Ladybug Podcast
2/10/2020

Game Development

This week we’re talking all things game development! Joining us today is Arianna Rudawski, a software engineer with a super cool job. We’ll be discussing what a career in game development is like, the skills needed to become a game developer, and advice for getting into game development.
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2/3/2020

Data Structures and Algorithms

Computer science concepts like data structures and algorithms can be super intimidating, especially if you’re cramming the night before an interview.

In this episode, we’ll discuss common algorithms and data structures and give you some tips for your next whiteboarding challenge.

01:44 - Our experience with data structures and algorithms

05:00 - What are algorithms?

06:17 - What is Big O notation?

13:57 - Sorting algorithms

17:55 - Graph traversal

19:20 - Searching algorithms

20:04 - What are data structures

23:05 - Arrays

26:03 - Linked Lists

29:15 - Sets

30:22 - Objects, maps, heaps

34:50 - Binary Trees

35:47 - Stacks and queues

40:08 - Graphs

41:00 - Common interview questions

43:27 - Tips for interviews and where to learn more

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1/29/2020

Book Club: Atomic Habits

We're so excited for the first-ever Ladybug Podcast book club episode! This is a bonus episode which will occur at the end of each month. This month we’re discussing Atomic Habits by James Clear.

If you want to follow along you can check out our Goodreads group and ladybug.dev/books.

0:36 - Our thoughts on the book

04:15 - The importance of habits

06:16 - Systems vs. Goals

08:01 - Layers of behavioral change

09:58 - Stages of habit formation

13:43 - Steps of breaking a bad habit

15:52 - Habit stacking

17:40 - Reward systems

22:00 - What makes habits attractive

28:49 - Our ratings of the book

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1/27/2020

Personal Branding

Every day we see companies market to us with a specific brand voice, and we can recognize the differences from one brand to the next. But what about personal brands? You as a person are a brand - it’s how you portray yourself on the internet and how others perceive you. I’m a brand, Emma’s a brand, Ali’s a brand. We’re all our own unique representations of ourselves. This week we’re discussing what it means to have your own personal brand and everything you need to know about building and managing your brand.

1:43 - What is a personal brand?

8:21 - Why would you want to build a brand?

11:10 - What are the benefits of having a personal brand?

13:29 - Who in tech has done a really good job of branding themselves?

15:29 - How did we build our brands?

18:03 - What platforms can you use to build a brand?

22:55 - The downsides of social media branding.

28:32 - How to build an audience.

32:08 - What we’re excited about in 2020.

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1/20/2020

Design for Developers

Design for Developers

One of the biggest things that developers struggle with is design. It’s easy to look at an application and know that it looks terrible, but hard to explain why.

This episode we’re joined by Steve Schoger, co-author of the hugely popular Refactoring UI. We’ll learn some design tips and dive into the story behind the book as well as his other projects Hero Patterns and Hero Icons.

Show notes

1:40 - Who are you? Tell us a bit more about your coding/design journey.

10:22 - What is your typical day-to-day?

15:40 - What are Hero Patterns and Hero Icons?

21:25 - What is Refactoring UI?

31:40 - What area of design do you think developers struggle the most with?

34:11 - What are the differences between UX design and visual design?

36:56 - Design tips for developers.

41:40 - Where to find Steve online.

Resources

Transcript

We provide transcripts for all of our episodes. You can find them here!

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1/13/2020

20 Tips for Developers in 2020

To kick off our new season and a new year, this week we’ll be discussing 20 tips to start off strong in 2020. From mentorship to debugging to strategizing your learning, we'll give you all the advice you need for starting the year off right!

0:32 - 1. Challenge yourself to do something new.

04:30 - 2. Do a little bit each day.

07:03 - 3. Track your wins.

09:30 - 4. Get comfortable with failure.

12:08 - 5. Don't compare yourself to others.

16:28 - 6. Find a community.

19:24 - 7. People can be assholes, that's on them not you.

21:50 - 8. Find a mentor.

25:05 - 9. Take time to learn keyboard shortcuts.

30:30 - 10. Create your toolbox.

34:45 - 11. Learn how to debug.

38:30 - 12. Figure out how to stay up to date.

40:37 - 13. Overcome shiny object syndrome.

44:14 - 14. Pick one skill at a time to work on and learn it until you feel comfortable.

46:50 - 15. Decide if you want to be vertical or horizontal in knowledge.

50:09 - 16. Identify your learning style.

52:18 - 17. Take breaks.

54:29 - 18. Prioritize your values.

57:48 - 19. Use your powers for good.

59:33 - 20. Don’t forget that working in this field is a massive privilege.

01:02:59 - Shoutouts of the week

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11/25/2019

Speaking At Conferences

Have you ever watched or attended a conference and been in awe of the speakers? How do they know so much information? How do they prepare a talk? How do they even get the courage to speak in the first place and what is that process like? In this episode we’ll delve into all things conference talks.

Have you ever watched or attended a conference and been in awe of the speakers? How do they know so much information? How do they prepare a talk? How do they even get the courage to speak in the first place and what is that process like?

In this episode we’ll delve into all things conference talks. This is a very special episode because it’s our last episode this season. We’ve decided to release our podcast in seasons, which gives us more time to plan out our episodes and schedule guests ahead of time. We’ll be taking the month of December off and will be back with brand new episodes in January.

Show Notes

  • Our speaking experience - 1:31
  • What can I speak about? - 8:03
  • What is a CFP? - 11:51
  • Benefits of speaking - 17:22
  • Drawback of speaking - 19:53
  • Speaker fees - 24:19
  • Preparing your talk - 32:19
  • Speaking advice - 39:27
  • How do I get started? - 46:04

For full show notes, visit our website

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11/18/2019

Web Performance

Did you know that 40% of users abandon sites that take more than 3s to load? Turns out making your sites fast is pretty important!

Today we’re talking about web performance. Did you know that 40% of users abandon sites that take more than 3s to load? Turns out making your sites fast is pretty important! In this episode we’ll talk about what web performance is, why we should care, and we’ll give you tips for optimizing performance and measuring it.

Show Notes

  • What is web performance? - 1:18
  • Why should I care about performance? - 3:48
  • The cost of JavaScript - 6:59
  • What should I be measuring? - 14:02
  • Performance tools - 17:46
  • Performance-improving methods - 19:40
  • Progressive web apps - 26:49

For full show notes, check out our website.

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