Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Ben & Chris Hunt catch up on their latest conference talks, podcasts, and things accomplished on their recent coding retreat. Service Oriented Architecture at Square Solving the Rubik's Cube in 20 Seconds Trailmix Turing School Spanulate Podcast You Should Take a Codecation Codcation on reddit Healthy Hacker Podcast trailmix repo Chris on Twitter

Britt Ballard leads this roundtable discussion on home-growing your own conference and their experiences, from theme and logo selection to scheduling guests and venues, turning Keep Ruby Weird from a dream into a reality. Keep Ruby Weird Jeremiah The Innocent FormKeep Scheduling, made simple Badges O.Henry Pun-Off Chauffeuring Ruby Rody

Guest-Ben Chad Pytel talks with Allison House about maintaining personal growth while freelancing, and her approach to harnessing your capacity to learn. allison.house Origins Tiny Habits- BJ Fogg "Summer Noon"- Tweedy Design Tips Signup House on Twitter

Ben talks with Tom Lehman, creator of Genius, about the power of honesty in corporate culture, and navigating the mores of discussing salary. Genius The Genius ISMs Dunning–Kruger effect Don't Call Yourself a Programmer, and Other Career Advice- Patrick McKenzie Tom on Twitter

Ben talks with Pete Hunt, formerly of Facebook & Instagram, on React and what makes this unique JavaScript library tick, as well as shifting from a technical to a business focused mindset. React Fielding Dissertation Simple Made Easy- Rich Hickey Pete on Twitter

Ben talks with Dan Martell, CEO and founder of Clarity, about self-actualization in business, how life is affected by those around which one surrounds themselves and the value of staying outside one's comfort zone. Maslow's hierarchy of needs Ira Glass on closing "the gap" between what you want to do and what you can do Maslow’s Hierarchy of Entrepreneurial Needs- Dan Martell The E-Myth Revisited The 4-Hour Chef- Tim Ferriss Portage Program Friendventory Headspace App Clarity Dan on Twitter

Ben talks with Will Sulinski, founder of Pistol Lake, on translating lessons learned from the tech sector into success in the fashion industry. Pistol Lake Let My People Go Surfing Chris Lindland Episode Will on Twitter

Ben talks with nGen Works founder Carl Smith about alternatives to a "flat" structure, remote management & community building. nGen Works BizCraft Podcast Technically Simple Podcast Drive by Daniel Pink DPM Radio The Bureau of Digital Affairs QCat Carl on Twitter

Ben talks with Brandon Bloom about finding the right tool for the job, there being too many objects in OO Programing and the importance for a full spectrum of options, regardless of the choice. Hour of Code Campaign Om Mathematica Unsound and Incomplete Trivial Cycles in Object Oriented Programming Brandon on Twitter

Ben talks with Gumroad grower Ryan Delk about standing out from your peers by adding value before you ask for value. Gumroad Chris Sacca on Foundation: "Create Value Before You Ask For Value Back" Section Around 14:50 Ryan on Twitter

Ben and Rob Walling, founder of Drip and HitTail, discuss engaging your audience, the path to building new habits and the need to create. Drip HitTail MicroConf The Biggest Gamble of Your Career Tiny Habits Startups For The Rest Of Us Podcast Rob on Twitter

Ben talks to developer Joanne Cheng about lessons learned from the conference circuit, as well as the subject of her latest conf talk, Data-Driven-Documents within JavaScript, and trends in dashboard design. D3 Interactive Data Visualization for the Web Edward Tufte Why Most Dashboards Fail- Stephen Few FlowingData Overtone Let's Talk About Dials Joanne on Twitter AirConf

Ben talks with Chris Granger, creator of Light Table, about building a better IDE and envisioning a world where all programming happens inside a database and anyone can do it. Light Table Toward a Better Programming Aurora StrangeLoop 2013 Demo Exploring Data-Centric, Declarative Programming for the Cloud Chris on Twitter

This week Ben talks with former thoughtbotter, and creator of Is It Christmas, Eric Mill about the power of blogging, the personal empowerment offered by the internet and the role of government in the digital age. Is It Christmas? The Door to the FISA Court Switch to HTTPS Now, For Free Civic Hacking Weekly 2,000-Year Problems Blue State Digital The Sunlight Foundation Scout Search Engine 18f United States Project Eric on Twitter

Ben delves behind the scenes of a VC firm with Alex Taussig of Highland Capital. Highland Capital Partners Alex on Twitter

Ben talks to Brett Van Zuiden, founder of Filepicker, about the importance of finding your specialization and passion in your industry, as well as his experiences in Y Combinator. Filepicker Scaling Instagram IFTTT All-TIME 100 Novels Y Combinator Brett on Twitter

Ben talks to Sarah Haider, Android lead at Secret, about anonymity in social media, her work with Girls Who Code and Android Development. Girls Who Code Secret Hound Sara on Twitter

Ben is joined by fellow thoughtbotters Alex & Galen to break down their product design sprint workflow. Google Ventures: Design Sprint Recipe Human Centered Design Toolkit Jobs To Be Done Framework Milkshake Marketing Product Design Bootcamp

Ben welcomes Marc-André Cournoyer of Coded Inc. to discuss self-marketing and sustaining info-product platforms. Thin How to Create Your Own Freaking Awesome Programming Language Influence- Robert Cialdini Scientific Advertising- Claude C. Hopkins Coded Inc. Growing Object-Oriented Software Guided by Tests Test-Driven Rails The Great Code Club Rejected Weekly Iteration

On this weeks Giant Robots Ben welcomes Adam Wiggins, Heroku co-founder and former CTO, to join as more of a guest host than guest. They discuss team size/structure, project scalability, the benefits of working abroad & self-maintenance best practices. Adam Wiggins Heroku "2 Dudes Talking" podcast genre discussion How to Scale a Development Team Good Software Takes Ten Years. Get Used To It. The E-Myth Revisited Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

Giant Robots welcome Adam & Chris of Vehikl who inquire about project selection / scheduling, portfolio building & customer-facing. Vehikl thoughtbot Playbook Adam on Twitter Chris on LinkedIn

Ben sits down with Peter Cooper, of Cooper Press, on his evolution from blogger to published author and publisher. Cooper Press Ruby Inside Ruby on Rails vs PHP video Fluent Conf /r/lifeprotips Peter on Twitter

Ben is joined by Alex & Jatin, recent graduates of the first thoughtbot / Metis Ruby on Rails Bootcamp, to talk about the process, experience and feedback on their path to becoming junior developers. Ruby on Rails Bootcamp Alex on Twitter Jatin on Twitter

On our special 100th episode Aaron Patterson joins Ben from RailsConf to talk AdequateRecord, frustrations in software, bulk meat discounts, the finer nuances of cat-naming and the importance of scientific thinking in web development. AdequateRecord Chicken Scheme Aaron's RailsConf Closing Keynote Aaron on Twitter

From RailsConf, Ben & Greg Baugues of Twilio discuss how mental illness affects the development community and the importance of, as well as resources to, proper treatment. Business of Software Video Developers and Depression book Devpressed Forum Open Sourcing Mental Illness prompt Campaign Greg on Twitter

From RailsConf, Ben talks to Chris Hunt of Github about techniques for enhancing spacial memory, competitive personalities, the coffee infamy of the Pacific Northwest and Clojure testing. Dominic O'Brien Bibliography World Memory Championships Chris on Twitter

Live from RailsConf Ben & Ernie Miller explore his "Curmudgeon" talk, modules and the importance of nuance. TDD is Dead Appriss: VINE Ernie on Twitter

Live from RailsConf, Ben talks to Executive Director of The Turing School Jeff Casimir on Conf-stress, the lack of jobs in open source and the challenges of learning to run a business. Turing School of Software & Design Heartbleed Bug The E-Myth Revisited

This week Ben sits down with Chas Emerick to discuss his latest venture, The Quilt Project, start up philosophies and the importance of balanced time management. 100% Time Clojure Programming: Practical Lisp for the Java World The Quilt Project PDF TextStream Rich Hickey's Ant Simulator Von Neumann architecture heaven forfend

Ben is joined by Diana & Jessie of thoughtbot San Francisco to discuss their latest book, iOS on Rails, the concept of releasing a book in Beta and the importance of apprenticeships to emerging junior developers. iOS on Rails Roy Fielding Ray Wenderlich iPhone Tutorials Flinto Diana on Twitter Jessie on Twitter

On this weeks show Ben talks to David Nolen, Rails & JavaScript developer for the NY Times, about being a steward of ClojureScript, functional programming, the advantages of immutable values and Om. David Nolen ClojureScript React Kitchen Table Coders: The Immutable Stack David on Twitter iOS on Rails (Beta)

Ben and Ryan Hoover, co-creator of Product Hunt, talk revenue models, the value of blogging, diversification of skills, and tiny steps towards major change. Tradecraft: Training people to succeed in traction roles at high-growth startups Product Hunt: A daily leaderboard of the best new products Knowing When It's Time To Move On Don't Learn To Code BJ Fogg- Tiny Habits method Ryan on Twitter

This week on Giant Robots, Ben talks to Rich Thornett, Co-Founder of Dribbble, about the formation and criticisms of the company, the role of product design and remote team management. dribbble Rich on Twitter

Ben talks to George Brocklehurst & Mike Burns of thoughtbot's Stockholm office on creating and distributing gitsh, an interactive shell for Git, and why it shouldn't be a Ruby gem. Get Gitsh Stockholm Vim Haskell Stockholm Classical Code Reading Group

This week on Giant Robots, Mahmoud Abdelkader of Balanced joins Ben to talk the priorities in ones career trajectory, the role of a successful CTO, and the benefits of radically open transparency. Balanced What Does Balanced Do? Balanced Github Balanced Cookbooks Mahmoud on Twitter

This week Ben Talks with Kyle Bragger of Elepath, Inc on the nature of online community building, advertising vs subscription revenue models and the importance of continued creative output (and actually releasing it to the world). Elepath, Inc Exposure Mauerpark Karaoke Forrst Drew Wilson

This week on Giant Robots, Ben chats with Tony DiPasquale on utilizing Arduino engineering to solve 0th world problems. Arduino Home Page Original Bathroom Occupancy Proof of Concept Breakdown Full Low Power Custom Arduino Sensor Board Instructions!

In this week's episode, we're joined by Peter Reinhardt, Co-founder and CEO of Segment.io. Ben and Peter discuss the product, their tech stack, the companies big pivot to Segment.io, their growth and future plans. They also discuss leaving MIT to start a company, getting along with your co-founders, nuclear reactors, hiking, and much more. Segment.io node.js Express.js Thorium reactors Molten salt reactor Norway diving board rock, Trolltunga Follow @thoughtbot, @r00k, and @reinpk on twitter.

This week, Ben is joined by Max Temkin, creator of Cards Against Humanity and Humans vs. Zombies. Max talks about his success with Cards Against Humanity and his feelings of impostor syndrome. He talks about some of his other projects including his first indie game, Humans vs. Zombies. Most recently Max had a multiplayer PC game published called Samurai Gunn. Max talks about the "open source" nature of his games. They discuss money, sustainability, kickstarter, and much more. Maxistentialism Cards Against Humanity Humans vs. Zombies Samurai Gunn Back to Work: Anxiety's a Goat Max's Blog Follow @thoughtbot, @r00k, and @MaxTemkin on twitter.

On this week's episode, Ben talks with Harper Reed, former CTO of Threadless, former CTO of Obama for America, and currently CEO of Modest. Harper talks about management and his "cabal" of people that he likes to work with. He also discusses his experience on the campaign, healthcare.gov, and procurement laws. When asked about his playbook for success, Harper talks about networking strategies, the use of different languages for different problems, craziness, and much more. Harper Reed If I Knew Then Why the Government Never Gets Tech Right Harper's GitHub Harper's Blog Follow @thoughtbot, @r00k, and @harper on twitter.

On this week's special episode, Chad Pytel turns the tables and interviews host Ben Orenstein. They discuss the process of running the podcast and Ben's roots in programming and computer science. Ben talks about his Vim mastery, how he got into public speaking, and his experiences speaking at RailsConf. This year Ben is organizing the live coding track at RailConf. Ben describes his strategies for learning programming, how he's getting into Clojure, and much more! Ben's Blog Ben's Github The Vim Learning Curve is a Myth Chad Fowler on the Giant Robots podcast How to Get Your Conference Talk Accepted How to Talk to Developers (Rails Conf 2013) 4clojure.org WellnessFX Follow @thoughtbot, @r00k, and @cpytel on twitter.

This week's episode features Matt Knox of Twitter. Matt is a part of Twitter's university team which teaches new Twitter recruits about the company. He works as an engineer as well in order to stay current. Matt discusses his background as an engineer, and how he got into teaching. He discusses using Storm, essentially a real-time Hadoop, for Twitter. Ben and Matt talk about the importance of keeping a portfolio as a programmer and deliberate practice routines for coding, and more. Matt Knox's Github Matt Knox's Blog Storm Hadoop The Things They Carry On the Fundamentals of Programming Follow @thoughtbot, @r00k, and @mattknox on twitter.

In this week's episode, Ben Orenstein is joined by best selling author, Seth Godin. Seth describes himself as an entrepreneur, a blogger, and an agent of change. They discuss art, frustration, and the endless pursuit of perfection as an artist. In his newest book, The Icarus Deception, Seth discusses seeking art in your work and looking beyond standards and production. They talk about the importance of finding connections with other artists and people who can provide meaningful feedback. They discuss several of Seth's blog posts which are linked below, and much more. Seth's Books How to Draw an Owl Pick Three But What if I Fail Krypton Course The Gift by Lewis Hyde The War of Art Interview with Scott Adams Follow @thoughtbot, @r00k, and @thisissethsblog on twitter.

This week on Giant Robots, Ben Orenstein chats with Josh Pigford about time management, entrepreneurship and farming Josh Pigford's Website Josh Pigford's Twitter Tiny Farmstead Baremetrics Popsurvey Temper

This week on Giant Robots, Ben Orenstein talks with Uncle Bob Martin about functional programming, ethics, and writing. Bob Martin's Twitter Clean Coder Bob Martin's Blog

This week on Giant Robots, Ben Orenstein talks with Chris Lindland, CEO of Betabrand.com about online fashion, self-generating product and dress-pant-sweatpants. Chris Lindland's Twitte Betabrand

This week on Giant Robots, Ben Orenstein speaks with Harold Giménez, Heroku postgres leader, about postgres, data management, and beer brewing. Harold's Twitter Harold's Blog Heroku

Ben Orenstein speaks with Alex Kesler, founder and CEO of inSegment about digital marketing, GTD and productivity. inSegment inSegment's Twitter

This week Ben Orenstein interviews Catherine Bracy, Director of Community Organizing at Code for America. Catherine Bracy's Twitter Code for America

Ben Orenstein speaks with thoughtbot developer Sean Griffin about scala and ruby. Sean Griffin's Twitter Understanding Computation Tom Stuart Scala Website Martin Odersky's Free Class Programming Scala