Our Bike Shed trio check back in with one another to follow up on some topics that caught their attention over the course of season 1.

Sally covers her time working with React over the last few months and the challenges it still presents to her workflow, Joël goes back over typescripts and the benefits he’s found when debugging, and the cast reflect on the first season as a whole, what they liked, what went well and what they’d like to improve on for season 2.

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You can read up on some of the topics mentioned in this episode here - Constructive vs Predictive Data - Aji’s Keynote - Aji’s Recommended Keynote from 2022

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville, Sally Hall and Aji Slater

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

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© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.

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Joël and Sally compare various note taking styles as they set out to find which ones work best for them.

The pair break down the different ways of formatting their notes and what they’re used for, Sally explains her struggles with note taking in general and the work arounds she’s found to achieve similar results instead, and Joël provides a small update on his book as he examines the different use cases for all his notes.

—

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring.

Read about Joël’s note taking in depth through his thoughtbot blog posts - Blog 1 - Blog 2

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville and Sally Hall.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

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Joël and Sally analyse their job titles as they try to figure out exactly which borrowed labels best define their work at thoughtbot.

Together they break down the components of commonly used titles such as engineer, architect and consultant to see which element reflects their work best, how they would describe their roles at thoughtbot, which industries they’d draw from if they came up with their own titles, and what does Lil Wayne have to do with all this?

—

For a deeper dive into today’s episode consider checking out Hillel Wayne’s post “Are we really engineers?” and Henrik Kniberg’s article on Minimal Viable Products.

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring.

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville and Sally Hall.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

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Joël and Sally grab a flashlight to share some scary dev stories with each other to celebrate spooky season.

Sally tales the tale of the missing production database, Joël flees from some corrupted data, and each recall instances of haunted code and heart stopping moments from projects gone wrong.

—

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring.

If you’re ever in Amsterdam consider checking out Joël’s museum recommendation.

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville and Sally Hall.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

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Aji gets his priorities straight as he talks with fellow thoughtboter Jared Turner about his recent article titled The President’s Doctor.

Jared breaks down the thought process behind the president’s doctor and the wasted time we accrue when working on a project, where we can minimise pauses and delays in our workflows, and why watching cat videos while you wait may actually be the most productive thing you can do!

—

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring.

Read Jared’s article to get a full breakdown of The President’s Doctor theory.

Your host for this episode has been Aji Slater and was joined by fellow thoughtboter Jared Turner.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

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Aji and Sally set out to crack the problems surrounding remote working as they share their thoughts on the various aspect of working from home.

Together they discuss their time at the recent thoughtbot summit in Amsterdam, how they felt about working in-person again, what they took away from the experience, the best remote solutions they’ve found to recreate that in-person feeling, and what friction points about remote working still linger for them both.

—

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring.

Sign up for thoughtbot’s open summit at the end of the month.

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Sally Hall and Aji Slater

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.
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Aji and Sally sit down to discuss their struggles with ADHD and the systems they have in place to stay focused at work.

They each share the note taking systems and tools they use to navigate a normal working day, how they came to fully understand and manage their ADHD, and Sally reminds us all why it’s very important to use a slash in your Slack reminders.

—

This episode of the Bike Shed has been sponsored by Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way, check the link for your free gift!

Try out the reminder app Aji mentioned in this episode to help keep yourself on track.

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Sally Hall and Aji Slater

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.
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Time to plan an upgrade as Joël and Aji talk about the hurdles involved with various change management in their projects.

The pair lay out some different approaches to protecting your data when planning a migration, the risks of code and data changes, the elements that will and won’t be affect in the process, and Joël gives his experience on a tough migration project and what he learnt from it.

—

If you’ve not used Merge before you can learn more about it here.

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring.

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville and Aji Slater

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.
Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube - LinkedIn - Mastodon - BlueSky

© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.

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Joël and Sally sit down to discuss their green and red flags when it comes to PR review.

Joël breaks down the different ways humans review code vs AI, how they both break down large projects into smaller digestible PRs and clarifying your reasoning for certain decisions, as well as discussing the most common red flags they’ve encountered when looking over code.

—

Take a break from coding to brush up on your Roman History.

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring.

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville and Sally Hall.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.
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© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.

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Sally and Aji discuss their experiences with invisible mentorship when it comes to code review.

Together they question when is the right time to have conversations with your team in a bid to chase improvement, the importance of understanding your co-workers perspectives, as well as the best ways to initiate a mentoring moment.

—

Check out some of the things mentioned in this episode - The Coding Train - Sarah Mel’s Livable Code

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring.

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Sally Hall and Aji Slater

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.
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© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.

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It’s board game night at the Bike Shed as Joël and Aji crack out the game pieces to assess how their work as programmers influences strategy when playing some of their favourite games.

As they make their way round the board they discuss the cycle of setbacks and iteration, finding the optimal solution to a puzzle, as well as the key skills that best links their programming work to board games.

—

Check out the upcoming conferences mentioned in this episode - XO Ruby and Rocky Mountain

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville and Aji Slater.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.
Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube - LinkedIn - Mastodon - BlueSky

© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.

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Joël prepares to write his new book by asking Sally some fundamental questions about Web browsers.

Together they look to answer the deceptively simple question of what is a browser, examining what they are at their core, what they’re capable of beyond basic functions, the nuances of programming for the web across different systems and devices on the front and back end, as well as unpacking the surprising benefits of different forms of browsers like the terminal text based platform Lynx.

—

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring.

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville and Sally Hall.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.
Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube - LinkedIn - Mastodon - BlueSky

© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.

Support The Bike Shed

Sally and Joël kick off a new season of the Bike Shed by asking the question, what exactly is it that we as developers even do around here?

Together they discuss their roles as developers, how their workflows and skills have changed over time, the value of context and experience when evaluating different solutions to a problem, why so much of their work revolves around googling error codes, and giving some advice to aspiring junior developers.

—

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring.

Your hosts for this episode have been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville and Sally Hall.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.
Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube - LinkedIn - Mastodon - BlueSky

© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.

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Joël is joined by some familiar faces in today’s episode of the Bike Shed to help reveal some exciting changes to the show as he asks his new co-hosts, what’s new in your world?

—

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring.

Joining Joël Quenneville as your new co-hosts are Aji Slater and Sally Hall.

Get to know your hosts a little better by checking out Sally’s recent episode on timezones or Aji’s RailsConf Keynote and handy list of previous keynotes.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.
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© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.

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Joël talks with Adam McCrea, founder of Judoscale, about the best ways to manage your queues and autoscaling.

Adam discusses some tough lessons he learnt recently during a technical outage at Judoscale, what exactly autoscaling is and how it works, the best signals to assess when working with an autoscaler, and provides some simple tips to better organise your own queues.

—

You can connect with Adam via LinkedIn or check out the work he does with Judoscale, who have also sponsored this episode of The Bike Shed. Be sure to claim your free gift if you haven’t already!

Thanks to the second sponsor of this episode Scout Monitoring.

Your host for this episode has been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.
Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube - LinkedIn - Mastodon - BlueSky

© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.

Support The Bike Shed

Joël and fellow thoughtbotter Jimmy Thigpen assess their AI workflows and question whether LLM partners really are as helpful as they claim to be.

Joël points out the blindspots AI can have when processing certain requests, they each share the ways they utilise AI into their workflow and pros and cons of doing so, as well as looking at some of the areas of improvement they would each like to see made to various AI agents in the future.

—

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring.

Your host for this episode has been thoughtbot’s own Joël Quenneville, and you can connect with this week’s guest Jimmy Thigpen over on LinkedIn.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.
Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube - LinkedIn - Mastodon - BlueSky

© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.

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Joël sits down with Tess Griffin as they take a moment to recap the very last RailsConf together.

The pair discuss their favourite moments from final conference, how their love of D&D has crossed over to shape their experiences attending RailsConf, and the future of the show as a whole.

—

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring.

Your guest this week was Tess Griffin and your host for this episode has been thoughtbot’s Joël Quenneville.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.
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© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.

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Joël continues his preparations for the last RailsConf as he talks with Matheus about how to make the most of your time at the conference.

Hear their tips to connect and communicate with other attendees, the different ways to take notes at the various talks you can attend, what to do when your discussions have a lull, as well as how to draw inspiration from others talks and using it to your advantage.

—

Don’t miss out on the final RailsConf which takes place July 8th - July 10th in Philadelphia, PA!

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring.

You can connect with Matheus via LinkedIn, or check out some of the topics he’s written about over on his thoughtbot blog.

Your host for this episode has been Joël Quenneville.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.
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© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.

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As the final RailsConf draws near Joël and Aji Slater sit down to discuss its varied and interesting history of keynote presentations.

The pair reminisce on their previous trips and talks at RailsConf, share some tips on creating the perfect keynote, as well as discussing the strong community that’s rallied behind RailsConf for so many years and how to best connect with others at similar cons as an audience member.

—

Don’t miss out on the final RailsConf which takes place July 8th - July 10th in Philadelphia, PA! Get ready for by checking out Aji’s recommenced keynotes from previous years 2022 - 2017

Thanks to our sponsors for this episode Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way (check the link for your free gift!), and Scout Monitoring.

You can connect with Aji via LinkedIn and GitHub, or check out some of the topics he’s written about over on his thoughtbot blog You can connect with Aji via LinkedIn and GitHub, or check out some of the topics he’s written about over on his thoughtbot blog.

Your host for this episode has been Joël Quenneville.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.
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© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.

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Elaina Natario returns to talk with Joël about what makes good quality product design and the priorities that shape development.

The pair discuss the importance of certain elements such as security and accessibility, maintaining certain standards throughout development, as well as judging the practical applications of prototypes within a project and the broad role they play.

—

The Sponsor for this episode has been Judoscale - Autoscale the Right Way. Check out the link for your free gift!

You can read more about about inaccessable prototypes here, or listen to the episode Joël mentioned with Aji about different typescripts here!

Your guest for this week has been Elaina Natario and you host has been Joël Quenneville.

If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website.

Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@bikeshed.fm

This has been a thoughtbot podcast.
Stay up to date by following us on social media - YouTube - LinkedIn - Mastodon - BlueSky

© 2025 thoughtbot, inc.

—

Credit: Ad-read music by joystock.org

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