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)
090: The Journey with Chelsea Troy
02:03 – Chelsea’s Superpower: Pushing through and enduring discomfort to accomplish things
06:24 – The Act of Writing and Reflection: Journaling as a Tool for Learning; Commit Tracing
14:27 – Getting and Dealing with Feedback
17:44 – Measuring Participation in Meetings
Why are there always technical problems in remote meetings?
Why do remote meetings suck so much? (caucus checklist)
How do we make remote meetings not suck? (follow-up post)
23:51 – Implementing Structure in Meetings
Valerie Aurora: Meeting Skills
31:58 – Cultivating Questions Kindly Without Assumption or Judgement
No Feigning Surprise: The Recurse Center User’s Manual
39:03 – The Problem with Claiming “Self-Taught”
“The common industry accepted term to describe how I learned programming is “self-taught” but I’ve always found that so strange, considering all of the resources and communities that have helped me along the way.” – Jacob Stoebel
Reflections:
Jamey: Extending empathy to other people.
Chelsea: The story of where things come from and the people they come from can make them both much more interesting and much more accessible.
Coraline: The value of history.
Sam: One of the best ways to understand a tool is to understand the context that existed before the tool existed.
The nature of a caucus penalizes people for listening.
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Special Guest: Chelsea Troy.