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PODCAST · technology

This Developer's Life

by Rob Conery and Scott Hanselman

Bringing a human slant to the tech industry

Publisher-supplied feed metadata · PodParley refreshed Oct 29, 2025 · Source feed

Episodes

  1. 5.0.2 Reboot

    Life is long. A series of chapters as you move from one scene to the next. Childhood, becoming a young adult, possibly a parent at some point, and more. But how much more? We talk to two people who are well into their later chapters. Scott talks to Lawrence Lockhart about reinventing yourself…

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  2. 5.0.1 Voice

    What do you do when your voice gains an audience? Do you rattle cages or open doors? That's what we talk about in this episode. Scott talks to Anjuan Simmons about the power of lending your privilege, lifting people up by getting out of the way. Rob talks to April Edwards about being an ally,...

  3. 4.0.1 Faith

    How does our Faith drive us? Do you have Faith in yourself and your abilities, and how do you know you're on the right path? In this episode of This Developer's Life we offer you two stories. Rob has packed up his family and is travelling the world. He talks about his Faith in his children,...

  4. 3.0.2 Space

    In this episode of This Developer's Life we ask the hard questions about space. Why aren't we on Mars? Why haven't we gone back to the moon? We talk to Paul Lutus, Dan Bricklin, Tamar Cohen, and hear from Ray Bradbury. Scott and Rob have not yet gone to space and don't understand why. In this...

  5. 3.0.1 Cancer

    Big thanks from both my wife and myself for the outpouring of support after our Cancer announcement. Last year was a long year and the Cancer part of the year was particularly long. We were very private about the whole thing and waited to tell anyone until we knew we were mostly OK. However, to…

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  6. 2.0.9 Drama

    Where does drama come from? How do we react to it? How much drama can be created by simple semicolon? This week we explore The Great Semicolon Affair. Peter Cooper Friendly publisher, programmer and author Derick Bailey Consultant and aspiring microprenuer H. Alan Stevens Father, Geek & Speaker...

  7. 2.0.8 Learn

    How many empty brain cells do you have in your head? How capable are you of learning something completely new, and retaining what you already know? Scott and Rob talk to two developers this week who flex their ability to learn to both have fun, and succeed at their career. Patrick Cauldwell…

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  8. 2.0.7 Dinosaurs

    You're so old! What a dinosaur! You're using old software and old languages to do old things! Or are you? Scott and Rob talk to David Sokol, Sean Bamforth and Pete Brown about Fortran, DataFlex and the Commodore 64. All these dinosaurs are doing useful work. Or, are they? David Sokol Fortran...

  9. 2.0.6 Play

    What do you do when you're not staring at your computer screen? What obsession grips you as you drive home? In this episode we ask David Heinemeier Hansson and Pete Brown this very question. David Heinemeier Hansson Creator of Rails and budding Racer X Pete Brown Senior Project Manager, Microsoft...

  10. 2.0.5 Typo

    Who cares about typefaces and why should you? Well, these guys do and you should start caring. Rob and Scott explore the world of reading online with one of the godfathers in the world of typeface and fonts. Bill Hill Lover of reading, of typefaces, and co-creator of ClearType Geoffrey Grosenbach...

  11. 2.0.4 Taste

    What is taste? What is style? Do you have it? Scott and Rob have no idea what it is or how to get it - but they know it's important. In this show they talk to a designer who flexes his good taste for a living - and a developer who is committed to spreading good taste where he can. Michael Bach...

  12. 2.0.3 Education

    Scott and Rob discuss the value of a degree - and talk to two developers who used their passion to pull them through school and into their careers. Aqueelah Grant QA Specialist at Trimmer Media Seth Juarez Developer Evangelist at DevExpress Music The music tracks this week are a combination of…

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  13. 2.0.2 Pressure

    Scott and Rob talk to a group of Top Gun developers: the StackOverflow team, about the day their database melted - and how the team responded. Geoff Dalgas - developer on StackOverflow Sam Saffron - developer and data geek at StackOverflow Jeff Atwood ,Mr. CodingHorror and co-founder of...

  14. 2.0.1 Criticism

    In this episode we talk to three developers about criticism - some they've given and some they've received. In addition we talk to a very vocal critic of this podcast. Ayende Rahien - a prominent developer in the .NET community and a force of nature G. Andrew Duthie - a Developer Evangelist at...

  15. 1.1.5 Revolt

    In this special episode we explore the Egyptian revolution. We talk to Remon Zakaria about his experience writing software for a day job and overthrowing the government at night. Big thanks to Ahmed Remy and Reem Ahmed for their help. We recorded hours and hours of content to bring you this show....

  16. 1.1.4 Obsession

    Rob Sullivan talks about his obsessiveness and how it helps him, and hinders him in his job. Rory Blythe and Scott then talk openly about Rory's compulsion to keep learning - which he has embraced completely. Rob Sullivan submitted our very first listener story about what drives him as a DBA -...

  17. 1.1.3 Competition

    In this episode we talk to competitors who are also programmers. Or, programmers who also compete. Are coders pre-wired for this? Jon Skeet, David Fowler, Aaron Jensen and Danielle Banks share their stories. Jon Skeet shares how he stays at the top of the Stack Overflow points pile David Fowler...

  18. 1.1.2 Drive

    In this episode Scott and Rob talk to 4 entrepreneurs about the risks they take, and what's happened as a result. Dave Nielsen, Tom Preston-Werner, and Nate and Niki Kohari. Dave Nielsen tells us about working only for himself and what sleeping on a couch in a basement storeroom feels like Tom...

  19. 1.1.1 Scars

    In this episode Scott and Rob talk to Chad Myers, Chad Fowler, and Doug Rohrer about the scars they've received from dead end projects they've been on. In addition - Sara Chipps contributes her first story for us - interviewing Scott Reynolds. Chad Myers tells us about one of the first lead...

  20. 1.1.0 Disconnecting

    This week it's just Scott and me - Scott gets to go off to Disneyland with his wife and 2 boys, and I get to hang out with my girls for a week as their mom goes on a retreat in California. Music The tracks for this week are used under Creative Commons from Magnatunes: Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts...

  21. 1.0.9 Management

    In this episode Scott and I talk to technical folks who have moved on up to Management - and what it means to them. Mark Freedman shares his story about clawing his way out of a successful career as a manager at a rather large, growing company. A good job, lots of respect, and he hates it.…

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  22. 1.0.8 Motivation

    In this episode Scott and I talk to 2 people with fairly different stories, about what motivates them Scott talks to Brad Wilson, Senior Developer on the Microsoft ASP.NET MVC team about what motivates him to get out of bed and come to work every day at a high-intensity company, surrounded by...

  23. 1.0.7 Audacity

    In this episode Scott and I talk to 3 developers who have pulled off some pretty audacious maneuvers. John Resig, Creator of jQuery, decided to write yet another javascript framework when there were already quite a few to choose from. Not only did he succeed, he changed web development forever....

  24. 1.0.6 Abstraction

    In this episode Scott and I discuss "what you need to know as a software developer". How many layers of abstraction do you need to understand? How many geek trading cards should you have in your collection? To find out more, we talked to 3 prominent, living-history developers. Ward Cunningham -...

  25. 1.0.5 Homerun

    In the first story, I talk to David Heinemeier Hansson creator of Ruby on Rails, partner at 37Signals and author of Rework about the inspiration and shepherding of Ruby on Rails. In the second story, Scott talks to Dan Bricklin who in the late 70s and early 80s helped to usher in the computer…

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  26. 1.0.4 Being Mean

    In the first story Scott shares his experience on being 'outted' at a former company, where his name sat beside 7 of the 10 top entries on a list of 'what not to do to code'. Scott then interviews Cyra Richardson - a program manager at Microsoft with a rather strong opinion about the changes…

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  27. 1.0.3 Problems

    image from XKCD In this week's This Developer's Life that's what I take a look at, from 3 perspectives: Mike Moore (Ruby developer) talks about personal skills for solving problems, including the ability to ask a different question. Javier Lozano (Microsoft developer) talks about teams coming...

  28. 1.0.2 Fame and Notoriety

    In the first story I talk to John Sheehan, a developer who's active on Twitter and is establishing himself in the Open Source community. The second story comes from Scott Hanselman - one of the biggest names (if not *the* biggest) in the Microsoft community. Technical Note: You'll notice that the...

  29. 1.0.1 Getting Fired

    I talk to 2 developers in this episode, and toss in a story from myself at the end: The first story comes from Sara J Chipps a Microsoft developer who lives on the East Coast. The second story comes from Oren Eine (Ayende Rahien) about what life as a prison commander in Israel taught him about…

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ABOUT THIS SHOW

Bringing a human slant to the tech industry

HOSTED BY

Rob Conery and Scott Hanselman

CATEGORIES

Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does This Developer's Life have?

This Developer's Life currently has 29 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.

What is This Developer's Life about?

Bringing a human slant to the tech industry

How often does This Developer's Life release new episodes?

This Developer's Life has 29 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.

Where can I listen to This Developer's Life?

You can listen to This Developer's Life on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.

Who hosts This Developer's Life?

This Developer's Life is created and hosted by Rob Conery and Scott Hanselman.
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