Explore the dynamics of synchronous vs asynchronous work as Matt and Mike discuss, analyze, and debate these two popular team workflows. Learn the pros and cons of both work styles, including security, flexibility, and team collaboration. Discover how these methods impact web developers with practical examples of onboarding, mentoring, and deep work. Tune in to understand how to effectively balance sync and async environments for optimal productivity and employee satisfaction. Whether you're a team leader or a solo developer, this episode has valuable takeaways for everyone in the tech industry.
In this episode we dive into the toughest situations web agencies face. From budget cuts and impossible deadlines to social media crises and viral success, Matt and Mike discuss practical strategies for managing stress, negotiating with clients, and maintaining quality. Learn from the guys' experience as they explore real-life scenarios like “The Budget Slash,” “The Perfect Storm,” and “The Design Diva,” offering insights and solutions to keep your agency thriving.
In this episode, we dive into the challenges companies face when balancing rapid feature development with maintaining stability and processes. We explore what it means to build fast, including establishing a tech stack that allows for quick iteration, easy rollback, and efficient database management. We discuss the importance of getting ideas from concept to production swiftly, while ensuring quality through early QA involvement. The episode also covers why it’s sometimes okay to break things, especially when dealing with a small user base, and the critical areas where building fast is not advisable, such as user data security. Join us as we unpack strategies for maintaining velocity without compromising on quality.
In this episode, Matt and Mike discussed time management and time respect as a web developer, specifically diving into their thoughts on different types of billing, invoicing, and availability requirements. Some freelancers feel as though they should charge for every minute that they're on the clock since they're trading their time for money - while others believe more in the project angle, they're dedicated to getting the job done and therefore will often work "unpaid overtime" or will essentially be on-call for no additional pay. For small business owners, the duo also discussed their thoughts on invoicing, comparing and contrasting invoices will very little detail, versus ones that describe every thing that was done and how much those items cost. Then towards the end of the episode, the guys zoomed in on package deals - and how loose or strict you should be when enforcing the confines of a package deal (ie website maintenance package).
Learning web development is not a clear linear path. At the highest level there's frontend development and backend development...but these categories break down into a tonne of different technologies including (but not limited to) React, Vue, Svelte, SvelteKit, HTML, CSS, JavaScript....and the list just keeps going on. For a beginner, this spider-web of technologies seems like an insurmountable learning path. In this episode, Matt and Mike discussed where they think you should start learning web development, touching on different pathways, and eventually laying out their preferred path in detail.
The classic 5-page website is often called a "small business website" or a "basic website" among web development agency owners. It's a staple of the industry because it symbolizes a basic site that many businesses will start their online presence with, and it can easily be sold as a package deal alongside hosting to onboard new clients. As the web has matured, other tools such as Squarespace, Wix, and Webflow have come up with DIY solutions that bring the power of web design, ecommerce, and hosting to users with often a single affordable monthly fee. In this episode, Matt and Mike discussed the small business website landscape to-date in 2024. Through their discussions they debate whether it's worth it for a web dev agency to offer 5-page small business websites anymore, if there's any value in a 5-page website in today's SEO, and whether a business' budget makes a difference which direction they should go.
This week we had the pleasure of sitting down with Clark Sell, the creator of THAT Conference to discuss the importance of community among developers, and different relationships that you can have with your community. We also discussed at length the who, what, where, when, and why of THAT Conference - diving into Clark's inspiration when creating THAT, what the event is all about, and what the speaking landscape is like there. We even talked a little bit about Clark himself and what he used to do before THAT.
JavaScript has seen its fair share of insults and critiques over the years, with some developers outright refusing to touch it and other skirting around the edges by relying heavily on the server-side of things (ie PHP). Love it or hate it, JavaScript is what the web runs on and it's been that way since 1995. Vanilla JavaScript runs in the client's browser, bringing interactivity to user interfaces, while keeping the server out of calculations and computations. With the introduction of Node.js, JavaScript escapes the client-side, and moves it's way into the backend scene. With such a versatile language, why does JavaScript get so much hate? Is JavaScript really that bad?
Creating a website is not a one-size-fits-all scenario, as projects can vary wildly in complexity and amount of work needed. Over the years we have come up with a process that defines a clear structure while providing enough flexibility to accomodate most web development projects for small to medium businesses. The process helps keep development on-track, payments flowing, mitigates working with clients that aren't serious about their project.
Sometimes web development deadlines can come up faster than expected, or even worse, your workload may overwhelm the amount of time you have left until a deliverable is due. When this happens, it's easy to panic, procrastinate, or even quit altogether. Thankfully, development has a lot of wiggle room in how tasks are performed and can typically be worked on anywhere (in office, at home, on-the-go). This week, Matt and Mike discussed how to save time when you're working on your website's UI, more specifically, Matt reflected on a recent busy week where he pulled out all the stops on time saving while doing front-end development.
This week we had the pleasure of sitting down with Jacob Jackson, the creator of TabNine and Supermaven to discuss AI as a whole. It's no surprise that LLMs are taking over most of the current chatter in the tech world, but their rapid rise in popularity has also led to a rapid rise in concern. Many people believe that AI is coming for our jobs, working to replace human developers and other workers. On the other side of the fence, people are using AI to boost their productivity both at work and at home. Developers seem to be getting a great deal of this productivity boost with the creation of tools like Supermaven that can help speed up coding. If you've ever had any questions or doubt surrounding AI, or LLMs in general, then you're not going to want to miss this episode.
Web development is a multifaceted field that demands the integration of numerous technical skills for success. Given its complexity, it's common to encounter various pitfalls while navigating the terrain. In this episode, Mike divulges a list of insights he wishes he had known before embarking on a career in web development—advice that could have spared him time and frustration. This includes mastering your tools to fully leverage them (such as AI), recognizing the importance of completing projects, the advantages of engaging with a community, and many other valuable tips.
What should you do when you need to build a website quickly? While Matt and Mike often say that you should take the time to create a website that you're happy with and will last a long time, sometimes your situation demands that the job be done quickly. In this episode the guys discussed how to build a website quickly using not just ready-made solutions like no-code tools and templates, but also productivity drivers such as hiring out developers while you and your team work on content at the same time.
Transitioning from coding to management can be a career goal for some, and a dreaded pathway for others. In his recent work experience, Mike has been managing a team of developers while continuing to code a bit himself. In this episode, Mike shares his recent experiences and enlightens us with some of the lessons he's learned along the way. While managing a team of developers may seem easy for those at a senior development level, it's easy to forget that the code is not the only thing you have to worry about, the human element becomes a factor that can make or break a team's productivity and effectiveness.
SEO is an important part of a healthy website, but it can be a lot harder than it looks. When you follow advanced SEO guides, or use programs that scan your site for SEO problems, you'll commonly come out with a laundry list of fixes that will take weeks to implement and a developer's expertise to install. These advanced SEO checks can help you modify your site down to the smallest SEO molecule, but it's a large undertaking that can easily be pushed off for months or years. In this episode, Matt and Mike steer away from the intricate and daunting, opting to cover SEO tips that you can implement on your website today. The guys touch on topics like writing more content, defining your website, learning keyword research, and technical SEO.
Hiring junior developers has become a hot topic as of late with AI threatening to take their place and some employers outright refusing to hire self-taught developers citing the quality of their work as justification. The problem with taking out this critical career starting point is that we're breaking the traditional career cycle - junior developers get hired, learn skills to become a senior developer, then eventually change over to management, or decide to retire. By "turning off the tap" of new talent we're essentially limiting the amount of professional developers that there will ever be, forcing salaries to rise, and companies to poach each other's talent (more than they already do). In this episode, Matt and Mike discussed why you should still be interested in hiring junior developers at your company in order to keep the industry happy and healthy.
What is the best way to make a website? Websites can be made with no-code builders, custom code, marketing software, and unique combinations of available tech. Even if we narrow down our choice to custom code, we're still left wondering what our tech stack should be. In this episode, Matt and Mike discussed if there is in fact a best way to make a website. Websites are complex and they're made for humans, whom are also complex. Beyond technical requirements we have to consider the site's audience, who will be editing content, deadlines, and social limitations. Just like many things in life, there may be an objectively best way to make a website...somewhere in the gray area, after you've analyzed your needs, wants, and realities.
Today we celebrate this past week's milestone of 300 released episodes. Now we know that this number is a bit wishy-washy because we have some "side episodes" like Tidbits and Web News...and it doesn't help that we changed how we number our episodes in the feed at some point down the line. But despite all that, we're considering the episode that released just this past Tuesday as of recording this, as episode 300!
In this special edition episode, we won't be talking so much about web development, but instead of reflecting on the past 300 episodes of the HTML All The Things Podcast and discuss our future goals on where we want HATT to be in the future.
Thank you all for listening and here's to another 300!
This week we had the pleasure of sitting down with the creator of MacOS Web, Puru Vijay to discuss how creating projects can help land you a job in the web development field. MacOS Web has come up in Puru's job interviews and has helped him build a connection with the development community, including those that are hiring. He is also passionate about contributing to open source projects and ensuring that navbars at the bottom of smartphones have left-handed and right-handed detection. Matt and Mike had a blast with this interview and hope that you enjoy it too!
AI is a hot topic these days with LLMs dominating much of the tech talk we see online. In the web development scene, chatbots like ChatGPT and Copilot are able to develop and debug code through simple conversational prompts that don't require complex developer-level knowledge. This simplicity has brought with it a lot of discussion and debate about AI's role in the development space. Will it replace all developer jobs? Is it simply another tool to increase a developer's productivity? Should aspiring junior developer use AI in their learning. In this week's episode, Matt and Mike discussed learning to code alongside ChatGPT and Copilot. The guys explored the dangers of using AI while you learn, when you should reach for a chatbot, and then touch on their thoughts surrounding the future of the industry. Will Devin take all our jobs?
Vendor lock-in in web development refers to a situation where a company becomes overly reliant on a single vendor's products or services, making it difficult and costly to switch to another provider. This can lead to several issues, such as reduced flexibility, high switching costs, and a lack of interoperability with other systems. This might mean that a business is using a specific technology stack or platform that does not easily allow for migration to other systems, potentially leading to increased costs and limited innovation. On the flip side, vendor lock-in can provide benefits to a business such as great pricing (ie sales and loyalty benefits), increased productivity as users master a limited toolset, and the avoidance of "reinventing the wheel" repeatedly with custom code. In this episode, Matt and Mike discussed vendor lock-in in both a negative and positive light. Breaking down what you should be looking out for when choosing vendors to build products with.
Free tiers are no stranger to web developers as many look to them to get them started on a new tool, try out hosting, or help with some basic design work. The problem is that free tiers are sometimes downgraded, or even completely removed from existence if a service decides that they're more trouble than they're worth. For those relying on free tiers to do their work, this can spell disaster and even cause some businesses to shut down. In this episode, Matt and Mike discussed the dangers of free tiers, what they're good for, and why you should be ready to pay up at some point down the line.
Kevin Powell, known to many as the King of CSS, joins Matt in this packed episode to discuss the current status of CSS, how to tailor your content absorption for learning, and more. The duo discussed whether or not popular CSS toolkits (ie SASS, TailwindCSS) outweigh the need to learn vanilla CSS. They also discussed whether naming conventions like BEM are still relevant since most web developers use frameworks that have localized CSS per component. And that's just getting started, the guys also discussed tutorial hell mitigation, browser support + using features in production, focusing your educational content absorption, and much more.
WordPress is a very popular tool for making websites that can be easily extended to get the job done. While the original focus of WordPress was blogs, over time other websites started being created with it through the use of plugins like WooCommerce (eCommerce sites), ACF (dynamic data-driven sites), and Elementor (sites that can be built visually). This versatility fuels WordPress' continued popularity, but also brews a community that believes it's a bloated and dated tool. Having recently make a website with WordPress, Matt takes us through a deep dive of what he believes is an identity crisis stemming from Gutenberg/FSE, no built-in disaster recovery, and limitations forcing the use of multiple plugins.
With the tech job market seemingly exploding with layoffs recently, nailing your technical interviews is possibly more important than ever. With that said, there are a lot of opinions out there on how much prep you should be doing and whether you should be applying everywhere, or just to a few select places so you can focus your studies. This week we had that pleasure of speaking with Kyle from TechSquidTV to discuss all things technical interviews. We also discussed what to do after you've been laid off and then switched gears to discuss the marrying of hardware and software together into unique projects.
