Everyday Heroes

Move over, Python nerds - turns out you CAN teach an old JavaScript dog new AI tricks. Meet Aileen Villanueva, the industrial engineer turned frontend wizard who discovered you don't need to learn an entirely new language just to make robots smarter (looking at you, everyone who panic-enrolled in Python boot camps in 2023).

In this episode:

• How being "strategically located" near the US border accidentally gave her a frontend career superpower (geography: it matters!)
• The moment she realized "wait, I can do AI stuff with JavaScript?" and saved herself from learning Python (work smarter, not harder)
• Why teaching others is secretly just her clever way of forcing herself to actually learn things (the ULTIMATE accountability hack)
• Her dream of opening a coffee shop someday (which explains why she IMMEDIATELY rejected our AI coffee recommendation app)
• The shocking truth that Mexico doesn't have a fruit-throwing festival (but they DO carve elaborate radish sculptures, which she didn't know about either)

Featured Projects & Links:

• Find Aileen:
  • @aileen_vl on Twitter, Bluesky, GitHub
  • Google Developer Group (GDG) Monterrey organizer
  • Women Techmakers ambassador (because someone has to fix tech's gender ratio)
  • Speaker at REACT Miami 2025 (and possibly more if these CFPs ever get accepted)

Key Quote: "When I do talks, it's because I also want to learn more. If I need to teach something, I must understand it to actually teach somebody." - Aileen Villanueva, using the classic "teach it to learn it" technique

Fun Fact: Our guest correctly identified that Italians throw oranges at each other for a medieval battle reenactment, proving that Europeans will throw ANY produce if given the chance.

Hosted by Hayden Ballio and Wendy Hurst
Brought to you by HeroDevs - Because someone has to keep your end-of-life software from becoming end-of-world software.

(Next time someone tells you that you need to abandon JavaScript to get into AI, just remember: THIS WOMAN found a way to stay in her comfort zone AND still ride the AI wave. Work smarter AND harder.)