Why Most Developers Overcomplicate Everything w/ Aaron Francis
01:03:19 Share

This week, Robbie and Chuck talk with Aaron Francis about developer education, Laravel vs. Rails, and the evolution of full-stack development. They explore the trade-offs of opinionated frameworks, the practicality of PHP, and why simplicity often wins. Plus, Aaron shares his hot takes on modern web dev trends, and the joys of working from a home-office-that’s-not-home.

In this episode:

• (00:00) - Intro
• (01:19) - Meet Aaron Francis
• (03:28) - Whiskey intro and rating: Green River Distilling Co. Full Proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
• (14:32) - The home office that’s not at home
• (17:44) - Tailwind vs Vanilla CSS
• (18:52) - Git Rebase vs Git Merge
• (21:44) - Let vs Const
• (25:40) - Rails vs Laravel
• (33:23) - Challenges of full stack frameworks
• (48:18) - Aaron’s staycation birthday present
• (50:38) - Two sets of twins
• (56:56) - Family vehicles
• (59:59) - What Aaron would do if not in tech
• (01:01:20) - Plugs

)Links

• Mostly Technical: https://mostlytechnical.com/)
• Laravel: https://laravel.com/)
• SQLite: https://www.sqlite.org/)
• Postgres: https://www.postgresql.org/)
• Rails: https://rubyonrails.org/)
• Screencasting: https://screencasting.com)
• Try Hard Studios: https://tryhardstudios.com/)
• Ryan Reynolds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_Reynolds)
• Green River Distilling: https://greenriverwhiskey.com/)
• Norlan: https://norlanglass.com)
• Tailwind CSS: https://tailwindcss.com/)
• Taylor Otwell: https://x.com/taylorotwell)
• DHH: https://x.com/dhh/)
• Tuple: https://tuple.app/)
• Ben Orenstein: https://x.com/r00k)
• The Car Mom: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCarMom)

)Connect with Aaron

• Website: https://aaronfrancis.com)
• X / Twitter: https://x.com/aarondfrancis)
• Mastering Postgres: https://masteringpostgres.com/)
• High Performance SQLite: https://highperformancesqlite.com/)
• Screencasting: https://screencasting.com/)

)Connect with Chuck and Robbie

• Robbie Wagner: https://x.com/RobbieTheWagner)
• Chuck Carpenter: https://x.com/CharlesWthe3rd)

)Subscribe and stay in touch

• Website: https://whiskey.fm)
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whiskey-web-and-whatnot/id1552776603)
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19jiuHAqzeKnkleQUpZxDf)
• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1552776603)
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhiskeyWebAndWhatnot)

)Whiskey Web and Whatnot Merch Enjoying the podcast and want us to make more? Help support us by picking up some of our fresh merch at https://whiskey.fund).