Ben Scheirman talks with Dave Rael about open source software, speaking, writing, screencasting, and geeking out
Ben Scheirman is an experienced software developer from Houston, TX. He is the founder of NSScreencast, a site with over 350 screencasts on iOS and Mac development. Ben also runs Fickle Bits, LLC, where he builds apps for clients using Swift, Objective-C, and Ruby. When not programming, you can find Ben playing guitar, playing board games, or making award-winning Texas BBQ.
Chapters:
1:33 - Ben's early involvement in open source and the evolution of the ways of building software6:22 - Ben's pivotal moment - turning away from .NET and encountering the iPhone10:28 - The reasons software appeals to Ben and how he got started in software15:20 - Why Ben started screencasting and what he has to offer22:53 - Ben's interest in BBQ and geeking out on cooking meats27:22 - Ben on parenting and productivity34:51 - Ben's story of failure - building an app with input only from the wrong people39:02 - Ben's book writing experience44:00 - Ben's book recommendations46:53 - Ben's top 3 tips for delivering more value49:05 - Keeping up with Ben
Resources:
NSScreencast
ASP.NET MVC in Action: With MvcContrib, NHibernate, and More - Jeffrey Palermo, Ben Scheirman, Jimmy Bogard
Dru Sellers on Developer On Fire
Web 2.0
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
Clarke's Three Laws
QBasic
Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground - Kevin Poulsen
Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker - Kevin Mitnick
autoexec.bat
RailsCasts
NeXTSTEP
Mark Seemann on .NET Rocks!: Constraints Liberate
Things
The Pragmatic Bookshelf
App Dev Diary
vibrato.fm/
Ben's book recommendation:
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World - Cal Newport
So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love - Cal Newport
Ben's top 3 tips for delivering more value:
Record video to share what you're working on and communicate about what is needed
Include video and/or a picture in any pull request including visual elements
Write tests and if it's hard to write test think about how you might improve design so that you can write tests