Potluck - Programming Languages × Soft Skills × PHP vs JS × Breakdancing x Spice Blends

It’s another potluck episode in which Wes and Scott answer your questions! This month - programming languages, how to practice soft skills, PHP vs JS, is it every too late to become a developer, and more.

Freshbooks - Sponsor

Get a 30 day free trial of Freshbooks at freshbooks.com/syntax and put SYNTAX in the “How did you hear about us?” section.

Mlab - Sponsor

mLab is the leading Database-as-a-Service for MongoDB, powering over half a million deployments worldwide. Wes and Scott use mLab to host their own databases as well as take care of backups, security, scaling and performance. Try out a sandbox database on your next mongoDB project → https://mlab.com.

Show Notes

5:00

• Why don’t you work with Typescript?

10:52

• How do you recommend working with APIs/libraries that compete with the DOM (e.g. d3 + react, react + google maps)?

13:40

• What is meant by the word “state” when referring to Vue or React?

16:32

• How do you practice and get better at “soft skills” (e.g. burnout, freelancing, time management, confrontation)?
• Syntax 025 - Dealing with email overload
• PaperKarma - The App to Stop Junk Mail

28:23

• Do you guys use different environments (e.g. “QA” and “Prod”)? What are some best practices?
• Semaphore - Test and deploy your code
• Sentry - Open-source error tracking

32:43

• As someone trying to break into the field of programming, should you build everything from scratch, or it ok to use plugins and libraries?

38:52

• What would WordPress be like if it were built on Node and GraphQL?
• Ghost

46:54

• I’m learning JavaScript at 34… Do you think I can learn to breakdance at 34 too?

51:16

• How do you handle high level page layout when using styled components?

53:13

• As a junior dev, should I switch from PHP and Laravel to full stack JS? I love PHP, but JS is taking over.

Links

• react-async-script-loader
• Netflix Explained

××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ×××

• Scott: Alfred Emoj
• Wes: Motherboard YouTube Channel

Shameless Plugs

• Scott’s React Testing Course
• Wes’ Courses

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• LevelUpTutorials Instagram
• Wes’ Instagram
• Wes’ Twitter
• Wes’ Facebook
• Scott’s Twitter
• Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets