WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:09.240 Hey, folks, welcome back to another episode of JavaScript Jabber 2 00:00:09.400 --> 00:00:13.880 now here in. 3 00:00:14.679 --> 00:00:16.000 Oh what is that? Sorry? 4 00:00:16.039 --> 00:00:18.079 I'm using a system that I haven't used in a while, 5 00:00:18.120 --> 00:00:20.239 and it's got new features. So it just popped up 6 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:24.000 and said, hey, you've got your live So I guess 7 00:00:24.079 --> 00:00:30.440 we're live on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and riverside if you 8 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:33.200 want to come watch us on the app or recording 9 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:37.359 on so anyway, it's just me because it's a holiday 10 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:39.960 here in the US, and so AJ and Steve apparently 11 00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:43.039 have other things going on and didn't show up. Dan 12 00:00:43.159 --> 00:00:45.840 said he has very good reasons for not being here, 13 00:00:46.280 --> 00:00:49.359 usually has very good reasons when he's not here. And 14 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:52.920 our guest, honestly, we just switched over to this system, 15 00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:55.520 and so I am going to chalk that up to 16 00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:03.840 essentially accounting or pros us error. Right, he probably tried 17 00:01:03.880 --> 00:01:08.599 to go to the stream yard link. That's some kind 18 00:01:08.599 --> 00:01:12.040 of messed up. They actually lost some of our recordings 19 00:01:12.079 --> 00:01:15.120 when we switched, because I guess they're happy with us 20 00:01:15.159 --> 00:01:15.760 for switching here. 21 00:01:15.799 --> 00:01:16.200 I don't know. 22 00:01:16.719 --> 00:01:20.159 I shouldn't imply any motives because I don't actually know 23 00:01:20.239 --> 00:01:23.599 if it was malice or in confidence, but I'm working 24 00:01:23.599 --> 00:01:25.040 with them to try and figure it out, and they 25 00:01:25.120 --> 00:01:27.959 basically told me to quit asking for help. So we'll 26 00:01:27.959 --> 00:01:30.079 see how all of that goes. But we switched from 27 00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:34.640 stream yard or to Riverside, and it turns out Riverside 28 00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:36.480 has pretty much all the features that I've been asking 29 00:01:36.599 --> 00:01:40.120 stream Yard for so and they're cheaper. So at the 30 00:01:40.200 --> 00:01:43.040 end of the day's that I'm not sad that we switched. 31 00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:47.560 If you're looking to do more live streaming than Streamyard 32 00:01:47.599 --> 00:01:51.959 does have better features. But it looks like riversides features 33 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:54.680 have come a long way since we switched off of them, 34 00:01:55.040 --> 00:01:57.439 and it wasn't terribly hard to hoo cut up. So 35 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:01.480 I'm pretty happy here and maybe we'll dive into that, 36 00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:05.400 or maybe I'll do an episode on how to record podcasts. 37 00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:09.360 But in the meantime, since no one showed up, I thought, hey, 38 00:02:09.879 --> 00:02:11.360 I'm just gonna get on and I'm just going. 39 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:14.439 To record and just talk about some war stories or 40 00:02:14.599 --> 00:02:14.879 you know. 41 00:02:15.719 --> 00:02:17.680 Essentially, what I wanted to do is just talk about 42 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:21.599 the highlights of my career. And I don't want to 43 00:02:21.639 --> 00:02:23.479 just get into hey, look how great I am. What 44 00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:25.879 I want to do is I want to talk about, Hey, 45 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:28.080 I was in these positions and these were the things 46 00:02:28.120 --> 00:02:29.960 that really helped me get ahead, or these were the 47 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:32.879 things that really helped me learn, or things like that. 48 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:36.280 And that way I can kind of give you ideas 49 00:02:36.520 --> 00:02:39.439 if you're feeling stuck, or if you're like, why am 50 00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:42.840 I not happy in this job? Or you know, whatever, 51 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:47.319 you know, just give you a chance to hear oh, 52 00:02:47.919 --> 00:02:51.759 oh okay, maybe I should try that right, or maybe 53 00:02:51.800 --> 00:02:53.800 I should take this kind of a leap, or things 54 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:57.719 like that. So just to give a little bit of background, 55 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:05.000 I took electronics classes in high school and that was 56 00:03:05.080 --> 00:03:07.800 kind of my thing, and I really enjoyed it. We 57 00:03:07.919 --> 00:03:11.240 actually did get into programming some eighty eighty five or 58 00:03:11.240 --> 00:03:14.520 eighty eighty eight chips, right, so we would write programs 59 00:03:14.520 --> 00:03:17.639 and it would make LEDs light up, right, And so 60 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:20.719 we were programming the native language of the eighty eighty eight, 61 00:03:20.759 --> 00:03:25.280 which was assembly language. And you know, we also built 62 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:29.280 some robots that would follow a line and things like that, 63 00:03:29.439 --> 00:03:33.639 and so I've always kind of had that bent toward technology. 64 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:41.080 My grandpa actually was an inventor, and he invented a 65 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:47.000 smaller ellipsometer, which is a device that tests the elect 66 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:52.599 or the oxidation coating on silicon wafers that are used 67 00:03:52.639 --> 00:03:55.599 to make chips, right, they have to be uniform or 68 00:03:55.639 --> 00:03:59.039 pretty close to uniform, and we're talking. The term he 69 00:03:59.080 --> 00:04:01.479 always used was angst, which is like the thickness of 70 00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:04.759 a what of an oxygen atom or something. I can't 71 00:04:04.759 --> 00:04:06.960 remember which atom it is, but you know, so it 72 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:09.240 had to be it had to be that accurate on 73 00:04:09.759 --> 00:04:14.840 the coating or you get bad chips. And so he 74 00:04:15.080 --> 00:04:19.680 invented a system that would do. They had ellipsometers, but 75 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:22.000 they would take a long time. They were really slow, 76 00:04:22.040 --> 00:04:24.519 and they were really big, and he he invented one 77 00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:27.319 that fit basically in the size of kind of a 78 00:04:27.319 --> 00:04:34.920 computer case, and he could swap the wafers out every 79 00:04:34.920 --> 00:04:37.839 few minutes, right, so instead of taking hours to take minutes. 80 00:04:38.959 --> 00:04:44.279 He also was involved in the after the Challenger the 81 00:04:44.319 --> 00:04:50.040 shuttle blew up in the eighties. He was working for 82 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:54.480 a company called Rockwell International, and he he invented a 83 00:04:54.519 --> 00:04:58.000 laser system that checked the inside of the solid rocket 84 00:04:58.040 --> 00:05:02.920 booster for impre because apparently that contributed to the O 85 00:05:03.079 --> 00:05:07.480 rings failing. And so anyway, he had pictures up in 86 00:05:07.519 --> 00:05:11.240 his office of this device that was sitting and pointed 87 00:05:11.279 --> 00:05:16.519 at the side of the rocket boosters. So anyway, so 88 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:20.800 I came across all of the interest in tech kind 89 00:05:20.839 --> 00:05:24.199 of honestly, right, he kind of took me under his wing, 90 00:05:24.279 --> 00:05:27.879 and you know, and so I was always interested in 91 00:05:27.879 --> 00:05:29.879 this kind of a thing. And he invented some other 92 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:31.959 stuff that I don't know that anybody would ever use. 93 00:05:32.800 --> 00:05:35.720 He built himself literally this chair. So he liked to 94 00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:39.680 fly remote control airplanes, which honestly is something that I 95 00:05:39.720 --> 00:05:40.920 think would be fun to get into. 96 00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:45.879 But he built himself a chair, and he built himself. 97 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:50.439 Like the yoke for the pilot's chair, so it was 98 00:05:50.439 --> 00:05:54.160 a pilot's chair, and he built it so that it 99 00:05:54.279 --> 00:05:56.800 had polleys and stuff in it so that he could 100 00:05:56.839 --> 00:05:58.480 put the remote in there and he could fly the 101 00:05:58.480 --> 00:06:01.639 airplane as if he were the pilot, right, And so 102 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:05.079 he could turn the yoke and he could pull it in. 103 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:06.560 And out to make it go up and down. 104 00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:12.199 And anyway, I have fond memories of climbing trees to 105 00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:17.839 retrieve his airplanes at the remote control airplane parks. But anyway, 106 00:06:18.279 --> 00:06:20.879 so I got into that in high school. We were 107 00:06:20.879 --> 00:06:25.759 building that stuff. And then after high school, when I 108 00:06:25.800 --> 00:06:29.040 went to college, I signed up as an electrical engineering major. 109 00:06:29.800 --> 00:06:32.600 I went on a two year mission to Italy, and 110 00:06:32.639 --> 00:06:35.439 I lived in Italy for two years and taught the gospel. 111 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:40.000 That's not really relevant to this, but if you're Italian 112 00:06:40.040 --> 00:06:42.519 and you want to chat, I would love to practice 113 00:06:42.519 --> 00:06:45.480 my Italian. But yeah, So then I came back and 114 00:06:45.519 --> 00:06:50.319 I started working on my degree for electrical engineering. And 115 00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:52.839 as I got further in some of the classes that 116 00:06:52.879 --> 00:06:55.240 they make you take or more related to chip design 117 00:06:55.319 --> 00:06:58.439 and how computers work and things like that, and I 118 00:06:58.600 --> 00:06:59.920 enjoyed that a whole lot. 119 00:06:59.800 --> 00:07:03.800 More more than some of the just esoteric and you know. 120 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:06.439 Deeper electrical engineering stuff. So I changed my major to 121 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:11.800 computer engineering. I had to take some computer science classes 122 00:07:11.800 --> 00:07:14.800 as part of either major, and so I, you know, 123 00:07:14.839 --> 00:07:19.240 I picked up some programming in college. I also did 124 00:07:19.279 --> 00:07:21.600 some programming on an eighty eighty five or a TI 125 00:07:21.680 --> 00:07:23.759 eighty five calculator that I had when I was in 126 00:07:24.480 --> 00:07:28.040 junior high but it was mostly just so I could 127 00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:31.000 do my homework and do it faster than just punching 128 00:07:31.079 --> 00:07:37.079 everything in. But yeah, so I started taking these classes, 129 00:07:37.079 --> 00:07:40.000 and I have to say that after taking that many 130 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:42.079 computer science classes, I knew for a fact I didn't 131 00:07:42.079 --> 00:07:44.199 want to be a programmer. Which is kind of funny 132 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:47.160 to a lot of people. It's like, oh really, yeah, 133 00:07:47.199 --> 00:07:48.839 I was not so keen on that. I got a 134 00:07:48.920 --> 00:07:53.720 job working it at the university and so I set 135 00:07:53.800 --> 00:07:58.560 up probably dozens of Linux servers and Windows servers in 136 00:07:58.600 --> 00:08:01.480 the data center the first few years I worked there. 137 00:08:01.480 --> 00:08:03.279 I actually worked in the data center, and so we 138 00:08:03.319 --> 00:08:07.480 would monitor batch jobs and you know, get into the 139 00:08:07.560 --> 00:08:12.319 computers and run commands and stuff like that, so you know, 140 00:08:12.399 --> 00:08:14.800 help just maintain the network. So and so is having 141 00:08:14.800 --> 00:08:16.360 an issue on the networks, so we'd get in and 142 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:19.399 check the configuration on the switches across campus and things 143 00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:22.399 like that. So I do have kind of a strong 144 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:29.120 bent and pretty pretty good familiarity with the command line, 145 00:08:29.319 --> 00:08:32.360 and that has really served me well over the years. 146 00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:35.639 If you're looking for a skill set that a lot 147 00:08:35.639 --> 00:08:40.039 of programmers don't have a good basis in that will 148 00:08:40.039 --> 00:08:42.720 help you out long term, boy, I can tell you 149 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:46.360 learning the command line and learning how Linux works. 150 00:08:46.679 --> 00:08:48.759 Will do you a world of good. 151 00:08:48.879 --> 00:08:53.200 And it's translated really nicely into areas like Docker. So 152 00:08:54.200 --> 00:08:56.279 you know, just putting it out there, if that's something 153 00:08:56.279 --> 00:08:58.799 that you're looking to, you know, it's like, okay, what 154 00:08:58.840 --> 00:09:03.159 can I learn that makes me more competitive and you know, 155 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:04.080 a better. 156 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:06.759 Programmer and things like that. 157 00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:11.480 Anyway, Yeah, that's that that was something that really made 158 00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:13.799 a big difference. So anyway, so that's that kind of 159 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:16.039 gives you some background. Before I got that first job, 160 00:09:16.080 --> 00:09:19.840 and incidentally, that job out of college, so I had 161 00:09:19.879 --> 00:09:23.840 some other jobs. I left the IT job to go 162 00:09:23.879 --> 00:09:26.759 take an internship where I was actually writing patent applications 163 00:09:26.759 --> 00:09:28.559 because I thought I wanted to be a patent attorney. 164 00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:32.679 And yeah, I figured out real quick that that wasn't 165 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:36.159 really my cup of tea. So I went back worked 166 00:09:36.159 --> 00:09:39.120 in IT a little longer, setting up servers things like that. 167 00:09:39.159 --> 00:09:42.879 We used VMware on the servers and so we got 168 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:47.519 multiple servers on the same hardware. And then I got 169 00:09:47.559 --> 00:09:50.120 hired at Mosey and Mosey. I was working for them 170 00:09:51.080 --> 00:09:57.840 answering support, mostly emails. They expanded they put out a 171 00:09:57.879 --> 00:10:00.919 pro product for businesses, and so then we were doing 172 00:10:00.919 --> 00:10:05.559 phone calls as well. And this is where I really 173 00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:08.600 got into programming, and I figured out that I loved programming. 174 00:10:09.919 --> 00:10:14.519 And the difference was was that we had this problem where. 175 00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:16.679 We needed to. 176 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:19.519 Be able to keep better track because there were two 177 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:22.399 of us and we were answering emails in Thunderbird, which 178 00:10:22.440 --> 00:10:25.000 is an email client, and so what we would do 179 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:29.080 is we would just grab the next unread or unreplied. 180 00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:29.679 And we would start working on it. 181 00:10:29.720 --> 00:10:32.080 And sometimes we would figure out that the other guy 182 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:36.159 was working on it too, and we were getting enough 183 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:39.960 support requests to where we were starting to need other people, 184 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:41.559 and so we were going to have to hire a team. 185 00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:44.519 And so it just wasn't going to work, and so 186 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:48.159 we went to our boss, who incidentally we found out 187 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:51.720 later that were related. His mom and my mom are cousins, 188 00:10:53.360 --> 00:10:56.000 but we just hadn't really done anything with his family 189 00:10:56.039 --> 00:10:59.399 because they lived in California and we lived in Utah. 190 00:11:00.440 --> 00:11:02.559 But anyway, so we went to him and we said, hey, look, 191 00:11:02.600 --> 00:11:05.519 you know, we need something better to manage the emails 192 00:11:05.559 --> 00:11:07.519 coming in and stuff like that. And he looked at 193 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:09.600 us and basically said that he didn't have budget for it, 194 00:11:10.879 --> 00:11:13.960 and so we started building it. And the technology that 195 00:11:13.960 --> 00:11:17.960 they were using at at Mosey for the web based 196 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:21.600 technology was Ruby on Rails, and so we started building 197 00:11:21.639 --> 00:11:25.399 the system in Ruby on Rails and essentially what we 198 00:11:25.399 --> 00:11:27.879 would it would do is it would ingest the emails 199 00:11:27.879 --> 00:11:32.000 periodically and then what it would do is if one 200 00:11:32.039 --> 00:11:35.799 of us loaded the email, it would put a mutex 201 00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:38.600 or you know, or basically lock it for ten minutes 202 00:11:38.720 --> 00:11:43.440 or something on the server on the database, so that 203 00:11:44.039 --> 00:11:49.799 if I opened the email, he wouldn't open it. 204 00:11:48.879 --> 00:11:50.200 Right and for ten minutes. 205 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:52.360 And so then if I replied, then it would be 206 00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:55.080 Marcus replied, and he would you know, he would never 207 00:11:55.120 --> 00:11:57.919 see it the other guy. And so then when we 208 00:11:58.000 --> 00:11:59.600 hired more people than they could just get in and 209 00:11:59.639 --> 00:12:01.759 they could do it well. It also turned out that 210 00:12:01.799 --> 00:12:04.200 like eighty percent of the people who were requesting help 211 00:12:04.240 --> 00:12:09.120 were also requesting the same probably handful of issues, and 212 00:12:09.159 --> 00:12:16.360 so we put in canned replies and we basically said, hey, 213 00:12:16.399 --> 00:12:19.639 look we're you know, here's here's your answer. 214 00:12:19.799 --> 00:12:21.240 So that was that was the deal. 215 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:24.519 But what was really interesting was that the issue that 216 00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:28.639 I had with the with programming and the reason I 217 00:12:28.679 --> 00:12:31.159 didn't want to be a programmer based on my computer 218 00:12:31.279 --> 00:12:35.519 science stuff, was that I wasn't solving real problems, right, 219 00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:37.919 I had no stake in it other than my grade, 220 00:12:38.480 --> 00:12:40.360 and some of the problems felt kind. 221 00:12:40.200 --> 00:12:41.279 Of contrived, right. 222 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:42.759 It was like, hey, we're going to make up a 223 00:12:42.799 --> 00:12:45.799 problem for you to solve that nobody cares about, right, 224 00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:48.320 And so I didn't feel like I was making a difference. 225 00:12:48.320 --> 00:12:52.399 And I realized working for MOSY that that was something. 226 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:53.240 That I really cared about. 227 00:12:53.960 --> 00:12:59.320 And so when I talked to people now about their 228 00:12:59.360 --> 00:13:02.039 careers and where they're going and what they want to 229 00:13:02.120 --> 00:13:04.720 learn and things like that, is like, look, you know 230 00:13:05.120 --> 00:13:06.799 what what gives you fulfillment at work? 231 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:07.039 Right? 232 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:10.080 Because some people I've figured out and for me some 233 00:13:10.120 --> 00:13:12.399 of this applies. But the biggest thing for me is 234 00:13:12.440 --> 00:13:14.679 I want to feel like I'm making a difference. So 235 00:13:14.720 --> 00:13:17.559 for me, usually I'm looking for opportunities to mentor other 236 00:13:17.600 --> 00:13:21.639 people I'm using. I'm looking for opportunities to save a 237 00:13:21.679 --> 00:13:25.039 big pile of money for my employer. Right, it's like, hey, 238 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:29.159 we made the application, you know, six times more efficient, 239 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:33.600 so you don't have to pay for you know whatever 240 00:13:34.120 --> 00:13:42.279 server and other the other the other systems. Right, you 241 00:13:42.279 --> 00:13:43.960 don't have to pay for all of that, right, So, 242 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:47.399 or you know, we clean up the code, right, and 243 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:49.559 so it's like, hey, we can get we can get 244 00:13:49.600 --> 00:13:52.480 the programming done faster when we need new features, or 245 00:13:52.559 --> 00:13:56.840 it's more easy to maintain, or we catch more bugs. 246 00:13:56.879 --> 00:13:59.000 And because we have a better test suite or things 247 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:01.879 like that. Right, So for me, it's I really want 248 00:14:01.919 --> 00:14:03.840 to move the needle. I want somebody to look at 249 00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:06.720 the work I did and say wow, that that changed 250 00:14:06.919 --> 00:14:10.679 the complexion of things for us. Right, So in the contract, 251 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:14.480 I'm working right now, right, they we figured out that 252 00:14:14.519 --> 00:14:16.519 it was doing a whole bunch of repeat work in 253 00:14:16.600 --> 00:14:17.759 the workers. 254 00:14:17.879 --> 00:14:20.879 That were you know, it's like, hey, do this job. 255 00:14:20.919 --> 00:14:23.120 Well, it turned out that a lot of times when 256 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:27.360 it said hey, do this job, effectively what it was 257 00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:29.919 doing is it was it was saying do this work, 258 00:14:29.919 --> 00:14:31.360 but the work was going to be done by a 259 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:34.279 job that was already in the queue. And so I 260 00:14:34.279 --> 00:14:36.159 set it up to just look in the queue and say, 261 00:14:36.200 --> 00:14:37.840 are you already going to do this work? 262 00:14:37.840 --> 00:14:38.799 Okay, don't schedule it. 263 00:14:40.639 --> 00:14:44.799 And we got less complaints from from the client, right 264 00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:48.840 because they're like, it's not calculating all the time, right, 265 00:14:48.919 --> 00:14:52.120 It's it's telling us it actually finished the calculation so 266 00:14:52.159 --> 00:14:54.519 we can use the numbers that are in there. This 267 00:14:54.679 --> 00:14:57.639 is for a hedge fund, by the way, So so 268 00:14:57.639 --> 00:14:59.559 so those are the kinds of things that that I'm 269 00:14:59.600 --> 00:15:02.879 looking for, right, is this Like, I mean I like 270 00:15:02.879 --> 00:15:05.919 getting paid, right, and I need to get paid. But 271 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:08.679 the reality is is at the end of the day, 272 00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:12.480 I'm really looking for that place where I can just 273 00:15:13.559 --> 00:15:19.720 knock it out of the park. So anyway, I decided 274 00:15:19.720 --> 00:15:22.799 that I wanted to be a programmer, right because at MOSY, 275 00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:24.960 I was still running the support I had hired at 276 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:29.200 that point like thirty people to work for me answering 277 00:15:29.399 --> 00:15:33.440 support issues. But what I really love to do was 278 00:15:33.519 --> 00:15:36.000 work on this system. And eventually we had built out 279 00:15:36.440 --> 00:15:37.720 like a full ticketing system. 280 00:15:37.759 --> 00:15:41.080 We had added in a knowledge base, right. 281 00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:43.720 We tracked phone calls, I mean the whole nine yards 282 00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:48.240 because they had brought in an Asterisk phone system which 283 00:15:48.320 --> 00:15:51.879 ran on my SQL so we could query it from rails, right, 284 00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:54.360 And so we were tracking all kinds of stuff. And 285 00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:59.919 I was loving working on this system, and I was 286 00:16:00.360 --> 00:16:02.759 I enjoy talking to people and helping him out over 287 00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:05.279 the phone, but it just really wasn't the thing that 288 00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:09.399 really lit me up. And for the really hairy stuff. 289 00:16:10.759 --> 00:16:12.559 Since I had been there as long as I had 290 00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:16.720 been and kind of touched every system, if somebody needed 291 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:19.360 to trouble shoot something for one of our larger clients 292 00:16:19.360 --> 00:16:21.919 across the entire system, I was the person that was 293 00:16:21.919 --> 00:16:24.320 pulled in and so I was kind of the last 294 00:16:24.360 --> 00:16:28.519 resort for tech support. And then there were some political things, 295 00:16:28.559 --> 00:16:30.840 and eventually I kind of got pushed off to the 296 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:33.000 side and they put somebody else in charge of the 297 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:37.559 support team, at which point I looked at him and said, 298 00:16:37.679 --> 00:16:38.639 I want to be a programmer. 299 00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:39.240 What do I do? 300 00:16:39.320 --> 00:16:41.519 And we kind of compromised and I wound up in QA. 301 00:16:44.519 --> 00:16:46.639 And I worked in QA for a while, and then 302 00:16:46.679 --> 00:16:51.080 eventually I left because it just it wasn't worth it. 303 00:16:51.159 --> 00:16:53.960 They had actually listed a job to hire a third 304 00:16:54.000 --> 00:16:56.360 person for our QA team, and that person was getting 305 00:16:56.360 --> 00:16:59.559 paid like twenty or thirty percent more than me, and 306 00:16:59.600 --> 00:17:00.919 when I could in front of them about it and 307 00:17:00.919 --> 00:17:03.720 asked them about it, anyway, it's not worth going into. 308 00:17:03.879 --> 00:17:06.240 But there were some political things that went on, and so. 309 00:17:06.200 --> 00:17:09.160 I left, and then I kept hearing from the people 310 00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:11.880 that were working for me about how bad things got afterward. 311 00:17:14.079 --> 00:17:16.240 But I went on and I worked on another project. 312 00:17:16.279 --> 00:17:19.000 This was for a lead end company, and there again 313 00:17:19.039 --> 00:17:21.839 I got to mentor some people. I was, you know, 314 00:17:22.039 --> 00:17:25.000 I didn't have any no. I went to the consulting 315 00:17:25.720 --> 00:17:29.400 firm first, and let me tell you that, like this 316 00:17:29.559 --> 00:17:32.240 was the perfect setup for me to launch my career from. 317 00:17:32.880 --> 00:17:35.000 So there were a couple of things there, and I 318 00:17:35.039 --> 00:17:37.559 feel like I've had this in a couple of other places, 319 00:17:38.519 --> 00:17:40.359 and so I kind of want to talk about the 320 00:17:40.680 --> 00:17:43.960 commonalities between this and a couple of other places where 321 00:17:43.960 --> 00:17:48.119 I've worked, because it this is kind of the ideal setup, 322 00:17:48.119 --> 00:17:51.200 and this is what I'm trying to create with JavaScript Geniuses, 323 00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:54.759 is to give people all of these things that you 324 00:17:54.799 --> 00:17:57.720 may or may not be getting wherever you're working. So 325 00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:00.000 one of the first things that happened is, I guess 326 00:18:00.119 --> 00:18:03.160 I went in for the interview. And when I went 327 00:18:03.200 --> 00:18:05.720 in for the interview, I did the kind of the 328 00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:10.200 who are you and what's your experience interview with the 329 00:18:10.200 --> 00:18:14.519 general manager of the consulting firm, and then he got 330 00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:19.160 their senior guy on the phone and we did the 331 00:18:19.559 --> 00:18:22.839 technical interview over the phone. And so I'm sitting there 332 00:18:22.920 --> 00:18:28.440 next to this general manager guy and I'm on the 333 00:18:28.440 --> 00:18:31.599 phone with this other programmer, and so he's asking me questions, 334 00:18:31.640 --> 00:18:34.720 and of course, right, I have how much experience do 335 00:18:34.759 --> 00:18:37.079 I have in Ruby on rails? Well whatever I've been 336 00:18:37.079 --> 00:18:39.960 able to pick up on my own working at Mosey, Right, 337 00:18:40.680 --> 00:18:45.000 So so I answer the questions, and so he asked me, like, 338 00:18:45.119 --> 00:18:47.960 what what are design patterns? And I'm like, I have 339 00:18:48.119 --> 00:18:49.480 no freaking idea. 340 00:18:49.720 --> 00:18:51.599 Right, So then he explains it to me, and then 341 00:18:51.640 --> 00:18:53.480 I turn around and I say, oh, I gotcha. 342 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:57.440 So like, when rails makes you do things in this way, 343 00:18:57.640 --> 00:19:00.640 that's a design pattern. He's like, yes, you know. And 344 00:19:00.680 --> 00:19:02.599 so the interview kind of went like that. And so 345 00:19:02.640 --> 00:19:07.039 the interview was not like I didn't show up knowing 346 00:19:07.079 --> 00:19:10.039 all of the things that they wanted me to know. 347 00:19:11.039 --> 00:19:14.279 I showed up basically with an open mind and was 348 00:19:14.319 --> 00:19:17.319 willing to learn, and he would explain something to me 349 00:19:17.359 --> 00:19:20.039 and I would immediately connect it to other things. And 350 00:19:20.039 --> 00:19:23.680 so I wound up getting that job. I got basically 351 00:19:23.759 --> 00:19:30.839 a twenty thousand dollars a year raise, and yeah, I 352 00:19:30.880 --> 00:19:32.920 got to work there with a bunch of other guys. Now, 353 00:19:32.960 --> 00:19:34.680 a lot of the guys at the company, there were 354 00:19:34.680 --> 00:19:36.240 like two or three of us that were doing Ruby 355 00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:36.799 on rails. 356 00:19:37.240 --> 00:19:38.839 Most of the guys at the company. 357 00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:42.000 Were doing Java or c sharp, and there were a 358 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:43.920 handful of people that were picking up Flash. 359 00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:45.240 And so. 360 00:19:47.079 --> 00:19:49.799 The deal was is I got onboarded onto the same 361 00:19:49.880 --> 00:19:53.279 project as the guy that interviewed me, and so we 362 00:19:53.319 --> 00:19:56.480 wound up doing I mean, we would pair a program 363 00:19:56.839 --> 00:20:00.920 quite a bit. If I had any quest sessions about anything, 364 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:02.839 I literally would just call him and ask him and 365 00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:03.599 he would walk. 366 00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:03.880 Me through it. 367 00:20:05.400 --> 00:20:08.680 My IT experience allowed me to help out the rest 368 00:20:08.680 --> 00:20:11.039 of the company with some of their stuff. Right, so 369 00:20:11.119 --> 00:20:14.000 they had internal servers where they hosted the code using 370 00:20:14.119 --> 00:20:19.400 SVN subversion, which was the predecessor to GET. Eventually everything 371 00:20:19.440 --> 00:20:22.680 moved to GET but anyway, so all that work I 372 00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:27.079 was able to do too. And Yeah, it was just 373 00:20:27.119 --> 00:20:29.079 kind of an ideal setup because at the end of 374 00:20:29.079 --> 00:20:31.640 the day, if I if I had something that I 375 00:20:31.720 --> 00:20:33.599 needed to ask a question about, or I got stuck 376 00:20:33.640 --> 00:20:35.920 on anything, I had somebody to talk to. 377 00:20:36.079 --> 00:20:38.200 And when I'm putting. 378 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:42.039 Things together for JavaScript geniuses, I want the same thing, right, 379 00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:44.200 I want people to be able to come We're doing 380 00:20:44.240 --> 00:20:47.599 weekly calls. I want people to be able to show 381 00:20:47.680 --> 00:20:51.400 up and say, Hey, I've got a question. I ran 382 00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:55.039 into this thing with react or express or whatever. 383 00:20:56.880 --> 00:20:58.440 How do I handle this? How do I learn it? 384 00:20:58.480 --> 00:21:00.400 How do I fix it? How do I whatever right? 385 00:21:00.920 --> 00:21:03.640 And be able to have people there to answer their 386 00:21:03.720 --> 00:21:05.559 question and maybe walk through it, hold their hand through it. 387 00:21:05.559 --> 00:21:08.519 A little bit so, and that was a major thing. 388 00:21:08.559 --> 00:21:12.000 And what's funny is is, like I worked for Public Engines. 389 00:21:13.599 --> 00:21:16.440 We ran crime reports dot com, which is if you 390 00:21:16.480 --> 00:21:18.799 go there now it does the same thing, but it's 391 00:21:18.839 --> 00:21:19.599 not the same app. 392 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:21.519 But we. 393 00:21:23.279 --> 00:21:26.000 I worked with David Brady and he helped mentor me 394 00:21:26.039 --> 00:21:28.319 on a whole bunch of stuff. Right at that point, 395 00:21:28.400 --> 00:21:30.279 I was I was not in a place where I 396 00:21:30.319 --> 00:21:32.480 had to ask questions all the time and you know, 397 00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:35.519 have my hand held on stuff. But occasionally there were 398 00:21:35.559 --> 00:21:38.720 some things where for example, when I was trying to 399 00:21:38.720 --> 00:21:42.880 figure out if a point on the map, right, if 400 00:21:42.920 --> 00:21:46.079 I had latitude and longitude was within the city limits 401 00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:49.319