Greater Than Code

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Software How-To
**Greater Than Code**

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.
Featuring an ongoing panel of racially and gender diverse tech panelists, the majority of podcast guests so far have been women in tech! We’ve covered topics including imposter syndrome, mental illness, sexuality, unconscious bias and social justice. We also have a major focus on skill sets that tech too often devalues, like team-building, hiring, community organizing, mentorship and empathy. Each episode also includes a transcript.
We have an active Slack community that members can join by pledging as little as $1 per month via Patreon. (https://www.patreon.com/greaterthancode)

Latest Episodes:

168: Appolition with Dr. Kortney Ziegler Feb 05, 2020

Show notes

01:06 - Kortney’s Superpower: Being a visionary. Seeing things that aren’t necessarily there.

01:50 - How Appolition Came to Be

Grassroots Company Crowdfunding Money for Incarcerated Black Mothers
Tweeted About Using the Change Round Up Model
Educating Those in Tech About What Bail Is
Gaining Trust

07:20 - Kortney’s Professional Background

Building Things in Technological Space
PhD in 2011 - difficulty finding substantial employment
Filmmaker, Scholar
Encountered a lot of discrimination in professional career
Became Entrepreneur in 2012/2013
Attended Filmmakers Hackathon
Launched Trans*H4CK
Appolition

13:10 - Appolition Specifics

Bail is Predatory
Educate Yourself About Bail
Partnered With Outside Team
2000 Users, Waitlist of 8000
Then Brought In House
Unlimited Users
Web App - No Download Required

19:45 - Partnering With Others To Provide Education

21:00 - Surprises/Ah-Ha Moments

The Expenses
Humbling to Recognize the Work That Goes Into It
Naming of the App Traveling in Media Convos

25:10 - The Goal of Appolition

How We Can Leverage Technology That Exists

30:00 - Lessons From A Hackathon

Went As Award Winning Filmmaker
Engineers Not Willing to Hear Ideas of Creators
Led to Creating Trans*H4CK
Refuge Restroom

35:19 - Changes Seen At Tech Events Since Trans*H4CK

Great Conversations and Events Happened
Startups Can Shift Rules, They Haven’t been As Inclusive As the Discourse Surrounding Them Was Encouraging Them To Be
Some Things Were Good, Some Things Were Bad, Some Things Need Improvement

43:08 - Plans After Leaving Tech

Getting Back to Creative Side
Filmmaking
Self-Improvement

45:49 - Fatigue

50:00 - Future Endeavors

Follow @Appolition
#AppolitionBookList

Reflections:

Jamey: Appolition being a webapp so that it is accessible to those who don’t have smartphones.

Chanté: Going back into self improvement and self reflection is being tucked into the back of my mind.

Jacob: What are conversations I can have that I have access to about diversity and inclusion before the professional gets called in.

Kortney: Moved by the idea of finding community in tech.

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: Dr. Kortney Ziegler.

Support Greater Than Code

167: Clarity of Thought with Ted M. Young Jan 29, 2020

Show notes

01:20 - Ted’s Superpower: Translating things for people to understand better.

02:49 - Coding on a Live Stream

Curiosity is Useful and Dangerous
Comparing Coding to Puzzles

07:13 - Research is a Drug

Finding Answers is Gratifying
Current Reading Infects Daily Thought
Anders Ericsson

10:45 - Connecting the Academic Idea of Expertise to Everyday Context

Worked Examples
Memory Limits
Gaining a Solid Foundation for Training Purposes
The Path of Decision-making

16:50 - Code Reviews

Learning About Decisions Made Along the Way
Pair Programming and Mob Programming
Externalizing Your Thinking
Curse of Knowledge

19:41 - Recording Yourself Coding/Learning Something New

Gaining Empathy
Improving Documentation and Communication

21:56 - Live Streaming as an Introvert

What Other People Get Out of It
Seeing People Struggle and Being Able to Help
We All Get Lost
Building Community
Being Comfortable Showing Frustration

29:41 - The Difference Between Training and Live Coding

Suz Hinton
Accountability in Live Coding
Privilege

35:35 - Applying Research to TDD Teaching Technique

James Shore
The Thinking Part and the Predictive Aspect
It’s Not About the Test Failing, It’s About Validating Your Mental Model
Retrieval Practice
Formative and Summative Assessments
Spaced Repetition
AnkiApp
The Purpose of Patterns

48:27 - Human Learning

Stop Teaching People What They Know and Find Out What They Don’t Know

Reflections:

Jamey: ‘Predictions’ in TDD - Having more succinct language for things in your head strengthens understanding.

Artemis: The concept of strengthening and muscle. If we can work deliberately on strengthening these muscles then in the moments of our everyday work we can improve the quality of our day to day decisions.

Ted: An aspect of expertise is you start connecting more things. We have to find a place for the ‘why.’

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

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

Special Guest: Ted M. Young.

Support Greater Than Code

166: From Software Engineer to Management with Phil Wheeler Jan 22, 2020

Show notes

01:10 - Phil’s Superpower: Putting Himself in Others’ Shoes.

02:03/09:14 From Software Engineer to Management

Empathy Through The Career Shift
The Learning Curve
Making a Conscious Choice To Switch
Gaining Leadership Skills
Making Your Own Opportunities

03:34 - How Phil Came Into The Greater Than Code Community

Found Through Twitter
Codemania

05:54 - Commonalities Between Issues Between USA and NZ

Inclusion, Equality in Technology

07:05 - Life Science Software Experience

Cloud Based, LT
Awareness of Accessibility

16:45 - To Get Into Management or Not

It’s Not For Everyone
Impostor Syndrome

18:55 - The Parallels Of Management And Parenting

26:17 - Working From Home Or The Office

Setting The Right Examples For The Team
Encouraging People To Take Leave, Learning And Development Opportunities, Health Reasons Without Repercussions

31:47 - Living In A College/University Town

32:54 - Overcoming Impostor Syndrome

Exists In The Technology Sector
Exists In Other Disciplines
Turn The Ship Around!
The Manager’s Path

35:58 - Empathy For Managers And Employees

Leadership Development
Self-Reflection/Self-Awareness
Journaling/Note Taking
Becoming A Technical Leader

51:11 - Phil’s Thoughts For The Future

Citizens Before Consumers
What Can We Do Better?
The Global Digital Citizen Foundation

Reflections:

Jacob: Happy being an individual contributor but contributing to the art of management by being a better employee and having empathy for managers.

Phil: Self-Awareness and empathy. Wanting to push his people in a certain direction but taking that step back and determining where that motivation is coming from.

Chanté: Impostor syndrome: at some point in time we’re all impostors. Doing reading about leadership can help whether you are taking that path or not.

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

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

Special Guest: Phil Wheeler.

Support Greater Than Code

Fast & Furious with Penelope Phippen Jan 15, 2020

Show notes

Please enjoy this mini-episode of Greater Than Code featuring guest Penelope Phippen as we begin to pivot to our new podcast theme, the Fast & Furious. *

( * Just kidding, we are still a tech podcast.)

But we do hope you enjoy this set of outtakes where we grill Penelope on her Fast & Furious knowledge and speculate about the future of the franchise.)

This is the kind of content we normally release exclusively to our Patreon subscribers, but we didn't want to hoard such joy, so it's a gift to all of you. But if you want more content like this, an invite to our Slack group, AND an invite to the Fast & Furious party at Jamey's house, please support us on Patreon! *

( * That is also a joke, if you're a Patron, thank you for your support, but please don't show up to Jamey's house unannounced.)

Special Guest: Penelope Phippen.

Support Greater Than Code

165: Rubyfmt with Penelope Phippen Jan 15, 2020

Show notes

01:37 - Penelope’s Superpower: An extremely cursed knowledge of the Ruby programming language’s grammar.

03:09 - Writing Ruby Programming

05:50 - Why Penelope is Doing This the Way She Is

Were Any Bugs Found in the Ruby Grammar
There is No Spec
There is No Written Standard for How Ruby is Supposed to Work

07:32 - Inability to Extract Parse.y Out

Penelope’s Ideas

12:02 - What Problem Penelope is Trying to Solve With This Program

Rubocop Doesn’t Well Solve This Problem

18:30 - Hierarchy of Nitpicking

20:35 - Opportunities for Collaboration

22:44 - Major Challenges Faced

Finding Time
No Major Challenges
Community Overwhelmingly Welcoming
This is Not a Gem

25:58 - What Others Will Do With Rubyfmt

28:08 - Finding Time and Motivation to Work on Rubyfmt

30:00 - Why Penelope Hasn’t Got Pushback

There Isn’t Another Tool in This Class for Ruby

34:25 - Heretically Creating An Ergonomic Way To Work With ASTs

37:00 - The Fate of Regional Ruby Conferences

Regional Conferences Are Valuable For Other People
Speakers Can Get Their Start
Local Conferences Can Benefit Local Speakers
Struggling to Get Speakers
Organizers Burnout and No One Takes Over
$$ - Hard to Break Even

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

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

Special Guest: Penelope Phippen.

Support Greater Than Code

164: Psychological Balance with Dr. Mireille Reece Jan 08, 2020

Show notes

01:14 - Mireille’s Superpower: Being just herself. The sense of respect around the individuality of every person.

02:30 - Being Different From Others is a Good Thing

Nature vs. Nurture
Epigenetics

05:59 - Our Brains and Empathy

Mirror Neurons
Dr. Dan Siegel
The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon/Frequency Illusion

11:15 - The Brain vs. The Mind

Extended Cognition
Sensation and Perception
Survival Rules - Virginia Satir

19:22 - Three Brains in One

21:51 - HPA Axis

Dr. John Briere

23:06 - Overcoming Unconscious Impulses

Fight or Flight
Collateral Data
Brené Brown
Grounding

26:56 - Affective Prosody

Gavin de Becker - The Gift of Fear
Incongruence

33:26 - Balancing Transparency at Work

Humanity in Tech
Codeswitching
Arianna Huffington
Relationships at Work
Psychological Safety
Shame
Learned Helplessness

48:41 - Effort Over Outcome

56:15 - Using the Word “While”

59:25 - Decoding Your Anger

Using Energy

01:05:28 - “Plays” or Neural Routes

01:09:20 - Correlation vs. Causation

Reflections:

Rein: Bringing our whole self to work without thinking about punishment or reprisal. Finding psychological safety.

Jacob: How he thinks one of the biggest problems in the tech industry is that there is this brick wall around feelings and how feelings and work don’t mix. Rather than a brick wall, what kind of filter can we put in front of our emotional lives that is appropriate for the professional world?

Mireille: It really is around being able to see other people as people and when we do that most of the time people are not trying to make our lives more difficult.

Check out Mireille’s podcast Brain Science here.

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

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

Special Guest: Dr. Mireille Reece.

Support Greater Than Code

163: Cause A Scene with Kim Crayton Jan 01, 2020

Show notes

01:24 - Kim’s Superpower: Being a Black Woman in Tech with a Strategy and a Platform.

02:21 - Continuously Validating Your Space as a Black Woman

Technical vs. Technology
Kamala Harris Suspending Her Campaign
Inclusion, Diversity, and Business Strategy

08:10 - The System was Built to Harm and Oppress Black Women

Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing
Stacey Abrams
F*ck Civility
White People are on a Spectrum of Racist
Ibram Kendi: How To Be an Antiracist
Black People Cannot be Racist

15:42 - The Only Power Black People Have is the Power Whiteness Has Given Them

Capitalism, Communism, Marxism, Socialism are Theories Rooted in White Supremacy

21:24 - White Feminism is Bullsh*t

White Women are Now the Default Diversity in Tech

25:50 - Being a Strategist

Influencing Small to Medium Sized Business
Making Meaningful Impactful Change in Tech

33:15 - #causeascene

35:41 - Price Asymmetry

36:48 - Kim’s Six-Step Process

40:15 - Stop Looking for Simple Solutions to Complex Problems

Defining Racism Beyond the Dictionary Definition

44:29 - Future of Jobs Report from World Economic Forum

45:55 - Strategies for Developing Your Other Technical Skills

48:15 - Bounded Rationality

Facts Change, Truth Remains the Same
Collaboration Over Competition

52:10 - Can We Have Antiracist Capitalism?

01:00:59 - Defining Racism

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

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

Special Guest: Kim Crayton.

Support Greater Than Code

162: Glue Work with Denise Yu Dec 25, 2019

Show notes

00:58 - Denise’s Superpower: She is a classically trained musician and is good at transcribing music in her head.

03:30 - Glue Work

Tanya Reilly
Doing Tasks That Are Adjacent to Coding
Scheduling
Making Sure Meetings Have Agendas
Who Tends to do Glue Work
Emotional Labor

13:07 - What Denise Has Done to Improve the Glue Work Situation

Having the Terminology Helps A Lot

17:31 - How to Address Changing the Structure of Glue Work

Thinking Globally and Acting Locally
Burnout
Writing More Feedback Than Managers Expect
Writing Feedback About Glue Work
Virginia Satir

31:40 - Offboarding Yourself

37:10 - Release Engineering

39:45 - Being a Product Manager

46:39 - Being Back in the Development Role

Working With Teams

Reflections:

John: The distinction between glue work that is just work that you are doing and glue work that you are enjoying and getting satisfaction out of. See what he can do to add glue work tasks into evaluations and part of everyone’s job.

Rein: Burnout isn’t just working long hours. Burnout becomes a real danger when those things combine with acute alienation.

Jacob: If product managers tried to be more transparent with their day to day tasks, and trying to listen more himself to what the PMs are saying.

Denise: Thinking globally but solving locally. Always be offboarding yourself.

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

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

Special Guest: Denise Yu.

Support Greater Than Code

161: Making Space with Bärí A. Williams Dec 18, 2019

Show notes

01:48 - Bärí’s Superpower: Being a Black Woman

05:20/22:50 - Admitting and Knowing What You Don’t Know

Intersectionality and Culture

10:00 - Born and Raised in Oakland

Gentrification
What is the Deficit of the City
Being Connected to Your Roots

19:30 - Unintended Consequences

Building Algorithms That Fact Check
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
Facts Are Not Facts Anymore
Tutorial to Boy Scouts About Getting Stopped by Police
Keeping the Kids Alive

33:15 - Where is the Light (In the Technology)

Technology is the Mirror of the People Creating It
Creating an Open Space
Prioritizing Important Events

42:34 - Getting Organizations to Buy Into the Open Space Concept

48:50 - Who’s Job is it to Educate the Children About Bias

Allyship
Seeing White Podcast

58:47 - Diversity or Inclusion

Lagging Metric or Leading Metric
Draw People In With Inclusion

01:03:59 - Taking Space and Making Space

Reflections:

Arty: Multigenerational roots, becoming your own being, being raised to be proud of yourself and say what you think. Be the roots for the people around you. There has been a loss of grounding.

Chanté: Bärí is the real deal. It takes only a few to change history. Being real is valuable.

Jacob: Wants his son to know that he won’t have to worry when being pulled over, and he should be troubled by that fact.

Bärí: What do you connect to, who do you connect to? What and who are you thankful for? Think about 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

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

Special Guest: Bärí A. Williams.

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