shifty

With 10 years under it’s belt, Facebook has gone from being a tiny college start-up to being not just the world’s largest social network, but also a fundamental part of people’s lives. But is it anything more than just a platform for staying in touch with family members you’d rather forget existed?

Technical debt is something that every developer finds themselves dealing with at some point. As code ages, the need to maintain and update older code becomes more and more important, but how and when do you do that?

Humans are emotional beings, and when you give them an outlet like the internet, there’s bound to be some emotional carnage. When a sneaky visitor attempts to subvert Jelly’s hosting chair, the three decide to explore how emotions affect life on the internet, and what happens when you log off.

In making products, and software in particular, at what point can you call your venture a success? Jelly and Russell take a look at their own ventures and try to determine the best model for creating and selling apps, and how to make such a thing sustainable.

It’s Jelly’s birthday, so Russell breaks out the helium balloons and the two get to the bottom of what birthdays are all about. Along the way they talk about what their ideal birthdays would be, buying gifts and the change that social media has brought to the party.

Having just gotten back from his trip to San Francisco, Russell has just a touch of jet lag. He and Jelly talk about what they’re each like when they’re tired and how easily they can each push through. They then move on to talking their strategies for beating jet lag, from setting their clocks to the destination timezone, to some crazy Australian invention that shines light in your eyes…?

It’s a discussion that’s been brewing amongst developers for many years. In an effort to decide once and for all, Russell and Jelly talk through their preferences for mail clients, photos apps and everyone’s favourite web-based chat app to figure out the solution.

Now that Jelly’s working from home, it seems like the perfect opportunity for he and Russell to discuss the differences between that and working in an office. They discuss what they each struggle with, and Jelly gives some suggestions on how to make working by yourself a little easier.

Russell’s visit to San Francisco has allowed him to briefly experience what being a celebrity is like, from many different angles. He and Jelly discuss what it’s like to be on various sides of this experience, both being recognised, recognising others and watching others be recognised, and try to figure out the important question: is The Rock more famous than the President?

Russell is in San Francisco to attend Google and Apple’s respective developer conferences. Both happen at roughly the same time of the year, and even in the same building. Nevertheless, the two conferences are quite different, and might even say a lot about the differences between the two companies themselves.

From speaking to writing to Matrix-style information download, Jelly and Russell tackle the concept of people communicating with each other, and try and figure out what the ultimate form of communication looks like. Along the way they discuss the flaws with various kinds of communication, along with the issues they have when communicating with each other.

It’s Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday. Jelly and Russell are looking forward to the weekend, but how exactly do people get themselves out of work mode and into… non-work mode? They enlist the help of Russell’s pals from Shifty Jelly to figure out what people do on their weekends, and whether it even makes a difference.

Jelly and Russell are unexpectedly joined by a mysterious guest. Having established that he has the power to just drop into podcasts at will, they decide to go with it and explore the seedy world of Independent Podcasting. What they learn is both equal parts disturbing and intriguing.

Finding the wherewithal to get off of the couch can take some effort, but never fear! Russell and Jelly discuss what it takes to get motivated to do things… and complete them probably. After a good nap, of course.

Jelly’s quit his day job, so he and Russell talk about different kinds of work: working for an employer, freelancing, and creating your own products. Having done all three between them, they talk lessons learned, pros and cons, and try and figure out what the best approach for each option is.

After Jelly discovers that MSN still exists, he and Rusty find themselves sucked down a rabbit hole of sensationalist headlines. In an effort to understand humanity’s need for entertainment, they sacrifice their browser history and attempt to understand why clickbait headlines exist. The things they discover will shock and surprise you!

At a listener’s request, Jelly and Russell tackle the concept of a minimum viable product and the process they go through when deciding on features that go into their respective apps. Along the way, they discuss the concept of feature regret, and whether the concept of an “opinionated app” is a good thing or a bad thing.

Nobody is perfect, especially Jelly, who has recently received some criticism through the internet. This lead to some reflection on how one deals with negative feedback, both constructive and not-so-constructive, and how to make it so you don’t feel quite so sad afterwards.

Samsung cops a lot of flak for cloning Apple devices, which is something Russell doesn’t think they deserve any more. In fact, he’s convinced that they actually made the right business move to duplicate the iPhone when building the Galaxy S.

Russell’s favourite place for thinking through the problems he faces is the shower (don’t worry, he wears a tuxedo), so he and Jelly talk about their favourite ways to solve problems with down time, whether by showering, walking or building Lego.