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I'm Scott Hanselman, ask me anything!

Scott Hanselman on December 05, 2017

My name is Scott Hanselman. I'm a programmer, teacher, and speaker. I work in Open Source on ASP.NET and the Azure Cloud for Microsoft out of my ho...
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Antoinette Maria

Scott! First time caller, long time listener. But seriously, you're a great voice for social justice and I appreciate the way you use your platform to highlight issues in communities that you might not necessarily belong to. What inspired you to become this person?

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Scott Hanselman

Not sure, I've always been this guy. I think that people in the majority can easily forget what it's like to be in the minority. I think it's also easy to for some to forget that YOUR success isn't to my detriment. Your rise isn't my fall. I do my best to "lend my privilege" (age, experience, gender, ability, race, etc) whenever I can do lift up the voices of folks who may be missing one or more of those privileges.

Ad: Subscribe to and listen to my podcast! ;) hanselminutes.com/archives

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tiffany profile image
tiff • Edited

Great question. Scott, your platform is huge and I, as a black woman in this industry, am grateful to have your voice in my corner.

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Scott Hanselman

My pleasure, and I'm happy that we're in this industry together!

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jess profile image
Jess Lee

How do you prepare for a brand new talk? Any specific routines you run through leading up to/day of?

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Scott Hanselman

I did a video on preparing for a new talk from scratch here if you have a PluralSight sub or want a trial: pluralsight.com/courses/hanselman-....

I start with the number of minutes I'm trying to fill. So if it's a 30 min talk, I figure I need 6 five minute points. Then I think "what can I show that's interesting for five minutes?" Then I get my half dozen demos/points/concepts, and I move them around/reorder them into a story arc. I try to put myself in the head of the watcher/listener/attendee...figure after each demo they will say "So what?" so your next point or demo should answer that question.

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Jess Lee

How do you mentally prepare (ie. any speaking anxiety)?

I know some people practice the talk in front of anyone who will listen, while other people feel way more comfortable not practicing because the first time feels more 'authentic'.

And some people need specific things to help ground them -- like...being really careful about what they eat beforehand, etc.

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Scott Hanselman

I'm a Type 1 Diabetic so I only eat what I KNOW and what I'm comfortable with, for sure. I always sleep well and avoid going to the speaker parties and stuff the day before. Always I focus on the talk, not the stuff around it.

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Elizabeth

how often do you recycle talks? do you have 3 talks you can give at the drop of a hat and another...5 always brewing? how do you choose which conferences to speak at?

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Stargator

I can't speak for @shanselman , but I've been a Toastmaster for a few years. There's definitely good reasons to have a at least one talk or speech you can give with no preparation. Happens if a speaker drops out unexpectedly or has trouble arriving on time.

Especially as you expand your reach and the types of audiences you talk to, there may be reasons to further develop similar talks on the same topic using bits and pieces from prior talks.

It all depends on whether you think you will focus on a specific topic or concern, or if you just want to have a few talks on separate topics because the audiences you talk to are always different.

I've never spoken at a conference, so I can only suggest go to conferences that have topics that appeal to you or on which you feel you have something to say. Alternatively, if a conference offers you a unique networking opportunity, that could be a consideration.

In summary:

  • Figure out if you want your talks to be focused on a single topic or connected via similar theme.

  • Good idea to have at least one strong talk at the ready that's simple and requires little to no preparation.

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Aly Sivji

This is a great course, it helped me figure out my speaking style. Thanks!

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Patrick God

Hello Scott, it's my pleasure! I hope you're doing well.

My question to you: What do you think of soft skills and personal development as must-haves for software developers these days? In my career so far (I'm in my thirties) I experience that the stereotyped code monkey seems to disappear and it's more important than ever that you overcome your shyness and learn to communicate (face-to-face) with your team, become self-aware and just try to be a person you'd like to hang out with.

Thank you very much,
Patrick

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Scott Hanselman

I think you're right on. While there will always be shy folks and shy folks in software, the fact is that most of us are not writing code in a vacuum. We make this software FOR PEOPLE so getting outside our comfort zones and looking people in the eye and understanding/empathizing their situation is absolutely essential for good software.

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Patrick God

Thanks a lot, Scott. :)

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Lorenzo Pasqualis

Hey Scott,
Thank you for participating in this AMA.

I'd like to ask you about speaking.
How do you find and secure speaking engagements?
What are your recommendations to find the right opportunities?

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Scott Hanselman

I fill out "CFPs" (calls for papers). It's like a job application for a talk you want to give. Figure 10 to 1 return. Start with a brownbag at your job, then local meetups, then local or regional code camps, then larger conferences. Also consider ComedySportz (really) and Toastmasters.

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Theresa

Hi Scott! I'm sorry to say I'm not familiar with you or your work, but I'm going to remedy that quickly. I see you do work with ASP.NET, which is highly relevant to my current work. I work in an organization that has been using ASP.NET since 1.1 - mostly for small one-page web forms, but occasionally for larger database apps. We're up to using .NET 4.5 now, but I'm struggling to figure out where we go next. MVC and .NET Core seem like WAY too much overhead for the small projects we do here. I took a brief look at Razor Pages, but even that looks like more overhead/bloat than we currently have. What would you recommend for someone writing very small .NET apps and where do you see the future of .NET headed?

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Scott Hanselman

With respect, not sure where you got "overhead and bloat" but I'm happy to chat about it.

.NET and MVC are VERY lightweight. Like 5-10x less going on than with previous versions of .NET. HttpRequests went from 30k overhead to like 7k. Razor Pages has many fewer moving parts and concepts.

I'd start with Razor pages or MVC (which Razor is built directly on) for basic apps. You can scaffold out most CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) apps in 30 min. Maria and I just did a course on this: mva.microsoft.com/en-US/training-c...

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Theresa

Appreciate the guidance, Scott. Trying to make sense of .NET vs. Core vs. MVC vs. Razor has been a bit daunting. Perhaps overhead and bloat weren't the right words to use. I didn't mean it in terms of server load so much as the amount of code I'd have to write as a developer. The couple of examples I've seen for MVC and Razor involved a lot more code than I'd write to do something similar in .NET 4. But like I said, I only took a brief look recently so I'm still gathering information and learning. I'm glad to hear MVC/Razor is very lightweight and I will definitely check out your course.

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Scott Hanselman

Cool. Do reach out if I can help explain and support.

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tiffany profile image
tiff

Hi Scott. Thanks for doing the AMA.

You came to Abstractions Con in Pittsburgh back in 2015. I went to the conference but missed your talk.

I've followed you about on Twitter and I remember, I am hoping correctly, that you mentioned taking a vacation and trying to reconcile the feeling that you may lose your house when you did with the fact that you now have that option without losing everything.

Have you been able to reconcile this? What would your advice be for people who have come from meager means to getting a developer or other tech job that affords you the luxury and privilege to do things like take a vacation?

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Scott Hanselman

It's hard and it never really goes away. I have some money but I also have issues with concerns around food security. So I save. A LOT. I spend very little and I shop at Goodwill/Thrift shops. I repair old computers and pay it forward and give them away.

And when I DO take a vacation (I am doing this soon) I remind myself every morning how AMAZING it is that I get to take a vacation and I EARNED IT. You did too!

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andy profile image
Andy Zhao (he/him)

I repair old computers and pay it forward and give them away.

That is awesome, and definitely something I want to do in the future. Would love to read more about that if you're willing to share.

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Nitya Narasimhan, Ph.D

How do you continue to keep engaged with the various issues impacting tech today?
Have you burned out and if so, how did you overcome it?

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Scott Hanselman

I burn out a little bit, but I try to avoid Major Burn Out. I just turn off. I didn't email or code for a week last month. Just tuned out. This December I'll take at least two weeks off and work on ME. Self-care matters. If you can (given economic factors, etc) you gotta just UNPLUG. Gotta unplug before you plug back in and keep engaged.

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Jess Lee

What's your go-to unplugging activity?

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Scott Hanselman

Competitive Sleeping! I can sleep at the Olympic level. ;)

I play with my kids, my Nintendo Switch and Xbox, walk, Marvel movies, Netflix, work out, books, 3D printing.

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Cassidy Williams

How do you like remote work? Is it ever lonely?

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Scott Hanselman

It's definitely lonely. I try to get to get out of the house in someway every day. Even just sitting at a cafe is enough to feel more connected. I also do Skype Pair Programming and Google Hangouts. Sometimes I'll just Skype a co-worker and put them on another monitor and we'll work together quietly, like cube-mates.

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Andy Zhao (he/him)

Do you feel that the benefits of remote work outweighs the loneliness, given that you can beat the loneliness?

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Scott Hanselman

Yes, if only in the flexibility of hours. You can work whenever (although studies show that Remote Workers tend to work more hours than non-Remote) and sometimes take Friday afternoon off.

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tiff

This is a really great idea. I think I will do this eventually with the team.

Getting to a cafe is something I am looking at doing as well, perhaps a library too.

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Scott Hanselman

Even the Mall. Just to feel the electricity and be reminded that there are other humans.

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Ben Halpern

Can you pitch me on Skype and/or VS Live Share? I've not yet used the latest and greatest, but would love to hear from someone in the know. What's on the horizon that I should get excited about?

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tiffany profile image
tiff

Totally forgot about VS Code live share.

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Scott Hanselman

VS Code Live Share (when broadly available) is gonna be amazing. I have a podcast on it in a few weeks. It's so much more than "google docs for code" that some other editors have. You can do simultaneous collaborative debugging...but without installing any of the dependencies. Think of it as "can you look over my shoulder at this code" but without screensharing. You can explore the code, goto definition, refactor, debug and more.

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Ben Halpern • Edited

Thanks so much for doing this, Scott.

When I met you, you recommended to me the great talk by @anjuan Lending Privilege and I wrote about it here.

What's the next talk you'd recommend?

P.S. if you have a YouTube link for the talk, you can drop it in dev.to via this syntax: {% youtube 9z-Pdfxxdyo %} 😁

Thanks again.

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Scott Hanselman

I'd say Anjana Vakil's Learning Functional Programming with Javascript

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Ben Halpern

Thanks a lot. This will be timely to share with the team too.

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Anjuan Simmons

Thanks for recommending me to @ben , Scott! I don't think I can run out of great things to say about you. You're a great friend and a treasure to the tech community. Thanks for everything you do!

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Scott Hanselman

That's the great thing about Lending Privilege, my friend. It can be circular and self-sustaining!

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

🙌

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Any tips for us at dev.to to keep pushing and improving on our mission to be an inclusive environment for all the devs of the world?

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Tarun Pothulapati

Competitive Programming Vs Open Source Contributions for undergrads to concentrate?
Competitive programming isn't my thing but most corportates have coding interviews to quality :/
What's your take?

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Scott Hanselman

I've never been into Competitive Programming. It's fine but it's like competitive Street Fighter 2. There's someone who is the best SFII player in the world, and then there's the rest of us. If it feeds your spirit and makes you happy, sure, go do competitive programming. But in 25 years of hiring it's only ever been a "oh, that's interesting" bullet on a resume, IMHO.

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Kasey Speakman

So much <3 for SFII reference. Puts quarter on arcade box. "I got next."

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Mac Siri

Scott! I want to say that you are one of the few early inspirations for me to become a developer. Two years ago when I began thinking about being a developer, I googled "What is a full stack developer". It led me to your video(below) in which you encourage folks to "stretch a little deeper than they are used to" but still accept that we can't know it all. I may not have understood everything you said then but it was enough to fuel my interest and push me through. So I'm wondering, do you also have a personal inspiration in the recent years?

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Scott Hanselman

I find folks like @anjuan and Saron Yitbarek from CodeNewbies to be inspirational.

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Emmanuel Obogbaimhe • Edited

How did you get started?

Thanks for doing this by the way.

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Scott Hanselman

When I was 11-12 I was getting into situations with folks I didn't need to be hanging out with. However, a teacher noticed I was always in the back of the room on the computer. We couldn't afford a computer so she worked a deal where I could borrow the Apple on the weekends as long as it was back by Sunday night. If that teacher hadn't lent that privilege to me, I am not sure where I'd be.

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Emmanuel Obogbaimhe

Nice!
I also wanted to know how you got started as a teacher, speaker and entrepreneur. Sorry for the vague question.

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Scott Hanselman

Well, I needed credits for my degree, so I started as an Adjunct Professor at a state school. I started speaking by going to local meetups and thinking "that's cool, maybe they'd like to hear about this thing I'm working on at my job."

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Emmanuel Obogbaimhe

That's cool. I want to start speaking one day and doing talks so I'm always interested in these things. Thanks for the response Scott!

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Nick Polyderopoulos

Hey Scott. Glad to see you joining the dev.to community.

Here are my questions for you.

  1. What do you think that are the most basic concepts and knowledge that a new developer need to have.

  2. Do you have any book recommendations concerning ASP.NET Core, .NET Core and Design patterns?

  3. Do you know anything about the signalr on the .net core (Like when can we expect a production ready version to come out.

Thanks for being an inspiration.

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Scott Hanselman
  1. A general understanding of "The stack" from CPU up to the language you're using. Just know the call stack, and then decide where you want "magic" to happen. For some, Assembly Language is "the metal" and for some, JavaScript is "the metal." Both are fine, just be conscious and aware of the system.

  2. Not yet, it's going to fast. Start at dot.net/architecture

  3. I'm told Q1 next year. Work is happening now.

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andy profile image
Andy Zhao (he/him)

Hey Scott, thanks for the good work you've done!

What are some programming/tech fads that you were excited about, but never went too far?

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Scott Hanselman

Object Databases were a big thing in the late 90s, then that turned into Document Databases that made more sense.

Stateful systems were big in the 90s, with large OOP systems, but those went away as well.

There's always something exciting and it will all eventually go away. 3D movies? ;)

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andy profile image
Andy Zhao (he/him)

As a full time glasses wearer, I sure hope 3D movies do!

Interesting that stateful systems went away, since React seems to be getting bigger and more popular.

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Scott Hanselman

Sure, but Stateful systems on the client side where state can easily be held and can scale is different from writing, say, Amazon.com with a stateful design.

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Ben Halpern

What has changed the most at Microsoft since you joined? It definitely seems like a new company these days.

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Scott Hanselman

It is but it didn't happen overnight. Lots happened and lots of internal pushing, but I'd say:

  • Software as a Service, Office 365, etc. Office isn't $499 any more, it's $5 a month.
  • Azure - Microsoft will run your for loop (whatever language you like!) in the cloud for pennies
  • Mobile - MSFT lost with Windows Mobile so they instead made THE BEST mobile apps. Office on iPad is AMAZING.

All this and more.

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James Woglom

Hi Scott! As a fellow type 1 diabetic and tech enthusiast I've enjoyed following your posts on diabetes-related tech for some time now.

I'm curious about how you manage all of your data. I use Nightscout to store CGM data (which I think is fantastic), but on my Android phone I use a separate app to store the carb amounts for food that I eat, which doesn't talk to Nightscout. And, I have a tandem pump which doesn't talk to either of those apps, which I have to manually plug into my computer to upload into their isolated cloud solution. It irks me that I can't just have one datastore that saves all of this together! Are you in a similar boat as me, or have you found a good way to merge these different datastores together?

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andy profile image
Andy Zhao (he/him) • Edited

Just saying your profile picture totally fooled me. 🙈

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Very frustrating

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Scott Hanselman

I use an iPhone which has Apple's Health solution. Their health system is integrated into the phone and every app writes to it. So any food database app writes to it and all can see it. I use LoopKit which sends the food details up to Nightscout as well. I realize you're team android, but... ;)

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scottshipp

Hi Scott, there's a lot of criticism of Computer Science in general and university degrees in particular. I saw a tweet from Yehuda Katz just the other day where he essentially said you probably shouldn't get a degree it's most likely a waste time of time, just build things.

Do you feel like there's a place for Computer Science degrees in the future and why?

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Scott Hanselman

I think there IS value in degrees...if not Comp Sci, any degree in general. I have a Software Engineering Degree (not CompSci, which is more theoretical). A (good) degree teaches one to stick with something longer than a few months, how to think, how to study, how to stay on task, how to solve larger systems, and how things all fit together.

I think the issue may not be with Comp Sci degrees but rather with BAD Comp SCi departments and lousy teachers.

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Patrick God

I know I already got my question answered, but if you still have time for one more:
When is the release of your book "Relationship Hacks"? The table of contents just sounds so interesting to me. ;)

Thanks again,
Patrick

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adymitruk_64 profile image
Adam Dymitruk

Hey Scott, Microsoft is about open source, but I'm not seeing this on the operating system itself, and further, the push to the cloud makes it virtually impossible to audit the systems I put my information in. What's the roadmap to truly be open?

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Lizzie Siegle
  1. What's a book, any book, you'd recommend to a soon-to-be-college CS grad?
  2. What is one time you failed, and what did you learn from it?
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Scott Hanselman
  1. I really like "Code by Petzold" amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-...

  2. Today, this week, or this year? ;) I fail all the time. The trick is to fail fast, fail often. You can't make changes if you don't have a failure case to compare to.

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elderfo profile image
Chris Getsfred

Hi Scott, I know you are a huge advocate for open source and also have been advocating from within Microsoft for years. Can you explain your role in Microsoft's organizational shift to become more open?

Thanks for all of your work, been following you for years!

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Scott Hanselman

I went to Microsoft 10 years ago from an open source focused job and world with the specific plan to open source as much as possible at Microsoft. However, there's dozens if not hundreds of others that were pushing internally at the same time, and many more that joined around the same time and pushed and pushed. Fortunately we've trained Microsoft Legal to let us be "open by default" vs "just say no" but it's been 10-15 years of pushing. As to my specific role, just consider me one of the many voices both inside and out that pushed. It's not fair for any one person to take credit.

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Daryl Walleck

Now that you've reached an open source .NET world, does community criticism weigh on you and your team? The community standups seem mostly light-hearted, but does having a community to answer to weigh more heavily on you and the team at times?

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elderfo profile image
Chris Getsfred

Thanks for your reply and many props to you and those like you who have and continue to advocate for a more open world. It's definitely changed how I build software!

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kurtz1993 profile image
Luis Hernández

Hi Scott!!!!!

Just recently asked you on Twitter, but would love your advice in what to use for ASP.NET Core development on a Mac.

Would you recommend Visual Studio for Mac or stick with Visual Studio Code?

Thanks in advance!!

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Scott Hanselman

Depends on if you are doing just a website or if you're doing a website/api with a mobile front end. VS for Mac will be great for mobile apps, and VS Code is a lightweight code editor. I'd say, use both!

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kurtz1993 profile image
Luis Hernández

Mmm... I mainly focus on website only. But I would try both!
Thanks!

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andy profile image
Andy Zhao (he/him)

Any advice for junior developers about managing learning versus contributing at work?

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tiffany profile image
tiff

🙌🏾

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shanselman profile image
Scott Hanselman

Not sure I follow. You mean how to spend your spare time? Studying and learning vs doing your job?

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andy profile image
Andy Zhao (he/him)

Ah, I mean studying and learning vs doing your job while at work. As a junior dev I sometimes feel like I've spent too much time learning and not building/fixing bugs/contributing to the codebase, and perhaps you have some advice?

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Scott Hanselman

The learning never stops. For the first 3-5 years you'll be learning 40-60% of the time. Strive to find that balance. Get a mentor and ask them, honestly, if they think you're balancing work with learning.

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Brent Waggoner

Scott, when working away from your desktop, how do you handle work that can only really be done on one machine? Do you set up Remote Desktop on your desktop and use that, or is there another option you use?

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Scott Hanselman

Hm, what work can only be done on one machine? I haven't had that. I try to have two or three machines that can do identical work.

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Brent Waggoner • Edited

I have a Windows desktop that dual boots into Windows 8 because I have a client w old VPN needs that don't work post-8.1. So I can't use Bootcamp on my Mac (my only laptop currently) because it's Windows 10.

I suppose I could buy another 8.1 license (if those are still available?) and set up another Bootcamp. Might end up doing that eventually.

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Tom Aalbers

Hi Scott,

Just a quick question from the Netherlands here. I enjoy hearing you speak and write but I often wonder, how do you decide when to blog and what to blog about? I have my own website and I regularly think about blogging, but don't know what about. Sometimes I have done something that I think about, hey maybe this is interesting for other people but I find it hard to speak/type english on a tech level. Other times I just think, meh would this actually interest people.

And where do you get your inspiration from building al the cool stuff with the raspberry pies and stuff!? :)

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Scott Hanselman

I would stop you with the "would this actually interest people" part. Does it interest YOU? Then blog about it!

I am not sure about inspiration...if I see it on twitter I think, maybe I can do that!

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Tom Aalbers

Thanks for the reply! Alright, as soon as I think of my next subject, I'll do it!

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rickab10 profile image
Stephany Henrique A

Hello Scott, it's my pleasure! I hope you're doing well.

I have a doubt, some people talk that IIS don't know how to manage exceptions in .Net. For you that work with ASP.NET during long time, is this true?

I work with .Net Full Framewok since 2.0 and now with .Net Core, but I never had problem with exception. I ask because I like to validate domains with exception, so I always have a valid object.

I know that this is a other discussion, but here in Brazil I have the impression that an exception is a danger to IIS.

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briandavid7324 • Edited

I really hope you are still active here.

Where does Microsoft stand on updating its Test Management system in Azure DevOps?

We come across limitations each day due to the format of the Test Management module and how it has not changed in over a decade while testing strategies and approaches have changed.

We depend on the ADO Rest APi to overcome the shortcomings of the Test Management module and I am at a loss as to just abandon it and create our own Test Management application as I do not see any investment in the ADO Test Management module.

Is there a Test Management evangelist at MS? Does it have its own product team?

The support ticket system is not helpful as we normally get links to documentation we have already viewed.

Scott, is there a Hanselman equivalent in the ADO Test Management world in Microsoft? We need a champion to bring MS into the new world of testing.

Thanks for reading (Hopefully).

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Hector Salazar

Hi Scott,

Can you resume in a nutshell why asp.net core testing framework was built around xUnit?
I'm diving into it, it's divergent from other mature testing frameworks like Nunit, hard to figure out the advantages.

Thanks

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Belhassen Chelbi

for front-end web developers, what open source projects we can work on, and how can get in the open source community with my work, and any suggested work that I can contribute to for a first step?
Thanks for being open for this AMA

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stevemur profile image
stevemur • Edited

As a former Microsoft guy doing the evangelist thing too (Data Access Business Unit, during the days of MS Access, VB, FoxPro, SQL Server, etc.), I'm deeply impressed with the work that you, Scott Guthrie, Phil H., Satya N. and others have done to help change the culture within the dev/Azure/.NET world. Can you share any advice about how you marshaled the case internally for more adoption of open source, Linux adoption within Azure, etc? Couldn't imagine that happening in the Ballmer era, even though he too was great at some things.

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Daryl Walleck

I'm not sure if this is a situation you've been in before in career, but do you have any advice for someone preparing to make a large pivot in their technical career? I've spent ten years on the testing and automation side of the business and really want to move forward with more technical challenges as an application/lib developer. It scares the daylights out of me. I know I have the technical chops, but I have the fear of having my resume tossed because my development efforts haven't been "traditional" development. I'm also a few weeks away from becoming a first time father, so my nerves have started to become a wreck. It's easy to say "now isn't the right time" for a lot of reasons, but I get the feeling there never is a right time. Is it best to just embrace the fear and dive right in?

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Eljay-Adobe

First question...

The Midori project had a lot of wonderful potential. Joe Duffy wrote up a lot of fascinating information about Midori in his blog.

Any chance of the programming language that was created for Midori making its way back into .NET?

Second question...

Several core technologies for .NET have become open source -- which is both unexpected and fabulous. One piece of superb technology that has not been made open source (yet?) is WPF.

Is WPF slated to be made open source any time soon?

Without WPF, .NET/Mono projects are significantly tougher to do cross-platform. (Say, in contrast to Java and JVM projects.)

I presume that there is a strong dependency of WPF upon DirectX, which may be what hinders WPF from becoming open source.

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Pranjal Singh

Hi Scott... Just one question.. Being in Release Management, we just have to follow some processes in our work.. Being this kind of work restricts me to learn something new.. But i am fascinated with the new technologies coming in, one of them is Python. How should I proceed so that I can have future in python? One more problem which i have is being in this RM job i think it is better to be in this job and learn some DBA to have career in DBA... So u know I'm totally confused.. Please help me

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B/ga Programmer

Hey Scott, just wondering why Microsoft don't put more effort into supporting C++ community (user groups) worldwide? I meant, there are a lot of support for products like .net core, azure, xamarin and many others... I think Microsoft see those products like "important" ones but AFAIK Microsoft uses its own C++ compiler to compile products like Windows and Office, that seems to be an "important" product to me, maybe I'm wrong but it would be nice to know what's the official answer from Microsoft to my question. Thanks

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Adam Pipes

Hello Scott! I currently work full-time as an manager at a software company in Vancouver, WA and am a junior at WSU-Vancouver majoring in computer science. I have found that most of my peers at the university are focused on landing internships, while this is not an option currently for me as the sole provider for my family. Do you have any advice on how I best prepare for my career post-school with a focus on software engineering? Are there any networking tools in the Portland area better than others for this? Thank you for taking the time!

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stevemur

Second question (sorry) -- I have a son, soon 17, who is VERY interested in the field of "ethical hacking" and computer security. Do you happen to know any Scott Hanselman's -- i.e., accessible thought-leaders in that field that he should follow?

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slandsaw

I’ love everything code even though I understand very little. You and Uncle Bob are just a couple of my heroes. Here is my question. I’m 39 and NOT currently a software developer; is it too late for me to pursue this area of interest?

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Evaldas Buinauskas

I've watched your talk about productivity:

  • No hierarchies in mailbox. Very few folders just for important emails
  • Daily sprints
  • Three goals per day

I'm currently trying to follow your guidelines out and it helps to increase my productivity.

Do you have some other (new) recommendations that would help to focus on daily tasks and reduce distractions?

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Mehdi

Hi Scott,

I have 2 questions, I ask first one and if I get the answer as your reward I'll ask the second one.

Why in Identity source code, they hard-coded string type?

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Itachi Uchiha

Some people saying: "Programmers won't retire".

Do you agree that?

Is programming just a job for you? I wonder about that. Since I met programming, every day I'm feeling exciting. Because I'm learning new things until the end of the day.

When did you decide to be a developer and why?

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Robert M Jordan

We have a set of common entities which are 'shared' throughout the company - much like Master Data Services (MDS) data. Everyone has differing ways of maintaining said data...most of which are painful and/or lacking.

So...I created a working 'demo' using the SQL Service Broker (SSB) to show how we can easily & seamlessly propagate the 'shared' data. Of course, this data is centrally managed & applications (themselves) do not change said data.

Another person wants to use SignalR to propagate the 'shared' data to application databases. And, I love SignalR. However, to me, SignalR is "real-time" front-end "componentry"...not a data transfer service solution for MDS-styled data.

I see the broker as the right tool for this job. And frankly, to me...just because you CAN do something...doesn't mean you SHOULD. But I am open to being wrong.

(1) Am I wrong or right.
(2) If so, why or why not?

Thanks for the help.

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Ermir Beqiraj

HI Scott!

Congrats on all you have done for the community.
Q: How do you manage to keep up with all what's happening, net/core/office/azure, sharing, blogging, podcasts.. (and all the tweets of course)?

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Anduin

你好, Scott Hanselman!
很荣幸与您讨论!
我一直从事“传统软件工程”领域的开发,也就是比较熟悉普通的关系型数据库+HTTP服务器+一些流行的前端技术+常见的通信协议等等。
事实上,我了解虚拟化,了解云计算。而最近,我的很多朋友都去从事很流行的大数据,人工智能等领域了…我对这些领域一无所知。我每次和他们聊天,我都是写C#,JavaScript,SQL Server。他们则聊什么过拟合…数据挖掘…R…python什么的。我越来越感觉自己和所谓他们的“下一代软件”差距越来越远。
我曾在一次演讲中提到:我厌恶那些固守自己技术体系而不学习的人。而此时我感觉自己仿佛就是这类人。我从未学过什么大数据,人工智能。我连矩阵变换都不熟…请问,面对今天如此火热的大数据领域,人工智能领域,我们这类传统的软件基础设施的建设者是否一定要去研究呢?如果我不懂人工智能,不懂机器学习,不懂数据挖掘,是不是就可以认定我说:我已经固守自己技术体系而不学习了呢?

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Flavio

Hi scott , meet you in dev days latam past year, same year i started with anxiety disorder , that make me very difficultly to find an office job , what you think business can make to help devs with some mental disorders like depresion and anxiety?

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Gareth Lees

How do you manage to find so many varied things to blog about, then write the blog post, add the screenshots and still hold down a job and have a life?

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Albert

Is a college degree really important to be successful in the tech landscape?

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Scott Hanselman

I think there is a value in a degree of any kind as it shows you can stick with something. That said, after 5 years of good work, I find that most folks don't even look at the degree on a resume.

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Albert

Ohk thank you but what if you graduate with a C but is still able to do well in the tech industry especially with the ability to adapt and solve problems?

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James Gaisford • Edited

Any plans to start your podcast back up with @luvvie?

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Scott Hanselman

I wish, but I'm afraid she's super busy now and doing amazing things like writing books and doing TV and TED talks! Perhaps I'll look for another co-host.

For reference he's talking about ratchetandthegeek.com/

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James Gaisford

Sad to hear that. It was a great show.

Hanselminutes is also awesome and probably responsible for me being where I am today as a dev. Thanks for giving so much to the community and thanks for taking the time to answer.

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Pavneet Singh Saund

Hi Scott,

You're an incredibly productive individual who also cares about spending quality time with your family. How do you manage your time? Do you have any specific approaches / practices? Also interesting to hear how much "unplanned" time you have.

I'd also like to thank you for being a source of inspiration, learning and entertainment throughout my career as a developer. Thanks for being consistent, and supportive with everything you do. (You, Rob Conery and Phil Haack have a special place in my 💚).

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hkalic • Edited

When are you gonna publish that (never announced) book "One more Level of abstraction"?
Just joking, but you really should (or one more podcast).

PS: you were on the topic a couple of years ago

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sduford

Hey Scott, long time no see! I used to do the speaking circuit with you.

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Julien Calixte

Hi Scott, it is a great honor to be able to speak with you.
I was a big fan of Windows phones and the OS. What can you say about mobile at Microsoft and what happened inside?

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Phillip Carter

Why is Portland objectively superior to Seattle? (I have my own list).

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beau_haus

Hi Scott!

A Jr. Dev with a decent portfolio walks into your office for an interview.

What's your favorite question to ask her?

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Scott Hanselman

What have you worked on lately that made you the happiest? Can you explain it to me and how it works? What was the easiest? What was the hardest?

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Jonathan Peris • Edited

Scott!

What's the status of WebAssembly on .NET Core? I've read that Mono's already implemented! 😁

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Julius Sirait

Do you use todo list for your personal project?

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Fede

Just came back from a Scrum master course so... How much do you think agile methodologies matter for happy devs and quality products? Do you apply scrum at Microsoft?

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Ryan Weaver

Scott,
What 3D printer do you recommend?

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Scott Hanselman

I like the Lulzbots but I own a PrintrBot Simple Metal and a Dremel and they are both great.

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Ryan Weaver

Thank you Scott!
P.S. My little girl likes hanselman.com/babysmash/

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Ivan Stefanov

Nice to follow you and here Scott :) Good luck and thank you for everything I learned from you in all these years!

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Robert M Jordan

Howdy Scott!! Big fan, here. Hopefully, this isn't a no-no...but could I get your input on this question?

dev.to/robertmjordan/propagating-m...

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Przemek Smyrdek

What would you do in a different way if there will be a chance to start your career once again?

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Scott Hanselman

I would probably learn Functional Programming a little deeper, go deeper into Async and Parallel programming, but otherwise I'd do pretty much the same.

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Felipe Cruz Martinez

Hi Scott,

If you were to choose the most important decision that made you to be where you are now, what would it be?

Thank you.

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Scott Hanselman

The daily and ongoing decision to (try) to be empathetic and kind to my coworkers and the users.

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Alexsandro • Edited

Scott, When are you will go to some Microsoft's Brazil event or some kind other event?

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#1 HoloLens Fans

What's your take on AR?VR?MR? Confusion !
What is your defination?

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Scott Hanselman

Until the screens have no visible pixels, and until the peripheral vision is clear and full, I think it'll remain a fad. 5 years. (And I have a Room-scale Vive, to be clear)

Augmented/Mixed - Looking through a tablet screen at the scene beyond with the addition of a 3D character

Virtual - Full immersion, seated or room scale.

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Usama Ansari

Any recommendation for learning javascript with .net experience?

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Grant Mugando

How do you keep your interest and energy at such a high level?

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Sean Chase

What’s your take on developers working in open office floor plans?

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Dane Watson

Will you be hosting a live.asp.net community standup in 5 hours?

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Scott Hanselman

yes at live.asp.net