Summary

In this episode, Erika talks with Salma Alam-Naylor about software engineering craft, programming best practices, and why the long game beats shortcuts. As AI coding tools proliferate and everyone chases speed, Salma digs into deliberate practice, sustainable career strategies, and building genuine expertise that compounds over time. Perfect for engineers feeling burnout from the hype cycle.

Links

• Salma’s website: https://whitep4nth3r.com/

• 2021 Jamstack Jammies (Community Creator Award) https://2021.jamstackconf.com/jammies/

• Fat bear week website: https://explore.org/fat-bear-week

• Hell.com wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell.com

  
  

Hosts

• Overcommitted: https://overcommitted.dev
• Erika (Eggyhead): https://github.com/eggyhead

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

Summary

Career growth through mentorship and work-life balance with Dave Schwantes, Senior Software Engineer at GitHub. Brittany and Dave explore why running toward meaningful work beats running from burnout, how mentorship became his primary form of engineering leverage, and what career happiness actually looks like across different life stages. From Instacart and Couchsurfing to building in-house bootcamps, Dave shares how sustainable engineering culture beats individual productivity hacks—and his take on how AI tools reshape what engineers really need to master.

Links

• Dave's personal site: https://dinosaurseateverybody.com
• Don't Break Prod (bite-sized career advice): https://dontbreakprod.com
• Grave Danger (Dave's spooky ska band) on Bandcamp: https://gravedangerskath.bandcamp.com
• Dave on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/dorkrawk.bsky.social
• Dave on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidschwantes
• Dave on GitHub: https://github.com/dorkrawk
• Web Dev Challenge Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2sEoZG8EIw
• The Engineer Manager Pendulum article: https://charity.wtf/2017/05/11/the-engineer-manager-pendulum/

Host

• Overcommitted: https://overcommitted.dev
• Brittany Ellich: https://brittanyellich.com