Laracon US 2025 recap, Part 3

Recap Part 1 | Recap Part 2

As mentioned in my Part 2 post from last week about Laracon US 2025, finally here’s Part 3 containing my summarized transcription of the speaker panel at the end of the second day that featured Taylor Otwell (Laravel), Adam Wathan (Tailwind CSS), Evan You (Vue), and Jeffrey Way (Laracasts). The panel isn't in the livestream recording of Day 2 since they turned off the cameras before the panel started, but because the speakers had some excellent points and takeaways for the audience, I thought it'd be too amiss to not share them with those who weren't able to attend the conference in-person.

The partial transcription below is my best effort at capturing everything that the speakers shared, but naturally I did miss some words here and there so it's not 100% complete. Speakers are indicated by their last names, starting with Aaron Francis who kicked it off as the moderator.

(Francis) What do you think are the most valuable skills [for developers]?

Way:

• communication, perseverance

• people need to hear you, just need to put yourself out there

• 75% of us are full of doubts

• get out of your own way

Otwell:

• read The Elements of Style

• if you can communicate clearly [in writing] you can express yourself in code easily

• have a willingness to take risks

Wathan:

• writing a lot is not the important part, say what you want to say in as few words as possible

• project management skills and how you work with your own stuff

• learn how to break your own work into chunks

You:

• writing is important outside of writing code

• so many different types of mediums: blog posts, documentation, PRs, or review

• what's the message you're trying to get to?

• I find it helpful when I'm starting to work on a bigger idea, I try to write it in a way because it forces you to think about your process

• I see a lot of devs nowadays, we fixate on the things we like, but I see a lot of people reject ideas outside of their comfort zone

• I understand how React works, it helps me make Vue better

(Francis) How are you managing your day to day?

Way:

• Laracasts has 7 people, we use Trello...it's perfect for my level

• quick Telegram conversation [each day]... we evaluate, we're good

• make a list of the top 2 things I want to get done today, if those are done, that's a successful day

• I knock out the hardest things first

Otwell:

• Laravel was famously zero meetings for many years

• an hour of GitHub catching up on PRs, then I catch up on Slack, I might have to think about a Forge problem, or Nightwatch problem...

• ...I'm still kinda thinking about how best I want to tackle that

• actually finishing things all the way through

• I start each day through my to-do list in Todoist

• if you need to have a hard conversation I would prefer doing that in the beginning of the day to get it out of the way

Wathan:

• the most helpful thing I ever changed was batching decision-making about what was going on

• someone finished something, I'd have to think about the next thing for them to do

• we batch in two months, we make decisions 6 times a year... when everything's decided upfront we go for 2 months

• the other super important practice, at the beginning of the week, deciding what I want to have done by the end of the week

• sometimes the hardest thing is deciding what to do that week

You:

• when I was working on Vue, I was doing it in a very no-strings-attached kind of way

• no hand-holding or milestones

• hack on things for a month or two, then ship this, that's the mode I was in before I started the company

• now we have 15 people... a lot of these different parallel lines to take care of... [now] I'm like a product manager

• in terms of handling personal tasks I still feel like I'm pretty bad at it

(Francis) How do you decide which ideas are worth pursuing?

Otwell:

• from 2011, the first big chunk was me solving the problems we had, some driven by personal interest

• if I was interested in background jobs or queueing I worked on Horizon

• since COVID... I did Laravel Octane

• the ideas are not coming to me [now] since it's more mature, a lot has been done

• in terms of picking ideas in general, some people [developers] pick a side project that they think is great, but no one uses it

• [asking] are people doing this thing?

Way:

• ask people what they're interested in

• nobody wants to say that's a really bad idea

• if I charge $20 for this would you use it? usually no...

• you have to be suspicious about these things

Wathan:

• The MOM Test [there's a book with this title]

• ask people questions about their previous behavior

• there needs to be evidence that they've done the thing you want to do

• you'll get more honest feedback

You:

• the criteria is always "do I want this myself"

• the example is the Composition API, a lot of people hated it so much

• solving a problem that I am seeing in code

Way:

• trust your gut

Wathan:

• the only things that succeed are the things I'm most excited about in the beginning when I create them

(Francis) Is there anything you want to leave this room of developers with?

Wathan:

• be willing to dig through a mountain of shit with a shovel to get the right answer for something, there's a shocking amount of topics and problems, there's like 2 people who care enough to go through it at all

• [example] for so long that's what the WCAG formula says so your eyes must be wrong

• now we have this APCA color contrast that's coming out and going to change the status quo and have a better way of doing it

• Tailwind was born because I was working on a side project, everyone [who saw it] was asking what kind of CSS is this you're writing?

• [was thinking] maybe I should create something... now it seems like everyone uses it

1. Start doing the thing you want to do

2. Notice what problem you have with the thing you're trying to do

3. Solve *that problem

Otwell:

• even if you have something that never takes off, tinker around on ideas, hang out with friends

• it increases your quality of life and makes your life more fun

• I don't think Laravel is big enough [for a conference] but we took that step and now here we are

You:

• I also can only work on things that I'm genuinely excited about

• another point is there's no one size fits all

• if you have to force yourself, you won't make it

Way:

• continuously showing up and kicking the can

• medium little screencasts have basically set me up for life