Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

166: Refactoring Health Care (John Norman)

October 5th, 2015  |  Season 4  |  40 mins 13 secs

Ben talks with John Norman about his process and modified approach to the delivery, payment, and tech of modern managed health care. They also touch on age bias in the programming world, living a purpose-driven life, and dealing with startup growth.

165: Everyone's Welcome Here (Adam Stacoviak & Jerod Santo)

September 28th, 2015  |  Season 4  |  43 mins 5 secs

Ben talks with Adam & Jerod of The Changelog Podcast to discuss their personal interviewing modalities, doing full-time media creation, and a new video project aimed to explore the actual people behind your programming heroes.

164: Transcribing at 260 wpm (Mirabai Knight)

September 21st, 2015  |  Season 4  |  36 mins 50 secs

Ben talks with Mirabai Knight about the technology and uses of modern stenography; including using steno with Vim, and her work on Plover, the open source Steno engine.

163: Play is the Best Way to Learn (Nadia Odunayo)

September 14th, 2015  |  Season 4  |  31 mins 37 secs

Ben talks with Nadia Odunayo about giving non-technical conference talks and full-time pairing.

162: Literal Giant Robots (Brinkley Warren)

September 8th, 2015  |  Season 4  |  23 mins 25 secs

Ben is joined by Brinkley Warren of MegaBots Inc. to discuss the history, build, and strategy behind the MegaBot Mk II, USA's entrant in next years giant robot duel!

161: Listen to Your Users (Jules Coleman)

August 31st, 2015  |  Season 4  |  28 mins 38 secs

Ben and Jules Coleman, founder of Hassle, discuss staying close to the codebase while in a more managerial role, the challenges of rapid growth, and the value of internalizing feedback.

160: Unfollowing the Leader (Drew Neil)

August 26th, 2015  |  Season 4  |  30 mins 49 secs

Ben and Drew Neil discuss freeing up Vim's leader key, the value of visual learning, and using GitHub to crowd source closed captions.

159: Falling Out of Love With Haskell (Mike Burns)

August 17th, 2015  |  Season 4  |  23 mins 2 secs

Ben and fellow thoughtbotter Mike Burns take time out of their Summer Summit schedule to chat about launching offices, the art of classical code, and why Mike no longer loves Haskell.

This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by Digital Ocean. Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account.

158: Producing...Stuff (Thom Obarski)

August 10th, 2015  |  Season 4  |  31 mins 4 secs

Ben is joined by trepidatious producer, Thom Obarski, to talk all things media at thoughtbot, compare working in tech to entertainment environments, and bestow some beginner advice on starting one's own podcast.

This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by Digital Ocean. Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account.

157: Between Frustration and Enlightenment (Tom Stuart)

August 3rd, 2015  |  Season 4  |  46 mins 17 secs

Ben is joined by Tom Stuart to talk about incorporating computer science topics into Ruby, his process of preparing talks, enriching your development career with a bit of computer science knowledge, and gushing about how amazing computers truly are.

This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by Digital Ocean. Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account.

156: It Has to be Valuable (Steve Tooke)

July 27th, 2015  |  Season 4  |  33 mins 13 secs

Ben is joined by Steve Tooke to discuss the importance of communication, testing, and building Cucumber 2.

This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by Digital Ocean. Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account.

155: CTO Duties (Joe Ferris)

July 20th, 2015  |  Season 4  |  40 mins 57 secs

Ben welcomes Joe Ferris, thoughtbot's CTO, to discuss design parity within the company, inversion of control, and solving all the world's problems with monads.

This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by Digital Ocean. Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account.

154: Do it Right the First Time (Samir Talwar)

July 13th, 2015  |  Season 4  |  34 mins 26 secs

Ben and Samir Talwar of Codurance discuss the appeal of functional programming, mob programming, and a different take on conferences.

This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by Digital Ocean. Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account.

153: Auld Lang Syne (Chad Pytel)

July 6th, 2015  |  Season 3  |  54 mins 34 secs

As Giant Robots nears its 3 year anniversary, Ben welcomes back Chad Pytel to reflect on the highs and lows of the previous year at thoughtbot.

This episode of Giant Robots is sponsored by Digital Ocean. Simple and fast cloud hosting, built for developers. Use the code GiantRobots for a $10 credit towards your new account.

152: Providing Positive Change (Denise Yu & Rosa Fox)

June 29th, 2015  |  Season 3  |  29 mins 45 secs

Ben welcomes Denise Yu and Rosa Fox of Codebar to discuss the importance of fostering community, mentoring tips, and more.

151: Open By Default (Aidan Feldman)

June 15th, 2015  |  Season 3  |  28 mins 57 secs

Ben discusses consulting and open source from within the government, as well as choosing the right clients, and the value of mentorship, with Aidan Feldman of 18F.