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 004: DevOps and Creativity with Charity Majors
00:16 – Welcome to “The Hot Mess Podcast...” …we mean, “Greater Than Code!”
00:54 – Charity Majors’ Introduction / Listener Question: “What is your superhero origin story?” ~Donald Plummer
02:54 – Operations and Creativity
06:37 – Hiring People for Operations
Commandos, Infantry, and Police
07:35 – Looking Back on Chaos
10:00 – “Problems of Success”
Jessica Kerr: Growing Your Tech Stack: When to Say No (Spectrum of Risk Article)
11:32 – Bootcamp Graduates and Startup Culture
15:44 – “Cult-y Companies”
19:19 – Microservices
26:41 – “Serverless"
29:55 – What should software engineers should be doing to learn more about operations?
“Put yourself in rotation...Expose yourself to the consequences!” ~ Charity Majors
39:01 – Misogyny in Tech
Reflections:
Astrid: It’s really important to understand operations.
Sam: Actually understanding your dependencies still applies in a serverless architecture.
Coraline: We are all trying to work to make tech better in our own ways.
Dave: The system is the source of the power that we have to use to break the system because the system is broken.
Charity: The intersection of tech and human issues.
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Special Guest: Charity Majors.