Hey everyone, welcome to Countdown to Laravel Live.

I'm Mathias Hansen, your host, and today I'm chatting with Jakob Steinn who's gonna speak
at Laravel Live in August, Hey Jakob, how you doing?

Hi, I'm good.

Thank you.

It's really nice with these warm-up podcasts just to hear the voices before, what to
expect and stuff.

But right now I'm the tech lead at something called Good Tape.

We do transcription services and I'll be giving a talk this year.

A soft talk.

Yeah, you excited?

I'm really excited.

I've always wanted to do a soft talk at a conference because I'm myself very much into
people and culture and navigating those kind of things within the workplace because as we

say, coding is, or being a programmer is 90 % people and 10 % coding, kind of.

And I think I want to address some of that.

I'm very much looking forward to that.

Before we dive too much into your talk, I want to dial the clock back and I want to hear a
bit about how you got started with computers and programming and technology.

What are your earliest memories?

I am all the way back to, to making like when, websites were made in Flash.

Uh, so, so that's kind of, it started with like wanting to do like stick figure
animations, in, Flash.

And then I found out that you could program these things and then it kind of turned up
into, to, to doing things you could click on and put it on websites.

I didn't know how to put them on the internet, but, but I made a lot of those things.

I finished, so school-wise, I finished my primary school and then I started the last three
years before university, in gymnasium we call it, and I almost finished.

So that's kind of the amount of education that I have.

But yeah, so it's always been like websites and stuff like that.

I found a YouTube channel called like One Stop Tutorials, where we made websites in...

in Photoshop and then you had to use the slice tool to make out little pieces so you cut
out elements of the design and put them inside tables.

slicing PSDs, that brings back memories.

So it's like, it's back from then.

And then I got a job with an advertisement agency when I dropped out of school.

And I found out like, wait, can already now be a programmer.

I don't have to go to the IT university.

But yeah, so then it just continued in different agencies, started going into like
startups.

My first usage of Laravel was the last version.

Like 4.0 was in the final beta release, I remember.

So the project that we working on was like 3.5, I think.

Something, some version.

Something like that, yeah.

It's been a while, yeah.

So it's like in and out of the community, it's like you're always up for like a little
lyricals here and there.

So starting out working at a marketing agency, were you working mostly on coding, or did
you also work on the creative side of graphic design, or making ads, or branding, or

whatnot?

Right, so I was, so it was more like advertisement agencies and like digital agencies
where I was, my first job was very much like an intern.

So I had to learn stuff.

I had done some Drupal sites before then.

So it was like in the Drupal CMS kind of sphere back then.

I did not do like the creative side of it.

I got like handed stuff and then I implemented it.

But then like over time as like, my both like making back when Facebook had games, you
know, so, so that's like being in, in, advertisement kind of you get a task thrown at you

and you have to find some kind of solution for it.

So that's that grew like the spectrum for like me being a full stack.

full-stecky developer, but also like having to do server maintenance because there was
just nobody else to do it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But that's also like, yeah, so just being naive and going into that and not necessarily
taking good care of myself.

that, so, but that's, we're gonna talk about that later.

I sense a slight hint to your talk here, yeah.

So working at an agency, do you also get to work on lots of different projects?

Like, can I get exposed to lots of different directions?

Yeah, was everything, as I said, from the early games on Facebook to banner ads to
full-fledged betting platforms.

And also just dishing out the blog posts, the digital business cards that has a blog
feature that they're never gonna be using.

I did a lot of those, yeah.

That's awesome.

Do you remember your first computer or the first computer you had access to?

What kind of computer was that?

it a PC or Mac?

Are we talking Windows or MS-DOS?

That was...

The first one I I granted my self-access to was my brother's computer.

Which was like a...

I think it was like a...

Of course like a stationary, compact computer running Windows XP.

I think we had just gotten...

Because my dad took home Windows licenses from work.

So I remember that we were like, whoa, it's not the 95 one.

So it was blue, bright and shiny.

And back then, putting...

I was always making fun with my brother's mini-disks.

Sorry.

making fun with my brother's mini-disks, like writing different songs into them, but it
always takes a long time.

Yeah, speaking of songs, I was just doing some research before the talk.

I never talked to you before.

And it seems like you're a published artist.

Is that right?

Yes, I just, just like three weeks ago or something, I published my first song on Spotify.

I've been writing music and making music since like, since I was like 10.

Because I, you know, I had my diary and I wrote my diary and was really deep and wrote
poems and, you know, talking about the feelings that nobody else understands and all of

that, that slowly turned into...

me wanting to write songs and this I got sober about like three and a half years ago.

this, doing like, I've written, when you do like the 12 step program, I wanted to write a
song for each of the 12, each of the steps, because there's 12 songs on an album.

So that's like, it was like, so this is the first one of those and I've written the
others, I just need to record them.

Very excited.

incredible.

Well if anybody wants to listen I'll put it in the show notes too but Jakob Steinn on
YouTube and it pops right up.

It's really moving.

There's a lot of, also like, I have so much different things on YouTube.

There's like me recording like Ubuntu tutorials when I was a teenager and stuff like that.

It's really fun.

That's a treasure chest of the past as well.

Cool.

Super cool.

Well, I do want to talk a bit about your talk.

So what inspired you to do this talk, first of all?

I think what a lot of people do that write talks is to do talks about things that is
important for them here and now.

And I think more than ever it has been important for me to be able to address things.

Also, as I mature as a developer and also my responsibilities become bigger,

becomes so important for me to to to be to show how it can be done.

Like, how do you handle difficult situations?

How do you say yes?

How do you say no?

And when is it OK to say yes?

how do you how do you handle like being said no to and and stuff like that?

You know, like it's it's it's like it's like I am very much a pleaser myself.

So, and there comes like, there comes a lot of things with that.

And I think with also a community that is, that is like with a lot of men in it, I think
we also need to put forth.

And I think Matt Stauffer, for example, has been like a huge inspiration in being like
really open about neurodiversity and, handling difficult situations.

And I really want to amplify that voice in the community.

Cause I mean,

Laravel community has always been open when it comes to difficult situations and hardships
and how we overcome them like as a community and as individuals and I really want to

contribute to that.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I can definitely see that as well in the layable community and also talking about
mental health and things like that.

A really important thing is community and feeling like being part of something.

And I agree that that's something layable is fostering and it's also the openness of being
welcoming to newcomers or

whoever into the community.

And it's just like, I had things that I could tell myself 10 years ago, when I stepped
into that advertisement agency, what tools would I give myself?

And that's the tools that I think all of us, if not, we already know them, but just to
hear somebody else talk about them.

And I would love to help people put...

Like, I'm going to talk about like, there's a specific staircase in my presentation that
is gonna, it's a really fun one to talk about because we kind of want to be up here and

I'll get more into it, but it's about like setting boundaries and it's really fun to have
a mental picture for when you are setting boundaries or when you're deciding not to,

right?

Because like there is like,

if you're unaware that you're not setting boundaries versus you're choosing not to set
boundaries but on cost of yourself and like all of these kind of little things and there's

a really nice my therapist showed me this like a long time ago and it's really been a
changer for me to be able to identify like do I really need to wear like a sword and my

armor to put down a no or can I just say no?

what is happening inside of me.

So it's a lot of...

a really interesting framework for putting it all together and making it make sense.

I can't wait to hear about that.

Awesome.

So there's those things and then I will be putting up like very concrete kind of scenarios
that I think majority of people have been in and can relate to so that we can see like how

did I do in this situation and how would I wish that I did in this situation and what is
the difference?

Yeah, awesome.

So Jakob, I know you already live in Copenhagen, but I still wanna ask you, when you go to
Copenhagen for the conference around the corner at Reffen, anything you would recommend

seeing, doing, or eating while you're in Copenhagen?

doing there, one thing is, is, is team up, find groups of people that you kind of vibe
with and do things together.

And if you, if you need someone to, to, to help you network, then please just come to me
and I'll, I'll, we'll figure things out.

But concretely, I think, even though it's been cleaned up a lot now, but Christiania,
which is like a free town and it has like a very

beautiful history and on there you can can go down walk down the streets and you can see
how they're kind of cleaning everything up and the community is kind of trying to blossom

back up it was known as like a place where they would would sell a lot of weed and it was
very it's a free place you know kind of and it's just it's a really nice way to go through

and then

There are, like, read some articles while you're going through to get a bit of Danish
history.

then, exactly.

And then there is a meatpacking district, which is kind of in the heart.

It's very close to the central station as well.

And a lot of hotels are close to it, which is like more of...

So it was back in the time it was like a place where they would slaughter animals.

So that's why they have white tiles everywhere, but now it's made into like both clubs and
eateries, different kind of cuisines like Indian.

is...

Yeah, it's just like any cuisine that you feel like.

It's like a big meat...

Not meat, but food district.

Food and party district, yeah.

do you have a favorite cuisine you go to?

Like go for?

They have something called Gaza Grill.

It is a little bit on the expensive side, the food is really simple.

It is like falafels and shawarmas and stuff like that.

But it's really nicely, you can get tabouleh, you can get hummus, you can get really nice
pita bread.

And I even just had lunch, so.

Yeah, I could totally go for that.

That's like my go-to place because you can also sit outside and the weather is of course
going to be awesome when everybody arrives.

So it's going to be, I think it's a really good place also that you can shop around.

And then there is always for the beer drinkers, there are two places, like there is
Warpigs, which is very much like they do

smoked meat and they smoke the meat in the building and they do all sorts of draft beers
and they play rock music and then there is Falmontorn which is right next to it or like on

the corner which has like 25-30 taps of different kind of beers.

for...

and then there's Jolene which is like a bar.

can dance and stuff like that.

Jolene as in Dolly Parton's Jolene.

No!

Just another Jolene.

Yeah, the place is just called Jolene.

It's like a pink sign, neon sign, and then they play house music and stuff like that.

And serve drinks.

No.

Cool, that's definitely a few places I need to check out next time I'm in the
neighborhood.

Thank you for the recommendations.

m

my general thing is just come to me and talk, if you, if people need, like, a sober
companion or something like that, I'm always up for a talk.

That is super lovely and it's what the community is all about.

So I'm really happy you're putting yourself out there and raising your hand.

That's fantastic.

Yeah.

Well, thank you so much for taking your time today, Jakob.

Really excited to see you soon and hear your talk.

I think we're going to have a really good time in Copenhagen.

I am very sure and also just thank you to all the organizers and thank you to you for
doing this all the time that is being put into all of this and the beautiful new website

and everything.

It's just really, yeah, appreciate it.

We're gonna give mad props to Kasper Hartwich for the website.

He has really been spending a lot of time on that and I think it turned out really,
really, really well.

just the Danish Larval community, you know.

Like he spent so much time just like putting job posts, aggregating everything manually,
you know, like it's just like, it's really impressive.

absolute is a huge lift behind the scenes and really Kasper deserves the credit for that
because eh he's done so much for the Danish Laravel community.

It's nuts.

Alright, well I'll see you very very soon!

Likewise, peace out.

That was Jakob Stein sharing his insights about his early experiences with technology and
the importance of mental health.

You can catch his full presentation at Laravel Live Denmark August 21st and 22nd in
Copenhagen.

If you haven't grabbed your ticket yet, head over to LaravelLive.dk and trust me, after
hearing what Jacob Stein has planned, you don't want to miss it.

Thanks for tuning in to Countdown to Laravel Live.

Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss any of our speaker interviews leading up to the
conference.

Until next time, keep coding and we'll see you at Laravel Live Denmark.