Greater Than Code Mandy Moore
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- Technology
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)
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277: Joy Is Activism – The Power of Ritual and Intention
00:44 - Pandemic Life
Politics
Healthcare
Society
Work
13:58 - Jay, Happiness, and Fulfillment
Personal Development and Self-Discovery
Brené Brown
Glennon Doyle
Elizabeth Gilbert
Nihilism
Manifestation
Gratitude & Daily Journaling
Morning Pages
EarlyWords
29:09 - Witchcraft & Magic
Intention and Ritual
Terry Pratchett
Franz Anton Mesmer
The Placebo Effect
Zenify Stress Relief Drink
Effort and Intention
Reflections:
Mandy: Everyone should journal. Reflect on the past and bring it to the present.
Damien: Bringing magic into non-magical environments.
Aaron: Ritual, intention, reflection, alignment.
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.
Transcript:
DAMIEN: Welcome to Episode 277 of Greater Than Code. I am Damien Burke and I'm joined with Aaron Aldrich.
AARON: Hi, I am Aaron and I am here with Mandy.
MANDY: Hello, everybody. I'm Mandy Moore and today, it's just the three of us!
So if you came expecting more than that, I'm sorry.
[laughter]
We’re what you get today, but hopefully, we can have a great conversation and we were thinking that we would talk about all the things. I'm doing big hand gestures right now because there's been so many things happening since 2020 that are still happening and how our perspectives have changed.
For one, I, myself, can tell you I have grown so much as a person in 2 years. And I'm curious to hear how the two of you have been living your lives since the pandemic.
DAMIEN: [chuckles] Where to begin.
AARON: I know. It's such a good topic because I feel like everyone's had so much to change, but at the same time, it's like, okay, so 2 million years ago at the beginning of this pandemic.
I'm now my third place, third job since the beginning of the pandemic as well and wow, I came out as non-binary in the middle of the pandemic [laughs]. So that was a whole thing, too.
I think the question I asked earlier is how much have you radicalized your politics over the course of the past 2 years? [laughs]
DAMIEN: Yeah, yeah. That's been bouncing around in my head since you said it off mic.
Every time I hear the word pandemic now, I think about, “Oh man,” I hesitate on how far to go into this. [laughs] Because I look at the techno-anarchist crypto bros and I can I say that disparagingly and I will say that disparagingly because I was like them. [laughs] I filled out a survey today and they asked like, “How do you rate yourself as on a conservative and liberal scale?” I'm like, “Well, I think I'm super conservative.” And I still do and every time I align with any political policy, it's always an alignment with people who call themselves socialists and leftists and why is that? [laughs] Hmm.
[laughter]
But anyway, that was the part I was trying not to go back into. [laughs]
One of the big realizations in living in a pandemic is that healthcare is not an exclusive good.
MANDY: What?
[laughter]
DAMIEN: That is to say that I cannot, as an individual, take care of my own health outside of the health of the community and society I live in. Didn't know that. In my defense, I hadn't thought about it, [laughs] but that was an amazing realization.
AARON: No, I think that was a big thing. I think so much of the pandemic exposed the way our systems are all interconnected. Exposed the societal things. Like so much we rely on is part of the society that we've built and when things don't work, it's like, well, now what? I don't have any mechanism to do anything on my own. What do we do?
DAMIEN: Yeah. It's so fundamental in humanity that we are in society. We are in community. We only survive as a group -
276: Caring Deeply About Humans – Diversify The Medical Community with Jenna Charlton
01:09 - Jenna’s Superpower: Being Super Human: Deeply rooted in what is human in tech
The User is Everything
04:30 - Keeping Focus on the User
Building For Themself
Bother(!!) Users
Walking A Mile In Your Users Shoes - Jamey Hampton
09:09 - Interviewing Users (Testing)
Preparation
Identifying Bias
Getting Things Wrong
Gamifying/Winning (Developer Dogs & Testing Cats)
Overtesting
23:15 - Working With ADHD
Alerts & Alarms
Medication
Underdiagnosis / Misdiagnosis
Presentation
Medical Misogyny and Socialization
Masking
Finding a Good Clinician
Reflections:
John: Being a super human.
Jacob: Forgetting how to mask.
Jamey: Talking about topics that are Greater Than Code.
Jenna: Talking about what feels stream-of-consciousness. Having human spaces is important. Support your testers!
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.
Transcript:
JAMEY: Hi, everyone and thanks for tuning in to Episode 276 of Greater Than Code. I’m one of your hosts, Jamey Hampton, and I'm here with my friend, Jacob Stoebel.
JACOB: Hello, like to be here. I'm with my friend, John Sawers.
JOHN: Thanks, Jacob. And I'm here with our guest, Jenna Charlton.
Jenna is a software tester and product owner with over a decade of experience. They've spoken at a number of dev and test conferences and is passionate about risk-based testing, building community within agile teams, developing the next generation of testers, and accessibility. When not testing, Jenna loves to go to punk rock shows and live pro wrestling events with their husband Bob, traveling, and cats. Their favorite of which are the two that share their home, Maka and Excalipurr.
Welcome to the show, Jenna! [chuckles]
JENNA: Hi, everybody! I'm excited to be here with all the J’s.
[laughter]
JAMEY: We're so excited to have you.
JOHN: And we will start with the question we always start with, which is what is your superpower and how did you acquire it?
JENNA: On a less serious note, I have a couple of superpowers. One I discovered when I was a teenager. I can find Legally Blonde on TV [laughter] any kind of day [laughs] somewhere. It's a less valuable superpower than it used to be. But boy, was it a great superpower when you would be scrolling and I'm like, “Legally Blonde, I found it!”
[laughter]
JAMEY: I was going to ask if one of your superpowers was cat naming, because Excalipurr is very good. It's very good. [laughs]
JENNA: I wish I could take credit for that.
[laughter]
Bob is definitely the one responsible.
JAMEY: So it's your husband superpower, cat naming and yours is Legally Blonde. Got it.
JENNA: Mine is Legally Blonde.
[laughter]
I also can find a way to relate anything to pro wrestling.
JAMEY: I've seen that one in action, actually. Yes.
[laughter]
JENNA: But no, my real superpower, or at least as far as tech goes is that I am super human. Not in that I am a supremely powerful human, it's that I am deeply rooted in what is human in tech and that's what matters to me and the user is my everything.
I'm not one of those people who nerds out about the latest advancement. Although, I enjoy talking about it. What I care about, what gets me excited, and gets me out of bed every day in tech is thinking about how I can solve a deeply human problem in a way that is empathetic, centers the user, and what matters to them.
JAMEY: Do you feel like you were always like that naturally, or do you feel like that was a skill that you fostered over your career?
JENNA: I think it's who I am, but I think I had to learn how to harness it to make it useful. I am one of those people who has the negati -
275: Making Change Happen – Why Not You? with Nyota Gordon
01:47 - Nyota’s Superpower: To hear and pull out people’s ideas to make them more clear, actionable, and profitable!
Acknowledging The Unspoken
Getting Checked
07:15 - Boundaries and Harmony
10:35 - News & Social Media
Addiction
Filtering
Bias
18:54 - The Impact of AI
23:00 - Anyone Can Be A Freelance Journalist; How Change Happens
Chelsea Cirruzzo’s Guide to Freelance Journalism
Casey’s GGWash Article About Ranked Choice Voting
First Follower: Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy | Derek Sivers
40:13 - The Intersection of Cybersecurity and Employee Wellness: Resiliency
@selfcare_tech
Reflections:
Casey & John: “A big part of resilience is being able to take more breaths.” – Nyota
Damien: You can be the expert. You can be the journalist. You can be the first mover/leader. Applying that conscientiously.
Nyota: Leaving breadcrumbs.
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.
Transcript:
PRE-ROLL: Software is broken, but it can be fixed. Test Double’s superpower is improving how the world builds software by building both great software and great teams. And you can help! Test Double is hiring empathetic senior software engineers and DevOps engineers. We work in Ruby, JavaScript, Elixir and a lot more. Test Double trusts developers with autonomy and flexibility at a remote, 100% employee-owned software consulting agency. Looking for more challenges? Enjoy lots of variety while working with the best teams in tech as a developer consultant at Test Double. Find out more and check out remote openings at link.testdouble.com/greater. That’s link.testdouble.com/greater.
DAMIEN: Welcome to Episode 275 of Greater Than Code. I'm Damien Burke and I'm here with John Sawers.
JOHN: Thanks, Damien. And I'm here with Casey Watts.
CASEY: Hi, I'm Casey! And we're all here with our guest today, Nyota Gordon.
Nyota is a technologist in cybersecurity and Army retiree with over 22 years of Active Federal Leadership Service. She is the founder, developer, and all-around do-gooder at Transition365 a Cyber Resiliency Training Firm that thrives at the intersection of cybersecurity and employee wellness.
Welcome, Nyota! So glad to have you.
NYOTA: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate you.
CASEY: Yay! All right. Our first question—we warned you about this—what is your superpower and how did you acquire it?
NYOTA: My superpower is to hear, pull out people's ideas, and make them more clear, more actionable, and more profitable.
DAMIEN: Ooh.
NYOTA: Yeah, that's one of my friends told me that.
And how did I get it? I'm a words person. So I listen to what people say, but I also listen to what they don't say.
CASEY: What they don't say.
NYOTA: Yeah.
CASEY: Can you think of an example?
NYOTA: Like that. Like when you did that quiet thing you just did, I saw that mind blown emoji because there's a lot in unspoken. There's a lot in body language. There's a lot in silence. When the silence happens, there's a lot when someone changes the topic, like that stuff is a lot. [chuckles] So I listen and I acknowledge all of that. Maybe we all hear it, or don't hear it depending on how you're processing what I'm saying, but we don't always acknowledge it and respect it in other people,
DAMIEN: You have to listen to the notes he’s not playing.
[laughter]
Do you ever have an experience where things that are not said do not want to be heard?
NYOTA: Absolutely. But that's part of acknowledging and so, you can tell when people are like, “I do not want to talk about that.” So then I would do a gentle topic change and not a hard left all th -
274: Managing People Versus Servers with Arpit Mohan
02:03 - Arpit’s Superpower: Tenacity
Tenacious D
05:03 - Managing People vs Servers
Establish Consistent Language and Shared Level of Understanding
Written Word
Following Up
User Manual (Persona Investigation)
Consensus Algorithms: Single Sources of Truth & Responsibility
Independent Failures: Build and Establish Trust
Conway’s Law
Somathesis – Collective Problem Solving: Music, Science, Software - Jessica Kerr
Reliability & Uptime
Reflections:
John: Meeting minutes and clear communication is a form of active listening.
Mae: Thinking about trust in terms of reliability and uptime.
Arpit: Collective Problem Solving: Music, Science, Software - Jessica Kerr
Mandy: Tenacity.
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.
Transcript:
PRE-ROLL: Software is broken, but it can be fixed. Test Double’s superpower is improving how the world builds software by building both great software and great teams. And you can help! Test Double is hiring empathetic senior software engineers and DevOps engineers. We work in Ruby, JavaScript, Elixir and a lot more. Test Double trusts developers with autonomy and flexibility at a remote, 100% employee-owned software consulting agency. Looking for more challenges? Enjoy lots of variety while working with the best teams in tech as a developer consultant at Test Double. Find out more and check out remote openings at link.testdouble.com/greater. That’s link.testdouble.com/greater.
JOHN: Welcome to Greater Than Code Episode 272 of Greater Than Code. I’m John Sawers and I’m here with Mae Beale.
MAE: Also here with us is our show creator, Mandy Moore.
MANDY: Thanks, Mae! I’m Mandy and today, I’m here with our guest, Arpit Mohan.
From unscrewing his childhood Tamagotchi to taking apart a computer, Arpit has always tinkered with technology. But while working on a mobile game that went viral seemingly overnight, Arpit realized he was on to something big: a way to put customizable app tools directly into developers’ hands. So he and two co-founders created Appsmith, an open-source project built by engineers for engineers. With Appsmith, Arpit can do what he loves most: using technology to help people accomplish more.
Welcome to the show, Arpit.
ARPIT: Thank you so much for having me. Super glad.
MANDY: We like to kick off the show by asking all of our guests: what is your superpower and how did you acquire it?
ARPIT: One of my superpowers is I am tenacious. I am really, really tenacious. You give me a problem to work on, you give me something, especially a measurable problem to work on, and I will ensure that it'll get done. I'll keep thinking about it. I'll keep chipping away at it. At some point of time, it'll get done.
Maybe because I'm a little competitive by nature and to me, it seems that most problems, or most things are accomplishable if you just kind of stick with the problem, you continue to work on it, and that's what I've done right from childhood.
So yeah, I think that's one of the things that I've always excelled at.
JOHN: You say that you've always had that from childhood. When did you realize that that was the thing that you were doing that was different from maybe how other people approach problems?
ARPIT: Well, once I graduated from university from my undergrad, that's when I started up our first company back in 2010 and while every startup founder hopes and wishes that you only have to ever start up once in your life and that's the one startup that becomes a unicorn, a billion-dollar company, gives you the exit so you can retire on a beach. Unfortunately, that did not pan out for us.
Whi -
273: Motorcycling Adventures with Kerri Miller
02:28 - Kerri’s Superpower: Having an Iron Butt
The Iron Butt Association
06:39 - On The Road Entertainment
FM Radio
Country Music
Community/Local Radio
Roadside Attractions
The World Largest Ball of Twine
Mystery Spot
Mystery Spot Polka
15:11 - Souvenir Collection & Photography
Fireweed Ice Cream
Clubvan
Lighthouses
National Parks
25:42 - Working On The Road
27:37 - Rallies, Competitive Scavenger Hunts
Traveling Salesman Problem
30:40 - Tracking, Tooling, Databases
Penny Machine Locations
Penny Costs 1.76 Cents to Make in 2020
35:36 - Community Interaction; Sampling Local Specialties
Cinnamon Rolls
Salem Sue, World’s Largest Holstein
38:40 - Recording Adventures
Kerri’s Blog: Motozor
Stationary & Sassy (Jamey’s Podcast)
41:46 - Focus / Music
Bandcamp
Steely Dan
Neil Peart (Rush)
42:22 - Directed Riding vs Wandering/Drifting
Reflections:
Mandy: Taking time to enjoy yourself is SO important.
Jamey: Get started! Create a map, now.
Coraline: Permission to go down rabbit holes: wander aimlessly, and explore.
Aaron: If I’m not having fun, why am I doing this? Resetting expectations to your purpose.
Chelsea: Making “it didn’t always look like this!” stories accessible to folks.
Kerri: It’s a marathon. You can’t do a lot of things in a single step. We have traveled far from where we began.
Greater Than Code Episode 072: Story Time with Kerri Miller
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.
Transcript:
CORALINE: Hey, everybody and welcome to Episode 273 of Greater Than Code. You may remember me, my name is Coraline and I’m very, very happy to be with y'all today and to be with my friend, Jamey Hampton.
JAMEY: Thanks, Coraline. I'm also excited to introduce my good friend, Aaron Aldrich, and it's our first time co-hosting together so I'm excited about that, too.
AARON: Oh, Hey, it's me, Aaron Aldrich. I'm also excited. I'm so excited to host with all these people and I will introduce you to Chelsea.
CHELSEA: Him folks. I'm Chelsea Troy and I am pleased to introduce Mandy Moore.
MANDY: Hey, everybody. It's Mandy. And today, I am here with one of my favorite people! It's Kerri Miller, and you may know Kerri as an engineer, a glass artist, a public speaker, a motorcyclist, and a lackwit gadabout based in the Pacific Northwest.
Generally, she's on an epic adventure on her motorcycle somewhere in North America. Will she meet Sasquatch? That's what I want to know and that's why she's here today because we're not going to talk about tech, or code today. We're going to catch up with Kerri. If you're not following Kerri on these epic adventures, you need to be because I live vicariously through her all the time and you need to, too. Kerri is a prime example of living your best life.
So without further ado, Kerri, how are you?!
KERRI: Oh my gosh. With an intro like that, how can I be anything but amazing today? Can I just hire you, Mandy just to call me every morning and tell me how exciting I am?
MANDY: Absolutely.
[laughter]
KERRI: No. I'm doing really, really well. The sun actually came out today in the Pacific Northwest. I've been telling people lately that if you want to know what living in Seattle is like, first go stand in the shower for about 4 months [laughs] and then get back to me. So to have the sun bright and it’s 53 outside, it’s amazing.
AARON: 53 does sound amazing. It's been like so far below freezing for so long here that I've lost track. Every once in a while, I go outside and it's like 30 and I'm like, “Oh, this is nice!”
[laughter]
JAMEY: Are we going to ask Kerri -
272: People First – Self-Awareness and Being Excellent To Each Other with Ashleigh Wilson
02:14 - Ashleigh’s Superpower: Ability To See “The Vision”
The Queen’s Gambit
03:35 - Intentionality: “People First”
Call Me Out: Intention vs Impact
“This Doesn’t Make Sense” Log
Emotional Fitness Surveys
“Dare To Lead” Book Club
10:55 - Listen
Digging in to Defensiveness / Uncomfortableness
Little Things Add Up
Building Connections and Relationships
15:10 - Building Trust – Why is vulnerability not professional?
Alleviating Fear
North Star: Being Excellent To Each Other
Self Awareness & Emotional Intelligence
Discernment
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
21:02 - Personal Growth and Development
Brené Brown
Glennon Doyle
Morning Pages
The Holistic Psychologist: Future Self Journaling
27:24 - Intersexuality and Identity: How do you show up?
Privilege
Gender
Somatics
Safety
Solidarity
36:37 - Making and Dealing With Mistakes
Taking Feedback
Lead With Gratitude
Ego Checks
40:05 - Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
Visibility and Understanding
Health and Wellness Benefits
Sacred vs Safe Spaces / Safe vs Brave Spaces
Dan Price
45:52 - Fundraising & Venture Capital (VC)
The House of Who
Reflections:
Mandy: Eating a shame sandwich in order to learn and grow.
Chanté: North Star = Being excellent to each other.
Ashleigh: Celebrating intersections of identity.
Aaron: The “This Doesn’t Make Sense” log.
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.
Transcript:
PRE-ROLL: Software is broken, but it can be fixed. Test Double’s superpower is improving how the world builds software by building both great software and great teams. And you can help! Test Double is hiring empathetic senior software engineers and DevOps engineers. We work in Ruby, JavaScript, Elixir and a lot more. Test Double trusts developers with autonomy and flexibility at a remote, 100% employee-owned software consulting agency. Looking for more challenges? Enjoy lots of variety while working with the best teams in tech as a developer consultant at Test Double. Find out more and check out remote openings at link.testdouble.com/greater. That’s link.testdouble.com/greater.
MANDY: Hello, everybody and welcome to Episode 272 of Greater Than Code. My name is Mandy Moore, I use she/her pronouns, and I'm here with our new panelist, Aaron Aldrich.
Welcome, Aaron!
AARON: Thanks! And hey, I'm Aaron. I use they/them pronouns and I am also here with Chanté Martínez Thurmond.
CHANTÉ: Hey, everyone, Chanté here. I use she/her/ella pronouns and I am so glad to introduce our guest today, Ashleigh Wilson.
Welcome, Ashleigh.
AARON: Thank you for having me!
Hello, Ashleigh here and I use she/her pronouns.
CHANTÉ: Ashleigh is the Founder and CEO of Auditmate, the world's first elevator and escalator auditing system.
After discovering that customers were an afterthought to most companies, Ashleigh left the corporate world and founded Auditmate under a "people first" mentality. Ashleigh knows discrimination first-hand as a queer woman working in the tech industry and she aims to create a space where everyone has permission to be human.
What a great bio.
ASHLEIGH: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
CHANTÉ: It's a pleasure.
Ashleigh, the first question we ask our is what is your superpower and how did you acquire it?
ASHLEIGH: My superpower is my ability to see the vision and it's a bit of a witchy. I don't know where it comes from, but the best visual representation I've ever seen of it as if anyone has seen The Queen’s Gambit and when she can move the chess pieces on the ceiling? When I'm in the zone, and it's often when I'm half sleep, it just c