Coffee chat with Graham Ritchie

Ayush Kumar Shaw — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 17:14:00 +0000

Had a great time with @grahamthedev on our 30 min coffee chat today at 8:45 PM IST. Got to learn about his journey and had a chance to a warm conversation. During the chat, I did manage to ask him a couple of questions and his replies were off the hook!

I see that your current pinned tweet is a verbose getting started guide on accessibility. What was the compulsion behind this content?

I simply stumbled upon accessibility while playing around with keyboard shortcuts, and found it to be fascinating. Though, I realised that there was a big gap which no one was filling. This gap surely forms the biggest minority, and filling the gap brings in a lot of money which is simply just floating around. More accessible the platform, the more the user base.

A follow-up on the last question, if you think that everyone should have an accessibility-first approach to building software, why?

It saves a lot of effort and money in the long term. Following through with accessibility ensures coding best practices as part of your software being developed. It ensures you design your platform right the first time. UX is a long-term game, and having accessibility as one of the major concerns massively helps UX. An accessibility-first approach makes you a better developer. Users don't understand half the stuff we build. When we look at it from a user's perspective is when it's pretty obvious to us that it's complicated. Accessibility ends up increasing >=10% of the revenue if done right.

Suppose someone knows nothing about code and wants to learn software development, what path should he take according to you?

I'll go about how to get started with web development on this.

Starting with the frontend is easier than the backend, because of all the visual feedback you get when you're building the frontend.
Stay close to bare metal till you clear your fundamentals. A lot of amateurs out there are just jumping into frameworks way too soon. Many times in such cases when you encounter an issue while building, you may wonder if the framework is broken, while in reality most of the time it's your code. Learning concepts and fundamentals properly goes a long way and save you unnecessary trouble.
Learn how to debug. This is something which every dev needs to learn.

If you could talk to your younger self who's just starting out with his career, what would be your one most useful piece of advice for your younger self you wish someone gave you?

Learn the concepts rather than copy-pasting and finding out stuff ain't working.
Learn how to Google properly, and learn the advanced ways to do so.

How to become a good, if not, a great engineer?

Solo: Get past what people say they want and give them what they need. Learn to look through the actual business requirements.
Team: Communication is key. You may be an average developer or even a below-average developer, but if you're able to communicate properly, after exhausting all other avenues possible, you'll tend to be more efficient.
Career: Again, stay close to bare metal for as much as possible. Get your fundamentals right and they'll do right when it's time to use them.

Graham even mentioned some tips for doing better as a freelancer:

Always keep 20% of the turnover aside for marketing. Doesn't matter if you need to keep yourself hungry to keep the business afloat, you do it.
The right form of marketing and branding your business will help you get a continuous inflow of clients from where you can be selective.
Be selective, don't just take everything. There are always going to be clients who'll pay X while asking for 10X. You need to get the right clients for your business.

A little about Graham:

I was self-employed for 15 years. I started off with software development and went on to build websites and found a great interest in accessibility. I specialized in building high-end e-commerce platforms. Currently, I'm working on a side project focused on developer health, which we'll be shipping soon. :)

Needless to say, speaking with Graham was really refreshing and inspiring. I hope to get a chance to talk with him again sometime.

Hacking away this Hacktoberfest as a noob

Ayush Kumar Shaw — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 16:58:06 +0000

What Did Hacktoberfest Have In Store For Me

This was my very first hacktoberfest. Heck, this was my very first time knocking on the doors of open source, not knowing that it'll welcome me in such an outstanding fashion, so much so that I couldn't have picked a better time to explore OSS. What's the more of a better time than the month long celebration of open source, Hacktoberfest, to join the open source community.

It's been not even 3 weeks since I've got to know the traditional workflows behind Git and GitHub and how to align oneself alongside the SOP of a project/repository hosted on GitHub. Understanding these fundamentals are really important to make a mark on open source and for growing one's developer profile through it, for it's the best way to grow one's developer profile, through open source, cause it's real work, contributions that make a difference. Moreover, it also puts a smile on one's face when she sees herself in the contributors list. I sure smiled when I saw myself there for the first time.

The moment I truly scratched the surface of open source, the first thought that scratched my mind was that why didn't I started doing this the moment I learned to code. I think that should be one's way to truly learn and master software development. One, learn coding, and once you're comfortable in at least a single programming language, you should start diving into OSS and pave your path. Don't get overwhelmed, I know you probably would, I know I was though. You'll have the community behind you, guiding you the right way. Well, you'll have to put in the work, that's true, but if you ask the right questions, you're way better off! Remember, "Don't ask to ask." Moreover, it doesn't necessarily have to be code. Contributions can be anything, as long as it falls on the improving side of things.

Nevertheless, I'm just starting out. Let's see what more does this journey of mine, which is just getting started, brings!!

DEV Community: Ayush Kumar Shaw

Coffee chat with Graham Ritchie

Hacking away this Hacktoberfest as a noob

What Did Hacktoberfest Have In Store For Me