Surviving 40 years in the software industry [Interview with Jack Herrington Podcast #140]

On this week's episode of the podcast, freeCodeCamp founder Quincy Larson interviews Jack Herrington. As a kid he had to work to overcome Dyslexia and didn't have good enough grades to get into college. Despite this, he's worked as a software engineer for more than 40 years at companies like Nike, Adobe, and Walmart. He also runs the popular Blue Collar Coder YouTube channel.

We talk about:

How Jack struggled with Dyslexia, had terrible grades that couldn't get him into college, but got really into GameDev in the early 1980s

Early developer job opportunities that took his family from his home town in Pennsylvania to Melbourne Australia

How he started blogging as he learned, and ultimately published 6 programming books

Can you guess what song I'm playing on my bass during the intro? It's from a

Links we talk about during our conversation:

[VincentFulco]

Jack is the GOAT. Great to see him here.

[warrenrross]

I’m 46 years old and I didn’t realize I didn’t know what dyslexia was until listening to this podcast. And after listening I decided to find out more about what it really is. Happened to take a test and it seems like I probably have dyslexia. Which is crazy that it can be something that you deal with without ever realizing it.

[codeEdx]

1:15:10 - Why you should become a full stack software engineer? - I completely agree. Becoming a full stack software engineer isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s the real deal! Think about it: building real-world products from start to finish gives you the full picture. You’re not just writing code; you’re bringing ideas to life! Unless you can juggle both front-end and back-end, you’ll be missing out on that magic.

[jamesngbede]

Am also dyslexic just starting my software development journey, this is very relatable

[subhranshudas]

Jack reading all the JS docs in MDN.
5 mins in yells - "Mother 😂😂😂

I have always learnt from this gentleman on his channel. one of the best teachers period. huge respect knowing now he had to overcome his situation to now make it easy for millions of people to learn. 🙏

[satjeet]

Me encanta escuchar a personas tan inspiradoras.
Muchas gracias por compartirnos su tiempo y sus experiencias.

[javajoint]

bass line @ beginning is from the Police " When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What's Still Around " :)

[orsonterrill]

I'm not dyslexic, but it's a feature, not a flaw. look up executive functioning and predicting outcomes, evolution, dyslexia etc.

[robertaguirre]

The free code camp guy:” The government hasn't stepped in and…” me: “That's my boy I see you comrade” ✊

[Sayantan-ejhd]

Seriously?? He started working in 2000 as stated in LinkedIn, how it is 40years?

[WiseArts]

Police!! Wish they'd get back together for another reunion tour at least 😭

[aammssaamm]

There is definitely something wrong with the colleges. 😂

[edbrito-swdev]

40 years in the software industry? Damn, poor guy 😢

[dag]

I used to work with a guy in software that was dyslexic. What a pill he was.