HACKYGOLUCKY

Musings on open source, startups, community, and the tiny revolutions we fight to survive these beautiful, challenging days.

[tracyhinds]

Creating teachable moments when we really mess up

At events and online, a code of conduct, when executed, almost always means opening a dialogue about motivation and intention that was not present explicitly prior. It's a conversation about elephants in the room. Once in a while, it's about a really terrible thing that needs to stop right now or never happen again.

I have had to enforce codes of conduct on organizers and leaders, too. This is an average day in conf and community land. If you aren't hearing reports of violations, people aren't reporting. It is not extreme to have discussions about people messing up as adults or feeling uncomfortable.

Far less often, is someone kicked out, banned, or publicly shamed because it usually isn't the appropriate end. Really.

Codes of conduct are supposed to help community members be teachable and give them the space to learn. To fix mistakes.

The FUD that is spread about codes of conduct and us being able to behave as OSS colleagues is an interesting read to me on those who question the premise of having guidelines of social convention laid out explicitly in any workspace. It makes me want to understand more about how we as individuals do or do not embrace criticism, guilt, and discomfort. How to change THAT.

In Node.js, we are always working on moderation, which is the enforcement of our CoC. I've been hopeful with what I have witnessed in the project CoC execution in this past year, though we have had plenty of missteps(we are human). There are lots of folks learning and trying to do better. I will continue to spend my energy on removing barriers and encouraging awesome work in Node.js.

[tracyhinds]

Rise & Shine

In all the hustle and bustle of new job and conference season, the last thing I'd think I'd grant myself time to do is to reflect. I wasn't so generous with myself though, it just sort of forced itself upon me. I've done a lot of talks since my time has begun as a programmer. Nine, as far as I can count right now. Even more informal that don't have titles. 

I stumbled upon a number of them this evening while digging through archives and it certainly made me pause--so many of them ways I tried to comfort those who were a little further back in the process. Because it IS that difficult to change careers. To learn lots of new things. But it's also exciting, and I could feel that in the content I read of myself only a few years back. My old emotions captured. I'm pretty lucky I still get that feeling every now and then. :) Keep learnin'. Keep helping others rise & shine.

[tracyhinds]

I’ve searched for this locket my sister gave me for quite some time--lost in my year of upheaval.

[tracyhinds]

A laptop full of stickers

I have a million amazing stickers I have collected from my running conferences, meetups, and travelling to many of my friends at other events. 

I also like a clean aesthetic, and have therefore resisted covering my new(er) lappy with them. 

I realized this week that some people really -do- judge books/lappies/people by their cover. My prior laptop was smeared with all the stickers and excitement I felt as I first jumped into programming professionally. As I’ve grown, I’ve scaled back the sheer overeagerness to balance my own taste/preferences. It’s taught me a few things.

(1) I jump headfirst into things so overwhelmingly that I can lose myself a little as I try to embrace something wholeheartedly without judgement. This is fine for trying a thing out, but I need to do better at protecting my own boundaries or I’ll find reconciling an interest with my other values/priorities quite difficult down the road. I get swallowed up and am unhappy later when I’m feeling distanced from myself.

(2) Programmers can be oddly superficial. It is frustrating that I must plaster my laptop with tech stickers or wear t-shirts with neck-beardish tech references in order to be taken seriously at first introduction. This doesn’t cease even -after- I’ve discussed what I do for a living in detail(web engineer). Turns out, the whole “this is what a programmer looks like” meme might have something to it. I don’t discount I have room to improve how I communicate my work, but it’s the old fail-safe to assume that when one is at a tech event in a circle conversing, everyone in that circle is smart, capable, and in tech. Here’s another little tip that might blow your mind: just because someone’s job title isn’t engineer doesn’t mean they can’t program nor tell when you’re totally full of shit.

I didn’t feel a lot of these issues when I first started programming professionally because I embraced programmer culture so fully that I ended up wearing the costume better. As i’ve grown in asserting to myself that I -am- a programmer regardless of what I look like or brag about(or don’t), I’ve become more aware of what I’d given up to fit in. I’m working on reconciling that now. 

This means that I’m likely to be in a conversation at your meetup or your conference and I’m going to attempt to reframe conversations when they steer towards making a person from an underrepresented group feel like they’re on the outside looking in.

A programmer is a programmer--regardless of look, title, or how much they aren’t willing to brag about it. 

[tracyhinds]

Great friends know your terrible habits and give you the best gifts in their stead.

[jaegerjaques]

I tell my students, ‘When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.

Toni Morrison (via maxistentialist)

[tracyhinds]

Act As If

People suffering from and trying to overcome Impostor Syndrome (the feeling that even though you are doing good work and…

I used to think people had gall--"who do THEY think they are?" To try such things...

Now I know.  Now I know...

[tracyhinds]

[Programmers] like to think we spend most of our time power typing. "Yeah, I'm being productive, I'm writing programs!" But we don't. We spend most of our time looking into the abyss, saying "My God, what have I done? How am I ever going to make this work?" Once we figure it out, we forget that we did all of that ... A normal person, once they've looked into the abyss, would say I'm done, this is stupid, I'm going to go do something else. But not us, because there's something really wrong with us.

Douglas Crockford

[sprintly]

Yesterday I tweeted out that Sprint.ly was looking to diversify our applicant pool and was actively hiring developers (please email me if you’re interested in hacking with us). If you’ve been following, or engaging in, the conversation around diversity in technology and software development,...

[tracyhinds]

A reminder to me: quit your whinin'

Life is so good. So, so good.

How do I know this? I had a frustrating day. It's like getting a cold. You remember how much you miss breathing through your nose. 

I tend to take things for granted. When I've had a week of struggling through writing some code that I know I should be flowing out of my brain easily, I want to throw my laptop. When I run into computer issues for testing my javascript, I'm ready to go for a walk.

So when halfway through my day today, while waiting impatiently to get my computer returned to me from IT(where they were graciously restoring my backup to a new hard drive after just plain, bad luck)--I had to laugh at myself. 

Self, you CHOSE this. And this is your frustrating day? No one yelled at me for not being able to code while my computer was being resurrected. My boss didn't say a thing--just kindly chuckled while I made a joke or two about breaking things. It was all in my head. I have a job that I like so much that I was really bothered to not be working. So much so that I had to snap myself out of that funk.

[tracyhinds]

"If somebody had told me that software  was really about humanity, about helping people by using computer technology--it would have changed my outlook a lot earlier." 

[tracyhinds]

"...that hacking is fundamentally about refusing to be intimidated or cowed into submission by any technology, about understanding the technology and acquiring the power to repurpose it to our individual needs, and for the good of the many. "

What is a 'Hacktivist'?, New York Times.  Discussing the contributions of Aaron Swartz and  the lexical warfare on 'hacktivists'.

[tracyhinds]

Oh, StackOverflow, how I love thee. Let me count the ways...

I had a discussion the other day regarding this very topic, and decided to scourge the internets looking for some well-rounded explanations.  I didn't have to go far. Thank you, StackOverflow. I'd say reading the five highest-vote answers is a great start to having a better understanding of this important but vague topic.  

If you aren't using StackOverflow, you should start.  It's a dream! 

And no, I am not being compensated in any way for this. I just really, really want people to love good things.  

[tracyhinds]

"Why do some very smart people suck at programming?"

Jessica Hui's answer to Why do some very smart people suck at programming? on Quora

Loving this question on Quora! Mostly because it's a great intersection of my past and present: psychology and technology. It feels like what keeps hitting me like a broken record-- work hard. Persist. Always keep learning and you'll get it.  

I've had this conversation with Justin, more so regarding artistic drawing ordeals.  My personal belief:  you may have a creative leaning.  The only way you'll be able to express it as sharp as your mind sees it is through practice and application.  You don't come out of the womb painting like Picasso. Look at how your work has progressed over the last 10 years and tell me I'm wrong!

There will be weaknesses in your code.  It all depends on where your strengths lie--organization? testing? concepts? Keep hacking!

[tracyhinds]

Here, here! Jesse Noller blogs about the necessity for a CoC and how Python can set a huge precedent in the coding community regarding behavior and tolerance. 

It is amazing to see the extremely polarized responses to this announcement. Does the hacker disdain for authority travel this deep?

[tracyhinds]

I just got to code my own version of Pong a few weeks ago in my Interactive Python class.  A challenge to say the least! I can only imagine how smart these jokers were to figure out these concepts back in the days of 8-bit.

[tracyhinds]

Small (but oh-it-feels-so-good I did a little dance) Victories.

    Finished my game of Memory*** for the Interactive Python class I'm taking with Coursera and PyLadiesPDX.  My partner-in-crime worked from home yesterday and was graciously helping me push through concepts that have yet to work into my muscle memory.

    It works! And it's fun. 

***For the purposes of this course, I won't publicly post the game(as it vulnerably displays the code for it). I'll happily send you a link if you contact me though!