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Greater Than Code — 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:

073: Driven By Need, Guided By Example with Dan North Mar 28, 2018

Show notes

01:41 – Dan’s Superpower: Optimization

03:26 – Are “Improve” and “Optimize” the same thing?

Cost Accounting

17:20 – How is cost accounting affected by demographics and privilege?

33:34 – Team Alignment, Collectiveness, and Camaraderie

37:42 – Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) vs Test-Driven Development (TDD)

Write the executable specifications to guide development.
Then, delete most of them to optimize for documentation.
Don’t pretend that the code is tested; that’s quite different.

from @tastapod on @greaterthancode

— Jessica Kerr (@jessitron) March 14, 2018

58:00 – Customer Empathy

Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests

Reflections:

Jessica: Meeting a customer need = congressive.

Dan: Collaboration is how you get work done.

Jamey: Replacing “responsibility” with “duty of care”.

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: Dan North.

Sponsored By:

O'Reilly Media: Support for the Greater Than Code podcast comes from O’Reilly Fluent and Velocity conferences, coming to San Jose, California, June 11-14. From ops to apps, Velocity + Fluent tears down silos, enabling and fostering the kind of cross-department collaboration essential to driving innovation and speeding product delivery. Best Price ends this Friday, March 30–save up to $839 using code GTC20. Learn more at http://oreil.ly/2o07Ufw. Promo Code: GTC20

Support Greater Than Code

072: Story Time with Kerri Miller Mar 21, 2018

Show notes

01:53 – Kerri’s Superpower: Looking ahead to the future.

08:33 – Community Gatekeeping and Contempt Culture

Liz Baillie: The Illustrated Adventure Survival Guide for New Rustaceans @ RustConf 2016

Sam Livingston-Gray: Cognitive Shortcuts: Models, Visualizations, Metaphors, and Other Lies @ RailsConf2014

16:03 – The Contextual Framing of Storytelling

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

Ada Developers Academy

Why’s Poignant Guide to Ruby

31:50 – Retaining Information and Explaining Things to Others

44:05 – Technical Jargon: Tactical and Strategic

47:39 – Storytelling is Everywhere

Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds

52:50 – Telling Stories Over and Over and Over and Over and Over …

55:53 – Crafting the Elements of a Story

Avdi Grimm: Confident Code at Cascadia Ruby 2011

01:01:39 – What the heck is a Lackwit Gadabout?

Reflections:

Sam: The distinction between behavior and identity.

Christina: Storytelling is super important.

Jamey: It’s helpful to care about something before you learn it.

Kerri: Next time you do a Git commit, don’t do -m.

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: Kerri Miller.

Sponsored By:

O'Reilly Media: Support for the Greater Than Code podcast comes from O’Reilly Fluent and Velocity conferences, coming to San Jose, California, June 11-14. From ops to apps, Velocity and Fluent will deliver the most comprehensive programs ever, including accessibility and progressive enhancement, as well as performance and operability. Best Price ends March 30! Save up to $839 using code GTC20. Learn more at http://oreil.ly/2o07Ufw. Promo Code: GTC20

Support Greater Than Code

071: Brein Power with Rein Henrichs Mar 14, 2018

Show notes

02:41 – Rein’s Superpower: Perceiving and Being Aware of Connections Between Things and People

03:49 – Power Dynamics in Companies

05:41 – Inherent Value and Self-Esteem; Recovering From Failure

Virginia Satir: Communication and Congruence

11:35 – Modeling Behavior and Controlling Outcomes as a Person in a Position of Power

The Virginia Satir Model of Family Therapy

17:58 – Hierarchical Organization vs Growth-Oriented Organization

The Toyota System

24:33 – The Problem with Labeling Teams as “Family”

32:04 – Making Choices That Are Right for Yourself; Experimentation

[Ikigai](Ikigai)

39:01 – Haskell and Strategies for Learning and Reading Papers

44:51 – Being Present and Truly Seeing Others; Being OK with Not Being OK

The Satir Interaction Model

What Do You Do With the Mad You Feel? Mr. Rogers

48:20 – Intentions Matter

50:31 – Advice for Perceiving and Being Aware of Connections Between Things and People

Cognitive Dissonance

“You only are free when you realize you belong no place — you belong every place — no place at all.” ~ Maya Angelou

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:

O'Reilly Media: Support for the Greater Than Code podcast comes from O’Reilly Fluent and Velocity conferences. Join over 4,000 developers and engineers in San Jose, California, June 11-14. Check out the Super Bronze Pass for access to both conferences–you’ll get a unique learning experience that addresses the full web experience, from development and performance to operations and resilience. Best Price ends this Friday, March 30. Learn more at http://oreil.ly/2o07Ufw. Promo Code: GTC20

Support Greater Than Code

070: Trusting The Universe with Kale Kaposhilin Mar 07, 2018

Show notes

02:10 – Kale’s Origin Story

05:10 – Connecting Through Story and Voice

The Law of Raspberry Jam

08:17 – Communicating Through Text vs Communicating Through Speech

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

12:43 – Kale’s Superpower: Facilitating the Voices of Other People

Hudson Valley Tech Meetup

17:28 – Running Unconventional Events and Conferences; Trust and Taking Risks

25:10 – Creating Opportunities and Accepting Offerings

27:49 – Encouraging Diverse Attendance and Making People Feel Welcome

Virtue Signalling

38:45 – Interpreting Intentions, Actions, and Reactions; Centering Yourself and Being Vulnerable

Reflections:

Kale: People matter.

Jamey: Helping people be heard both physically and metaphorically.

Astrid: Trust fall into the universe.

Rein: Building the stage so that other people can speak from it makes a great ally.

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: Kale Kaposhilin.

Sponsored By:

Support Greater Than Code

069: Identity Is An Arrow with Avdi Grimm Feb 28, 2018

Show notes

Greater Than Code Episode 002: Neutralizing Impostor Syndrome with Avdi Grimm

01:52 – Avdi’s Superpower: The Power of Inspiration, RubyConf India, and International Conferences vs Domestic

04:28 – The Pursuit of a Fixed Life: Achieving or Avoiding Stasis

Blog Post: I was trying to end my life

08:40 – Living in the Future and Having Goals

16:36 – Hitting Career Stasis vs Identity Stasis

25:23 – Becoming a Visible Person in Tech

31:27 – Encouraging and Inspiring People to Find Their Potential and Value

44:23 – Being Authentic and Transparent to the World

Reflections:

Coraline: Identity matters.

Rein: How identity and society interact: Symbolic Interactionism. Also, having therapeutic relationships.

Jessica: Two energies, internally, of being ‘grounded’ and ‘inspired’ and those feeding into ‘connection’, together. Also, we have identity in the now and in the future.

The Lathe Of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

Janelle: Being present and listening, connecting, and internalizing to form new thoughts you wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Avdi: Identity in the now and identity in the future forms an arrow.

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:

O'Reilly Media: Support for the Greater Than Code podcast comes from the O’Reilly Fluent and Velocity conferences. Join over 4,000 developers and engineers in San Jose, California, June 11 – 14th. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to attend 2 essential technology conferences under one roof! Learn more about the Super Bronze pass at oreilly.com/bettertogether. Promo Code: GTC20

Support Greater Than Code

068: Skills of Resilience with Gerry Valentine Feb 21, 2018

Show notes

01:28 – Gerry’s Superpower: Building Resilience

02:51 – What is Resilience?

08:59 – Creating an Atmosphere of Psychological Safety

11:04 – Having Tough Conversations: Resilience on the Societal Level

18:41 – Moving Other People Forward and Leading Others as a Senior Dev

27:07 – Code Chitakwas

33:10 – Devaluing the Notion of Intellect

Reflections:

Gerry: What is “smart”, really and how are we smart enough to make the room of smart people bigger?

Coraline: Thinking of myself as a leader in my company and think about it can use the influence that I have to make sure that we’re creating and fostering a culture where we do face down the big problems.

Jamey: Being right, being new, and making process. Also, valuing intellect and having uncomfortable 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: Gerry Valentine.

Sponsored By:

O'Reilly Media: Support for the Greater Than Code podcast comes from the O’Reilly Velocity Conference. Join over 2000 developers and engineers in San Jose from June 11 to 14 to learn how to make your systems more scalable, resilient and secure. Get the latest on containers, microservices, infrastructure, cloud, DevOps, systems engineering, security, and more. Use discount code GTC20 to save 20% on your Gold, Silver or Bronze pass. Get all the details at velocityconf.com. Promo Code: GTC20

Support Greater Than Code

067: Tech in Transition with Ashanti-Mutinta Feb 14, 2018

Show notes

01:09 – Ashanti’s Superpower: People say they’re funny on Twitter!

02:37 – Having Dialogue and Engaging with Others on Twitter

07:42 – Finding Safe Online Community Networks via Social Media Platforms

16:13 – Making Platforms Safer

18:06 – Perspectives on Blocking

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/listen_to_yourself.png

25:05 – Perspectives on Real Name Policies

29:59 – Gender Identity Education

36:57 – Transitioning in While Working in Tech

Reflections:

Rein: Listening and learning about trans experiences.

Coraline: Taking care of how we are presenting ourselves to the world.

Jamey: The act of sharing and receiving information as a give and take.

Ashanti: Conversation flows much more freely when people are in safe spaces.

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: Ashanti-Mutinta.

Support Greater Than Code

066: Growing a Culture with Allison Kopf Feb 07, 2018

Show notes

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.

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

Special Guest: Allison Kopf.

Support Greater Than Code

065: Radical Design with Marian Petre and André van der Hoek Jan 31, 2018

Show notes

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 .

Support Greater Than Code

064: Stories, Bias and AI with Aditya Mukerjee Jan 24, 2018

Show notes

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

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.

Support Greater Than Code

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