Greater Than Code

Greater Than Code

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Greater Than Code episodes

  • 132: Distilling the Hailstorm with Claire Lew

    02:06 - Claire’s Superpower: The Ability to Distill Things and Catching Pellets

    05:21 - Janelle’s Superpower: Seeing the Gifts of Others and Bringing Them to Surface

    08:19 - Sam’s Superpower: Being Able to Make Connections Between the Shapes of Things Even if They Don’t Look the Same on the Surface

    09:13 - Bad Bosses

    • Panelist Experiences,
    • Symptoms of Poor Leadership and Management
    • Are We Bad Bosses?!
    • Okay Fine Whatever: The Year I Went from Being Afraid of Everything to Only Being Afraid of Most Things by Courtenay Hameister

      Command and Control Leadership

      26:18 - Talent vs Skill

      Questions to ask yourself if you’re an aspiring manager:

      • How much do you enjoy being in Flow?
      • How much do you enjoy repeating yourself?
      • Do you like to play detective about people?
      • Me, Myself, and Us: The Science of Personality and the Art of Well-Being by Brian R Little

        Reflections:

        Sam: “Do we ever think about ourselves, that we me be someone else’s worst boss?”

        Arty: Claire asking the panelists questions was different! (In a lovely way!)

        Claire: The different forms and threads that real leadership can take.

        This episode was brought to you by @therubyrep of DevReps, LLC. To pledge your support and to join our awesome Slack community, visit patreon.com/greaterthancode

        To make a one-time donation so that we can continue to bring you more content and transcripts like this, please do so at paypal.me/devreps. You will also get an invitation to our Slack community this way as well.

        Amazon links may be affiliate links, which means you’re supporting the show when you purchase our recommendations. Thanks!

        Special Guest: Claire Lew.

        Sponsored By:

        • Charles Schwab: This episode is brought to you by Charles Schwab – a modern financial services firm that stands apart from the industry, where you can go as far as your ambition and unique talents take you to create a career worth owning.
        To learn more about technology career opportunities with Schwab – visit Schwabjobs.com.

        Support Greater Than Code

        44 min
      • 131: Poo-Covered Rocks with Cat Swetel

        01:40 - Cat’s Superpower: Knowing What Other People’s Superpowers Are (before they do!)

        03:32 - Managing a Platform with Ancient Value

        07:54 - Telling Stories Within Code: History Matters

        10:11 - Cat’s Journey from Finance to Tech

        13:47 - Exploring Systems

        17:24 - Wardley Mapping

        31:52 - The Penguin Story: Looking For Poo-Covered Rocks

        37:53 - The Power of Observation and Reflection

        Reflections:

        John: Maintaining the history of an application.

        Jessica: So much of the world is what we can’t see. There is value in those poo-covered rocks!

        Avdi: When you see a bunch of people trying to get somewhere that you don’t understand, look for the poo-covered rock.

        Cat: What would it look like if we had a platform bard?

        Janelle: Scheduling specific time to stop, reflect, and observe as teams.

        This episode was brought to you by @therubyrep of DevReps, LLC. To pledge your support and to join our awesome Slack community, visit patreon.com/greaterthancode

        To make a one-time donation so that we can continue to bring you more content and transcripts like this, please do so at paypal.me/devreps. You will also get an invitation to our Slack community this way as well.

        Amazon links may be affiliate links, which means you’re supporting the show when you purchase our recommendations. Thanks!

        Special Guest: Cat Swetel.

        Sponsored By:

        • Charles Schwab: This episode is brought to you by Charles Schwab – a modern financial services firm that stands apart from the industry, where you can go as far as your ambition and unique talents take you to create a career worth owning.
        To learn more about technology career opportunities with Schwab – visit Schwabjobs.com.

        Support Greater Than Code

        53 min
      • 130: Acceptance is the First Step with Britni Alexander

        01:54 - Britni’s Superpower: Resilience; Also: Failure as an Opportunity, Wallowing, and Acceptance

        • Is failure a “No, but…” or “Yes, and…” ?
        • Acknowledging Emotions
        • Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality

          10:55 - Building Support Networks and Spiritual Communities

          13:16 - Facing Work Problems and Failures

          16:11 - Lies Developers Tell

          • Who is a programmer?
          • What it’s like to be a programmer.
          • What is or isn’t the right way to write code.
          • Programming is easy/hard.
          • Interpersonal skills aren’t important.
          • Measuring success by output lines of code.
          • Once you have x numbers of experience…
          • You have to love the code.
          • Joel on Software: And on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, and to Those Who, Whether by Good Fortune or Ill Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity

            Reflections:

            Sam: Resilience and not wallowing.

            Coraline: How we respond to failures and the impact it can have on other people.

            Britni: Naming acceptance as a step of resilience.

            This episode was brought to you by @therubyrep of DevReps, LLC. To pledge your support and to join our awesome Slack community, visit patreon.com/greaterthancode

            To make a one-time donation so that we can continue to bring you more content and transcripts like this, please do so at paypal.me/devreps. You will also get an invitation to our Slack community this way as well.

            Amazon links may be affiliate links, which means you’re supporting the show when you purchase our recommendations. Thanks!

            Special Guest: Britni Alexander.

            Sponsored By:

            • Charles Schwab: This episode is brought to you by Charles Schwab – a modern financial services firm that stands apart from the industry, where you can go as far as your ambition and unique talents take you to create a career worth owning.
            To learn more about technology career opportunities with Schwab – visit Schwabjobs.com.

            Support Greater Than Code

            53 min
          • 129: Bringing The Fun with Lori Olson

            Use the coupon code GREATER20OFF to get 20% off on any WNDX School course in May!

            01:23 - Lori’s Superpower: Mapping

            03:56 - “Positive Mania” and Getting Into Game Programming

            Dragon Ruby Game Toolkit

            Galaga

            07:42 - Fun, Learning New Stuff, and Abandoning Old Stuff

            The WNDX Group Inc

            12:42 - Cultural Differences Between Programming Language Communities

            23:18 - Thoughts on Platformification

            Kubernetes

            27:44 - Maintenance; The Evolution of Home Automation

            X10 Home Automation

            32:13 - Mentoring Novices and Beginners

            Canada Learning Code

            “Suckin’ at something is the first step to being sorta good at something.” -- Jake the Dog (Adventure Time)

            37:34 - Creating Tutorials for the WNDX School and Getting People Excited About Programming Via Game Programming

            A Dark Room

            Since this interview: A Dark Room pulled from Switch eShop for including code editor :’(

            Reflections:

            Jamey: “When I’m learning something new, I’m starting at the beginning, and it’s hard for me too.”

            Janelle: Bringing the fun back to the corporate world.

            Lori: We have to bring the fun to the job ourselves.

            This episode was brought to you by @therubyrep of DevReps, LLC. To pledge your support and to join our awesome Slack community, visit patreon.com/greaterthancode

            To make a one-time donation so that we can continue to bring you more content and transcripts like this, please do so at paypal.me/devreps. You will also get an invitation to our Slack community this way as well.

            Amazon links may be affiliate links, which means you’re supporting the show when you purchase our recommendations. Thanks!

            Special Guest: Lori Olson.

            Support Greater Than Code

            58 min
          • 128: Finding and Cultivating Community Leaders with Ben Pollard

            00:48 - Ben’s Superpower: Making Arancini and Reading A Lot of Books

            02:00 - Starting Local Welcome and Helping Refugees

            Death of Alan Kurdi

            09:37 - Humanization, Cognitive Biases, and Heuristics

            Contact Hypothesis

            Social Constructionism

            Social Conformity - Brain Games

            In-group Bias

            Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

            Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals by Saul D. Alinsky

            21:25 - Empathy and Compassion; Humans Thriving Together

            The Compassionate Mind Foundation

            The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells

            Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth

            The 36 Questions That Lead to Love

            31:26 - Measuring Success

            • Conversion
            • Financial Resilience
            • Social Contact Hours
            • Net Promoter Score (NPS)
            • Language Ability
            • 41:56 - Getting People to Connect with Refugees in a Personal Way

              Lump of Labour Fallacy

              “We come together through our sameness and we grow through our differences.” ~ Virginia Satir

              Reflections:

              Rein: The idea of communicative praxis.

              The Self after Postmodernity by Calvin O. Schrag

              Sam: The commodification of trust.

              Also, The Tyranny of Structureless: In any organization there are both explicit and implicit power structures. Changing the implicit ones.

              Ben: Having a safe space to reflect and have conversations.

              This episode was brought to you by @therubyrep of DevReps, LLC. To pledge your support and to join our awesome Slack community, visit patreon.com/greaterthancode

              To make a one-time donation so that we can continue to bring you more content and transcripts like this, please do so at paypal.me/devreps. You will also get an invitation to our Slack community this way as well.

              Amazon links may be affiliate links, which means you’re supporting the show when you purchase our recommendations. Thanks!

              Special Guest: Ben Pollard.

              Support Greater Than Code

              59 min
            • 127: Hope and Suffering with Amy Newell

              01:47 - Amy’s Superpower: Sustaining hope and faith in the face of what feels like no hope and no faith.

              Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life by Martin E. P. Seligman

              07:40 - Amy’s talk on “Suffering in the Workplace”: Genesis and Overview

              13:40 - Living a Valuable Life vs a Happy Life

              • Examining Causes
              • Feeling The Pain
              • Relieving Suffering by Seeking a Mindset of Innovation
              • 24:02 - Bringing Your “Whole Self” to the Workplace; Alleviating Suffering in the Workplace

                41:15 - Changing Culture in Organizations

                Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media

                54:40 - Bipolar Disorder

                Reflections:

                Jessica: A framework for dealing with suffering. A separation of concerns between observing feelings and deciding what to do about them.

                Janelle: By supporting people, we can end up with a better, healthier, and more productive organization.

                Avdi: Kindness in the workplace and power structures.

                Rein: How do you convince people to care about other people?

                Also, work implies suffering. The obligation to reduce suffering is shared -- but not equally.

                Amy: Disparities amongst different types of engineers and between engineering and other departments in tech companies.

                This episode was brought to you by @therubyrep of DevReps, LLC. To pledge your support and to join our awesome Slack community, visit patreon.com/greaterthancode

                To make a one-time donation so that we can continue to bring you more content and transcripts like this, please do so at paypal.me/devreps. You will also get an invitation to our Slack community this way as well.

                Amazon links may be affiliate links, which means you’re supporting the show when you purchase our recommendations. Thanks!

                Special Guest: Amy Newell.

                Support Greater Than Code

                1 hr 7 min
              • 126: Asking Powerful Questions with Suzan Bond

                01:04 - Suzan’s Superpower: Asking Powerful Questions

                The Compassionate Coder

                07:30 - Blending Technology and Coaching

                10:32 - Blending Technology and Humans; Working Distributed/Remotely

                15:32 - Creating Organizational Divides (Intentional and Unintentional)

                20:24 - Company Cultures That Lend Themselves Well to Remote Work

                Theory X and Theory Y (Douglas McGregor)

                25:19 - Autocratic vs Autonomy

                26:23 - Becoming a Coach and Learning Coaching Skills

                Emotional API

                30:46 - Listening to Yourself and Intuition

                “Good decisions get better; bad decisions get worse.”

                33:28 - Management vs Leadership / Developing Leadership Skills: Deliberation and Introspection

                Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages

                Reflections:

                Coraline: Powerful questions. Coaching by asking powerful questions.

                Suzan: The word “autonomy”.

                John: Asking questions to illicit insight, movement, and motivation.

                Ask Powerful Questions: Create Conversations That Matter by Will Wise

                This episode was brought to you by @therubyrep of DevReps, LLC. To pledge your support and to join our awesome Slack community, visit patreon.com/greaterthancode

                To make a one-time donation so that we can continue to bring you more content and transcripts like this, please do so at paypal.me/devreps. You will also get an invitation to our Slack community this way as well.

                Amazon links may be affiliate links, which means you’re supporting the show when you purchase our recommendations. Thanks!

                Special Guest: Suzan Bond.

                Support Greater Than Code

                53 min
              • 125: Everything is Communication with Sam Aaron

                01:42 - Sam’s Superpower: Staring at the same problem for days -- Patience and Delayed Gratification

                03:42 - Effective Communication: What is fluid?

                08:54 - Logging

                Honeycomb

                Open Sound Control

                12:55 - Sonic Pi

                Raspberry Pi

                Jeff Rose (@rosejn)

                overtone

                22:41 - Fixed Tempo, Clocks, and Time

                35:38 - Live Coding and Performance

                40:58 - Teaching Kids and “Promoting Cheating”

                49:21 - The Difference Between Music and Code

                58:44 - Sam’s Latest Performance Experience

                Reflections:

                Jessica: Checking for understanding.

                Avdi: The remix culture piece of this conversation.

                Janelle: Everything is conversation.

                Sam: Thinking about programming rhythmically.

                This episode was brought to you by @therubyrep of DevReps, LLC. To pledge your support and to join our awesome Slack community, visit patreon.com/greaterthancode

                To make a one-time donation so that we can continue to bring you more content and transcripts like this, please do so at paypal.me/devreps. You will also get an invitation to our Slack community this way as well.

                Amazon links may be affiliate links, which means you’re supporting the show when you purchase our recommendations. Thanks!

                Special Guest: Sam Aaron.

                Support Greater Than Code

                1 hr 9 min
              • 124: Navigating Neurodiversity with Helen Needham

                01:45 - Helen’s Superpower: Taking Abstract Information Seeing Things Others Don’t See

                05:26 - Decoding People: Asking Contextual Questions and Listening For Motivation

                11:52 - The Intersection of Empathy and Neurodiversity

                15:14 - Being Deliberate as a Survival/Coping Skill

                16:41 - Being Different, Understanding Yourself, and Discovering Your Unique Capabilities

                23:22 - Interfacing with the Neurodivergent Community and Actively and Openly Talking About Neurodiversity

                30:55 - Paying Attention to EQ: Emotional Intelligence

                37:01 - Becoming Self-Aware

                Helen Needham: My guide to working with me (an autistic adult)

                41:05 - MeDecoded: Personal stories from the Neurodivergent & allies, in the pursuit of decoding Neurodiversity

                Reflections:

                Jamey: Possibly implementing how to work with guides at their workplace.

                Jessica: Making a deliberate process out of decoding people.

                Avdi: It’s not about changing who you are, it’s about working with the world while you still are who you are.

                Janelle: Owning your own special skills and talents and taking in the hurricane.

                Helen: The importance of support and understanding. The world needs more silent heroes.

                This episode was brought to you by @therubyrep of DevReps, LLC. To pledge your support and to join our awesome Slack community, visit patreon.com/greaterthancode

                To make a one-time donation so that we can continue to bring you more content and transcripts like this, please do so at paypal.me/devreps. You will also get an invitation to our Slack community this way as well.

                Amazon links may be affiliate links, which means you’re supporting the show when you purchase our recommendations. Thanks!

                Special Guest: Helen Needham.

                Support Greater Than Code

                53 min
              • 123: BOOK CLUB! Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

                Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Persig

                05:21 - Persig’s Two Paradigms: Classical and Romantic

                11:50 - What is beautiful?

                15:49 - Quality

                33:44 - Emotional Motivation

                41:13 - Balancing Objective and Subjective Measures of Quality

                Reflections:

                Janelle: A shared definition of quality and creating bridges.

                Bryan: When you recognize you have two different categories of measures of quality, the team starts to need guardrails to push the group towards just a couple of agreed upon things.

                John: Taking the different value systems, and fusing them together in some degree that can help unify groups into single directions and sets of values.

                This episode was brought to you by @therubyrep of DevReps, LLC. To pledge your support and to join our awesome Slack community, visit patreon.com/greaterthancode

                To make a one-time donation so that we can continue to bring you more content and transcripts like this, please do so at paypal.me/devreps. You will also get an invitation to our Slack community this way as well.

                Amazon links may be affiliate links, which means you’re supporting the show when you purchase our recommendations. Thanks!

                Special Guest: Bryan Karlovitz.

                Sponsored By:

                • DevRelate.io: Are you truly involved in the developer communities you work in and sell to? Are you seeing the value in the events you are a part of? DevRelate.io can help! Developer and Community Relations as a Service: we speak developer!
                Learn more at DevRelate.io or email us at [email protected]!

                Support Greater Than Code

                1 hr 1 min

              About Greater Than Code

              From the publisher's feed

              For a long time, tech culture has focused too narrowly on technical skills; this has resulted in a tech community that too often puts companies and code over people. Greater Than Code is a podcast that invites the voices of people who are not heard from enough in tech: women, people of color, trans and/or queer folks, to talk about the human side of software development and technology. Greater Than Code is providing a vital platform for these conversations, and developing new ideas of what it means to be a technologist beyond just the code.