Episode 57: Mikeal Rogers on Building Communities, the Early Days of Node.js, and How to Stay a Coder for Life

Panelists Allen "Gunner" Gunn | Justin Dorfman | Richard Littauer
Guest Mikeal Rogers Show Notes Hello and welcome to Sustain! Our
special guest today is Mikeal Rogers, who works at Protocol Labs as
IPLD Lead. We learn what Protocol Labs is, where they come from,
and what Mikeal does there as the IPLD Lead (InterPlanetary Linked
Data). We will find out what happened when io.js forked with
Node.js, if there is a difference between the Project Manager and
Developer Role, and Mikeal’s interests in design libraries, and
building a community and ecosystem from scratch and how they
interrelate. Download this episode now to learn more! [00:01:25]
Mikeal tells us what he does at Protocol Labs. We also learn who
Protocol Labs is and where they come from. [00:06:43] Mikeal talks
about what he did in his previous jobs. [00:09:48] Richard asks
Mikeal what separates his path and his ideal goal from being
someone who ends up just working on algorithms full time for
Microsoft in the back office. [00:14:15] Mikeal shares with us the
io.js fork with Node.js. Justin wonders if there was a lot tension
between the communities and Mikeal explains. [00:19:40] Richard
wonders if Mikeal thinks the Project Manager Role and the Developer
Role are similar. [00:24:18] Mikeal specializes in and worked on
design libraries so they can grow entire ecosystems and communities
and how to make the code itself actually enable and afford better
sustainable practices, which he talks about here. He mentions the
creation of the Buffer Interface. [00:32:51] Mikeal tells us where
we can learn more about him and things he’s done with community and
sustainability stuff and where we can find him on the internet.
Spotlight [00:34:46] Justin’s spotlight is Into the Ether podcast.
[00:35:06] Gunner’s spotlight is Save Internet Freedom. [00:35:33]
Richard’s spotlight is a book called, Apprenticeship Patterns by
Dave Hoover and Adewale Oshineye. [00:35:49] Mikeal’s spotlight is
GitHub Actions. Quotes [00:08:10] “The whole industry is really
pushing you towards do more, take on more responsibility, do a
startup, take on executive roles, keep going. It’s just never
enough to just write code or be a programmer.” [00:08:24] “I had a
real kind of identity crisis a little bit when I was leaving the
Node Foundation, because I was like what am I going to do? And it
actually took me a little while, like I had a short stint in some
venture capital stuff.” [00:22:30] “If you write code every day,
you have a practice. Even if you’re just doing it for work, you
have a practice, like you sit down, and you probably notice
yourself taking a walk, or working on a problem in the shower or
something. These are really subtle forms of meditation for you to
take yourself in a different state and get all of the distractions
away for a minute and just think about a problem.” Links Protocol
Labs (https://protocol.ai/) IPLD (InterPlanetary Linked Data)
(https://docs.ipld.io/) Medium-Mikeal Rogers
(https://medium.com/@mikeal) Mikeal Rogers-GitHub
(https://github.com/mikeal) Mikeal Rogers Twitter
(https://twitter.com/mikeal?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
“Request for Commits explored different perspectives in open source
sustainability”-podcast with Nadia Eghbal and Mikeal Rogers
(https://changelog.com/rfc) Hope in Source podcast with Nadia
Eghbal and Henry Zhu (https://hopeinsource.com/) Apprenticeship
Patterns: Guidance for the Aspiring Software Craftsman by Dave
Hoover and Adewale Oshineye
(https://www.amazon.com/Apprenticeship-Patterns-Guidance-Aspiring-Craftsman/dp/0596518382)
Into the Ether- A podcast by EthHub (https://podcast.ethhub.io/)
Save Internet Freedom (https://saveinternetfreedom.tech/) GitHub
Actions (https://github.com/actions) GitHub Actions (GitHub Docs)
(https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/actions) InfoWorld
Tech Watch-“Why io.js decided to fork Node.js.”
(https://www.infoworld.com/article/2855057/why-iojs-decided-to-fork-nodejs.html)
Credits Produced by Richard Littauer (https://www.burntfen.com/)
Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound
(https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at
Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Special Guest:
Mikeal Rogers.