Ben Borowski (@TypeOneError) is a software developer and programmer based in British Columbia, Canada. In past years, Ben run a small studio doing web development for top agencies, but has recently made a move to create his own project, and is working on that full-time.
Ben is one half of Oki Doki, along with Designer & Digital Strategist Marie Poulin. Together, the duo are hard at work on Doki, a web platform to build and run online courses and communities. In this conversation, Ben discusses the creative side of programming, the definition of a “coder”, and the challenges of putting aside client projects for the endeavor of building your own app.
Catch up with Ben on his site, Type One Error, or check out Doki.io.
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- Download The Busy Creator Podcast, Episode 62 (MP3, 46:17, 22.5 MB)
- Download The Busy Creator Podcast, Episode 62 (OGG, 46:17, 39.8 MB)
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Show Notes & Links
- Marie Poulin was a guest on The Busy Creator Podcast last year
- Ben defines himself broadly as a web developer, but more specifically as a programmer in Ruby, and other disciplines
- TWiT – This Week in Tech
- Ben doesn’t subscribe to the idea that “Coders aren’t necessarily programmers”
- If Statements, For Loops – essentials in programming
- Mark-up is code
“I've met many computer science guys ... who are completely stumped by CSS.”
—Ben Borowski
“If you're building a website and you write HTML tags, you're a coder.”
—Ben Borowski
- Markdown, the coding format for Reddit comments
- Dustin Hartzler, WordPress Engineer and host Your Website Engineer Podcast
- Podcast Movement Conference
“Programing is more technical ... but making software is creative.”
—Ben Borowski
- Product Designer, as the term applies to web design, can incorporate development/programming
- Open-Source, a place for inspiration
- Ben consults and develops cross-platform games, and other projects
- Doki, currently in development as a consulting platform and will be a public product soon
- Previous guests on The Busy Creator Podcast have discussed online teaching, such as Karen Marston, Steve Dotto
- Javascript framework Ember.js (similar to Ruby-on-Rails for the front end of the website)
- Prescott attended Drexel University, a school set up on the quarter system.
- Alpha testers
“Nine people can't make a baby in one month.”
—productivity adage
- Unit Tests or Feature Tests are useful for programmers when merging code and error-correcting
- Material Design, from Google — hard to describe because it’s almost like a framework … for design
- Facebook asks developers to work on the main product in their first week
- Gone in 60 Seconds, writing on the walls in detergent and using a blacklight
- Type One Error
- Oki Doki
- Ben Borowski on Twitter
- Ben Borowski on Facebook
Tools
- HTML to Markdown converter
- Markdown to HTML converter
- WordPress
- Jetpack, the official suite of plugins for WordPress
- Infusionsoft
- MailChimp
- Google Analytics
- WishList for WordPress
- Platform-as-a-server
- Amazon web services
- Heroku
- EngineYard
- 9Folds
- Sit or Stand adjustable GeekDesk
- MacBook Pro
- SublimeText
- GitTower, a GUI application for managing Git projects
- iTerm, Terminal replacement for Mac
- Homebrew, a Ruby Framework
- Vagrant, custom virtual machines on your system
- Teamwork.com
- EcoStatic Slickynotes
Techniques
- Write your WordPress entries in Markdown — it’s fast and simple
- Examine where you can reduce lines of code, load time, etc.
- Launch first, and then go back and optimise
- More team members always help the progress of a programming project
- Give your team the building blocks, for design or programming alike
- Develop a naming and organization system — any system — for your team to follow
- Require new [programming] employees to push live code to the site on day one; this teaches them the entire process
- Head to a coffee shop or co-working space 2-3 days/week even if you prefer to work from home
- Keep a clean image of your system after a fresh reinstall
- If you can, go full-time toward developing a product rather than try to cram it in “after hours”
Habits
- Jog or Rock-Climb
- Take breaks to walk (or wrestle with) the dog
- Do some exercise in the morning, even stretching
- Drink and eat in the morning (write it down if necessary)
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