Balancing Legacy Code, Content Creation, and Career Growth with The Primeagen

Michael Paulson, aka The Primeagen, is known for his live streams, crazy memes, and unpopular opinions on Twitter. But he is also a software engineer with over a decade of experience in a legacy C++ codebase. Juggling engineering with any other hobby is difficult, so how does he make it work?The Primeagen, a software engineer at Netflix, is committed to content creation and passionate about encouraging aspiring developers to get out of “tutorial hell” and start building. He wakes up at 5:30 every morning to make time for family, work, and content creation, but even the most dedicated developers hit roadblocks throughout their careers. The Primeagen’s latest challenge is figuring out how to grow his channel and turn content creation into a sustainable full-time role. In this episode, The Primeagen talks to Robbie and Chuck about his strict policies for working in a large legacy code base, the challenges of being a content creator, and his plans to create a new Frontend Master course. Key Takeaways [01:22] - Introduction to The Primeagen. [05:40] - A whiskey review - Nelson Brother Reserve Bourbon. [13:35] - How to choose between Git rebase versus Git merge. [26:11] - How universities are producing equipt programmers. [36:07] - The Primeagen’s future plans and the challenges associated with growth. [50:20] - The Primeagen’s hobbies besides coding. [54:52] - Why The Primeagen moved to South Dakota. Quotes [04:50] - “Programming is not supposed to be difficult because you don’t know what you’re doing. Programming is supposed to be difficult because you're building something hard.” ~ The Primeagen [23:14] - “The web in the next three years is going to arrive at a crossroad where more than one thing can happen. We can all get a chance to use something that is less traditional. Once those things start happening, it just opens the door for everything to execute. The next big revolution is coming.” ~ The Primeagen [43:20] - “I'm making a thing that I'm pouring my heart into, I hope people like, and then when people don't watch, oh that hurts.” ~ The Primeagen Links The Primeagen YouTube The Primeagen Twitter The Primeagen Twitch The Primeagen Instagram Rick and Morty Matt Pocock Vim Twitch YouTube TypeScript Beasts of No Nation Netflix Lilyhammer Nelson Brothers Reserve Bourbon Green Brier Distillery Jack Daniel’s Blanton’s Bourbon Buffalo Trace Distillery Prettier Rust Web Assembly PHP Astro React Adobe Photoshop Adobe Dreamweaver NetBeans jQuery Frontend Masters Tailwind Material UI Bem George Carlin Dave Chappelle The Chappelle Show Brian Regan Trash Dev Twitter National Geographic Pzuraq StarCraft Logitech Lift Super Nintendo Ember Kinesis Advantage 360 Dvorak Keyboard Roblox Fortnite Apex Legends Evil Dead 2 Superbowl LVII Philadelphia Eagles Kansas City Chiefs Phoenix Suns Army of Darkness Play Station RxJS Vita Wii U Sagamore Rye Whiskey Connect with our hosts Robbie Wagner Chuck Carpenter Ship Shape Subscribe and stay in touch Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts Whiskey Web and Whatnot Top-Tier, Full-Stack Software Consultants This show is brought to you by Ship Shape. Ship Shape’s software consultants solve complex software and app development problems with top-tier coding expertise, superior service, and speed. In a sea of choices, our senior-level development crew rises above the rest by delivering the best solutions for fintech, cybersecurity, and other fast-growing industries. Check us out at shipshape.io.