Aaron Francis on the Couch | with @ThePrimeTimeagen @teej_dv

with [music] >> I don't know. We haven't thought of an intro yet to the actual thing we're doing. So, we can just go like this. And with us is Aaron Francis of Tryhard Studio. We are going to ask you some toughhitting questions. Are you ready? >> I'm ready. >> What's the most embarrassing stack you've made money with? Uh, when I was a kid, I used a lot of PHP in my SQL, but now that I'm a grown man, I still I use that as well. I still use that. It's not It's not embarrassing. It's a little embarrassing. >> What version though? PHP. Are we talking about fours or fives? >> I started in 5.2 or 5.1. So, yeah. But now we're up to 8.4. Check out Check out my channel, Aaron D. Francis on YouTube. It's good now. >> And good videos. >> Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. >> P3 is the future, right? That's the title. That's the title. [laughter] >> I think they say, "He who controls the past controls the future." >> This is why PHP forever >> worked out better than I could have imagined. [laughter] This is great. I love this. I I thought we were going to ask hard-hitting questions. >> This is great. [laughter] >> Why are you so great? >> It's a great question. This This is my favorite interview ever. >> What are you What's your worst flaw and why is it that you're really good at everything? >> Um [laughter] I was nice. >> He's humble, too. Yeah, he doesn't even answer the question. >> I actually have a worst flaw and it's trying to do too many things. That's an actual answer. >> Dax hates that. He keeps saying, "We're going to only do one thing at a time." I'm like, "Well, Dax, how can we only do one thing at a time? We have to be on a yacht to record a music video and sell coffee this week." >> And and it's not like one of those interview answers where it's like, "Well, I just work too hard and care too much about the company." It's like, "No, no, no. I actually do too many things and I need to stop doing too many things." >> So, you're a yes man. >> I am a yes man. >> Got him. >> Can you tell us about your >> I am a yes man. Can you tell us about your recent project where you made an entire terminal emulator in PHP? >> Yeah, I was inspired by seeing um the adoption, the huge adoption probably of of terminal.shop. Oh, >> it's good coffee. >> Uh and I made an entire terminal emulator in PHP because >> I don't know. I I got I got nothing else to do. I got four kids at home. What am I doing this for? I got stuff. I really >> Two sets of twins. >> Two sets of twins. I don't need to be doing this stupid stuff. >> What's your words per minute? >> I don't know. I need a number. >> I literally have no idea. >> Dax, get out the keyboard. >> What's your favorite thing about Dax? >> That he is uh here watching. Just got to be careful cuz he's like this is his house and he's here. So that's my favorite thing is that he's here. >> That's actually the best answer. >> I can't tell if he's offended or not. >> He's happy. He's eating. We'll take that. That's a win. >> Are you ready to do this? So with either ors, we're going to give you A or B. And you need to choose A or B. You cannot be like, "Ooh, well A is good, but B is also good." You have to make a choice. Which are you more likely to use? Cursor or Eclipse? Cursor. >> Jordan or LeBron? >> Don't care. Teach or Prime. >> Prime. [laughter] >> You're more happy to hear your competitors use Redux or RxJS? >> RxJS. Would you rather read an article or have Prime read it to you? >> Read an article. [laughter] >> Why did you have to laugh about it? [laughter] >> Famously, I love printing things out and reading them. And so that is obviously >> Okay. Okay. Okay. >> All right. So now we'll do some word association. >> Are you ready? >> Yep. Webpack complicated. React complicated. >> Coffee very good. Miami hot. App router sucks. Vim unnecessary. >> Docker [laughter] unnecessary. DAX unnecessary. >> Use effect >> seems stupid to me. >> AI can be very very helpful but is a little bit uh overhyped. >> Hey, those are good answers. >> Yeah, that's good. >> All right. Now, look into the camera. Okay. Say who you are here. You can hold this too right now and tell people where to find you. >> My name is Aaron Francis. You can find me on x.com the everything app at Aaron DF Francis or on YouTube at Aaron DF Francis. >> Aaron's also the nicest man on the internet. >> He also has an entire website for selling courses. Maybe there's something he wants to say for that. >> That's [clears throat] an interesting point. >> And they're good courses. Very, very good courses. >> Masteringpostgress.com if you want to learn Postgress and high performanceqlite.com if you want to learn SQLite. And you know, hey, why not? While we're here, screencasting.com if you want to learn how to make videos. >> I bought that one. Oh yeah, there you go. >> Happy customer. >> A customer. >> A customer. I'm happy. I like >> happy customer. There we go. >> Great. Thanks, Aaron.

In this episode, we sit down with Aaron Francis from Tryhard Studios for a fast-paced, no-filter developer interview covering PHP, modern web development, and brutally honest tech opinions. We talk about embarrassing tech stacks that still make money, why PHP refuses to die, building a full terminal emulator in PHP, productivity flaws, developer burnout, AI hype, Docker fatigue, React complexity, and what it’s like being a “yes man” in tech. If you’re into software engineering, web development, coding interviews, PHP 8, developer tooling, and honest conversations about modern programming — this episode is for you. Topics covered: PHP 8.4 and the future of PHP Embarrassing tech stacks that paid the bills Building a terminal emulator in PHP Developer productivity and doing too many things Cursor vs Eclipse Redux vs RxJS React, Webpack, Docker, and modern frontend fatigue AI in software development: useful or overhyped Coffee, terminals, and strong opinions Timestamps: 00:00 Intro & meeting Aaron Francis 00:22 Embarrassing tech stacks 01:50 Building a terminal emulator in PHP 02:38 Rapid-fire questions 03:15 Word association 03:42 Where to find Aaron & his courses Find Aaron Francis: YouTube: @aarondfrancis X (Twitter): https://x.com/aarondfrancis Courses mentioned: Mastering Postgres – masteringpostgres.com High Performance SQLite – highperformancesqlite.com Screencasting – screencasting.com This isn’t a polished conference talk — it’s an honest developer conversation about what actually works, what’s overrated, and why the “embarrassing” stack is sometimes the one that wins. Tags: #PHP #WebDevelopment #SoftwareEngineering #CodingInterview #Programming #DeveloperLife #TechPodcast #AIinTech #React #Docker #Postgres #SQLite #Cursor #ProgrammingHumor