It’s another potluck episode in which Wes and Scott answer your questions! This month - working with designers, criticisms of WordPress, avoiding burnout, time management, and more.

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Show Notes

5:05 - How can you help a designer understand how styling works and how layouts work in the web? In other words: How do I explain my boundaries as a front-end developer to a designer?

Work closely with the designer
Allow the designer to push your limits
You can help them understand by:
- Showing them poor performing websites
- Showing them things that usually are taxing on the GPU to paint - rotations, background images, drop shadows, etc.
Don’t be afraid to let a tough design push your boundaries

13:23 - How do you manage your time for learning new things when you have children and a daily full-time job?

Those who figure out how to make it a priority will win out
Family first - talk to your spouse
Ask your boss for time to learn and grow
Find ways to get paid for learning

19:45 - How do you deal with burnout in this constantly evolving front end tech ecosystem?

Make time for hobbies away from the computer
Do projects just for fun
Solve your own problems
Syntax 035: Keeping Up with the Codeashians
Syntax 041: Preventing and Dealing with Burnout in Web Development

25:00 - Do you code at night (past 9pm)?

Start your wind-down time earlier
Let your brain wok on problems while you sleep
Get it out of your head
Listen to podcasts, audiobooks, etc.

29:23 - How do you compress your videos/audio for your courses/tutorials?

Handbrake Fast 1080
Use presets
Output from video editor, rip from YouTube, or compress directly from video editor

33:10 - It seems like in the web dev community, a lot of people give WordPress crap. Any idea why?

WordPress is dope - people just like to complain.
WordPress is often one of the first things people learn and have bad memories of it
It’s easy to write bad code with WordPress
It can be slow
It can attract a certain type of developer

33:10 - What are some of the biggest mistakes that people make when they are learning programming and what’s the best way to overcome them?

Don’t focus on too many things
Don’t worry about picking the right technology
Focus on the fundamentals
Let your curiosity and excitement drive you
Celebrate wins

40:29 - What are your best tips for writing documentation?

Start with basic API documentation, them move to more “article style” docs
Use tools like CodeSandbox and Swagger
Syntax 073: Reading Documentation

43:08 - What are some good questions or techniques to better understand a client’s requirements?

How does your business work right now?
What are people coming to the website for?
Questionnaires are good - they get people thinking
It’s your job to understand what a client want out of a website - what problems they have and need solved

45:38 - Do you guys have any tips for taking over maintenance and development of existing websites where the previous developer is no longer reachable?

Take time to asses the codebase before writing anything
Learn what’s there any and why
Don’t start ripping out code without understanding what’s really going on
Don’t leave it worse than you found it
It depends on the stack, but it’s probably worth giving it an honest go before re-writing the whole thing

××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ×××

Scott 1: Drillbrush Bathroom Surfaces Tub, Shower, Tile and Grout All Purpose Power Scrubber Cleaning Kit
Scott 2: iOttie
Wes 1: Sabrent Wireless Charger
Wes 2: CD Player Mount

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Potluck - Working with designers × Is WordPress Crap? × When to stop working × More

Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats