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:

Episode 034: Systems Thinking in the Real World May 24, 2017

Show notes

00:16 – Welcome to “Missives from the Future of Tech: Ladies’ Night Edition” …we mean, “Greater Than Code!”

01:20 – Where the Lines Cross; Social Responsibility of Engineers

Tragedy of the Commons

06:53 – Why We Do What We Do

09:03 – Surviving and Functioning For All Humans: Basic Social Support

16:20 – Preventing Infrastructure Decay and Advancing the Whole

19:54 – “The Cycle of Safety”

The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson

25:21 – Scarcity

30:15 – Where are we focusing?

33:25 – Reframing The Tragedy of the Commons; Gatekeeping

The Broken Promise of Open Source by Coraline Ada Ehmke

37:56 – Organizations as Business AND Schools

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization by Peter M. Senge

40:25 – Abundance and Barter Systems

Reflections:

Coraline: Access to technology as a human right.

Janelle: Where is all the knowledge in the world? Where does the knowledge flows? What are the gates that get in the way of knowledge flows?

Astrid: What would you do if money wasn’t a factor?

Jessica: Software has to hold the keys. It’s the closest thing to magic that we’ve ever had.

The Open Mastery Community

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!

Support Greater Than Code

Episode 033: Mental Illness with Greg Baugues May 17, 2017

Show notes

00:16 – Welcome to “What is your favorite color?” …we mean, “Greater Than Code!”

How to teach your dog to take selfies… and text them to you

01:34 – Superpower Origin Story; Mental Illness in College

Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder

10:13 – Disclaimer: We Are Not Doctors and a Message on Self-Diagnosis

13:03 – Panel Experiences with Mental Illness: Rock Bottom, Shame, Stigma, and Fear

DBT Therapy

25:54 – How Mental Illness Seems to Uniquely Affect the Tech Community

31:06 – Coping Mechanisms

34:17 – Creating an Environment That is Beneficial to People with Mental Health Issues; Work-Life Balance

[Open Sourcing Mental Illness](Open Sourcing Mental Illness)

Mental Health First Aid

Why Fidget Spinners Might Be Helpful for the Brain

Reflections:

Rein: Allie Brosh: Adventures in Depression

Sam: Depression can feel like nothing.

Mandy: Reach out: [mandy@greaterthancode.com](mandy@greaterthancode.com); or @therubyrep

Greg: [gb@twilio.com](gb@twilio.com); or @greggyb. Sharing your story is powerful.

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: Greg Baugues.

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Episode 032: Curation vs Algorithms: Who Is Writing Our History? with Amy Unger May 10, 2017

Show notes

Amy Unger: @cdwort | Heroku

00:16 – Welcome to “JIRA Card Catalogs and The People Who Love Them” …we mean, “Greater Than Code!”

01:05 – Superpower Origin Story, Growing Up with a Computer in the Family, and Being a Teenager

Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing by Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher

08:30 – Humanities and History

10:39 – Access to and Preservation of Literacy (Who is writing our history?)

15:03 – Categorizing Information and Making it Accessible…But, Also Privacy?

17:21 – Reliance on Google as the “Defacto Archive”?

19:49 – Digital Records (Algorithms) vs Human Curation

24:10 – What can librarians and library science offer a company?: Information Architecture

27:32 – Algorithm Manipulation, Social Engineering, and Information Security

32:24 – Whose stories are we collecting, archiving, and making available to the public?

Tragedy of the Commons

41:09 – “Meme Hacking”, Getting Involved, and Owning Your Own Story

Reflections:

Rein: Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media

Sam: How economics and politics rear their ugly heads unexpectedly.

Coraline: Who is responsible for our history?

Jessica: The vast amounts of data we have and what we choose to preserve.

Amy: Consider the possibility of working in the public sector.

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: Amy Unger.

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Episode 031: Retrospectives and Agile Fluency with Diana Larsen May 03, 2017

Show notes

** This conversation stems from an earlier episode when Janelle joined the panel: Episode 028: Brains, Feedback Systems, Demons, and Goats.

02:03 – Retrospectives **

“Software work is learning work.” @DianaOfPortland
— Greater Than Code (@greaterthancode) May 3, 2017

OODA Loop

11:07 – Documenting Feelings and Emotions

17:40 – Following Through With and Solving Action Plans

20:08 – Focusing, Lists of Action, and “Best Practices”

30:27 – What is value in the context of software development? / Measuring Waste

33:39 – Taking Things in Small, Bite-sized Pieces: Refactoring

Mob Programming

55:58 – Agile Fluency **

Your Path through Agile Fluency on Martin Fowler’s Blog

Reflections:

Janelle: Thinking about the focusing step and how much effort goes into those things versus the benefits of focusing on things from the recent past. Taking human emotions into consideration.

Diana: Managing learning and collecting data, and issues around value.

Sam: Different forms and cycles of feedback.

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: Diana Larsen.

Support Greater Than Code

Episode 030: Essential Developer Skills with Tom Stuart Apr 28, 2017

Show notes

00:16 – Welcome to “Cycles in Philosophy of Software, Common Principles with Different Names & Reference” …we mean, “Greater Than Code!”

01:47 – Superhero Origin Story

BBC BASIC

04:45 – Nomenclature: “Junior” and “Senior” Developers; Differences Between “Early Career” Developers and “Experienced” Developers

13:56 – Solving the Skill Assessment Problem; Learning Methodically

20:55 – Software Development Now vs Then

29:51 – Do Programming Languages Create Certain Biases?

44:16 – Good Mentorship and Telling People What’s Next to Level Up

55:58 – Cohorting/Teaching Classes with Sandi Metz; Object-Oriented Design and Object-Oriented Programming

Reflections:

Janelle: Looking at things as multidimensional problems.

Rein: An Introduction to General Systems Thinking by Gerald M. Weinberg

Sam: The importance of the skill of metacognition.

Tom: How the work as changed as being a developer. Nonviolent Communication: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships by Marshall B. Rosenberg PhD

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: Tom Stuart.

Support Greater Than Code

Episode 029: p=eMPathy with Ariel Waldman, Ashe Dryden, and Brad Grzesiak Apr 19, 2017

Show notes

00:16 – Welcome to “The Tale of Space Cat Burritos” …we mean, “Greater Than Code!”

02:26 – Space Technology and the Cultural Portrayal of Science

NASA Explorers Program

08:24 – The Influence of Science Fiction on the Current Developments in Science

NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Program (NIAC)

The Comet Hitchhiker

Supernatural Horror in Literature By H. P. Lovecraft

14:47 – What is sci-fi telling us about the world we live in now?

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

The Expanse Series

18:34 – “Hard” vs “Soft” Science Fiction; “Hard” Conference Talks vs “Soft” Talks

Coraline Ada Ehmke: Metaphors Are Similes. Similes Are Like Metaphors @ Rubyfuza 2017

24:43 – Understanding How People Work to Build Better Technology; Fighting for Accessibility in Science

Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

33:11 – Machine Learning

“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” – Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park

37:52 – Scarcity and Exploitation: Looking at Power Dynamics and Relationships Between Groups and People

Conway’s Law

41:34 – Reasons We Prefer to Focus on Technology; Siloing and Specialization

50:16 – Control: Who is the manager? Treating People Equally

52:46 – Congruency and Being Congruent: It’s a People Problem!

Gerald Weinberg

[The Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully by Gerald M. Weinberg]((https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Consulting-Giving-Getting-Successfully/dp/0932633013)

“Emotions are valid inputs to every thought process.” – Coraline Ada Ehmke

The Heart of Whiteness: Ijeoma Oluo Interviews Rachel Dolezal, the White Woman Who Identifies as Black

Ashe’s Tweets

01:01:44 – How do we know we are right?

The Orange Juice Test

The Art of Negotiating the Best Deal by Seth Freeman

Reflections:

Rein: These issues go straight up to the top in terms of the philosophical ladder we’re trying to climb of what do we value? How do we get other people to share our values? It doesn’t get easier by ignoring that the problem is that difficult and pretending that it’s just technical.

Coraline: It’s the responsibility of technologists to think about the social impact of the technical solutions they are making, whether that means by being better informed and striving to be generalists, or by making sure we are being inclusive and giving voice to people with different perspectives and levels of expertise on our teams to make sure we are addressing problems deeply and not just from one particular silo.

Ashe: Understanding how we are looking at a problem ethically, how we’re looking at it technically, and how we’re looking at it from a human point of view? What are the potential effects?

Brad: The laws of nature still exist in the absence of humans. Humans are the reason things are messy and complicated.

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: Ariel Waldman, Ashe Dryden, and Brad Grzesiak.

Support Greater Than Code

Episode 028: Brains, Feedback Systems, Demons, and Goats with Janelle Klein Apr 14, 2017

Show notes

00:16 – Welcome to “Goats On Podcasts” …we mean, “Greater Than Code!”

01:19 – Origin Story

04:36 – The Development of Development

06:58 – Automated Tests and Mistake Detection

09:21 – Designing Releases and Best Practices

20:13 – “The Code is Better”

There is no "the code is better."
There is only "our experience is better." (users and developers)@greaterthancode with @janellekz
— Jessica Kerr (@jessitron) April 12, 2017

15:08 – Measuring Effort, #CollaborativePain, and The Error Handling Process

abstraction: great when it works.
when something breaks it's like an egg cracking and all its guts spill out.@janellekz @greaterthancode
— Jessica Kerr (@jessitron) April 12, 2017

Why Software Gets In Trouble by Gerald M. Weinberg

33:24 – Discovery and Documentation

37:44 – Agile Fluency

Agile Fluency Project: Chart Your Agile Pathway

Quality Management Maturity Grid

40:42 – Building a Conceptual Model of our Brains with Code

Hindsight Bias

51:56 – Identifying Project Pain: Slicing and Dicing

57:23 – Change Sizing

Reflections:

Rein: Gerald M. Weinberg’s Quality Software Management Series

Janelle: The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization by Peter M. Senge

Sam: The pain that we experience in software development is really cognitive dissonance.

Jessica: Programming is like summoning a demon.

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!

Support Greater Than Code

Episode 027: Hackathons and Flirting with Failure with Rachel Katz Apr 07, 2017

Show notes

00:16 – Welcome to “Plotting the Rebellion” …we mean, “Greater Than Code!”

01:39 – Origin Story and Superpowers

03:05 – Getting Hooked on Hackathons

04:42 – Corporate Hackathons; Making Hackathons Accessible and Inclusive

Greater Than Code Episode 015: Zuri Hunter as Queen of Hackathons

DataHack4FI

09:38 – Organizing Hackathons

12:21 – Non-programmers and Hackathons; Bringing in Diverse Perspectives

“Some people, when confronted with a problem, think ‘I know, I’ll use regular expressions.’ Now they have two problems.” ~Jamie Zawinski

Code: Debugging the Gender Gap

22:46 – Building Things for Others, Leadership Roles, Group Dynamics, and Men vs Women

Ctrl Alt Delete Hate Hackathon

Lady Problems Hackathon

35:28 – Overnight Hackathons vs Non-Overnight Hackathons

36:38 – The Value of Celebrating Glorious Failure and Responding to Stress and Pressure

Benjamin Zander: The transformative power of classical music [TED Talk]

Reflections:

Astrid: Talking about hackathons is talking about all kinds of other issues.

Sam: Make room and seek out non-developers.

Rein: Benjamen Zander: Leadership on Display

Rachel: Show up, contribute, and listen.

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: Rachel Katz.

Support Greater Than Code

Episode 026: Codeland, Capitalism, and Creating Inclusive Spaces with Saron Yitbarek Apr 04, 2017

Show notes

00:16 – Welcome to “Unrepentant Cyborgs” …we mean, “Greater Than Code!”

01:28 – Codeland Conference

02:02 – Making Conferences Accessible, Affordable, and Unintimidating for People

13:00 – Ticket Prices and Structure

15:01 – Creating an Immersive Experience and Community With and For People You Care About

25:11 – Leading by Example and Maintaining a Positive Persona

29:49 – The Importance of Money and Financial Freedom

Tech Done Right Episode 002: Career Development with Brandon Hays and Pete Brooks

39:52 – Ethics as Automatic Technology Scales and Capitalism

Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam M. Grant

49:45 – In summary: Codeland Conference

Reflections:

Sam: Thank you for the book recommendation for Give and Take.

Astrid: People first.

Rein: Support worker-owned cooperative organizations. Leadership is doing things, not being given a title.

Saron: The principles and values that led to what people will experience as a really great conference.

CodeNewbie References:

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.

Support Greater Than Code

Episode 025: MotherCoders with Tina Lee Mar 29, 2017

Show notes

00:16 – Welcome to “Not Your Mother’s Podcast!” …we mean, “Greater Than Code!”

00:55 – Origin Story and Getting Involved in Coding

03:17 – Programming Perspectives From People of Different Backgrounds; Teaching Adults vs Children

08:19 – Work/Life Balance

11:32 – Changing Culture Around Gender Roles and Caregiving

“Culture is like water in that it flows from the top down.”

Nev Schulman Wants to Erase Gender Stereotypes for Parents

18:18 – The MotherCoders Organization

What to expect when you’re done expecting

24:27 – Teaching Frontend Development and The Stereotype that Women are Better at Frontend than Backend Work

We can teach women to code, but that just creates another problem

30:00 – Silicon Valley Elitism, Sexism, and Defining Cultural Norms; “The Ideal Worker”

The Motherhood Penalty

35:38 – Why do we not have many of women CEOs?

37:42 – Tactical Help for Cultural Changes

Reflections:

Mandy: Donate to MotherCoders and/or support them via AmazonSmile.

Rein: The empowerment of women and the challenges they face are a global problem.

@manwhohasitall

Coraline: Fostering entrepreneurship and empowering women worldwide. Also, thinking about role models and how to amplify voices.

Tina: Including moms as a kind of marginalized group as well.

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: Tina Lee.

Support Greater Than Code

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