1 00:00:17,380 --> 00:00:19,779 CHUCK LAUER VOSE: So, I want to welcome you to, 2 00:00:19,779 --> 00:00:24,160 to my talk. It's, yes, you can, 3 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:25,519 you can raise your hand now. 4 00:00:25,519 --> 00:00:27,460 I gave him the job of raising his hand 5 00:00:27,460 --> 00:00:34,460 any time I say so or um at the beginning of the sentence. So. 6 00:00:34,530 --> 00:00:39,140 We're gonna talk about building kick-ass internal education programs. 7 00:00:39,140 --> 00:00:41,809 Sometimes when you don't necessarily have a mandate from 8 00:00:41,809 --> 00:00:46,829 your boss or from the organization. But it's important, 9 00:00:46,829 --> 00:00:49,739 right. We need to be able to build these 10 00:00:49,739 --> 00:00:51,790 programs and we need to be able to educate 11 00:00:51,790 --> 00:00:55,269 ourselves, and so we sometimes have to just do 12 00:00:55,269 --> 00:00:56,589 it. 13 00:00:56,589 --> 00:01:01,280 I have one thing, though, before we start. I 14 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:02,920 want you to know that if I raise my 15 00:01:02,920 --> 00:01:06,030 hand, like this, or if this fellow down here 16 00:01:06,030 --> 00:01:09,470 raises his hand, that's, I want you to raise 17 00:01:09,470 --> 00:01:11,860 your hand as well. So let's practice this really 18 00:01:11,860 --> 00:01:15,770 quick. Yes. Very good. OK. Good. This is how 19 00:01:15,770 --> 00:01:19,070 I'm gonna get your attention. Usually it means it's 20 00:01:19,070 --> 00:01:22,170 time to shut up. But not always. But we're 21 00:01:22,170 --> 00:01:25,799 gonna do some activities, and I have to get 22 00:01:25,799 --> 00:01:29,329 your attention somehow, so, that's effective. 23 00:01:29,329 --> 00:01:31,319 For now, I would like you to. We've been 24 00:01:31,319 --> 00:01:33,920 sitting all day, right? And how can you keep 25 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:36,100 your brain going if you're sitting? So I want 26 00:01:36,100 --> 00:01:38,170 you to, to stand up and take a three 27 00:01:38,170 --> 00:01:41,670 minute stretch break, if you're able to stand. And 28 00:01:41,670 --> 00:01:44,289 introduce yourself to your neighbors. So you have three 29 00:01:44,289 --> 00:01:51,289 minutes. 30 00:01:53,329 --> 00:02:00,329 Wow. You guys are so good at that. This 31 00:02:03,899 --> 00:02:07,850 is really great. One of my favorite things about 32 00:02:07,850 --> 00:02:12,080 that activity is that everyone, every time I do 33 00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:16,190 something like that, people tell me, nerds won't do 34 00:02:16,190 --> 00:02:18,190 activities. They won't stand up. They won't talk to 35 00:02:18,190 --> 00:02:21,430 each other. That's crazy. And every time it goes 36 00:02:21,430 --> 00:02:23,840 over gang busters. In fact, I think we gained 37 00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:26,500 fifty people just cause we were making tons of 38 00:02:26,500 --> 00:02:29,630 noise. That's good. 39 00:02:29,630 --> 00:02:33,960 We're gonna talk about inspiration, partly. Every, every RailsConf, 40 00:02:33,960 --> 00:02:36,470 I go for the inspiration track. They don't actually 41 00:02:36,470 --> 00:02:39,430 have that listed. But there's always clearly those talks. 42 00:02:39,430 --> 00:02:41,210 I'm going to try and inspire you to take 43 00:02:41,210 --> 00:02:48,060 action on education at home. 44 00:02:48,060 --> 00:02:50,740 I have a one point takeaway, because you've been, 45 00:02:50,740 --> 00:02:53,050 like, how much, how much knowledge can you really 46 00:02:53,050 --> 00:02:56,700 retain in a day of conferencing? So, I want 47 00:02:56,700 --> 00:02:59,340 you to remember one thing, and, and that's that 48 00:02:59,340 --> 00:03:03,320 internal education is easy. I'm gonna start around Monday. 49 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:05,060 Hopefully you'll be able to say that by the 50 00:03:05,060 --> 00:03:07,150 end of the talk. 51 00:03:07,150 --> 00:03:11,070 But, two point takeaway, cause there's slightly more content, 52 00:03:11,070 --> 00:03:14,460 is that you don't need to know everything to 53 00:03:14,460 --> 00:03:18,930 teach. And also that education isn't particularly expensive or 54 00:03:18,930 --> 00:03:24,290 hard to do. I make it look difficult because 55 00:03:24,290 --> 00:03:28,860 that's how I get paid. But you don't have 56 00:03:28,860 --> 00:03:30,770 to do it that way. 57 00:03:30,770 --> 00:03:33,170 So, I had a number of. I had a 58 00:03:33,170 --> 00:03:37,930 number of titles that my wife vetoed. One of 59 00:03:37,930 --> 00:03:41,210 them is Covert Education: Sneaking in Education Without Them 60 00:03:41,210 --> 00:03:46,220 Knowing. I also had, How to Education When You 61 00:03:46,220 --> 00:03:48,870 Don't Know What the Hell You're Doing, which is 62 00:03:48,870 --> 00:03:50,060 very true. 63 00:03:50,060 --> 00:03:53,760 But, like I said, they got vetoed. So, like, 64 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:56,170 like I said, my name is Chuck Lauer Vose. 65 00:03:56,170 --> 00:03:57,680 I have bright hair. You can find me around 66 00:03:57,680 --> 00:04:00,260 the conference if you have questions about education. I 67 00:04:00,260 --> 00:04:05,350 like ferrets, food, photography. I wish photography had an 68 00:04:05,350 --> 00:04:07,760 f cause I'm kind of like that. I was 69 00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:10,240 a founder of the Portland Code School and I 70 00:04:10,240 --> 00:04:15,670 am an education engineer at New Relic. 71 00:04:15,670 --> 00:04:20,738 Also I like magnets and ponies and pets wearing 72 00:04:20,738 --> 00:04:23,470 clothes. And my coworkers are jerks. 73 00:04:23,470 --> 00:04:26,810 But I love them. 74 00:04:26,810 --> 00:04:31,930 So, first I want to start and talk about 75 00:04:31,930 --> 00:04:35,690 some inspiration from myself. Akira Matsuda, who, I don't 76 00:04:35,690 --> 00:04:38,280 know if he's in the, in the room at 77 00:04:38,280 --> 00:04:40,910 the moment, but was just doing a talk over 78 00:04:40,910 --> 00:04:42,740 there. Two years ago I saw him at Ruby 79 00:04:42,740 --> 00:04:45,870 on Ales. And the thing that was so cool 80 00:04:45,870 --> 00:04:49,139 was that at the time, this was, I guess 81 00:04:49,139 --> 00:04:52,340 this was 2012, he, he didn't speak a lot 82 00:04:52,340 --> 00:04:55,870 of English. And he decided he wanted to talk 83 00:04:55,870 --> 00:04:58,270 through code, cause we all, it was our common 84 00:04:58,270 --> 00:05:03,460 language, right. And he was very nervous. He was 85 00:05:03,460 --> 00:05:07,220 incredibly nervous. But the thing he did, by accident, 86 00:05:07,220 --> 00:05:10,970 was by, he very clearly demonstrated what he expected 87 00:05:10,970 --> 00:05:13,750 of the audience. What he said at the beginning 88 00:05:13,750 --> 00:05:16,000 was, at the beginning of his talk was, he 89 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:19,500 said, every time I pause, I want you to 90 00:05:19,500 --> 00:05:23,200 reassure me by clapping. 91 00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:24,680 And so I want to ask you to do 92 00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:26,520 the same thing. This is my first talk and 93 00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:28,780 I'm, I'm a little nervous. I'll be honest. So 94 00:05:28,780 --> 00:05:31,020 every time I have like a, a, you see, 95 00:05:31,020 --> 00:05:33,060 like a big title slide or something, or every 96 00:05:33,060 --> 00:05:36,580 time I, I pause and, and look nervous, I 97 00:05:36,580 --> 00:05:40,590 want you to just, like, applause the shit out 98 00:05:40,590 --> 00:05:43,520 of me. That would be really helpful for me. 99 00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:50,520 Thank you so much. That was so much better 100 00:05:52,700 --> 00:05:55,550 than I had planned. 101 00:05:55,550 --> 00:05:58,300 OK. So, I want to talk about how I 102 00:05:58,300 --> 00:06:01,480 got started in education. And unfortunately, it's an incredibly 103 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:04,310 embarrassing story for me. How many of you know 104 00:06:04,310 --> 00:06:08,840 Eve online? All right. So, you all know that 105 00:06:08,840 --> 00:06:14,160 this is the, like, the nerdiest, nerdiest MMO game, 106 00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:18,610 commonly referred to as spreadsheets in space. So, that's 107 00:06:18,610 --> 00:06:20,900 how I got started teaching. 108 00:06:20,900 --> 00:06:24,180 And the reason is that, you know, this is 109 00:06:24,180 --> 00:06:27,680 the, sort of, common learning curve thing. Eve is, 110 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:30,840 Eve is the black line with the dead bodies 111 00:06:30,840 --> 00:06:34,919 everywhere, and it's so true. In fact, it's so 112 00:06:34,919 --> 00:06:38,050 difficult to learn, there's an entire alliance of, I 113 00:06:38,050 --> 00:06:42,360 think, last count, 2,000 people all educating each other, 114 00:06:42,360 --> 00:06:44,680 because it's just that damn hard. 115 00:06:44,680 --> 00:06:49,889 Well, not satisfied to, to just join Eve, or 116 00:06:49,889 --> 00:06:52,800 the Eve University, I wanted to do my own 117 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:55,190 thing. They were doing, they weren't doing what I 118 00:06:55,190 --> 00:06:56,990 wanted to do at the time. So I started 119 00:06:56,990 --> 00:07:00,150 my own guild and we got eighty people, which 120 00:07:00,150 --> 00:07:03,230 I think was a huge success. We had weekly 121 00:07:03,230 --> 00:07:06,610 speaking events by prominent PVP players. But it was 122 00:07:06,610 --> 00:07:09,710 the first time I'd done public speaking, ever, and 123 00:07:09,710 --> 00:07:12,680 I have to say that, that was way more 124 00:07:12,680 --> 00:07:16,750 intense and way more indicting than space piracy or 125 00:07:16,750 --> 00:07:21,630 PVP. Just so, so scary. 126 00:07:21,630 --> 00:07:27,139 After that, I, apparently added in a lot of 127 00:07:27,139 --> 00:07:33,419 animation slides. Burnside Digital was a forty person company. 128 00:07:33,419 --> 00:07:37,000 This was actually at work, now. But, education was 129 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:39,699 not a thing. It was something that I had 130 00:07:39,699 --> 00:07:43,639 to sort of hack in around the edges. I 131 00:07:43,639 --> 00:07:46,220 still, at this point, didn't realize I was educating, 132 00:07:46,220 --> 00:07:48,690 but I was doing things like lightning talks and 133 00:07:48,690 --> 00:07:51,600 little jazzy rolls. 134 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:53,479 So I started small and I, I tried to 135 00:07:53,479 --> 00:07:55,729 share success with other people, and it, it actually 136 00:07:55,729 --> 00:07:58,490 went really well. By the end we had lightning 137 00:07:58,490 --> 00:08:01,460 talks that the entire company came to and were 138 00:08:01,460 --> 00:08:05,690 wildly heralded, and we started seeing other things popping 139 00:08:05,690 --> 00:08:09,509 up, like pair programming workshops and other cool things. 140 00:08:09,509 --> 00:08:12,270 So, it was really neat to, to not have 141 00:08:12,270 --> 00:08:15,520 any mandate to do this and still find ways 142 00:08:15,520 --> 00:08:17,740 to, to take a little bit of time each 143 00:08:17,740 --> 00:08:20,900 week, and as it was successful, it grew and 144 00:08:20,900 --> 00:08:23,479 grew and we got more financing and, and we 145 00:08:23,479 --> 00:08:25,740 were able to buy lunch for everyone. It was 146 00:08:25,740 --> 00:08:30,020 just cool to demonstrate that success. 147 00:08:30,020 --> 00:08:32,698 Sort of still at that, that school, or at 148 00:08:32,698 --> 00:08:35,698 that company, Burnside Digital, I started an intern program 149 00:08:35,698 --> 00:08:40,490 gone terribly wrong. And I say it went terribly 150 00:08:40,490 --> 00:08:42,578 wrong because it was supposed to be three people 151 00:08:42,578 --> 00:08:46,389 every three months and ended up being seventeen people 152 00:08:46,389 --> 00:08:48,630 shortly afterwards. 153 00:08:48,630 --> 00:08:50,320 But I still didn't know how to teach. I 154 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:52,740 still had no idea. In fact I, I think 155 00:08:52,740 --> 00:08:55,310 I'd only barely accepted the fact that I might 156 00:08:55,310 --> 00:08:57,910 educating at that point. But I had a really 157 00:08:57,910 --> 00:08:59,930 smart guy talk to me in the beginning, and 158 00:08:59,930 --> 00:09:03,070 he said that an educator, at least in the 159 00:09:03,070 --> 00:09:07,029 maths and technologies, is not someone who knows everything. 160 00:09:07,029 --> 00:09:09,710 It's someone who creates a space where people can 161 00:09:09,710 --> 00:09:13,020 learn. I think that's such a crazy difference of 162 00:09:13,020 --> 00:09:17,040 thought to say, to realize that they weren't expecting 163 00:09:17,040 --> 00:09:20,190 me to know all the things. Just to set 164 00:09:20,190 --> 00:09:22,740 up a place where people could go and read 165 00:09:22,740 --> 00:09:26,480 their book and, and get it done right. 166 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:28,850 And I can definitely say that PCS was the 167 00:09:28,850 --> 00:09:32,710 most inspiring experience of my life. Definitely the most 168 00:09:32,710 --> 00:09:36,200 proud. I am still connected to all the students. 169 00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:39,200 And it still kind of, I don't know if 170 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:41,649 it's the highlight of my life. It kind of 171 00:09:41,649 --> 00:09:42,860 makes me sad to think that that might be 172 00:09:42,860 --> 00:09:45,839 in the past. But I wonder what I go 173 00:09:45,839 --> 00:09:47,000 towards next. 174 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:49,770 Now, now is different, though. I work for New 175 00:09:49,770 --> 00:09:55,370 Relic, and New Relic really cares about education. And 176 00:09:55,370 --> 00:09:57,940 I didn't, I didn't quite know how much they 177 00:09:57,940 --> 00:10:04,080 cared about it until month six. But, and so 178 00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:07,390 I, I work on building internal education for engineers. 179 00:10:07,390 --> 00:10:12,460 They're way smarter than me. Like, terrifyingly, frighteningly smarter 180 00:10:12,460 --> 00:10:16,110 than me, and I, I can't teach them anything. 181 00:10:16,110 --> 00:10:19,740 I literally don't know anything more than them. 182 00:10:19,740 --> 00:10:22,640 But I can create a space for learning. And 183 00:10:22,640 --> 00:10:25,709 I, I can, I can help do some things 184 00:10:25,709 --> 00:10:29,480 that allow engineers the, the extra time to get 185 00:10:29,480 --> 00:10:31,459 back to their day life. Like, they can communicate 186 00:10:31,459 --> 00:10:33,529 to me and then I can build curriculum for 187 00:10:33,529 --> 00:10:36,270 them. So, like, I can do things there. And 188 00:10:36,270 --> 00:10:38,709 I can help organize events, too, which is a 189 00:10:38,709 --> 00:10:41,649 huge time sink for most engineers. Believe it or 190 00:10:41,649 --> 00:10:44,270 not, engineers are not good at organizing events for 191 00:10:44,270 --> 00:10:46,330 the most part. 192 00:10:46,330 --> 00:10:49,540 So that's something I can do. So this was, 193 00:10:49,540 --> 00:10:51,410 this was our mandate when I first talked to 194 00:10:51,410 --> 00:10:54,730 them at New Relic. Make the already awesome engineers 195 00:10:54,730 --> 00:10:59,330 at New Relic awesomer. It's like, ah, that's cool. 196 00:10:59,330 --> 00:10:59,990 Holy shit. 197 00:10:59,990 --> 00:11:03,800 I don't know how to do that. Like, I've 198 00:11:03,800 --> 00:11:05,810 been trying, I've been applying here for ten years. 199 00:11:05,810 --> 00:11:07,760 I, I can't, like, I want to come here 200 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:14,760 so I can level up. Wow. That's super intense. 201 00:11:23,680 --> 00:11:26,029 I totally have to recommend that. It's like the 202 00:11:26,029 --> 00:11:27,130 best tactic ever. 203 00:11:27,130 --> 00:11:29,420 OK. So, you don't need to know everything. That's 204 00:11:29,420 --> 00:11:30,810 the one thing I want you to take away 205 00:11:30,810 --> 00:11:34,010 from this. Well, OK. That's one of the three. 206 00:11:34,010 --> 00:11:36,010 I kind of lied. You don't have to know 207 00:11:36,010 --> 00:11:39,870 everything. You need to be passionate and inspiring and 208 00:11:39,870 --> 00:11:42,100 you need to give of yourself in this activity. 209 00:11:42,100 --> 00:11:45,610 I still have no idea what I am doing. 210 00:11:45,610 --> 00:11:50,800 I'm learning it, too. And you can do it. 211 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:57,800 OK. Activities. So, I want you to spend thirty 212 00:12:02,610 --> 00:12:06,459 seconds thinking about an effective educative experience from your 213 00:12:06,459 --> 00:12:08,040 past. I want you to share this with your 214 00:12:08,040 --> 00:12:15,040 neighbor. Two minutes. I'll raise my hand. 215 00:12:19,839 --> 00:12:26,839 Wow. That is like half the time. You are 216 00:12:27,779 --> 00:12:31,480 continually impressive to me. 217 00:12:31,480 --> 00:12:38,480 So. OK. So, a good educator pushes people out 218 00:12:43,040 --> 00:12:46,010 of their comfort zone. I know that most everyone 219 00:12:46,010 --> 00:12:50,040 else. I haven't seen another presentation where people have 220 00:12:50,040 --> 00:12:53,250 forced you to talk to people. And I think 221 00:12:53,250 --> 00:12:57,290 it's important. So, I really like, I really like 222 00:12:57,290 --> 00:12:59,580 that quote. And I like this image in general. 223 00:12:59,580 --> 00:13:01,490 If we're growing, we're always going to be out 224 00:13:01,490 --> 00:13:05,459 of our comfort zone. So, in some ways, you 225 00:13:05,459 --> 00:13:08,640 know, we, we talked about, an educator is just 226 00:13:08,640 --> 00:13:11,330 someone who creates an effective space for learning. And 227 00:13:11,330 --> 00:13:13,700 part of that is pushing people. You saw me 228 00:13:13,700 --> 00:13:17,279 walking around, and if anyone wasn't talking, I'd force 229 00:13:17,279 --> 00:13:21,790 them to talk to me. Which is way scarier. 230 00:13:21,790 --> 00:13:24,490 So I think that's a, that's a huge part. 231 00:13:24,490 --> 00:13:27,240 Who knows these guys? 232 00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:32,050 Yeah. Everyone. This is Bill Nye and Neal Degrasse 233 00:13:32,050 --> 00:13:34,519 Tyson. I didn't know Neal Degrasse Tyson when I 234 00:13:34,519 --> 00:13:36,390 was a kid, but Bill Nye I sure as 235 00:13:36,390 --> 00:13:40,180 hell knew. And I really love how much they, 236 00:13:40,180 --> 00:13:43,860 they inspire people. That seems to be their, their 237 00:13:43,860 --> 00:13:46,390 main thing, now, right? I know that, I know 238 00:13:46,390 --> 00:13:48,360 Neal Degrasse Tyson, at least, still has a class 239 00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:50,760 room somewhere. But I don't know where it is. 240 00:13:50,760 --> 00:13:53,529 His, his primary thing for me is just the 241 00:13:53,529 --> 00:13:57,399 inspiration to continue, to continue learning. He keeps exposing 242 00:13:57,399 --> 00:14:00,240 me to new, to new things about space that 243 00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:03,839 I never thought about before. And for me, when 244 00:14:03,839 --> 00:14:07,230 I educate you, I'm exp- I'm gonna expose you 245 00:14:07,230 --> 00:14:10,350 to the idea that you could, in fact, do 246 00:14:10,350 --> 00:14:13,380 these things. You could be the teacher. 247 00:14:13,380 --> 00:14:15,320 And I hope that when you go home and 248 00:14:15,320 --> 00:14:18,180 talk to people, you'll inspire them to learn the 249 00:14:18,180 --> 00:14:21,360 code that you're thinking about. 250 00:14:21,360 --> 00:14:23,350 The last thing I think a good educator does 251 00:14:23,350 --> 00:14:26,829 is, gives of themselves out of love. And I 252 00:14:26,829 --> 00:14:30,160 think this really applies to the open source community 253 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:33,120 as well and the open source ethic. And, I, 254 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:36,640 this is, this is partly a preparation for you, 255 00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:41,470 that education may take some time outside of work. 256 00:14:41,470 --> 00:14:44,390 Sometimes. But so does open source. And I can 257 00:14:44,390 --> 00:14:46,610 tell you that it's worth it. 258 00:14:46,610 --> 00:14:49,910 So turn to your neighbor and give them a 259 00:14:49,910 --> 00:14:50,120 high five. 260 00:14:50,120 --> 00:14:57,120 I don't, I don't think this would work in 261 00:15:13,760 --> 00:15:18,279 many other communities than the Ruby community. So, I, 262 00:15:18,279 --> 00:15:22,050 I actually thought about making that activity, applaud for 263 00:15:22,050 --> 00:15:24,550 the next thing only by using your neighbor's hand. 264 00:15:24,550 --> 00:15:28,680 But I think that'd be very difficult. 265 00:15:28,680 --> 00:15:32,399 How many of you have seen this XKCD strip 266 00:15:32,399 --> 00:15:37,070 about nerd sniping? If you haven't. So, I taught 267 00:15:37,070 --> 00:15:39,610 my wife this a little while ago, that one 268 00:15:39,610 --> 00:15:41,550 of the. So nerd sniping is where you just 269 00:15:41,550 --> 00:15:46,100 sort of, you say one little thing that forces 270 00:15:46,100 --> 00:15:49,029 someone to just spawn off, like, a number of 271 00:15:49,029 --> 00:15:53,810 different thought processes. It's basically a mental fork bomb, 272 00:15:53,810 --> 00:15:55,510 if you know that term. 273 00:15:55,510 --> 00:15:58,279 And, one of the best ways, and this is 274 00:15:58,279 --> 00:16:00,709 a very dangerous tool. I'm giving you very powerful 275 00:16:00,709 --> 00:16:03,070 tools here. One of the best ways to do 276 00:16:03,070 --> 00:16:06,320 this is to say, hey Joe, what's the most 277 00:16:06,320 --> 00:16:09,149 efficient way to do whatever? Doesn't even matter. What's 278 00:16:09,149 --> 00:16:14,209 the most efficient way to sweep the floor? They're 279 00:16:14,209 --> 00:16:15,339 done. 280 00:16:15,339 --> 00:16:19,459 So, efficient is this funny word. I'm talking about 281 00:16:19,459 --> 00:16:25,800 being an efficient educator, and so I apologize in 282 00:16:25,800 --> 00:16:30,820 advance, cause I, I hope this destroys you. Mostly 283 00:16:30,820 --> 00:16:33,579 I'm gonna talk about some, one of the things 284 00:16:33,579 --> 00:16:35,560 you mentioned was, how do you create a space 285 00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:37,889 conducive to learning? Is it a physical space? Is 286 00:16:37,889 --> 00:16:40,160 it an actual thing? Like, do you have to 287 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:43,070 have a classroom? And the answer is, no, it 288 00:16:43,070 --> 00:16:45,970 is not generally a physical space. However, it does 289 00:16:45,970 --> 00:16:48,740 tend to involve some real estate somewhere. But it 290 00:16:48,740 --> 00:16:50,600 could be a mixed use space. It could be 291 00:16:50,600 --> 00:16:52,490 the couches. Whatever. 292 00:16:52,490 --> 00:16:55,209 So, the first one. My most favorite. The place 293 00:16:55,209 --> 00:16:58,970 I started was lightning talks. And the thing I've 294 00:16:58,970 --> 00:17:02,519 seen work the most was thirty to sixty minutes 295 00:17:02,519 --> 00:17:05,849 before lunch on Friday. And the reason I think 296 00:17:05,849 --> 00:17:10,109 that works is that, as you, as you finish 297 00:17:10,109 --> 00:17:13,148 the talks, people can continue their discussion through lunch. 298 00:17:13,148 --> 00:17:14,409 Very effective. 299 00:17:14,409 --> 00:17:17,130 The other thing is that if it goes well, 300 00:17:17,130 --> 00:17:18,839 you can move it back by thirty minutes and 301 00:17:18,839 --> 00:17:22,429 get your company to buy lunch, thus increasing your 302 00:17:22,429 --> 00:17:26,689 happiness and your number of people coming. Which is 303 00:17:26,689 --> 00:17:27,349 great. 304 00:17:27,349 --> 00:17:30,010 Lightning talks are super easy to do. You just 305 00:17:30,010 --> 00:17:31,549 need to find a couple people who can do 306 00:17:31,549 --> 00:17:34,750 five to ten minute talks on whatever. I've seen 307 00:17:34,750 --> 00:17:38,080 effective lightning talks done with no technical content. I 308 00:17:38,080 --> 00:17:41,210 would recommend some technical content. Just, you know, for 309 00:17:41,210 --> 00:17:41,740 reasons. 310 00:17:41,740 --> 00:17:44,360 But I've seen, I've seen lightning talks that were 311 00:17:44,360 --> 00:17:47,630 very well-received on homebrewing. In fact, I've seen entire 312 00:17:47,630 --> 00:17:51,720 presentations on homebrewing. I've also seen really effective ones 313 00:17:51,720 --> 00:17:54,049 where you demo a product. Especially if you have 314 00:17:54,049 --> 00:17:56,390 a big thing, like New Relic. It would be 315 00:17:56,390 --> 00:17:58,530 really useful to me if I could just see 316 00:17:58,530 --> 00:18:01,770 one person's take on one feature every week. I 317 00:18:01,770 --> 00:18:03,940 might actually make it through my product by the 318 00:18:03,940 --> 00:18:08,450 end of three years. It's so big. 319 00:18:08,450 --> 00:18:10,700 But also showing off a new gem or just 320 00:18:10,700 --> 00:18:13,710 generally inspiring the people around you. This, education is 321 00:18:13,710 --> 00:18:16,140 so much about inspiring people. You can't force people 322 00:18:16,140 --> 00:18:19,350 to learn, right. You can't, well, you can sit 323 00:18:19,350 --> 00:18:20,880 them down if you have the mandate, but they 324 00:18:20,880 --> 00:18:22,700 don't have to learn unless they really want to. 325 00:18:22,700 --> 00:18:24,120 So, it's all about inspiration. 326 00:18:24,120 --> 00:18:26,320 And the last pro tip I have for you 327 00:18:26,320 --> 00:18:30,360 about lightning talks is that, if you bring food, 328 00:18:30,360 --> 00:18:33,169 they will come. That's great. So that's how we 329 00:18:33,169 --> 00:18:35,910 ended up with a whole company basically showing up 330 00:18:35,910 --> 00:18:39,220 every single Friday to an event that involved sitting 331 00:18:39,220 --> 00:18:41,840 on the couches. Which I realize is probably not 332 00:18:41,840 --> 00:18:45,570 that hard of a proposition, but. 333 00:18:45,570 --> 00:18:48,010 So the other, the other one, some of my 334 00:18:48,010 --> 00:18:50,870 coworkers have been working on this recently. Mob refactors. 335 00:18:50,870 --> 00:18:53,830 In fact, Kayla?? (00:18:53) was the person who introduced 336 00:18:53,830 --> 00:18:56,150 me to this idea that you get everyone in 337 00:18:56,150 --> 00:18:59,260 a room, pick some bit of code you really 338 00:18:59,260 --> 00:19:02,710 want to hack on, and everyone hacks on it 339 00:19:02,710 --> 00:19:04,240 together. 340 00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:07,580 It's important to review the code, not the author. 341 00:19:07,580 --> 00:19:09,419 Because that can be really offensive to the author. 342 00:19:09,419 --> 00:19:11,270 Especially if they're in the room. And if they're 343 00:19:11,270 --> 00:19:13,230 not in the room, that could just be bad 344 00:19:13,230 --> 00:19:16,520 in general. But you rewrite the code together, and 345 00:19:16,520 --> 00:19:18,390 then, and this is the part that kind of 346 00:19:18,390 --> 00:19:21,070 blows my mind, you throw it out afterwards. 347 00:19:21,070 --> 00:19:24,490 It's like mind maps. They're not really that helpful 348 00:19:24,490 --> 00:19:26,900 after the fact. And the code you write during 349 00:19:26,900 --> 00:19:30,020 the mob refactor is probably bad. But the conversation 350 00:19:30,020 --> 00:19:32,299 you have during a mob refactor is very good. 351 00:19:32,299 --> 00:19:35,040 So, this has been working really well for us, 352 00:19:35,040 --> 00:19:38,000 and, in fact, looking back on it, I saw 353 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:40,160 groups doing it. But it wasn't called mob refactoring. 354 00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:41,870 I didn't know what it was called then. I 355 00:19:41,870 --> 00:19:43,570 just saw them doing it, and it being really 356 00:19:43,570 --> 00:19:46,549 effective. 357 00:19:46,549 --> 00:19:50,390 Pair programming is something that everyone knows they're supposed 358 00:19:50,390 --> 00:19:52,530 to be doing, right. But no, none of us 359 00:19:52,530 --> 00:19:56,980 do. Because it's hard. And, and the thing people 360 00:19:56,980 --> 00:20:00,190 don't talk about is that, pair programming, to me, 361 00:20:00,190 --> 00:20:04,580 is a trade off of speed for quality. And, 362 00:20:04,580 --> 00:20:07,179 and I think that's really important. So if you 363 00:20:07,179 --> 00:20:10,130 find yourself, or your product in a place where 364 00:20:10,130 --> 00:20:12,000 things are not going as smoothly as you would 365 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:16,100 like. I don't know if anyone's had that problem. 366 00:20:16,100 --> 00:20:18,000 Pairing may very well be one of the, the 367 00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:20,400 big power tools to look at. 368 00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:22,500 So I have two, two sneaky little methods to 369 00:20:22,500 --> 00:20:24,630 get pairing happening, because I know a lot of 370 00:20:24,630 --> 00:20:27,640 you have tried getting your company to pair. You've 371 00:20:27,640 --> 00:20:30,520 tried, like, getting a manager mandate and, and they 372 00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:33,330 can't make it happen. There's two methods that have 373 00:20:33,330 --> 00:20:34,220 worked well at New Relic. 374 00:20:34,220 --> 00:20:36,830 So, the first one, is my method, is called 375 00:20:36,830 --> 00:20:40,600 the sneaky monitor. And, what you do here, is 376 00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:42,240 you set aside from time, like you make an 377 00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:45,309 appointment with your, your team mate, and you literally 378 00:20:45,309 --> 00:20:49,210 bring your monitor to their desk. And it's annoying. 379 00:20:49,210 --> 00:20:50,910 Because then you're gonna sweep like half of their 380 00:20:50,910 --> 00:20:54,510 shit off their desk. And then at the end, 381 00:20:54,510 --> 00:20:56,090 you try to be a nice citizen. You help 382 00:20:56,090 --> 00:20:58,880 them, like, put all the things back in order, 383 00:20:58,880 --> 00:21:00,150 and you know, maybe it's the first time their 384 00:21:00,150 --> 00:21:02,960 desk has ever been dusted. But that's cool. It's 385 00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:03,380 nice. 386 00:21:03,380 --> 00:21:06,000 And then the next week you come back again 387 00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:08,080 and you sweep all the shit off their desk 388 00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:10,660 and put your monitor there. And by the third 389 00:21:10,660 --> 00:21:12,860 week, you know, maybe they just haven't put their 390 00:21:12,860 --> 00:21:16,140 desk back into shape, and you just plop your 391 00:21:16,140 --> 00:21:18,860 monitor down and, and by the fourth week, you 392 00:21:18,860 --> 00:21:22,260 find a, a little monitor there. You're like, aw, 393 00:21:22,260 --> 00:21:25,039 that's nice. Thank you. And then by the fifth 394 00:21:25,039 --> 00:21:27,549 week, you've got actual monitor there, and you thank 395 00:21:27,549 --> 00:21:30,370 the IT people and, and then you go find 396 00:21:30,370 --> 00:21:33,840 someone else and start it again. 397 00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:37,240 And I've, I've, it sounds silly, right. You can 398 00:21:37,240 --> 00:21:39,720 only touch one person at a time. But then, 399 00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:43,169 then they start taking their monitor somewhere, after they've 400 00:21:43,169 --> 00:21:45,780 seen the fun of it. And then you've got 401 00:21:45,780 --> 00:21:47,799 two. Two people doing it. And I've seen this 402 00:21:47,799 --> 00:21:51,150 happening at New Relic to, to both great affect 403 00:21:51,150 --> 00:21:54,299 and great detriment. Because we're totally out of space. 404 00:21:54,299 --> 00:21:56,530 And now I see these monitor, like, pairing stations 405 00:21:56,530 --> 00:21:59,190 popping up everywhere, and the management is pissed at 406 00:21:59,190 --> 00:22:02,240 me cause I've taught them pairing. And so. 407 00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:05,640 There was another cool method that came up recently 408 00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:09,280 that I really like. This is Emily's method. Emily 409 00:22:09,280 --> 00:22:13,090 Heinleind in the Insights team, and what she recommended 410 00:22:13,090 --> 00:22:16,260 was sending out an open invite to anyone who 411 00:22:16,260 --> 00:22:20,090 wants to try pairing, to bring their monitor to 412 00:22:20,090 --> 00:22:22,490 the lunch room, and I'll, I'll find you a 413 00:22:22,490 --> 00:22:25,480 buddy to work on for that one hour, or 414 00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:28,429 whatever. We'll talk about some style. Some thing you 415 00:22:28,429 --> 00:22:32,380 can practice. And then go to town. That's it. 416 00:22:32,380 --> 00:22:33,780 It's a great way to get those who are 417 00:22:33,780 --> 00:22:37,289 already interested in it going, because they don't have 418 00:22:37,289 --> 00:22:38,799 friends who they can do it with on their 419 00:22:38,799 --> 00:22:41,679 team, maybe. So they can't practice, and there, therefore 420 00:22:41,679 --> 00:22:43,830 they can't well know well enough how to convert 421 00:22:43,830 --> 00:22:44,970 their team mate. They just don't know enough yet. 422 00:22:44,970 --> 00:22:48,330 It's a great idea. 423 00:22:48,330 --> 00:22:52,100 There's only a couple more. So workshops. I mentioned 424 00:22:52,100 --> 00:22:55,740 these. Basically, you pick a theme. We did this 425 00:22:55,740 --> 00:22:57,610 maybe a week ago on refactoring, and it was 426 00:22:57,610 --> 00:23:02,289 so cool. So we, Katie Miller picked a, a 427 00:23:02,289 --> 00:23:07,570 topic. Some Rails Cast on the service object pattern. 428 00:23:07,570 --> 00:23:09,850 So we watched, we all watched the Rails Cast. 429 00:23:09,850 --> 00:23:11,730 She showed us, like, ten minutes of her code 430 00:23:11,730 --> 00:23:13,669 where she tried to apply that and we talked 431 00:23:13,669 --> 00:23:15,190 about it a little bit. And then for forty 432 00:23:15,190 --> 00:23:18,080 minutes we paired on trying to do that on 433 00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:21,039 a random snippet of code, to various effect. You 434 00:23:21,039 --> 00:23:22,940 know, sometimes it didn't work. Sometimes it did. 435 00:23:22,940 --> 00:23:25,740 But it was really cool. And then for the 436 00:23:25,740 --> 00:23:28,049 last twenty minutes we, we came back together and 437 00:23:28,049 --> 00:23:31,340 we all demoed. And it was so, like, I 438 00:23:31,340 --> 00:23:33,700 feel like I got two days of education out 439 00:23:33,700 --> 00:23:35,630 of that hour and a half. And it was 440 00:23:35,630 --> 00:23:37,870 shocking to me. I mean, not only was I 441 00:23:37,870 --> 00:23:42,830 exhausted afterwards, which, maybe not super great, but I 442 00:23:42,830 --> 00:23:45,309 really felt like I learned a lot. And it's, 443 00:23:45,309 --> 00:23:47,720 it's an education experience I had never had before. 444 00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:52,600 I'd never tried this. So it was really cool. 445 00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:59,600 Thank you. I. I have to tell you, like, 446 00:24:04,230 --> 00:24:06,500 I've been rushing a little bit, because I was 447 00:24:06,500 --> 00:24:10,570 worried if I paused long enough that you, that 448 00:24:10,570 --> 00:24:12,150 you were gonna clap at me again. I feel 449 00:24:12,150 --> 00:24:14,549 like, this is, this is actually ideal though. Like, 450 00:24:14,549 --> 00:24:16,760 I would rather feel embarrassed by how often someone 451 00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:20,220 is clapping than the opposite. So this is good. 452 00:24:20,220 --> 00:24:23,600 So, this one, this one I've only seen a 453 00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:27,700 couple times at New Relic, but it was amazing. 454 00:24:27,700 --> 00:24:30,620 This was literally one of the most amazing things 455 00:24:30,620 --> 00:24:33,760 I have ever seen or experienced. And it was 456 00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:35,760 a total accident. They had no idea they were 457 00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:37,730 doing it. I only later found out it has 458 00:24:37,730 --> 00:24:39,200 a name, later. 459 00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:41,630 Basically, all of our smartest engineers got around the 460 00:24:41,630 --> 00:24:43,929 table, like they usually do. But this time, there 461 00:24:43,929 --> 00:24:46,020 were too many of them to have the discussion, 462 00:24:46,020 --> 00:24:48,000 so they did it in our lunch room. And 463 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:50,280 our lunch room has two monitors that are paired 464 00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:53,630 together. And it's also open enough that anyone could 465 00:24:53,630 --> 00:24:56,169 hear. So they were sitting around the little table 466 00:24:56,169 --> 00:24:58,690 talking, and what I noticed was that there was 467 00:24:58,690 --> 00:25:02,559 a growing crowd of about forty people listening and 468 00:25:02,559 --> 00:25:05,010 looking at the second monitor, the paired monitor. 469 00:25:05,010 --> 00:25:07,350 And they were discussing amongst themselves. They were clarifying 470 00:25:07,350 --> 00:25:11,580 the concepts. Because the super nerds were over here 471 00:25:11,580 --> 00:25:14,120 talking about this really hard concept, and we were 472 00:25:14,120 --> 00:25:15,659 just trying to understand what the hell they were 473 00:25:15,659 --> 00:25:18,620 talking about. But it was really cool to hear 474 00:25:18,620 --> 00:25:21,730 our elders speaking. Like, what do they, what do 475 00:25:21,730 --> 00:25:24,360 they worry about during the day? I don't know. 476 00:25:24,360 --> 00:25:29,340 And, and, and also these, these conversations are normally, 477 00:25:29,340 --> 00:25:33,789 like, closed-door. You don't normally have any impact in 478 00:25:33,789 --> 00:25:36,789 this. And so, being able to like, sort of 479 00:25:36,789 --> 00:25:40,900 listen in was definitely, like, one of the most 480 00:25:40,900 --> 00:25:43,600 enlightening and eye-opening things I think I have seen 481 00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:46,110 in a long time. So I would highly recommend 482 00:25:46,110 --> 00:25:47,900 something like this. And I think this works for 483 00:25:47,900 --> 00:25:49,960 anything. I think this works at the director level. 484 00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:53,350 Like, as long as you're not talking about employees, 485 00:25:53,350 --> 00:25:56,870 I would love to hear what your VPs or 486 00:25:56,870 --> 00:26:00,669 your executives are talking about. Super cool. 487 00:26:00,669 --> 00:26:05,640 And then, I think this is the second to 488 00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:09,370 last one. But the last real one. So, the 489 00:26:09,370 --> 00:26:11,860 last one, I had never heard of this concept, 490 00:26:11,860 --> 00:26:13,690 but now that I see it in effect, I 491 00:26:13,690 --> 00:26:17,080 love it. Basically, when you get a new hire, 492 00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:20,230 assign someone to them for a day. It's nothing 493 00:26:20,230 --> 00:26:26,250 big. Maybe if, maybe if you have, have the 494 00:26:26,250 --> 00:26:29,980 resources, you can assign someone half time for two 495 00:26:29,980 --> 00:26:32,400 weeks. Or maybe even four weeks. 496 00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:36,010 And what I can tell you is that if 497 00:26:36,010 --> 00:26:39,830 you do that, so when New Relic onboards we 498 00:26:39,830 --> 00:26:41,679 think it takes about six months for someone to 499 00:26:41,679 --> 00:26:43,909 truly get up to speed, and I actually agree 500 00:26:43,909 --> 00:26:47,010 with this. What we've found is that if you 501 00:26:47,010 --> 00:26:49,460 have an onboarding buddy helping you through that first 502 00:26:49,460 --> 00:26:53,880 month, it drops to about three months. Which is 503 00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:57,190 crazy. You get one, one engineer's half time for 504 00:26:57,190 --> 00:27:00,570 one month, and that's three months of extra productivity. 505 00:27:00,570 --> 00:27:04,370 That is money. That is a lot of money. 506 00:27:04,370 --> 00:27:06,520 Huge. Huge difference for us. 507 00:27:06,520 --> 00:27:09,090 So, we now do this a hundred percent of 508 00:27:09,090 --> 00:27:10,919 people, come into New Relic and they have a 509 00:27:10,919 --> 00:27:15,350 person guaranteed for four weeks, if not two people, 510 00:27:15,350 --> 00:27:17,429 dedicated to them, in addition to their team. And 511 00:27:17,429 --> 00:27:22,789 one of them is usually me. So very cool. 512 00:27:22,789 --> 00:27:26,880 The last one. Dedicated trainers. Hmm. I wouldn't recommend 513 00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:29,370 it. I mean, unless you have a lot of 514 00:27:29,370 --> 00:27:33,460 people, or the quality of training is, like, absolutely 515 00:27:33,460 --> 00:27:37,659 critical, or. But, it's just, the dedicated trainers have 516 00:27:37,659 --> 00:27:40,559 to be crazy efficient. And so, if you're at 517 00:27:40,559 --> 00:27:42,659 the size where you have two, three, four hundred 518 00:27:42,659 --> 00:27:46,730 people. Yeah. All right. Dedicated trainer time. But most 519 00:27:46,730 --> 00:27:48,450 of us aren't there. Most of us are forty 520 00:27:48,450 --> 00:27:55,039 person companies, right. 521 00:27:55,039 --> 00:28:02,039 You know, I'm just reading the slide. Sorry, I 522 00:28:06,150 --> 00:28:07,049 forget what these are. Yeah. Turn to your neighbor. 523 00:28:07,049 --> 00:28:10,240 Talk very, very briefly. Not three minutes. About what 524 00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:12,240 these have tried, or what, which of these you've 525 00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:14,539 tried and which you think would work in your 526 00:28:14,539 --> 00:28:15,390 work. 527 00:28:15,390 --> 00:28:20,370 And I'll tell you the secrets. 528 00:28:20,370 --> 00:28:25,350 I'm sorry we had to cut that one short. 529 00:28:25,350 --> 00:28:30,309 I'm running out of time. It's all the clapping. 530 00:28:30,309 --> 00:28:34,140 OK. I, my plan for your organization. If you 531 00:28:34,140 --> 00:28:35,980 do this, you will have education and I will 532 00:28:35,980 --> 00:28:40,380 be happy and, and pleased with you. As if 533 00:28:40,380 --> 00:28:43,490 you need to work for my pleasure. So I 534 00:28:43,490 --> 00:28:47,020 want to, to next week, next Friday at 11:30, 535 00:28:47,020 --> 00:28:50,210 I want you to do lightning talks. It's the 536 00:28:50,210 --> 00:28:52,650 easiest thing you can do. It's super easy to 537 00:28:52,650 --> 00:28:55,010 find three people who want to talk. They need 538 00:28:55,010 --> 00:28:58,500 to make three slides. How hard is that? 539 00:28:58,500 --> 00:29:01,549 Also, I want you to ask your team to 540 00:29:01,549 --> 00:29:03,850 review your code at some point. If you're willing, 541 00:29:03,850 --> 00:29:05,650 bring some snacks. And they will like it a 542 00:29:05,650 --> 00:29:09,970 lot better. Third one. Set aside some time for 543 00:29:09,970 --> 00:29:12,000 pairing. Bring your monitor. You know the sneaky monitor 544 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:14,730 trick now. And also, I think the next time 545 00:29:14,730 --> 00:29:17,010 you have a new hire, try it. I think 546 00:29:17,010 --> 00:29:24,010 you'll find that it's immensely pleasurable and pride-filled endeavor. 547 00:29:24,610 --> 00:29:26,360 For this activity, I would like you to say 548 00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:31,700 these things on the screen. So. Yeah, so. I, 549 00:29:31,700 --> 00:29:34,529 I'm gonna count to three. Because, thank you. I'm 550 00:29:34,529 --> 00:29:35,960 gonna count to three and then we're all gonna 551 00:29:35,960 --> 00:29:38,299 say this thing. All right. 552 00:29:38,299 --> 00:29:42,169 One. Two. Three. Internal education is easy. I'm going 553 00:29:42,169 --> 00:29:48,289 to start on Monday. Yeah! Excellent! I am fulfilled! 554 00:29:48,289 --> 00:29:50,270 You know the two point take away. You don't 555 00:29:50,270 --> 00:29:53,850 need to know everything. You can teach right now. 556 00:29:53,850 --> 00:29:57,059 Education isn't expensive or hard to implement. Chuck just 557 00:29:57,059 --> 00:29:58,110 makes it look that way.