Lightning Talks

by Sean Marcia, Ivan Nerytchenko, Daniel Colson, Wendy Calderón, Chyrelle Lewis, LaNice Powell, Jonan Scheffler, Rob Faldo, Carolyn Cole, Daniel Azuma, Justin Jones, Braulio Martinez, Bonzalo Rodriguez, Rohaa Mendon, Emily Giurleo, Chris O'Sullivan, Ian Norris, Noah Gibbs, Dave Aronson, and Deedee Lavinder

The video titled "Lightning Talks" features a series of quick presentations from various speakers at RubyConf 2019, focusing on diverse topics within the tech community, particularly in Ruby programming and inclusivity in the tech industry. Each speaker shares insights drawn from personal experiences, best practices, and encouragement for newcomers in technology.

Key Points Discussed:

- Ruby for Good: Sean Marcia invites the audience to participate in volunteering their skills at Ruby by the Bay, where developers help charity organizations that cannot afford their services.

- Tool Efficiency: Daniel Colson questions the effectiveness of Rake as a task management tool compared to newer alternatives like Thor, advocating for streamlined programming practices.

- Inclusive Work Environment: Wendy Calderón emphasizes the importance of SQL in software development and how knowledge of this language can enhance career opportunities.

- Career Support: Chyrelle Lewis describes how Career Karma provides mentorship and community support to underrepresented groups entering the tech industry, sharing her personal journey into programming.

- The Role of Education: LaNice Powell stresses the need for teaching logical foundations in mathematics to better prepare students for coding.

- Mentorship and Growth: Jonan Scheffler shares his experience transitioning into tech via a bootcamp and highlights the value of mentors in professional development.

- Learning from Mistakes: Rob Faldo discusses documenting pair programming sessions to help new developers learn from experienced peers, focusing on real-world problem-solving.

- Git Usage: Carolyn Cole highlights the Git version control system, particularly on the importance of managing commits carefully to avoid loss of data.

- Collaborative Practices: Ian Norris addresses dynamics in pair programming, recommending structured check-ins to improve teamwork and communication.

- Foundational Knowledge: Noah Gibbs speaks on modern programming practices, stressing the need for practical learning over traditional methods.

- Data Structures in Functional Programming: Dave Aronson discusses Elixir and emphasizes effective handling of data using immutable structures for better performance.

- Inclusive Brainstorming: DeeDee Lavinder discusses techniques for ensuring all team members, especially introverts, contribute meaningfully in collaborative environments.

00:00:12 Hello, everyone. I want to invite you all to come out to Ruby by the Bay. It's Ruby for Good on the West Coast, where we come together to build software for organizations that truly need our skills but would never be able to afford our help. Think of shelters, food banks, and women's shelters. Follow us on Twitter at Ruby for Good for more information, and we hope to see you there!

00:00:51 Thank you for your judicious use of time. Now, anyone else who has something to share, please come up. Remember, you have about a minute—no slides allowed. You are already on the clock. My first slide on the presentation looks like you have about 30 seconds left. The idea is simple: we are using tools like Rake and NPM, which aren't always the most suitable for everything. Instead, if we use Make, it simplifies the process because we can centralize all our scripts and technologies into one tool. Give it a try!

00:01:35 Making your company more inclusive takes effort. At Thoughtbot, we have been thinking about this and have a GitHub repository under thoughtbot/guides, which includes a checklist for pairing together. Additionally, it features printable inclusive meeting guidelines. I encourage you to print these out and place them in every meeting room in your office to facilitate more inclusive gatherings.

00:02:29 Hi, everyone. Sorry about the disruption; this is live! My name is Wendy Calderón, and I am a full-stack software engineer and telecommunications engineer. I recently graduated from a boot camp, and today I want to quickly talk about SQL. By show of hands, how many of you are Rails developers? And how many of you use SQL regularly?

00:03:08 In my personal experience, I felt that Active Record spoiled me. I thought I would be fine just knowing how to read a SQL query, but I learned the hard way that I was mistaken. Long story short, I lost an opportunity that I was really excited about because I couldn't piece together a SQL query during an assessment. After that, I became interested in understanding why SQL was even included in the assessment.

00:03:49 I found out that SQL is the most popular query language out there and has become a very profitable skill to have. Knowing SQL can lead to high-paying careers, especially for backend engineers. Additionally, SQL has consistently ranked in the top five skills developers use, according to the Stack Overflow survey, which has been conducted year after year. If you want to learn more about why SQL is so crucial for developers, I encourage you to check out my blog post on this topic.

00:04:30 Hi, my name is Chyrelle Lewis, and I want to talk about how Career Karma is helping to change lives and create a more diverse tech community. So, what is Career Karma? It’s a community of mentors, peers, and inspiring developers that offers direction and a blueprint for those seeking to enter the tech industry. The aim is to help underrepresented groups access the tech world.

00:05:27 A little about my story: Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to be a programmer. However, life circumstances led me to have a child at 16. I took on responsible jobs, started a career, and found success but felt unfulfilled. I realized I wasn’t using my abilities to their full potential. After a divorce, I remembered my childhood dream of becoming a computer programmer and thought about returning to college.

00:06:13 After seeing an advertisement for Career Karma, I learned that I could get into tech with minimal financial risk. They provided direction, a blueprint, and a supportive network of peers. I decided to take the 21-day challenge to immerse myself in coding. Initially, it was overwhelming, but I eventually joined a study group that made the experience enjoyable and motivating.

00:06:56 Over the next 60 days, I studied with this group, made friends, and we collectively helped each other stay on track. Career Karma provided mentorship from top developers, and we had direct interaction with individuals from the tech community who also came from non-traditional backgrounds. Career Karma turned out to be a fantastic support system that guided me toward achieving my programming dreams.

00:07:52 Hi, everyone! My name is LaNice Powell. I was going to share the Career Karma story as well, but Chyrelle covered it beautifully! I transitioned into coding after previously teaching junior high school mathematics in New York City. It was intriguing to discover the correlation between logic and coding, and I noticed a lack of logic teaching in the current curriculum.

00:08:54 I've realized that foundational values in education need to be prioritized to prepare students for coding. Why aren’t we teaching logical foundations in mathematics anymore? This is a crucial step for students looking to transition into programming.

00:09:48 Thank you. My name is Jonan Scheffler, and I'm excited to share my story! Three years ago, my wife and I found out we were going to have our first child, which pushed me to change jobs to ensure I had health insurance. I wanted to make a career leap and become a Ruby on Rails engineer.

00:10:02 I started looking for work in Ruby and was drawn to the potential for growth in the field. I ended up attending a boot camp called Hungry Academy that offered me a chance to learn code while being paid.

00:10:10 Hungry Academy introduced me to many influential figures in the Ruby community. Through that program, I met many mentors who guided me in my career.

00:10:22 Since then, I've had the privilege of being part of Ruby Together, where we work on funding projects to support developer education, including resources for junior developers. It's rewarding to help foster new talent in the community and contribute to initiatives like Ruby for Good.

00:11:06 Today, I want to address the significance of working on collaborative projects while also voicing how drama can distract us from our collective goals as a community. Remember that our primary aim is to uplift each other and drive the growth of our community.

00:11:59 Next, I want to discuss filling a gap within the online tutorial market. My name is Rob Faldo and I work as a developer at an intro tech firm. I believe that anyone can achieve anything if they build solid foundations. Something I often notice in tutorials is that the content can overlook mistakes and the processes that experienced developers go through during problem-solving.

00:12:52 To address the problem of learning from mistakes, I am documenting pair programming sessions in which experienced developers tackle real-world tasks in open-source projects. By capturing their thought process and problem-solving strategies, we can create better learning resources that illustrate the challenges faced during development.

00:13:45 I noticed that there are many tutorials where experienced developers encounter issues but stop the video instead of showing how they resolve the problem. I aim to create content that reflects the thought processes and collaborative benefits of peer programming, making the learning process more constructive for new developers.

00:14:44 There is a unique way to learn, especially when it comes to programming. The key is exploring problems and deciding how to approach them based on your experiences and the resources available to you. Sharing this knowledge and being transparent about our struggles helps bridge the gap for learners who are just starting out.

00:15:38 Hi, I'm Carolyn Cole, and I want to discuss a powerful tool: Git. I work at the Princeton University Library and this is my first RubyConf. Git allows you to manage your projects effectively, but mistakes can happen. It's important that we learn how to recover from those mistakes.

00:16:39 One issue I frequently deal with is squashing commits. Squashing can result in unexpected changes if not performed correctly. I'll walk you through how to handle a situation where multiple commits need to be squashed without losing important data.

00:17:01 For instance, I often make the mistake of squashing too many commits at once. If you find yourself in a similar position where your commits have changed unexpectedly, Git's ref log feature is invaluable. It maintains a record of every change, allowing you to revert to a previous state efficiently.

00:17:44 Leveraging the reset hard command in Git allows you to return to a stable state quickly. Ensuring you can navigate through these changes means you can develop with confidence and ensure a smoother workflow when collaborating with others.

00:18:32 My name is Daniel Colson, and today let's question whether Rake is still the right tool for the job. Rake was originally designed to be a Ruby alternative to the make utility, but as Ruby has evolved, the way we use Rake has changed significantly.

00:19:27 We've seen how Rake can become unwieldy with extensive task lists that don’t reflect best practices. It’s important to consider alternatives that might better meet our needs today, such as Thor or other command-line utilities that are specifically designed for handling tasks and scripts.

00:20:22 These alternatives provide features that facilitate smoother input processes and user experiences and can help enhance productivity. Managing command-line arguments, implementing help screens, and creating user-friendly interfaces lead us towards increased efficiency.

00:21:22 I hope to inspire discussion around these topics and welcome any thoughts or experiences you have regarding working with Rake or alternatives. Let’s also explore how we can collaborate more effectively within our projects moving forward.

00:22:21 Hello, I'm Ian Norris here to dive deeper into the topic of pair programming. Sometimes we find ourselves in challenging situations while pairing, making it hard to navigate team dynamics.

00:23:18 This is especially true when power dynamics affect the quality of collaboration. Making a conscious effort to revisit how we communicate as a group can alleviate some of these issues. It's essential to have structured check-ins and designate specific times for team members to lead discussions.

00:24:19 Creating a checklist before assigning tasks allows everyone to assess their feelings and establish mutual understanding. Additionally, ensure retrospectives are part of your schedule to evaluate the effectiveness of your pair programming sessions.

00:25:16 Hello, everyone! I’m Noah Gibbs. I’m here to share thoughts on the importance of foundational knowledge in programming. Over time, I’ve learned that understanding the underlying mechanisms behind coding isn't necessary for every traditional programming task.

00:26:24 While some may argue that knowing lower-level languages like C is essential, it's important to realize that modern programming practices evolve so rapidly that focusing solely on outdated paradigms can inhibit progress.

00:27:30 Instead, we should prioritize learning what truly matters for achieving success in tech while keeping an open mind about new languages and tools that can simplify development without necessarily delving deep into low-level processes.

00:28:21 I'm very passionate about clarifying misconceptions regarding programming. We must recognize that programming approaches change and that the traditional ideas about 'learning it all' no longer apply. We need practical approaches to learning rather than rigid philosophies.

00:29:20 Finally, I’m Dave Aronson, and I’ve been delving into Elixir, a language I’m learning slowly but steadily. One fascinating aspect I've come across is the use of prepending to lists rather than appending.

00:30:02 Understanding the structural implications of using immutable data structures, such as singly linked lists, has opened my eyes to performance intricacies associated with adding elements to lists. Prepending maintains optimal performance while appending can introduce substantial overhead.

00:31:02 This performance difference emphasizes the significance of handling data efficiently in functional programming languages like Elixir, where immutability shapes how we approach coding tasks.

00:31:57 Hello everyone, I'm DeeDee Lavinder, a backend software engineer. Today, I’d like to address brainstorming with introverts. According to Susan Cain's book, "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking," traditional brainstorming methods often disadvantage introverts.

00:32:46 Collaborative techniques can foster synergy if approached correctly. Establishing ground rules, such as one person talking at a time, ensures everyone's input is valued. Moderation is crucial to create a welcoming environment for all team members.

00:33:49 Additionally, consider utilizing methods that allow for anonymity or smaller groups to cultivate comfort for introverted team members. By collecting thoughts in a low-pressure manner, you'll find that quieter voices contribute significantly.

00:34:33 Encourage introverts to share their ideas through written formats or structured feedback sessions after collective discussions.

00:35:01 Thank you very much for listening. I'm excited to see how we can enhance collaboration in our teams, ensuring all voices are heard!