Slide 1

Slide 1 text

HOW TO BE A GREAT DEVELOPER ED FINKLER Head of Developer Culture - Graph Story [email protected] @funkatron http://funkatron.com

Slide 2

Slide 2 text

20 YEARS OF WEB DEV LONE WOLF & TEAMS REMOTE AND OFFICE PROFIT & ACADEMIA PHP PYTHON JS DEVOPS

Slide 3

Slide 3 text

HAVE FREQUENTLY BEEN CALLED A “WEBMASTER”

Slide 4

Slide 4 text

HEAD OF DEVELOPER CULTURE @ GRAPHSTORY

Slide 5

Slide 5 text

TECH SKILLS ARE OVERRATED

Slide 6

Slide 6 text

•PRACTICE EMPATHY •PRACTICE HUMILITY •ALWAYS BE LEARNING •AVOID TRIBALISM •BETTER YOUR COMMUNITY

Slide 7

Slide 7 text

PRACTICE EMPATHY •Empathy is the ability to understand how a person feels, and why they may feel that way. •Empathy is your most important skill.

Slide 8

Slide 8 text

PRACTICE EMPATHY •Practice it with everyone you interact with, and everyone who interacts with your work. •Always keep two groups in mind: the users and the rest of your team. They are the ones affected by the decisions you make.

Slide 9

Slide 9 text

PRACTICE EMPATHY •Solving the user’s problems should be your focus, not solving your problems. •Understanding — empathizing with — the user is what allows you to solve their problem.

Slide 10

Slide 10 text

PRACTICE EMPATHY •When making coding choices, remember the person or people who will need to read, understand, and extend your work. •Make it clear why you chose what you did. Do your best to anticipate their questions and points of confusion.

Slide 11

Slide 11 text

PRACTICE EMPATHY •Don’t assume people know what you know

Slide 12

Slide 12 text

PRACTICE HUMILITY •Humility goes hand in hand with empathy •You’ll always be learning and improving. Accept and own-up to mistakes. •The less you fear being wrong, the more confident you can be.

Slide 13

Slide 13 text

PRACTICE HUMILITY •You’re wrong about many things •So is everyone else •Allow others to practice humility

Slide 14

Slide 14 text

ALWAYS BE LEARNING •Be liberal in learning about new technologies and approaches. Be conservative in using them. •At conferences, try to catch one or two talks about technologies you don’t know much about. •Set aside a little time each week to learn about new tech.

Slide 15

Slide 15 text

ALWAYS BE LEARNING •Any technology can be the right choice depending on the needs of the project and strengths of the team.

Slide 16

Slide 16 text

AVOID TRIBALISM •Refuse to participate in tribalism. •View absolute statements with extreme skepticism. •Build communities with what we have in common. Embrace diversity. Help people feel safe.

Slide 17

Slide 17 text

AVOID TRIBALISM •Dismissing a technology without a sound, reasonable argument is lazy and prone to error. •Be extremely careful about participating in X vs Y arguments.

Slide 18

Slide 18 text

AVOID TRIBALISM •Reserve your loyalty for people. Not brands. Not companies. Not technologies.

Slide 19

Slide 19 text

BETTER YOUR COMMUNITY •Make people’s lives better with your skills. •Make the community around you better. You don’t need to go to some Magic City of Tech Genius to do important work.

Slide 20

Slide 20 text

BETTER YOUR COMMUNITY •Share what you learn with the people around you. Ask them to share what they have learned with you.

Slide 21

Slide 21 text

BUT I’M A SUPERVISOR! •Values of a hierarchical org distribute from the top down •Supervisors on all levels have to be consistent about adopting and applying these values •Great developers need a great org to support them

Slide 22

Slide 22 text

BUT I’M A SUPERVISOR! •It is much easier to be angry or negative. You must practice empathy, and enforce by example and procedure •Talk less. Listen more. Ask in order to understand.

Slide 23

Slide 23 text

Q+A ED FINKLER [email protected] @funkatron http://funkatron.com http://www.kreativekorp.com/software/fonts/c64.shtml