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Show Notes
In this conversation, Fable and Ben dig deep on building a technical career that balances programming and company leadership. Fable shares their experience working at Stripe and the different roles they have held, including being a technical advisor to the CTO. They also discuss Fable's career move from being a hands-on programmer to role where less hands-on coding is required, Fable's take on "code crimes", and how to find enjoyment and fulfillment in solving complex problems.
Links
Tuple.app - The best app for pair programming
Stripe - The company Fable works at
Ruby Kaigi - An annual conference dedicated to the Ruby programming language.
Sidekiq - A simple, efficient background processing library for Ruby
Sorbet - A fast, powerful type checker designed for Ruby.
YubiKey - A hardware device designed for high-security two-factor authentication.
Key Takeaways
- Making connections and friendships at conferences can be valuable in the programming community.
- Debugging and problem-solving skills are crucial for software engineers.
- Being willing to learn and work with different programming languages can enhance your skills.
- Prototyping and spiking can be effective ways to test and develop new ideas.
Chapters
- (00:00) - Introduction and Conference Interaction
- (00:38) - Making Friends at Conferences
- (04:13) - Work at Stripe
- (06:17) - Becoming a Staff Engineer
- (06:53) - Getting Good at Programming
- (08:46) - Debugging and Problem Solving
- (11:22) - Working with C and C++
- (13:13) - Debugging with Print Statements and Debuggers
- (17:06) - Prototyping and Spiking
- (24:11) - Technical Advisor to the CTO
- (27:26) - Coding Hill to Die On
- (29:52) - Workflow Optimization
- (36:53) - Coding vs Non-Coding Time
- (39:08) - Transition to Leadership
- (41:07) - Motivation and Impact
- (42:13) - Love for Programming
- (44:14) - Coding Style: Short Methods and Small Classes
- (48:48) - Personal Style and Code Crimes
- (52:18) - Commercial Open Source
- (56:08) - Getting Involved in Open Source
- (01:04:52) - Wrap-up