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over 4 years ago Syntax Podcast

Teamwork Makes The Dream Work

Wes Bos

Wes Bos Host

Scott Tolinski

Scott Tolinski Host

Topic 0 02:45

Sentry prevented a regression

Scott Tolinski

I put a conditional in there. It it should no longer There's no way this error is happening,

Scott Tolinski

and that's when I realized I only pushed to staging and never pushed to production. So Sentry saved my bacon there because there, I was able To find out that I solved the error and exactly why the error wasn't solved, thanks to their awesome system of marking something as fixed And then they're complaining about regression. So that's right. If you have any errors and exceptions, head on over to century.i0.

Scott Tolinski

It's happening again. And I was like, what are you talking about? It's very clearly So just be aware that there is ego attached to this thing. And if you were the lead, make sure that is established clearly. And if you are not the lead, make sure you understand what are the guidelines.

Scott Tolinski

This bug that you had resolved, to heart or any of this, like, ego pushing around,

Topic 1 16:47

Code reviews should be egoless

Wes Bos

Yeah. And I think also To reiterate on the point you said earlier is like you have to remember that,

Scott Tolinski

Like, That's not dumb. Like, you know, you get so many just idiotic,

Wes Bos

like, let's say you're building a website to help people

Scott Tolinski

Like, somebody left a comment that says, I don't know why they deleted it. It would have been a nice little learning opportunity to be able to read this whole thing. I I do because I I quoted some of the things they said at the time, so I do have but, that have had all different ways of celebrating wins, and there's nothing better than working really hard on something and getting that chance to take a breather and and have everybody, you know, really celebrate that shared goal for you. So make sure that you are a team. You're working together.

Wes Bos

book real estate appointments.

Wes Bos

like, everything revolves around you as the developer, and you are the keeper of the code and and everything like that. Right. Like you, of course, have to make sure that the code is good and and whatnot. They have to make sure that your your end goal is Sort of like rye rise and fall where you see,

Wes Bos

is being met as well. Totally. Totally. Totally.

Scott Tolinski

do not do this, and then you you leave a a PR that says, hey. Change the word do not to don't. Okay? and maybe they don't understand other people's code choices.

Scott Tolinski

important. That's not that's nitpicking. Right? do outings that everyone would enjoy and really take the time to get to know everybody in a way that you can understand

Topic 2 08:43

No grudges against teammates

Wes Bos

I've been on, like, tech Twitter for,

Scott Tolinski

go go go to hot pot and cook that beef out or something. I don't know. The guy I'm just trying to come up with some sort of beef beef joke there, but no beef. You squash that beef. Figure it out. Talk about it. Be people and talk about it. No egos. Right? Wes. Do you ever do you ever encounter developers with egos? Is that something that happens? Oh, yeah, absolutely. All the time. It's funny because, like, I've been on And lastly,

Scott Tolinski

beef with your teammates, apply the right props to it, and be done. When I confronted him, maybe who's who's fighting with who or who's got issues with who and and get ahead of that stuff. And maybe you can mediate in a way that is, you know, good for everyone. Alright.

Topic 3 00:00

Transcript

Scott Tolinski

how you can work on a team effectively. And this was all kind of inspired by a single Reddit post that I read that Kinda made me a little upset at how this person was talking about some of their teammates. So I wanted to take some time to dive into And how teamwork can make the dream work, and then, basically, Celebrating the wins, in a way that's positive for your entire team, and be cognizant about that. Know your team members. Right? If somebody doesn't drink, Don't go to the bar. That person doesn't that's not celebrating for that person.

Announcer

Monday. Monday. Monday.

Scott Tolinski

I don't know, any sort of, like, firm ideas. But then when I posted my my, Interpersonal tips.

Scott Tolinski

I I never knew that I had any sort of, it would definitely mess you up. And so I at some point, I've, like, really learned to block out some of that stuff and just like, look. This person is just either, climb to the top of the mountain. Climb to the top of the mountain to shoot a 3 pointer.

Wes Bos

I'm excited for this. I don't I had worked on many teams in the past, but, Yeah. I'm only on a I think I'm, like, 8 peaks in, so don't spoil it for me, but it is bananas so far. It's it's bananas. And it's bananas for somebody like me who's, like, team player, so I'm curious to see what tips you got here.

Announcer

soft skill, web development, the hastiest, the craziest, the tastiest TS web development treats coming in hot. Here is Wes Barracuda

Wes Bos

and I I work with my assistant and AJ, who does

Scott Tolinski

key.

Scott Tolinski

This episode is sponsored by 2 amazing companies,

Wes Bos

some dev with me and the support. But You can create all your content types. You can relate You have to remember that at the end of the day, you're trying to make your client's life easier and make them more money and all of these things. You need to keep those goals

Announcer

Open wide dev fans, get ready to stuff your face with JavaScript, CSS, node modules, barbecue tips, get workflows, breakdancing,

Announcer

Boss and Scott

Wes Bos

Hey.

Topic 4 12:39

Juniors should listen and discuss respectfully

Scott Tolinski

listen and, provide feedback, Because If if you ask for clarity upfront and if you get that information correctly relayed to you, then when you submit your PR and they say,

Scott Tolinski

and to discuss things with respect.

Scott Tolinski

Your more senior developer who's ever leading, if you are the lead of this particular thing, Even if you're not even if you are less senior. Let's just say you're the lead on this thing. If you are the lead or if you are not the lead on this thing, So you're you're following on this thing. It is your role to listen, to learn, to ask questions,

Scott Tolinski

If somebody

Topic 5 07:07

Shared goals like sports teams

Scott Tolinski

It's always important to remember If they submit a PR and that PR is not what you're expecting, you know, GitHub has a really awesome code review feature where you can go line by line and say, hey. When you did this, like, 3 nested ternaries, do you mind doing this in an if else? Because this is maybe a little bit hard to read.

Scott Tolinski

Yeah. So okay. So you're part of a team, and And, you know, you have these shared goals. You have shared opportunities

Wes Bos

Netflix documentary that you recommended a while ago. What's it called? The 14 peaks one?

Scott Tolinski

Like, very insane stuff. And to see this guy doing these these peaks even with oxygen or whatever, I'm just like, yeah. This is just straight up bananas even, like, in historically, it's bananas. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very good.

Scott Tolinski

to make cool things in in distribute code in a way that's going to be helpful for your your client.

Scott Tolinski

and keep in consideration

Scott Tolinski

are not your adversaries.

Topic 6 20:24

Celebrate wins as a team

Wes Bos

how to make your team go forward.

Wes Bos

Respect, celebrate, and be cool. Beautiful. I like it. These are are are really good tips And

Scott Tolinski

Maybe that's one that you gotta know your management and what they can do. But either way, Do not hold grudges against your teammates. If you have, you know,

Scott Tolinski

And don't forget to subscribe in your podcast player

Wes Bos

tear a team apart totally

Wes Bos

Peace.

Wes Bos

That's it. Thank you so much for tuning in, and we'll catch you on Wednesday.

Scott Tolinski

or drop a review if you like this show.

Scott Tolinski

Head on over to syntax.fm Yeah. It's fun because, you know, I've always Direct quotes include, I already hold grudges against him. What I expected from him was to reuse the same button component,

Scott Tolinski

oh yeah and and I think it's important as like being a manager to be aware of like

Wes Bos

Because I really think that this could really

Scott Tolinski

for a full archive of all of our shows.

Scott Tolinski

celebrate those wins in a way that's fun.

Scott Tolinski

Take a break and Put on some music and have a dance party. Who knows? I've I've had some teams that that have been, like, on the same team, let's be working together for shared common goals. So let's talk about some practical tips. Right? So one, if you're a junior you know what? It's it's so funny because for a long time, I would get so I don't know. YouTube comments could ruin my day. But somewhere There are ways to do it. It just be nice. Just be nice, be cool. If you're doing code reviews, make sure your code reviews have the expectation that they are egoless, that everybody is Aware that we're here to produce good things and then maybe not nitpick everything.

Topic 7 13:12

Discuss other approaches without aggression

Scott Tolinski

Because maybe in my experience, I've seen it done this other way. Then maybe you might learn something. Right? You know, and it it but if you then again, if you're all if you're all super into drinking. Sure. Go to the bar. Whatever. I don't know. But In this Monday, hasty treat, we're gonna be talking about teamwork

Scott Tolinski

Why don't we try my approach? What would you say? Hey. I'd just like to learn a little bit more about why you're why you're doing this approach.

Scott Tolinski

says, hey. Can you do this thing for me? And you are confused about that approach, the comments were occasionally harsh against them, but, But not to to do so in a way without respect.

Scott Tolinski

responds with aggression to aggression. Right? about something

Scott Tolinski

give them a question and say, hey. I'm just wondering about this approach here, but don't question and say, hey. I think your approach stinks.

Wes Bos

Also, I think, like, a lot of people are awful at major

Topic 8 03:19

Sanity manages content

Wes Bos

Pretty sweet.

Wes Bos

all of them together, and you can create workflows in terms of,

Wes Bos

That is going to give you double the free usage tier.

Wes Bos

the syntax coupon code in the CLI. So go to sanity.ioforward/ And then as they get better with their skill sets and become more popular because of open source libraries or whatever, there's out of certain people. A certain time someone just goes like, I don't care anymore if you think I'm just doing my thing. Here's the thing I've made.

Wes Bos

This is one little, people who are getting

Scott Tolinski

Use the coupon code tasty treat, all lowercase, all one word, and you'll get 2 months for free. And maybe Century will save your bacon like it saved mine. We are also sponsored by Sanity. What is Sanity? Sanity is a service that I

Wes Bos

and then you can sanity init with a coupon code on the CLI. I think that's one of our first

Wes Bos

npm install dash g sanity CLI,

Wes Bos

that you want to push and you need a back end for that. If you've got a marketing website that your your company is gonna be doing if you, in your head and not get so lost in that, And I if anyone else, I would love to hear, like, other people's tips. Sure you tweet them at syntax fm. It's still like like, do you have any, like, mantras or rules within your team to make sure that this type of stuff doesn't happen?

Wes Bos

are working on ecommerce. You name it. Sanity is the one that you need. Go to sanity.ioforward/ syntax to see how you can do that. It's pretty sweet. Nice.

Wes Bos

sponsors that has put the,

Wes Bos

what the approval process looks like. You have full control over all that. It's it's awesome. I've used it quite a few times myself.

Wes Bos

You want to check it out for your own if you've got an app you often lose that, So that's a Sort of a long way of just saying, like, yes. I've seen many people over the years, and it's it's funny to see this sort of arc of

Wes Bos

you can run,

Scott Tolinski

Cool. Okay. So let's get started here. I do wanna talk a little bit about this Reddit post first and foremost because, Well, I'm not going to link to it because they deleted it anyways.

Wes Bos

syntax.

Wes Bos

holds your content. It gives you an entire UI for editing all of your content. You can upload all your images to Sanity.

Topic 9 06:17

Easy to get wrapped up in ego

Wes Bos

Can I stop you for a sec? I started watching that

Scott Tolinski

about, just really make sure that you're aware that you're on the same team with common goals.

Scott Tolinski

you know, I'm the least experienced dev. So I I I thought this was a really interesting post for a number of reasons, but also something that, you know, I think people do encounter in their teams where we write code and code can occasionally

Scott Tolinski

why why does that make me feel so, Like, aggressive towards you or something like that. And I think that really comes down to just some some kind of flaws in the thinking about projects and teams in general. So let's start off with talking about the fact that we are a team. When you work on a team,

Scott Tolinski

hey. You know, I think I'm I'm really good at what I do here.

Topic 10 15:30

Ask for clarity on requirements

Scott Tolinski

Oh, can you do it this this other way? Then you should be maybe aware of what they're going to say before they're gonna say it. Because, like, the way this person Came across with saying, I expected them to do it this way, and they did it. It's okay. Well, did they know that they were supposed to do it that way? Was that relayed to them? And maybe they made these choices for a reason that maybe you're not aware of. Maybe maybe your button component actually sucks. And,

Scott Tolinski

To hurt your feelings in that way. Either way, But if you shut them down or you attack someone else's ego, you know what happens. I don't I don't know. Too many everybody's in been in interpersonal relationships in your life. And If I come at you and I say, Wes, you suck. Like, what what's your first response isn't to be like, okay. Let me hear you out there. It's to be like, no. You suck. It's like everybody

Scott Tolinski

your other developers know what they're supposed to be doing. Don't talk down to somebody

Scott Tolinski

instead of hurting your feeling by telling you that, they they broke their own, and and maybe they were trying to to, you know, be nicer to you instead of if you are the lead, make sure the the guidelines are very, very clear. Make sure that your this thing's not resolved.

Topic 11 09:14

Seen developer personalities change

Wes Bos

And then at a certain point, I often see these people just, like, sort of, like, fall off.

Wes Bos

And, like, I've I've certainly been in the in the same situation as well where

Wes Bos

You are so invested in something. And then when somebody says something,

Wes Bos

personality sort of take turns, in between? Like, what's the approach? I'd love to to hear about it. Right. And a lot can get lost totally when You aren't good at asking questions.

Wes Bos

they're

Wes Bos

against the tech, like, you are not your code. And I think that's an important thing to remember. And that if somebody is criticizing your approach or your code

Wes Bos

Not that they stop tweeting or anything, but it's just like, I don't care anymore. You know? Like, what am I doing? necessarily ruin your day or or whatever.

Wes Bos

fights people on every single decision and will, like, go up again. Like, you know, you there's 2 libraries that do the same thing, and They have 2 different approaches, and everybody's throwing graphs at each other. Which one's faster? Tossing graphs. All that tossing graphs.

Wes Bos

they're not attacking you personally. They're attacking the work that you you've made. And that That can really hurt, but you need to make sure that that doesn't

Wes Bos

Or even, like, the the course that you've put out, One pretty sweet thing that they just did is if you want to use the sanity coupon code,

Wes Bos

Like, it seems to be like there's people that are brand new.

Wes Bos

and I've seen many people. I'm not gonna name any names. I I would like to, like, maybe have somebody on who I've specifically seen this in. But they've gone from, like, just being this person that has a huge ego and, I don't know, probably 12 years. And, like, I've seen a lot of these personalities,

Topic 12 04:49

Inspired by a Reddit post

Scott Tolinski

with a more senior developer. They didn't specify the other person's role, but, basically, they were saying I was unhappy with the code that this person was submitting.

Scott Tolinski

an access to remember some of it.

Scott Tolinski

This this Reddit post, basically, to sum it up, they they were a junior developer working, both s companies Sentry and Sanity.

Scott Tolinski

Even though Here's here's how I think this person should have handled the situation to that Reddit post. Like, the number one comment on it was, this dev teams, and that's like it had, like, 400 uploads. Like so people, I think they really resonated with with my response. Yeah. That's great.

Scott Tolinski

And they used some really

Topic 13 10:57

Don't take criticism personally

Scott Tolinski

on a particular project.

Scott Tolinski

it's like If if you were to take any any of these comments

Scott Tolinski

comments like that. You sort of just learn to block out anything like that because Welcome to Syntax.

Scott Tolinski

between, this guy has no idea what he's talking about. Look at this guy's stupid face.

Wes Bos

people getting more frustrated and more frustrated. And then at a certain point, I feel like it's when people I don't know what that point of enlightenment is, but I don't I wouldn't say that I'm like a

Scott Tolinski

Here's my ideas. I'm open to hearing your ideas as well. Yeah. And I don't know if it's it's the fact that YouTube has hardened my skin so much, But, like, this is really this is a perfect use case for Sentry the other day. I think it was Friday. And and some of y'all are gonna laugh that I was deploying on Friday, but, People write code. Consider the fact that there is a person behind that code. And, again, if you insult that code, you may be insulting that person, so don't insult code. Just talk about it. Right? Be cool.

Scott Tolinski

You know, they're just either jealous of my success. They're just haters or whatever. You know? They're they're but either there could just be having a bad day and taking it out on me or who knows what. Right? So, okay, let's not hold grudges against our teammates. Let's not be adversaries. Let's be, Listen.

Scott Tolinski

Or a more junior developer I've always felt like I'm a pretty good team player in the web world, but, like, Lee. Exactly, like, what would be fun for people or maybe even get management to approve some spending or something to say, hey. If we do this big win, we do this big. We all work overnight and and get this thing pushed out the door in time. Can we do x, y, and z? Can we get this course? Can we get this tool? Can we you know, can you buy us all licenses to this particular thing or something? And who knows? Maybe it'll get approved. Maybe it's not. Maybe

Topic 14 02:01

Sentry helps find errors

Scott Tolinski

Now Sentry is the place to see all of your errors and exceptions happen in that just like any other team, you have a shared goal, And that goal is to make the best product or to deliver the best code in the deadlines and time requirements that you have. And to keep those shared goals as a keystone in your communication will always help you be a better teammate because you're you need to always have in the forefront here that, hey. We we are working together on this thing. It's not my code versus your code. It's not my code rules, your code drools situation here. It's all of our code can come together in harmony and work together to deliver the product that we need to deliver. So your teammates, first and foremost,

Scott Tolinski

your website application or whatever. In fact, we use Sentry on both our UI as well as our API, And it's a lot of fun to see those errors. In fact,

Scott Tolinski

maybe, like, 2 hours later, and it says regression.

Scott Tolinski

I I had been seeing this century error that was really kind of a a dumb one. So then I fixed it, and I pushed it up. And then I marked it as resolved in my century. And I'm like, okay. This is resolved. I can go home now and and be happy about my work for the weekend. Then I got an email from Sentry You have a shared goal. And the easiest way to think about this is sports. Right? You're on a sports team. You have a shared goal to win the game. Right? To make a touchdown to,

Topic 15 05:29

Junior dev unhappy with senior's code

Scott Tolinski

be ego filled. Right? I I've worked with a number of developers who certainly have an ego about their code. They think their code is good. They think their code is the best, softer in your I mean, we gotta be Charmin Baby UltraSoft here sometimes, and I think that's okay. Because again, there there is going to be ego wrapped up into it. But make sure you do understand the guidelines of what they're asking for and ask for clarity when you you don't get that.

Scott Tolinski

I didn't understand his weird choices.

Scott Tolinski

kind of rough language to describe their interactions.

Scott Tolinski

And sometimes it's easy to get wrapped up in that aspect of things really been into, like, other climbers like Reinhold Messner who, like, did some, Consider that you are not always right. If somebody does something differently than you, maybe ask why they took that approach before telling them that that approach is wrong. Try to get inside of their headspace and figure out exactly why they made the decisions they made before trying to crap on their decisions.

Topic 16 18:13

Really listen to teammates

Scott Tolinski

and, or they they want you to listen about how they're feeling. Listen.

Scott Tolinski

Don't pretend to listen. Really listen. Like, when You're talking to your spouse or your partner

Scott Tolinski

Don't Don't pretend to listen. You know? Listen. Just for real. These are people, and these are real relationships. These are your coworkers. Listen to exactly what they're saying. Respect your coworkers, respect their work, respect their code. It's something that they've put effort into. I mean, like, if I built something by hand like a bookshelf, And I said, look. Check out. I built this bookshelf, and you come in. You're like, you forgot an arrow over there. That doesn't help me. Nobody nobody likes that. That's not happy. That doesn't make people happy. Don't hold grudges about code. There's nothing there's nothing

Scott Tolinski

in the world that that should make you hold a grudge against someone else because of their code. If you have beef about it, talk about it, but there shouldn't even be beef. Just

Topic 17 14:02

Be aware how messages are interpreted

Wes Bos

like, hey. Do you wanna do this? And she'll just be like, sure. And I'll be like, sure or or yeah. You know? And it it's really funny because it's like like, are Okay. Is this like a are you just being, like, fine, whatever? Sure. Or, like, sure. That that that seems fine to me. And, like, You can especially now that everybody's online,

Wes Bos

Why not use Next.

Scott Tolinski

Yeah. In in, I mean, being cognizant of how your message could be read in different ways is also a big thing is this to be a little bit more flowery when possible. I mean, it doesn't hurt you to to be more

Wes Bos

Asking questions or saying that's fine. Like, me and my wife always laugh because sometimes I'll be like,

Wes Bos

when you are asking some of a question. Like, here, this is the I'm building this new thing on Remix.

Wes Bos

Js? And, like, it's why not use Next. Js, you idiot. Yeah. Right? Or Yeah. Oh, I never thought about that. What's the like what's the differences You see people's

Topic 18 19:08

Don't insult people through their code

Scott Tolinski

And, likewise, again, be a student and a teacher. If somebody is struggling with something, teach that to them, but don't do it in a condescending way. And, likewise, if somebody is doing something you don't understand, ask if they could teach you about how they did it.

Topic 19 19:36

Teach and learn from each other

Scott Tolinski

we we you know, you see sports teams, they they they do the game, they score the goal, and then they get the Gatorade dumped on them. That's great. That's so much fun to get the Gatorade done. Now they say, oh, this is cold. Right? This is so much fun and cold. So think about sports. And when a team wins, they all celebrate together. They all they all cheer rah rah this topic and how we respect and work with our teammates to share goals. Now my name is Scott Talinski, and I'm a developer from Denver, Colorado. And with me, as always, is Wes Bos.

Scott Tolinski

Lastly, I wanna talk about celebrating wins. We, as a team,

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