Episode 46: 20 Years of Web Development with Avdi Grimm and Sarah Mei

Tech Done Right

20 Years of Web Development with Avdi Grimm and Sarah Mei

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Guests

• Sarah Mei: Founder of RailsBridge, Director of Ruby Central, Software Architect at Salesforce.
• Avdi Grimm: Creator of the RubyTapas Screencast Series and author of Exceptional Ruby and Confident Ruby. avdi.codes.

Summary

What has changed in web development in the last 20 years, and what do those changes say about the next 20? I recently realized that Avdi Grimm, the head chef of Ruby Tapas, Sarah Mei, of Ruby Central and Salesforce, and I all began our professional careers within a couple of weeks of each other in August 1998. I wanted to talk to them about what’s changed and what’s stayed the same. I was curious as to whether our different career paths led to similar observations. We talk about open source, agile, dynamic languages, distributed systems and how they’ve all changed or haven’t changed the developer’s experience.

Notes

02:19 - First Software Job Education and Experiences

09:25 - What has changed? What is easier/harder?

20:16 - What has changed in Product Management?

27:22 - Processor Speed

32:24 - What has stayed the same?

40:20 - Typed Languages

42:48 - What is going to change over the next 5-10 years?

• Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction by by Steve McConnell

Related Episodes

• Rubyists in Other Languages with James Edward Gray II and Steve Klabnik
• Ruby Tapas and Avoiding Code with Avdi Grimm
• Livable Code With Sarah Mei

Special Guests: Avdi Grimm and Sarah Mei.