I prefer vim because it means I can stay in the console for most of the day which is a workflow that I like. It also makes streaming on Twitch a lot less complicated as I don't have to keep switching around. It keeps my stream layout looking really clean and simple without distractions for my viewers. VS Code is really cool because of its integrated terminal though!

I primarily use vim, but do use VS Code when it makes sense to. An example of this is when I'm developing for the MXChip which is a microcontroller board that has excellent support within VS Code.

Hi Linda! That's a cool question :) I have learned a bunch of things about beginner programmers over the years. The first is that they blame themselves for almost every failure they have. For example, were they running into issues because of really poor documentation? They'll accept fault for any struggles like this quite commonly. It can be hard at first to tell the difference between personal shortcomings, and the shortcomings of the tool / software / documentation they trying to use. The second is that curious beginners almost always grow to be really good programmers a lot faster than others. Knowing how to ask the right questions is a learned skill, but those that start with asking "why?" go far. Beginners always want to know when they'll feel 'ready' for the next challenge, or when they'll stop feeling like they don't know enough. These questions are totally understandable and hit at how overwhelming it is when just getting started. Unfortunately the answer to both is "you'll never feel ready, and you'll never feel satisfied with what you know, but it gets a little easier and feels a little better with time". The last thing is that beginners often feel that need to have a "thing" or focus really early on. They see people around them with expertise in certain areas and they feel pressure to find that one topic to hone in on. That's a lot of pressure to put on oneself! I'm super annoying and tell them to just wait for it to happen rather than forcing it. Passion and interest comes from emotional experiences with tech, and it can take a while to build those experiences and run into those intense emotions that dictate where we want to focus.

Thank you! I cover this a little bit in my article here http://bit.ly/2nEHvnq Essentially, I wanted people to feel less intimidated about open source, and also hardware / electronics. I wanted people to see that open source maintainers are just regular people who often sit at home hacking away at bug fixes. I also missed teaching a lot. I used to teach programming in a technical school many many years ago. I would 'live code' on my screen plugged into a projector, and the class had to follow along line by line as I explained how the code was going to work. I would ask questions to the class to see if they were catching on, and would also field questions from them. It was a very interactive approach to teaching and I felt it resonated with a lot of the students. I think my live coding streams borrow a lot of that teaching experience from my former years. Now that I'm not working with junior developers as much as I used to on product teams, it helps me retain my communication and critical thinking skills.

Hi Justin, thanks so much for the kind words! It sounds like you're considering a switch from gaming software to cloud software? Just making sure I understand the question. Kubernetes Up and Running and Cloud Native Infrastructure are both great resources to really dig into this field. What would help you is being able to take that last product you launched and write up what worked, what didn't, how Cloud Native improved your services and products, and what architectural changes you'd make for the next project. Compare this with case studies out there about Cloud Native (both conference talk videos and articles from major tech companies) to see if you're drawing similar conclusions. Within the gaming space, are there any other projects you could apply the same skills to with regard to your last big product ship? You have a unique angle, as a lot of knowledge out there is focused on web, retail, and media; not necessarily gaming. It sounds like you're on the right track! Keep it up and make sure you're converting the lessons you learn into 'shop talk' worthy case studies so you can communicate what you already know in technical interviews.

I cover this question in this article I wrote: http://bit.ly/2nEHvnq the hardest part BY FAR is the multitasking that is required. Talking aloud, answering questions in chat, and also acknowledging new followers and subscribers all take a toll on your mental ability to write good code and stay productive. You forget simple method signatures, struggle to read stack traces, etc with split attention. I always joke that you're half the programmer you normally are when streaming.

Hi Danielle! That makes me so happy to hear. I'd recommend getting started with The A11y Project resource- https://a11yproject.com/ There is also a super friendly Slack full of knowledgeable people here: https://web-a11y.herokuapp.com/ A website that does a great job is Khan Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/ Thanks for caring about accessibility. It is a topic near and dear to my heart.

My favourite things about my job: Being able to help fix things for other developers. I'm a fixer at heart. I prefer 'brownfield' projects to 'greenfield' ones. I like watering and maintaining an garden, more than starting a new one. In a lot of product teams I have worked on in the past, new features were always being planned and I really wanted to spend more time fixing the existing features. I get to work from home a lot. It's done wonders for my productivity. I have previously never had a job where I can work from home. Least favourite thing: I miss deep work a lot. I don't always have the time to sit down and work on one thing for continual periods of time, like I did in my previous roles on product teams. My team collectively runs a lot of events and schedules a lot of content. At this point, the developer community will benefit more from me working on documentation improvements, open source bug fixes, and 'how to get started' blog posts. It casts a wider net and gets people unstuck. I'll be looking at prioritising some deep work in the coming months to get a better balance though! I feel lucky that I am trusted to find the right balance for both myself and the developer community I am of service to.

Hi Jon! Thanks for reaching out with your questions about streaming and I'm glad you enjoy my content! I started streaming just over 18 months ago, in summer 2016. There were some mental hurdles in getting started with my stream. I'll reference my Medium post in this answer: https://medium.freecodecamp.org/lessons-from-my-first-year-of-live-coding-on-twitch-41a32e2f41c1 The main issue I had was that I felt like there was nowhere for me to hide, and it scared me. I thought, "everyone is going to think my code is bad, and that I’m a bad developer". I was worried folks would see my biggest weaknesses as a programmer and I'd become 'unhire-able' overnight. Because of that, I rehearsed the first four streams the night before each one. That quickly ended up being too time consuming, and I felt I was being truly authentic with my viewers so I stopped doing that. The first stream is the hardest one. Hitting 'Start Streaming' in OBS was terrifying the first few times. I do a lot of public speaking but this was just something else entirely. My confidence and skills as a programmer have improved a lot since I started streaming. That's been worth the effort in swallowing the initial fears.

Hi Collin! I really appreciate the support of my community as always. As of last week, I became an Affiliate officially! 🎉