Odd Parallels Between Weightlifting and Software Delivery

Presented at Centric Consulting's CampIO, an internal technology conference.

This talk speaks to interesting things I re-learned while starting highly technical Olympic weightlifting. In the midst of lots of hard work I found my mind wandering to interesting ideas about the criticality of breaking complex things into small pieces, the importance of having a coach, setting goals, and several other similar things. There were so many parallels between what I was learning in the gym and approaches I use daily in my day job working in software delivery.

The deck is my usual gonzo style, but you may find it interesting. I hope to post a public video of the talk sometime in November, 2021.

Transcript

1. Odd Parallels Between Weightlifting and Software Delivery
2. Unsplash.com @micahtindall
4. Unsplash.com @aloragriffiths
6. “Lift weights”
7. “It will be fun”
8. Epiphany
9. Re-Learning
10. What we learn in one domain can apply to far different domains
11. Unsplash.com @myLeon
12. Make Complex Things Simple
13. https://youtu.be/GKmu1x2Qnc0
14. https://youtu.be/ygoz0ANCcto
18. Sizing Workflows Domain Problems
23. Get a Coach
24. LeARniNg iZ HaR d
26. TDD React SalesForce Insurance Domain Cool Tech Du Jour SharePoint
27. Mentors for us Us for our clients
28. Unsplash.com @heylagostechie
29. Simple Tools Solve Problems
32. Cowbell 4.5.b(3)r3 may not help the client
33. Form first, then weight
35. Katas TDD ATDD WebScale
36. Set Goals
39. Performance Testing JavaScript Mobile
40. (Please, no SharePoint)
41. So What’s the Lesson?
42. Learning Happens EVERYWHERE
43. Suss out the gold Apply it in other places