Dan Abramov

Hi Dan - tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you and what do you do for fun?

I'm a software developer from Russia. Lately, I've been writing a lot of JavaScript; some of it is open source. These days I'm fairly visible in the React ecosystem, and you might know me as the creator of libraries like Redux, React Hot Loader and React DnD.

For fun, I enjoy spending time with my wife watching TV shows or walking around the city together. We enjoy playing Catan with our friends, but neither of us is very good at it. ;-)

What do you do for a living and how long have you been in this industry?

I've been writing JavaScript for three years, and before that I worked on desktop and native apps.

I got my first job at an outsourcing company when I was 18. Later I worked at a media startup called Stampsy.

“And now I'm joining Facebook to work on developer tooling for projects like React Native.”

I'm 23, so that makes it five years in the industry.

What brought you to Egghead in the first place?

I was learning Flux a year ago, and I couldn't quite grasp it.

Egghead content was the best I could find. I didn't need to skip or rewind anything, the pace and information density was just right. I was a fan since then, but producing screencasts was a mystery to me.

I started writing articles on Medium a year ago, and after reading one of them John reached out to me wondering if I'd like to try making a lesson myself. Many months passed until I actually made one, but this is how my Redux series came to be.

What are some big successes you’ve had recently?

My Redux course on Egghead has gotten a tremendous response, setting a first day view count record.

It's 30 free videos, and people have been asking for Redux content for the past few months, so I'm very happy Egghead agreed to publish it for free as a gift to the community. Since I'm taking a full-time job, I might not have as much time for my personal projects anymore, so I really wanted to make something special for the community, and make it as accessible to the beginners as possible.

My course is free, but I hope that after watching it, many people will buy an Egghead subscription because there is so much more great content there. Their JavaScript basics, Rx, Flux and React courses are amazing -- I can't recommend them enough. There are also series that you don't often find on other screencast websites, such as, “How to contribute to an open source project.”

Egghead has a great mission of making open source development sustainable. There's been a lot of talking about this recently, but surprisingly nobody mentions employing this model, even though it's one of the few that actually work! “Record lessons, get royalties and use them to pay for your bills.”

Tell us about being an instructor for Egghead. How’d it go down and what’s it like?

I'm thrilled to be a part of this community. I had zero experience recording screencasts, but John and Joel reached out to me, sent me the equipment for free and were patient to wait until I was able to record lessons at my own pace.

Then, John reviewed every lesson and gave his harsh, but necessary critique. I re-recorded, kept practicing and eventually I got better at it. As with everything, the key is doing (getting enough practice), humbly taking feedback and iterating without taking yourself too seriously and stressing over it.

If you're an open source developer (or just enjoy helping people learn new stuff), joining Egghead as an instructor is a great decision. You'll learn a ton about teaching people, and make money in the process. And who wouldn’t welcome a nice addition to their regular income to help pay the rent? And the better (more watched) your videos are, the higher your part-time income can grow.

What are you most excited about for your career in 2016?

Next week I'm joining Facebook to work on developer tooling for React Native and related products.

This is a new chapter for me, as I never worked in a big company -- with so many smart folks who know so much more than me. I'm humbled and I hope to learn from the best and keep shipping the stuff developers love to use, on a larger scale.

Dan started programming with Visual Basic when he was 12. He learned C# and JavaScript, worked at an enterprise outsourcing company, and later at a media startup. Dan created a few popular open source libraries including Redux, React Hot Loader, and React DnD. He recently moved to London with his wife and a cat to work at Facebook on React Native.

“And now I'm joining Facebook to work on developer tooling for projects like React Native.”