Backend Banter

• KRAZAM Unfiltered feat. Ben Burke | S2 E05

  Today, we bring a very special guest, one whose face you might recognise, one that appears on your homepages with a sporadic video and seemingly disappears. His name is Benjamin Burke, or simply Ben, he’s the co-creator of KRAZAM, a channel that consists of sketches that combine grotesque and absurdist humor with technological anxiety, satirizing the tech industry and the modern alienation of the corporate life in general.In this episode, which admittedly is a bit different from the usual, we’ll focus on KRAZAM and its origins, creative process, and what future plans and ambitions the duo has. Both Ben and Shiva started in software engineering, met in college and started doing sketches just for fun, not expecting this project to explode in popularity in the way it did. Ben will also share their unique approach to content and why KRAZAM prioritizes loyal viewers over virality, comedic inspirations. Stay tuned!Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.devListen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fmKRAZAM'S Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@KRAZAM/videosKRAZAM's X/Twitter: https://x.com/krazamtvKRAZAM'S Website: https://www.krazam.tv/Krazam's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/KRAZAMBen's X/Twitter: https://x.com/bb_freshBen's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bnjmnbrk/Shiva's X/Twitter: https://x.com/shivakilaruShiva's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shivakilaru/Timestamps:00:00 - Intro01:58 - KRAZAM Origin Story03:59 - How Much More Footage Is Left After the Recordings?05:12 - Are Both Ben and Shiva Programmers?06:46 - Inspiration Behind "The Hustle"08:47 - Has Ben Read Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations"?09:25 - The Actual Introduction to KRAZAM10:49 - Microservices14:04 - Sending Birthday Messages Is HARD19:06 - On Shiva Not Being in the Microservices Video20:48 - Favorite KRAZAM Videos22:22 - Most Underrated KRAZAM Video32:00 - KRAZAM's Viewers Are Very Loyal36:03 - Ambitions for the KRAZAM Channel39:04 - How Did You Know KRAZAM Had Product-Market Fit?40:59 - Ben's Comedic Inspirations43:08 - KRAZAM Does Not Aim for Virality46:47 - Was It Stressful to Do a Live Talk?49:40 - KRAZAM's Video Release Frequency51:46 - Competitive Excel55:34 - Site Reliability Engineer Video57:50 - AI Bots on Spotify01:00:27 - Self-Hosting and The Good Old Days01:02:31 - What's the Churn in the Industry?01:05:21 - Where to Find Ben and KRAZAM

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• Does ADHD really make programming harder? ft. Chris Ferdinandi | S2 E04

  Lane chats with Chris Ferdinandi—creator of Go Make Things and ADHD for the Win—a frontend dev, educator, and all-around expert in making JavaScript (and learning) simpler. Chris has built a career helping devs cut through the noise, level up their skills, and embrace ADHD-friendly ways to stay focused and productive. We dive into his journey from discovering his own ADHD to reshaping how people learn to code. We talk about why so many devs have ADHD, how gamification can actually help (when done right), and how today’s tech is messing with our attention spans. Plus, we get into the psychology of learning and what actually works when it comes to staying engaged and motivated. Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm ADHD ftw! : https://adhdftw.com/backend-banter/ Go Make Things: https://gomakethings.com/ https://bsky.app/profile/cferdinandi.bsky.social https://mastodon.social/@cferdinandi 00:00 - Intro 01:58 - Why so many devs have ADHD 03:21 - Quick explanation of ADHD 07:10 - Is ADHD actually more common now? 17:41 - ADHD, dopamine, and why we can’t put our phones down 20:50 - Trying meds for ADHD – what’s it like? 22:34 - How ADHDftw got started 24:21 - Why finishing big projects is so damn hard 25:54 - Best content styles for ADHD brains 28:40 - Gamification: What works and what’s just hype? 34:16 - Which gamer type fits ADHD folks best? 39:27 - Is TikTok basically junk food for your brain? 41:45 - Must-read books on focus and getting stuff done 43:43 - Where to find Chris and his content 46:26 - Is ADHD a gift or a curse? 59:30 - Brutally honest feedback for Boot.dev 01:18:58 - Outro Like & subscribe for the algo if you enjoyed the video!

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• Why You Need To Stop Worrying About AI feat. Danny Thompson | S2 E03

  We’re joined by Danny Thompson, currently Director of Technology at This Dot Labs and technical leader and organizer of the Dallas Software Developers Group, where he fosters vibrant local tech ecosystem through workshops, cohorts, and meetups. With a passion to help others learn and find jobs, Danny shares his stories and insights that he gained throughout his extensive and fascinating career! From working as a cashier to now giving talks and organizing meetups for which people fly out to attend, Danny talks about how he got into coding in the first place and his progression, his advice to new developers, how does AI impact jobs now and his perspective on how it will change in the future and a lot more! Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player - https://www.backendbanter.fm Danny's X/Twitter: https://x.com/DThompsonDev Danny's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dthompsondev/ Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 02:14 - How Danny Got Into Coding 05:08 - Meetups and Affordable Conferences 23:37 - Overview of This Dot Labs 29:28 - Building Apps on Top of Stripe 30:30 - Businesses Focus on Functionality Over Aesthetics 33:00 - Danny's Career Progression 38:39 - Pros and Cons of Product vs. Consulting 43:12 - This Dot Labs Regarding AI 46:46 - Interest Rates &. AI: Impact on Developer Jobs 55:31 - The Pressure to Perform at a High Level 57:51 - Why Recruiters Do Not Call You Back 01:03:41 - Getting Feedback After Interviews 01:04:49 - Danny's LinkedIn Courses and Where to Find Him

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• Everyone is doing memory management wrong. feat. Ryan Fleury | S2 E02

  This week on Backend Banter, we’re joined by Ryan Fleury, a talented game developer currently working with Epic Games on their Rad Debugger project. Ryan shares his journey from building games to creating powerful developer tools, offering insights into arenas, memory management, and the fascinating world of programming from the ground up. In this episode, we dive deep into memory management, exploring the differences between stack, heap, and arenas, and how they shape modern development. We discuss the trade-offs of various allocation strategies, the magic of pointer stability, and how arenas simplify managing lifetimes in both games and other applications. Along the way, Ryan shares his approach to developing tools, insights into game development workflows, and practical tips for clean and efficient programming. Learn back-end development: https://www.boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm Ryan's Socials: Rad Debugger: https://github.com/EpicGamesExt/raddebugger Website: https://www.rfleury.com/ X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanjfleury Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 00:54 - Ryan Fleury's Path to Game Development 02:49 - From Engines to Debugging Tools 06:51 - Arenas Explained: Memory Management Basics 16:51 - Arenas vs. Garbage Collectors 27:40 - Real-World Applications of Arenas 31:39 - Why Pointer Stability Matters 42:57 - Dynamic Allocation Made Simple 48:48 - How Arenas Streamline Development 01:01:38 - Debugging Tools and the Rad Debugger 01:09:43 - Where to find Ryan

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• Is Elixir the Future? feat. José Valim | S2 E01

  We're back for Backend Banter Season 2, and we bring a very special guest, José Valim, the creator of the Elixir Programming Language, one of the most popular and loved functional programming languages of today. (Fun fact: it's used in production at Discord). We cover the nitty-gritty of the language, ranging from simple topics such as the decision behind not making Elixir be statically typed, into the more complex cross-machine communication. We go over how Elixir's features compare with those of other languages, work habits of today's developers, José's own day-to-day development, and a lot more! Today's talk encompasses a great variety of themes, so grab your coffee and tune in! Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm Livebook & Elixir Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pas9WdWIBHs Elixir Programming Language: https://elixir-lang.org/ Livebook: https://livebook.dev/ Elixir In Action Book: https://www.manning.com/books/elixir-in-action-third-edition José's Socials: X/Twitter: https://x.com/josevalim LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josevalim GitHub: https://github.com/josevalim Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 01:06 - Embarrassing Stories with Foreign Languages 02:58 - Who is José Valim? (and Elixir's Popularity) 06:51 - Does José Use Phoenix a Lot? 08:28 - Why Isn't Elixir Statically Typed? 16:51 - External Input vs. Internal Code Logic 28:16 - Quick Overview of BEAM languages 31:23 - Elixir’s Equivalent to Golang’s Goroutines & Channels 42:43 - Cross-Machine Communication in Standard Libraries 49:15 - Do You Need RabbitMQ When Writing Elixir? 54:53 - Built-In Features in the Standard Library 01:01:52 - Why People Are Too Used To Work The Hard Way 01:04:22 - José and DHH 01:08:01 - Favorite Elixir Features & Immutability 01:17:49 - Purity in Functional Programming 01:21:35 - Where to find José

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