PragmaticBookshelf
Spotlight: Brian Hogan (Author)
A Hero’s Journey
with Brian P. Hogan
@bphogan
Brian P. Hogan, author of Build Websites with Hugo, discusses his journey to becoming a Pragmatic Bookshelf author.
INTERVIEW
Listen to the complete audio interview here:
https://pragprog.libsyn.com/episode-04-brian-hogan
WIN!
We’re giving away one of Brian’s books to one lucky winner! Simply post a comment or a question in his AMA below, and the Devtalk bot will randomly pick a winner at a time of the author’s choosing … then automatically update this thread with the results!
SHOW SUMMARY
For those who prefer to read rather than listen, the following are highlights from the interview.
Brian Hogan is a software developer, teacher, author, editor, and musician. Since 1995, Brian’s been building websites and web applications using a variety of tools and technology.
But Brian’s journey didn’t stop with web development. He’s been working as a freelance developer for small businesses and has helped countless developers through lectures, mentoring, and of course, books—including Small, Sharp Software Tools, Exercises for Programmers, tmux 2: Productive Mouse-Free Development, and several others for The Pragmatic Bookshelf.
On this episode, Brian talks about his journey to becoming a pragmatic author and what he’s learned along the way. He also spills the beans on what makes for a great bio and how to showcase who you are and what you do.
Listen to the rest of Brian’s story on this episode of the Pragmatic Hero’s Journey podcast.
You can stream the episode here: https://pragprog.libsyn.com/ or subscribe to the RSS feed using the following link: https://pragprog.libsyn.com/rss.
Now that you know his story, check out Brian’s books below!
PragProg Books by Brian P. Hogan
- Build Websites with Hugo
- Small, Sharp Software Tools
- tmux 2
- Web Development Recipes, 2nd Edition
- Exercises for Programmers
Follow Brian on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bphogan.
Check out what Brian is writing about on Medium:
Command Line Blocks in Hugo
Dont forget! You can get 35% off Brian’s books with the coupon code devtalk.com!
book-build-websites-with-hugo
book-small-sharp-software-tools
YOUR TURN!
We’re now opening up the thread for your questions! Ask Brian anything! Please keep it clean and don’t forget by participating you automatically enter the competition to win one of her ebooks!
Most Liked
bphogan
@DevotionGeo Thanks for the kind note. I’m really proud of Exercises for Programmers. The first 40 or so of those projects are challenges I gave my class in their first semester programming course I used to teach. I find them great for getting up to speed on a new language too.
DevotionGeo
You’re welcome! 
I loved those exercises back then, and I’ll read that book again and will redo those challenges in Erlang and Rust. I also hope to read more of your books like Small, Sharp Software Tools.
AstonJ
I haven’t had time to listen to the interview yet but just wanted to say it’s great to see Brian is still active within the dev community - he was one of the names I often saw crop up in things like Twitter discussions (with Rails folk like DHH) and a decade later he’s still here writing and editing? 
So my question is, what have been your favourite moments or pieces of tech in the dev space over that time 
Popular Community topics
Other popular topics
Sponsor Spotlight
Practical resources that improve the lives of professional developers.
Latest in Build Websites with Hugo
Latest in Small, Sharp Software Tools
Categories:
Sub Categories:
Popular Portals
- /elixir
- /rust
- /ruby
- /wasm
- /erlang
- /phoenix
- /keyboards
- /python
- /rails
- /js
- /security
- /go
- /swift
- /vim
- /clojure
- /emacs
- /haskell
- /java
- /svelte
- /onivim
- /typescript
- /kotlin
- /c-plus-plus
- /crystal
- /tailwind
- /react
- /gleam
- /ocaml
- /flutter
- /elm
- /vscode
- /ash
- /html
- /opensuse
- /centos
- /php
- /deepseek
- /zig
- /scala
- /lisp
- /textmate
- /sublime-text
- /react-native
- /nixos
- /debian
- /agda
- /kubuntu
- /arch-linux
- /deno
- /django
- /revery
- /ubuntu
- /nodejs
- /manjaro
- /spring
- /diversity
- /lua
- /julia
- /c
- /slackware
Devtalk Sponsors
Practical resources that improve the lives of professional developers.
We build trusted fault-tolerant systems that scale to billions of users.
Real-time error tracking, performance insights, and observability for devs.
Supporting innovation across the BEAM ecosystem.
Develop your skills with books, videos, and courses.
Catch errors, track performance, monitor hosts and more.
Enabling companies to succeed by building software people love.
Courses that move you from confusion to "Aha, now I get it!"