If you’ve ever wondered where Ship Shape got its shape and how Robbie became Ember’s number one fan, this episode is for you.
Robbie and Chuck revisit the early chapters of Robbie’s career, including the gigs he loved and the corporate structures he hated. They talk about lessons learned, taking the entrepreneurial leap, and what’s on the horizon. While Robbie’s career has hardly been a linear path, the most exciting and fulfilling journeys rarely are. 

Key Takeaways

[00:44] - Whiskey review and a brief overview of Pinhook. 

[06:23] - Robbie’s introduction to the digital world.

[13:15] - College and his bridge to JavaScript.

[16:06] - The first startup Robbie worked at.

[18:30] - The start of Robbie’s post-grad gigs. 

[21:20] - A proud whiteboard-ing moment. 

[24:23] - What Robbie learned at Red Hat. 

[30:28] - Where Robbie fell in love with Ember. 

[34:56] - The next step in Robbie’s Ember career. 

[36:55] - Where Robbie had the stereotypical startup experience. 

[37:22] - Robbie’s return to Ember. 

[45:25] - The start of Ship Shape and the value of networking. 

[49:52] - Robbie’s thoughts on React.


Quotes
[23:39] - “I think all of computer science boils down to understanding the Big O notation of the thing you’re doing. That’s it. If you know what’s most efficient, you can look up how to do it.” ~ @rwwagner90
[25:14] - “It comes back to my approach to hiring anyone. You hire good people who want to learn things and will do well, and they’ll do well at any technology.” ~ @rwwagner90
[45:39] - “Honestly, there were a lot of times, and you’ve been around for some of them, where I’ve been like, ‘alright, let’s just stop and go back and get real jobs because we don’t have enough money and we’ll just stop doing this.’ But it always works out. And we continue to grow and you just have to trust that it’s going to work out.” ~ @rwwagner90

Links

Pinhook Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey

Pinhook Tiz Rye Time

MGP of Indiana

The Boss Hogg

Pinhook AR

Noli Novak

GDB


Adobe Photoshop 

Myspace


Angular 


Virginia Tech KnowledgeWorks 

PHP

Prototype JavaScript

jQuery

Mail Pilot

Ember

Kickstarter 

ListServe

Red Hat

Microsoft

Amazon

Lauren Tan

Create a repo on GitHub


Linux 

Fedora

.Net

Geico


Virtana (formerly Metricly) 

CoffeeScript

JIRA

Berico Technologies

Internet Explorer

Google Chrome


Firefox 

Leaflet

Esri

Shepherd.js

HubSpot 

Tether

Addepar

Chris Garrett


pzuraq 

Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Kamiki Whisky, Ember/Glimmer updates and whatnot w/ Chris Garrett (pzuraq)

Glimmer

Slack

Ember Shepherd

Diablo

Destiny 

Jibe

RSA - Ember Group

Ember Learning Team

Chris Manson

Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Ember vs. React, Jamstack, and Holes in the Hiring Process with Chris Manson

Orbit.js

Expel

React


Next.js 

Svelte


SvelteKit 

RedwoodJS

Preact


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.