Everyday Heroes podcast

49:28

Move over, Python nerds - turns out you CAN teach an old JavaScript dog new AI tricks. Meet Aileen Villanueva, the industrial engineer turned frontend wizard who discovered you don't need to learn an entirely new language just to make robots smarter (looking at you, everyone who panic-enrolled in Python boot camps in 2023). In this episode: How being "strategically located" near the US border accidentally gave her a frontend career superpower (geography: it matters!) The moment she realized "wait, I can do AI stuff with JavaScript?" and saved herself from learning Python (work smarter, not harder) Why teaching others is secretly just her clever way of forcing herself to actually learn things (the ULTIMATE accountability hack) Her dream of opening a coffee shop someday (which explains why she IMMEDIATELY rejected our AI coffee recommendation app) The shocking truth that Mexico doesn't have a fruit-throwing festival (but they DO carve elaborate radish sculptures, which she didn't know about either) Featured Projects & Links: Find Aileen: @aileen_vl on Twitter, Bluesky, GitHub Google Developer Group (GDG) Monterrey organizer Women Techmakers ambassador (because someone has to fix tech's gender ratio) Speaker at REACT Miami 2025 (and possibly more if these CFPs ever get accepted) Key Quote: "When I do talks, it's because I also want to learn more. If I need to teach something, I must understand it to actually teach somebody." - Aileen Villanueva, using the classic "teach it to learn it" technique Fun Fact: Our guest correctly identified that Italians throw oranges at each other for a medieval battle reenactment, proving that Europeans will throw ANY produce if given the chance. Hosted by Hayden Ballio and Wendy Hurst Brought to you by HeroDevs - Because someone has to keep your end-of-life software from becoming end-of-world software. (Next time someone tells you that you need to abandon JavaScript to get into AI, just remember: THIS WOMAN found a way to stay in her comfort zone AND still ride the AI wave. Work smarter AND harder.)…

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Stream(ing) of Consciousness: JD Flynn's Journey from Paramedic Burnout to Twitch Coding Therapy 41:10

for 11 dage siden41:10

41:10

What do you do when you've seen TOO MANY people on their worst day? You find a career where the worst day involves merge conflicts. JD Flynn's journey from paramedic burnout to Drupal powerhouse is the career pivot we didn't know we needed. In this episode: The EXACT moment he realized "maybe I shouldn't be a paramedic anymore" (spoiler: it involves losing empathy for humans, which is generally considered a job requirement) How streaming on Twitch literally kept him from "circling the drain" during unemployment (turns out talking to yourself CAN make you a better developer) That time he contributed a Star Wars reference to Drupal core that's STILL THERE (search "may the force be with you" and feel the power of the open source) The shocking truth that he can play basically EVERY INSTRUMENT EVER (but travels with none of them, which seems like a missed opportunity) His pitch-perfect defense of not learning every new JavaScript framework (because 15 were deprecated while you read this sentence) Featured Projects & Links: Find JD: Twitch: JDdoesDev (3-5 nights a week!) Bluesky: @JDdoesDev Drupal core: That one Star Wars reference HeroDevs: Where he currently helps your ancient PHP not implode Key Quote: "It's okay to not be okay." - JD Flynn, giving us the permission slip we didn't know we needed Fun Fact: Our guest correctly answered EVERY QUESTION about dance history despite having zero background in dance. (We're not saying he cheated, but we're not NOT saying it either.) Mental Health Resources: OSMI (Open Sourcing Mental Illness) Put your own oxygen mask on first Finding creative outlets (like playing every wind instrument ever created) Hosted by Hayden Baillio and Wendy Hurst Brought to you by HeroDevs - Because someone has to keep your end-of-life software from becoming end-of-world software. (Next time you're feeling burned out, remember: streaming yourself coding weird game projects while talking to internet strangers might just save your mental health. It's like therapy with more bugs!)…

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The Power User: How Cecelia Martinez McCrea Went from "Wait, Y'all MADE This?" to "Yeah, I Help NASA Test Their Code" 50:30

for 18 dage siden50:30

50:30

Meet the woman who started coding because she was *double takes on notes* the only person at her finance job who actually USED their internal app. (Listen, sometimes being the office overachiever leads to unexpected career pivots.) In this episode: That time her company's dev team was like "Hey, why are you the ONLY ONE using our app?" and she was like "Wait, y'all MADE this?" How going from LiveJournal layouts to NASA's test suite is actually a totally normal career progression (if you're that kind of chaotic) Why she thinks DevRel shouldn't just be about making funny tech TikToks (but also... maybe a few funny tech TikToks?) The moment she CRUSHED our ancient food preservation trivia and made us question everything we know about Viking fish (seriously, WHO KNOWS THIS STUFF?) A passionate defense of solving puzzles before deploying to production (because web devs have it TOO EASY) Featured Projects & Links: Find Cecelia: @celiacreates everywhere (she's consistent like that) celiacreates.com Atlanta JavaScript organizer Out in Tech Atlanta leader The person making sure your YAML is properly indented (you're welcome) Key Quote: "The thing about developer advocacy is you're beholden to the entire community. You can't just make one person happy - you have to make EVERYBODY happy." - Cecelia Martinez McCrea, casually explaining why her job is basically impossible Fun Fact: Our guest correctly identified Viking fish preservation techniques because she ALMOST ATE fermented shark in Iceland once. (This is the kind of specific life experience you just can't plan for.) Speaking Topics: AI in DevOps (but not in a scary way) Why testing shouldn't be an afterthought (looking at you, web devs) How to build actually inclusive tech communities The art of making YAML less terrifying Hosted by Hayden Ballio and Wendy Hurst Brought to you by HeroDevs - Because someone has to keep your end-of-life software from becoming end-of-world software. (Next time someone tells you being "that person" at work who actually uses all the tools is annoying, just remember: THIS WOMAN turned it into a whole tech career. Sometimes being extra pays off.)…

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The Offline Coder: How Alejandro Cuba Ruiz Went from BASIC to Boss Level 59:41

for 25 dage siden59:41

59:41

When most of us were rage-quitting over slow internet, Alejandro Cuba Ruiz was coding in Cuba with ... checks transcript... NO internet access, a Visual Basic compiler, and the sheer audacity to make it work anyway. (Meanwhile, I lose my mind if my VS Code takes more than 3 seconds to load.) In this episode: The absolutely wild journey of learning to code offline - featuring his dad and uncle tag-teaming to teach him BASIC, and Alejandro casually creating video games because WHY NOT That time he downloaded an entire HTML spec file during precious internet access moments (and then read 60% of it, which might be the most developer thing we've ever heard) Why teaching elementary school kids to code showed him his true calling (nothing humbles you quite like explaining variables to an 8-year-old) His journey from reading offline HTML docs to becoming Angular royalty (Google Developer Expert? Check. Podcast host? Check. Making RxJS optional? ...too soon?) The moment we tried to stump him with weird competition trivia and ended up learning about professional toe wrestling instead (England, WHY?) Featured Projects & Links: Find Alejandro: Host of Angularidades podcast (like "Angularities" but cooler) Angular Community Meetup co-organizer Google Developer Expert (GDE) Principal Frontend Engineer at World Kinect Creating content in Spanish because representation matters (and automatic captions are FINALLY good enough) Key Quote: "If that Alejandro from early 2000s dedicated a little bit more time to foundational problems..." - Alejandro Cuba Ruiz, making us all feel better about struggling with algorithms Fun Fact: He's now helping build bridges for Spanish-speaking developers in tech, because sometimes the best way to pay it forward is to make the path easier for those coming after you. Book Recommendations (because this man doesn't just read documentation): "The Pragmatic Programmer" (2nd Edition) "The Staff Engineer's Path" by Tanya Reilly Hosted by Hayden Baillio and Wendy Hurst Brought to you by HeroDevs - Because someone has to keep your end-of-life software from becoming end-of-world software. (Next time you're about to complain about your development environment, remember: this guy learned to code with NO INTERNET and now he's out here making Angular better for all of us. Maybe your problem isn't your tools after all...)…

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From Hospice to HOSTNAME: AmyJune Hineline's Guide to Hacking the Open Source Career Path (No Code Required) 40:31

for 5 weeks siden40:31

40:31

Look, we've all heard people say "just learn to code" like it's some magical career-fixing spell. But AmyJune Hineline took one look at that advice, said "nah," and STILL became an open source legend. How? By realizing that maybe - just MAYBE - the real superpower isn't writing code, but building the communities that make code matter. In this episode: The ACTUAL reason she left hospice nursing (spoiler: it involves questionable elbow substances) How putting "can spell diarrhea" on a resume landed her a job at Red Hat (this is not a joke, this LITERALLY happened) Why being a QA engineer is basically being paid to find problems (and why that's actually awesome) The radical notion that documentation is just as important as code (gasp!) That time we made her play a game about weird inventions and learned WAY too much about a piano that uses cat tails (the 18th century was WILD, y'all) Featured Projects & Links: Find Amy June: @volkswagenchick on social LinkedIn (yes, the diarrhea spelling is still proudly displayed) Linux Foundation Certification Programs Drupal Mentor Program Colorado Drupal Association Aaron Winborn Award Winner 2021 (because we forgot this in the intro and she rightfully called us out) Key Quote: "If a consultancy can't handle me having the word 'diarrhea' on my resume, I don't think I can work for them." - Amy June Hineline, professional bar-raiser and spelling champion Featured Organizations: Linux Foundation Drupal Community CNCF Deaf and Hard of Hearing Working Group Hosted by Hayden Baillio and Wendy Hurst Brought to you by HeroDevs - Because someone has to keep your end-of-life software from becoming end-of-world software. (Next time someone tells you spelling doesn't matter in tech, just remember: THIS WOMAN GOT HIRED AT RED HAT BECAUSE SHE COULD SPELL A WORD ABOUT POOP. Dreams really DO come true, folks.)…

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The Butterfly Effect: How Apple's Worst Keyboard Created a Linux Legend 44:03

for 6 weeks siden44:03

44:03

Meet Hayden Barnes, the lawyer-turned-tech-wizard who LITERALLY changed careers because Apple's butterfly keyboard was too annoying. (We're not even joking.) In this episode: How despising a keyboard led to pioneering Windows Subsystem for Linux projects Why paying for open source software should totally be a thing again (like it's 1999) The creation of Pengwin: the $10 Linux distro that Microsoft accidentally made famous That time Hayden absolutely CRUSHED our kitchen gadget trivia (we're still suspicious) The secret origin of the spork (because why not?) Featured Projects & Links: Follow Hayden: @UnixTerminal on X Unixterminal.bsky.social on Bluesky GitHub: @SirRedBeard Book: Pro Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL): Powerful Tools and Practices for Cross-Platform Development and Collaboration Pengwin - The WSL distro that started it all Key Quote: "I'm seen as the Microsoft guy in the Linux community and the Linux guy in the Microsoft community" - Hayden Barnes, living that double-agent life Fun Fact: Our guest passed the bar exam using the same strategy he used to ace our kitchen gadget quiz - being suspiciously good at multiple choice. (🤔) Hosted by Hayden Ballio and Wendy Hurst Brought to you by HeroDevs - Because someone has to keep your end-of-life software from becoming end-of-world software. (Next time someone tells you keyboard preferences don't matter, just remember: they literally changed this guy's entire career path. Just saying.)…

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The 500 Club: Jordan Harband on Maintaining ALL THE THINGS (and Training Cats with Air Dusters) 41:38

for 7 weeks siden41:38