The Laracasts Snippet

I'm Done

28 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

I didn't come to this decision lightly. It took me most of 2025 to reach this conclusion, but here we are. I'm done. Let me explain.

Programming Anxiety

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Let me tell you a story about the programming-induced anxiety that my former self once felt. If you are constantly online, you will have the impressio...

Should You Learn Laravel Before PHP?

29 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Should you learn PHP first or jump straight into Laravel? 🤔 It’s a question every newcomer asks, and in this episode, Jeffrey breaks down both si...

Where Does Laracasts Go From Here?

25 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the last year, the way we program has changed dramatically. Perhaps, more dramatically than at any other time in my career. We can thank AI for tha...

The AI Episode

09 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we dig into the subject of AI... and whether it's going to steal your job or not. Don't worry: no bait in this video. Just an honest ...

Big Fish, Little Fish

04 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There was a time long ago, before the internet, when each of us had the ability to be a big fish in the small pond. At least in some small way, that's...

Horses for Courses

29 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We love tools: linters, type checkers, test runners, asset compilers, et al. Whilst these tools can help solve problems, they might also be a sledgeha...

The Stories We Tell Ourselves

01 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tell me what you think of this. We all have certain stories about ourselves that we repeat, like mantras. "I am the type of person who is X, therefore...

Here's Why You Should Attend Laracon

20 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Luke, here! I recently got the chance to attend and speak at Laracon EU 2024, and it was fantastic. The venue was awesome, the talks were amazing, but...

Find Your Fit

14 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It occurred to me recently that, if my job consisted exclusively of writing code 40 hours a week, I don't think I'd be a programmer today. I might go ...

Juggle the Idea

17 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If someone on your team presents a business idea to you, they've likely had it simmering in their head for quite some time. Don't be so quick to toss ...

Programming is Bootcamp for Conscientiousness

12 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Programming taught me an interesting life lesson: be a stickler for the details. You see, getting the thing to work is only half the battle. You’re ...

Business Impostor

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When it comes to business, I - like many developer-turned-small-business-owners, I’d imagine - am really quite green. Not just green, deep green. No...

Steal From Other Hobbies

26 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we'll talk about stealing techniques and approaches from other hobbies or industries. What have you learned from one hobby that might...

Laracasts Q&A: 2022 Edition

15 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's hard to believe, but the last Q&A episode was published over two years ago. Let's fix that with a new 2022 edition. I'll answer a wide variety of...

Zoom Out

04 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I often hear about flat organizational structures and how they lead to more autonomy and better collaboration. That could be true! It sounds appealing...

Don't Participate

28 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For a number of years now, I've found myself quietly mumbling the words, "Don't participate," every time I feel the need to insert myself into events ...

Programming Bullet Points I'd Send Back in Time

04 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I take some time to ponder over which programming bullet points I wish had been drilled into me more in the early days of my learning...

If It's Not Perfect, Ship It

28 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's far too easy for developers to fall into a trap of never shipping new code to production. "It's not ready," we tell ourselves. "Just one more mon...

Be the Tortoise

01 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

If you've worked in programming spaces for any period of time, you will surely have heard the advice, "It's better to go slow than fast." We all insti...

Three Shapes

27 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Whenever I ask a slightly controversial programming question, the responses often take one of three shapes. Let's talk about each of them in this epis...

Trust the Process

15 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Every time I learn something new, I have to re-remind to trust the process. I'm not sure why. That feeling of "I can't" never goes away. You would thi...

The Best of Both Worlds

21 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we discuss the three-month process of converting Laracasts to a single-page application with Inertia.js.

If You Flip It, They Can Learn It

26 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It has occurred to me that I might have made some teaching mistakes in the past. Learning sticks when it can immediately be applied to a particular ta...

About That Laravel 8 Controversy

08 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

I keep seeing oddly similar threads around the web that relate to Laravel 8's "increased prerequisites." They all seem to share the view tha...

Cool Kids Table

23 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Here's an uncomfortable truth about the programming world: we all want to sit at the cool kids table. It was true in high school, and it remains true ...

One Thing I Love About Laravel

08 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

One thing I love about Laravel is how, for any given project or feature, there's already a clearly defined pathway I can follow to complete it. For ex...

If Programmers Had a Superpower

27 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

My wife recently paid me a compliment. "You're a good troubleshooter" - to which I replied, that's because it's all I do every day. Programm...

How to be Ignored on GitHub

09 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

After you've maintained a popular open source project for any length of time, you begin to notice a pattern. Certain issues and pull requests bubble u...

The Goodbye Debacle

01 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We recently pushed a new "goodbye" landing page for the Laracasts website. In an effort to not succumb to the usual, boring "Goodbye, h...

How We Work

14 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

I recently hired a new instructor for Laracasts. Now that the team has grown to four people, including myself, I thought it might be interesting to di...

Four Words Can Derail Your Day

07 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Four words can derail any programmer's day. Those four words are "If I could just..." Ask yourself if you frequently fall into this trap. &q...

Meet Them Where They Are

03 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

As parents or teachers, if you want to instill a joy for learning or reading, it's important that you meet them where they're currently at in life. Th...

It's All About the Framing

25 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

I recently came across a month-old YouTube channel with two million subscribers. The content...was fine. The audio...was fine. And, yet, two million s...

TDD Dogmatism

18 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Few topics in the programming world spark debate quite as much as TDD. There's enough dogmatism from the evangelists of TDD to warrant an equal and op...

When Programmers Run Businesses

08 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We're living in an interesting time, when one person - anywhere in the world - can start a business without leaving their bedroom. Even better, this b...

How Open Source Projects Spiral Out of Control

02 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Every open source project begins with the best of intentions. In fact, they usually begin with excitement. One developer has an idea, and thinks, &quo...

Repair Your Focus

24 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We can all surely relate to the sense that our ability to focus has slowly deteriorated over the last decade. If this scares you as much as it does me...

They're Only Guidelines

21 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

I think you'll find that intermediate-level developers tend to be the most passionate and rigid of the entire community. It is at this stage of your l...

This is How We Elect a President

16 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

To offer something different this week, let's tear down and inspect a recent conflict on the US presidential debate stage.

A Brain Dump on Fatherhood

09 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I offer a brain dump on the intricacies of raising two little kids, and fatherhood in general.

The Learn to Code Absurdity

02 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Too often, we hear politicians spew the tired "learn to code" slogan in response to difficult questions related to disappearing jobs in remo...

Thinking About Types

16 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

I've thought quite a bit about types in the last year or two. I know - borrring - but I find it interesting to observe how intensely talented develope...

The Correct Way to Think of Objects

25 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Developers passionately disagree with one another on most programming issues. For every tutorial on class inheritance, duck-typing, naming conventions...

Focus on Two Hours, Not Two Years

18 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Every developer should develop and manage at least one project themselves. Doing so not only harnesses your discipline, but it also forces you to flex...

Identifying CSS Animation Bottlenecks

13 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

One of the more frustrating aspects of front-end development stems from the fact that even the smallest of alterations has the potential to derail you...

Correlation Does Not Equal Causation

24 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

That simple rule we all learned years ago in school may not have stuck properly. Why else would we, decade after decade, incorrectly and constantly dr...

The Screencasting Mistakes All Newcomers Make

21 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It occurred to me recently that I've likely recorded more programming screencasts than just about anyone. In that time, I've picked up a number of sma...

Forming Friendships When Working Remotely

07 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Traditionally, there are three primary locations when most friendships are formed: school, the workplace, and church. But what if you're unable to tic...

To Mute or Not to Mute

27 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A recent study found that a small percentage of individuals are largely responsible for the widespread sense that online interactions are hostile and ...

Easy Frontend Performance Wins

20 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we'll discuss a series of performance improvements that you can apply to your own projects right now. You'll learn about everything f...

The Final Podcast

08 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

No, this isn't the last Laracasts Snippet. But we will be discussing PHP's final keyword and the arguments for and against applying it by default.

Conquering Eye Strain

23 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In the last few years, I've noticed that my eyes simply aren't as resilient as they used to be. After staring at a computer screen for so many years, ...

Dogma and Personality

17 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Each of us is born with a unique personality that defines much of how we view the world. Is it possible that this also cascades down to the code we wr...

The Four P's

05 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Today, I have four completely unrelated topics to discuss with you today. As a (cheesy) way to connect the dots between them, we'll call this episode ...

Beginners and Pros Share This Common Insecurity

28 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

As part of managing Laracasts, I've been lucky enough to speak with countless developers. Whether newcomers or seasoned veterans, they too often seem ...

Gamification

10 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The subject of this week's episode is gamification. I'll begin by gushing over Outer Wilds, and then move on to discussing the pros and cons of genera...

The jQuery Influence

22 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

I recently made a bittersweet commit that removed jQuery from the Laracasts codebase entirely. Let's discuss how important the library has been to the...

The Media Consolidation Dilemma

13 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Are you as annoyed as I am that there are five different points of entry, if you want to watch a movie you own? Is it a Blu-ray? Is it on your DVR? Di...

Isn't PHP Dead?

06 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

After working with PHP for over ten years now, there's one question that continues to pop up - no matter what year it is: "Isn't PHP Dead?" ...

The First Draft is Always Crap

02 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The first draft is almost always crap. There's no getting around it. But once you accept this harsh truth, it can be freeing. Not everything you do is...

4 Things

22 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This episode, I have four things to discuss with you: children and values, old PHP, developers and back pain, and finally a new UI component we're wor...

It's Still a Finish Line

11 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

I recently spent an entire day making a small, but tricky Vue component for the Laracasts forum. There's no doubt that it took longer than I would hav...

A Tricky Topic to Discuss

29 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Representation in the tech community is a tricky topic to discuss. Like a minefield, be careful where you step on this issue. But let's see if we can ...

Keep Your Head Down

18 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we're discussing focus, social media, and why we all need to try harder to keep our heads down.

Show Me An Example

26 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Lately, I've been thinking about the importance of providing examples. Whether you're writing new code, or preparing documentation, or even discussing...

Back Off

05 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Developers seem to have a peculiar need to protect their peers from themselves. While I've no doubt that this desire stems from a good place, you need...

Protect Your Baseline

31 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In the last year - after breaking a few of my personal rules - I've become incredibly sensitive to lifestyle creep. In this episode, we discuss why, e...

Remote Contractor Workflow Q&A

19 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, line by line, I'll answer a recent question related to remote contractors. We'll discuss choosing an applicant, tips for getting the ...

Discipline Versus Laziness

13 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

I've focused a great deal on discipline this year. I'm not sure why, but it might be related to the fact that I now have two increasingly time-consumi...

The 2019 Laracasts Refresh

07 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

It's been over two years since Laracasts last received a fresh coat of paint. For those who know me (Jeffrey), that's two years too long. In this epis...

Developer Fitness

17 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Today I completed a year long project that I'd like to talk to you about.

Basic Financial Literacy

24 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In the United States (and surely many other countries), financial literacy is not taught in schools. You might think that basic investing and a review...

Stream of Consciousness

07 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

While most episodes generally focus on one central idea, today is more a stream of consciousness. We'll discuss everything from the struggles of runni...

Choose the Boring Path

29 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

I've begun to find that, in so many cases, the basic, boring path - for learning a skill or achieving some result - ends up being the correct one. It'...

Q&A - Controversial Ideas, Politics, and Code

23 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

It's time for another Q&A. This week, we'll discuss everything from how I'd build Laracasts differently today, which controversial ideas I subscri...

Overdoing It

12 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Every developer goes too far at some point in their career. It's unavoidable.

Programming Truths

13 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Too many ideas and practices in programming are accepted as basic truths. "Don't do it like that! It's dirty." What I'm concerned with is wh...

What You Should Think

30 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Do you ever feel like you opinions are being spoon-fed to you? Even worse, what if you didn't even realize it was taking place?

Top of the Pack

16 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

You've seen the same headline all over the web: "This one technique can triple your income overnight." Really? And I only have to click thro...

Immersion is Key

12 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

It doesn't matter which new thing I want to learn, step one is always the same: immerse yourself.

Kevin McCallister is a Jerk (and 2017 Realizations)

13 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we'll begin with a five minute discussion of Home Alone, because I know my audience - and that's what you're truly craving from me. T...

Marketing Slime

29 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Every year around this time, I feel it. "Oh, yet another email from that business, asking me to buy their thing...again." The abuse of power...

Kicking and Screaming

22 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

It's okay to internally kick and scream your way through, just as long as you do the work. Such practical and obvious advice, yet few of us are able t...

Step One is Excitement

14 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

From time to time, I'll come across discussions related to the best approach for teaching aspiring developers. And it never fails: there will always b...

Rules

02 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

When exactly did developers get it in their heads that to colors outside of the lines is an offense worthy of banishment? And who invented these lines...

The Key Ingredient

17 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

I've come to learn that discipline is the key ingredient to every successful person I've ever met. It's obvious; we all know this. So why is it so har...

Touchy Touchy

05 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

We all have the tendency to reach for our pitchforks upon hearing information that doesn't line up with what we've decided to be true. How does this a...

Building Energy

23 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In the previous Laracasts Snippet, we discussed social media and how it tends to have a draining effect on me. Let's continue that conversation today,...

The Irony Is That I Will Tweet About This Episode

31 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

I've been noticing lately that I feel mentally drained at the end of most days. But strangely enough, it's not the code I write that causes this. No,...

The Interview Question I Would Ask

12 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Developers have come to dread interviews. What sort of silly, gotcha question that has nothing to do with building web apps whatsoever will I have to ...

You Are Your Code

28 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In the development world, you'll frequently hear the phrase "you are not your code." At its core, this is very good advice, however, too oft...

Your Twitter Bio Says More Than You Think

23 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

I noticed something this morning: the developers I most frequently disagree with on Twitter place code acronyms in their bio. SOLID, DDD, etc. On the ...

Let's Talk About Visual Debt and Typehints

22 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

I recently published a short video on what I refer to as "visual debt." Shortly after, the critical tweets began to roll in. "How dare ...

Should This Class Be Responsible For That Thing

01 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The Single Responsibility is both simple and complex to comprehend at the exact same time. In fact, many people find it to be so vague to the point of...

The Quest to Upgrade and Update

13 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Moving to a new server while upgrading to the latest version of a framework is always a scary thing. Even the smallest change can send you down a two ...

How to Plan a Conference Talk Like Zack Morris

28 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we're discussing my personal workflow, when planning a new conference talk. Unfortunately, it's never quite as simple as opening your presentat...

Stop Shaming Tools

22 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

"Don't use tools," they say. "It won't exist in a few years, but these design patterns will." Of course, the argument is that, if ...

The Height of Arrogance and Vanity

17 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

In the last six months, it has been made very clear to me that, for better or worse, we're all parrots. Whether tech, or politics, or religion, or pro...

So You're Going to be a Dad?

08 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Let's take a break from code this week, and talk about the person behind the code. When I found out my wife was pregnant last year, a million differen...