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)
193: Optimizing For Happiness with Tudor Gîrba
02:09 - Tudor’s Superpower: Storytelling
- Getting Beyond Your Self-Critic
- Writing Code is Storytelling
- There’s No Semantics Without Syntax
13:04 - Reading Stories (and Code)
- Reading Code Takes Place in an Editor
- Code is Not Text. Code is Data.
17:56 - Optimizing For Happiness
- Automation Creates More Jobs
- Choosing Tools is Important
“The tools that we create end up influencing how we see the world.” – Marshall McLuhan
27:48 - Moldable Development
- Making Metaphors and Building Abstractions
- Glamorous Toolkit
32:50 - Editing Code as a Joint Activity
- rust-analyzer
- Simultaneous Perspectives Increase Communication Bandwidth
38:40 - Encouraging and Supporting the Presentation of New Ideas and Out-of-the-Box Thinking
58:41 - Culture is Formed by Storytelling; Identity is the Story We Tell About Ourselves
Reflections:
Rein: Reading and writing code can be different, but it can also be the same. See: the functional programming concept of lens.
Jessica: At the end of the presentation, if there’s no question that makes you think, then maybe you haven’t moved anything. Look for surprises.
Arty: Optimizing for happiness as a first principle. How do we do that more?
Tudor: With software, we are forcing people to listen to our ideas and then act according to our thoughts. That is a big responsibility, a privilege, and we have to train that skill.
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Special Guest: Tudor Gîrba.
Sponsored By:
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