Tech careers don't need to mean grinding LeetCode. In episode 57, John Crickett — 30+ year engineer, Coding Challenges creator (90K+ subscribers) — makes the case that programmer productivity skyrockets when you build real tools instead. We dig into why your own Redis, Git, or shell beats practice problems, how Coding Challenges went from $17 domain to viral sensation (1,500 signups in one weekend), and what it means to level up through systems programming.

Links

• Coding Challenges (Newsletter): https://codingchallenges.substack.com/
• Coding Challenges Website: https://codingchallenges.fyi
• From The Challenges - Git: https://codingchallenges.substack.com/p/from-the-challenges-git
• Will AI Kill Coding?: https://codingchallenges.substack.com/p/will-ai-kill-coding
• Using AI To Solve A Coding Challenge: https://codingchallenges.substack.com/p/using-ai-to-solve-a-coding-challenge
• Tech Lead Journal #178 — John Crickett: https://techleadjournal.dev/episodes/178/
• Confessions of a Data Guy — What Makes Great Engineers: https://www.confessionsofadataguy.com/decades-in-software-engineering-what-actually-makes-great-engineers-john-crickett/
• Coding Chats Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/59GU7gzyK2RdIDVkhNS2nt
• John Crickett on GitHub: https://github.com/johncrickett
• John Crickett on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/johncrickett
• John Crickett on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/johncrickett.bsky.social
• John Crickett on X: https://x.com/johncrickett

Hosts

• Overcommitted: https://overcommitted.dev
• Bethany: https://trustyduck.dev

• Brittany Ellich: ⁠https://brittanyellich.com

• ⁠Erika: ⁠https://github.com/eggyhead