Greater Than Code - podcast cover

Greater Than Code

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)

Episodes

247: Approaching Learning and Content Creation with Sy Brand

02:01 - Sy’s Superpower: Making Complex Topics Digestible * Sy on YouTube: "Computer Science Explained with my Cats" (https://www.youtube.com/SyBrandPlusCats) 06:28 - Approaching Learning to Code: Do Something That Motivates You * Greater Than Code Episode 246: Digital Democracy and Indigenous Storytelling with Rudo Kemper (https://www.greaterthancode.com/digital-democracy-and-indigenous-storytelling) * Ruby For Good (https://rubyforgood.org/) * Terrastories (https://terrastories.io/) 11:25 - Co...

Aug 25, 202154 min

246: Digital Democracy and Indigenous Storytelling with Rudo Kemper

02:45 - Rudo’s Superpower: Being Pretty Good At Lots of Things! * Learning How to Learn on the Fly * Digital Democracy (https://www.digital-democracy.org/) * Earth Defenders Toolkit (https://www.earthdefenderstoolkit.com/) * Ruby For Good (https://rubyforgood.org/) * Problem-Solving & Mastery: “Fake it until you make it!” 13:14 - Digital Democracy (https://www.digital-democracy.org/) & Terrastories (https://terrastories.io/) * The Amazon Conservation Team (https://www.amazonteam.org/) (ACT) * Ma...

Aug 18, 202157 min

245: Hacking Reality with Rony Abovitz

03:03 - Rony’s Superpower: Being a Space Cadet: Free-Willing Imagination, Insight, and Intuition 06:54 - Becoming Interested in Technology * Science + Art * Star Wars (https://www.starwars.com/) * Solar Power 10:30 - Unstructured Play and Maintaining a Sense of Wonder and Free-Spiritedness * Geoffrey West on Scaling, Open-Ended Growth, and Accelerating Crisis/Innovation Cycles: Transcenden (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnxpqecbpOU) 15:15 - Power Structures and Hierarchies * Flow: The Psycholo...

Aug 11, 20211 hr 20 min

244: Making Peace and Creating Trust with Brianna McGowen

01:52 - Brianna’s Superpower: Intense Empathy and Feeling Deeply * Octavia Butler: Parable of the Sower (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Sower_(novel)) 06:28 - Practicing Acceptance vs Resignation * Making Peace Without Giving Up * Problems/Tasks vs People * Providing Alternate Narratives * Delicious Democracy (https://www.deliciousdemocracy.com/): Making Things a Pleasurable Experience for All 12:04 - Delicious Democracy: A Creative Advocacy Lab (https://www.deliciousdemocracy.com/...

Aug 04, 202156 min

243: Equitable Design: We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know with Jennifer Strickland

02:51 - Jennifer’s Superpower: Kindness & Empathy * Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-complex-ptsd-2797491) (C-PTSD) 07:37 - Equitable Design and Inclusive Design * Section 508 (https://www.section508.gov/) Compliance * Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/) (WCAG) * HmntyCentrd (https://hmntycntrd.com/) * Creative Reaction Lab (https://www.creativereactionlab.com/) 15:43 - Biases and Prejudices * Self-A...

Jul 28, 202158 min

242: Considering The Social Side of Tech with Trond Hjorteland

01:20 - The Superpower of Sociotechnical System (STS) Design: Considering the Social AND the Technical. The social side matters. * Critical Systems Thinking and the Management of Complexity by Michael C. Jackson (https://www.amazon.com/Critical-Systems-Thinking-Management-Complexity/dp/1119118379) * Open Systems * Mechanical * Animate * Social * Ecological * On Purposeful Systems: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Individual and Social Behavior as a System of Purposeful Events (https://www.amazon...

Jul 21, 202148 min

241: Data Science Science with Adam Ross Nelson

01:25 - Teaching, Learning, and Education 06:16 - Becoming a Data Scientist * Opportunities to Create New Knowledge * Data Science Science 19:36 - Solving Bias in Data Science * Weapons of Math Destruction (https://weaponsofmathdestructionbook.com/) 23:36 - Recommendations for Aspiring Data Scientists * Hire a Career Coach * Creating and Maintaining a Portfolio * Make a Rosetta Stone * Make a Cheat Sheet * Write an Article on a Piece of Software You Dislike * A Few Times, I’ve Broken Pandas (htt...

Jul 07, 20211 hr 2 min

240: No Striving, No Hustling with Amelia Winger-Bearskin

02:11 - Wampum.Codes (https://www.buzzsprout.com/893995) * MIT Co-Creation Studio (https://cocreationstudio.mit.edu/co-cr-new-mozilla-fellow/) * Mozilla Fellowships (https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/what-we-fund/fellowships/) * Check out some episodes! * Super-Group - Indigenous Tech, Indigenous Knowledge: Wampum.codes as a model for decolonization (https://www.buzzsprout.com/893995/3586117-super-group-indigenous-tech-indigenous-knowledge-wampum-codes-as-a-model-for-decolonization) [Episode] * ...

Jun 30, 20211 hr 1 min

239: Accessibility and Sexuality with Eli Holderness

01:35 - Eli’s Superpower: Germinating Seeds & Gardening 03:03 - Accessibility in Tech * Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/chronic-fatigue-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20360490) * Remote Work 09:16 - Having Conversations with Leadership/Management * Trust & Honesty * Communication * Shame & Guilt; Managing Expectations 18:26 - Team Culture and Support * Setting Good Examples * Reducing Stigma * Removing Onus 20:09 - Human Performance & Safety * People ...

Jun 23, 202146 min

238: Contributing to Humanity and Mutual Aid – Solidarity, Not Charity

01:00 - Mae’s Superpower: Being Able to Relate to Other People and Finding Ways to Support Them 03:42 - Contributing to Humanity (Specifically American Culture) * Title Track Michigan (https://titletrackmichigan.org/) * Climate Change * Clean, Accessible Water * Hate & Divisiveness; Understanding Racial Justice 07:01 - Somatics (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatics) and The Effects of Yoga, Meditation, and Self-Awareness * Flow (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)) * Kripalu (https...

Jun 09, 202157 min

237: Empathy is Critical with Andrea Goulet

01:13 - Andrea’s Superpower: Distilling Complexity * Approaching Copywriting in a Programmatic Way * Word-land vs Abstract-land 09:00 - “Technical” vs “Non-Technical” * This or That Thinking 16:20 - Empathy is Critical * Communication Artifacts * Audience/User Impact * Programmer Aptitude Test (PAT) 33:00 - Reforming Hiring Practices and Systems * Core Values * Exercism.io (https://exercism.io/) * Retrospectives 39:28 - Performance Reviews * Continuous Feedback * Brave New Work by Aaron Dignan (...

Jun 02, 202155 min

236: Connecting Arts and Technology – The Power of Print with Marlena Compton

01:07 - Marlena’s Superpower: Bringing the Arts to Tech * Coming Into Tech as a Creative 04:42 - Parallels Between Art and Computer Science/Software Engineering * System Architecture * Spatial Thinking & Representation * Mind in Motion: How Action Shapes Thought by Barbara Tversky (https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Motion-Action-Shapes-Thought/dp/046509306X) * Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff & Mark Johnson (https://www.amazon.com/Metaphors-We-Live-George-Lakoff/dp/0226468011) 09:33 - Sketchnotin...

May 26, 20211 hr 9 min

235: RailsConf Scholars: 2021 Remote Edition

The RailsConf Scholarship Program (https://railsconf.org/scholarships) 03:12 - Tram’s Superpower: Getting 8 Hours of Sleep Per Night! 04:08 - Leah’s Superpower: Being a Companion to Long-Distance Runners 04:55 - Stefanni’s Superpower: Doing Things She’s Terrified of Doing 05:34 - Being Afraid and Grappling with Self-Doubt * Asking Questions and Being Vulnerable * Call-Out Bad Behavior 12:34 - Team Psychological Safety 17:20 - Education & Learning Environments; Tech Journeys * Ada Developers Acad...

May 19, 202142 min

234: Civil Society and Community Relationships with Michael Garfield

02:13 - Michael’s Superpower: Being Able to Creatively Digest and Reconstruct Categories * Integral Theory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_theory_(Ken_Wilber)) * Creative Deconstruction – Michael Schwartz (https://ideas.repec.org/f/psc306.html) * Creating Truly Novel Categories – Recognizing Novelty as Novelty 09:39 - Recognizing Economic Value of Talents & Abilities * Invisible Labor * Ecosystem Services * Biodiversity; The Diversity Bonus by Scott Page (https://www.amazon.com/Diversity...

May 12, 20211 hr 1 min

233: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Matter with Jess Szmajda

01:22 - Jess’s Superpower: Playing ANY Instrument * Music & Technology * Cultural Expoloration 06:03 - Language Community Ethos (MINASWAN (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/MINASWAN)) * Human-Centered Design * The Joy of Programming Meetup (https://www.meetup.com/Joy-of-Programming-DC/) * Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis (https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/sapir-whorf-hypothesis) 13:24 - Inclusive Language: Language Matters * Valheim (https://store.steampowered.com/app/892970/Valheim/) 17:19 - A...

May 05, 202147 min

232: Outside The Charmed Circle with Tamsin Davis-Langley

01:17 - Tamsin’s Superpower: Recognizing Songs Within Seconds 05:08 - Outside the Charmed Circle (https://www.amazon.com/Outside-Charmed-Circle-Exploring-Sexuality/dp/073876132X) (Tamsin’s book about gender, sexuality, and spirituality) * The Pagan Community (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Paganism) * “Necessarily Brief” 09:09 - Consent in the Mentor/Mentee Relationship (Master/Apprentice) * The Universal Attribution Fallacy * Access * Power Dynamics * Conflicts of Interest * The Word “Pol...

Apr 28, 20211 hr 4 min

231: Deserted Island Safety and Expectations with Austin Parker

01:04 - Austin’s Superpower: Pain Tolerance 02:06 - Deserted Island DevOps (https://desertedisland.club/) (Running an Online/Virtual Conference in Animal Crossing (https://animal-crossing.com/) or Other Mediums) * Deserted Island DevOps 2020 on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVUQjiv8GtwL-B9AJJ-rNdiDtcU2wo7Gy) * Software Circus (https://www.youtube.com/c/SoftwareCircus) * The Great Cloud Native Bakeoff (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koT08purWDc) * Making Real-Time Audience/Huma...

Apr 21, 202148 min

230: Using Tech + Policy For Good with Corey Ponder

01:55 - Corey’s Superpower: Empathy * Finding Voice: You Are Not a Statistic * What does it mean to support Black lives? * Authentic Self * Having Conversations Around Allyship * Owning Vulnerability 09:06 - Having People Hear Your Stories * “How are you doing?” * “Me Too” Movement (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_Too_movement) – learned something about self and blind spots in the process and the feedback was helpful 13:01 - Allyship Best Practices * Growth Mindset * Trusted Sidekicks; Augmenti...

Apr 14, 20211 hr 10 min

229: Union Organization with Melissa McEwen

02:21 - Melissa’s Superpower: Being Extremely Online 03:06 - Unionizing Glitch (https://glitch.com/) * Glitch workers sign tech’s first collective bargaining agreement (https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/2/22307671/glitch-workers-sign-historic-collective-bargaining-agreement-cwa) * Misconceptions re: Unions * Engineer Salary Discrepancies * Middle Management, Product Management Unionization * Minority Unions (i.e. Google) * What is a Minority Union? (https://workercenters.com/labors-loophole/what-i...

Apr 07, 202154 min

228: Career Snarkiness – Words Hold Weight with Corey Quinn

02:21 - Corey’s Superpower: Reading 3,400 WPM * Increasing Reading Speed 05:35 - Keeping Up w/ AWS * Last Week in AWS (https://www.lastweekinaws.com/) * AWS Morning Brief (https://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/aws-morning-brief/) * Screaming in the Cloud (https://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/screaming-in-the-cloud/) 08:45 - Delivering Corey Quinn – Personal Evolution * Speaking Truth to Power (Kindly, but Snarkily) * Privilege * Sonia Gupta and Corey Quinn - Embarrassingly Large Numbers: Salary...

Mar 31, 20211 hr 9 min

227: Doing DevRel Right with Jonan Scheffler

02:28 - Jonan’s Superpower: Jonan’s Friends * The Quality and Reliability of One’s Personal Network * Finding Community * The Ruby Community in Particular – Focus on People and Programmer Joy * Happy Birthday, Ruby (https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/)! 09:07 - How Developer Relations is Changing (DevRel) * Kicking Off New Relic (https://newrelic.com/)’s New Developer Relations Program * Outreach and Community Growth Value * Developing Developer Empathy & Adjusting Content in the Spirit of Play * The ...

Mar 24, 20211 hr 12 min

226: Incarceration and Technology with Kurt Kemple

01:49 - Kurt’s Superpower: Lifting Others Up: “A rising tide lifts all boats.” 07:00 - “Self-Taught” vs “Self-Guided” vs “Self-Motivated” Developers 11:32 - The Intersection of Incarceration and Technology * Destigmatizing Incarcerated Folx * Hiring the Formerly Incarcerated * Providing Stability to Folx Coming Out of Incarceration 22:15 - Having Privilege Working in DevRel to Raise These Issues * Bias and White Privilege 26:51 - Helping and Advocating For the Formerly Incarcerated 29:32 - The I...

Mar 17, 20211 hr 22 min

225: Uncovering and Breaking Patterns with Tim Banks

03:31 - Uncovering Patterns * Making the Covert Overt * Reasons for Covertness 13:22 - Taking Care of People as Whole People * People Are Dynamic – Not Stagnant * Roles Are Constantly Changing * Iterating on Practices * William A. Kahn: Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement and Disengagement at Work (https://journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465/256287) * Financial Compensation * Metrics and Observability 28:43 - The Tech Industry: Now vs Then (aka we still have A LOT of work to do) * Gatekeepi...

Mar 10, 20211 hr 3 min

224: Better Allies with Karen Catlin

02:31 - Karen’s Superpower: The Ability to Simplify Things * Simplifying in a Team Context 05:55 - Better Allies (https://betterallies.com/) – Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engaging Workplaces; Triaging and Curating Research * @BetterAllies (https://twitter.com/betterallies) * Better Allies: Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engaging Workplaces (https://www.amazon.com/Better-Allies-Everyday-Inclusive-Workplaces/dp/1732723303) (Book) * The Better Allies™ Approach to Hiring (https://ww...

Mar 03, 20211 hr 10 min

223: Emotions, Achievement, Joy, and Goals with David MacIver

02:15 - David’s Superpower: Being Confused * Norms of Excellence (https://notebook.drmaciver.com/posts/2020-05-31-09:20.html) * The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance (https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Game-Tennis-Classic-Performance/dp/0679778314) 11:56 - Daily Writing * David’s Newsletter: Overthinking Everything (https://drmaciver.substack.com/) * Unfuck Your Habitat (https://www.unfuckyourhabitat.com/) 15:47 - Learning to Be Better at Emotions 23:22 - A...

Feb 24, 202145 min

221: Cultivating Strength and Change with Wesley Faulkner

01:59 - Wesley’s Superpower: Connecting With People and Being a Social Chameleon 11:31 - Sharing Responsibility Based on Strengths; Delegating “Weakness” * Strengths Finder 2.0 (https://bookshop.org/books/strengths-finder-2-0/9781531865313) * Positions vs Roles 23:52 - Mission Statements Are Bullsh*t (especially for marginalized people/groups) * False Value Systems * Veni Kunche: Diversify Tech (https://diversifytech.co/) * Greater Than Code Episode 212: Diversify Tech with Veni Kunche (https://...

Feb 10, 202153 min

220: Safety Science and Failure As An Opportunity For Growth with Josh Thompson

01:48 - Josh’s Superpower: Teaching nearly anything he knows to almost anyone * Fear Remediation 05:04 - Safety Science and Staying Safe While Rock Climbing * 2020 Accidents in North American Climbing (https://americanalpineclub.myshopify.com/collections/aac-publications/products/2020-accidents-in-north-american-climbing) * Accidents are the result of normal work * How Complex Systems Fail (https://how.complexsystems.fail) 17:42 - Transfer of Knowledge from Experts to Non-Experts 23:07 - Root Ca...

Feb 03, 20211 hr 11 min

219: How Are You Doing? with Mando Escamilla

03:19 - Mando’s Superpower: Willingness to Talk About Anything Personal with Others 08:39 - Dealing with Life in 2020/2021 * Rationality vs Non-Rationality * Feeling Lost and Unmoored 18:30 - Finding Anchors * Narrative and Story * Emotion * Song * Rhyme * Repetition * Affiliation Ted Lasso (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10986410/) The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow (https://www.amazon.com/Ten-Thousand-Doors-January/dp/0316421995) 34:28 - Being Okay Being Less Productive Sea Shan...

Jan 27, 20211 hr 7 min

218: Building Bridges with Isa Herico-Velasco

02:12 - Isa’s Superpower: Being a Bridge * RailsBridge (http://railsbridge.org/) * Bridge Foundry (https://bridgefoundry.org/) – They’re Hiring !! 08:56 - Community Learning * Asynchronous Communication * Discord (https://discord.com/) * Cultivating a Leadership Pipeline * Transparency * “Many hands make light work.” 19:16 - Pivoting From Rock’n’Roll to Software Engineering: Software + Music * Gigwell (https://www.gigwell.com/): Talent Booking * Everything Relates to Tech Somehow 27:57 - Grappli...

Jan 20, 202145 min

217: Robots As "Social Entities" with Laura Major

02:05 - Laura’s Superpower: Problem Solving 04:07 - What to Expect When You’re Expecting Robots (https://www.amazon.com/What-Expect-Youre-Expecting-Robots/dp/1541699114) * Check out our interview with Laura’s coauthor: Greater Than Code Episode 216: Robot and Human Collaboration with Julie Shah (https://www.greaterthancode.com/robot-and-human-collaboration) * Where is human collaboration with robots heading? 06:59 - The Human/Robot Partnership * Robot Personification * Positives and Negatives * ...

Jan 13, 202151 min