---
title: Building things that excite you with Charlie Gerard
slug: building-things-that-excite-you-with-charlie-gerard
published_at: 2023-01-23 16:00:00 +0000
updated_at: 2023-08-15 18:00:38 +0000
summary: In this episode, we&#39;re joined by Charlie Gerard to discuss various topics related to learning technology and building cool projects.
description: &lt;div&gt;In this podcast episode, the we discuss a range of topics related to learning and building cool projects. We begin by discussing the recent snow day and share some funny tips and tricks kids use to create a snow day. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Charlie Gerard, a senior dev advocate at Stripe, introduces herself and talks about her role as a creative technologist, primarily working in JavaScript. She shares her love for solo traveling, reading, tinkering, and building. We also discuss Charlie&#39;s previous projects and how she comes up with project ideas. She rarely starts from scratch but builds on something she has built before, adding a new sensor or trying a different technology or interaction. We also discuss the challenges of working with sensors and how to connect them to a computer and figure out the different protocols. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;ThoughtWorks, a company with a tool called the &lt;a href=\&quot;https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar\&quot;&gt;Radar&lt;/a&gt;, helps developers navigate new technologies and decide which to adopt. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;We discussed the importance of starting small when learning to code and using games to learn programming. We chat about using ChatGPT for games like D&amp;amp;D, expressing that these games are meant to be fun and not automated.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;Charlie can be found on Twitter (&lt;a href=\&quot;https://twitter.com/devdevcharlie\&quot;&gt;https://twitter.com/devdevcharlie&lt;/a&gt;), Mastodon (@devdevcharlie@hachyderm.io), and her website &lt;a href=\&quot;https://charliegerard.dev/\&quot;&gt;https://charliegerard.dev/&lt;/a&gt;, and regularly shares cool projects on &lt;a href=\&quot;https://github.com/charliegerard\&quot;&gt;GitHub under the username charliegerard&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Resources:&lt;br&gt;- Thoughtworks Radar - https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar&lt;br&gt;- Charlie&#39;s projects - https://charliegerard.dev/projects&lt;br&gt;- Richard&#39;s blog post about energy - https://twitchard.github.io/posts/2023-01-18-unicycles.html&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
duration: 2769
keywords: []
author: CJ Avilla
co_author: Colin Loretz
url: https://www.cjav.dev/podcasts/building-things-that-excite-you-with-charlie-gerard
embed_url: https://share.transistor.fm/e/0a46f539
share_url: https://share.transistor.fm/s/0a46f539
image_url: 
podcast_show: Build and Learn
type: podcast_episode
---

# Building things that excite you with Charlie Gerard

*Published: January 23, 2023*
*Duration: 2769 seconds*
*Podcast: Build and Learn*

## Listen

[Listen on the web](https://share.transistor.fm/e/0a46f539)
[Share URL](https://share.transistor.fm/s/0a46f539)

## Show Notes

&lt;div&gt;In this podcast episode, the we discuss a range of topics related to learning and building cool projects. We begin by discussing the recent snow day and share some funny tips and tricks kids use to create a snow day. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Charlie Gerard, a senior dev advocate at Stripe, introduces herself and talks about her role as a creative technologist, primarily working in JavaScript. She shares her love for solo traveling, reading, tinkering, and building. We also discuss Charlie&#39;s previous projects and how she comes up with project ideas. She rarely starts from scratch but builds on something she has built before, adding a new sensor or trying a different technology or interaction. We also discuss the challenges of working with sensors and how to connect them to a computer and figure out the different protocols. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;ThoughtWorks, a company with a tool called the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar&quot;&gt;Radar&lt;/a&gt;, helps developers navigate new technologies and decide which to adopt. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;We discussed the importance of starting small when learning to code and using games to learn programming. We chat about using ChatGPT for games like D&amp;amp;D, expressing that these games are meant to be fun and not automated.&lt;br&gt; &lt;br&gt;Charlie can be found on Twitter (&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/devdevcharlie&quot;&gt;https://twitter.com/devdevcharlie&lt;/a&gt;), Mastodon (@devdevcharlie@hachyderm.io), and her website &lt;a href=&quot;https://charliegerard.dev/&quot;&gt;https://charliegerard.dev/&lt;/a&gt;, and regularly shares cool projects on &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/charliegerard&quot;&gt;GitHub under the username charliegerard&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;Resources:&lt;br&gt;- Thoughtworks Radar - https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar&lt;br&gt;- Charlie&#39;s projects - https://charliegerard.dev/projects&lt;br&gt;- Richard&#39;s blog post about energy - https://twitchard.github.io/posts/2023-01-18-unicycles.html&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;


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