Get to know me in this full introduction video (8:05)
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Hi, I'm Kent C. Dodds, I'm a full time educator.
I make the world a better place by teaching people like you how to make quality software.
I make the world a better place by teaching people like you how to make quality software.
Get to know me in this full introduction video (8:05)
Share this video.I was born in 1988 in Twin Falls, Idaho.
After graduating High School and serving a 2 year mission in the Missouri Independence Mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I went to BYU where I graduated with a Master of Science in Information Systems degree in 2014.
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Early on in my career I decided I wanted to be an expert in JavaScript. So I set my mind on mastering the world's most popular programming language. I spent countless hours writing JavaScript for the companies I worked for as well as in the evenings for open source and other side projects. Eventually I even represented PayPal on the TC-39 (the committee responsible for standardizing the JavaScript language). I feel like I achieved my goal of becoming an expert in JavaScript, but I do need to keep up just like everyone else, which is an enjoyable challenge.
I've also always been excited about sharing what I know with others. When I was in school, I signed up to be a tutor for my classmates and once I even got Firebase to sponsor pizza for me to give an informal workshop about Angular.js to my fellow students. I was a speaker at the first meetup I ever attended, and I've now delivered over a hundred talks on topics including JavaScript, React, Testing, Careers, and more. One of my talks got noticed by egghead and I was invited to turn that talk into an egghead course. The rest is history!
You can be the smartest and most skilled software engineer in the world, but if you're not kind to those with whom you interact, you'll never reach your full potential and you'll always be chasing the next thing to bring you happiness in life. Be kind.
One of the biggest things that has helped me learn is by committing myself to sharing what I know with others. Between podcasts, blog posts, talks, and workshops, I force myself into situations where I have to be accountable to those I'm teaching to really know my stuff. And as a result, a lot of people have learned from me as well.
I've worked with a ton of developers in my role as a team member at companies I've worked at as well as in the open source community. I've found it to be invaluable to collaborate well with others. I value giving credit where it is due and celebrating the successes of others with them. We can accomplish much more together than separately.
Here are a couple recent ones.
Check out my appearances on podcasts, blog and other cool stuff.
See all appearancesSome unique things about me.
Yup! There are 6 boys and 6 girls in my family. I'm second to last. No twins. We all have the same mom and dad. Yes my parents are super heroes ๐ฆธโโ๏ธ ๐ฆธ
When I was a kid, I competed in various gymnastics events. As of 2021, I can still do a backflip ๐คธโโ๏ธ
It's a religious thing. That said, I do appreciate offers to go out for drinks! I'll just have a Hawaiian Punch thank you ๐ง
When I was 14, I got my friends and scout leaders to plant 15 trees in a new park in town for my eagle scout project ๐ฆ
In 2018, I wanted to get good at telling stories, so I participated in National Novel Writing Month and wrote a 50k word novel in one month ๐
I've worked my way up to 3x listening so I could listen to more. So far I've saved ~100 days of listening by doing this ๐ง
I keep a "uses" page updated with the stuff I use.
Check out the uses pageThese are the most popular.
