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)
177: Source Docs and People with Chris Stead
00:56 - Chris’ Superpower: Not Knowing In Public
- Asking Questions
02:53 - Source Documents and Their Relation To People
- Grace Hopper
- Maintaining Code to Give People Context (Writing Code For People)
- Critical Complexity
- Indu Alagarsamy
06:44 - Encouraging Others To Write Code For People
- Modeling Behavior
- Event Storming
- ECO Mapping (Ego, Command, Outcome)
- Creating Culture
- Arlo Belshee: Naming is a Process
12:39 - Naming Things in Code / Narratives in Software and Business
18:53 - Asking the Right Questions
- Google-Fu
- Mobbing Interviews
22:38 - Interviewing for the Benefit of the Interviewee
- The Problem with Being Transactional
- It’s People All The Way Down
- Empathetic Interviewing
33:44 - Treating People as People; Making Things More Humane
- Peopleware
- Books by Gerald Weinburg
- The Mythical Man-Month
- The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings On Linux And Open Source By An Accidental Revolutionary
- Willem Larsen
38:23 - Code Stores Emotion
- Measuring Progression
- The Valley of Despair
45:19 - Deciding: “Will this be helpful for someone else?”
Reflections:
Jessica: The idea that code can convey emotions. Even code can be Greater Than Code.
John: Structuring interviews with goals around comfort and familiarity so people can perform at their best.
Jamey: Imbuing things with the feeling when you wrote it.
Chris: If you’re feeling frustrated, kind is great. Also, everything is a systemic whole.
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Special Guest: Chris Stead.