Kent C. Dodds (00:01.39)
Hey everyone, I'm Kent C. Dodds as usual and I'm joined by my good friend Mark Techson. How are you doing Mark?

Mark Techson (00:07.51)
I am doing so good, how are you doing?

Kent C. Dodds (00:10.356)
I'm excellent, always happy to chat with you and I'm very excited to introduce you to the people who are gonna be at Epic WebConf in just over two months. We're very close.

Mark Techson (00:20.844)
Yeah, time is moving quick. It's going to be a really great time.

Kent C. Dodds (00:24.034)
Yeah, I'm so stoked. I was really happy to have you last year as the MC. Very excited about you wanting to speak this year. Here's the thing. I've said this on a couple of these interviews. So if people listen to others, they'll recognize this. But one of the best compliments that I can get paid as a speaker is for a conference to invite me back. And now on the flip side, I'm realizing one of the best compliments I can get as an organizer is for people to come back. And I'm just really grateful that not only

Mark Techson (00:42.669)
Yes.

Kent C. Dodds (00:53.432)
Are you coming back? But I'll like peel behind the curtain a little bit. submitted his proposal in a very unique way. Mark, can you tell us what did you do to submit your proposal and like, why did you do it that way? I just, yeah, I wanna hear that story.

Mark Techson (01:12.76)
Sure. So what I did friends at home and watching, actually recorded a video of myself pitching my proposal and it was a little bit of a risk because you you just never know how that type of stuff is received. If it was received as too forward. But the reason why is because I really wanted to share my excitement about the topic. And sometimes when you're reading words, it can be like, okay, you know, it can all blend together. But I felt like if I could send a 30 second, I think it's only 30 to 45 second video, very quick, like, Hey, this is what I want to talk about.

Kent C. Dodds (01:38.062)
Yeah, it's really quick.

Mark Techson (01:42.131)
And if this is interesting to you, just let me know and we can go from there. Right. And doing it that way just felt like, you know, let's do something different. Let's get some different outcomes by doing different actions.

Kent C. Dodds (01:52.025)
Yeah, dude, I'm way into it. I thought it was awesome. When I saw that I was actually toward the end of my selection process and I thought, okay, I got to get him in. This is the sort of thing that you cannot copy paste and just blast it everywhere. You really wanted to speak at Epic WebConf and you demonstrated that so well by just doing that a little bit more. And I think that's a really good takeaway for people.

in applying for jobs or in presenting your work to your company or just anything. Just put the tiniest bit of extra effort in and you'll really differentiate yourself amongst everybody else.

Mark Techson (02:32.621)
Yeah, I totally agree with that. And I think that in a time where things are changing for people who want to do things, they're like leaning on other techniques, right? To like get themselves seen. Like you said, copying, pasting and things and stuff like that. And I feel like we're to have so many options of people. And I just wanted to say, well, look, if he's going to go through this list, I want my stuff to stick out.

Kent C. Dodds (02:52.058)
Yeah, 100 % and it totally did, very much did. And then of course it doesn't hurt that you are Mark Techson and I know you well and you really put the effort in to making things as amazing as they can possibly be. So for those watching who don't know Mark Techson yet, can you give us a quick intro to yourself?

Mark Techson (02:54.626)
Yeah, that's right. That's right.

Mark Techson (03:15.468)
Yeah, so I'm a developer and a developer relations person. So I've been the developer for 20 years at this point, just writing code and shipping products. And then over the last few years, I've been hanging out as a developer relations engineer so I can connect with the community in a different way. And I've been working at Google, working on a product called Angular.

Kent C. Dodds (03:34.744)
Well, most people listening probably have heard of Angular. That definitely was probably the, it wasn't exactly where I got my start in the JavaScript world. I was backbone, but went pretty quick into Angular from there. So, and of course it was AngularJS at the time. Now Angular is quite, has evolved quite a lot since then. So thank you so much for all the good work that you do for the Angular community. And I'm just very excited for you to bring some of your 20 years of knowledge and experience.

Mark Techson (03:53.888)
yeah.

Mark Techson (03:58.893)
Nice honor.

Kent C. Dodds (04:04.676)
to Epic WebConf and the talk that you're gonna be giving is Beyond Code Assist, Driving Impact as a Next Gen Developer. What is that Mark? What are you talking about there?

Mark Techson (04:15.986)
I'm so excited about this idea because I think that developers are landing in a couple of places right now. One slot, they're kind of just dismissing AI as an entire option. Just like, it's not worth it. You know, I don't care about this. There's AI slop, but then there's also this other space where people are excited. And I just want to make sure that I can help developers who are maybe landing in the skeptical side, who don't think there's any value into it and to giving it a fair shot to see what else is possible. And I think that the story that I want to tell

in this talk is bigger than just using code assistant tools to write the code for you. But what does the future of work look like when you will inevitably, in a lot of spaces, have to use AI tools to be able to do things? What more could you do if you were using an AI tool? So that's one of the key insights that I'll give a sneak preview to. Think about it from the point of view of what more could you accomplish. Think about those side projects that you couldn't do in a weekend.

because there are just something small you're gonna get stuck on that's not even the best use of your time. What if you could do more? So, and I'm thinking not only about your side projects, but I'm thinking about your career in general, because the world is changing around us, whether we like it or not.

Kent C. Dodds (05:18.97)
you

Kent C. Dodds (05:26.774)
Absolutely, yeah. And I love that as a tagline for your talk, what if you could do more? And I'm very much looking forward to hearing what if I could do more and how can I do more at the conference here coming up in a couple months. So Mark, while we're there, you're not gonna be on stage the whole time. You're gonna be around talking with people and things. What are the types of things that you're hoping people come and talk with you about? Like you're standing in the hall, somebody sees you and they're like, I wanna go meet Mark.

Mark Techson (05:33.55)
Okay.

Kent C. Dodds (05:55.842)
What's a topic they could bring up that would get you excited to chat?

Mark Techson (05:58.942)
that's fantastic. So you could talk to me about video games. I love gaming. I've been a gamer for most of my life at this point. So probably like almost 40 years have been playing video games. You could talk to me about parenting. I love sharing just honest experiences with other parents, especially once you still have littles. I think that's really interesting. We could talk about what is development look like, even if you're not talking about AI, what does development look like these days? What is it like working at Google? What is it like building a framework like Angular?

So you can talk to me about those things. You can talk to me about music. I play guitar. So I love, love, love guitar. So there are lots of things that you can talk to me about from the technical side and the human side.

Kent C. Dodds (06:39.564)
I love it. Yeah, that's fabulous. Mark, why is it that you go to these conferences? Because you've been to a lot. What is it that brings you to people in person? Like, you've got a really cool setup right there. We're all looking at it right now. You have the plant and you've got the laptop and the notebook and you got a face for video. So what is it that brings you out of the house when you can do so much from your studio you've got?

Mark Techson (07:04.75)
because I want to be there with the people. that's one of the things. So I do go to a lot of conferences, but in 2025, I decided to actually reduce the number of places I go this year just for the sake of not being on a plane every week. And I was thinking about it, like, where do I want to go where I feel like the connection with the people is the most authentic? And one of the conferences that I decided on was Epic Web Conf because of the time that I had last year. I remember last year, Ken, I came to you.

Kent C. Dodds (07:18.969)
Yeah.

Mark Techson (07:32.622)
I met people that I still talk to today that I met there. I even got closer to my own colleagues and coworkers that I was able to hang out with at Epic WebConf that I don't even talk to as often when we are like at work and work for the same company because the environment that was created, and I'm saying this for my own, did not pay me to say this. I'm being completely honest. It was just the connections and how much fun I had meeting people and the energy behind the conference. are very few conferences.

Kent C. Dodds (07:36.312)
Hmm.

Kent C. Dodds (07:53.37)
Yeah, I love it here this

Mark Techson (08:02.114)
that create that space. And I want to be a place where I felt like I could do that. And so for me, choosing the very few that I'll go to this year, Epic World Conference is on the top of the list.

Kent C. Dodds (08:12.406)
I love, wow, that makes me feel so good inside. Thank you, Mark. I just want to chop that and share it on the social medias and places like people, you gotta come. It really is special, it's awesome. Well, and Mark, you're one of the people that makes it special. So thank you for being there and being such a great support and a support for me personally and the other people that you meet. I'm not sure who you're talking about specifically that you're still connecting with, but I...

Mark Techson (08:20.128)
That's right. Yeah.

Kent C. Dodds (08:42.522)
I would say that I envy those people, but you're a wonderful friend to me as well. So I just, feel comradery with those people. Cause being a friend with you is just a really special thing. So thank you. I love it. Well, Mark, I'm just, couldn't tell you how excited I am to have you at Epic WebConf. I think plenty of people can relate to you on video games.

Mark Techson (08:54.382)
Appreciate that. That means a lot to me.

Kent C. Dodds (09:07.97)
I was going to ask you what systems do you like to play, but I'm gonna let people come to the conference and ask you there.

Mark Techson (09:13.174)
Yeah. That's a great way to do it. Come and talk to me. Come and be there. And I think it's gonna be great.

Kent C. Dodds (09:19.386)
Yeah, I don't know if you're planning on bringing your guitar, but I think that would be... I know that's a lot of pain to bring a musical instrument on a trip, but definitely there would be an opportunity for you to play if you do end up bringing it. And there are plenty of other developers who are going to be there who are musically inclined. So I think maybe we can put together a band or something that would be a lot of fun for the karaoke night.

Mark Techson (09:44.715)
sounds great. Sounds like lot of fun.

Kent C. Dodds (09:47.714)
All right, hey, thanks so much, Mark. I really appreciate it. I'll look forward to seeing you in Salt Lake City, March 25th, 26th. It's gonna be a great time.

Mark Techson (09:56.27)
All right. Thanks for having me and friends at home. Can't wait to meet you there.

Kent C. Dodds (09:59.738)
Okay, see you everybody.