Programmer&Developer Ben Borowski explores the creative side of software and shares his recent personal projects – The Busy Creator Podcast 62 - a podcast by Prescott Perez-Fox & friends

from 2015-07-20T11:00

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Ben Borowski (@TypeOneError) is a software developer and programmer based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. In past years, Ben run a small studio doing web development for top agencies, but has recently made a move to create his own project, and is working on that full-time.


Ben is one half of Oki Doki, along with Designer & Digital Strategist Marie Poulin. Together, the duo are hard at work on Doki, a web platform to build and run online courses and communities. In this conversation, Ben discusses the creative side of programming, the definition of a “coder”, and the challenges of putting aside client projects for the endeavor of building your own app.


Catch up with Ben on his site, Type One Error, or check out Doki.io.


 


Show Notes & Links




“I’ve met many computer science guys … who are completely stumped by CSS.”


—Ben Borowski


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“If you’re building a website and you write HTML tags, you’re a coder.”


—Ben Borowski


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“Programing is more technical … but making software is creative.”


—Ben Borowski


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  • Product Designer, as the term applies to web design, can incorporate development/programming

  • Open-Source, a place for inspiration

  • Ben consults and develops cross-platform games, and other projects

  • Doki, currently in development as a consulting platform and will be a public product soon

  • Previous guests on The Busy Creator Podcast have discussed online teaching, such as Karen Marston, Steve Dotto

  • Javascript framework Ember.js (similar to Ruby-on-Rails for the front end of the website)

  • Prescott attended Drexel University, a school set up on the quarter system.

  • Alpha testers



You can’t have nine people make a baby in one month.


—productivity adage


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Tools



Techniques



  • Write your WordPress entries in Markdown — it’s fast and simple

  • Examine where you can reduce lines of code, load time, etc.

  • Launch first, and then go back and optimise

  • More team members always help the progress of a programming project

  • Give your team the building blocks, for design or programming alike

  • Develop a naming and organization system — any system — for your team to follow

  • Require new [programming] employees to push live code to the site on day one; this teaches them the entire process

  • Head to a coffee shop or co-working space 2-3 days/week even if you prefer to work from home

  • Keep a clean image of your system after a fresh reinstall

  • If you can, go full-time toward developing a product rather than try to cram it in “after hours”


Habits



  • Jog or Rock-Climb

  • Take breaks to walk (or wrestle with) the dog

  • Do some exercise in the morning, even stretching

  • Drink and eat in the morning (write it down if necessary)


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