Greater Than Code

Panelists: Sam Livingston-Gray | Jamey Hampton | Coraline Ada Ehmke Guest Starring: Allison Kopf: @allisonkopf | Agrilyst Join Our Slack Channel! Support us via Patreon! Show Notes: 01:15 – Allison’s Superpower: Making Unplanned and Hectic Situations Work Out The Stockdale Paradox 06:43 – Getting Into Agriculture 08:54 – Building a Company Culture 13:19 – Transmitting Culture and Core Values When Hiring New People 20:02 – Disagreeing Respectfully and Maintaining Strong Opinions 25:19 – Clear Boundaries Between Work and Home Life 32:34 – What Tech Look Looks Like in the Context of a Working Farm 40:27 – Writing Code for Non-Technical People Reflections: Coraline: Practicing empathy for the user when writing software. Jamey: Consciously make space for people who don’t speak as loudly as other people. Sam: Learn something new every day. Allison: How different people want to work remotely and how we can create an open way to actually do that. Transcript: SAM:  Hello and welcome to Episode 66 of Greater Than Code. I am Sam Livingston-Gray and I’m here to introduce Jamey Hampton. JAMEY:  Thanks, Sam. And I’m happy to introduce Coraline Ada Ehmke. CORALINE:  Hey, everybody. We have a very cool show today. We’re talking to Allison Kopf. Allison is the founder and CEO of Agrilyst, the virtual agronomist powering the horticulture industry. Agrilyst won the highly coveted Disrupt Cup at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco. She was named the 2016 Changemaker of the Year by the Association of Vertical Farming and Entrepreneur of the Year by Technical.ly Brooklyn. She studied Physics at Sta. Clara University and once built and 800-square foot solar-powered home for an international competition. In the summer you’ll find her playing third base for about three different co-ed softball teams. She’s pretty focused on getting a dog at some point.

Panelists: Rein Henrichs | Jessica Kerr | Jamey Hampton | Coraline Ada Ehmke Guest Starring: Marian Petre André van der Hoek Join Our Slack Channel! Support us via Patreon! Show Notes: 01:39 – Marian’s Superpower: Picking Brains Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking by Douglas Hofstadter 03:28 – André’s Superpower: Identifying Patterns 04:23 – Design Thinking Within Companies and The Error by Proxy Phenomenon 09:19 – The Notion that Design Has Gone Away 12:18 – Radical vs Normal Design: What drives the need for radical design? When does normal design stop being effective? 19:55 – The Democratization of Software Development 24:45 – Software Design Decoded: 66 Ways Experts Think 27:45 – The Disconnect Between Academic Research and Actual Practice 29:25 – Why “Decoded”? 32:59 – How People Deal with Systems That Are Too Big 39:19 – Problem Solving and Problem Solving in the Context of Complex Software Systems 44:29 – The Notion of the Toolbox and Breaking Down Big Problems Into Smaller Problems Reflections: Coraline: There are two types of gurus. Rein: The democratization of software development and steering organizations. Jessica: Studying the bug rather than squashing the bug and experts are in the room twice. Jamey: Designers saying that, “My job IS hard!” and being kind to themselves. André and Marian: H

Panelists: Jamey Hampton | Sam Livingston-Gray Guest Starring: Aditya Mukerjee: @chimeracoder | adityamukerjee.net | Identity Hackers Join Our Slack Channel! Support us via Patreon! Show Notes: 00:58 – Aditya’s Superpower: Parking Karma 03:18 – Algorithmic Decision Making in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence 09:06 – Recognizing the Effects of Bias The Bias Blind Spot The Babadook 18:07 – Health and Technology: How can technology have a meaningful impact on care delivery? 23:54 – Why are people frightened of automation? 33:33 – Storytelling in Software and Engineering Reflections: Sam: Be a little bit more aware of how stories are told. Aditya: Thinking of yourself as an editor for the story. Jamey: The difference between can we build this and should we build this? Transcript: JAMEY:  Hi everyone! Welcome to Episode 64 of your favorite podcast, Greater Than Code. I’m Jamey Hampton and I’m here with my fellow panelist and good friend, Sam Livingston-Gray. SAM:  Hello, hello. I am pleased this morning to welcome Aditya Mukerjee to the show. Aditya is an entrepreneur, investor and engineer based in New York City. He studied Statistics at Columbia and Computer Science at Cornell and was once a nationally ranked wrestler, so there’s really nothing he can’t do. He enjoys playing German-style boardgames and listening to embarrassing music. You can believe we want to know more about that. And he organizes identity hackers, which is a group for LGBTQ+ engineers in New York. Welcome to the show. ADITYA:  Thank you. Thanks for having me. JAMEY:  So, we usually like to start off our shows by asking our guest, what is your superpower and how did you acquire it?

Panelists: Astrid Countee | Rein Henrichs | Jessica Kerr | Sam Livingston-Gray | Janelle Klein Guest Starring: Rehema Wachira: @remy_stack | Andela Join Our Slack Channel! Support us via Patreon! Are you Greater Than Code? Submit guest blog posts to mandy@greaterthancode.com Show Notes: 01:22 – Rehema’s Superpower: Empathy 02:53 – Rehema’s “Untypical” Origin Story 07:20 – Enjoying Coding Because of the Complexity Behind It 11:21 – Creating a “Culture of Saving” 14:52 – “Diversity of Thought” and Seeing the World Through Others’ Eyes 22:20 – Being Creators and Makers Indie Hackers 30:28 – How Technology Empowers People 38:27 – The Distribution of Brilliance and Opportunity 47:01 – Freedom of Creative Expression Reflections: Astrid: Having to unlearn the need of being perfect. Jessica: We want to speak to more guests on a global level! Please reach out! Sam: Fixed vs growth mindset. Rein: Diversity is not just good for ethical reasons, it also makes your organization more competent. Janelle: Celebrating beautiful. Rehema: A fundamental right to freedom. Transcript: ASTRID:  Hello everybody and welcome to Episode 63 of Greater Than Code. I’m Astrid Countee and I’m here with my friend, Rein Henrichs. REIN:  Good morning, or whatever time it is when you’re listening to this. I am here with my friend, the colorfully-haired Jessica Kerr. JESSICA:  Good morning! And I am thrilled to be here today with Sam Livingston-Gray! SAM: 

Panelists: Jessica Kerr | Sam Livingston-Gray | Astrid Countee Guest Starring: Jamey Hampton: @jameybash | jameybash.com | Agrilyst | Sugar City Arts Collaborative Join Our Slack Channel! Support us via Patreon! Are you Greater Than Code? Submit guest blog posts to mandy@greaterthancode.com Show Notes: 01:22 – Jamey’s Superpower: “The Fharlanghn Sense” 02:40 – Working in Agriculture 04:03 – Theories on Automation 05:56 – Pivoting Into Computer Science and Software Development 10:35 – Feeling Like You Need to Know Everything Stella Report from the SNAFUcatchers Workshop on Coping With Complexity 15:47 – ‘Zines and Being a ‘Zine Librarian 27:50 – The Beauty of Art and Technology and Forming Emotional Connections to Things Floppy Music DUO – Imperial March 35:26 – The Death Star => Ethics in Technology and Taking Responsibility/Being Accountable for your Code Malcolm Gladwell: The strange tale of the Norden bombsite “I think the more powerful a tool is, the more respect you have to have for it.” ~ @jameybash on Greater Than Code — Greater Than Code (@greaterthancode) January 8, 2018 49:42 – Brilliance and Learning From Others Without Consent 54:49 – Adv

Panelists: Jasmine Greenaway | Jessica Kerr | Coraline Ada Ehmke Guest Starring: Safia Abdalla: @captainsafia | safia.rocks | Zarf | Tanmu Labs Join Our Slack Channel! Support us via Patreon! Are you Greater Than Code? Submit guest blog posts to mandy@greaterthancode.com Show Notes: 00:53 – Safia’s Superpower: Sight 03:04 – Learning Languages — Both Human and Programming The Sapir Whorf Hypothesis 07:56 – Being Empathetic in an International Perspective and Building Universal and Approachable Tech 11:19 – What does success look like for minorities in the Silicon Valley monoculture?; Being Tokenized Admiral Grace Hopper 21:59 – Accepting Speaking Engagements Because of Who You Are (i.e. as a woman, minority, etc.) 24:07 – Writing Things Down to Balance Prioritizing Decisions 30:46 – Defining “Happy” and Always Feeling the Need to Do More 37:02 – Destruction-Focused Development Destruction-Focused Development: write it, delete it, repeat. “I don’t become obsessed with the code. I think it’s more important to be obsessed with the problem.” @captainsafia on @greaterthancode — Jessica Kerr (@jessitron) December 20, 2017 43:58 – Safia’s Early Coding “Shenanigans” Reflections: Coraline: Being thoughtful about planning finite energy and labor. Also being content vs being happy.

This episode is sponsored by Cohere! Cohere believes better teams make better products. Visit wecohere.com/greaterthancode to learn how your team can become greater than code. Panelists: Jamey Hampton | Sam Livingston-Gray | Rein Henrichs | Coraline Ada Ehmke | Jessica Kerr Guest Starring: Kent Beck: @KentBeck | Extreme Programming | The Agile Manifesto | Smalltalk Best Practice Patterns Show Notes: 01:19 – Kent’s Superpower: Putting Things Together That Don’t Necessarily Go Together Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking by Douglas Hofstadter and‎ Emmanuel Sander 04:01 – Metaphors in Software Development 07:32 – Writing Tests and Keeping a Journal The unit/integration distinction confuses me. I test at the level of, “Here’s a thought I need to capture.”@KentBeck on @greaterthancode — Jessica Kerr (@jessitron)

Panelists: Jessica Kerr | Coraline Ada Ehmke | Jamey Hampton Guest Starring: Pamela Gay: @starstryder | starstryder.com Show Notes: 01:13 – Pamela Podcasting, Since…well, FOREVER! Astronomy Cast 365 Days of Astronomy   Adam Curry 02:19 – Pamela’s Superpower: Solving Random Problems with Software 05:19 – Becoming a “Reluctant Coder” i.e. Coding Out of Necessity 10:58 – Battlestar Galactica => Greek Mythology => Space => Astrophysics 14:52 – Doing What You Have To Do vs Doing What You Love To Do 20:27 – The Goal of Podcasting and Target Audience 23:57 – Understanding and Knowing Everything: Good? Bad? 26:03 – Outsourcing Work as a Personal Loss and The Internet’s Graveyard of Abandoned Projects 32:06 – Open Sourcing Work Yourself for the Benefit of Others 36:58 – Writing Software to Engage People CosmoQuest Citizen Science 44:22 – Crowdsourcing Requires Trust but Garners Better Results 48:02 – The Motivation of Citizen Scientists @cosmoquestx Join Our Slack Channel! Support us via Patreon! Are you Greater Than Code? Submit guest blog posts to mandy@greaterthancode.com Reflections: Jessica: The layers of people in software and people in software and how we’re all learning. It gets hard to separate the people from the technology. Also, having goals you DON’T want to achieve. Coraline: Seeing crowdsourcing being successful. Ja

Panelists: Coraline Ada Ehmke | Astrid Countee | Sam Livingston-Gray Guest Starring: Tara Scherner de la Fuente: @MediaRemedial | mediaremedial.com | @GoatUserStories Show Notes: 00:16 – Welcome to Episode 111010 of the Greater Than Code Podcast! 02:09 – Tara’s Superpower and Origin Story: Patience 04:56 – Conflating Patience with Kindness 07:39 – Is writing code making us less thoughtful? AKA Patience in the Workplace The Economic Value of Rapid Response Time (The Doherty Threshold) 16:22 – Warning Signs that a Company’s Culture is Not a Good One; Also, is it the company or is it individuals within a company? 22:59 – Looking for and Interviewing for a Job at a Less Toxic Environment 33:20 – What does it mean to be a developer? 36:33 – Interviewing and Privilege 39:35 – Advice for Early Career Developers 44:10 – Remote Work Culture Join Our Slack Channel! Support us via Patreon! Are you Greater Than Code? Submit guest blog posts to mandy@greaterthancode.com Please leave us a review on iTunes! Reflections: Coraline: Being patient and kind. Astrid: Software development is always something you can continue to improve at. Tara: People don’t have to be exactly like us to be a person that we want to work with. Being different can be an asset. Sam: Interviewing somebody should be able finding out how they think and not about what they necessary know at the moment. Transcript: CORALINE:  Hello and welcome to Episode 111010 of the Greater Than Code Podcast. I am Coraline Ada Ehmke and I am joined by the lovely and talented Astrid Countee. ASTRID:

This episode is sponsored by Upside! Bundle your flights and hotel. Save money. Earn gift cards. Panelists: Rein Henrichs | Janelle Klein | Jessica Kerr Guest Starring: Christina Morillo: @divinetechygirl | christinamorillo.com | WOCinTech Show Notes: 01:08 – Christina’s Background and Superpower: Multitasking and Automation See Also: GTC 056: Systematize Your Hustle with Kronda Adair 04:42 – Automation Processes: Discovery and Reconnaissance, and When Human Judgement and Input is Necessary 10:03 – Multitasking Timescales and Context Switching 16:39 – Decision-making Functions 23:28 – Being Kind to Your Busy Self and Choosing What NOT To Do We’re Going to Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny, Complicated, and True by Gabrielle Union 32:03 – Making Accomplishments Visible to Yourself and Having a Culture of Acknowledgement For more discussion on congressive/ingressive behavior, see also: GTC Episode 038: Category Theory for Normal Humans with Dr. Eugenia Cheng

Panelists: Jessica Kerr | Sam Livingston-Gray Guest Starring: Kronda Adair: @kronda | kronda.com | Karvel Digital Show Notes: 01:26 – SYSTEMS! Implementing Repeatable Processes Via Automation Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less by Sam Carpenter 09:28 – Strategies for Implementation 12:18 – Reclaiming Your Time and Cheap is Always Expensive Work the System (Online) Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) Solopreneurship: “It’s never just you. There’s present-you and future-you” @kronda on @greaterthancode — Jessica Kerr (@jessitron) November 8, 2017 23:20 – Choosing Successful Customers and Avoiding Perfection Paralysis If you don’t have a system, your system is, think really hard about it every time.@geeksam on @greaterthancode with @kronda me: or worse, don’t — Jessica Kerr (@jessitron)

Panelists: Jessica Kerr | Sam Livingston-Gray | Astrid Countee | Jasmine Greenaway Guest Starring: Keith Bennett: @keithrbennett | about.me/keithrbennett | Bennett Business Solutions Show Notes: 00:16 – Welcome to “Metamours United For Frequent Dialogue” …we mean, “Greater Than Code!” 01:47 – Keith’s Background and Superpower 10:03 – Conflict Resolution Open Spaces session on Conflict Resolution this summer at DevOpsDays D.C. (and the precursor to this conversation) Difficult Conversations: How To Discuss What Matters Most 12:01 – Opinions on Mediators/Mediation 14:21 – Approaching Conflict News Story Re: Portland Murders 17:31 – Radical Helpfulness/Kindness Keith Bennett: Kaizen and Radical Helpfulness The Smoke Filled Room 20:49 – Being Okay with Being Different and Speaking Up

Panelists: Jamey Hampton | Jacob Stoebel | Rein Henrichs Guest Starring: Nadia Odunayo: @nodunayo | nadiaodunayo.com | Ignition Works | Ruby Book Club   Show Notes: 01:19 – Nadia’s Superpower 02:01 – Code Hospitality and Being a Good Host Nadia Odunayo: The Guest: A Guide To Code Hospitality @ GORUCO 2016 Daniel Dennett’s “Intuition Pump” 10:22 – People and Habits and Having Expertise in a Particular Realm 17:00 – Asking Questions/Waiting for Explanation Rather Than Passing Judgement 22:16 – Codebases Are Constantly Changing: Use the README to Give Context Code Hospitality Guide App 27:27 – Making Diagrams Whilst Coding/Pairing Rapoport’s Rule 32:27 – Thinking About the “Why” 36:44 – Giving and Receiving Feedback in a Nonviolent Way Want to help make us a weekly show, buy and ship you swag, and bring us to conferences near you? Support us via Patreon! Or tell your organization to send sponsorship inquiries to mandy@greaterthancode.com. 39:09 – Host Responsibilities for Hospitality Reflections: Jamey: Breaking down the power dynamic of learning. Jacob: Unspoken rules and normalized behavior based on location and telling stories to make people feel more at home. Rein: Recognizing emotional labor. Nadia: The mindset and safe spaces.

This episode is sponsored by Upside! Bundle your flights and hotel. Save money. Earn gift cards. ___ Panelists: Astrid Countee | Jamey Hampton | Sam Livingston-Gray Guest Starring: Audrey Eschright: The Recompiler | Greater Than Code Episode #013: Religion in Tech with Audrey Eschright | Open Source Bridge Thursday Bram: thursdaybram.com Show Notes: 01:33 – Superpowers and Acquisition 02:50 – Reflective Listening 05:27 – The Responsible Communication Style Guide 11:54 – Asking Content-Related Questions 15:10 – Who is the target audience for this book? 17:45 – The Evolution of Writing the Book 19:39 – People-first Language Kronda Adair: Five Stages of Unlearning Racism 23:40 – What if you get it wrong? 1. Try to do good. 2. Fuck it up. 3. Apologize 4. Try not to make the same mistake again. That’s the job. — Kronda (@kronda) December 21, 2014

  Panelists: Sam Livingston-Gray | Jamey Hampton | Coraline Ada Ehmke Guest Starring: Emily Dresner: @multiplexer | about.me | Upside Travel Show Notes: 01:06 – Emily’s Background and Superpower 02:49 – Having a Master’s Degree: Was it worth it? 08:08 – Struggles After Retaining a Master’s 10:31 – Role Model: Emily’s Mom and Her Story 12:11 – “The Double Bind” 14:47 – Experiences Working at a Gaming Company Shipping Out: On the (nearly lethal) comforts of a luxury cruise by David Foster Wallace 18:33 – Transitioning to Upside and Building a Healthy Culture 21:50 – Engineering Vs Management Want to help make us a weekly show, buy and ship you swag, and bring us to conferences near you? Support us via Patreon! Thank you Risse Rigdon for your support! Or tell your organization to send sponsorship inquiries to mandy@greaterthancode.com. 29:09 – Data Science 32:50 – Self-Selecting for Privilege 36:38 – Data Science and Security/Privacy Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O’Neil 46:55 – Having a Background in Actual Science; Conquering Biases 51:35 – The Importance of Mentorship and Internships from the Beginning Reflections: Coraline: Having a biases towards hiring people like yourself and other hiring biases. Sam: Research cognitive biases. Jamey: Computers aren’t people.