Why Most Developers Overcomplicate Everything w/ Aaron Francis - Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Web Development, Neat

Episode Description

This week, Robbie and Chuck talk with Aaron Francis about developer education, Laravel vs. Rails, and the evolution of full-stack development. They explore the trade-offs of opinionated frameworks, the practicality of PHP, and why simplicity often wins. Plus, Aaron shares his hot takes on modern web dev trends, and the joys of working from a home-office-that’s-not-home.

In this episode:

(00:00) - Intro
(01:19) - Meet Aaron Francis
(03:28) - Whiskey intro and rating: Green River Distilling Co. Full Proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
(14:32) - The home office that’s not at home
(17:44) - Tailwind vs Vanilla CSS
(18:52) - Git Rebase vs Git Merge
(21:44) - Let vs Const
(25:40) - Rails vs Laravel
(33:23) - Challenges of full stack frameworks
(48:18) - Aaron’s staycation birthday present
(50:38) - Two sets of twins
(56:56) - Family vehicles
(59:59) - What Aaron would do if not in tech
(01:01:20) - Plugs

Links

Mostly Technical: https://mostlytechnical.com/
Laravel: https://laravel.com/
SQLite: https://www.sqlite.org/
Postgres: https://www.postgresql.org/
Rails: https://rubyonrails.org/
Screencasting: https://screencasting.com
Try Hard Studios: https://tryhardstudios.com/
Ryan Reynolds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Reynolds
Green River Distilling: https://greenriverwhiskey.com/
Norlan: https://norlanglass.com
Tailwind CSS: https://tailwindcss.com/
Taylor Otwell: https://x.com/taylorotwell
DHH: https://x.com/dhh/
Tuple: https://tuple.app/
Ben Orenstein: https://x.com/r00k
The Car Mom: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCarMom

Connect with Aaron

Website: https://aaronfrancis.com
X / Twitter: https://x.com/aarondfrancis
Mastering Postgres: https://masteringpostgres.com/
High Performance SQLite: https://highperformancesqlite.com/
Screencasting: https://screencasting.com/

Connect with Chuck and Robbie

Robbie Wagner: https://x.com/RobbieTheWagner
Chuck Carpenter: https://x.com/CharlesWthe3rd

Subscribe and stay in touch

Website: https://whiskey.fm
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whiskey-web-and-whatnot/id1552776603
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19jiuHAqzeKnkleQUpZxDf
Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1552776603
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhiskeyWebAndWhatnot

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More about Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Web Development, Neat

Veteran web developers RobbieTheWagner and Charles William Carpenter III host this informal, whiskey-fueled fireside chat with your favorite web devs. They discuss all things web development including JavaScript, TypeScript, EmberJS, React, Astro, SolidJS, CSS, HTML, Web3, and more. They take a unique approach and focus on getting to know the human side of developers and their hobbies outside of work, all while sampling a new whiskey that they rate on their unique tentacle scale.