BookBytes artwork

BookBytes

46 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 13 ratings

BookBytes is a book club podcast for developers. Each episode the hosts discuss part of a book they've been reading. And they also chat with authors about their books. The books are about development, design, ethics, history, and soft skills. Sometimes there are tangents (also known as footnotes).

Technology Education
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Episodes

BookBytes 46: A Mind at Play

September 19, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour

Adam and Jason finally learn about the guy who invented the Information Age and how the transmission of data over long distances is even possible.

BookBytes 45: Weapons of Math Destruction

February 28, 2022 00:00 - 56 minutes

Adam and Jason learn about how algorithms affect people in the everyday lives in very destructive ways as well as some ways to disarm them and how to use models for good.

BookBytes 44: Soonish

November 15, 2021 00:00 - 54 minutes

Adam really wants cheap access to space, Jason really wants augmented reality, and they talk about other things that may or may not happen in the future.

BookBytes 43: Pico-8 Zine

June 21, 2021 00:00 - 33 minutes

Jason and Adam learn about making games for a fantasy console with a lot of constraints.

BookBytes 42: So You Want to Talk About Race

March 21, 2021 00:00 - 1 hour

Adam, Jason, and Rizel talk about race and how to talk about race. They cover issues like privilege, intersectionality, police brutality, and microaggressions.

BookBytes 41: Seven Languages in Seven Weeks - Haskell

November 30, 2020 00:00 - 1 hour

Jason has dipped in and out of Haskell over the years, Adam did very little of the problems, and Jason teaches Adam a lot about functional programming.

BookBytes 40: Seven Languages in Seven Weeks - Clojure

November 23, 2020 00:00 - 58 minutes

Going through Clojure was an eye opening experience for Jason, and for Adam it’s intriguing, but the learning curve is very steep.

BookBytes 39: Seven Languages in Seven Weeks - Erlang

November 16, 2020 00:00 - 57 minutes

Jason loved tinkering with Erlang, they both read a little bit of Learn You Some Erlang, and Adam had a hard time with concurrency.

BookBytes 38: Seven Languages in Seven Weeks - Scala

November 09, 2020 00:00 - 1 hour

Adam loves how it supports functional and object-oriented programming, Jason said it would take a long time to really wrap his head around it, and Adam had a hard time installing and running it.

BookBytes 37: Seven Languages in Seven Weeks - Prolog

November 02, 2020 00:00 - 58 minutes

Adam remembered using Prolog in college, Jason felt like he had no what he was doing, Adam thought it was fun and mind bending, and Jason felt like writing a Sudoku solver was like having cheat mode on.

BookBytes 36: Seven Languages in Seven Weeks - Io

October 26, 2020 00:00 - 57 minutes

Adam thought Io is a weird language, it changed Jason's perspective, and Adam thought the interview with the creator was insightful.

BookBytes 35: Seven Languages in Seven Weeks - Ruby

October 06, 2020 00:00 - 58 minutes

Adam and Jason talk about the benefits of learning new languages, they talk through their experience with Ruby, and discuss their solutions to the challenges in the book.

BookBytes 34: Life in Code

August 24, 2020 00:00 - 55 minutes

Adam tells the story of how Ellen got into programming, Jason describes the barriers of the current online courses, Megan talks about the sexism Ellen experienced, and they talk about Y2K and ponder the difference between life and AI.

BookBytes 33: You Look Like a Thing and I Love You

August 10, 2020 00:00 - 49 minutes

Adam, Jason, and Megan learn about some of the amazing things AI can do, laugh at the dumb stuff it does sometimes, are a bit disappointed by its limitations, and come out more informed about what to realistically expect going forward.

BookBytes 32: Remote

May 26, 2020 00:00 - 43 minutes

Jason and Adam talk about working remotely amid a global pandemic. Adam got a standing desk, they agree that is better when everyone is remote, and they talk about having a good setup and routines.

BookBytes 31: Radical Candor - Part 2

February 25, 2020 00:00 - 53 minutes

Jason brings up the differences between Apple and Google, Jen talks about taking breaks, and they discuss gender politics.

BookBytes 30: Radical Candor - Part 1

February 03, 2020 00:00 - 1 hour

Adam talks about an awful boss he had, Jen talks about 2 wolves, they talk about rockstars vs superstars, and the radical candor framework.

BookBytes 29: Getting Things Done

December 09, 2019 00:00 - 58 minutes

Jason and Jen interview Adam about Getting Things Done, Jen and Adam talk about bullet journaling, and Jen relates it all to imposter syndrome.

BookBytes 28: Cracking the Coding Interview

September 02, 2019 00:00 - 54 minutes

Adam talks about how he has used the book to prepare for interviews, Safia talks about the Microsoft interview process, Jason tells a story about arguing in an interview, and they each talk about a problem they solved.

BookBytes 27: Measure What Matters

July 22, 2019 00:00 - 51 minutes

Jason read Measure What Matters, and Adam and Safia have a bunch of questions about what OKRs are and how they work.

BookBytes 26: Ready Player One

June 18, 2019 00:00 - 1 hour

Jason talks about how close we are to the technology in the book, Safia interviews the parents about screen time with kids, and they talk about 80's references and old video games.

BookBytes 25: Code Girls: Part 3

June 04, 2019 00:00 - 49 minutes

They discuss how to pronounce The Bombe, Adam talks about Conway's Law, and Safia compares sexism in the workplace to warfare.

BookBytes 24: Code Girls: Part 2

May 13, 2019 00:00 - 53 minutes

Safia has a new job, they talk about how much they know or don't know about WWII, Safia talks about the disposability of the women, and they talk about women's pockets and things that remind them of Computer Science.

BookBytes 23: Code Girls: Part I

April 18, 2019 00:00 - 50 minutes

Safia compares the recruiting efforts to modern day, Jason looks at good qualities for cracking codes and did some research on Shakespeare authorship, Jen talks about the challenges women go through, and they talk about strategies for cracking codes.

BookBytes 22: Code Girls: Introduction

March 27, 2019 00:00 - 43 minutes

Adam asks what they think about the title of the book, Safia is struck by the fact that women were disqualified because of ethnicity, Jen mentions how women's photos became a source of commentary, and Safia talks about what people value in men vs women.

BookBytes 21: Ara the Star Engineer: Author - Komal Singh

February 25, 2019 00:00 - 38 minutes

Everyone chats with Komal Singh about her motivations, the creation process, and the illustrator. And Jason's daughter even gets a question answered.

BookBytes 20: Ara the Star Engineer

February 11, 2019 00:00 - 32 minutes

Everyone geeks out over this children's picture book, Jason and Jen read it to their daughters, Adam and Safia overthink it a little bit, and they give advice on reading it to a child.

BookBytes 19: The Imposter's Handbook: Author - Rob Conery

January 21, 2019 00:00 - 50 minutes

We talk with Rob about his book, how and why he wrote it, as well as the next book that's coming out.

BookBytes 18: The Imposter's Handbook: Testing and Essential Unix

December 17, 2018 00:00 - 51 minutes

Safia compares test code to cake batter, Safia and Jen talk about testing culture, Jason says Rust makes testing easier, and Adam compares Unix to Eunuchs.

BookBytes 17: The Imposter's Handbook: Functional Programming and Databases

November 21, 2018 00:00 - 56 minutes

Safia talks about the four themes of functional programming, Jason tells us the difference between currying and partial application, Jason finds out that third normal form is not the most normal form. And Adam found out that BASE is the opposite of ACID.

BookBytes 16: The Imposter's Handbook: Software Design Patterns and Software Design Principles

October 22, 2018 00:00 - 44 minutes

Safia finds out that she already knew some of the design patterns, but not the name, Adam is confused about the fascade pattern, they talk about DRY, YAGNI, and they get into TDD, and a bit of the Unix philosophy.

BookBytes 15: The Imposter's Handbook: Advanced Algorithms and Compilation

September 17, 2018 00:00 - 57 minutes

They talk about some advanced algorithms, Safia goes on a tangent about Grace Hopper, and Jason made a compiler in Rust.

BookBytes 14: The Imposter's Handbook: Data Structures and Simple Algorithms

September 03, 2018 00:00 - 42 minutes

The hosts cover one algorithm each, after wrapping up the data structures chapter.

BookBytes 13: The Imposter's Handbook: Big O and Data Structures

August 20, 2018 00:00 - 46 minutes

They go over big O and data structures, Jason and Safia have a vulcan mind meld over Timsort, and Adam almost went down a rabbit trail of YouTube videos.

BookBytes 12: The Imposter's Handbook: Machinery (and the Turbo Button)

August 06, 2018 00:00 - 40 minutes

The hosts talk about various types of machines from finite-state machines, pushdown machines, and turing machines, and then get distracted by retro computing and the turbo button.

BookBytes 11: The Imposter's Handbook: Complexity and Lambda Calculus

July 24, 2018 00:00 - 1 hour

Adam and Jen have new jobs, they talk about complexity in the real world vs academia, and then Safia and Adam get some real-time learning in lambda calculus.

BookBytes 10: The Imposter's Handbook: Introduction and Computation

June 25, 2018 06:00 - 56 minutes

They talk about the first chapter, their computer science backgrounds, genetic algorithms, Star Trek, their first computers, and what they're looking forward to in the book.

BookBytes 9: Technically Wrong: Author - Sara Wachter-Boettcher

June 18, 2018 00:00 - 38 minutes

We talk with Sara about why she wrote the book and some of her thoughts about how to change the industry.

BookBytes 8: Technically Wrong: Part 2

May 28, 2018 06:00 - 1 hour

We get into a lively discussion about sexism and racism in the workplace and the interview process, and Safia puts Adam and Jason in the hot seat.

BookBytes 7: Technically Wrong: Part 1

May 14, 2018 06:00 - 45 minutes

Many apps and websites are sexist, racist, or marginalize people. In this episode, we talk about a lot of examples from the book about these apps.

BookBytes 6: Technically Wrong Intro

April 30, 2018 06:00 - 7 minutes

We get some updates from Safia and talk about our expectations for the book.

BookBytes 5: Apprenticeship Patterns: Author - Dave Hoover

April 23, 2018 06:00 - 48 minutes

We talked with one of the authors of Apprenticeship Patterns about the process of writing the book, reading, learning, career paths, and changes he would make to the book.

BookBytes 4: Apprenticeship Patterns Ch 5-7

April 09, 2018 06:00 - 1 hour

We talked about drinking from the firehose, practicing the craft, building breakable toys, and reading (coding books, Descartes, and Beowulf).

BookBytes 3: Apprenticeship Patterns Ch 3-4

March 26, 2018 06:00 - 52 minutes

We talk about mapping out our careers (or lack thereof), what titles mean at companies, craft vs art, being the worst, and getting mentors.

BookBytes 2: Apprenticeship Patterns Ch 1-2

March 12, 2018 07:00 - 51 minutes

How do you set yourself up for success in your career as a software engineer? How do you learn? How do you go from junior to senior?

BookBytes 1: Apprenticeship Patterns Intro

March 05, 2018 07:00 - 9 minutes

In this episode, we introduce the hosts, the podcast, and the first book we'll be reading, Apprenticeship Patterns.

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