I’ve started streaming software development at https://www.twitch.tv/LukeTurnerSWE (past streams are available on youtube). For the past two months, every Saturday at noon PST, I’m streaming two hours of building a web app from scratch.

I have two goals with my stream:

  1. To show my development process — not just how I write code to fix an issue here and there, but how I think about building a brand-new app from the ground up, including data modeling, library choices, cloud deployment, authn/authz, etc.
  2. To push myself outside my comfort zone and try something new.

I’ve been a professional software developer for over 10 years now. While I firmly believe in being a lifelong learner, I also want to practice synthesizing some of that information and teaching in turn — basically, I want to give back.

While I’m making an effort to synthesize some of what I’ve learned in essay form on this blog, especially in the #softwaredesign tag, I also feel like sometimes the best way to convey things is by example. Software engineers can learn a lot by watching and emulating other great engineers. I know I’ve learned a lot by finding and watching role models, both at work and online.

To put it simply, when people learn by example and experience, it trains our intuition. This is at least as important as filling our head with principles and ideas from books. I think watching engineers stream is one way to build that intuition.

As a side note: we don’t all have excellent role models available to interact with directly.

I strongly recommend new software engineers read Coders at work for this very reason. Hearing great engineers talk about their process is a powerful way to build intuition about software development.

Some other role models I enjoy watching on YouTube:

Am I a worthy role model? Well, that’s up to you to decide. If even a few people appreciate what I have to say, that’s more than I could ask for.