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

216: Robot and Human Collaboration with Julie Shah

02:21 - Julie’s Superpower: Working Really Hard and Maintaining Focused Attention on Things for a Long Period of Time 04:25 - Robotics and Working in Artificial Intelligence (AI) * What To Expect When You're Expecting Robots: The Future of Human-Robot Collaboration (https://www.amazon.com/What-Expect-Youre-Expecting-Robots/dp/1541699114) (Julie and Laura Major’s book) 11:10 - Structuring and Optimizing the World for Machines, AI, and Robots * The Turing Test (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing...

Jan 06, 20211 hr 5 min

215: Gathering Data in Machine Learning with Abeba Birhane

01:41 - Descartes was wrong: ‘a person is a person through other persons’ (https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~drkelly/AeonMagBirhaneDescartesWasWrongPersonsAreSocial2017.pdf) * Abeba Birhane on a person is a person through other persons (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RVscNkiTq0) * Cartesian Thinking (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RVscNkiTq0) * Individualism (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RVscNkiTq0) 13:59 - Predicting How People Behave and Act via Machine Learning is Ethically Flawed * “Measur...

Dec 30, 20201 hr 2 min

214: The Righteous Mind with Rylan Bowers

01:26 - Rylan’s Superpower: Helping People & Giving Back to Community * “The rising tide lifts all boats.” 03:01 - The Righteous Mind (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Righteous_Mind) / Making and Rationalizing Choices * Jonathan Haidt (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Haidt) * Moral Psychology (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_psychology) * The Happiness Hypothesis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Happiness_Hypothesis) (The Elephant Metaphor) * Social Intuitionism (https://en.wikipe...

Dec 23, 20201 hr 6 min

213: This Is Me with Cher

CONTENT WARNING: Eating Disorders, Substance Abuse & Addiction 01:12 - Cher’s Superpower: Making and Collecting Hot Sauce * Gastroparesis (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/gastroparesis/symptoms-causes/syc-20355787#:~:text=Gastroparesis%20is%20a%20condition%20that,food%20through%20your%20digestive%20tract.) * Hobby vs Coping Mechanism 04:33 - Good Ideas Can Come From Anywhere * Drive to Execute * Becoming a Mentor/Leader * Curiosity and Understanding the Big Picture * Seeking Feedb...

Dec 16, 202051 min

212: Diversify Tech with Veni Kunche

01:17 - Veni’s Superpower: Being Adaptable and Not Giving Up 02:25 - Going From Coder to Entrepreneur * Diversify Tech (https://diversifytech.co/) * Women Who Code (https://www.womenwhocode.com/) * Code With Veni Newsletter (https://www.codewithveni.com/) 07:00 - Being Protective and Selective of Company Partnerships * Vetting Companies * Glassdoor (https://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm) * Talking to Underrepresented Folx at Companies to Ask for Feedback 14:05 - Changes Veni Has Seen Over Time re:...

Dec 09, 202059 min

211: Becoming Humble and Kind with Brandon Weaver

01:16 - Brandon’s Superpower: Recognizing Others’ Superpowers and Spotting Potential Talent * Convincing Others * Recognizing and Talking About Failure(s) 09:23 - Brandon’s Personal Journey & Transformation Towards Humility * Wanting To Be Heard * Placing Identity * Developing Empathy * Speaking Candidly Re: Growth * Talking About Negatives in Your Past 25:40 - The Importance of Community and Community Leaders * The Ruby Scholar and Guide Program (https://rubyconf.org/scholarships) * Michael Har...

Dec 02, 20201 hr 4 min

210: Getting Sh*t Done with Harini Gokul

01:30 - Harini’s Superpower: Getting Sh*t Done 04:19 - Putting Technology to Use For Those Who Need it the Most * Co-Creation and Co-Shaping * Public & Private Partnerships * Breaking Barriers to Entry 14:04 - Crisis Management and Rethinking Blueprints * Life After COVID / Reframing Crisis As Opportunity * Creating Space / Amplifying Others * Leadership Perspective 39:45 - Duality: Humans As Interconnected Systems * Solidarity and Humanity * Facade Breaking * Rationality * Empathetic Leadership...

Nov 25, 20201 hr 2 min

209: Self-Identity and Parenting in Tech with Mia Mollie De Búrca

01:25 - Mia’s Superpower: Adaptability * Applicable Skills to Basic Computer Programming * Parsing Information * Research 05:31 - Linguistics and Cultural Anthropology * Linguistic Relativism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity) (Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis) 08:36 - Parenting While Having a Career in Tech 09:42 - Objectivity and Truth in Software Development 11:04 - Tech Parenthood (Cont’d) * Maternity Leave and Returning to Work * Part-Time Flexibility * “Keep-in-Touch Days” * Retur...

Nov 18, 20201 hr 6 min

208: Who Tells Your Story? with Janeen Uzzell

01:42 - Janeen’s Superpower: Storytelling * The Importance of Who Tells Your Story * Accountability * Generalizations Are Harmful * Responsibility 07:56 - The Wikimedia Foundation (https://wikimediafoundation.org/) * Trust and Safety Team * Thriving Movement 11:04 - Empowering Communities To Tell Their Stories * Citations * Edit-a-thons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edit-a-thon) 19:53 - Creating a Wikipedia Page 22:07 - Approaching and Engaging Youth 27:10 - Staying Connected As An Organization...

Nov 11, 202057 min

207: Investigation and Influence with Chelsea Troy

03:36 - Chelsea’s Superpower: Software Detective Work * Grant-funded Organizations * Context Loss * Forensic Software Analysis * Software (Initially) Never Works ‼️ 08:27 - Coding in Investigation Mode * Lucifer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer_(TV_series)) (TV Series) * Setting Up a Debugging Environment (Includes a Velociraptor Example!) 15:05 - Chelsea’s Techtivism Blog Series (https://chelseatroy.com/category/techtivism/): Engineers Considering the Actions and Impact of Their Work Syst...

Nov 04, 202056 min

206: Conscious Teaching and Learning with Brian Hogan

02:11 - Brian’s Superpower: Being Able to Teach People Stuff * Guiding Learners Towards Outcomes and Success * Connecting with Students on a Deeper Level * Active Learning 13:15 - Building Relationships * Adults vs Kids * Tapping Into Individual Motivation 18:34 - Learning Useful, Real-World Material * Exercises For Programmers (https://www.amazon.com/Exercises-Programmers-Challenges-Develop-Coding/dp/1680501224) * Systems Thinking Speech by Dr. Russell Ackoff (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb...

Oct 28, 202059 min

205: Breaking Silos and Creating Opportunity Via Remote Work with Amir Salihefendić

02:16 - Amir’s Superpower: Learning * The Value of Knowledge Work 05:42 - Growing Up As a Refugee * Maintaining Focus During Change 11:04 - A Founder’s Mindset * Trauma: Makes You Stronger * Shadow-Side Psyche (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_(psychology)) * Reboot by Jerry Colonna (https://www.rebootbyjerry.com/) (Book) * Reboot.io (https://www.reboot.io/) (CEO Coaching) 19:06 - Remote Work * Opportunities and Implications * Handling Skepticism * Impact on Local Community * Remote-First Co...

Oct 21, 202048 min

204: Creating Community Spaces in The Age of COVID with Nicole Archambault

02:04 - Nicole’s Superpower: Empathy and Community Building * “The After-Hours Vibe” Zoom Parties (DM Nicole on Twitter for an invite!) (https://twitter.com/lavie_encode) * Discord Servers (https://discord.com/) * freeCodeCamp (https://www.freecodecamp.org/) 15:06 - Overcoming Isolation and Forming Connections in the Age of COVID-19 * Masking (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masking_(personality)) * Vulnerability and Transparency 20:42 - Creating a Techincal Community * Human Resource Machine (htt...

Oct 14, 20201 hr 13 min

203: Algorithmic Auditing and Accountability with Matthew Zhou

01:54 - Matt’s Superpower: Letting Things Go Easily * Nonattachment and Immigration 08:35 - Matt’s Journey From Anthropology to Tech * The Intersection of Technology and Social Science 13:42 - Algorithmic Auditing and Accountability * Internal vs External Audits * Identifying Affected Parties * Waze Hijacked L.A. in the Name of Convenience. Can Anyone Put the Genie Back in the Bottle? (https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/waze-los-angeles-neighborhoods/) * Participation in Machine Learning * Peop...

Oct 07, 20201 hr 3 min

202: The Art of Storytelling in Technology with Asra Nadeem

00:42 - Asra’s Superpower: Unrelenting Love For Herself 02:32 - Storytelling * Storytelling is Important for Change * Taking Action with Stories 09:35 - Finding Passionate Builders * No Freedom Without Financial Freedom * Human Creativity vs Technology Automation * You Can Be Who You Want to Be 18:32 - The Responsibility of Creators and Consumers in Tech * Personal Responsibility vs Systemic Issues * Balancing Individual Responsibility with Power Dynamics and Influence * Manipulation, Fear, and ...

Sep 30, 20201 hr 13 min

201: Real Rebels Pay Their Taxes with Nils Norman Haukås

02:58 - Nils’ Superpower: Storytelling * Practicing Presentation * Company/Employer-Sponsored Skill Training (such as storytelling/public speaking) * Taking Courses Unrelated to Your Own Skillset 09:39 - Deleting Code * Tension Around Deleting or Refactoring Others’ Code * Etiquette Around ^^ * Sharing Codebases 20:17 - Is it ethical to invest time in learning and using technologies from companies that pay little or no taxes? * Real Rebels Pay Their Taxes (https://nilsnh.no/2020/08/14/real-rebel...

Sep 23, 20201 hr 5 min

200: "Bad Code" with Damien Burke

02:58 - Damien’s Superpower: Being able to hold contradictory beliefs at the same time. * Working in VERY Local Government (for the City of Los Angeles) 07:05 - What is “Bad Code”? * Episode 188: Going Off the Rails with Damien Burke (https://www.greaterthancode.com/going-off-the-rails) (Damien’s Previous GTC Episode) * Objectivity vs Subjectivity: Why does code lie on that spectrum? * Metrics to Measure Beautiful Code: * Does it make the world a better place? * Is it clear? 16:38 - What should ...

Sep 16, 20201 hr 4 min

199: Toxicity in Tech with Amy Newell

04:31 - Amy’s Superpower: Search Algorithms and Finding Things * Finding Things in Code * Visual vs Spacial Awareness 08:39 - Toxic Masculinity and Hierarchies in Engineering Roles * I’m not in security but whenever I hear people taking about who is more technical all I see is folks jockeying for status.(not blaming, that’s the culture we have made in software generally). But from outside whatever y’all mean when you say technical is completely opaque. (https://twitter.com/amynewell/status/12989...

Sep 09, 202055 min

198: Learning From Failure with Ravs Kaur

02:30 - Rav’s Superpower: Learning to Learn * Success and Failure * Creating Environments Where It’s Safe to Fail * Exploring Ideas and Collecting Datapoints * Celebrating Feedback Cycles and Experiments 07:12 - Failing Fast – Getting Early Feedback Along the Way * Getting Over the “Being Polished” Hump * Learning for Self-Fulfilment 17:02 - Empathy as a Life Skill * Simulation * Empathy is Necessary to Learn Through Failure 26:40 - Uplevel (https://uplevelteam.com/): Empowering Engineers to do ...

Sep 02, 20201 hr 6 min

197: Tips For New Developers with Dan Moore

02:13 - Dan’s Superpower: Ability to Keep Calm * “We need to solve this problem.” * Dealing with Frustration * Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Paperback/dp/B00ZT1W1DO/ref=pd_lpo_14_t_0/132-3661810-3882807?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00ZT1W1DO&pd_rd_r=9a9d44ae-174a-45d0-9d26-209d9489e335&pd_rd_w=DdnSJ&pd_rd_wg=kqSrE&pf_rd_p=7b36d496-f366-4631-94d3-61b87b52511b&pf_rd_r=63K9K68E65P4FKNM9XZC&psc=1&refRID=63K9K68E65P4FKNM9XZC) 07:11 - Maxim...

Aug 26, 20201 hr 7 min

196: Documentation as Performance with Aisha Blake

02:26 - Aisha’s Superpower: Proofreading 04:05 - Documentation * “The Code Documents Itself” * Context / Entry Points * Documentation as a Narrative * The Value of Documentation 07:54 - Forms of Documentation Worth Investing In * Onboarding * Commit Messages * Pull Requests 10:34 - Architecture and Stories * Commit Messages * References * User Stories 17:17 - Telling Stories Through Documentation * Documentation as Performance * (https://www.titleofconf.org/) * Tail Call Optimization: The Musica...

Aug 19, 202055 min

195: Pivoting to PPE with Christina Perla

02:33 - Christina’s Superpower: Resourcefulness, Industrial Design * Pratt Institute (https://www.pratt.edu/) * Building Physical Mockups of Items * Learning on The Go 07:30 - Starting Makelab (https://makelab.nyc/); Inspiration for 3D Printing * Enabling Creatives * Mitigating Risk * Clientele 15:15 - Pivoting to PPE in Lieu of COVID-19 * Making Faceshields * Handling Orders 22:04 - Advice for Other Women Who Want to Start a Business * Focus on What You Don’t Know * Stay Close to Customers 23:4...

Aug 12, 20201 hr 12 min

194: I Don’t Need You To Like Me, I Need You To Hate Racism with Dr. Courtney D. Cogburn

02:28 - Courtney’s Superpower: Speaking on the Topic of Racism “You can’t prioritize your discomfort over living your own values.” – Courtney White Liberals Are Dangerous: the “I’m liberal...I’m not that bad” narrative Action & Engaging in Antiracist Practices Over Lipservice Antiracism is a Lifelong Learning Process Not Seeing Race is Problematic – Disproportive Representation 13:16 - Adopting Attitudes Towards Antiracism Understanding White Supremacy If It’s Not Antiracist, It’s Racist 16:24 -...

Aug 05, 20201 hr 13 min

193: Optimizing For Happiness with Tudor Gîrba

02:09 - Tudor’s Superpower: Storytelling * Getting Beyond Your Self-Critic * Writing Code is Storytelling * There’s No Semantics Without Syntax 13:04 - Reading Stories (and Code) * Reading Code Takes Place in an Editor * Code is Not Text. Code is Data. 17:56 - Optimizing For Happiness Automation Creates More Jobs Choosing Tools is Important “The tools that we create end up influencing how we see the world.” – Marshall McLuhan 27:48 - Moldable Development * Making Metaphors and Building Abstracti...

Jul 29, 20201 hr 14 min

192: Bringing Our Whole Selves with Siobhán Cronin

02:36 - Siobhán’s Superpower: Catalyzing Personal and Community Change 04:19 - Managing Change During COVID-19 * Experiencing Joy While Grieving * Bringing Your Whole Self to Work (a boundary being stretched like never before) * Working From Home: Ranges of Experiences and Comfort-Levels 13:51 - Pros and Cons of Bringing Your Whole/Full Self to Work * Building Affinity & Care * Interfacing with Capitalism * Painpoints as Learning Opportunities * Having Boundaries * Building Inclusive Communities...

Jul 22, 202051 min

191: Sitting Down Together with Amy Tobey

02:14 - Amy’s Superpower: Looking at a mess and seeing the potential for what it could be. 03:40 - Generalists vs Specialists * 071: Brein Power with Rein Henrichs (https://www.greaterthancode.com/brein-power) * T-Shaped Skills (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-shaped_skills) “The job description should describe the capabilities that the team needs, not that the individual needs.” 15:28 - Finding a “Beautiful” Mess in Technical Systems “The biggest impediment to change is your users.” – Jessica R...

Jul 15, 20201 hr 9 min

190: Social Media, Privacy, and Security with Joe LeBlanc

01:32 - Joe’s Superpower: Hospitality * Greater Than Code 054: Code Hospitality with Nadia Odunayo (https://www.greaterthancode.com/code-hospitality) 06:20 - Social Media: It's time for us to stop acting like we are getting access to social media for free. * When you add up your household's cable/Internet/phone bills, you're paying bare minimum $100/mo. * This money isn't going to Facebook and Twitter, but it is the entry fee for bringing these platforms into your home, where they subsequently t...

Jul 08, 202042 min

189: Succeeding in Science with Deborah Berebichez

01:13 - Debbie’s Superpower: Having an excellent memory and a detailed-oriented brain 03:23 - Teaching Science in Fun Ways * Sourcebooks Baby University Books, Assorted Science Titles, Set of 4 (https://www.schoolspecialty.com/sourcebooks-baby-university-four-book-set-2023976?kxconfid=u7avswvjn&source=google&campaignid=9240857700&placement=shopping&keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAjw88v3BRBFEiwApwLevfrBS0j1HjYBbeJEDTBCZd6TlGLCGEJap-mjxWraRahzKDOThgol3BoCYvgQAvD_BwE) * Thermodynamics for Babies and Toddlers ...

Jul 01, 20201 hr 10 min

188: Going Off the Rails with Damien Burke

01:10 - Damien’s Superpower: The ability to hold conflicting beliefs at the same time. * Blind Men and an Elephant (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant) * Law of Excluded Middle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_excluded_middle#:~:text=In%20logic%2C%20the%20law%20of,and%20the%20law%20of%20identity.) 04:09 - Life is Hard. How do we make things easy? * Simon’s Ant (https://everything2.com/title/Simon%2527s+ant) * Emergent Behavior (https://www.thwink.org/sustain/glossary/Em...

Jun 24, 20201 hr

187: Seeing The World with Bryan Liles

01:50 - Bryan’s Superpower: The ability to see the world as it is 06:52 - Conference Circuits / Virtual Conferencing * KubeCon (https://events.linuxfoundation.org/kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=KC_CNC_Virtual&gclid=CjwKCAjw5vz2BRAtEiwAbcVIL7LDb7jGC7Fiq3gVMxj6_SL7f4qa0eIlnMUKGtO91vtNvKkLyU35ahoCLkEQAvD_BwE) * Keynote: CNCF Project Updates - Bryan Liles, KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2019 Co-Chair (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=two3TzF9mV...

Jun 17, 202048 min