Why does the history of computing matter? Joël and Developer at thoughtbot Sara Jackson, ponder this and share some cool stories (and trivia!!) behind the tools we use in the industry.
This episode is brought to you by Airbrake (https://airbrake.io/?utm_campaign=Q3_2022%3A%20Bike%20Shed%20Podcast%20Ad&utm_source=Bike%20Shed&utm_medium=website). Visit Frictionless error monitoring and performance insight for your app stack.
Sara on Twitter (https://twitter.com/csarajackson)
UNIX philosophy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy)
Hillel Wayne on why we ask linked list questions (https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/linked-lists/)
Transcript:
JOËL: Hello and welcome to another episode of The Bike Shed, a weekly podcast from your friends at thoughtbot about developing great software. I'm Joël Quenneville. And today, I'm joined by fellow thoughtboter, Team Lead, and Developer Sara Jackson.
SARA: Hello, happy to be here.
JOËL: Together, we're here to share a little bit of what we've learned along the way. So, Sara, what's new in your world?
SARA: Well, Joël, you might know that recently our team had a small get-together in Toronto.
JOËL: And our team, for those who are not aware, is fully remote distributed across multiple countries. So this was a chance to get together in person.
SARA: Yes, correct. This was a chance for those on the Boost team to get together and work together as if we had a physical office.
JOËL: Was this your first time meeting some members of the team?
SARA: It was my second, for the most part. So I joined thoughtbot, but after thoughtbot had already gotten remote. Fortunately, I was able to meet many other thoughtboters in May at our summit.
JOËL: Had you worked at a remote company before coming to thoughtbot?
SARA: Yes, I actually started working remotely in 2019, but even then, that wasn't my first time working remotely. I actually had a full year of internship in college that was remote.
JOËL: So you were a pro at this long before the pandemic made us all try it out.
SARA: I don't know about that, but I've certainly dealt with the idiosyncrasies that come with remote work for longer.
JOËL: What do you think are some of the challenges of remote work as opposed to working in person in an office?
SARA: I think definitely growing and maintaining a culture. When you're in an office, it's easy to create ad hoc conversations and have events that are small that build on the culture. But when you're remote, it has to be a lot more intentional.
JOËL: That definitely rings true for me. One of the things that I really appreciated about in-person office culture was the serendipity that you have those sort of random meetings at the water cooler, those conversations, waiting for coffee with people who are not necessarily on the same team or the same project as you are.
SARA: I also really miss being able to have lunch in person with folks where I can casually gripe about an issue I might be having, and almost certainly, someone would have the answer. Now, if I'm having an issue, I have to intentionally seek help. [chuckles]
JOËL: One of the funny things that often happened, at least the office where I worked at, was that lunches would often devolve into taxonomy conversations.
SARA: I wish I had been there for that.
[laughter]
JOËL: Well, we do have a taxonomy channel on Slack to somewhat continue that legacy.
SARA: Do you have a favorite taxonomy lunch discussion that you recall?
JOËL: I definitely got to the point where I hated the classifying a sandwich. That one has been way overdone.
SARA: Absolutely.
JOËL: There was an interesting one about motorcycles, and mopeds, and bicycles, and e-bikes, and trying to see how do you distinguish one from the other. Is it an electric motor? Is it the power of the engine that you have? Is it the size?
SARA: My brain is already turning on those thoughts. I feel like I could get lost down that rabbit hole very easily.
[laughter]
JOËL: Maybe that should be like a special anniversa