Before becoming an engineering manager, Mike spent nearly two years washing dishes and another five working as a line cook. The jobs may seem completely unrelated to software development, but the lessons he learned in the kitchen continue to shape how he handles pressure, leads developers, and solves problems today. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss how early jobs outside of tech can prepare you for a career in development. They explore thriving in chaotic situations, matching people with the right responsibilities, cross-training team members, paying attention to details, and finding the motivation to keep learning. They also share how factory and kitchen work taught them what they wanted from their careers - and what they never wanted to return to.

Show Notes: https://www.htmlallthethings.com/podcast/from-dishwasher-to-engineering-manager

Use our Scrimba affiliate link (https://scrimba.com/?via=htmlallthethings) for a 20% discount!! Full details in show notes.

Every major technological revolution seems to come with the same question: is this a bubble? AI is no exception. In this edition of the Web News, Matt and Mike explore why so many people are comparing today's AI boom to the dot-com bubble, and what history can teach us by looking back at events like Railway Mania, the dot-com crash, and the 2008 housing crisis. Along the way, they discuss the difference between revolutionary technology and speculative investment, and whether those two things can exist at the same time.

Show Notes: https://www.htmlallthethings.com/podcast/is-ai-in-a-bubble-history-says-its-complicated

Choosing the right CMS isn't about picking the most popular platform - it's about asking the right questions.

In this episode, Matt and Mike break down the framework they use before recommending a content management system for a new website. From understanding who will manage the site to evaluating budget, customization, maintenance, and long-term goals, they explain how different project requirements naturally lead to different solutions.

Along the way, they discuss where platforms like WordPress, Webflow, Shopify, and headless CMSs tend to shine, common mistakes developers make when choosing a CMS, and why there isn't a single "best" option for every website.

Whether you're building a client website, launching your own business, or simply trying to decide which CMS to learn next, this episode will help you make more informed decisions.

Show Notes: https://www.htmlallthethings.com/podcast/how-to-choose-the-right-cms-for-your-website

Use our Scrimba affiliate link (https://scrimba.com/?via=htmlallthethings) for a 20% discount!! Full details in show notes.

Do you actually own the digital games you buy?

An Xbox player in Brazil successfully sued Microsoft after a hacked account left him locked out of his entire digital game library - and his other Microsoft services. The court ordered Microsoft to restore his account and compensate him, raising some interesting questions about the rights consumers have over their digital purchases.

In this Web News, Matt and Mike discuss digital ownership, game preservation, account bans, DRM-free alternatives like GOG, and whether buying a digital game is really ownership - or just an indefinite rental.

Show Notes: https://www.htmlallthethings.com/podcast/do-you-actually-own-your-digital-games

AI coding tools can make developers faster, remove tedious work, and help us build things that once felt out of reach. So why can using them still leave us feeling drained? In this episode, Matt and Mike explore the complicated relationship between AI coding and developer burnout. They discuss losing the satisfaction of solving difficult problems, the mental cost of managing multiple AI workflows, whether AI-generated work still feels like your own, and why reviewing code can be more exhausting than writing it. They also share ways developers can build a healthier relationship with AI - from finding meaningful personal projects to testing strategically and creating a workflow that doesn’t require reviewing every generated line.

‍Show Notes: https://www.htmlallthethings.com/podcast/ai-coding-makes-development-easier-so-why-are-we-burning-out

Use our Scrimba affiliate link (https://scrimba.com/?via=htmlallthethings) for a 20% discount!! Full details in show notes.

Kimi K3 is a massive new open AI model with 2.8 trillion parameters, native vision and a one-million-token context window. Its creator claims it can compete near the frontier of coding, reasoning and knowledge work - but its potential goes far beyond benchmark scores. In this Web News, Matt and Mike discuss what happens when companies can operate powerful AI without depending entirely on OpenAI, Anthropic or another hosted provider. Could open models lower costs and unlock better AI products, or will their customizable guardrails create new safety and regulatory concerns?

Show Notes: https://www.htmlallthethings.com/podcast/kimi-k3-brings-frontier-ai-into-the-open

Modern browsers have evolved dramatically over the past two decades, quietly absorbing many features that once required custom JavaScript or third-party libraries. In this episode, Matt and Mike explore native browser capabilities including form validation, accordions, dialogs, popovers, lazy loading, and responsive images. Along the way, they discuss why letting the browser handle more of the work can improve accessibility, performance, maintainability, and the overall developer experience - without becoming dogmatic about JavaScript.

Show Notes: https://www.htmlallthethings.com/podcast/javascript-isnt-always-the-answer-native-browser-features-every-developer-should-know

Use our Scrimba affiliate link (https://scrimba.com/?via=htmlallthethings) for a 20% discount!! Full details in show notes.

Should you ship your app as soon as it's functional, or keep building until users love it?

In this episode, Matt and Mike explore the difference between a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and a Minimum Lovable Product (MLP), and why that distinction matters more than ever in the age of AI-assisted development. We discuss feature creep, validating ideas with real users, trusting your instincts as a founder, and how to balance shipping quickly with building something people genuinely want to use.

Whether you're creating an app, SaaS, game, or startup, this conversation is packed with practical lessons on building products that solve real problems and keep users coming back.

Show Notes: https://www.htmlallthethings.com/podcast/growing-your-app-from-mvp-to-mlp