Best Tom Hazledine Podcasts (2024)

1
89: Top Tips review: pragmatic learning 12:19

3+ y ago12:19

12:19

We've had some great guests on our podcast, and we've asked each of them for their "Three Top Tips" for new developers. All their advice has been amazing, and a lot of the same concepts have come up time and time again. In this miniseries we're looking back at those top tips, and linking the themes together. This week our theme is "pragmatic learni…

1
88: Top Tips review: document what you learn 12:43

3+ y ago12:43

12:43

We've had some great guests on our podcast, and we've asked each of them for their "Three Top Tips" for new developers. All their advice has been amazing, and a lot of the same concepts have come up time and time again. In this miniseries we're looking back at those top tips, and linking the themes together. This week our theme is "documenting what…

1
87: Top Tips review: enjoy what you do 13:48

3+ y ago13:48

13:48

We've had some great guests on our podcast, and we've asked each of them for their "Three Top Tips" for new developers. All their advice has been amazing, and a lot of the same concepts have come up time and time again. In this miniseries we're looking back at those top tips, and linking the themes together. This week our theme is "enjoyment". How …

1
86: Top Tips review: just get things done! 8:59

3+ y ago8:59

8:59

We've had some great guests on our podcast, and we've asked each of them for their "Three Top Tips" for new developers. All their advice has been amazing, and a lot of the same concepts have come up time and time again. In this miniseries we're looking back at those top tips, and linking the themes together. This week our theme is "getting things d…

1
85: Top Tips review: why should you build your own website? 10:54

3+ y ago10:54

10:54

We've had some great guests on our podcast, and we've asked each of them for their "Three Top Tips" for new developers. All their advice has been amazing, and a lot of the same concepts have come up time and time again. In this miniseries we're looking back at those top tips, and linking the themes together. This week our theme is "Just Build Websi…

1
84: Why should you own a rubber duck? 24:55

3+ y ago24:55

24:55

It is a truth universally acknowledged that any developer in possession of a bug must be in need of a rubber duck to talk to. There are lots of ways to get "stuck" when programming. It can often be because of something simple, like a syntax error or typo, or maybe a fundamental lack of knowledge or experience with the system you're using (be it an …

1
83: How do you get started with a new framework? 25:03

3+ y ago25:03

25:03

We're trying something new this week. Live-coding is famously risky when giving a talk or presentation, but we figured it might be fun to make things even harder by removing all the visual elements. That's right; we're live coding on a podcast! There are a lot of frontend frameworks out there, so being comfortable picking up a new framework is a us…

1
82: What is semantic markup? 25:33

3+ y ago25:33

25:33

This week we get deep into the weeds of HTML. What tags do we use (and are they the same as the tags we should use)? And who are we wring our markup for? Just browsers, surely?! But what about search-engine crawlers and accessibility tools? So how can we structure our web pages so that they do a great job in all scenarios? How much do we care about…

1
81: What is an API? 27:34

3+ y ago27:34

27:34

Development (and web-dev in particular) is a field full of initialisms and acronyms. We often take them for granted without thinking too much about these things that we use every day. This week we dive into one of the most common TLIs (Three Letter Initialisms) that all web developers will encounter sooner or later: APIs (also known as Application …

1
80: What’s it like behind the scenes of a podcast? 26:02

4y ago26:02

26:02

To celebrate our eightieth full episode, we pull back the curtain to show you how the sausage gets made. When we were starting out, "meta" episodes like these were a great way to learn how our podcasting heroes ran their shows. Now, we're not calling ourselves "heroes" just yet, but we've been doing this long enough to have some tidbits of advice f…

1
79: How important are CS fundamentals? (with Vaidehi Joshi) 46:05

4y ago46:05

46:05

What's this? Another of our heroes joining us for a chat!? You betcha! This week we're joined by the immensely talented and infectiously friendly Vaidehi Joshi. You'll know Vaidehi from her work on the Base.cs blog series and podcast (a must-listen show; it's awesome). How did Vaidehi get into the world of computer science in the first place? And i…

1
78: How can developers get better at design? 26:03

4y ago26:03

26:03

If you're a developer you should absolutely know a little bit about design. You don't need to be an expert, but knowing some of the fundamentals of good layout and "usability" will be a massive force multiplier for your work. It's also a general "life hack" that will improve your career in many, many ways. So what should you do if you're a develope…

1
77: Should you use boilerplates? 24:50

4y ago24:50

24:50

Boilerplate code is code that you import into your project to give you a scaffold to build on. It helps get you to the fun stuff faster. Or does it? This week we discuss why you might (or might not) want to use boilerplate, and dig into what parts of our own stacks we think of as being "boilerplate". Does Ed think that CSS "frameworks" are true boi…

1
76: CSS Revisited (Rapid Fire) 31:31

4y ago31:31

31:31

It's another rapid-fire multi-question show this week. Ed has some more questions about CSS, and (hopefully) Tom has some answers. Join us as we dive into the intricacies of the box model, and learn why the dev tools are your friend. Remember: if in doubt, inspect the element! How do you break up different css files? What do we mean when we talk ab…

1
75: Why do you need a website of your own? (with Chris Coyier) 51:17

4y ago51:17

51:17

It's fan-boy o'clock again this week, as one of Tom's web-heroes joins us for a chat. CSS Trickster and ShopTalkin' podcaster Chris Coyier stopped by for a chat about working as a developer. Chris is full of all sorts of useful advice for aspiring developers. For example, you need some experience before you can know what you want from a job. Learn …

1
74: How do you get started with testing? (with Brian Okken) 50:21

4y ago50:21

50:21

We're joined this week by testing expert (and long-time friend of the show) Brian Okken. Brian literally wrote the book on testing with Python (Python Testing with pytest) and has a lot of strong opinions about the value of testing and testing methodologies in general. Thankfully he's as friendly as he is smart, and was happy to lead us through the…

1
73: Why is Python a good starting point for learning to code? (with Michael Kennedy) 43:40

4y ago43:40

43:40

This week we're joined by Python expert (and super-star podcaster) Michael Kennedy to talk about why Python is such a great language to get started coding with. So why is coding in Python such fun? And why is it so good for beginners and experts alike? Why might Python give you tangible results faster than JavaScript? And once you've learnt some Py…

1
72: CSS Extravaganza! 34:21

4y ago34:21

34:21

In a tweak to the usual format, this week's show is a frontend-focused rapid-fire question bonanza. Ed's been doing some CSS work this week, and has a lot of questions for Tom (a self-styled CSS expert, whatever that means). What's wrong with `innerHTML`? And for that matter, why is `eval()` so evil? Should you use `px`, `pt`, `em`, or `rem` (or so…

1
71: How should developers market themselves? (with Shawn Wang) 55:18

4y ago55:18

55:18

This week we're joined by Shawn Wang, Senior Developer Advocate at AWS and author of the excellent Coding Career Handbook. Shawn is a career-switcher; he transitioned into tech in his early thirties after a career in finance. He has written a lot about how aspiring devs can better accelerate their careers, and his views are nuanced and full of wisd…

1
70: Is "become a developer" still good advice? 23:57

4y ago23:57

23:57

Down on your luck? Become a developer! Don't know what to do for a career? Become a developer! Want to earn the big bucks? "Simply" become a developer... We hear this advice all the time, but how much truth is there to it? Can anyone become a developer, and is it a good choice for everyone? And more importantly, is now a good time to transition to …

1
69: Why bother with side projects? 26:57

4y ago26:57

26:57

Side projects (or "side hustles" if you're feeling more entrepreneurial) are a subject that comes up a lot with developers. It can seem like every programmer has seven or eight projects that they're working on in the wings, any one of which could become a world-beating business at any moment. But is there more to this than just hype? Are there more…

1
68: Are bootcamps worth doing? (with Kirsty Simmonds) 43:54

4y ago43:54

43:54

This week we're joined by Kirsty Simmonds, a developer who has successfully survived a coding bootcamp. We love hearing stories about people who have transitioned into tech from other careers, and Kirsty's tale is a good one. As well as giving us an honest and fair insight into the mechanics and specifics of taking a bootcamp, Kirsty also has a ton…

1
67: How can developers help fight climate change? (with Natalia Waniczek) 36:10

4y ago36:10

36:10

We're joined for this episode by Natalia Waniczek. Natalia is a web developer building hybrid mobile apps and websites at Elixel. With a passion for environment she's not afraid to voice her opinions and advocate for climate change. It's easy to assume that working as a web developer doesn't have much of an impact on climate change, but it there ar…

1
66: How do you get started in data science? (with Tom Sainsbury) 39:00

4y ago39:00

39:00

We were joined for this episode by Tom Sainsbury, a neuroscientist who has a wealth of experience in using programming to deal with data. We discuss the ins and outs of "data science" as a discipline, as well as how it intersects with the world of professional programming. How do you deal with your data when you're collecting 500GB per day? How do …

1
65: Should new developers get involved in open source? (with Jeremy Walker) 1:04:24

4y ago1:04:24

1:04:24

It's an exciting show for Ed this week. If you've listened to almost any of our previous episodes, you'll have most likely already heard Ed spreading the Good News (TM) about Exercism.io - an education platform that combines coding exercises and online mentoring. Ed's used it for ages, and talks about it any chance he gets. In this episode we get t…

1
64: How do you get started with Pandas? (with Boris Paskhaver) 33:56

4y ago33:56

33:56

This week we were joined by Boris Paskhaver, a software developer, Agile consultant, online educator and author. Boris is based in New York City and has 240,000 students across 6 courses on the e-learning marketplace Udemy with over 1 million minutes of video content consumed monthly. In our discussion we talk about his upcoming book, *Pandas in Ac…

1
63: What is i18n? (with Eli Schutze) 38:56

4y ago38:56

38:56

This week we're joined by internationalisation (i18n) expert Eli Schutze. Originally from Nicaragua, Eli is a London-based web engineer and speaker currently making money work for everyone at Monzo Bank. In this episode she clears up some common misconceptions around the issue of translating apps and websites. It turns out that doing i18n properly …

1
62: What is it like to have a mentor? (with Amber Wilson) 50:14

4y ago50:14

50:14

This week we got to speak with Amber Wilson. Amber is a front end engineer with 3 years experience and an interest in lots of things to do with the web. Right now she's especially interested in accessibility, security, and performance. And in this episode we were able to grill her about the specifics of having (and being) a mentor. We've spoken abo…

1
61: What questions should you ask in an interview? 24:12

4y ago24:12

24:12

Let's set the scene. You've landed an interview for your dream job in tech. You've crushed it on the technical evaluation and wowed them at the whiteboard; everything's going your way. At that point, somewhere towards the end of the face-to-face segment, you'll be hit with the following challenge: do you have any questions for _us_? We _love_ quest…

1
60: What is a resilient website? (with Jeremy Keith) 48:20

4y ago48:20

48:20

This week we're joined by Jeremy Keith, a web developer and author who's had a massive influence on at least one of our hosts. Jeremy introduces us to the concept of "resilient" websites, and has loads of advice for developers new to the field. The web is for everyone, and websites should reflect that: if you're using some advanced fancy features, …

1
59: How do you prepare to give a presentation? 35:14

4y ago35:14

35:14

Even though all current in-person have been cancelled, some tech events are still happening. Many conferences are transitioning to being fully-online, and anyone can release anything they like on YouTube (other video hosting services are available). How do you keep your presentation sounding natural? When pre-recording, what things shouldn't you ed…

1
58: How do you run a remote conference? 37:31

4y ago37:31

37:31

We've talked about organising conferences before (in episode #46). And we've talked about pivoting before as well (way back in episode #31). This week we're covering the mother of all pivots; converting a fully-booked in-person conference into a 100% remote event. So what needs to change when an event moves online? And what do the speakers have to …

1
57: Why is time so hard to work with? 31:37

4y ago31:37

31:37

This week's episode is another deep-dive into a niche coding topic. This time, we're dealing with time. In short, writing code that deals with times and dates is horrible. We're here to tell you that, as a sensible developer, you should avoid it at all costs. But if you're unlucky enough to actually _have_ to programme with times and dates, what ar…

1
56: How can you make code habitable? 24:10

4y ago24:10

24:10

It is easy to think that when you are writing code your target audience is a computer. But almost all code is more than a simple list of instructions for a machine to follow. A mature codebase is a living, breathing thing that gets touched by many, many developers. So how do we go about writing our code for _humans_? What does "habitability" mean i…

1
55: Any tips and tricks for effective home working? 26:27

4y ago26:27

26:27

Lots of people are working from home now, and for many it's their first experience of being a remote worker. Ed is in this boat too - it's very new for him, having only worked from home for a single day at the time of recording. Tom, on the other hand, has worked remotely for many years (in some form or other). So what obstacles has Ed already enco…

1
54: Why do people write "bad" code? 25:06

4+ y ago25:06

25:06

It's a sad fact of the world that bad code exists. But is this just developers doing their best impression of builders? "Who put this in, mate? It's all got to be ripped out and replaced". Is all old code bad code? Are there reasons that bad code gets written? Are the justifiable excuses and mitigating factors? If you're just starting out in your c…

1
53: What are some good things to build? 30:27

4+ y ago30:27

30:27

We think that the best way to learn *is* by doing (it works for us, but your milage may vary). So when you are learning to code, what should you be doing? What are good things to build when you're just starting out? It's all well and good to say "Just Build Websites" *(©️ shoptalkshowdotcom)*, but *what* websites? So what do we think you should bui…

1
52: What gear do you use? 25:53

4+ y ago25:53

25:53

We've talked before about the essential equipment you need when learning to code, but this week we take a look at all the tech and tools that we use everyday. Get two nerds in a room and you'll have three opinions about what is the best technology to use. A lot of this stuff is definitely optional, but we get utility from using it nonetheless. So w…

1
51: What is a Minimum Viable Product? 28:48

4+ y ago28:48

28:48

Creating an MPV (Minimum Viable Product) is a big deal in "startup land". But what are they, exactly? How do they differ from a normal proof-of-concept or technical prototype, and are they a useful part of the development cycle? MVP is an oft-abused term, but why do people insist on skipping the "viable" part? What should you bear in mind when crea…

1
50: What's so special about the command line? 30:50

4+ y ago30:50

30:50

What is a CLI, and what is a GUI? What are the key differences? And why would you choose one over the other? Are there tasks that cannot be accomplished in the command line? The command line has a steep perceived learning curve, so is it worth the time-investment to learn properly? And is there any benefit to switching to a non-standard shell or te…

1
49: What is a build pipeline? 33:57

4+ y ago33:57

33:57

At some point you're going to want to put the code you've written onto the internet. In the "bad old days" you should FTP your files onto a server and boom; you've got a working website. Easy peasy. But why don't we work like that any more? What are "build pipelines"? And what do terms like CI and CD stand for? And what do they actually mean? Who o…

1
48: Agency or product? 28:01

4+ y ago28:01

28:01

What are the differences between working at an agency and working "in house" for a single company or product? How much does team size factor into the different experiences that the developers have? And is it an issue of design vs. development, or frontend vs. backend? (Spoilers: no, it isn't) And how important are good project managers? (Spoilers: …

1
47: How do you build a blog? 30:55

4+ y ago30:55

30:55

We think that every developer should have a blog of some sort. But they shouldn't be hard to create. In this episode we dive into the mechanics of building and hosting your own blog. We run through many of the options and answer the common questions. Why use a blogging tool? What is a Content Management System, and do you really need one? What do w…

1
46: How do you apply to speak at a conference? (with Tony Edwards) 42:52

4+ y ago42:52

42:52

AQoC takes on a new flavour this week with the addition of our first ever guest: the magnificent Tony Edwards, organiser of the Future Sync tech conference. Tony tells us all about the history of the conference, and graciously answers a lot of questions about the process of becoming a speaker. What does a typical talk-application look like? How are…

1
45: Should you take a bootcamp? 33:33

4+ y ago33:33

33:33

When you're pivoting to a career in tech, software bootcamps can seem very attractive. The idea that you can learn to code in three months, and have a guaranteed job at the end of the process sounds too good to be true. But is it? There are a lot of caveats and warning signs to beware of, but are bootcamps a valid option? In this episode we discuss…

1
44: What is the difference between a framework and a library? 30:49

4+ y ago30:49

30:49

When coding, we often make use of external tools and snippets to make our life easier. Importing existing code into your codebase is a common occurrence. But what is the difference between code that adds missing features to the language you're using and code that changes the way you structure your application? The crucial difference is that the for…

1
43: Yearly Themes: 2020 32:31

4+ y ago32:31

32:31

Throughout 2019 Tom and Ed have both been applying a "Yearly Theme" to their lives. We've talked a lot about the concept of Yearly Themes before, but this episode is a deep-dive into the whole idea. What were our themes for 2019? Do we think they were successful, and will we be carrying any aspects of them forward into the next year? And, most impo…

1
42: What does a developer do all day? 30:38

4+ y ago30:38

30:38

Every developer's average work day will be different, but there are habits and patterns that crop up all the time. If you're a developer, the chances are you'll have sat (or stood) through plenty of "stand ups" and one-to-one meetings. We've covered "How much time do you spending coding in a coding job?" before, but since then Ed's started his firs…

1
41: How long does it take to get a job in tech? 21:21

4+ y ago21:21

21:21

When you've decided you want to get a job as a professional programmer, it can be hard to know how long to expect the learning process to take. We only have two hosts, and while their stories are (hopefully) useful, it's only a small segment of a much bigger picture. We polled our listeners to find out some of their stories, and specifically asked …

1
40: Can you trust recruiters? 26:57

4+ y ago26:57

26:57

This week we finally get into a thorny issue that's raised it's head in several previous episodes. What do our hosts think of tech recruiters? What do recruiters do? Are they useful, and should you use them? Can you ever even trust a recruiter? Are there red-flags you can watch out for? Find out all this and more in this week's engaging instalment …

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