Tech Tidbits Ep. 8: Luke Mettling

episode 08

Mastering Fundamentals: A Dive into Coding and Architecture

 

In Tech Tidbits Episode 08, Chris Teigen interviews Luke Mettling, one of Creed’s senior developers, discussing his journey into development, recent technology interests, and bear-defense strategies. They delve into the significance of revisiting fundamentals in coding and architecture.

Watch the entire video or read the transcript below!

Chris: Hey Luke, how’s it going?

Luke: Hey, Chris. Pretty good. Thanks for having me.

Chris: No problem. Glad to have you. This is Luke Mettling, he’s a senior developer here at Creed Interactive.

Luke: Thanks for making the time for us today, Luke. We appreciate it.

Chris: No problem. You ready for some developer questions?

Luke: So first of all, why are you a developer?

Chris: It’s one of those you get an hour kind of a question.

Luke: Well, for me, I’m kind of a creative person and a technical minded person and, you know, being a developer is kind of like a best of both worlds kind of a thing. You get to be creative in how you do your thing, and also you get to play with code all day. So, I mean, you can’t complain.

Chris: What do you like best about your development career?

Luke: Best thing I think is that, you know, it’s just development in general. It’s always changing, right? So there’s always something new to learn. I mean, you get to figure out, like you’re putting together a puzzle and you haven’t even figured out what the pieces are yet, so you’re kind of making the pieces before you put it together. That kind of stuff I enjoy.

Chris: Yeah. What do you think is unique about your career as a developer at Creed in specific?

Luke: So I know a lot of places do focus on like work-life balance. Creed is like the first place I’ve worked at that actually kind of made that paramount. When I was younger it wasn’t really as big of a deal, but now I guess as I’ve gotten older, it’s just more and more important to be able to balance between I I exactly that work and life. Because I mean, you’re outside of work more than you are in work, so you have to make sure that you keep things on an even keel.

Chris: Okay. What can be done to make websites stay relevant longer?

Luke: Always be like just iterating, like add new content, change things up a little bit here and there, without destroying your appearance overall. But then also don’t be afraid to move on to the next thing if you have to. Because I mean, a website is kind of like just a concept that’s not necessarily the code itself. So if you have to go to a remake the site, then remake the site.

Chris: Absolutely. So I know you’re pretty well versed with technology into new trends and stuff. What technologies are catching your eye lately?

Luke: Well, the trends that I think are interesting is like, there seems to be a trend to go kind of back to the basics as far as simple CSS, simple templates, things like that. There are so many frameworks out there that basically just a gigantic tool chest, but you can kind of get overwhelmed and you can kind of overdo things. And it, it’s kind of a throwback where, you know, you have everything kind of on one page for a project. So I think it’s interesting ’cause, like I’ve been looking at spelt and things like that and a lot of their content is all on one page. You have multiple pages of course, but yeah.

Chris: How will AI impact development in the future?

Luke: Yeah, well, so I asked Chat GPT that question, and it gave me this litany. It was like 14 bullet points. I’m not exactly certain what’s gonna happen, I guess, you know, prognostication isn’t my thing, but like, it’s gonna make things easier. It’s another tool in the tool chest. It’s a powerful one. I think there’s a little more hype out there than is really warranted right now. I mean, maybe in 10 years I’ll be completely wrong, but it’s just, I think the best part of it is that you can kind of like take more abstract concepts and boiler plate it, right? So you can, it used to be I have A and B and I need to connect those two and sometimes see, how do I go about doing that? Whereas you can just, you know, an AI could actually make those connections for you in a good way. And then that way you can just take that not, and then spend your time elsewhere that they aren’t good at.

Chris: All right. You have a strong history as a developer, exposure to many different technologies. Lately you’ve shown an aptitude and an interest in architecture, that architecture side of things. What is it about architecture, the architecture role that appeals to you right now?

Luke: I mean, long story short, I want to be one of the people who makes the decisions. Why things…piece together the way that they are. I get, you know, when you first start out as a developer, you’re kind of like, you’re focused on, all right, I have to make this function, do its thing. And then you kind of go out from there. You know, you make components, you make, you use the framework to its fullest, but then after a while it kind of clicks like, oh, so this is the big picture. And you know, for some people, they understand the big picture and that’s, you know, they’re great with it. But like for myself, I wanna be able to say like, well, I think I would’ve done this differently that way, you know, for this. So, I don’t know, it’s just being able to see the big picture for me is important. I think that it helps me put things in the context when I’m working on a project.

Chris: All right. You made it to the bonus question. If you had to fend off a bear and you could only have one of the following items to do, so, which would it be? An ax, a bow and arrow, or a candy bar?

Luke: I think I, you know, my background, so I have to go with bow and arrow of course. I guess the reasons being is that, you know, you don’t, I guess you could throw the axe, but I don’t think you’re gonna really do much and you don’t, you just don’t take an ax to a bear fight. Right? Right. And then, you know, the candy bar I thought about for a little bit, but then, you know, the bear is just gonna think you’re a vending machine, right. And they run faster than you, so they’re just gonna want more candy bars. So yeah, I gotta go with the bow and arrow.

Chris: I was thinking maybe the candy bar is the last meal, but yeah, I think you’re probably right. The bow and arrow system.

Luke: Oh, a last meal for yourself. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That would work.

Chris: Alright, Luke, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to me. Appreciate it.

Luke: No problem. Thanks for having me.

Chris: Yep. Get back to work.

Luke: All right, I will.