In the last episode, we talked about 2017. We did a recap. And I thanked each and every one of you who are listening for being a part of this show's history. It obviously wouldn't exist without the listening end point for what we're creating here. So you are integral to this show's success. But more importantly, you're the reason the show exists in the first place. Thank you so much for downloading this podcast on a regular basis, for subscribing, for interacting with me, for sending me emails with questions. And also, the most meaningful thing that I get from listeners is your stories. The stories of how you've progressed through your career, how Developer Tea has played a role in that. I'm so grateful that this show can be a part of your stories. Thank you so much. My name is Jonathan Kutryk. You're listening to Developer Tea. In today's episode, we're going to be looking ahead. We're looking forward into 2018. Thank you so much for listening again. And before we jump in, I do want to take a moment to thank today's incredible sponsor, Linode. Linode has been such a consistent sponsor. They sponsored an average of one episode a week in 2017. And they've been such a great partner to work with. They're so flexible. And they provide a great service to developers. They're involved. They're in the community. And so I highly recommend you check them out simply because they are so committed to this community. They're not just looking to optimize their rates. They're actually investing in long-term relationships with developers. Go and check it out, spec.fm. You can use the code DEVELOPERTEA2017 at checkout. Of course, we're almost to 2018. So make sure you look at a future episode of Developer Tea to get that new code. If you've rolled over to 2018 already, to use that at checkout to get that credit. But Linode provides all of their services with a seven-day money-back guarantee. And they're all hourly as well. So you could spend up a $5 a month server. And then you could switch that up and go to a much larger offering. You scale up into a different node. And then you could scale it right back down. And Linode provides even a command line API for doing that kind of stuff, that kind of scaling. So tons of stuff that they have. We really can't cover it all on this show. We're going to try to walk through some of those specific use cases in future episodes that Linode is sponsoring. So thank you again to Linode for sponsoring today's episode of Developer Tea. So I've done a lot of introspective thinking about the purpose of this show. On January 5th, Developer Tea turns three years old. We've been around for three years. That's a long time. At least in podcasting. In podcast land. In digital services land or whatever you want to call this. In media land. You could say that we're on season three. But really it's more like ten seasons worth of this show. We have 472 episodes right now that are live. That's quite a few. The average TV show has something like 15 episodes. So if you do the math there, you're looking at something like 30 seasons if you count it that way. But Developer Tea has always been about getting to the point. And for that reason, we try to make this show shorter than the average podcast. And last year we had an average show length of about 24 minutes. And I would say for the most part, that goal has been accomplished. Many of the longer episodes were the interview style episodes. Most of these monologue style episodes we've managed to keep well under that 20 minute mark. And again, that's not arbitrary. We didn't choose that number. We were out of thin air. The whole point of that in the very beginning was to get to the point to provide as much value as possible without taking up so much of your attention, so much of your time, so much of your day that you have to schedule your podcast listening into your day. Of course, the nature of podcast media is that very likely you're doing something else. Maybe you're washing dishes or you're on your commute or maybe you're at the gym. Most podcast listeners do that. Do something while they're listening to the podcast. And my goal with the show and part of the reason we made it short was to fit inside of some of those activities, but also so that you don't lose the context so you can engage it mindfully so that as you listen, you don't trail off in your mind and stop listening at one point and then come back and leave and return and leave and return. I want to pack as much value into these episodes as possible. So moving into. 2018, we're going to continue that that feature of developer T, the short episodes, and hopefully we're going to continue refining the episodes and focusing them on the most valuable pieces so that you can move on with your day and and truly be mindful as you're listening to this show. If you've been listening to developer T for a long time, then you've hopefully noticed a shift in the past few months. We've refined our vision and the purpose of this show more than we ever have. In the latter part of 2017, the purpose of developer T is to help driven developers uncover their career purpose so that they will be driven to do better work and have a positive impact on the people they're around. This seems like a lofty goal, but the reality of this is that there's a community of people who are making software every day. Every single day, there are hours that are being turned into software energy that is being turned into software. And that software. Has a major effect on the world. And so if you're one of those people, then you are a part of that movement. You're part of that large scale changing of the world. Every day, our world is shifted by software. And the responsibility for that is with the people who are creating it. Large, largely speaking. So I want for us to do that mindfully for us to do it intentionally for us to understand the effects of the work that we do. And the first step. In that process is truly connects to a purpose. But as we move into 2018, I want to kind of set up three pillars. I guess you can call them three primary areas of discussion that developer T engages in. Because when we talk about, for example, last year, we talked about async code and promises. It's kind of hard to understand how that connects to your career purpose. Right. These things seem worlds apart. But as it turns out, it's important. That we choose our everyday actions. These specific things that we're doing, the code that we write, the practices that we have, they're important. And they make up the kind of the pathway to accomplishing that purposeful underlying thing. Whatever those drives are for you. And so we can't ignore the practices. Right. So I want to share with you the three pillars for developer T. We've mentioned two of them already. The first one is purpose. Understanding your own purpose. Now, this sounds ethereal. It sounds difficult to articulate. And that's because in some ways it is difficult to articulate. But understanding what you care about. Understanding what really fulfills you to be involved with. And understanding that purpose really is kind of the science of fulfillment. That you living your purpose doesn't have to be a lofty thing. It really can be that you connect with the outcomes. Or you connect with the way that you work in a meaningful way. And understanding purpose is not just about understanding your own values. And your own vision of the world. But it's also understanding others' purpose. Right. Being able to get on board and drive the purposes of other people. Whether you work in client services. Or maybe you have co-workers that have a collective goal they are trying to accomplish together. Helping them. Helping others find their own purpose. That's kind of the stage that I'm personally driving towards. Helping you as developer T listeners uncover your own way of seeing the world. Your own purposes. Finding others who have overlap with what you want in the world. Right. So having a common vision that you both agree on. All of this is purpose driven work. Now, this sounds kind of lofty for a developer podcast. But the truth is. You know. If you don't have that. Compass. If you don't understand what you care about. At a core level. Then, you know. The code will eventually expire. It's very rare for developers. Or really anybody. To do the same exact thing for their entire careers. There are a few narrow careers that that's true for. But by and large. Your career will change. The actions that you take. In order to earn your salary. That's going to change over time. So finding that base level compass. Finding a way of aligning yourself on a path. That's so important to your long-term fulfillment. To your professional development as a developer. There's so many things that that plays into. And we're going to explore this more in 2018. Perhaps more than any other year previously on the show. The second pillar. Now, this is one that we haven't mentioned on the show today yet. The second pillar is principles. Principles. Principles are an identifiable truth. Something that you can come back to and act on. And these are systems that you've been able to observe. And test your actions against. You know, a principle might be, for example. Humans overestimate what they are capable of doing within a given period of time. This is a good principle to have. And it's one that can drive the third pillar. We've already mentioned it. The third pillar is practices. So principles and practices kind of have this interplay. Where you identify principles. And then you determine actions as a result of principles. So a principle might be, humans are not very good at finding bugs that they've caused with new code. Humans are bad at finding bugs they've caused with new code. That's kind of long for a principle. But it still holds to be true. And so therefore, an action you might take. As a result of this principle. A practice you might have. As a result of this principle. Is test driven development. Instituting regression tests. So that as you add new code. You're protecting yourself against the reality. That humans are bad at finding new bugs that they've caused. As a result of new code. Right? So this interplay. Finding these principles. And the principles can be, you know, much higher level than this. They can be much more zoomed out. They can also be much more zoomed in. And principles are driving our adoption of practices. And as it turns out. You can also identify your principles based on your purpose. So these three areas are kind of always mixed in with each other. They always are defining each other in new ways. They're adding new context. And you ultimately can cultivate a much more effective way of working. If you keep in mind all three. And that's what this show is going to drive to do. I want to identify principles that I believe all developers can share. And I want to identify practices that are derived from these principles. And I want to help you define your own purpose. And that's what 2018 is going to look like. We will always be able to see an episode through the lens of practices. Principles. And ultimately purpose. Now there's one big. Big caveat to all of this. And that is that it's always subject to change. As we learn more. As I learn more. In creating this show. As I receive feedback from listeners. As I see new things in the world. As we experience new things. In creating new episodes for this show. We might find that this is inadequate. Everything is an experiment. We're always able to respond to change. And this is something that I believe. To go back to our previous discussion. Is a principle. That growth is a good thing. And growth requires change. If you're not willing to change. Then you're unable to grow. These two things are kind of connected eternally to each other. Growth and change are necessary. And whether or not you know it. And this is a second principle here. Change is always occurring. Whether you want it to or not. So even if you feel like things are staying the same for you. You. Relative to everything else. You're changing. You're falling behind. And so this motion is constant. And so. As you listen to the show. I would hope that you are identifying principles that apply to you. That you're adopting things from this show. Or you're rejecting things from this show. As you see fit. I hope more than anything else. That this show incites you to personal growth. And more specifically personal growth. That helps you uncover your own purpose. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of Developer T. I hope you're looking forward to 2018. Like I am. I'm very inspired. As it turns out. This episode is actually being released on my birthday. So I'm really excited. To be able to share this with you. This deep sense of purpose with you. And to share this journey. With all of you who are listening to this show. I can't wait to hear more from you. And really I want these lines of communication to be closer. I want the people who are listening. To this show. To feel more connected to this community. So I'd love to hear from you. Please send me an email. At developerT at gmail.com. With any kind of comments, thoughts. Questions that you have. Any kind of resources even. That you want to share with me. Or share with the community broadly. I also recommend that you go and join Spectrum. Spectrum is a brand new tool. For cultivating communities. It was built by Brian and Bryn. From Design. Design Details. And the rest of their team. Max Stoiber is on their team. Go and check it out. It's an excellent product. Beautifully made. But it also encourages thoughtful communication. And conversation. Around specific questions. Ideas. It's hard to explain. It's actually a very cool product. There's nothing like it out there. Except for Spectrum. Go and check it out. Spectrum.chat And the Spect community can be found on Spectrum as well. Just head to Spectrum.chat. Slash. Spect. FM. That's all one word. Spect. FM. Thank you so much for listening to the show today. But also throughout the year of 2017. I encourage you. That if you connected with what we talked about today. That you subscribe in whatever podcasting app you use. So that you can stay connected with us throughout 2018. Thank you so much for listening. Thanks again to Linode for sponsoring today's episode. Head to Spect. FM. Slash. Linode. Make sure you use the code. DeveloperT2017. If you get this in the next two days. And of course. Until next year. Enjoy your tea.