#123 How to Become a Pro Designer in 2024 with Gary Simon [DesignCourse Founder]

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Suz Hinton. She's a software engineer, security researcher, and one of the first ever people to live-stream her coding on Twitch. We talk about: - How Suz started her career building browser ads in Adobe Flash, working around bandwidth early 2000s limitations. - How she moved to the US from Melbourne to work at Zappos, and then Microsoft and Stripe. - Her love of hardware and embedded development - How she went back to school to study infosec, and launched a second career as a security researcher - How she nearly burned out after 20 years in tech, and what she's doing to recover. Can you guess what song I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's a 2015 song from an Australian musician. Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech. Also, I want to thank the 9,331 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate Links we talk about during our conversation: - Suz's article on live coding on freeCodeCamp: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/lessons-from-my-first-year-of-live-coding-on-twitch-41a32e2f41c1/ - NoClip video game development documentaries: https://www.youtube.com/@NoclipDocs - The Dream Machine by M. Mitchell Waldrop. Suz says it's "Dense and long, but the best narrative about how computing came to be." https://press.stripe.com/the-dream-machine - Space Rogue: How the Hackers Known as L0pht Changed the World by Cris Thomas. "A book about the original cult of the dead cow hacking group." https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/space-rogue-cris-thomas/1142912008

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Jerod Santo, host of The Changelog, a podcast about open source software development that has been going strong for 15 years. Jerod is plugged in to the world of Open Source, going to all the big conferences and interviewing all the big open source creators.  We have a fun, wide-reaching conversation about some of the current issues facing open source, such as AI models and Relicensing – essentially, a big company closed-sourcing a previously open source project after they buy out its creator. (Fun fact: this can't happen to freeCodeCamp because charities cannot be bought or sold.) I ask Jerod about: - his life as a remote dev in Omaha, Nebraska, raising his 6 his kids - the Changelog News podcast with its weekly 10 minutes of updates on the world of open source - his process, and how he researches and surfaces interesting news for his show - and how The Changelog commissioned 3 full albums worth of music over the years, which you can stream for free. Can you guess what bass line I'm playing during the intro? It's from a 1984 pop classic. Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech. Also, I want to thank the 9,331 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate Links we talk about during our conversation: Jerod's weekly Changelog News podcast that you should totally subscribe to (it's free): https://changelog.com/news Jerod and Adam interview the head of the Open Source Initiative on AI models and open source, which he and I discussed during this podcast: https://changelog.com/podcast/578 Changelog Beats: https://changelog.com/beats And of course, my interview with Jerod and Adam about their developer journeys, and the history of The Changelog on its 10th anniversary: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/open-source-moves-fast-10-years-of-the-changelog/

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews ThePrimeagean. He's a software engineer who streams himself programming. He recently left his job at Netflix to stream full-time. We talk about: - Prime's journey from his teacher telling him he'll never accomplish anything in life to working as an engineer at one of the most prestigious tech companies. - Prime's love of "Nintendo Hard" video games, and how his love of challenge propelled him to "get good" at coding - What it's like to live stream coding in front of more than 1,000 people for a dozen hours each week - Leaving San Francisco to move his family of 6 to a horse ranch in South Dakota - Prime's thoughts on AI and how he thinks it will actually create more developer jobs than it destroys I had a blast talking with this guy. Though I don't agree with everything he says, I am right there with him on AI and how it's useful but over-hyped. We'll see what future versions hold and whether a "Moore's Law of AI" is really at work here, or whether it will plateau. I also agree with Prime that devs need to slow down and improve their foundational skills. There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going. Can you guess what song I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's from a 1996 rock song. Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech. Also, I want to thank the 9,331 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate Links we talk about during the interview: - Prime's Twitch, from which his YouTube videos are derived: https://www.twitch.tv/theprimeagen - Prime's Harpoon library on GitHub, which he talks about maintaining: https://github.com/ThePrimeagen/harpoon - A speedrun of Battletoads by The Mexican Runner, to show you how "Nintendo Hard" this game really is. 36 minutes is an excellent time for a non-pro speedrunner like Prime to achieve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTPGpA0ha9Y

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Gary Simon, a developer and designer who started DesignCourse.com and has published several courses on freeCodeCamp.org over the years. We talk about: - Growing up in rural Ohio, marrying young, and staying out there despite his success as a developer and entrepreneur. - Early client work, and how he designed thousands of logos for clients before becoming an all-out web developer. - Using his skills to help his wife start her own lactation consultant business online - Gary's guitar shredding chops. I recorded this podcast live and I haven't edited it at all. I want to capture the feel of a real live conversation, with all the human quirks that entails. Can you guess what song I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's from a 1995s Nintendo game. Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech. Also, I want to thank the 9,331 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate Links we talk about during the interview: - Gary's Learn UI Fundamentals course on freeCodeCamp: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-ui-design-fundamentals-with-this-free-one-hour-course/ - Gary's freeCodeCamp live stream series: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/design-course/ - Gary's tool for memorizing the Guitar fretboard and it's 49 notes: https://fretastic.com/ - Gary's Retrowave Guitar music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDc2OvReYh0

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews prolific programming teacher John Smilga. John grew up in the Soviet Union. He worked construction for 5 years before becoming a developer. Today he has taught millions of fellow devs through his many courses on freeCodeCamp. John spent his childhood in Latvia before the Soviet Union fell. He sought work in the UK as an expat hospitality worker on the tiny island of Guernsey. But he had his sights set on moving to the US. There he worked construction and taught himself to code. He also attended online university courses to get a degree. He met his wife, a nurse from Ukraine. Together they started a family and live together in Florida. During this conversation, John talks about his journey into teaching the programming and computer science concepts he's learned. He talks about his free courses on freeCodeCamp and his paid courses that help him pay the bills. John's voice is instantly recognizable by developers. He shares that this is because he has condition where is vocal cords are partially paralyzed, for which he has to receive frequent injections. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Can you guess what bass line I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's from a 1982 song produced by Quincy Jones. Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech. Also, I want to thank the 9,003 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate Links we talk about during the interview: Guernsey island: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernsey John's personal website: https://johnsmilga.com/ John Smilga on Twitter: https://twitter.com/john_smilga

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Ben Awad, a game developer who creates developer tutorials on YouTube and TikTok. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Can you guess what bass line I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's from a 1979 song. Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech. Also, I want to thank the 8,983 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate Links we talk about during the interview: Ben's game, Void Pet on Android and iOS (Built in React Native): https://voidpet.com/ XKCD coming on "Real Programmers" that Quincy mentions: https://xkcd.com/378/ React Native course by Ben Awad: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/create-an-app-that-works-on-ios-android-and-the-web-with-react-native-web/ I can't find my Mac Control hotkeys video tutorial that I mentioned anywhere, so I wrote a quick article explaining how to use these: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/mac-control-keyboard-shortcuts-hotkeys-that-work-everywhere-in-macos/

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Andrew Brown, a CTO-turned co-founder of ExamPro.co. Andrew created this cloud certification exam prep website with another Andrew – also from Canada, who also loves Star Trek. We talk about Andrew's early career fixing computers in the 90s, and his early freelance web development work. These ultimately lead to jobs and promotions that leveled him up to CTO. Andrew also shares his advice to devs who want to learn DevOps and Cloud Engineering, and which certs to prioritize. Andrew suffers from Muscle Tension Dysphonia, a disease that causes voice loss. He shares how he's using AI tools to get around this. Andrew also talks about his love of Tetris Attack (also known as Panel de Pon or Pokémon Puzzle League). He built a frame-perfect port for competitive online play. And of course, Andrew's favorite Star Trek episodes of all time. Can you guess what bass line I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's the theme from a 90s cartoon. Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech. Also, I want to thank the 8,933 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate Links we talk about during the interview: Just a few of Andrew's many freeCodeCamp cloud cert prep courses. (He has dozens more on freeCodeCamp's YouTube channel): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/author/andrew/ His website, ExamPro.co: https://www.exampro.co/ American Mall simulator browser game by Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/american-mall-game/ The Greatest Generation podcast: https://maximumfun.org/podcasts/greatest-generation/

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Kass Moreno, a Senior Front End Developer and CSS Artist. Kass started learning coding at age 28 and has since built a reputation as one of the most skilled artists who work with CSS. We talk about: Her childhood in Mexico and in Texas Making the hard decision to drop out of architecture school Her dreadful years working as a salesperson Learning from freeCodeCamp and doing the 100DaysOfCode challenge Getting freelance clients and expanding her skills Her rapid career growth as a developer Can you guess what bass line I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's a 1982 pop classic. Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech. Also, I want to thank the 8,904 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate Links we talk about during the interview: Kass's portfolio of CSS art Bruno Simon's 3D interactive portfolio using Threejs. Drive an RC car around knock things down. 1-Dimensional PacMan game that I mentions. (Be careful – it's addictive)

On this week's episode of the podcast, I interview Jabril. He's an indie game developer who's building a turn-based fighting game called ultrabouters. Jabril has developed tons of other games as well. He runs the popular Jabrils gamedev focused-YouTube. He's also published a 5-hour introduction to programming course on freeCodeCamp. We talk about: - How Jabril got into gamedev as a kid when he got a copy of GameMaker - Jabril's career working at a comedy club and a radio station - The anime that Jabril's been working on for years - Jabril's advice to gamedevs who want to make a career out of building video games Can you guess what bass line I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's a 2009 song that became popular in the 2010's by being associated with a meme. Be sure to share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech. Also, I want to thank the 8,909 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate Links we talk about during the interview: Jabril's full length Programming for Beginners course on freeCodeCamp: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/programming-for-beginners-how-to-code-with-python-and-c-sharp/ That time Quincy angered the entire BTS army with a confused tweet: https://twitter.com/ossia/status/993171422863417344 "The best episodes of Shark Tank are the bad ideas." How Jabril created a Fake Shark Tank Episode Generator using AI tools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcGjYivktyc Subscribe to Jabril on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Jabrils

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp Founder Quincy Larson interviews Leon Noel, founder of 100Devs and head of engineering at Resilient Coders. Growing up, Leon had it drilled into him that he had to become a doctor, lawyer, or dentist. But his ambitions grew and he went on to have an exciting career in tech. After a successful exit from a startup, Leon wanted to help folks who were struggling during the pandemic. He started 100Devs, a charity which has helped 10,000s of people learn to code. We talk about: dropping out of Yale getting into the selective Tech Stars startup accelerator Getting involved with Resilient Coders, a charity that helps court-involved youth learn coding Starting 100Devs and building a Discord server with 60,000 people learning to code together Quincy recorded this podcast live and hasn't edited it at all. We want to capture the feel of a real live conversation, with all the human quirks that entails. Can you guess what song he's playing on my bass during the intro? It's his arrangement of the intro to a 1990s cartoon. Be sure to follow The freeCodeCamp podcast in your favorite podcast app. And share this podcast with a friend. Let's inspire more folks to learn to code and build careers for themselves in tech. Also, we want to thank the 8,427 kind people who support our charity each month, and who make this podcast possible. You can join them and support our mission at: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate Links we talk about during the interview: The video that changed Leon's life on Spaced Repetition, by Ali Abdaal: https://youtu.be/Z-zNHHpXoMM The official Anki app, which is free on web / desktop and doesn’t lock you into a subscription. Leon's advice: "Only create cards on one device, but review on any to save you from weird syncing issues." https://apps.ankiweb.net Dr. Barbara Oakley’s Learn How to Learn course, which Leon calls "a masterpiece":  https://coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn The 100Devs website (new cohort starting in early May): https://100devs.org/about Trailer for X-men '97: https://youtu.be/pv3Ss8o9gGQ Thelonious Monk [pianist Quincy mentions] "Straight No Chaser" documentary trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx0E9-ThvKc Leon on YouTube: http://leonnoel.com/youtube Leon on Discord: http://leonnoel.com/discord Leon's Twitch for his live streams: http://leonnoel.com/twitch Leon's website: https://leonnoel.com/