Episode 0: To Become a Good Carpenter, Learn from Other Carpenters

Welcome to Episode 0 of How I Built It! In these few minutes I introduce the show, what my goals are, and what to expect. There’s a wealth of knowledge out there from people who went through what you are going through. You just need to learn to ask the right folks! Most people are willing to share their experiences, as you will see in Season 1.

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Joe Casabona: I got into computers at an early age by 90 standards. At 10, I was using my dad’s work laptop. By 12, I fixed my first problem. And by 14, I was making money by creating mixed CDs. See, I was one of the first people in my school to have a CD burner. Lucky me. At 15, I made my first real website. My friends were making band sites. This was before myspace, and I was fascinated. Then my parents came to me and said that they needed one. I was hesitant at first. I had never made a website before. But then they offered to pay me. And I was in. I started first by asking my friends how they made their websites, and they told me they were using this website called GeoCities and a program called Microsoft frontpage.

If you’re cringing at this point, cut me a little bit of slack. It was 200,1 and I was in high school. So I did the same thing, and I was hooked. I loved flexing my creative and logical sides, and I loved making something that people actually used. I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

As I refined my skills, I got real hosting. I used notepad ++ to write code HTML and CSS, and then later PHP. And I read blogs a lot. I talked to people, and I looked at other websites. I kept asking myself the same question. How did you build that?

Today In 2016, a full 15 years since I started, it’s easier than ever to answer that question. There are websites like CodePen that shows you the code on one side, and then a live demo right next to it. There are websites like GitHub where people can upload whatever they want, and then you can download the code and play with it, or even make changes to it. But still, you can’t look at a website and see all there is to know about it. There’s not a magic download button for everything. There are still lessons learned from the project. They’re making everything fit. So it works really nicely. And then there’s getting people to visit and use the site.

In this podcast, I talk to business owners, designers, developers, and makers. I asked them the same question that I was asking 15 years ago. How did you build that? And they’re gracious enough to share their secrets. So when the first episode launches in late August of 2016, tune in, I plan to learn a lot and I hope you do too.

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