Epic React Podcast

Kent C. Dodds

Learn how to build better React apps in this interview podcast of Kent C. Dodds hosted by Michael Chan.

Episodes

  1. 09/07/2020

    What Epic React Is And How It Came To Be

    When Kent was first looking into React, it was like it was what he was trying to make Angular do with Angular Formly, just without all of the framework getting in the way. React allowed Kent to use JavaScript to build his app rather than work around the framework to make it. He began to see the indication that Angular Two was not going to fix what he didn't like about AngularJS. It was at this point Kent started planning on switching to React at some point. Kent has been teaching React pretty much since he first learned it. He started by teaching it to co-workers and then at paid venues.  Kent has learned a lot about teaching React and has read a lot of research on making people understand it. In Epic React, you will learn React's basics to super-advanced topics and even experimental topics like Suspense. You'll then be given a real, practical scenario to apply what you've been taught to an actual application. Epic React has 25 hours or so worth of content for you. You watch a video, and then you spend the next 20 minutes or 30 minutes fixing or solving a problem. In the video, you aren't taught concepts that you need to learn to solve the problem. Instead, you are given the resources you need to learn those things. It's as if Kent hired you to solve the problem for him, and it is up to you to figure it out. You must struggle. If you don't struggle, you're not learning. But confusing isn't good. The point isn't for you to be confused, but to work hard and feel a little uncomfortable. Finally, Epic React presents you with a capstone project where you will apply everything that you've learned to an actual codebase with a real backend. This is where you'll bridge the gap from incrementing a counter to solving real-world problems.

    43 min
  2. 09/07/2020

    Kent's Career Path Through Web-Development

    Kent wasn't one of those who wrote their first HTML page when they were three years old. He didn't think he would be a developer. He wanted to be a video editor! Writing code for eight hours a day seemed like the worst thing ever to Kent. That is until Kent had a job where he had to take videos from a church's website and upload them onto their YouTube channel with all of the metadata. So Kent wrote a program that scraped the website, downloaded the videos, and uploaded them with the same title, keywords, and everything. It clicked for Kent that programming could be a tool and not just a chore. Eventually, Kent got an internship, where he spent his time working on a Java program. Afterward, Kent got a job at Domo, initially for a Java position, but it wasn't long before moving on to the front-end JavaScript team. Then, Kent got an internship for USAA, where they were transitioning to a Java framework called Wicket. AngularJS was taking off, so Kent was worried he'd become irrelevant. So he spent his evenings trying to learn enough to keep himself relevant. Kent was successful in keeping himself relevant and managed to get a full-time position at Domo. But, Kent was concerned that he wouldn't be able to grow at Domo since he felt that the team would only ever see him as an intern. So, Kent's next two job changes gave him increasing responsibility and seniority with each move. It was around this time when Kent began to become interested in open-source. But, working a full-time job and then going home to work on open-source projects is incredibly draining. That was Kent's main draw to his next job at Paypal. They gave him the freedom to work on open-source during work hours. He also hosted workshops for Paypal's engineers. Testing JavaScript was Kent's huge breakout. It gave an enormous amount of value to many people, which translated into earning more than half of his PayPal salary in the first month of its release! Kent was able to quit his job at Paypal and now works for himself full-time as an educator.

    42 min

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
10 Ratings

About

Learn how to build better React apps in this interview podcast of Kent C. Dodds hosted by Michael Chan.