oJo
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:42 - Different problems in coaching CTOs
00:02:08 - Problems when it comes to team structure
00:03:47 - Coaching aspects
00:06:14 - The tech lead and engineering manager paths are sidesteps
00:08:21 - Mismatch in expectations
00:10:05 - Skills a tech lead requires
00:12:54 - Dealing with people
00:16:44 - Communication challenges
00:18:13 - When is the right time to step into a leadership position?
00:20:51 - Leadership positions are not for everyone
00:23:42 - Learning from others
00:26:21 - Relationship between tech lead and engineering manager
00:31:58 - Pitfall of splitting tech lead and engineering manager
00:34:27 - Conversations about roles and responsibilities
00:36:51 - Leadership teams
00:37:43 - Who is responsible for team effectiveness?
00:40:23 - Pat's favourite role in the past
00:43:47 - Figuring out what you like and dislike doing
00:44:46 - What do you want to do?
00:46:54 - Growth mindset
Diversity, Inclusion and Work Culture in Asia with Priska Burkard
A diverse work culture is what companies are striving for to gain an edge in innovation and to stand out as workplace environment. However, this is easier said than done.
Priska and I explore the diversity and inclusion she's seen in the Asian work culture in comparison to the European work culture. On top of that, she shares her advice to organisations in hiring and accommodating for a diverse work environment.
Enjoy 🎙
Connect with Priska Burkard:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/priskaburkard
https://techface.ch
https://twitter.com/pm_burkard
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/bTQ7ZWOZz8w
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:28 - Priska's experience in Asia
00:02:21 - Differences in the Asian work culture
00:06:04 - Education in Asia
00:06:37 - Diversity differences with Asia
00:11:20 - How organisations can grow to be more diverse
00:14:22 - Offering flexibility for your employees
00:17:47 - Transparent and honest work culture
00:18:35 - Diversity starts in hiring
00:23:25 - Opportunities for women vs. men
00:27:04 - Changing company culture
00:29:09 - Inclusion vs. deadlines
00:31:26 - Diversity from an outside perspective
00:37:01 - Organisations need to distinguish themselves
00:38:19 - How to grow your network
00:44:15 - Final thoughts
Mental Health Problems and Conference Talks with Stacy Cashmore
Mental health is often overlooked until it's too late. When that happens, it's a long way back to recovery.
Stacy Cashmore shares her story involving mental health problems and how trusting people and asking for help will lead you to a better state mentally.
Finding out what works for you and accommodating for yourself should not make you feel bad. It's completely healthy to look after and take care of your mental health.
My favourite quote:
"Everybody has mental health. Some people have mental health problems, but EVERYBODY has mental health and if you don't look after your mental health then you're going to get mental health problems"
Enjoy! 🎙
Connect with Stacy Cashmore:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacycash
https://twitter.com/Stacy_Cash
https://www.twitch.tv/stacyclouds
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/Yrd3RGEMb-Y
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:42 - Relistening to yourself
00:03:01 - Not recognising yourself on screen
00:05:24 - Speaking in front of a big audience
00:07:28 - Anxious before going on stage
00:09:27 - Struggling at work and at home
00:11:23 - Attending Techorama lead to Stacy's first conference talk
00:19:44 - Committing to do something
00:21:49 - Metal health issues from a young age
00:24:30 - Mentally and physically running out of steam
00:25:28 - Reaching out for help
00:28:38 - Taking care of your mental health
00:33:10 - How people want to be interacted with
00:36:02 - Acommodating for your mental health
00:37:53 - Taking care of yourself and saying no
00:41:25 - Stacy's therapist gave her an order
00:44:37 - The people that guard us from doing too much
00:46:41 - Not overstepping boundaries
00:48:41 - How to ask for help for your mental health
00:52:39 - Find what works for you
00:56:12 - Someone that can give you support
Q&A: Podcasting, tech layoffs and first job as developer with Patrick Akil
First of its kind on the beyond coding podcast, an episode with just me answering your questions.
Let me know if I should do more of these 💬
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/Q6VJg98ERoU
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:43 - Should I go for a master's degree in computer science?
00:02:35 - How do I get my first job in the tech market?
00:04:35 - Why don't you tweet more?
00:04:50 - How do new engineers entering the tech field cope with the recent layoffs from companies?
00:07:05 - Favorite podcast episode so far? :)
00:08:13 - Hi Patrick, would love to know what was the inspiration behind the podcast?
00:11:33 - Podcast names we didn't end up going with
00:12:19 - Back to how we created the podcast
00:17:59 - Committing to the podcast too quickly
00:19:20 - Curious to know what goes into creating a podcast episode
00:23:25 - When is person X coming on? :(
00:23:51 - What’s your favorite podcast?
00:25:24 - What’s it like being a guest on a podcast?
00:26:40 - What’s your take on hiring in tech?
00:28:53 - Do you hate your own voice?
00:29:56 - How did you get into software development?
00:40:05 - Wrapping up
Product, Relationships and Teamwork with Chiedza Muguti
Product Leadership has always been a topic that I've found interesting and wanted to explore more of. Pair that together with the wonderful Chiedza Muguti and you have an amazing episode! 😊
She is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to product, leadership, teamwork and more! Had an amazing time learning from her and I finished this episode feeling energised and inspired.
Enjoy 🎙
Connect with Chiedza Muguti:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chiedzamuguti
https://twitter.com/chiedzajm
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/i5t4PlGvYmI
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:29 - Product Leadership
00:04:56 - Challenges in inspiring people
00:06:51 - How to get comfortable when you're uncomfortable
00:09:45 - The effect of how you come across as leader
00:10:57 - Piling up emotions
00:13:56 - How to get effective teams
00:16:27 - Who is responsible for effective teams?
00:19:14 - How to manage deadlines and pressure
00:22:43 - When are things flashing amber?
00:26:19 - Moving from business analyst to product owner
00:32:27 - Familiarising yourself with a domain
00:36:16 - How to prioritise value as PO
00:41:16 - Challenging value and priority
00:44:22 - Not overcomplicating solutions
00:46:44 - technoloby problems are business problems
00:49:30 - Issues with big teams
00:54:39 - Investing in relationships
00:58:22 - Success is in your environment
Coaching, Listening and Leadership with Sumit Gupta
This episode is all about coaching and leadership. If you want to get better at either of those, this is the episode for you. 🙌
Sumit shares the value of having a personal coach, how listening is a gift and how each coaching skill is also a leadership skill.
My favourite learning is how he breaks down communication into different conversations. Doing so allows you to focus on which conversations are most challenging for you, and get better at having them.
Enjoy 🎙
Connect with Sumit Gupta:
https://linkedin.com/in/sumit4all
https://www.deployyourself.com
https://twitter.com/sumitgupta4all
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/iDVY07k9SNs
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:25 - Why Sumit coaches people?
00:02:21 - Sumit's journey with Entrepreneurship
00:03:59 - From creating software to helping people
00:08:27 - Realising you can do anything
00:10:29 - How to inspire and motivate
00:11:58 - The value of a personal coach
00:16:07 - How do you create a safe space?
00:20:07 - Leaders being open and vulnerable
00:24:05 - 100% transparency and openness
00:30:06 - Allowing others to contribute
00:32:15 - Gradually taking on leadership responsibilities
00:35:47 - Can leadership be learned or taught?
00:39:15 - No judgements and nothing is negative
00:42:54 - How do you get better at coaching?
00:44:43 - coaching and leadership skills
00:49:13 - Asking for help
00:51:21 - Leadership is about giving
Tech Startups, SaaS and Funding with Denise Edwards
Denise Edwards comes on to share how to find the right team, the right product, scale correctly, get funding and much more.
If you've ever had thoughts of starting your own business like me, I'm sure you will love this episode.
Enjoy 🎙
Connect with Denise Edwards:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardsdenise
https://twitter.com/deniseedwardsco
https://saaslaunch.io
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/-wavaCe3LDQ
OUTLINE:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:36 - Giving presentations and growing
00:04:16 - From sales to owning a business
00:11:35 - Why B2B SaaS startups?
00:14:49 - How to find co-founders
00:17:58 - Hiring and forming a team
00:24:52 - When to stop building and start selling
00:27:48 - Incorporating feedback and fixing bugs
00:30:26 - Getting your first customers
00:33:14 - Why 90% of startups fail
00:35:48 - Falling in love with your own ideas
00:42:36 - How to scale your solution
00:48:24 - Hire just before it becomes a problem
00:52:16 - How to get funding
00:56:54 - Unnecessary spending in a startup
00:59:12 - Pitching to investors and who pitches?
01:04:37 - Don't be afraid to get help
From Ideas to Games and Products with Rosemary Lokhorst
“Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who implement them are priceless.”
- Mary Kay Ash
In my view, this still holds true. But how do you execute and turn an idea into a product, or even a game?
This episode with Rosemary Lokhorst covers exactly that.
What I admire about her is she doesn’t shy away from things she’s never done before, or things that have never been done before.
Enjoy 🎙
Connect with Rosemary Lokhorst
https://linkedin.com/in/lokhorst
https://twitter.com/lokhorstr
http://lokhorst.com
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/wveVo_CW2JM
Falling in Love with Web Development with Kyle Cook from Web Dev Simplified
If you’ve gone on YouTube and searched how to get stuff done in web development, chances are you’ve come across Kyle Cook from web dev simplified. He’s put up an incredible catalog of videos to simplify web development, for free.
What’s really cool is he started off teaching himself web development after falling in love with it. From there, his fundamental knowledge has grown through teaching others.
Some of the topics we cover this episode:
☑️ Kyle’s journey to web dev
☑️ Starting from scratch as developer
☑️ How Kyle’s YouTube channel came to be
☑️ The importance of core Javascript
☑️ The future of frontend development
Enjoy!🎙
Connect with Kyle Cook:
https://www.youtube.com/c/webdevsimplified
https://twitter.com/DevSimplified
https://courses.webdevsimplified.com
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/F7XGddoTxrA
Empowering and Enabling People, what Great Managers do with Nick van Meeteren
Great managers are those with a people first mindset.
They go through fire for their team,
allow people to make mistakes and grow,
and protect people from putting their work over their life and family.
Nick van Meeteren is one of those people and I had an incredible time learning from his view and mindset.
Enjoy 🎙
Connect with Nick van Meeteren:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickvanmeeteren
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/MiGJ9z1pFbM
Cloud Security Podcast behind the scenes with Shilpi Bhattacharjee & Ashish Rajan
This episode was recorded within minutes of me meeting Shilpi & Ashish from the Cloud Security Podcast in-person. They were in Amsterdam for a conference and swung by to make this happen. 🙌
They shared a little glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes of the cloud security podcast and what it’s like to work with your significant other. On top of that we discussed cloud security awareness, challenges and education.
Enjoy🎙
Connect with Shilpi Bhattacharjee:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shilpi-bhattacharjee
Connect with Ashish Rajan:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashishrajan
https://twitter.com/hashishrajan
Cloud Security Podcast:
https://cloudsecuritypodcast.tv
https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudSecurityPodcast
https://twitter.com/CloudSecPod
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/xSxaErykslc
Enjoy! 🎙
Public Speaking in Tech with Neil Thompson
Podcaster and speaker Neil Thompson shares his journey with regards to public speaking and allows others to share theirs through his podcast Teach the Geek.
Getting better at public speaking has more benefits that you might think.
It will improve your communication skills to a point where you can influence decisions and motivate change.
This is especially true in the tech world.
A few of the topics we covered, in order 💬
☑️ How Neil’s public journeys started
☑️ The importance of presenting
☑️ Switching careers
☑️ Neil’s children’s book
☑️ Coding bootcamps
Connect with Neil Thompson:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilithompson
https://www.youtube.com/c/teachthegeek
https://teachthegeek.com
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/9bxg3GHEpPA
Enjoy! 🎙
Recruiting Tech Talent with Chase Kocher
We’ve been in an employee’s market for a while now in the tech space.
The demand is far more than the supply when it comes to technical skills.
And I don’t see that changing soon.
Because of this, it can feel quite transactional.
Automated inMails, generic messages and mismatches when it comes to hard skills.
I think recruiters who do their research, tailor-fit, pinpoint why and add a personal touch stand out like no other and add value.
I like how Chase puts it: “If you’re trying to recruit somebody, you should give them a reason why they should talk to you.”
A few of the topics we covered, in order 💬
☑️ How recruiting has changed recently
☑️ The advisory role a recruiter has
☑️ Ensuring culture elevates with new hires
☑️ Facilitating a perfect match
☑️ Holding information hostage
Connect with Chase Kocher:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chase-kocher
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/7nhOJujmGGk
Enjoy! 🎙
Happiness and Self Improvement with Ken Jee
Maximising for happiness, instead of maximising for output.
That really stuck with me after my conversation with Ken Jee.
When you maximise for output, you’re on a path that leads to more output, and more output until you burn out. Realising what drives you, what your personal values are and what makes happy will allow you to shift your attention to the things that matter in your life.
Because life is like a pencil that will surely run out. It’s up to you to leave behind your beautiful writing of life.
(Yes, I’m paraphrasing One Piece here)
A few of the topics we covered, in order 💬
☑️ Maximising for Happiness
☑️ Finding purpose and understanding
☑️ Surrounding yourself with like-minded people
☑️ Technology detox
Connect with Ken Jee:
https://www.kennethjee.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenjee
https://twitter.com/kenjee_ds
https://www.youtube.com/c/kenjee1
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/mh78xToElC8
Enjoy! 🎙
Becoming Great at CSS with Kevin Powell
CSS. In my experience developers have a love/hate relationship with it.
It can be fun and rewarding to implement an awesome design. But it can also be frustrating.
Kevin Powell is one of the few people I know that truly loves CSS. To the point where he’s been teaching others through his YouTube videos for the last 5 years! If you really want to become expert in something, teach it to others. Kevin took that notion to the next level and the results are truly amazing. 🙌
A few of the topics, in order 💬
☑️ Working together with designers
☑️ CSS challenges/battles
☑️ Kevin is self-taught
☑️ CSS frameworks
☑️ Mobile first implementations
Connect with Kevin Powell:
https://www.kevinpowell.co
https://www.youtube.com/kepowob
https://twitter.com/KevinJPowell
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/3MRWBahy02U
Enjoy! 🎙
Habits, Decentralisation and Decentralised Systems with Merlijn Boogerd
Merlijn Boogerd shares how he’s always been fascinated by Decentralisation and Decentralised Systems.
I love the Wikipedia example he gives. A group of people came together and created this system and the ability to change information is completely open and public. Decentralised in that way. It’s become one of the cornerstones in how we find information.
Wikipedia is 20+ years old though…
What other benefits could Decentralised Systems offer nowadays?
We discuss all of that and more! In order 💬
☑️ 80% of humans behaviour is habitual
☑️ Decentralised Systems
☑️ Benefits of Public Data
☑️ Crowdsourcing Software Development
☑️ Decentralised Building Blocks
Connect with Merlijn Boogerd:
https://linkedin.com/in/mboogerd
https://github.com/mboogerd
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/1fgg2W8YDiM
Enjoy! 🎙
Resiliency, Adaptability and Cyber Security with Nyota Gordon
When life gets difficult, how do you deal with it?
You can’t run away. You have to keep going.
How you react, recover and continue is up to you!
This was one of my main takeaways from talking with Nyota Gordon.
I love her energy and absolutely want what she’s having 🙌
More topics we covered, in order 💬
☑️ Office shenanigans
☑️ What is resiliency?
☑️ Sharing experiences
☑️ From the military to cybersecurity
☑️ Mindfulness at the workplace
Connect with Nyota Gordon:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nyotagordon
https://twitter.com/staraimer
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/lUWEKpnEyq4
Enjoy! 🎙
Tech Leadership with Ariel Weinberger
Whenever I meet someone that exemplifies great tech leadership, I love picking their brain.
Because there is no cookie-cutter mold for tech leaders, or leaders in general. 🍪
Their experiences, mindset, failures and feedback are incredibly valuable.
Having a conversation and getting their perspective is one of the best ways to learn.
And it helps form your own perspective. 🤔
My conversation with Ariel Weinberger did exactly that for me.
Loved his take on culture, hiring, mentorship and more! 🙌
A few of the topics, in order 💬
☑️ Technical Leadership Roles
☑️ Effective Technical Hiring Processes
☑️ Hiring 120 Software Engineers in a year
☑️ Allowing People to make Mistakes
☑️ Engineering Teams owning their Domain
Connect with Ariel Weinberger:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/arielweinberger
https://twitter.com/arielweinberger
https://github.com/arielweinberger
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/84G6xqR3uBs
Enjoy! 🎙
Career Progression and Growth with Jeff Perry
The way you might think about your career may evolve.
A focus on growth and progression early on.
More reflection, realisation and intent later.
What’s interesting to me is that in the end, all your experience matters.
With the right amount of guidance and clarity,
you’ll eventually reach the unimaginable.
That’s really exciting to me.
Jeff Perry and I touch on all of that and more!
A few of the topics, in order 💬
☑️ Career clarity
☑️ People feeling stuck in their career
☑️ Layoffs and the current tech market
☑️ Career progression
☑️ Growing into technology leadership
Connect with Jeff Perry:
https://www.jeff-perry.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffcperry
https://www.engineeringcareeraccelerator.com/beyondcoding
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/4u-2vw_npq4
Enjoy! 🎙
Decision Making, Slowing down Time and Storytelling with Gilbert Eijkelenboom
Why do people do the things they do?
I’m not quite sure, but it’s definitely thought provoking 🤔
Especially when I think about my own decision making.
Sometimes we need certain conversations, certain triggers, to make us think and reflect.
This episode with Gilbert Eijkelenboom was exactly that for me.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
More of the topics we covered, in order 💬
☑️ Gilberts professional poker journey
☑️ How people make decisions
☑️ Considering your audience
☑️ Slowing down time
☑️ Getting better at storytelling
Connect with Gilbert Eijkelenboom:
linkedin.com/in/eijkelenboom
https://www.mindspeaking.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi5ZoXknmNceEVVteS7_cVQ
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/yucHtO3VkgQ
Enjoy! 🎙
Leadership and Finding your Passion with Stephanie Wong
I truly enjoyed learning from Stephanie Wong how she found her passion in technical content creation.
It doesn’t just fall out of the sky and land in your lap.
It takes time, experimentation and effort to take shape within your life.
Throughout that journey, you’ll have key players and leadership, setting you up for success.
However, in the end, you make the decisions in your personal journey.
More of the topics we cover this episode, in order 💬
☑️ Being authentically yourself
☑️ The best way to find a passion
☑️ Key players in your career
☑️ How to keep growing
☑️ Finding your voice
Connect with Stephanie Wong:
https://twitter.com/stephr_wong
https://www.stephrwong.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephrwong
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/-c3RUT11jcY
Enjoy! 🎙
Self-Worth, Salary and Mindset with Tobi Oluwole
I had a blast talking to Tobi Oluwole on self-worth, salary and mindset. What really stuck with me is that breaking limits can become more and more common.
Because most of the time, when you think you’ve reached a ceiling, be it your growth, or your income, there’s no actual ceiling.
The only ceiling that’s there is the one you put there yourself.
Background, expectations, scepticism etc. can all contribute in creating this fictional ceiling.
But since you created it in the first place, you can also remove or break through it.
You’re in control after all!
More of the topics we cover this episode, in order 💬
☑️ Understanding your Skills are Value
☑️ Being the Exception
☑️ Breaking the Salary Sharing Taboo
☑️ Changing your Perspective
☑️ Communicating your value
Enjoy! 🎙
More on Tobi Oluwole:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thetobioluwole
https://twitter.com/callmetobzz
https://www.the3skills.com
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/d2Y-Vwk3Sj0
Hackathons, Startups and Data Science with Krish Naik
What’s better than Online Hackathons? In-person Hackathons!
Krish Naik shares how he’s been organising 24 hour long in-person hackathons together with iNeuron.ai. It’s a way to engage with the community and stimulate learning and growth. Additionally, it has been an effective way to hire.
More of the topics we cover this episode, in order 💬
☑️ The Joys of Physical Hackathons
☑️ Education should be Affordable and of High Quality
☑️ How iNeuron.ai has grown to where it is now
☑️ The Benefit of learning early-stage Technologies
☑️ The difference between Data Science and Data Engineering
Enjoy! 🎙
More on Krish Naik:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNU_lfiiWBdtULKOw6X0Dig
https://www.linkedin.com/in/naikkrish
https://krishnaik.in
https://twitter.com/krishnaik06
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
Empathy Driven Software Development with Andrea Goulet
Empathy is software skill.
It might sound strange, but after my conversation with Andrea Goulet I strongly believe that’s the case. She explains how trust is the foundation of not only great software, but also great engineering teams. How do we build trust? Through empathy, and Andrea lays out some great practical examples of how it benefits everyone.
More of the topics we cover this episode, in order 💬
☑️ Research Focussed Approach on Empathy
☑️ The importance of Trust and Vulnerability
☑️ The Four Components of Empathy
☑️ Legacy Code drives your business
☑️ Empathy is a Skill
Enjoy! 🎙
More on Andrea Goulet:
https://andreagoulet.com
https://empathyintech.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreamgoulet
https://twitter.com/andreagoulet
Andrea is currently working on her book: Empathy Driven Software Development Published by Pearson.
Looking forward to that in 2023!
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
Effective Software Teams with Daniel Terhorst-North
What is the fastest and most effective you’ve ever been in a software team?
That’s how we start off this episode and joining me is Daniel Terhorst-North who’s a coder, coach, and consultant and has been for almost 3 decades 🙌
More of the topics we cover this episode, in order 💬
☑️ Fast and Effective Software teams
☑️ It’s not done until it’s in Production
☑️ How SOLID is outdated
☑️ Organisations struggling with effectiveness
☑️ Value stream mapping
Enjoy! 🎙
More on Daniel Terhorst-North:
https://dannorth.net
https://twitter.com/tastapod
https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielterhorstnorth
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia for making this episode possible!
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/ZXjTvMIw0fc
Visual learning and Developer Advocacy with Priyanka Vergadia
Ever feel like reading is just not for you? Well… Maybe you’re more of a visual learner 🤔
Priyanka shares how she leverages the power of visualisation to communicate complex topics in a simple and easy to understand fashion ☁️
On top of that, we go through the freedom she gets to experiment and learn as Developer Advocate @Google. Really cool! 🙌
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order 💬
☑️ Visualisation and feedback from the community
☑️ Letting go of Perfection
☑️ The freedom to experiment as Developer Advocate
☑️ Maintaining focus with a goal in mind
☑️ Visual learning over reading documentation
Enjoy! 🎙
More on Priyanka Vergadia:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pvergadia
https://twitter.com/pvergadia
https://www.youtube.com/c/priyankavergadia
https://thecloudgirl.dev
New episodes every Wednesday with our host 🎙Patrick Akil!
Big shoutout to Xebia and Google for making this episode possible!
#visuallearning #developeradvocate #podcast
Full episode on YouTube ▶️
https://youtu.be/9k56RPSW6i0
Or any Podcast app 🎙 through:
https://anchor.fm/beyond-coding
Thinking Styles with Indi Young
Indi Young explains how the point of having thinking styles is to get away from the “average user”, and move towards building your solutions for humans. Supporting them in whatever purpose they have.
You might wonder: What are thinking styles? 🤔
Listen in to find out! Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order 💬
☑️ What are thinking styles?
☑️ How to discover thinking styles framed by purpose
☑️ The passion the help people
☑️ Thinking styles put to practise
More on Indi Young:
https://indiyoung.com
https://twitter.com/indiyoung
https://www.linkedin.com/in/indiyoung
Switching Careers to Software Engineering with Anna McDougall
Remarkably, Anna McDougall has not just made one career switch, but 2. From a more corporate career in marketing / project management, to a career in opera singing, to a career in tech as a software engineer.
Wow! 👏
Interestingly enough, pivoting to a career in opera singing taught her a lot of skills which helped gave her a head start in programming. One of which is how to deal with the Imposter Syndrome 🥸
More of the topics we cover this episode, in order 💬
☑️ Pivoting from a career in opera, to one in tech
☑️ Software used by many requires diverse people to create it
☑️ Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
☑️ Tech interviews
More on Anna McDougall:
https://www.annamcdougall.com
https://twitter.com/annajmcdougall
https://www.linkedin.com/in/annajmcdougall
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjJzKrbr3WGn1xE0LAQ91yA
Enjoy! 🎙
Learning Software Development with Hitesh Choudhary
One of the best aspects in the Tech world is that you can teach yourself to do lots of things. However, there’s so much information out there nowadays, that it can become too much.. So I invited Hitesh Choudhary on to discuss how to start and how to find quality content when you’re educating yourself. We also discuss what to keep in mind when you’re new, or self-taught, and join a software development team.
More of the topics we cover this episode, in order 💬
☑️ Teaching others in tech through YouTube
☑️ Setting personal learning goals, and achieving them
☑️ Software engineers moving into managerial positions
☑️ Risks of using new tech in production
☑️ Quality without compromise
More on Hitesh Choudhary:
https://hiteshchoudhary.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXgGY0wkgOzynnHvSEVmE3A
https://linkedin.com/in/hiteshchoudhary
https://twitter.com/Hiteshdotcom
Enjoy!
An Intro to the Metaverse with Jieke Pan
The Metaverse. You might have heard of it, but what does it entail exactly? Jieke Pan explains that no one knows exactly, because we’re right at the forefront of it all. It will be a new digital experience and not really tangible. But within that digital space, we’ll be able to experience and deliver value in ways we couldn’t before.
One example he gives is virtual concerts, which are already happening in the Metaverse.
With that however come numerous amounts of technical challenges, some of which we discuss as well.
More of the topics we cover this episode, in order 💬
☑️ What is the metaverse, where did it come from?
☑️ Virtual concerts and business value
☑️ Data privacy and anonymity
☑️ How can there be one decentralised Metaverse?
☑️ Decoupled infrastructure and content layers
More on Jieke Pan:
https://linkedin.com/in/panjieke
https://twitter.com/panjieke
#metaverse #web3 #podcast
Collaborative Modelling with Marco Heimeshoff
To delivery value through software, we’re solving complex problems. But getting a shared understanding of the problem space and the potential solutions can be very tricky. Marco Heimeshoff explains that’s where collaborative modelling can help.
More of the topics we cover this episode, in order 💬
☑️ Pros and cons of collaborative modelling remotely
☑️ The importance of psychological safety
☑️ Why do we model in the first place?
☑️ Approaching a problem through heuristics
☑️ Not just sharing, but collaborating
Mentioned during the episode:
https://DDDheuristics.com
https://kandddinsky.de
More on Marco Heimeshoff:
https://www.heimeshoff.de
https://twitter.com/heimeshoff
https://linkedin.com/in/heimeshoff
#collaborativemodelling #heuristics #podcast
Co-creating with UX and Software with Thamar Swart and Simone de Gijt
Product development is challenging. Even more challenging when those responsible for the user experience barely talk to those responsible for the implementation, and vice-versa…
That’s not how we create the best products.
We do so by communicating continuously, having diverse teams and co-creating!
I invited Thamar Swart and Simone de Gijt on to share their experience when it comes to collaboration and co-creation.
More of the topics we cover this episode, in order 💬
☑️ The challenges of keeping UX and Software Development separate
☑️ What is UX actually, what are the different facets?
☑️ Happy flows and edge cases
☑️ Fixing your customer issues
☑️ Leadership and team autonomy
More on Thamar Swart:
https://thamarswart.nl/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thamarswart
https://twitter.com/thamarswart
More on Simone de Gijt:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonedegijt
https://mobile.twitter.com/de_gijt
Social systems in Tech Teams with Michael Feathers
I invited Michael Feathers on to discuss what makes a great and effective team in tech. We cover lots of the social systems you’ll see, as well as the impact that remote working has had on those.
More of the topics we cover this episode, in order 💬
☑️ Remote working and team autonomy
☑️ Treating software like biology
☑️ Finding common grounds of communication
☑️ Genuine curiosity
☑️ Team goals vs. Individual goals
More on Michael Feathers:
https://michaelfeathers.silvrback.com
https://twitter.com/mfeathers
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelfeathers
The power of Go with Hannes De Jager, Kevin van den Broek and Goos van den Bekerom
I invited Hannes de Jager, Kevin van den broek and Goos van den Bekerom on to discuss the ins and outs when it comes to the Go programming language. All you need to know with regards to why and how Go would be embraced within a team, or within an organisation.
Sounds interesting? Check it out!
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order 👇
☑️ The pros and cons of Go
☑️ How does Go get adopted within organisations?
☑️ The way Generics was introduced in Go
☑️ Hire good engineers instead of “language” engineers
More on Hannes:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannesdejager
https://github.com/hannesdejager
More on Kevin:
https://kevinvandenbroek.nl
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-van-den-broek
https://github.com/Kevintjeb
More on Goos:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/goosvandenbekerom
https://github.com/GoosvandenBekerom
Systems Thinking with Diana Montalion
Diana Montalion shares how we think of, and design, sources of information to accommodate for what we want as users, depending on the context we’re in. It requires a way of thinking we’re not used to: systems thinking, or non-linear thinking. But doing so and adapting the software we create, can open up opportunities that weren’t there before.
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order 👇
☑️ Systems thinking vs. Linear thinking
☑️ Designing for sources of information
☑️ Do you know why your tasks matter?
☑️ Changing the skills we value when hiring
☑️ Learning from each other, and growing as a team
More on Diana:
https://www.montalion.com
https://twitter.com/dianamontalion
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianamontalion
#systemsthinking #software #podcast
The Power of Open Source with Paulo Lopes and Maarten Mulders
Whether you know it or not, we’re all benefitting from open source software. The innovation and collaboration that has come from it is incredible. But it’s not without flaws… Very Interesting ones actually, so I invited Paulo Lopes and Maarten Mulders on to discuss the good, bad, and ugly when it comes to open source.
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order 👇
☑️ Disputes and social problems that occur in open source projects
☑️ Contributing to open source, and how to make it easier
☑️ What would make open source better?
☑️ The not invented here syndrome in open source projects
Enjoy!
Check out Paulo Lopes:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pmlopes
https://twitter.com/pml0p35
Check out Maarten Mulders:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mthmulders
https://twitter.com/mthmulders
https://maarten.mulders.it
#podcast #tech #opensource
AI in the city of Amsterdam with Maarten Sukel
Maarten shares how the city of Amsterdam is creating and leveraging AI solutions to help society and improve the city. It was surprising to hear how there are lots of experiments being done involving more state of the art technologies when it comes to AI. And I really enjoyed learning what projects are being worked on right now.
What projects are those? Listen in to find out!
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order 👇
☑️ Using AI to make the city better, or to prevent it from becoming worse
☑️ The Algorithm Register
☑️ Amsterdam for all: increasing accessibility in the city
☑️ Current ways of working and the challenge of moving to the cloud
☑️ Using established methods, but also experimenting with state of the art tech
More on Maarten:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maartensukel
https://twitter.com/maartensukel
Check out Amsterdam Intelligence:
https://www.amsterdamintelligence.com
Effective Data Science Solutions with Deena Gergis
“Doing the right thing is not equal to doing things right”. This really stuck with me after discussing how to create effective data science solutions with Deena Gergis.
It would be easy to create a solution ‘just’ from the technical side, but more often than not, your solution might not get used at all that way. Partnering with your stakeholders, and building this solution together is the right way to do it. And it starts by having an equal level conversation with each other.
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order 👇
☑️ The differences between data science academically, and data science professionally
☑️ Doing things right vs doing the right things
☑️ Buy-in from your most important stakeholders and partners
☑️ The right balance of focus and flexibility in creating data science solutions
☑️ Hiring for emotional intelligence and leadership skills, as well as technical expertise
More on Deena:
https://linkedin.com/in/deena-gergis
https://www.youtube.com/c/deenagergis
Cloud Native Software Development with Léon Rodenburg
Cloud technology has made things a lot easier, but it has also introduced new challenges for developers. Together with friend and returning guest Léon Rodenburg we discuss what cloud native software development entails, and share how to be effective.
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order 👇
☑️ What is cloud native software development?
☑️ Team responsibility in handling the cloud
☑️ The problem with cloud courses and trainings
☑️ Iterating on your cloud infrastructure
☑️ Start by understanding your current project in terms of cloud infrastructure
More on Léon:
https://linkedin.com/in/leon-rodenburg
https://twitter.com/lrodenburg
Creating your Own Programming Language with Felienne Hermans
Felienne shares her journey on how she created Hedy, the programming language that helps teach kids how to program.
Creating your own programming language is a big accomplishment, but a language on its own can only go so far. With actual usage, user feedback, and continuous improvements, Hedy can truly improve the way teachers teach, and kids learn how to program.
And it's definitely on its way to do so. Hedy is available in 18 different languages, and is being used globally. Truly remarkable!
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order 👇
☑️ Why Felienne created the Hedy programming language
☑️ Maintaining an open source programming language
☑️ Solving the initial problem, but creating new problems along the way
☑️ Dictatorship vs. Bureaucracy in adding features to programming languages
☑️ Closely listening to user feedback
More on Hedy:
https://www.hedycode.com
https://github.com/Felienne/hedy
More on Felienne:
https://www.felienne.com
https://twitter.com/felienne
https://www.linkedin.com/in/felienne
#tech #podcast #programming
Worthwhile Agile Implementations with Laurens Bonnema
There have been lots of worthwhile Agile implementations within organisations. However, there’s also a dark side to Agile...
Laurens and I discuss how not every organisation actually “understands” it, which leads to forced implementations. Eventually, this lack of understanding can create lots of frustration towards something that’s meant to be helpful.
Where does it go wrong, and how we you fix that?
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order 👇
☑️ Focussing on the single most important thing
☑️ Scrum implementations gone wrong / The dark side of Agile
☑️ Truly acting as a team
☑️ What makes a great leader
☑️ Managers are humans
Laurens is someone I truly could listen to for hours, enjoy!
More on Laurens:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurensbonnema
https://twitter.com/laurensbonnema
Remote Company Culture with Alvaro Moya
Want to live and work next to the beach, but stay in the tech space? No problem! Working remote allows you to have the personal life that you want whilst your work life fit around that. That is one of the main drivers why Alvaro started his company in a fully remote setting. He shares how he’s been operating fully remote, some of the pitfalls he’s experienced, and much more!
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order 👇
☑️ Managing and trusting remote teams
☑️ Clear expectations and long-term partners
☑️ Engineers want to work remote, so organisations offer it
☑️ The issues with working remote
☑️ Personal values, team values, and company values
More on Alvaro:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvarormoya
https://lidr.co
Developer Advocacy and Content Creation with Nicolai Parlog
Nicolai Parlog’s passion for learning, content creation and sharing knowledge is what lead to him joining forces with Oracle as Developer Advocate. I love his enthusiasm and had a blast talking to him about his journey, content creation and more!
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order 👇
☑️ Content creation as developer advocate
☑️ Varying responsibilities and tasks of a developer advocate
☑️ Balancing self-employment and content creation
☑️ Combining developer advocacy with war-stories from the field
More Nicolai:
https://nipafx.dev
https://twitter.com/nipafx
AI bias and Diversity in Tech with Kaya Weers
AI is becoming more and more prevalent. It’s already making key decisions in our lives. However someone still needs to create that AI. Kaya explains the dangers of biased AI solutions, and we discuss the importance of increasing diversity in tech and beyond.
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order 👇
☑️ The problem with bias in ai
☑️ Increasing awareness and diversity in tech
☑️ The importance of a safe and welcoming environment
☑️ The impact of your communication
Thoughts that stuck with me:
AI is changing the lives of people, but people still need to create the ai responsibly Diversity within any sector will not happen overnight, but awareness and lots of small contributions can create big change.More on Kaya:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayaweers
https://twitter.com/kayaweers
Landing your First Job in Tech with Pamela Juachon & Katherina Darellas
Landing your first job can seem pretty daunting, especially in tech. Luckily, it's possible to get better at "the interview process". Knowing what you want, what to focus on, and what organisations look at will contribute greatly in landing that dream job!
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order:
☑️ Personal stories on landing first jobs in tech
☑️ Realising your personal values and what to look for in a company
☑️ Interviewing to get better at interviewing
☑️ Thriving within a company and being successful in your career
Joining us for this episode are Pamela Juachon and Katherina Darellas, currently working at Palo Alto Networks.
More on them:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamela-ancel-juachon
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherina-darellas-087a35108
Product Lines in Software with Rachel Appel
You'll see lots of product lines when it comes to physical products. For example the automotive industry. But in software, product lines also exist. Think of JetBrains and their IDEs.
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order:
☑️ The ultimate way to reuse software
☑️ Planning for a product line
☑️ Product suites and product lines
☑️ The IntelliJ open source edition just made sense
Joining us for this episode is Rachel Appel, Developer Advocate at JetBrains
More on Rachel: https://rachelappel.com
How Software keeps Evolving and is never Done with Jessica Kerr
Software has become much more like biology nowadays. It's much more about the interactions and about evolving with the outside world.
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order:
☑️ How software evolves
☑️ Is software doomed to become legacy?
☑️ Rewrite vs Revamp… or both?
☑️ Developers love having impact
☑️ Shared ownership and the software lifecycle
My favourite takeaways from Jessica this episode:
- Rewrite vs Revamp. Why not both?! It doesn’t look efficient, but it’s a lot more cost effective than only working on the rewrite and then throwing it away two years later.
- What we do has evolved and is more analogous to biology than it is to physics. It used to be about getting the computer to solve this logic problem for you. And now it’s much more about the interactions.
More Jessica:
https://jessitron.com/
Enjoy!
Cloud Financial Management - FinOps with Michel Zitman
We invited Michel Zitman on to talk about Cloud Financial Management.
Shorthand: FinOps.
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order:
☑️ Cloud financial management - FinOps explained
☑️ How Cloud Cost inefficiency occurs in the first place
☑️ FinOps as a skill
☑️ Where most Cloud Costs occur, and how to reduce those costs
☑️ Big chunks of optimizations already, and much more when looking ahead
My favourite quotes from Michel this episode:
- "Awareness increases accountability, which in turn increases awareness."
- "Turn off your cloud resources when you don't use them, just like how you would turn off the lights when you leave home."
Enjoy!
Improving the Engineering Experience with Hassan Habib
Hassan Habib shares the guidelines he's put into practise when it comes to improving the engineering experience. The main goal: Make engineers enjoy what they're doing :)
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order:
☑️ Increasing the joy of creating software
☑️ The 3 most important aspects to make engineers happy
☑️ Developers communicating with end users
☑️ Introducing standardisation
☑️ Speaking a language people understand
My favourite quotes from Hassan Habib this episode:
- "If your software engineers are hungry, your code is gonna be hungry, it's gonna be angry"
- "If you're talking ideas and possibilities, you have to bring the engineers to the table. You have to have them see the customers and make the connection"
Enjoy!
Speed vs Quality in Software Development with Albert Brand
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order:
☑️ The power of the right environment
☑️ Evolving software vs rebuilding it, and the not invented here syndrome
☑️ Trust is very complex
☑️ What does 100% unit test coverage mean?
☑️ The sweet spot of quality and speed
My favourite quotes from Albert Brand this episode:
- "Are you really going fast when it slows you down later?"
- "Isn't speed just another quality?"
Enjoy!
Making Developers more Effective with Marcelo Sousa
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order:
☑️ Solving practical problems for engineers
☑️ Code reviews are becoming a big problem in our industry
☑️ Leveraging tools to better understand code
☑️ A startup with developers as target audience
☑️ Remote company culture
Enjoy!
Psychological Safety with Gitte Klitgaard
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in order:
- The what and why of Psychological Safety
- High performing teams
- Awareness of how you act and communicate
- Imposter Syndrome
- The value of personal feedback
A Career in Coding with Johan Janssen
Some of the topics we cover this episode, in this order:
- Tips when just starting out
- Going outside of your comfort zone
- The Full Stack term
- The challenges of forming a great team
- Stability versus Experimentation
- The benefits of teaching
Modular Software Development with Andre Borgonovo
Some of the topics we cover in this episode:
- What Modular Software Development is
- When to split your application, and how to split it
- The role of Software Architect in a cross-functional team
- When and how organisations adapt new tech
- Hire for mindset, train for skill, and the joy of working in diverse groups
The MLOps mindset with Roman Ivanov and Julian de Ruiter
After seeing the title, you might wonder: "What is MLOps?". That's also what I was thinking... But no worries, Roman and Julian explain exactly what it is! On top of that, we go over how to bring your machine learning model to production, the right way, and some of the challenges you might face along the way.
This episode was recorded live in collaboration with GoDataFest: Festival of Data Technology, and Club Cloud: Global Cloud Festival!
Because it was recorded live, the intro is slightly different than what you're used to :)
Enjoy!
The power of Kotlin with Paulien van Alst and Urs Peter
You might've heard of this new-ish kid on the block: Kotlin!
And like all programming languages, it's a tool to get the job done. There is no "right" pick, just pros and cons, and Kotlin is no exception. However, the pros of Kotlin certainly make it sound appealing. One of the main benefits that stood out to me from this conversation is very simple: code clarity.
If the use of Kotlin as a language creates clarity for the engineers and teams that use it, it's a very powerful tool that contributes to their productivity.
Enjoy!
The Benefits of Co-Creation with Dragan Stepanović
Pull requests (PRs), the standard way to collaborate in codebases to ensure quality (among other things).. It turns out that they're actually slowing down software development. But how?
Dragan explains how the problem lies in the way it's structured: it's asynchronous. There's a lot of time that passes before the code is merged, and the value is delivered. Large PRs are hard to review and course correct, and small PRs can introduce lots of context switches.
However there are ways around this, to have both speed and quality. These ways lie in co-creation: Pair and Mob programming
How to become a 10x Engineer with Chris Laffra
The idea of a "10x engineer" is popular in Silicon Valley and is used to refer to a rare engineer who can achieve 10 times more than an average developer.
We invited Chris Laffra on to discuss this idea, and as you might've guessed, it has to do with making other people more productive. But before doing that, you'll need to focus on your individual productivity and impact, and maximise that to a certain degree.
Sounds interesting? Listen in to find out more!
PS: Chris gave me a copy of his book: Communication for Engineers, and in there he wrote: "To be happy, make other people happy".
I love it!
Self-taught Software Engineers with Roy Derks
As you might know, not every software engineer comes from a computer science background. But why is that?
Well.. if you want to learn how to program, there’s not a lot that’s stopping you. Especially nowadays, there’s a lot of content, or even courses and companies, that’ll help you along the way.
And as more and more jobs (or parts of jobs) get automated, it might be help to learn about how that automation works in the first place. Just like how we learned to do a lot of math before using a calculator.
Caught your interest? Listen in!
Mentorship in Tech with Anand Safi
Today we talk about mentorship in tech. One of the best things about mentorship is that it's a clear win-win. It helps the mentee gain clarity on specific situations or career questions. And it helps the mentor in mastering active listening and giving non-biased advice.
Hope you like it! Enjoy :)
Migrating to the Cloud at bol.com with Mirko van Ede and Rogier Lommers
There's a lot going on over at bol.com, especially behind the scenes. Today Mirko van Ede (director of engineering) and Rogier Lommers (tech lead) join us to discuss one of their biggest ongoing projects: migrating to the cloud.
Enjoy!
The Software Developer Community with Brian Vermeer
One of my favourite things as a software developer is interacting with the community. It's a community that's about learning, sharing, collaborating, and paying it forward. All you have to do to be part of it is to engage with other people.
Brian Vermeer is a person that has given back to the community so much so that he became Java champion.
Enjoy!
Growing an Idea into a Product with Erwin de Gier
It takes great skill to turn an idea into a product. Especially when you're starting from scratch.
Erwin did just that, and shares how he and his team built an app that could improve how kids are treated for anxiety.
Enjoy!
How to become a great Tech Lead with Mahdi Fanidisfani
One of the key takeaways from this conversation is that we should favour progress over perfection. Especially as software developers, perfection is something that'll never come. Instead we should focus on progression and let the fear of the unknown drive us forward.
This is what drives Mahdi and how he got to his current position. He shares how he became tech lead, and what skills you should focus on to become one as well.
Enjoy!
Personal Risk and Online Security with Jeroen Willemsen and Nanne Baars
Are you comfortable with what you're doing and the problems that might arise from that? In a way, that's what security and personal risk is all about.
Jeroen and Nanne provide some useful tips you can use to secure your own laptop and to reduce the risk of something bad happening.
On top of that, they share what they've seen happen when that security is not there.
Enjoy!
How to be a good leader in tech Robby Coelho
Robby shares how he used to clash with leadership when he was a software engineer. Which lead to a lot of frustration.
He didn't really understand why they clashed, but after freelancing for a while, he realised the answer lied in the lack of guidance and the quality of leadership he'd experienced. This realisation is what lead him to focus on his soft skills and go down the path of leadership.
His way of giving back is to share with us what he's learned on what makes a good leader.
Enjoy!
Going the extra mile with Juan Manuel Perafan
Currently that’s analytics engineering, which fills the gap between data engineers and domain analysts in the data world!
During our conversation, I was truly impressed by his work ethic. I think it's pretty inspring.
Enjoy!
What it takes to be great at Sales with Richard Kelsey
I was sceptical about Sales at first, but I love the way Richard lays it out:
You’re facilitating the buying process, and it should lead to a win-win.
It’s not a transaction. It’s knowing your product/service, and more importantly getting to know your customer, what their problems are and what they actually need.
In this, it’s very similar to what a software engineer should know, as well about what they’re building and for whom they’re building it.
I’m curious if you’ll see it that way as well.
Enjoy!
The next big disruption in tech and software with Kevlin Henney
Kevlin Henney shares his vision on the next big disruption in tech and software. And the funny thing is, the next big thing might already be out there, it’s just unevenly distributed.
The importance of communication and teamwork at global scale with Rein Droog
What really brought Rein Droog and Bugaboo together is Culture. Having that connection, the same principles and shared understanding is the foundation of their success.
That doesn’t mean smooth sailing though… Being globally responsible has its own unique set of challenges. The key to overcoming those lies in communication and teamwork.
Enjoy!
Quality in Software Engineering with Dennis Doomen
What is quality? Why do we need it? How can we improve it?
It's a vague term and people often mean different things with it. But we do know it's important.
With over 100 million downloads on his open source project, Dennis "The Continuous Improver" Doomen is our go to guy. He not only explains what quality means and why we need it, but gives us tools to improve it.
Enjoy!
Key Takeaways From working at a Startup with Jethro Sloan
Tight budget, fast communication, big impact. Have you ever thought about working at a startup?
It’s an environment where you can really put your stamp on a product or solution. Driven by that, my friend Jethro crossed continents to work at one.
But how do you do put your stamp on something? And how do you make it a good one?
Let’s find out!
Building a life sized rocket with Dennis Meelis
Dennis is the only guy I know who’s actually built VR and AR software. And it’s not just small stuff… we’re talking rockets!
It's a shame that a lot of what VR and AR can do is not accessible to the average consumer yet, but why is that?
Let's find out!
Authorization Code: 385332
Solving problems without writing code with Evelyn van Kelle
Even without being a kick-ass developer, Evelyn kicks ass.
She truly leverages her background and passion for social science to help teams and organisations solve problems without writing code.
I didn't completely understand it before talking to her, but the conversation we had was truly eye-opening
One of my favourites so far.
Enjoy!
Helping organizations solve the underlying problems with Alex Thissen
Well… it takes a certain skill to be able to identify them. The more you do it, the better you get at it, and Alex Thissen is here to guide you on that path.
He’s the guy that not only helps you find the problem, but teaches you how to fix it. Enjoy!
Fixing the biggest problems in software development with Gareth Baars
Gareth clearly lays out the biggest problems that a lot of us in the software industry will recognise.
But why do these problems exist in the first place? The common denominator he identifies is code (ironically).
But how do you solve code..? Listen in to find out!
Domain Driven Design with Kenny Baas-Schwegler
And even if you know what it means, do you know how to apply it… or what parts to apply?
Today Kenny Baas-Schwegler is here to answer all these questions and more!
Crypto startup journey and move to BUX Crypto with Zowie Langdon
This episode was recorded live at the End2End conference.
Skills needed to be a great modern-day CTO with João Rosa
The differences between a good and a great CTO can be subtle, but João Rosa lays them out clearly.
Do you need to know it all when it comes to tech? Does success mean you can’t fail? Well… not exactly.
Listen in to learn more about the modern-day CTO from a modern-day CTO.
Moving countries and starting a new job during the pandemic with Dillon Parfitt
Ever thought about what it would be like to take a job abroad and move countries during the pandemic?
Dillon Parfitt is one of the few people that took that plunge!!
The company he joined… Xebia!
On the Beyond Coding podcast Dillon shares the challenges he faced while taking those steps: finding a job abroad, moving countries and starting a new chapter.
Check it out!
Moving software applications to China with Léon Rodenburg
As the first European Alibaba Cloud MVP, Léon is the go-to guy for moving software applications to China. We talked about cultural differences, Chinese cloud providers, and the technical challenges businesses face when entering the Chinese market.
Mental health and IT leadership with Serge Beaumont
With 26 years of experience in IT, Serge has seen it all. In our conversation, he talks openly about how mental health issues affected his life and how he overcame them. He also shares his experience in IT leadership.
Taking the time to share knowledge with Urs Peter
As a seasoned software development consultant and certified Kotlin trainer, Urs shares his vision on the importance of knowledge sharing in creating a successful engineering culture.