Being more Humane in Tech

In the Tech Industry we value efficiency and productivity. We try to keep our communication concise in an effort to be efficient. But are concise and efficient equivalent when it comes to communication? Or are we forgetting an important variable: humanity?

Enter an alternative: Compassion.

Tech is all about writing code, right? It’s about efficient solutions and productive teams. We worship Rockstar Devs, try to be agile and lean, all for the ultimate goal of delivering software faster and better. But are technical solutions all there is to it?

We will take a critical look at how we communicate in the Tech Industry. We work in teams, collaborate on solutions and gather requirements from the customer. All of which are about communication, about getting information from one head into another head. And of course we try to be as efficient as possible while doing that. By treating communication the same way as we treat tech we ignore a critical variable: humanity. Our colleagues and customers are human, not machines and as such demand different strategies when it comes to the exchange of information.

Transcript

1. BEING MORE HUMANE IN TECH Sascha Wolf | Domain Linguist // Fullstack Engineer | @wolf4earth
4. EFFICIENT COMMUNICATION
5. BRISK & DIRECT COMMUNICATION
6. BRISK & DIRECT? COMMUNICATION
7. LET'S START SMALL
9. WHO HERE HAD A NEGATIVE EXPERIENCE IN A CODE REVIEW?
10. People need a thicker skin! — Somebody
11. It's not my job to care about others feelings! — Somebody
12. That's the way tech works! — Somebody
13. WHAT IF I TOLD YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE
14. COMPASSION
15. HOW ABOUT SOME EXAMPLES?
16. I'M GONNA EAT MY OWN DOGFOOD
17. PASSING OF OPINION AS FACT
18. PASSING OF OPINION AS FACT1 1 https://medium.freecodecamp.org/unlearning-toxic-behaviors-in-a-code-review-culture-b7c295452a3c
19. COMPASSIONATE ALTERNATIVE The Phoenix docs suggest to move persistence related functionality into a so called "Context" (see here). I think that's applicable here and would improve the project structure. What do you think? — A better me
20. ASKING JUDGMENTAL QUESTIONS
21. ASKING JUDGMENTAL QUESTIONS1 1 https://medium.freecodecamp.org/unlearning-toxic-behaviors-in-a-code-review-culture-b7c295452a3c
22. COMPASSIONATE ALTERNATIVE You could move this into a view, which has the benefit of separating the "response building" from the "rendering" logic. — A better me
23. ¯\_(ϑ)_/¯
25. What's the secret to a successful team? — Google (Project Aristotle)
26. PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
27. PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY [the] shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. [...] A sense of confidence that the team will not embarrass, reject or punish someone for speaking up. — Amy Edmondson (Harvard Business School)
29. OF COURSE CODE REVIEWS ARE JUST A SMALL PART
30. BUT THEY ARE A GREAT START
31. LET'S GO BIG
32. THE TECH INDUSTRY
33. WE IN THE TECH INDUSTRY VALUE INTELLIGENCE
34. WE TALK ABOUT ROCKSTAR DEVS AND CODE NINJAS
35. WE MAKE FUN OF "UNTECHNICAL" PEOPLE
36. BUT WHAT DOES TECHNICAL ACTUALLY MEAN?
37. TECHNICAL having special and usually practical knowledge especially of a mechanical or scientific subject — Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
38. TECHNICAL having special and usually practical knowledge especially of a mechanical or scientific subject — Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
39. TECHNICAL EXAMPLES > Programming Python > Accounting in EXCEL > Using Photoshop > Dancing Disco Fox
40. TECHNICAL EXAMPLES > Programming Python > Accounting in EXCEL > Using Photoshop > Dancing Disco Fox > Using chopsticks/a fork2 2 https://medium.com/compassionate-coding/if-you-can-use-a-fork-youre-technical-352e21d92c87
41. BEING TECHNICAL & INTELLIGENT ISN'T EVERYTHING
42. BEING COMPASSIONATE COUNTS TOO
43. LET'S BUILD PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFE ENVIRONMENTS
44. BE THE CHANGE The tech industry — and the world — is made up of individual humans, and a lot of those humans are suffering. Each of us has the opportunity to do something about it. — April Wensel (Compassionate Coding)3 3 https://medium.com/compassionate-coding/confessions-of-a-recovering-jerk-programmer-b9d531a05ea9
45. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING Sascha Wolf | saschawolf.me | @wolf4earth
46. RESOURCES > Compassionate Coding on Medium > Confessions of a Recovering Jerk Programmer > Tech has a Toxic Tone Problem — Let’s Fix It! > Unlearning toxic behaviors in a code review culture > What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team