Ben Borowski (@TypeOneError) is a software developer and programmer based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. In past years, Ben run a small studio doing web development for top agencies, but has recently made a move to create his own project, and is working on that full-time.
Ben is one half of Oki Doki, along with Designer & Digital Strategist Marie Poulin. Together, the duo are hard at work on Doki, a web platform to build and run online courses and communities. In this conversation, Ben discusses the creative side of programming, the definition of a “coder”, and the challenges of putting aside client projects for the endeavor of building your own app.
Catch up with Ben on his site, Type One Error, or check out Doki.io.
 
Show Notes & Links

Marie Poulin was a guest on The Busy Creator Podcast last year
Ben defines himself broadly as a web developer, but more specifically as a programmer in Ruby, and other disciplines
TWiT – This Week in Tech
Ben doesn’t subscribe to the idea that “Coders aren’t necessarily programmers” 
If Statements, For Loops – essentials in programming
Mark-up is code


“I’ve met many computer science guys … who are completely stumped by CSS.”
—Ben Borowski
 Tweet This


“If you’re building a website and you write HTML tags, you’re a coder.”
—Ben Borowski
 Tweet This


Markdown, the coding format for Reddit comments
Dustin Hartzler, WordPress Engineer and host Your Website Engineer Podcast
Podcast Movement Conference


“Programing is more technical … but making software is creative.”
—Ben Borowski
 Tweet This


Product Designer, as the term applies to web design, can incorporate development/programming
Open-Source, a place for inspiration
Ben consults and develops cross-platform games, and other projects
Doki, currently in development as a consulting platform and will be a public product soon
Previous guests on The Busy Creator Podcast have discussed online teaching, such as Karen Marston, Steve Dotto
Javascript framework Ember.js (similar to Ruby-on-Rails for the front end of the website)
Prescott attended Drexel University, a school set up on the quarter system.
Alpha testers


You can’t have nine people make a baby in one month.
—productivity adage
 Tweet This


Unit Tests or Feature Tests are useful for programmers when merging code and error-correcting
Material Design, from Google — hard to describe because it’s almost like a framework … for design
Facebook asks developers to work on the main product in their first week
Gone in 60 Seconds, writing on the walls in detergent and using a blacklight
Type One Error
Oki Doki
 Ben Borowski on Twitter
 Ben Borowski on Facebook

Tools

HTML to Markdown converter
Markdown to HTML converter
WordPress
Jetpack, the official suite of plugins for WordPress
Infusionsoft
MailChimp
Google Analytics
WishList for WordPress
Platform-as-a-server
Amazon web services
Heroku
EngineYard
9Folds
Sit or Stand adjustable GeekDesk
MacBook Pro
SublimeText
GitTower, a GUI application for managing Git projects 
iTerm, Terminal replacement for Mac
Homebrew, a Ruby Framework
Vagrant, custom virtual machines on your system
Teamwork.com
EcoStatic Slickynotes

Techniques

Write your WordPress entries in Markdown — it’s fast and simple
Examine where you can reduce lines of code, load time, etc.
Launch first, and then go back and optimise
More team members always help the progress of a programming project
Give your team the building blocks, for design or programming alike
Develop a naming and organization system — any system — for your team to follow
Require new [programming] employees to push live code to the site on day one; this teaches them the entire process
Head to a coffee shop or co-working space 2-3 days/week even if you prefer to work from home
Keep a clean image of your system after a fresh reinstall
If you can, go full-time toward developing a product rather than try to cram it in “after hours”

Habits

Jog or Rock-Climb
Take breaks to walk (or wrestle with) the dog
Do some exercise in