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

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

HAVE FREQUENTLY BEEN CALLED A “WEBMASTER”

HEAD OF DEVELOPER CULTURE @ GRAPHSTORY

TECH SKILLS ARE OVERRATED

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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