The developer still writes code on a Microsoft Natural keyboard from the mid-’90s, usually with one big monitor. He also reveals what he’s got against llamas.

Question: What do you drink while coding? (Question from rnRedditor kunjaan)
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rnJustin Frankel: I like coffee and I like English Breakfast Tea.  rnCoffee, I generally go Americano because it has America in the name, andrn no, not really.  And then I have some cream in it.  No sugar.  But I dorn cream and sugar in my English Breakfast Tea because that’s the way it’srn meant to be.
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rnQuestion: What does your workspace look like?
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rnJustin Frankel: Generally, I like a big desk.  I have keyboard rnwhich is the originally Microsoft Natural keyboards, which was from likern 1996, I think.  They changed them after that and they have the arrow rnkeys that are an “X” I think, or are a cross, or a plus sign rather thanrn an inverted “T”, and those ones are terrible.  But I have like three ofrn the classic Microsoft Natural keyboards. 
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rnUsually like one big monitor is my preference at this point. I have a rnMAC next to it and I use software called Synergy, which lets you move rnyour mouse cursor from on one computer to a monitor on another computer,rn which is pretty helpful when you’re doing cross platforms. 
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rnQuestion: Describe your work process.
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rnJustin Frankel: I think most of my work happens at home.  And it rnused to be the kind of thing where I’d work late at night. But in the rnlast few years, I’ve definitely found myself getting more done in the rnmornings as I try to get up in the mornings.  Which I think is healthierrn for me in general.  But yeah, I think there's a lot of... there’s a lotrn of not working but thinking about working and sort of having problems rnin your mind that you’re trying to figure out the solution for before rnyou go and type any of it.  There's a lot of typing things and then rnrealizing what you’re doing is stupid and then revert, and throwing it rnall away and I think that’s something that's very useful to be able to rndo, is to try things and if they don’t work out to move on.
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rnQuestion: Do you listen to music while coding? 
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rnJustin Frankel: I tend to listen to music.  I was reading rnsomething recently where they were talking about how music with lyrics rnwill affect people if you’re like... if kids are doing homework, it rninterferes with reading and I would tend to agree with that, but I thinkrn code is different enough from reading that lyrics aren’t really a rnproblem.
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rnQuestion: Do you ever procrastinate?
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rnJustin Frankel: Yes, it’s funny you should ask that really.  rnYeah, I think the right amount of procrastination is a good... a very rngood quality because I think sometimes you’ll go and have an idea to do rnsomething and then do it and spend a lot of time on it and then release rnit and then you’ll be stuck with it and then you’re later on realize rnthat you should have don it a different way and now you’re stuck with rnthe current version.  It’s less of an issue if you just try something rnout and then don’t like put it into a released product, but when you rnactually release things, you end up having this pressure of not taking rnaway things that people like.  And so procrastination is good for that. rn And also, I think if you really, really think things through it will rnsave you time in the end when you go to actually implement it.
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rnQuestion: What do you have against llamas? (Question from Redditor rnFlySwat)
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rnWe shipped a default MP3 with one app for while that was "Winamp. It rnreally whips the llama’s ass."  And then there was also an Easter Egg rnwhere you could make the title bar show that.  And the origin of that rnis, someone emailed us way back when, and I think emailed my friend, Tomrn Pepper, who was... ran all of our web stuff and was very much rninstrumental in creating all of these communities.  Someone emailed rnsaying, Winamp,  it whips the llama’s ass, and so it just kind of rnstuck.  And then it turned out later that it’s actually something that rnWesley Willis, who's I guess is a comedian or a musician, or it’s kind rnof complicated if you look him up... mostly musician, but it’s some thatrn he would say in a song, I think. I think somebody had emailed that, rnquoting one of his songs and we just sort of liked it as far as what we rnstood for, I guess. 
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rnWell, llamas are very cute.  But, I don’t know, just, just kind of havingrn some sort of identity and having it be a little weird.

Recorded on June 21, 2010
Interviewed by Jessica Liebman