The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source - Song Encoder: $STDOUT (Interview)

Episode Date: October 29, 2021

Welcome to _Song Encoder_, a special series of The Changelog podcast featuring people who create at the intersection of software and music. This episode features $STDOUT and contains explicit language.

You're listening to Song Encoder, a special series of the ChangeLog podcast featuring people who create at the intersection of software and music. My name is Jared Santof. This episode contains explicit language. Big thanks to our friends at Fly.io for making this ChangeLog special interruption-free. Run your full stack apps and databases close to your users. No ops required. Check them out at fly.io slash changelog. I'm Standard Out the Rapper. I make fun of tech

and rap songs. That's my thing. I don't want to pair with you. You always type too slow. I ain't pairing with you. I can't read pair with you. You always type too slow. I ain't pairing with you. I can't read when you scroll. I ain't pairing with you. I work so much better when it's not with a group.

So I ain't pairing with you. No, I don't wanna pair. I don't wanna pair. I don't wanna, I don't wanna pair. No, I don't wanna pair with you or have a minute or pair. I don't want to. I don't want to pair. No, I don't want to pair with you or have a minute or two. Don't want to pair with you or have a minute or two. If you want to talk to me, let's keep it in Slack. I don't have time for a quick video chat.

So you sent me a conference link. I don't want to click because I don't want to pair with you. When we do, you type too slow. Half the time I'm watching you on Stack Overflow. I'm like, whoa, give me the controls I was looking at the file that you just closed And really I should do this on my own time Why? Cause I'm just telling you exactly what to type I am jumbling my words, can't think straight

Give me some space, all we do here is miscommunicate Pairing for an hour on a function Let's face the facts, this ain't productive You wanted to pair with me, but did not prepare for me Now we're just sitting here in silence while you share your screen I feel like it really started a long time ago. Maybe when I was like 13, 14, just an angsty teenager writing angsty lyrics. And I think I wrote lyrics for years. I was really into rap growing up. Still am really into rap. But you know, I reached a certain age where the lyric writing part of it, I was like, it's not okay for me to be writing raps.

I'm a grown ass man. How I got back into rapping for Standard Out is actually kind of ridiculous. My older brother was starting a product and he knew that I'm pretty good at rap. He was saying, hey, I want you to make a viral tech rap so that I can market my product through your channel. And I definitely did not go viral, but he bought me this decent mic to get started, and I made Hell.js as my first song. I got a task to do. I got an app to bootstrap. Check up on Hacker News, Angular 2, Reactor View

I gotta make a call, who's got the time to read through it all? Let's just go with React, npm install, try a console log Got the two-way binding, got the one-way data flow Yeah, this is the way to go, I wish I did this like a day ago JQuery is so old, this is the up and coming Gonna be so productive. Manage the state and render functions. Codes looking slick.

Writing scripts in ES6. Fuck yeah. And I love the virtual DOM. Wait. I need a package of JSON. I need Redux. Redux router and thunks. Gotta keep that code consistent.

So I download ESLint. I am a web developer. Full stack. On the back end, I've mostly done Rails applications. So I download ESLint. I am a web developer, full stack. On the back end, I've mostly done Rails applications. Also done a bit of Go on the back end and then on the front end. When I started out, it was, I think jQuery was still kind of the way to go. And then I've since gone into React and viewed JS.

I don't know. Pretty normal, full stack developer. Primarily have worked at startups. So at my current job, like the day to day team I work with is about seven people, but there's about 200 ish engineers total at the company and probably around like 1500 ish people total. Yeah. And my current job is by far the largest company I've worked for. Prior to this, it's been less than 100 for sure. One team was literally seven people total. I've been coding for about seven years at this point. You've been rapping longer than you've been coding.

Oh, yeah. R yeah rapper first coder second all my songs are definitely born out of real world experiences that i've lived through so personal frustrations personal just shit that i've gone through on the job. I think most of the time I do I do have a few more like serious songs but most of the time it also has to come with that inherent comedic element that's a must also. My language makes me so productive your language has no editor plugins my language has a great community your language language, everybody seems angry. My language is on prod right now. Your language just took prod down. My language was carefully made and your language was written in 10 days. My language is going to be around forever. Your language feels

like it was hacked together. My language is way better than yours. Your language isn't even worth a flame war. I don't like to rap about things that are like too in the weeds technically or super niche technical topic. I try to find things where like, yeah, I think most devs probably have gone through this and it sucked for them too. If I can make a song about this and make them look back and laugh about that, then that's a win. I've had enough. Who set this up? Who set this up? Who put this meeting on my calendar? Open up my schedule and my vision goes black because I got four meetings like this back

to back. No, thank you. No meetings. I really hate speaking. Don't add me. I'm leaving. My whole week is meetings. No thank you. No meetings. I really hate speaking. Don't add me. I'm leaving. My whole week is meetings. Sign into meeting number two It's a meeting about how many meetings we should do Did I die last night and go to hell? Coulda said all of this shit in emails Got nothing done and we're running out of time So they wanna do a follow up meeting next week 20 minutes tryna get schedules aligned Then someone's mic makes a weird high pitched screech I finally tried talking for a second then I realized nobody's paying attention

hello you yeah I'm talking to you I can tell you're on slack by the way your eyes move meeting number four I can barely stay conscious this whole day nothing was accomplished no I'm about to explode. Fuck this. Turn my camera off and just code. No thank you. No meetings. I really hate speaking. Don't add me. I'm leaving. My whole week is meetings. No thank you. No meetings. I really hate speaking. Don't add me. Why do you think your songs resonate with Evs? Because they're true. I live through something in the real world and then I make fun of it. These songs aren't coming from me having read blog posts about a topic and then wanting to create something about it.

I was there in the coding trenches on every one of these topics. Probably at the time was actually like really feeling some pain about it. And then only later, you know, decided to look back and make fun of it. I'm definitely become the comedian in times of stress kind of guy. So a lot of these songs I wrote

when I was actually stressed out about these topics. The truthiness there really comes through in the lyrics. Used to write code, then they asked me, do you want a tech lead? I said, okay, yes. Used to write code, now I share contacts. Right now, specs for my team projects. Pedals all flex, no pay bump, and my paychecks ain't even take time off yet. Used to be chill, but now it's no rest. Used to write code, but now I'm all stressed. I'm tech lead, but I don't lead tech. I just pick up whatever tasks are left Unless someone wants to volunteer

Anybody? Okay I see gotta delegate More meetings on my plate just to coordinate Used to write code now I write release dates Used to write code in the good old days Used to write code but now I'm just stressing Used to write code but now they want metrics Used to write code now I just take questions metrics used to write code now just take questions

This don't really feel like progression meetings on meetings on meetings on meetings used to write code But now i'm just scheming used to write code, but now i'm just reading used to write code But now i'm tech leading used to write code, but now i'm just stressing used to write code But now they want metrics used to write code now just take questions This don't really feel like progression meetings Meetings on meetings on meetings on meetings. Used to write code, but now I'm just scheming. Used to write code, but now I just read it. Used to write code, but now I'm tech leading.

Used to write code, now I got no time. Used to write code, now I got deadlines. Try to make sure everyone is unblocked. Used to write code, now I just talk. Used to write code, now I give presentations. Make slides pretty and rehearse what I'm saying. Try to impress and represent my team. Meanwhile, team doesn't care about me no anyway still gotta do team bonding and the one i want keep running out of topics looking at me like i just stepped in used to write code now just check in don't want to be a manager or an ic so i'ma just stay right here in between used to write

code used to write code used to write code now tech lead used to write code but now i'm just stressing used to write code but now they want metrics used to write code used to write code now tech lead used to write code but now i'm just stressing used to write code but now they want metrics used to write code now just take questions this don't really feel like progression meetings on meetings on meetings on meetings used to write code but now i'm just scheming used to write code but now just read it used to write code but now i'm tech leading used to write code used to write code true story oh 100 true story that is exactly how it all went down let me tell you how this started it's at my current company i think i am a really high output coder i'm good at you give me a project, I'm going to get it done. And I can do it leading a small team of other engineers. My managers saw that I was really good at this and thought,

hey, let's give him more responsibility, which is kind of this paradox because the new responsibilities are things that I'm not great at and actually make me less effective at the thing that they recognize me as being really good at. I'm tech lead. Now I have less time to actually code, crank out these projects. Instead, I am one-on-one-ing with people on the team. I'm doing presentations. I'm breaking down projects into tickets. And yeah, it was okay, but I'm not tech lead anymore. I very intentionally removed myself from that seat. And you put your feelings out to the internet about it. Oh yeah. I talked my shit. You vented. Yeah. And I know my managers heard this song. So that was an interesting part of releasing this song. I think it was so obviously

a critique of having been put into that tech lead position and what it's like at this company. And on this song, I was a bit worried releasing it because I knew my managers, they dig the music, they like listening to it. And here I was saying, you know, hey, I know you, you backed me, you put your faith in me and kind of elevated me up a little bit. And here I am just kind of crapping on it. being tech lead, like there were definitely combos about my frustrations in the role, which I don't think are specific to this company. I think that tech lead title is always so vague and means about a million different things. It almost is different depending on the team you're on. I really think when you get that tech lead title, it almost means, hey, any gaps you have on your team, you're the person that has to fill them. So that's where that line of like, I'm tech lead, but I don't actually lead tech. I just pick up whatever tasks are left.

That was basically my experience as tech lead. I was definitely not the smartest engineer on the team. Definitely not the most senior. I was just maybe the grittiest, like willing to just whatever needs to get done, I'll get that shit done. And it was a good experience. And it did give me more visibility. Just like it was a good look for me if I put my, you know, personal gains hat on. But, yeah. I don't ever need to do it again. A key code D-R-Y. I'm gonna program my lines.

These two files look alike. So I gotta merge and optimize. Can't say how it all runs. No such thing as overdone. Here's a little rule of thumb two lines are worse than one abstract it might as well think i just wrote a dsl quite simple if you understand but i'm the only one that can let me show you how to extend it so i had good intents more money more interaction tech that money is spent always flex my smarts Code smells, smells like farts You write code like code, I write code like art

Teammates so confused, they just cannot keep up Say I made a future proof, but really nothing improved I do know one thing though, abstractions come and go Saturday through Sunday, Monday, Monday through Sunday, yo I might rewrite it one day, maybe we'll someday know how it all works till then. Just try to keep that folder closed. Who the fuck wrote this shit? I bet they thought they were slick.

I bet they wrote it then quit. Who the fuck let it get shipped? Now I'm just sitting here mad, trying to read 20 file tabs. Came here to make one change. Now I gotta go get blamed. I will look for you. I will find you and i will kill you how long does it take you to make one of these i think it really depends

the bottleneck is definitely the lyric writing when it comes to the beat making i just kind of i i typically find one that i like writing to just on YouTube or something, and then I'll kind of make a beat that's similar in vibe and beats per minute and all that stuff. On the lyrics writing side, I feel like usually these songs start with, I just think of like two lines that I really love. My next song is probably gonna be about integrations, and I just thought of these two lines of like,

"'I keep finding bugs in your API, but you tell me that it's by design. And I'm just like, God, that that's, that's good. Like I can start from there. And then how quickly I can expand on that. Yeah, it really depends on the topic. I mean, sometimes it just flows and I'm done writing in a couple hours. Sometimes it's weeks before I really finish something. A lot of your tracks borrow beats and flows from popular songs. For example, Opinions uses I Like It Like That. I like Ruby, I like Go, but strong typing for the win. Atom over VS Code and VS Code over Vim.

I like spaces over tabs, underscores over dash, 80 characters per line, and 100 lines per class. Interviews covers that famous Eminem flow from the 8 Mile soundtrack. Back to the keyboard again, time to do another algorithm that he never actually used. You better lose yourself in the bullshit, the process, the longness. You better never let it go. You think it's all nonsense, do not let the company know. You better never let it go. You think it's all nonsense. Do not let the company know this opportunity is just another shit show. Is this something you're going

to keep doing? I don't think I will. I think I have grown out of it. It was much easier to start with a song that already exists. It already kind of has a theme that you can twist into a parody about tech. But yeah, like you said, I used to not make beats. Now I do. I think I've definitely grown as a rapper through making this channel. So what does growth look like from here? I mean, I'm always trying to get better at my beat making skills. I still kind of have to like do a bit of mimicry when I'm making beats. Definitely want to get better at mixing, just mixing vocals in with the beats. What about on the software side of things?

Definitely think about how I can grow as an engineer. I mean, you have to write engineering just evolves so quickly. The hell.js song I put out about the JavaScript ecosystem, that was what a few years ago? It probably already is like super stale. If you want to stay in this business, you definitely cannot become static and content with where you're at. I definitely do like getting a variety of experiences. I think that lends itself really well to being able to just rap about more things.

So are you ever afraid that maybe you'll run out of things to rap about? Yeah. That's probably my primary concern during standard out is what happens when I've said everything I have to say. And I actually was feeling that that way, like pretty recently, actually, there was like a five month gap, I think the longest gap where I dropped no music and I just kind of felt like I've said everything I want to say I think in reality as long as uh I have a day job I'm gonna find more things to talk shit about because I'll bet all my money that there will be things that can you know frustrate me 90 job any position I don't think I will run out of songs to make until I literally have zero complaints about work, which will never happen. a three not a two and that one's a two not a five remember you're not allowed to say nine i could be fixing a bug i could be getting shit done anything but getting in debates about how long it'll take what a waste please don't make me estimate please don't make me guess a date if we didn't have these

meetings weekly could have had it done yesterday i could be fixing a floppy code instead i'm talking fibonacci what it's not time it's complexity What the fuck does that even mean? We need this for a sprint. We need this to predict. Well, I don't want to disappoint. So I add padding to all of my points. Someone go and get the road map. Once it's in the sprint, there ain't no going back. I said a eight, but I don't really know why. Could be a one or it could take my whole life. I put one two, three five eight five three two points on that story card Yeah on that story card on that story card on that story card on that story card On that story I put one two, three five eight five three two points on that task card On that bug card on that story card on that story card on that task card, on that bug card, on that story card, on that story card, on that story card, on that story card.

We got 10 devs, 16 points to a head, it's all stuck in one lane. Man, what's up with QA? Plus I need a review, half the team does too. After all that planning, we're here with nothing to do. So many pull requests sent in, but we just pulling more tickets. So our velocity quickens. Look like the best in the business. Then three bugs get rejected. And scope creep gets neglected. We miss a deadline.

A demo that's gonna lead to a retro. Fuck. So I'm going. Get the road map. Yeah. Once it's in the sprint. There ain't no going back. No.

Another week. Another session. We'll get it wrong. Still is way better than waterfall. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 5, 3, 2 points on that story card. On that story card. On that story card. On that story card. On that story card. On that story card. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 5, 3, 2 points on that task card. On that bug card. On that story card. On that story card.

On that story card. On that story card. you also have tracks that are more serious yeah would you rather make somebody laugh or make them think i mean if i just look at what i've actually done i think my answer is i want to make you laugh like 90 of the time and then like drop a serious truth bomb on you make you question all your life decisions it don't matter if the value is real the only thing true is revenue keep making deals deals Year over year, hockey stick growth, yeah that's critical We're in a bubble on a pin that is pinnacle We don't really make money, we project

It's new app, blackjack, place your bets Highs and lows, IPO, then we're set Billionaire CEOs still in debt No free lunch but it's catered by a chef That job hop every year for the next money that we work free shirts all flex money here angels don't protect they invest tech right now is such a privileged space like when i talk to anybody that works in any other job i look at my day-to-day and i'm like this isn't even a fucking job I make six figures

sitting on my ass and a bad day for me is like oh I'm a little more stressed out than usual like that's that's as bad as it gets so I think we all have the right to be stressed out and complain about work and stuff but for me I think any complaint a dev in America has is just kind of like inherently funny because we are so privileged. But at the same time, where I feel like I wore my heart on my sleeve the most is the most recent serious song called 3am in San Francisco. I think there I try to speak to kind of this cognitive dissonance between what we actually do and how good our lives are. Welcome to the valley, everybody gets paid Keep an eye on that 409A, you know what I'm saying Why do I get like 200K while she's teaching 5th grade And barely making a wage, I can't complain

I do like making people look at that How would you call it? Dissonance, I guess And think about that, I think it's important But yeah, mostly I'm just I want you to have a good time listening to my music. What has the reaction been to your serious tracks? I think some people really appreciate it. And you can see it in the comments. They'll say like, I thought you were just the funny man. This is actually making me think. On the 3am in San

Francisco song, I remember one comment that kind of sticks in my brain where somebody said, like, I'm leaving the tech industry. And you basically just spelled out why I want to leave. So I do think even the serious songs, I hope they make people think. But definitely people prefer the funny stuff. If I had to sum up the reaction, it would be nice try but you're the funny man that was okay but like go back to being funny I have no hard feelings when I see a reaction like that I'm like yeah I get it I pulled you in here with jokes I kind of like tricked you by dropping this serious song but at the end of the day it's my channel and I'll probably keep making serious

songs because I have fun making those too. So whatever. So the comments on your YouTube channel are overwhelmingly positive. Here I grabbed a couple for examples. Winter Bites says, love your stuff. You pick the best beats and make the best lyrics. Joanna says she revisits your estimates song every couple of months. It's so simply good, funny, accurate, and well done, dude. I'm grateful you did this. Ben Beeler asks a question, which is my question as well. He says, keep going. I do not understand why you don't get more views. Why am I not more popular? That's the root of the question. And I want to reflect that question back onto the world. World, why am I not more popular? No, I'm just kidding. It's also something I've wondered about

because you would assume that anything with like a 99% positive reaction would just keep getting shared and, you know, be bigger. I i totally agree i think one aspect for sure could just be like a lot of people don't like rap that's one thing um that's really all yeah i don't know that's your only take well how about this perhaps it's the intersection that's small so a lot of people like rap a lot of people program but not a lot of programmers like rap maybe that is probably true this is definitely a very niche thing i'm doing like if i could just out of all the developers i know count how many also are like bump and rap on a weekly basis i can think of like two so yeah that might be it but my hope is that the content is good enough that this could be somebody who historically hasn't liked rap this could be their gateway artist

into rap all my friends live in a screen please send a link to your video stream can't remember the last human i've seen Life on a remote team All my friends live in a screen Please send a link to your video stream I can't remember the last human I've seen Life on a remote team Introverted while I'm working I'm not sociable If I'm job searching then this perk is non-negotiable It's impossible for me to look presentable I don't even own clothes that are professional I can't let the office ping pong table distract me

Rather travel do some tasks from the taxi's backseat We hardly get together in a room But it's all good as long as we have Zoom As long as we have memes and emojis for the group I'd probably code in see before i'd ever commute i'll never come always message me on slack if you ever want a parent screen share i don't even need to be there let's say that your channel blows up somehow everybody just sees the light and they agree with you and everybody is bumping

standard out yeah so much so that this can become this is a typical story nowadays all of a sudden you become a creator like full-time wow look at this i'm making money off my rap i can do live shows people show up and they you know they attend my events they're buying my merch all the good things yeah don't have to write software anymore what happens next first of all wouldn't that be some i'm just picturing a crowd of engineers rocking out so i just imagine a bunch of really socially awkward people with their hands in their pockets while like i'm just going ape shit on stage that'd be hilarious they're supposed to wave their hands in the air like they just don't care oh yeah but they're not their hands are in their pockets because they do care yeah that's a good question if i could stop programming and

just be a rapper would i do that i mean i think hell yeah first of all just in terms of life path i mean do i want to look back and say i was a mediocre coder or say I was a rapper. I think the rapper route's probably cooler. But if I go back to how this all started and when I was younger, like angsty teenager me definitely dreamt of making it as a rapper. So if adult me realized that dream, that'd be awesome. Being a coder is a great job. I think it's almost impossible to beat as a day job in terms of creature comfort, money, all that stuff. It is definitely not my passion though. If I could just stop working tomorrow, I don't think I'd write a single line of code again. It's fun. Again, great job, but I think I do have a certain level of disdain for coding and tech in general

i mean go figure i talk so much shit about it on my channel for me it's like my goal is to think about coding and learn as a coder while i'm working my nine to five after that i don't want to think about code at all don't you have to think about it the entire time you're writing these lyrics so keyword being that's my goal oh okay i think in reality disconnecting from work is a struggle for me i mean it's hard as a coder to you know get your head in a problem space be processing that all day and then to just shut it off when the day ends so this is something i actively battle against i'll put it that way do you have an end game for standard out not really if i'm being honest a lot of my motivation with standard out is like just my dumb ego i think anybody making music if they

say like oh it's just about making someone's day better like bullshit ego is such a big part of it right so i mean if one day i was at a conference or something and somebody walked up to me and was like hey are you standard out i think i could die happy after that but this channel is 99.999 percent just shits and giggles for me. I don't really think about it seriously. There's no like, how do I grow? How do I expand my audience? None of that.

I'm just like, what's something funny I can say? And what's a sick beat? Let me put those together. And now, here's Integrations, a brand new track by Standard Out The Rapper in its entirety. You got an app, I got an app too. You like me and I think I like you.

We should integrate, we could make something new. But one plus one doesn't always equal two. You got an API, I got an API. We should integrate, have our teams intertwine. Share your hot leads and I'll share some of mine. But building integrations ain't always worth the time. The company is growing up, got a little buzz. Been single now, folks are reaching out to us.

Like we should really integrate, when can we discuss? I guess it's time, that's what everybody else does. But I've been down this road before. I've been let down and hurt. So this time we should be sure. That it's more. I need a real partner that'll listen. Match my commitment and heart to build a vision.

Can't be a player trying to juggle me with other partners. If I'm not the priority that's a non-starter. Cause it really takes two to make this shit. You gotta be all in on this relationship. I don't integrate with just anybody. If you can't treat me right, then forget about it. Can't be alone forever, so I'll take a chance. Set up a meeting with our teams. We can all chat. You got an app. I got an app too. You like me, and I think I like you. We should integrate. We can make something new, but one plus one doesn't always

equal two. You got an API. I got an API. We should integrate, have our teams intertwine, share your hot leads, and I'll share some of mine, but building integrations ain't always worth the time. First date, Zoom call, PMs and devs. If you want to be my partner, got to get with my friends and I'm trying to see what it's like to be with you. Are you the type of integration who's gonna see it through? Can I joke? Can I just be me with you? Are you cold? Are you honest when I speak to you? Is this a fling for a week or two?

Or will you always come through if I need to meet with you? You say all the right things and your response is like, We'll always hold you down. That's the promise, right? So we can move forward to the next steps. Share your docs. Give me sandbox access. Talk timing. Get everybody in alignment. You say I do. I say me too. Contract signed it. The point of no return. Let's move along. I put myself out there for you. Don't do me wrong. Couple months past started out smooth. Then you went and did what you said you wouldn't do.

I trusted you. This ain't how it's supposed to be. When I email you a question, now you're ghosting me. You said I was your favorite. Is that right? Then who's this integration featured on your website? You're just like all the other partners from my past. I know you used somebody else's sandbox last night. Uh-huh.

You're never there. Try to call you on your network. I get 503 errors. I should have noticed that your API is full of lies I'd find a bug and you act like it was by design when we're together what do we actually do what we're building just saves users a click or two and we're on and off half the time shit's buggy should have called it what it was it was just money wasn't it you're too busy to put the work in I knew this shit wouldn't be worth it

Truth is, we were never right for each other But we got code to maintain and write for each other You got an app, I got an app too You like me and I think I like you We should integrate, we could make something new But one plus one doesn't always equal two You got an API, I got an API We should integrate,

have our teams intertwined, share your hot leads and I'll share some of mine, but building integrations ain't always worth the time. Listen to all of Standard Out's music on his channel, youtube.com slash standard out. His work is also on Spotify and Apple music, and you can support him directly on Patreon. Every song featured in this episode is linked in order of appearance in the show notes.

Special thanks to Richie K. Shureway's Song Exploder podcast for inspiring us to make this series. Also, a huge thanks to our friends at Fly.io for supporting this changelog special. If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more like it, let us know by sharing it far and wide.

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