Tech Done Right

Table XI
  • 5.0 (30)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED SEMIMONTHLY

The Tech Done Right podcast is a show by and for people who care about what they build. We don't just build software, we build teams, companies, careers, and communities. Each episode features host Noel Rappin talking to interesting people in the tech community about building something the right way. We’re not just going to give you our thoughts on the topic, but tools, processes, or references that you can use immediately to build better software and communities.

  1. 10/09/2019

    Episode 72: Teaching Testing and Design

    Teaching Testing and Design Guests Betsy Haibel (https://twitter.com/betsythemuffin): CTO at Cohere (https://twitter.com/wecohere). Blogs at betsyhaibel.com (https://betsyhaibel.com/). Avdi Grimm (https://twitter.com/avdi): Head Chef at RubyTapas (https://www.rubytapas.com/). Blogs at avdi.codes (https://avdi.codes/). Penelope Phippen (https://twitter.com/penelope_zone): Works at Google, makes Rubyfmt (https://github.com/samphippen/rubyfmt), helps make RSpec (https://rspec.info/), and is on the board of Ruby Central (https://www.rubycentral.org/). Blog (https://penelope.zone). Summary After the discussions on testing and design in episodes 68 and 69, I had so much I still wanted to talk about in testing, design, and teaching testing and design. So I convened a panel with previous Tech Done Right Guests Avdi Grimm, Betsy Haibel, and Penelope Phippen to help me think through all these topics. I was very happy to have all of them on the show, and I think it's a great conversation. Stay tuned until the very end for an update about the show. Related Episodes with These Guests Avdi: 20 Years of Web Development (https://www.techdoneright.io/46), Ruby Tapas and Avoiding Code (https://www.techdoneright.io/24) Betsy: Diverse Agile Teams (https://www.techdoneright.io/38), How Set Design Can Inform Software Architecture (https://www.techdoneright.io/21) Penelope: Code Style and Community (https://www.techdoneright.io/54), Back in the Testing Weeds (https://www.techdoneright.io/33), In The Testing Weeds (https://www.techdoneright.io/004-testing-with-sam-and-justin) Notes 00:50 - Previously On: Re: Testing * Pragmatic Programmer at 20 with Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt (https://www.techdoneright.io/68) * Teaching and Learning with Sandi Metz (https://www.techdoneright.io/69) 02:53 - Testing and Design * 99 Bottles of OOP (https://www.sandimetz.com/99bottles) 05:43 - TDD Test Driven Development (https://technologyconversations.com/2013/12/20/test-driven-development-tdd-example-walkthrough/) Do We Need Constants (http://www.virtuouscode.com/2011/08/18/do-we-need-constants/) 09:36 - Testing, But Not Developer Testing + Sliming The Test * WikiWikiWeb (http://wiki.c2.com) 13:41 - Why + How Did You Learn TDD? 20:24 - TDD: Not a Robust Process 24:19 - Rails + Unit Testing 27:41 - Is TDD really dead? 35:06 - Keeping Code In Your Head 37:32 - Approaching the Testing and Design of Code 38:59 - What would convince you to stop doing TDD? Special Guests: Avdi Grimm, Betsy Haibel, and Penelope Phippen.

    50 min

  2. 09/25/2019

    Episode 71: Supporting Innovation With Mike Todasco

    Supporting Innovation With Mike Todasco Guest Mike Todasco (https://twitter.com/Todasco): Senior Director of Innovation at PayPal (https://paypal.com) Summary Today on the show we have Mike Todasco, the Senior Director of Innovation at PayPal. We talk about what innovation means at a company, and how to encourage innovation both if you are a PayPal sized company and if you aren’t. Mike also shares some information about PayPal’s internal innovation tournament and how they offer incentives for innovation. Notes 01:38 - What does the Senior Director of Innovation at PayPal do? 02:32 - Why should companies innovate? 04:29 - Who should be innovating? 08:26 - Assisting and Guiding in Innovation 11:15 - Introducing Innovation to Companies and Teams: Vulnerability 16:06 - Encouraging Innovation 18:44 - The Concept of Global Innovation Tournaments 24:34 - Giving People Opportunity and Exposure 28:40 - Innovation Tokens 30:59 - Innovation For Small Companies 32:39 - Interesting Innovations Special Guest: Mike Todasco.

    36 min

  3. 09/11/2019

    Episode 70: How To Buy Software With Ashley Quinto Powell

    How To Buy Software With Ashley Quinto Powell Guest Ashley Quinto Powell (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyquinto/): Director of Business Development at Table XI (https://www.tablexi.com/). Summary Today on the show, we have Ashley Quinto Powell. Ashley and I have run a workshop together called How to Buy Software aimed at people who want to buy custom software but aren't sure what the process will be like. In this episode, we try to compress a four-hour workshop into a 45-minute podcast. Ashley will talk about what to expect from the sales process and then Ashley will interview me about what it's like to work with a development team. I hope you like it. Notes 01:40 - How do you buy software? 02:47 - Common Misconceptions When Starting the Process 04:20 - Preparing for a Conversation About Buying Software 06:42 - Terminology To Know Offshore / Nearshore - Agile / Waterfall - Time and Materials Contract / Fixed Contract 16:08 - Interacting with a Development Team 18:28 - Estimation 28:16 - Signs Things Are Going Well / Red Flags Special Guest: Ashley Quinto Powell.

    33 min

  4. 08/28/2019

    Episode 69: Teaching and Learning with Sandi Metz

    Teaching and Learning with Sandi Metz Guest Sandi Metz: (https://twitter.com/sandimetz): Author of Practical Object-Oriented Development in Ruby (http://www.informit.com/store/practical-object-oriented-design-an-agile-primer-using-9780134456478?ranMID=24808) and 99 Bottles of OOP (https://www.sandimetz.com/99bottles). sandimetz.com (https://www.sandimetz.com/) Summary Today on the show we have Sandi Metz, author of Practical Object Oriented Design in Ruby and co-author of 99 bottles of OOP. I’ve literally been trying to get Sandi as a guest since we started recording the show and I’m thrilled that we’ve finally been able to connect. We talk about OOP and TDD, maybe going down a test-driven rabbit hole for a while, and also talk about what it’s like to teach and coach about OOP and TDD. I enjoyed this talk very much and I think you will, too. Notes 02:46 - Keeping Up With Tech 04:58 - Object-Oriented Design 09:53 - Why do we write tests? 17:53 - Teaching Yourself TDD 22:11 - Procedures and Patterns 34:07 - CI Jim Weirich (https://weirichinstitute.com/about) 39:23 - Approaching TDD 44:49 - What should we be doing as a community to share knowledge? The Magic Tricks of Testing (http://confreaks.tv/videos/railsconf2013-the-magic-tricks-of-testing) Special Guest: Sandi Metz.

    50 min

  5. 08/14/2019

    Episode 68: Pragmatic Programmer at 20 with Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt

    Pragmatic Programmer at 20 with Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt Guests Dave Thomas (https://twitter.com/pragdave) and Andy Hunt (https://twitter.com/PragmaticAndy): Authors of The Pragmatic Programmer (https://pragprog.com/book/tpp20/the-pragmatic-programmer-20th-anniversary-edition) and publishers of The Pragmatic Bookshelf (https://pragprog.com/). Summary I’m very excited to have Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt on the show today. Dave and Andy are the authors of the Pragmatic Programmer, which has a 20th anniversary edition that is out now, and they are the publishers of the Pragmatic Bookshelf, where they have (full disclosure) published my books a time or two. We talk about what’s changed in the new version, what being a Pragmatic Programmer means, whether there’s still a role for tech books, and how to make automated testing pragmatic. Somehow I avoid telling the slightly embarrassing story about the bad impression I made the first time I met Dave. Enjoy. Notes 02:52 - Revisiting the Book 20 Years Later and What Has Changed/Hasn’t Changed 06:41 - What it Means to be a Pragmatic Programmer 08:39 - Software Development as a Team Sport 12:56 - Extreme Programming Explained and The Pragmatic Programmer; Similarities and Differences Extreme Programming Explained (https://amzn.to/31xukpR) Agile Manifesto (http://agilemanifesto.org) 22:09 - Finding The Pragmatic Programmer Voice/Tone 24:55 - Roles for Dead-Tree Technical Books 30:36 - How To Make Automatic Testing Pragmatic Special Guests: Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas.

    52 min

  6. 07/31/2019

    Episode 67: Civic Software with Alex Pedersen and Abhi Nemani

    Civic Software with Alex Pedersen and Abhi Nemani Guests Alex Pedersen: Co-founder of Polco (https://info.polco.us/). Abhi Nemani (https://twitter.com/abhinemani) Founder of EthosLabs (https://ethoslabs.us/). Summary This week, we have Alex Pedersen of Polco and Abhi Nemani of EthosLabs. They're both involved in various uses of technology to increase civic engagement. We'll talk about how technology can improve the public sector and why technologists should be interested in public sector work. Notes 02:09 - Technology and Civic + Political Engagement 06:14 - Risks of Making the Government More Technological 10:01 - Balancing Conversations Amongst Citizens 12:18 - Building and Designing Software for Government vs Commercial Use 14:39 - Getting Involved in Government, Civic Engagement, and the Public Sector - Code For America (https://www.codeforamerica.org/) - Chi Hack Night (https://chihacknight.org/) - Abhi's Course Notes in Civic Tech (https://abhinemani.com/civictechcourse/lectures/) Special Guests: Abhi Nemani and Alex Pederson.

    21 min

  7. 07/17/2019

    Episode 66: Stories and Community with Ariel Caplan

    Stories and Community with Ariel Caplan Guest Ariel Caplan (https://twitter.com/amcaplan): Co-Host of Dev Empathy Book Club (https://devempathybook.club/), Backend Developer at Cloudinary (https://cloudinary.com/), and Flatiron School (https://flatironschool.com/) Alum. Personal Site (https://amcaplan.ninja) Summary Our guest this week is Ariel Caplan. Ariel is a developer at Cloudinary and the Founder of the Dev Empathy Book Club. At RailsConf this year, Ariel gave a keynote about culture and stories using examples from Israeli and American children's literature. In our conversation, we focus on the stories that developers tell ourselves about who is successful, what it takes to be successful, and what people and skills are left out of those stories, and how we might be able to change them. Notes 02:18 - Stories We Tell New Members of the Community - RailsConf 2019 - Keynote: The Stories We Tell Our Children by Ariel Caplan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKqvtAxGQOs) 04:17 - The Myth of the Lone Genius 06:28 - How Stories Affect Day-to-Day Expectations on Teams * The Passion Gospel - Avdi Grimm (http://www.virtuouscode.com/2014/02/10/the-passion-gospel/) * Passion | David Mitchell's SoapBox (https://youtu.be/Bz2-49q6DOI) * Tim Cook Thanks Apple Devs (https://youtu.be/psL_5RIBqnY?t=8150) 12:36 - Stories That Benefit Our Employers 16:11 - How We Treat New Developers * Don't Ask Us Questions. We'll Just Ignore You. (https://blog.codinghorror.com/dont-ask-us-questions-well-just-ignore-you/) 21:11 - “Real Programmers” * Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World (https://www.amazon.com/Coders-Making-Tribe-Remaking-World/dp/0735220565) 26:30 - Computer Science Education 31:07 - People Skills and Community Special Guest: Ariel Caplan.

    38 min

  8. 07/03/2019

    Episode 65: Managing Pain and Suffering at Work with Amy Newell

    Managing Pain and Suffering at Work with Amy Newell Guest Amy Newell: (https://twitter.com/amynewell): Director of Engineering at Wistia. Previous Director of Engineering at PatientsLikeMe (https://www.patientslikeme.com/). RailsConf 2019 - Failure, Risk, and Shame: Approaching Suffering at Work by Amy Newell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRG6uIkHH8c) Summary Our guest this week is Amy Newell. Amy is the Director of Engineering at Wistia, and she gave a talk at RailsConf this year entitled “Failure, Risk, and Shame: Approaching pain and suffering at work”. We have what I hope is an uplifting conversation about failure and pain, how to recognize it, and how to skillfully manage those feelings to be more resilient, prevent additional pain, and ultimately be more satisfied with your job. Notes 01:56 - Why Use Words Like “Pain” and “Shame” When Talking About Work Experience - Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555) 04:21 - Specific Kinds of Pain and Suffering at Work 07:31 - Mistakes People Make When They’re Dealing with Failure, Anxiety, and Shame 10:28 - Skillful Responses 17:37 - Mitigating Pain 21:57 - Skillful Responses (Cont’d) 25:04 - Mindfulness - RAIN: Tara Brach (https://www.tarabrach.com/rain/) 30:34 - Feedback and Identity - Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen (https://www.amazon.com/Thanks-Feedback-Science-Receiving-Well/dp/0670014664) - Paul Graham: Keep Your Identity Small (http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html) Special Guest: Amy Newell.

    36 min
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5
out of 5
30 Ratings

About

The Tech Done Right podcast is a show by and for people who care about what they build. We don't just build software, we build teams, companies, careers, and communities. Each episode features host Noel Rappin talking to interesting people in the tech community about building something the right way. We’re not just going to give you our thoughts on the topic, but tools, processes, or references that you can use immediately to build better software and communities.

Information

  • Creator
    Table XI
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2019
  • Episodes
    74
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Table XI
  • Show Website
    Tech Done Right