Zen of GitHub and Platform Principles

What are ways to improve how you’re using GitHub? How can you collaborate more effectively and improve your technical writing? This week on the show, Adam Johnson is back to talk about his new book, “Boost Your GitHub DX: Tame the Octocat and Elevate Your Productivity”.

Adam has written a series of books about improving developer experience (DX). In this episode, we dig into his newest book, which focuses on GitHub and how to get the most out of its features—from settings and keyboard shortcuts to hidden tools, CLI commands, and the command palette.

Adam also shares insights on the best ways to communicate on the platform. We discuss the nuances of GitHub-Flavored Markdown (GFM), best practices for effective communication in open source, the importance of maintaining civility in issue reports, and why he included a glossary of acronyms to help developers decode common shorthand like LGTM and FTFY.

This episode is sponsored by Honeybadger.

Topics:

• 00:00:00 – Introduction
• 00:02:20 – Why the focus on developer experience?
• 00:03:41 – Process of writing the book
• 00:06:26 – Filling in the gaps of knowledge
• 00:11:52 – GitHub-Flavored Markdown
• 00:16:00 – Sponsor: Honeybadger
• 00:16:47 – Acronym glossary
• 00:25:18 – GitHub command palette
• 00:28:35 – What questions did you want to answer?
• 00:29:42 – Whether to cover Copilot or not
• 00:36:14 – Video Course Spotlight
• 00:37:50 – Advice on working with coding agents
• 00:40:46 – Defining the scope
• 00:48:07 – GitHub pages and codespaces
• 00:50:46 – Finding the hidden features
• 00:51:53 – Data-oriented Django series
• 00:53:59 – How to find the book
• 00:54:51 – What are you excited about in the world of Python?
• 00:57:27 – What do you want to learn next?
• 00:58:00 – How can people follow your work online?
• 00:58:22 – Thanks and goodbye

Show Links:

• Adam Johnson’s Website
• Boost Your GitHub DX
• Boost Your Git DX
• GitHub-Flavored Markdown (GFM) Spec
• GitHub CLI (gh)
• GitHub Command Palette - GitHub Docs
• Keyboard shortcuts - GitHub Docs
• GitHub’s Guide on Writing Great Issues
• GitHub Pull Request Templates
• GitHub Pages
• GitHub Codespaces
• Data-Oriented Django - DjangoCon 2022 - YouTube
• Data-Oriented Django Deux - DjangoCon Europe 2024 - YouTube
• Data-Oriented Django Drei - DjangoCon Europe 2025 - YouTube
• Tachyon — Statistical profiler — Python 3.15.0a5 documentation
• Adam Johnson (@adamj.eu) — Bluesky
• Adam Johnson (@adamchainz@fosstodon.org) - Fosstodon

Level up your Python skills with our expert-led courses:

• Python Continuous Integration and Deployment Using GitHub Actions
• Introduction to Git and GitHub for Python
• How to Set Up a Django Project

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