00:00:00.000
ready for takeoff
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hello and thank you for coming to my
00:00:18.900
talk
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um did anyone fly in from the Houston
00:00:22.560
Hobby Airport
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a few of you okay I did too Monday late
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evening and I came out of the gate I was
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looking for the exit walked past the
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bookstore and I saw this book
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I was like yeah but how did you know
00:00:42.059
that is exactly
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what I'm here for and I'm freaking out
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because it's going to be my first time
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ever speaking at a conference to a live
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audience and the book was just there
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with its calming presence
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not judging and we had a moment there
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and I went ahead and gave the five-star
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rating on Goodreads for Good Karma
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anyway
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hi my name is sija and I'm currently
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working as a software developer at
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PayPal slash Braintree that's what I
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look like on a good hair day I'm on a
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ruby team we write Ruby on a daily basis
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I've actually only exclusively worked
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with Ruby throughout my entire Dev
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career which is pretty rare or so I've
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been told so this is like the one
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conference I could go to and somewhat
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successfully pretend to know what I'm
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talking about
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but in addition to writing Ruby for work
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I do and have done a few other things
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I'm also an academic translator a
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snowboard instructor and sometimes a
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bartender at events and fundraisers I
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also play the drums in a rock band and
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very occasionally get on vocals and I've
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previously worked as a layout editor
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I've worked in customer service and I've
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taught languages online a bunch of
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different things that was a
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non-exhaustive list and a lot of these
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things might not seem to have anything
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to do with software development at first
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glance
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um and I have a confession to make
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I don't write code outside of work
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and for the longest time I felt ashamed
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to admit this it's been one of my
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biggest sources of my insecurities and
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self-doubts and I've wondered if
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that simply makes me less good of a
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developer because if you work in Tech as
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a Dev this is what you feel like you
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should be doing you feel like you should
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be constantly honing your skills keeping
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them sharp and up to date to stay
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competitive I look around and I see
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people building very impressive personal
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sites and apps and making contributions
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to open source projects in their spare
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time a lot of you here are probably
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doing that and I see these people who
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are just living and breathing and
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pleading code and a lot of times I can't
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help but compare myself to them and feel
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inadequate
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and apparently I'm not the only person
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that feels this way
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this person wants to know if it's bad if
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they don't code outside of work
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and this person doesn't program in their
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spare time and wonders if that makes
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them a bad programmer
00:03:20.819
and really I'm not alone
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and it's not just about not coding
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outside of work I feel like when it
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comes to the absolute amount of time
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I've spent so far strictly writing code
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I've simply spent less time doing that
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in general compared to a lot of other
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developers that I know or work with and
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I haven't always been in software I went
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to school for electrical engineering
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which is arguably very much a technical
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discipline but our curriculum was mostly
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signals and circuits and not exactly
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programming heavy
00:03:56.220
and after I switch to software I've
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taken some breaks in between and worked
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a wide range of not so technical jobs I
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still do some of them today on a
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freelancer contract basis
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and perhaps some of you have gone a
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similar path or recently switched to a
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career in software development from
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different roles or Industries and you
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might have some of those non-technical
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experiences that just look somewhat
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irrelevant on your resume
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but are those experiences really as
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irrelevant as they might seem honestly
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as someone who does a bunch of different
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things I've constantly been amazed and
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inspired by the similarities and
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connections I've noticed between what I
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do day to day as software developer and
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my seemingly irrelevant non-technical
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experiences and there are skills that
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are absolutely 100 transferable their
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Concepts and patterns that are similar
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and I like to share some of what I
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noticed with you in this talk today
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so I've been working as a freelance
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translator since 2015 and I work
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primarily with the Chinese English
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language pair I translate scientific
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reports and research articles to English
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so my clients can submit them to
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International journals and potentially
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hopefully get them published
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and the common perception is that the
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skills required in Translation are
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mostly Linguistics related like you need
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to be fluent in two or more languages
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human languages to be able to translate
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and while that is true and very much
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necessary there are a lot of other
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skills that go into doing the job
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and for a while I've noticed that
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translating somehow feels similar to
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coding but I couldn't really pinpoint in
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what ways exactly until I had the idea
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for this talk and I started to really
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examine the relationships similarities
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and connections between coding and the
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other things I do and I realized that
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translating and coding actually do
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require a lot of skills in common
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both activities require you to be able
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to become an expert of a certain topic
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or Concept in a short amount of time
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in a tech role I'm sure a lot of you are
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familiar with this you might very often
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start working on a project with very
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little knowledge of the project per se
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in the very beginning
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and this is even more so the case for an
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ad hoc task thrown at you or an incident
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that you get pulled into when you're on
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call
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you're not expected to know everything
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about what you'll be working on before
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you start you are expected however to
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quickly familiarize yourself with the
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project or the topic to understand the
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context and to catch yourself up to
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speed using all the resources you have
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access to
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and you do that by
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systematically Gathering digesting and
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evaluating information and we're really
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talking an abundance of information this
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could be the code base commit history
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locks within the system or on some
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external monitoring platform or you
00:07:07.380
could find yourself reading through
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descriptions or comments and jira
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tickets slack threads email threads
00:07:12.840
sometimes you might have to look things
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up in your Internal Documentation or you
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simply have to Google or talk to people
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and ask a lot of questions but to really
00:07:21.720
actively acquire all the information you
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need and also process that information
00:07:27.620
and make informed decisions based on
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that information
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and Implement those decisions and this
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entire process of approaching and
00:07:38.039
solving problems is extremely similar in
00:07:40.560
Translation where you're not expected to
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already know everything before you start
00:07:45.539
translating an article
00:07:47.460
especially if you're working with
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Journal submissions you're not even
00:07:50.819
supposed to already know because those
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could be never before published findings
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at the frontier of their respective
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fields and disciplines and that's a
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realization that helped me sort of shift
00:08:01.380
my perspective because I would be myself
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up sometimes thinking I should probably
00:08:05.880
know this already or why don't I know
00:08:08.220
this already
00:08:09.660
and a lot of times you're not expected
00:08:11.819
to already know everything going into a
00:08:14.880
new task but you are expected to learn
00:08:17.340
and to pick things up as you work
00:08:19.500
through problems when you're translating
00:08:21.780
you are expected to look up and verify
00:08:24.660
the terminologies and make sure you're
00:08:26.580
using the most appropriate ones which
00:08:28.740
would be similar to deciding the most
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appropriate data structure or method to
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use when you're coding
00:08:34.560
and when you're collaborating with other
00:08:36.599
people on a translation task you want to
00:08:39.599
keep the style consistent and when it
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comes to writing code that style
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consistency is important as well across
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the code base
00:08:48.120
and when you're translating you are
00:08:50.339
expected to understand the logical
00:08:52.800
relationship between one piece of
00:08:55.019
information and another to be able to
00:08:57.959
work out a way to organize and present
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the information in a manner that makes
00:09:02.760
sense in the target language
00:09:05.100
so you see that the process and the
00:09:07.019
skills involved are very similar in both
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activities which really explains why I
00:09:12.480
almost feel like I'm exercising the same
00:09:14.820
set of cognitive muscles when I'm
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working on a translation project versus
00:09:19.260
a programming task
00:09:24.060
another thing I do is I teach
00:09:26.459
snowboarding I am a freshly certified
00:09:29.519
level one snowboard instructor and I
00:09:32.640
work with beginners I guide them through
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the entire beginner to lower
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intermediate progression from their
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first day on snow or sometimes first
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time seeing snow to making baby turns to
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eventually a point where they can safely
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and comfortably go down a blue run on
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their own which for those who don't ski
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or snowboard is a slope typically angled
00:09:52.920
between 14 and 22 degrees I have to look
00:09:55.560
that up and ideal for those who are just
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starting
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and I've been really surprised by how
00:10:01.680
much crossover there is between teaching
00:10:03.899
snowboarding and coding specifically
00:10:06.420
pair programming
00:10:10.140
teaching snowboarding or formal
00:10:12.480
instruction of any kind really in pair
00:10:15.060
programming both involve this process of
00:10:17.700
communicating very technical Concepts to
00:10:20.399
people in a way that they can understand
00:10:23.160
and you might have to break down the
00:10:24.899
information in digestible chunks and
00:10:27.480
demonstrate with examples
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in both activities you are providing and
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or receiving immediate feedback
00:10:38.100
the feedback could be informative in
00:10:40.380
which case you simply point out what
00:10:42.360
you're seeing in snowboarding the writer
00:10:44.940
can't see themselves bright so this can
00:10:46.920
be very useful it could sound like
00:10:49.079
you're leaning back when the board was
00:10:51.120
pointing downhill
00:10:52.560
in software we can always see the code
00:10:55.140
we've written but sometimes we lose
00:10:57.420
sight of the bigger picture so it can be
00:10:59.700
helpful to receive some purely
00:11:01.620
informative feedback like this method is
00:11:04.500
30 lines long and has six levels of
00:11:06.660
nesting
00:11:07.920
or hey we're checking the same condition
00:11:10.320
in a few places
00:11:14.100
the feedback could be evaluative which
00:11:16.500
is when we judge something against some
00:11:18.540
criteria like established coding
00:11:21.060
standards or best practices but without
00:11:23.579
suggesting how to proceed
00:11:25.680
in snowboarding you might hear your
00:11:28.079
range of motion was not enough to build
00:11:30.000
up the energy you need for your ollies
00:11:32.339
and some software examples could be I
00:11:35.339
can't tell what that variable is getting
00:11:37.320
assigned to because that part is unclear
00:11:42.000
and then there's corrective feedback
00:11:44.040
which is when we point out what's
00:11:45.779
counterproductive and suggest ways to
00:11:48.360
improve and when I teach snowboarding
00:11:50.940
it's really not about me telling my
00:11:53.279
student what they should do it's more of
00:11:55.440
me showing or suggesting the things they
00:11:57.959
could try because there might be a more
00:12:00.300
efficient way of doing things
00:12:02.579
but you're not forced in any way to
00:12:04.860
accept that immediately into your way of
00:12:07.140
doing things I might suggest that you
00:12:09.360
try playing with the placement of your
00:12:11.040
weight over the board and feel the
00:12:12.839
change in control and use that to your
00:12:15.420
advantage when you're side slipping on
00:12:18.060
an edge for example versus trying to
00:12:20.399
gain control by tensing up all your leg
00:12:22.680
muscles which can Tire you out really
00:12:24.720
quickly
00:12:26.040
and just might not be as efficient
00:12:30.300
this is important in software
00:12:31.860
development as well because you might
00:12:33.540
say things to your pairing buddy like
00:12:35.220
we've repeated this chunk a bunch of
00:12:37.440
times we could maybe refactor and dry it
00:12:40.140
up or if we move this calculation
00:12:42.959
outside the loop it'll improve the the
00:12:45.420
performance of the method
00:12:49.079
and last but definitely not least
00:12:51.480
empathy everybody talks about empathy
00:12:54.720
but still it can never be stressed
00:12:56.760
enough because people forget sometimes
00:12:58.800
what it's like to be a beginner it can
00:13:01.019
be extremely overwhelming
00:13:03.120
deep diving into the code base for the
00:13:05.279
first time can be really overwhelming it
00:13:08.579
could be like what am I looking at
00:13:11.760
and same as snowboarding it can be
00:13:13.560
really overwhelming in the beginning
00:13:14.639
because it's cognitively challenging
00:13:18.660
you're constantly checking or my knee
00:13:20.579
spent is my back straight is my waist
00:13:22.320
centered am I looking in the right
00:13:23.639
direction are my hips aligned parallel
00:13:25.620
to the board all of that while you are
00:13:27.720
going
00:13:28.980
it can be a lot until it becomes second
00:13:31.500
nature
00:13:34.019
and things can be really intimidating as
00:13:35.880
well when you're just starting out this
00:13:37.980
could be what the bunny slope looks like
00:13:39.600
to a beginner on their first day
00:13:44.760
and I'm just going to let you look at
00:13:46.320
that for a second it's super impressive
00:13:48.720
it's a little choppy on here but still
00:13:57.180
so the first time you point your board
00:13:58.980
downhill when you make your first turns
00:14:01.380
and you start to pick up speeds so fast
00:14:03.600
that can be really scary and when you
00:14:06.720
teach you have to be aware of these
00:14:08.880
fears which apparently are dark friend
00:14:11.279
there has none but you have to be aware
00:14:13.980
of these fears and worries the other
00:14:16.560
person
00:14:17.880
might be dealing with and acknowledge
00:14:20.220
them address them and understand that
00:14:23.160
the other person's perceptions and
00:14:24.959
thoughts can be wildly different from
00:14:26.880
yours and you want to work through the
00:14:29.220
challenges together with the other
00:14:30.899
person and this collaboration with
00:14:33.300
empathy is so important and essential to
00:14:36.600
facilitating a smooth and pleasant
00:14:38.880
learning experience both on the slopes
00:14:41.279
and at the workplace when we're pairing
00:14:47.100
I've also noticed some similarities
00:14:49.019
between playing the drums at band
00:14:51.180
rehearsals and this particular software
00:14:53.940
development methodology that we all know
00:14:56.339
and love
00:14:59.160
pictured here is the band I'm in we are
00:15:02.579
the way back you can see me there all
00:15:05.160
the way in the back that has nothing to
00:15:07.740
do with our name but we play covers of
00:15:10.320
classic rock from the 60s through early
00:15:12.600
2000s we meet every week to work through
00:15:15.839
our set list
00:15:18.540
and there's this pattern every time so
00:15:21.300
my role as a drummer in a band is to
00:15:23.579
keep time
00:15:25.500
and provide this consistent and steady
00:15:28.199
rhythmic support but unless you are
00:15:31.079
lawful neutral drummer who learns all
00:15:33.000
the songs and memorizes entire music
00:15:34.860
sheets before going into rehearsal which
00:15:37.320
I'm most definitely not the first couple
00:15:40.019
of runs through a new song or a new
00:15:42.180
section of a song are almost guaranteed
00:15:44.820
to be bumpy
00:15:48.060
your Beats might sound hesitant you
00:15:50.519
might miss some of them and forget to
00:15:52.260
cue Transitions and that's normal your
00:15:55.320
bandmates might not actually say that to
00:15:57.600
you but you know that's what they're
00:15:58.980
thinking so you practice your drum part
00:16:01.380
until you get it sounding pretty bad but
00:16:04.079
that's okay because the point is all
00:16:07.079
you're trying to do here in this phase
00:16:08.519
should be to get to the next phase
00:16:13.279
where your Beats become nice and steady
00:16:16.380
and you're familiarized with the music
00:16:18.240
you might need to count the bars to time
00:16:20.880
your entry and know where your fill
00:16:22.860
should come in to cue the transitions
00:16:25.380
from one section to the next in some way
00:16:27.899
it doesn't have to sound exactly like
00:16:29.820
the the original recording because
00:16:31.260
nobody sounds exactly like the original
00:16:32.699
recording when they're playing live and
00:16:34.440
once you have that down
00:16:37.019
you can start fine-tuning those details
00:16:39.600
Dynamics Etc and to really work on those
00:16:42.899
complicated fills add a little flare
00:16:45.720
here and there and you repeat this cycle
00:16:48.180
when you move on to another section of
00:16:50.519
the song or the next piece of music and
00:16:53.820
the repetition of this cycle at band
00:16:56.100
rehearsals feels extremely similar to
00:16:58.980
this other cyclic process which is you
00:17:02.100
might have guessed
00:17:04.199
test driven development tdd
00:17:08.400
so we start by writing a test and Define
00:17:11.459
the feature or what we want the class to
00:17:13.679
do
00:17:14.579
in this case we want the drummer to play
00:17:16.740
a steady boots and cats and boots and
00:17:18.660
cats during the bridge or guitar solo of
00:17:21.540
reptilia
00:17:25.199
and we want to make sure the test fails
00:17:28.319
I mean it's pretty hard to mess that up
00:17:30.240
but our drummer here probably dropped a
00:17:32.100
stick and this would be the red face
00:17:40.440
and then you write just enough code the
00:17:43.140
bare minimum of code to implement the
00:17:45.120
feature to make the test pass
00:17:49.080
and you see the Blissful dot that's when
00:17:51.960
you know
00:17:55.799
that you were in the green face
00:17:58.500
and after you get all your tests to pass
00:18:02.940
that's when you start to restructure
00:18:05.280
your code you make it simpler and more
00:18:07.620
readable you optimize the performance
00:18:09.960
and that's the refactor phase and you
00:18:12.960
repeat this cycle when you move on to
00:18:14.760
the next feature you go back to Red
00:18:16.799
write a new test and watch it fail
00:18:21.780
and once you get used to this sort of
00:18:23.820
cycle or pattern you understand exactly
00:18:26.640
what to do at each step and you can
00:18:28.980
follow it easily a lot of times you
00:18:31.260
might be very tempted to refactor or
00:18:33.780
tempted to check what RoboCop is whining
00:18:36.240
about while you're still trying to get
00:18:38.039
the test to pass
00:18:40.080
and when I'm on drums I can be tempted
00:18:42.360
to do a fancy fill when we're still
00:18:44.820
learning the song which might throw
00:18:46.559
everyone off
00:18:48.480
but by strictly following this red green
00:18:51.299
refactor cycle which is a proven
00:18:53.760
methodology it might just make your life
00:18:56.039
easier and you're reinforcing this
00:18:58.620
pattern every time you repeat it which
00:19:00.840
helps you work through problems more
00:19:02.580
efficiently whether it's in a rehearsal
00:19:05.039
Studio or when you're writing code
00:19:09.360
so there are so many connections between
00:19:11.580
the tech world and non-tech activities
00:19:13.860
if you start looking for them that was
00:19:16.140
just from my own experience and I got
00:19:18.780
really curious and can't stop wondering
00:19:21.240
if other people who have a lot of
00:19:23.039
non-technical or non-engineering
00:19:25.020
experience have also noticed connections
00:19:27.600
and similarities between software
00:19:29.220
development and other disciplines and
00:19:31.200
Fields of work like I did
00:19:33.660
and I realized that I have easy access
00:19:36.120
to a developer community that is vibrant
00:19:39.240
and friendly and slightly more obliged
00:19:41.340
to respond to my questions in comparison
00:19:44.100
with internet strangers
00:19:47.940
I went to my company Slack
00:19:50.460
but just out of curiosity I want to take
00:19:53.039
a poll here too how many of you have had
00:19:56.400
significant experience working in
00:19:58.140
non-technical or non-engineering roles
00:19:59.940
can I get a raise of hands
00:20:02.340
that's like
00:20:03.720
all of us almost
00:20:06.840
um
00:20:07.620
we're properly uniting the eclectics in
00:20:10.080
this space
00:20:11.360
so I did a poll in our Braintree slack
00:20:14.700
workspace asking the same questions and
00:20:19.679
the response was super interesting
00:20:24.500
so 44 people responded in total 25 of
00:20:28.799
them or 56.8 percent which is more than
00:20:32.520
half have had significant experience
00:20:35.340
working in non-technical or
00:20:37.020
non-engineering roles and of these 25
00:20:39.720
people 17 of them did not study CS or
00:20:43.799
stem in college which is more than
00:20:45.960
one-third of the total response which is
00:20:48.360
fascinating and again thanks to this
00:20:51.000
occasion I had a great excuse to reach
00:20:53.340
out to these wonderful co-workers of
00:20:54.960
mine that I never had a chance to talk
00:20:56.340
to before asking to hear more about
00:20:58.440
their experience and they come from
00:21:02.400
so many different backgrounds before
00:21:05.039
they started writing code they were
00:21:06.900
doing graphic design they were selling
00:21:08.640
comic books they were studying
00:21:10.320
Linguistics they were compiling
00:21:12.120
Financial records and somehow we've all
00:21:14.880
found our way to the same field and I'm
00:21:17.340
so happy that I got to talk to them and
00:21:19.559
hear their stories and pick their brains
00:21:21.299
and learn about the connections they
00:21:23.280
found between software development and a
00:21:25.860
variety of different fields
00:21:27.600
I learned about for example how writing
00:21:29.940
grants in a non-profit was a lot like
00:21:31.799
designing an architecture for a new
00:21:33.480
feature when you figure out how to put
00:21:35.580
things existing parts together and work
00:21:38.400
with the existing infrastructure and
00:21:40.559
learn about how in organic farming
00:21:42.799
diagnosing why a particular crop isn't
00:21:45.419
doing well is similar to triaging an
00:21:47.640
issue in the tech stack and one of my
00:21:49.679
co-workers worked in retail in a camera
00:21:51.539
shop and they told me about how being
00:21:53.460
able to digest product information like
00:21:55.980
lenses and flashes and Camera bodies and
00:21:58.740
how they enter operate and communicate
00:22:01.200
that to customers in a way that they
00:22:03.780
could understand how that skill helped
00:22:06.179
them in their current role as a tech
00:22:08.039
lead
00:22:09.419
and another person talked about how the
00:22:11.940
communication practices they learned
00:22:13.860
from their experience working in
00:22:15.600
customer service helped them deal with
00:22:17.820
conflicts more gracefully in their
00:22:19.919
current role as an engineering manager
00:22:23.640
and something that came up a lot when I
00:22:25.799
was talking to my co-workers from
00:22:27.740
non-traditional backgrounds was
00:22:31.820
insecurities that were generally
00:22:34.860
centered around not having spent enough
00:22:36.960
time writing code either because they
00:22:39.720
don't have a computer science degree or
00:22:42.240
because they spend a lot of time a lot
00:22:44.280
of years doing other things
00:22:47.340
one of them was getting interviewed for
00:22:49.200
a staff engineer position and still got
00:22:51.360
question about not having a computer
00:22:52.860
science degree and a lot of them found
00:22:55.620
themselves constantly having to explain
00:22:58.200
or Justify their non-technical
00:23:00.240
backgrounds or experiences when they
00:23:02.760
don't have a straightforward trajectory
00:23:04.620
which is something that I could relate
00:23:06.659
to a lot
00:23:08.159
and one thing that we've all been doing
00:23:10.500
consciously or subconsciously is that
00:23:13.020
and that is super important especially
00:23:15.299
when you have a lot of non-technical
00:23:17.100
experiences while working in or
00:23:19.620
transitioning into a Dev role is that
00:23:22.679
you want to
00:23:24.539
craft your own narrative
00:23:26.520
so instead of mechanically listing all
00:23:29.220
those experiences and past titles you
00:23:31.679
want to be able to tell a compelling
00:23:33.360
story you want to help other people
00:23:35.820
understand how your non-technical
00:23:37.980
experiences can help you succeed in your
00:23:40.559
role as a developer and Beyond you have
00:23:44.100
to understand it first and you have to
00:23:46.140
first identify the connections between
00:23:48.600
your non-technical experiences and your
00:23:50.880
Tech role in lessons you've learned
00:23:53.039
along the way which is a really
00:23:55.080
interesting and rewarding exercise in
00:23:57.299
and of itself and then you'll be able to
00:23:59.760
connect the dots for other people
00:24:02.460
show them the connections because a lot
00:24:05.100
of times they're not immediately obvious
00:24:06.600
and when the connections aren't
00:24:08.700
immediately obvious we tend to very
00:24:11.039
quickly deem the skills and experiences
00:24:13.500
as simply irrelevant but it's your job
00:24:16.740
to craft your narrative that makes sense
00:24:19.080
to people that connects the dots and
00:24:21.539
focuses on the unique value you can
00:24:23.880
bring
00:24:26.640
and when we're talking about our
00:24:28.380
non-technical experiences because we
00:24:31.080
might still feel insecure about them
00:24:33.240
about doing and having done those things
00:24:35.700
instead of coding it's easy to stammer
00:24:38.760
and to sound uncertain and even
00:24:40.679
apologetic like
00:24:42.840
um yeah I'm a developer now or I'm
00:24:46.919
transitioning into software development
00:24:49.260
but I also do this other thing and also
00:24:53.760
that and yeah I did this other thing for
00:24:56.340
a few years but if you talk about
00:24:58.260
yourself in a way that conveys
00:25:00.059
confidence people will be less likely to
00:25:02.940
judge or question you now that they
00:25:04.980
should in the first place but if you
00:25:06.840
share the fascinating connections you
00:25:09.659
found between your non-technical
00:25:11.340
experience and your Tech role they'll
00:25:13.500
pick up on your enthusiasm and they
00:25:15.720
might even narrow it back to you and ask
00:25:17.760
you to tell them more about those
00:25:19.500
connections
00:25:22.200
so if we go back to the question at the
00:25:24.419
beginning am I less good of a developer
00:25:27.779
if I've spent less time writing code
00:25:31.559
and you catch yourself asking questions
00:25:33.419
like how will I ever measure up
00:25:36.120
to those people that started coding in
00:25:38.640
second grade
00:25:41.460
ask yourself these questions instead can
00:25:44.760
you deliver are you effective are you
00:25:47.640
meeting expectations if you work with
00:25:50.340
clients are your clients happy with your
00:25:52.740
service if you work on a team do your
00:25:55.140
co-workers enjoy collaborating with you
00:25:57.659
and if your answers to these questions
00:25:59.820
are yes you are competent in your role
00:26:03.480
and you shouldn't let anyone else make
00:26:05.460
you feel otherwise
00:26:08.820
so I've talked a bit about combating
00:26:10.620
insecurities but it's not like I've won
00:26:12.779
the battle I'm still constantly actively
00:26:15.539
fighting it it's an ongoing fight but I
00:26:18.600
want to remind myself and you all that
00:26:21.120
we should try to not discredit our
00:26:22.860
non-technical experience too quickly but
00:26:25.500
rather focus on the connections and the
00:26:27.900
unique advantages you've gained from
00:26:29.940
those experience and have a holistic
00:26:32.640
view of things and you can be a good
00:26:35.580
well-rounded developer not in spite of
00:26:38.279
but because of your non-technical
00:26:40.380
experience
00:26:42.360
and if you happen to be in a position
00:26:44.460
where you are evaluating candidates and
00:26:47.460
if you have a candidate with a lot of
00:26:49.500
non-technical experience it could be a
00:26:51.840
second career developer or a third
00:26:54.000
fourth fifth career developer you can
00:26:56.279
help by inviting them to tell their
00:26:58.620
story and giving them a chance to prove
00:27:01.260
themselves as a competent developer that
00:27:03.960
they might very well deserve
00:27:07.260
and at the end I would like to invite
00:27:09.960
you all to share your experiences
00:27:12.059
technical or non-technical and the
00:27:14.700
connections you may have found there
00:27:17.460
might be a slack threat going in
00:27:20.340
conference slack so we could share our
00:27:22.320
experiences and get some inspiration
00:27:24.120
from each other and connect and support
00:27:26.400
each other as we do great things
00:27:31.140
um that's all I have thank you so much I
00:27:33.120
really appreciate you coming here today
00:27:34.320
if you have any questions or anything
00:27:36.539
um if you have anything you want to
00:27:37.559
share or if you just want to talk please
00:27:39.600
feel free to come to me after this talk
00:27:41.460
or catch me in between talks or reach
00:27:43.860
out to me through Linkedin or email or
00:27:45.539
conference slack and I hope you enjoy
00:27:48.240
the rest of the conference I shall see
00:27:51.000
you around