Greater Than Code
The Human Side of Technology
About the show
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.
Greater Than Code on social media
Episodes
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197: Tips For New Developers with Dan Moore
August 26th, 2020 | 1 hr 6 mins
Dan Moore talks about his blog-turned-book: Letters to a New Developer. He gives tips for junior developers to succeed in new jobs such as the importance of asking questions, don't be afraid to try new things but also make sure you enjoy your work, and why making mistakes are a good thing.
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196: Documentation as Performance with Aisha Blake
August 19th, 2020 | 55 mins 24 secs
In this episode, Aisha Blake talks about documentation: documentation as narratives, forms of documentation worth investing in, and telling stories through documentation. She also talks about making documentation accessible and approachable, and how to best give constructive, consensual feedback.
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195: Pivoting to PPE with Christina Perla
August 12th, 2020 | 1 hr 12 mins
Christina Perla talks about starting Makelab, a 3D printing company, and how the company pivoted to manufacturing PPEs in lieu of COVID-19. She also gives advice to other women who may be interested in starting a business, recognizing emotional patterns, and allocating company revenue to spend on future current and/or emergency events.
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194: I Don’t Need You To Like Me, I Need You To Hate Racism with Dr. Courtney D. Cogburn
August 5th, 2020 | 1 hr 13 mins
Dr. Courtney D. Cogburn talks about racism: Antiracism is a lifelong learning process, understanding white supremacy, the fact that having empathy is insufficient, and how systemic racism is embedded in the technology field and how we as technologists should be shifting orientation.
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193: Optimizing For Happiness with Tudor Gîrba
July 29th, 2020 | 1 hr 13 mins
Tudor Gîrba talks about how writing code is storytelling, optimizing for happiness while working, reading, and writing code, the concept of moldable development, editing code as a joint activity, and encouraging and supporting the presentation of new ideas and out-of-the-box thinking.
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192: Bringing Our Whole Selves with Siobhán Cronin
July 22nd, 2020 | 50 mins 44 secs
Siobhán Cronin talks about managing change during COVID-19, the pros and cons of bringing your whole self to work, and that people have to do work on themselves to be successful.
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191: Sitting Down Together with Amy Tobey
July 15th, 2020 | 1 hr 8 mins
In this episode, Amy Tobey talks about looking at messes and seeing the potential for what they could be, generalists vs specialists, artisanal and industrial modes of production, and why whistleblowing is good (because misuse of authority is bad).
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190: Social Media, Privacy, and Security with Joe LeBlanc
July 8th, 2020 | 41 mins 48 secs
In this episode, Joe LeBlanc talks about having hospitality on and offline, the fact that it's time for us to stop acting like we are getting access to social media for free, owning your identity & data, protecting children’s identity & data, and the movement to reclaim our data.
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189: Succeeding in Science with Deborah Berebichez
July 1st, 2020 | 1 hr 10 mins
Dr. Deborah Berebichez talks about teaching science to kids in fun ways, data literacy, why getting negative results in science is important, the fact that human performance is contextual, and her path to becoming a scientist and ultimately a TV-show host on The Discovery Channel.
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188: Going Off the Rails with Damien Burke
June 24th, 2020 | 59 mins 32 secs
Damien Burke talks about life being hard: How do we make things easy? Also: treating expertise as transferable to different fields, loving yourself unconditionally, his background in theater and applying it to tech, and "ontological coaching."
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187: Seeing The World with Bryan Liles
June 17th, 2020 | 47 mins 56 secs
Bryan Liles talks about his ability to see the world as it is, conferencing and working from home during Quarantine, fighting and overcoming meritocracy, and how people work, and finding power in other things.
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186: The Universe Makes it Happen with Emily Gorcenski
June 10th, 2020 | 1 hr 5 mins
In this episode, Emily Gorcenski talks about hunting Nazis and how doing so involves data science. She also talks about failure and learning and being willing to be wrong, the need for systematic restructuring in America, and nuance, power, and authority.
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185: Adaptive Capacity and Mutual Aid with Michelle Glauser
June 3rd, 2020 | 58 mins 32 secs
In this episode, Michelle Glauser talks about Techtonica: full-time tech training with living stipends and laptops to Bay Area women and non-binary adults with low incomes, then place graduates into jobs with sponsor companies.
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184: The Python Software Foundation and the Future of Conferencing with Naomi Ceder & Ewa Jodlawska
May 27th, 2020 | 1 hr 1 min
In this episode, Naomi Ceder & Ewa Jodlawska talk about the Python Software Foundation and speculate what the future of conferences might look like due to the pandemic.
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183: How We Learn with Vaidehi Joshi
May 20th, 2020 | 1 hr 12 mins
In this episode, Vaidehi Joshi talks about how we learn: approaching it, brain percolation, improving over time, and doing your best.