Scott Hanselman

you know, you should change the blog post when you copy it from Rob. "Scott and I" XD

Scott!!!!
This Podcast series seems so depressing!!!
Please change this depressing atmosphere, I can't watch this.
A developer live is not depressing, depressing are the choices people make with what life bring to their lives, people make this choices just because they are irresponsible with their lives, and what they choose for their life.

Hanselminutes is way better. You really love to talk about tech on HanselMinutes, but this developers life everything sounds so depressing.

Don't be depressing MAN!
Depressing sucks! And a developer life is thrilling, sometimes I feel like I can rule the world. I know life is hard for everyone, and everyone got its wounds. But being a developer is not a bad thing, it has its bad times, but it seems you're only showing the bad part.

Hope this helps you get a better show!

Scott and Rob - this episode of TDL was awesome (as they all have been)! I really liked the interview with the DBA. As an "appdev" some of the things he said were a little tough to hear ;) But, I would have to say that I'd love to have a guy like that working at my company. And to hear him come around on EF was cool, at the end of the day we all just want to build successful apps.

And the music is awesome, Rob I wish you were my personal DJ ;)

Man, this podcast is amazing, I was not fan of podcasts because I never found something that touched my developer fibre like this. You and Rob are doing an amazing job here. Keep the good job!

Wow, I'm not sure which podcast Gabriel is listening to, but I don't find them all that depressing. What about the episode on audacity? fame? The storytellers in those episodes had energy and excitement and love what they do. I haven't heard anything yet that makes a developer's life sound as awful as he seems to perceive. Even the episode on getting fired, the storytellers learned from their choices and are much better for it so it wasn't 100% depressing. Even then, is it so bad to talk about depressing topics? Sometimes depressing things do come up in life and it's worth it to have a valuable discussion about them. Living all positive all the time just seems unrealistic. Of course, depressing all the time just sucks too.

As a young "developer" of sorts, I find that the episodes of this podcast actually make me think introspectively in a way that "just tech" or "just positive" podcasts wouldn't. Sure it's cool to hear about new/old tech and exciting things, but that seems to leave out a personal side, which is a huge part of every day life.

Personally, I think Scott and Rob are doing an awsome job and I hope this series continues for quite some time in the future. The content is relevant and very accessible. Even my far-from-techy wife enjoys hearing the stories that the people have told. And I have to say that the music is always fitting as well...very cool.

As always, everyone is entitled to an opinion, but saying that the content is depressing just didn't make sense to me.

Don't worry about comments like that. It's about life, for goodness sake, from a developer's point of view. I'm loving the podcast. I look forward to each episode.

I'm going to write you and Rob about this shortly, in more detail, but I think an episode about people returning to full-time development or consulting after getting out of a management role would make a great topic. I'm in that situation myself, and I know there are others who have gotten themselves into that situation (management), and realized it was one of the biggest mistakes they've ever made.

You can read about my situation here: http://markfreedman.com/index.php/2010/09/11/the-re-education-of-a-software-developer/

I've been getting back into development lately, and I'm so happy about it. It has been painful, rewarding, frustrating, and exciting, all at once, and I'm positive that there are a lot of stories about this out there. Too many companies do not have a technical career path, and I believe there is a lot of wasted talent floundering in management out there. They need some inspiration and a kick in the butt to not give up what they truly love.

More on this, shortly.

Thanks Mark - would you mind pinging me at robconery at gmail? You hit on a topic I want to cover... would love to talk to you more.

"who have gotten themselves into that situation (management), and realized it was one of the biggest mistakes they've ever made."

+1 to that. It's why I've tried hard to always stay in a "Chief Architect" or Dev Lead roll and stay just below middle management. Not that I don't have aspirations, just not in that direction. It's more fun to build for me....

Perhaps the comment about 'depressing' had less to do with the subject mater as the presentation? I've noticed myself that this show, like 'This American Life' which it was patterned after, is presented in a very low-key, almost lethargic tone of voice. This may be by intent, or it may be coincidence of the speaker's (Scott or Rob?) voice quality. Regardless, I find it very relaxing to listen to, not depressing. Too relaxing, usually, as it is difficult to pay attention to it while working. :)

Good job, guys.

This was a good one. As a dev who almost went down the dark path of the DBA I thought some of Rob's insights were spot on. When I was a DBA on a project implementing site server (long time ago) I used to have a list of devs on my cube wall that was on my dba crap list. I would move them up and down the list depending on what they had done recently good or bad. Funny thing only one dev ever asked what the list was for.

One thing that Brad hit on that rang true was decisions as devs that we did not make. I am sure that most devs at some point hit that "I'm done with this shit" wall and being relatively smart people start thinking of something else to do. I know what decisions I have not made, opportunities not taken I wonder what others have not done and stayed on the dev track and why they did not make those decisions.

Depressing?

I found it highly motivational to hear this episode about motivation :)

And it seems like if I hear a beautiful story from Brad Wilson about working with geniuses and really great people, I couldn't not think about how great is to hear such wonderful people in the whole series.

And hearing their stories is so much positive, in my opinion.

Great idea of this series, like Brad Wilson said, it's not all about tech things, it's also about people. And you're doing exactly this, you bring real, great people to us that we can learn from their experience and get to know them more intimately. This is huge.

I was listening to this podcast just in the train, in the middle of nowhere (somewhere in Germany) and it was awesome to hear such stories.

Great work, "many many thanks" to you, guys :D