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:

141: Navigating Blame Jul 31, 2019

Show notes

02:37 - Interpersonal Neurobiology and Emotionally Meaningful Experiences + Feelings Working on Software

Code Smells

05:42 - Postmortems and Incident Reviews

09:05 - Blaming People / Blamelessness

From Safety-I to Safety-II: A White Paper

15:25 - Systems Are Benign: Equalizing Humans and What They Can Do to What Our Systems and Machines Can Do

22:47 - Survival Rules

27:37 - Perspectives on Blame

The Agile Prime Directive

35:44 - Survival Rules (Cont’d)

Personal Iceberg Metaphor of the Satir Model

37:48 - Gaining EQ and Inward Exploration

Reflections:

John: Handling blame in a healthy way and not blaming people for blaming people.

Chanté: Read The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom.

Jessica: Software teams are sometimes able to push back against the system because it can point to something tangibly not working.

Also, as an individual, it is not your job to change your whole company.

Astrid: The importance of having these conversations with your team.

Rein: Dealing with a manager who blames through solidarity with coworkers.

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:

Pantheon: This episode is sponsored by Pantheon. Pantheon is the platform of choice for more enterprise Drupal / WordPress sites than any other platform. A platform with superpowers needs to be run behind the scenes by super humans of all diversities and backgrounds. Pantheon actively supports non-profit initiatives throughout the Bay Area and beyond such as Techtonica, the Tech Equity Collaborative, and Lesbians Who Tech. Learn more about career opportunities at pantheon.io/GreaterThanCode.

Support Greater Than Code

140: Bounded Perfection with Amitai Schleier Jul 24, 2019

Show notes

01:29 - Running a Mail Server

08:49 - Amitai’s Superpower: Squirrel Power! and Orienting Himself in a New Problem Space (And Helping Others to Orient Them in Their Own Problem Spaces)

15:03 - Refactoring

23:15 - Managing Developer Time

Global Day of Coderetreat

Brooklyn November 2018: Global Day of Coderetreat

Conway’s Game of Life

28:57 - Feedback and Systems

33:38 - Email Servers

35:46 - Predictability

WeCamp

40:39 - Quality and Collaboration

45:47 - Orienting and Problem Space

Reflections:

Jessica: Having useful questions.

John: The bounded perfectionism concept and the tests as questions.

Rein: What are the minimum possible criteria for progress?

Amitai: “Make hidden things visible. Make abstract things concrete. Make implicit things explicit.” ~ Virginia Satir

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: Amitai Schleier.

Sponsored By:

Pantheon: This episode is sponsored by Pantheon. Pantheon is the platform of choice for more enterprise Drupal / WordPress sites than any other platform. A platform with superpowers needs to be run behind the scenes by super humans of all diversities and backgrounds. Pantheon actively supports non-profit initiatives throughout the Bay Area and beyond such as Techtonica, the Tech Equity Collaborative, and Lesbians Who Tech. Learn more about career opportunities at pantheon.io/GreaterThanCode.

Support Greater Than Code

139: Conferencing Jul 18, 2019

Show notes

02:43 - First Conference Experiences

08:31 - The Importance of Networking + Stickers!!

14:56 - Conference Fashion

16:51 - Approaching Speakers After Talks and Tricks to Remembering Names + Faces

18:49 - Speaking At Conferences

Handling Anxiety
Lightning Talks
- Toastmasters
Practice at Company Lunch and Learns and Meetups

31:38 - Conveying Information in a Talk

34:59 - Crafting Proposals, What Selection Committees Look For, and Writing Talks

The Purpose of Outlines
- OmniOutliner
Narrative Structure
Bad/Cliche Talk Titles
Shitposting

52:03 - Gathering Conference Talk Topic Inspiration

Reflections:

Coraline: Join our Greater Than Code Slack Community for friendly talk feedback!

Sam: Being a conference speaker is an awesome introvert hack. It gives people a reason to come talk to you!

Rein: You shouldn’t feel like you have to attend conferences or give talks at conference to have a career in the 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

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

Sponsored By:

Pantheon: This episode is sponsored by Pantheon. Pantheon is the platform of choice for more enterprise Drupal / WordPress sites than any other platform. A platform with superpowers needs to be run behind the scenes by super humans of all diversities and backgrounds. Pantheon actively supports non-profit initiatives throughout the Bay Area and beyond such as Techtonica, the Tech Equity Collaborative, and Lesbians Who Tech. Learn more about career opportunities at pantheon.io/GreaterThanCode.

Support Greater Than Code

138: Job Satisfaction Jul 10, 2019

Show notes

02:13 - What is Job Satisfaction?

03:25 - Predictors of Job Satisfaction

Mission Alignment
Psychological Safety

14:02 - Evaluating Job Satisfaction: Questions to Ask During Interviews

What should I know that I didn’t ask?
In six months, how will you know if hiring me was the right choice?

18:02 - Maintaining Positive Company Culture

Hire to Forge Signals
Meeting Potential Co-Workers

25:14 - Managers: What should you do if you know your team is unhappy?

27:42 - Positive Interactions with Coworkers + Feeling Needed / Relevant + Making Progress

Everything Is Broken, and It's OK - John Sawers

The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work

Rock Stars, Builders, and Janitors: You're Doing it Wrong

34:55 - When Jobs Respect Your Life 👍🏻

42:17 - “Passion” and Playing to People’s Strengths

54:34 - Values Interviews and Attitudes Towards Failure

Superfluous Job Satisfaction Reflections:

John: Microvalidations.

Jamey: Slack Airhorn Auto Response + Farm Meme Fridays

Laurie: Something associated with the start of her day that makes her smile before she even leaves for the office: a backpack.

Rein: Asking “Hey, how can I help you with that?” Also: idiosyncratic emoji usage.

Jacob: Offering to help new people set up their development environments.

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 Guests: Jacob Stoebel and Laurie Barth.

Sponsored By:

Pantheon: This episode is sponsored by Pantheon. Pantheon is the platform of choice for more enterprise Drupal / WordPress sites than any other platform. A platform with superpowers needs to be run behind the scenes by super humans of all diversities and backgrounds. Pantheon actively supports non-profit initiatives throughout the Bay Area and beyond such as Techtonica, the Tech Equity Collaborative, and Lesbians Who Tech. Learn more about career opportunities at pantheon.io/GreaterThanCode.

Support Greater Than Code

137: Pairing & Sharing with Llewellyn Falco and Clare Macrae Jul 03, 2019

Show notes

01:32 - Clare’s Superpower: Collecting and Sharing Useful Information

04:31 - Llewellyn’s Superpower: The Ability to Collaborate with Others

08:01 - Pairing Together: C++ Version of ApprovalTests

12:15 - Pairing Retrospectives: What emotions did you feel?

MindMup

16:21 - Kinship Formed Through Working Together

18:55 - Working Asynchronously vs Live Pairing

20:15 - Writing Documentation for Pairing Sessions and Working to Improve the C++ Community Culture

#include

30:44 - Safeguarding: Harnessing Pain For Good

Safeguarding: A step-by-step guide

MarkdownSnippets

35:04 - Documentation Cont’d

Turning “Error Messages” Into “Help Messages”
Healthy Abstractions
Testing Communication

45:08 - Asking “Why” Questions vs “What” Questions: Observability

Reflections:

John: The idea of using a retrospective in such a small scale. Also, the difference in the level of community while pairing: building kinship.

Clare: Read more about the paradigm framing effect.

Llewellyn: Being appreciative of the people you pair with.

Arty: Taking the time to think about what you’re doing from the perspective of sharing affects what you do.

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 Guests: Clare Macrae and Llewellyn Falco.

Sponsored By:

Atlas Authority: This episode of Greater Than Code is brought to you by Atlas Authority. Atlas Authority helps organizations manage and scale their Atlassian stack. With expertise in Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket and other software development tools, Atlas Authority offers consulting, training, licensing and managed hosting services. Visit AtlasAuthority.com/GTC to find out more and learn why organizations trust Atlas Authority to implement, support, and maintain their critical Atlassian applications.

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136: Addressing Technical Friction Jun 26, 2019

Show notes

The Twitter thread:

All I can say here is that I try to lead by example. If there’s a clear path to “make the change easy, then make the easy change,” make sure the commit history shows that explicitly, then ask for a code review even if your process doesn’t require it. 1/ https://t.co/VDxDbEQUf3
— Sam Livingston-Gray (@geeksam) June 9, 2019

Sam Livingston-Gray - F̶l̶u̶e̶n̶t̶ Refactoring Talk: Sam talks about refactoring a gnarly Rails controller method. This is a lightly edited version of a talk Sam gave in 2013.

Resources:

github.com/geeksam/fluent-refactoring

Introduction to the Technical Debt Concept

Status Quo Bias

The Well Traveled Road Effect

21:47 - Refactoring Resistance: Who are you trying to convince?

Product Owner (Goal Donor)
Funder (Gold Owner)
Crusty Teammate
Newbie Teammate

github.com/danmayer/coverband

28:57 - The Risks of Refactoring

Rice’s Theorem

Idealized Design:

Technically Viable
Organizationally Viable
A System Capable of Improvement Over Time

3 Different Kinds of Technical Debt:

Intentional Debt
Evolutionary Debt
Bit Rot

Churn Tool

35:08 - Documentation and Decision Records

36:59 - Code Value Judgement

42:00 - Convincing Coworkers Re: Refactoring a Codebase

Adaptive Capacity

Reflections:

Coraline: Adaptive Capacity.

Rein: Viability.

Sam: It’s about dealing with people and effectively working with and for them.

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!

Sponsored By:

Atlas Authority: This episode of Greater Than Code is brought to you by Atlas Authority. Atlas Authority helps organizations manage and scale their Atlassian stack. With expertise in Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket and other software development tools, Atlas Authority offers consulting, training, licensing and managed hosting services. Visit AtlasAuthority.com/GTC to find out more and learn why organizations trust Atlas Authority to implement, support, and maintain their critical Atlassian applications.

Support Greater Than Code

135: Intentional Learning with Saron Yitbarek Jun 19, 2019

Show notes

01:24 - Saron’s Superpower: Being able to figure out what people need + read people.

02:26 - Codeland Conference

July 22nd, 2019 in New York City!

Episode 026: Codeland, Capitalism, and Creating Inclusive Spaces with Saron Yitbarek

03:23 - Offering Free Onsite Childcare at Conferences

07:02 - CodeNewbie

08:18 - Expertise in Newbie-ism

14:55 - Learning and Teaching

Conversation Theory

Virtual Reality

Oculus

22:27 - Encouraging Asking, Psychological Safety, and Being Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable

29:48 - Building a Supportive Community and Advice for Code Newbies

Dev.to

34:12 - Dealing with Bad Actors

Episode 038: Category Theory for Normal Humans with Dr. Eugenia Cheng (Congressive/Ingressive Behavior Conversation)

42:35 - Coding as a Reflection of People

49:23 - Lexicon and Creating a Shared Language

Mitigated Speech

Reflections:

Chanté: Everyone is a Newbie, and the living room metaphor.

Rein: How much ego investment in our work is appropriate?

Arty: Growing the magical living room.

Saron: Thinking about mitigation speech.

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

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: Saron Yitbarek.

Sponsored By:

Atlas Authority: This episode of Greater Than Code is brought to you by Atlas Authority. Atlas Authority helps organizations manage and scale their Atlassian stack. With expertise in Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket and other software development tools, Atlas Authority offers consulting, training, licensing and managed hosting services. Visit AtlasAuthority.com/GTC to find out more and learn why organizations trust Atlas Authority to implement, support, and maintain their critical Atlassian applications.

Support Greater Than Code

134: Building Profiles with Halleemah Nash Jun 12, 2019

Show notes

01:43 - Halleemah’s Superpower: Cultural Fluency: Operating authentically and being who you are in any space you are in.

Code-switching

07:37 - Existing in Other Spaces; Active Listening

10:31 - Building Bridges to Change the Complexion of the Workforce

Generation Z

15:01 - Identifying Potential Talent, Engaging Underrepresented Populations, and Doing Intentional Work to Diversify Relationships

21:17 - Change, Evolution, and Reinvention

33:25 - Resilience and Acknowledging Privilege

40:10 - Shortening the Distance for Young People; “Urban Authenticity”

Reflections:

Sam: A door metaphor: Things that you can do with something that you originally think of as just being just a static part of the landscape around you that you can interact with and that you can change.

Rein: Maximizing the potential to shine within each person and maximizing their ability to shine throughout the world.

Arty: The concept of “Cultural Fluency”.

Halleemah: Radical professionalism.

Rein: Bonus Reflection: Light bulbs have the ability to shine but only with their connections with others.

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: Halleemah Nash.

Sponsored By:

Atlas Authority: This episode of Greater Than Code is brought to you by Atlas Authority. Atlas Authority helps organizations manage and scale their Atlassian stack. With expertise in Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket and other software development tools, Atlas Authority offers consulting, training, licensing and managed hosting services. Visit AtlasAuthority.com/GTC to find out more and learn why organizations trust Atlas Authority to implement, support, and maintain their critical Atlassian applications.

Support Greater Than Code

133: Dark Horses with Chanté Thurmond Jun 05, 2019

Show notes

01:56 - Chanté’s Superpower: Spotting Talent (Dark Horses)

05:33 - Perceiving Talent/Potential

Essentialism

09:15 - Confronting Biases and Societal Categorization/Division/Labeling

18:54 - Identity as a Feedback Loop

25:04 - Health and Wellness and Human Potential

27:00 - Privilege vs Potential

Actuality, Capability, Potentiality

Brain of the Firm by Stafford Beer

Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis

36:31 - Framing; Framing as Related to Coaching

Matt Ringel: Whiteboarding 101

Functional Fixedness

RailsConf 2019 - Keynote: The Stories We Tell Our Children by Ariel Caplan

49:39 - Working with Organizations to Improve Diversity and Inclusion (Using Metrics)

Campbell’s Law

Reflections:

John: When you pay attention to the margins, the marginalized, etc., and optimize for those getting better, you also optimize for the happiness of the rest of the people inside those margins.

Jessica: Letting go of your goal allows emergence of outcomes you didn’t expect.

Rein: Having values that we can use to determine whether we are moving in the direction we want to move in, and to continue to move in the direction that is towards our values.

Chanté: It’s not about quantity, it’s about quality conversation.

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: Chanté Thurmond.

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.

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132: Distilling the Hailstorm with Claire Lew May 29, 2019

Show notes

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

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: