Summary: <div> <div>Guest:</div> <div> <div><a target="_blank" href=""></a></div> <div><a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/">@</a></div> </div> </div> <div class="podcast-episode"> <div class="subtitle"> James Long talks with Dave Rael about working at Mozilla, building products, making it harder to make costly mistakes, and understanding why something works </div> <div class="podcast-summary"> <p>James Long worked for Mozilla for 6 years on various projects ranging from Firefox OS to Firefox developer tools. Last year, he quit to pursue self-employed contracting, and recently has been working on launching his own product, Actual, a personal budgeting app. He enjoys leveraging powerful technology to solve real problems for end users, pulling ideas from remote places like academic papers and such.</p> </div> <div class="podcast-chapters"> <h6>Chapters:</h6> <ul> <li><a href="#!"> - Dave introduces the show and James Long</a></li> <li><a href="#!"> - Completion of projects and the project currently capturing James's attention: Actual</a></li> <li><a href="#!"> - How James views the success criteria for Actual</a></li> <li><a href="#!"> - The reasons James is building Actual</a></li> <li><a href="#!"> - Developers as users of software</a></li> <li><a href="#!"> - Barriers for developers to launching a product as a business</a></li> <li><a href="#!"> - James experiences at Mozilla</a></li> <li><a href="#!"> - The true nature of contract work for James</a></li> <li><a href="#!"> - James's story of failure - a production site that was set in development mode with costly consequences</a></li> <li><a href="#!"> - James's success story - spearheading moving Firefox Developer Tools onto React</a></li> <li><a href="#!"> - How James stays current with what he needs to know</a></li> <li><a href="#!"> - James's book recommendation</a></li> <li><a href="#!"> - James's top 3 tips for delivering more value</a></li> <li><a href="#!"> - Keeping up with James</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="podcast-resources"> <h6>Resources:</h6> <ul> <li><a href="https://github.com/jlongster" target="_blank">James on GitHub</a></li> <li><a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools" target="_blank">Firefox Developer Tools</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/6499956-if-you-aren-t-embarrassed-by-the-first-version-of-your" target="_blank">"If you aren’t embarrassed by the first version of your product, you shipped too late." - Reid Hoffman</a></li> <li><a href="https://prettier.io/" target="_blank">Prettier</a></li> <li><a href="https://actualbudget.com" target="_blank">Actual</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind_group" target="_blank">Mastermind Group</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.youneedabudget.com/" target="_blank">You Need a Budget (YNAB)</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/thomas_j_watson_209882" target="_blank">Thomas Watson on Firing an Employee who Made a Costly MIstake</a></li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4%2B1_architectural_view_model" target="_blank">4+1 architectural view model</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="podcast-book-recommendation"> <h6>James's book recommendation:</h6> <ul> <li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1585429201/?tag=devonfir-20" target="_blank">Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: The Definitive, 4th Edition - Betty Edwards</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="podcast-tips"> <h6>James's top 3 tips for delivering more value:</h6> <ol> <li>Seek deep knowledge - understand why it's working</li> <li>Take time off</li> <li>Everyone does hacks - don't beat yourself up</li> </ol> </div> </div>
