And the award for the longest podcast intro goes to checks notes Hayden. (Holy cow... compensating for something?)
Ever wondered what happens when you let your childhood menace grow up and give him INTENTIONAL access to things that break? Meet Dave Welch, the guy whose mom literally had to lock away the household tools because he kept disassembling everything and failing to put it back together (spoiler: turns out this is EXACTLY the right background for software engineering).
In this episode:
Featured Projects & Links:
Key Quote: "It started out with software, which is great, because if I broke it, I could restore it." - Dave Welch, explaining his entire career philosophy
Fun Fact: Our guest correctly identified that riding a motorized barstool while drunk in Ohio ISN'T technically drunk driving because... Ohio, obviously.
Hosted by Hayden Ballio and Wendy Hurst
Brought to you by HeroDevs - Because someone has to keep your end-of-life software from becoming end-of-world software.
(Next time a compliance officer asks why you're still running AngularJS, just send them this episode and say "THESE GUYS WILL FIX IT" - Dave literally told you to.)
Move over, Python nerds - turns out you CAN teach an old JavaScript dog new AI tricks. Meet Aileen Villanueva, the industrial engineer turned frontend wizard who discovered you don't need to learn an entirely new language just to make robots smarter (looking at you, everyone who panic-enrolled in Python boot camps in 2023).
In this episode:
Featured Projects & Links:
Key Quote: "When I do talks, it's because I also want to learn more. If I need to teach something, I must understand it to actually teach somebody." - Aileen Villanueva, using the classic "teach it to learn it" technique
Fun Fact: Our guest correctly identified that Italians throw oranges at each other for a medieval battle reenactment, proving that Europeans will throw ANY produce if given the chance.
Hosted by Hayden Ballio and Wendy Hurst
Brought to you by HeroDevs - Because someone has to keep your end-of-life software from becoming end-of-world software.
(Next time someone tells you that you need to abandon JavaScript to get into AI, just remember: THIS WOMAN found a way to stay in her comfort zone AND still ride the AI wave. Work smarter AND harder.)
What do you do when you've seen TOO MANY people on their worst day? You find a career where the worst day involves merge conflicts. JD Flynn's journey from paramedic burnout to Drupal powerhouse is the career pivot we didn't know we needed.
In this episode:
Featured Projects & Links:
Key Quote: "It's okay to not be okay." - JD Flynn, giving us the permission slip we didn't know we needed
Fun Fact: Our guest correctly answered EVERY QUESTION about dance history despite having zero background in dance. (We're not saying he cheated, but we're not NOT saying it either.)
Mental Health Resources:
Hosted by Hayden Baillio and Wendy Hurst
Brought to you by HeroDevs - Because someone has to keep your end-of-life software from becoming end-of-world software.
(Next time you're feeling burned out, remember: streaming yourself coding weird game projects while talking to internet strangers might just save your mental health. It's like therapy with more bugs!)
Meet the woman who started coding because she was *double takes on notes* the only person at her finance job who actually USED their internal app. (Listen, sometimes being the office overachiever leads to unexpected career pivots.)
In this episode:
Featured Projects & Links:
Key Quote: "The thing about developer advocacy is you're beholden to the entire community. You can't just make one person happy - you have to make EVERYBODY happy." - Cecelia Martinez McCrea, casually explaining why her job is basically impossible
Fun Fact: Our guest correctly identified Viking fish preservation techniques because she ALMOST ATE fermented shark in Iceland once. (This is the kind of specific life experience you just can't plan for.)
Speaking Topics:
Hosted by Hayden Ballio and Wendy Hurst
Brought to you by HeroDevs - Because someone has to keep your end-of-life software from becoming end-of-world software.
(Next time someone tells you being "that person" at work who actually uses all the tools is annoying, just remember: THIS WOMAN turned it into a whole tech career. Sometimes being extra pays off.)
When most of us were rage-quitting over slow internet, Alejandro Cuba Ruiz was coding in Cuba with ...checks transcript... NO internet access, a Visual Basic compiler, and the sheer audacity to make it work anyway. (Meanwhile, I lose my mind if my VS Code takes more than 3 seconds to load.)
In this episode:
Featured Projects & Links:
Key Quote: "If that Alejandro from early 2000s dedicated a little bit more time to foundational problems..." - Alejandro Cuba Ruiz, making us all feel better about struggling with algorithms
Fun Fact: He's now helping build bridges for Spanish-speaking developers in tech, because sometimes the best way to pay it forward is to make the path easier for those coming after you.
Book Recommendations (because this man doesn't just read documentation):
Hosted by Hayden Baillio and Wendy Hurst
Brought to you by HeroDevs - Because someone has to keep your end-of-life software from becoming end-of-world software.
(Next time you're about to complain about your development environment, remember: this guy learned to code with NO INTERNET and now he's out here making Angular better for all of us. Maybe your problem isn't your tools after all...)
Look, we've all heard people say "just learn to code" like it's some magical career-fixing spell. But AmyJune Hineline took one look at that advice, said "nah," and STILL became an open source legend. How? By realizing that maybe - just MAYBE - the real superpower isn't writing code, but building the communities that make code matter.
In this episode:
Featured Projects & Links:
Key Quote: "If a consultancy can't handle me having the word 'diarrhea' on my resume, I don't think I can work for them." - Amy June Hineline, professional bar-raiser and spelling champion
Featured Organizations:
Hosted by Hayden Baillio and Wendy Hurst Brought to you by HeroDevs - Because someone has to keep your end-of-life software from becoming end-of-world software.
(Next time someone tells you spelling doesn't matter in tech, just remember: THIS WOMAN GOT HIRED AT RED HAT BECAUSE SHE COULD SPELL A WORD ABOUT POOP. Dreams really DO come true, folks.)
Meet Hayden Barnes, the lawyer-turned-tech-wizard who LITERALLY changed careers because Apple's butterfly keyboard was too annoying. (We're not even joking.)
In this episode:
Featured Projects & Links:
Key Quote: "I'm seen as the Microsoft guy in the Linux community and the Linux guy in the Microsoft community" - Hayden Barnes, living that double-agent life
Fun Fact: Our guest passed the bar exam using the same strategy he used to ace our kitchen gadget quiz - being suspiciously good at multiple choice. (🤔)
Hosted by Hayden Ballio and Wendy Hurst
Brought to you by HeroDevs - Because someone has to keep your end-of-life software from becoming end-of-world software.
(Next time someone tells you keyboard preferences don't matter, just remember: they literally changed this guy's entire career path. Just saying.)
In this premiere episode of Everyday <Heroes/>, we're coming in HOT with JavaScript royalty Jordan Harband - the absolute madlad who maintains 500+ open source projects while somehow finding time to serve on TC39 and train his cat to respect keyboard boundaries.
Key Highlights (because we know you're skimming):
Plus: Three absolutely chaotic games including "Fork, Star, or Deprecate" where Jordan bravely takes controversial stances on tabs vs. spaces, dark mode, and the true value of meme-driven development.
Find Jordan online:
Bonus: We settle the eternal peanut butter debate (creamy vs. crunchy) and Jordan shares the one-word git commit message he'd send to every maintainer in the world.
(Spoiler: It's not "YOLO" or "¯\_(ツ)_/¯")
A big shout-out to HeroDevs, which allows Hayden and Wendy the ability to spend hours of their work week talking to awesome people from all over the world. If you are running end-of-life (EOL) open source and need it to stay compliant while also getting ACTUAL vulnerability remediation (because let's be real, no one wants to choose between new features and security - that's like choosing between pizza and tacos, just WRONG), HeroDevs has your back. With over 800 clients who trust them to handle their unsupported open source, they're basically the superhero team your code deserves. Whether you need help with SOC2, HIPAA, FedRamp, or any other acronym that keeps your legal team up at night, they've got you covered.
Visit Herodevs.com to learn more (and yes, this is totally a shameless plug, but hey, good content isn't free, and neither is Hayden's peanut butter Snickers addiction).
