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)
128: Finding and Cultivating Community Leaders with Ben Pollard
00:48 - Ben’s Superpower: Making Arancini and Reading A Lot of Books
02:00 - Starting Local Welcome and Helping Refugees
09:37 - Humanization, Cognitive Biases, and Heuristics
Social Conformity - Brain Games
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals by Saul D. Alinsky
21:25 - Empathy and Compassion; Humans Thriving Together
The Compassionate Mind Foundation
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming by David Wallace-Wells
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth
The 36 Questions That Lead to Love
31:26 - Measuring Success
- Conversion
- Financial Resilience
- Social Contact Hours
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- Language Ability
41:56 - Getting People to Connect with Refugees in a Personal Way
“We come together through our sameness and we grow through our differences.” ~ Virginia Satir
Reflections:
Rein: The idea of communicative praxis.
The Self after Postmodernity by Calvin O. Schrag
Sam: The commodification of trust.
Also, The Tyranny of Structureless: In any organization there are both explicit and implicit power structures. Changing the implicit ones.
Ben: Having a safe space to reflect and have 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: Ben Pollard.