Podcast appearances and mentions of nathan ladd

Episode NotesThe discussion moves into how standards evolve beyond tools, the trade-offs of monocultures vs. consensus-driven teams, and why ownership matters when the original authors move on. Nathan also unpacks the cost of neglect, describing defects as anything that slows developers down—not just issues that impact end users.Later in the conversation, Nathan recounts a migration from a React SPA to Turbo and Stimulus that removed barriers between designers and developers. He highlights how keeping all problems on the radar together prevents teams from falling into local optima. The episode closes with reflections on TestBench, blind spots in testing, continuous improvement in remote teams, and advice for developers who feel stuck raising maintenance concerns.Episode Highlights[00:01:07] Defining Well-Maintained Software: Nathan shares his three key markers—up-to-date dependencies, adherence to team standards, and fixing defects immediately.[00:02:53] From Tools to Tacit Knowledge: Why norms start with tool-enforced rules like RuboCop but evolve into cultural agreements within teams.[00:04:49] Speed vs. Durability: Teams built on monoculture move quickly early on, but diverse, consensus-driven cultures go farther.[00:11:11] Owning the Architecture: When original developers leave, new teams must take responsibility for architecture rather than defer decisions.[00:13:37] The Cost of Neglect: Dependencies, drifting standards, and defects interact in compounding ways. Nathan reframes defects as “anything that impedes developer effectiveness.”[00:17:46] React → Turbo + Stimulus Migration: A costly SPA and siloed design team gave way to a simpler approach that reduced rework and empowered designers to contribute directly.[00:22:44] Avoiding Local Optima: Tackling problems in isolation creates dead ends—addressing them holistically opens real paths forward.[00:24:32] Who We Seek Validation From: Developer identities often align with whose approval they value—shaping front-end vs. back-end divides.[00:27:34] Comfort vs. Maintenance Burden: Silos built for comfort create tomorrow's maintenance problems.[00:33:45] Relentless Improvement in Remote Teams: Start as an ensemble, evolve into autonomous work cells, and use work logs to sustain consensus.[00:38:33] What's Missing from Remote Work: Nathan reflects on lost “hallway conversations” and the challenge of building social glue remotely.[00:40:50] The Story Behind TestBench: Dissatisfaction with existing frameworks and a desire for simplicity led to TestBench's creation.[00:47:38] Testing Blind Spots: The biggest blind spot is equating testing with automation—interactive testing and intelligible output remain essential.[00:50:35] Advice for Stuck Engineers: Nathan encourages developers to study quality traditions, connect with peers, and embrace continuous improvement.[00:53:16] Book Recommendations: Deming's Out of the Crisis and The New Economics, Toyota's product development work, and Rawls' A Theory of Justice.Tools & Resources MentionedBrightworks Digital – Nathan's current company, where he serves as Principal.Nathan Ladd on LinkedIn – Connect with Nathan and follow his work.TestBench – A Ruby testing framework co-created by Nathan.Turbo – Hotwire framework for building modern, fast applications without heavy JavaScript.Stimulus – A modest JavaScript framework for enhancing HTML with small, reusable controllers.RSpec – A popular Ruby testing tool for behavior-driven development.Minitest – A simple and fast Ruby testing framework.RuboCop – A Ruby static code analyzer and formatter.Lessons Learned in Software Testing – Classic book on testing by Cem Kaner, James Bach, and Bret Pettichord.Out of the Crisis – W. Edwards Deming's influential work on quality and systems thinking.The New Economics – Deming's follow-up book on continuous improvement.A Theory of Justice – John Rawls' seminal work on moral and political philosophy.The Toyota Product Development System – Insights into Toyota's continuous improvement and development practices.Thanks to Our Sponsor!Turn hours of debugging into just minutes! AppSignal is a performance monitoring and error-tracking tool designed for Ruby, Elixir, Python, Node.js, Javascript, and other frameworks.It offers six powerful features with one simple interface, providing developers with real-time insights into the performance and health of web applications.Keep your coding cool and error-free, one line at a time! Use the code maintainable to get a 10% discount for your first year. Check them out! Subscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.Keep up to date with the Maintainable Podcast by joining the newsletter.

Have you ever been to an exhibition that changes your heart rate, slows you down, and inspires you to take a nap with a cat? Such was our experience at Zeinab Saleh's exhibition at the heart of Tate Britain, part of the Art Now program, which welcomes contemporary young artists in one of the many rooms of the museum.We discuss the notion of quiet, how it is dismissed in our culture, and how the artist not only embraces it but also almost magically creates it through mixed media paintings and drawings. A simple setting eliciting mindful dreaming and sheer presence.The exhibition was curated by Amy Emmerson Martin (assistant curator) and Nathan Ladd (curator).For more information visit the Tate's webiste: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/zeinab-saleh@exhibitionistas_podcastMusic: Sarturn

Now time to find out more about the audio described tour of the Cornelia Parker exhibition at Tate Britain in London on Friday 24 June 2022 at 5.30pm lead by visually impaired artist Sally Booth. Cornelia Parker is one of Britain's best loved and most acclaimed contemporary artists. Always driven by curiosity, she reconfigures domestic objects to question our relationship with the world. Using transformation, playfulness and storytelling, she engages with important issues of our time, be it violence, ecology or human rights.  The exhibition of her work at Tate Britain brings together such iconic suspended works as Thirty Pieces of Silver 1988–9 and Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View 1991; the immersive War Room 2015 and Magna Carta 2015, her monumental collective embroidery, as well as her films and a wealth of her innovative drawings, prints and photographs. Some works will spill out beyond the confines of the exhibition and infiltrate the permanent collection, in dialogue with the historical works they reference. RNIB Connect Radio's Toby Davey was joined by Nathan Ladd one of the Curators of the Cornelia Parker exhibition at Tate Britain to find out more about Cornelia and some of her iconic pieces that are on display in the exhibition at Tate Britain including Thirty Pieces of Silver, Cold Dark Matter and Nathan's must see work War Room. The Cornelia Parker exhibition continues at Tate Britain until 16 October 2022 and for more about the audio described tour on Friday 24 June 2022 at 5.30pm plus other accessible events and resources for blind and partially sighted people at Tate Britain do email hello@tate.org.uk or visit the Tate website - https://www.tate.org.uk/tatebritain (Image shows RNIB logo. 'RNIB' written in black capital letters over a white background and underlined with a bold pink line, with the words 'See differently' underneath)

Special guests Charles Krempeaux, Nathan Ladd, Adam Dymitruk, and Scott Bellware join host Drew Ogryzek for a discussion around monolithic software architecture versus microservices, what that means, and what the informed CEO should know when a team is considering tackling this type of software design shift.

On the inaugural episode of the Advance Tech Podcast we interview special guests Scott Bellware and Nathan Ladd, microservices and distributed systems experts out of Austin, Texas. To find out more about this episode take a look at the shownotes by clicking the episode title.