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)
Episode 037: Failure Mode with Emily Gorcenski
00:16 – Welcome to “Diamonds Are For Gender” …we mean, “Greater Than Code!”
00:56 – Origin Story, Superpowers, and Data Science
04:20 – Diversity and Career Paths in Data Science
10:51 – Ethical Debates Within the Data Science Field
Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy
FMEA (Failure Mode Effects Analysis)
17:21 – Software Development and Engineering; Failure Modes in Software
21:44 – Failure Modes in Democracy; Voting Machine Software
33:37 – Working for a Government Contractor
36:21 – Data Patterns and Tampering
39:00 – Open Data and Open Science
45:59 – Falsifying Data
Reflections:
Coraline: Considering all the ways something can fail.
Sam: The world that I live in and the kind of software development practices that I take for granted are extraordinary niche.
Emily: Tech conferences and their decadence vs academic/corporate conferences.
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: Emily Gorcenski.