Greater Than Code

01:15 – Allison’s Superpower: Making Unplanned and Hectic Situations Work Out

The Stockdale Paradox

06:43 – Getting Into Agriculture

08:54 – Building a Company Culture

13:19 – Transmitting Culture and Core Values When Hiring New People

20:02 – Disagreeing Respectfully and Maintaining Strong Opinions

25:19 – Clear Boundaries Between Work and Home Life

32:34 – What Tech Look Looks Like in the Context of a Working Farm

40:27 – Writing Code for Non-Technical People

Reflections:

Coraline: Practicing empathy for the user when writing software.

Jamey: Consciously make space for people who don’t speak as loudly as other people.

Sam: Learn something new every day.

Allison: How different people want to work remotely and how we can create an open way to actually do that.

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.

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Special Guest: Allison Kopf.

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Software Design Decoded: 66 Ways Experts Think (The MIT Press) by Marian Petre and André van der Hoek

01:39 – Marian’s Superpower: Picking Brains

Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking by Douglas Hofstadter

03:28 – André’s Superpower: Identifying Patterns

04:23 – Design Thinking Within Companies and The Error by Proxy Phenomenon

09:19 – The Notion that Design Has Gone Away

12:18 – Radical vs Normal Design: What drives the need for radical design? When does normal design stop being effective?

19:55 – The Democratization of Software Development

24:45 – Software Design Decoded: 66 Ways Experts Think

27:45 – The Disconnect Between Academic Research and Actual Practice

29:25 – Why “Decoded”?

32:59 – How People Deal with Systems That Are Too Big

39:19 – Problem Solving and Problem Solving in the Context of Complex Software Systems

44:29 – The Notion of the Toolbox and Breaking Down Big Problems Into Smaller Problems

Reflections:

Coraline: There are two types of gurus.

Rein: The democratization of software development and steering organizations.

Jessica: Studying the bug rather than squashing the bug and experts are in the room twice.

Jamey: Designers saying that, “My job IS hard!” and being kind to themselves.

André and Marian: Having these conversations and interacting with people in this industry.

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 Guests: André van der Hoek and Marian Petre .

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00:58 – Aditya’s Superpower: Parking Karma

03:18 – Algorithmic Decision Making in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

09:06 – Recognizing the Effects of Bias

The Bias Blind Spot

The Babadook

18:07 – Health and Technology: How can technology have a meaningful impact on care delivery?

23:54 – Why are people frightened of automation?

33:33 – Storytelling in Software and Engineering

Reflections:

Sam: Be a little bit more aware of how stories are told.

Aditya: Thinking of yourself as an editor for the story.

Jamey: The difference between can we build this and should we build this?

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: Aditya Mukerjee.

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01:22 – Rehema’s Superpower: Empathy

02:53 – Rehema’s “Untypical” Origin Story

07:20 – Enjoying Coding Because of the Complexity Behind It

11:21 – Creating a “Culture of Saving”

14:52 – “Diversity of Thought” and Seeing the World Through Others’ Eyes

22:20 – Being Creators and Makers

Indie Hackers

30:28 – How Technology Empowers People

38:27 – The Distribution of Brilliance and Opportunity

47:01 – Freedom of Creative Expression

Reflections:

Astrid: Having to unlearn the need of being perfect.

Jessica: We want to speak to more guests on a global level! Please reach out!

Sam: Fixed vs growth mindset.

Rein: Diversity is not just good for ethical reasons, it also makes your organization more competent.

Janelle: Celebrating beautiful.

Rehema: A fundamental right to freedom.

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: Rehema Wachira.

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01:22 – Jamey’s Superpower: “The Fharlanghn Sense”

02:40 – Working in Agriculture

04:03 – Theories on Automation

05:56 – Pivoting Into Computer Science and Software Development

10:35 – Feeling Like You Need to Know Everything

Stella Report from the SNAFUcatchers Workshop on Coping With Complexity

15:47 – ‘Zines and Being a ‘Zine Librarian

27:50 – The Beauty of Art and Technology and Forming Emotional Connections to Things

Floppy Music DUO – Imperial March

35:26 – The Death Star => Ethics in Technology and Taking Responsibility/Being Accountable for your Code

Malcolm Gladwell: The strange tale of the Norden bombsite

@greaterthancode:

49:42 – Brilliance and Learning From Others Without Consent

54:49 – Advice for Channeling Your Own Inner Fharlanghn Sense

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!

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00:53 – Safia’s Superpower: Sight

03:04 – Learning Languages — Both Human and Programming

The Sapir Whorf Hypothesis

07:56 – Being Empathetic in an International Perspective and Building Universal and Approachable Tech

11:19 – What does success look like for minorities in the Silicon Valley monoculture?; Being Tokenized

Admiral Grace Hopper

21:59 – Accepting Speaking Engagements Because of Who You Are (i.e. as a woman, minority, etc.)

24:07 – Writing Things Down to Balance Prioritizing Decisions

30:46 – Defining “Happy” and Always Feeling the Need to Do More

37:02 – Destruction-Focused Development

@jessitron

"I don't become obsessed with the code.

@captainsafia on @greaterthancode.

43:58 – Safia’s Early Coding “Shenanigans”

Reflections:

Coraline: Being thoughtful about planning finite energy and labor. Also being content vs being happy.

@jessitron

@CoralineAda on @greaterthancode

Jasmine: Exploring feelings about being represented at events.

Jessica: Broadening perspectives that most of us were born into.

Safia: Talking about the Silicon Valley monoculture, being content vs happy, and tokenism.

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: Safia Abdalla.

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01:19 – Kent’s Superpower: Putting Things Together That Don’t Necessarily Go Together

Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking by Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel Sander

04:01 – Metaphors in Software Development

07:32 – Writing Tests and Keeping a Journal

@jessitron

@KentBeck on @greaterthancode

10:58 – Complexity Partitioning

One Bite At A Time: Partitioning Complexity

Kent’s musings on the topic of unit versus integration testing after the show.

21:59 – The Way Systems Change Over Time as an Important Part of How We Design Software

27:20 – Changing Culture Vs Code and Storytelling and Succession

Reflections:

Jamey: Thinking about the reasons why we do things.

Rein: How computer systems are beginning to take on the complexity of biological systems.

Coraline: The concept of lumpers vs splitters.

Sam: How strategies for dealing with complexity don’t just have to be about the problem itself, they can be about the emotional response of the programmer who has to get some work done.

Jessica: The for-allers vs the for-eachers; universalist vs existentialist.

Kent: Not being bothered by culture change and helping people feel the same.

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: Kent Beck.

Sponsored By:

• Cohere: This episode is sponsored by Cohere! Cohere believes better teams make better products. Visit [wecohere.com/greaterthancode](https://www.wecohere.com/greater-than-code) to learn how your team can become greater than code.

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01:13 – Pamela Podcasting, Since…well, FOREVER!

Astronomy Cast

365 Days of Astronomy

Adam Curry

02:19 – Pamela’s Superpower: Solving Random Problems with Software

05:19 – Becoming a “Reluctant Coder” i.e. Coding Out of Necessity

10:58 – Battlestar Galactica => Greek Mythology => Space => Astrophysics

14:52 – Doing What You Have To Do vs Doing What You Love To Do

20:27 – The Goal of Podcasting and Target Audience

23:57 – Understanding and Knowing Everything: Good? Bad?

26:03 – Outsourcing Work as a Personal Loss and The Internet’s Graveyard of Abandoned Projects

32:06 – Open Sourcing Work Yourself for the Benefit of Others

36:58 – Writing Software to Engage People

CosmoQuest Citizen Science

44:22 – Crowdsourcing Requires Trust but Garners Better Results

48:02 – The Motivation of Citizen Scientists

@cosmoquestx

Reflections:

Jessica: The layers of people in software and people in software and how we’re all learning. It gets hard to separate the people from the technology.

Also, having goals you DON’T want to achieve.

Coraline: Seeing crowdsourcing being successful.

Jamey: Curiosity isn’t necessarily about finding out the answer. It’s the pursuit of the magic.

The tenuous path we all take in life, and what decisions cause us to be on the right path to the right here, right now.

Pamela: If we collaborate with the technology, maybe we won’t get silenced.

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: Pamela Gay.

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00:16 – Welcome to Episode 111010 of the Greater Than Code Podcast!

02:09 – Tara’s Superpower and Origin Story: Patience

04:56 – Conflating Patience with Kindness

07:39 – Is writing code making us less thoughtful? AKA Patience in the Workplace

The Economic Value of Rapid Response Time (The Doherty Threshold)

16:22 – Warning Signs that a Company’s Culture is Not a Good One; Also, is it the company or is it individuals within a company?

22:59 – Looking for and Interviewing for a Job at a Less Toxic Environment

33:20 – What does it mean to be a developer?

36:33 – Interviewing and Privilege

39:35 – Advice for Early Career Developers

44:10 – Remote Work Culture

Reflections:

Coraline: Being patient and kind.

Astrid: Software development is always something you can continue to improve at.

Tara: People don’t have to be exactly like us to be a person that we want to work with. Being different can be an asset.

Sam: Interviewing somebody should be able finding out how they think and not about what they necessary know at the moment.

Special Guest: Tara Scherner de la Fuente.

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01:08 – Christina’s Background and Superpower: Multitasking and Automation

See Also: GTC 056: Systematize Your Hustle with Kronda Adair

04:42 – Automation Processes: Discovery and Reconnaissance, and When Human Judgement and Input is Necessary

10:03 – Multitasking Timescales and Context Switching

16:39 – Decision-making Functions

23:28 – Being Kind to Your Busy Self and Choosing What NOT To Do

We’re Going to Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny, Complicated, and True by Gabrielle Union

32:03 – Making Accomplishments Visible to Yourself and Having a Culture of Acknowledgement

For more discussion on congressive/ingressive behavior, see also: GTC Episode 038: Category Theory for Normal Humans with Dr. Eugenia Cheng

Operant Conditioning Chamber (Skinner Box)

Reflections:

Rein: Being self-aware of how much is on your plate, how you’re feeling about it, and then being able to say no, which is really saying yes to what YOU want to do, what YOU want to spend time on, and how YOU want to live YOUR life.

Janelle: Taking the time to remember and that remembering takes time.

Jessica: Choosing the group that you’re being generative with.

Christina: UX is everything and everywhere.

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!

Sponsored By:

• Upside: Bundle your flights and hotel. Save money. Earn gift cards.

Support Greater Than Code