WEBVTT 00:00:17.380 --> 00:00:19.779 CHUCK LAUER VOSE: So, I want to welcome you to, 00:00:19.779 --> 00:00:24.160 to my talk. It's, yes, you can, 00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:25.519 you can raise your hand now. 00:00:25.519 --> 00:00:27.460 I gave him the job of raising his hand 00:00:27.460 --> 00:00:34.460 any time I say so or um at the beginning of the sentence. So. 00:00:34.530 --> 00:00:39.140 We're gonna talk about building kick-ass internal education programs. 00:00:39.140 --> 00:00:41.809 Sometimes when you don't necessarily have a mandate from 00:00:41.809 --> 00:00:46.829 your boss or from the organization. But it's important, 00:00:46.829 --> 00:00:49.739 right. We need to be able to build these 00:00:49.739 --> 00:00:51.790 programs and we need to be able to educate 00:00:51.790 --> 00:00:55.269 ourselves, and so we sometimes have to just do 00:00:55.269 --> 00:00:56.589 it. 00:00:56.589 --> 00:01:01.280 I have one thing, though, before we start. I 00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:02.920 want you to know that if I raise my 00:01:02.920 --> 00:01:06.030 hand, like this, or if this fellow down here 00:01:06.030 --> 00:01:09.470 raises his hand, that's, I want you to raise 00:01:09.470 --> 00:01:11.860 your hand as well. So let's practice this really 00:01:11.860 --> 00:01:15.770 quick. Yes. Very good. OK. Good. This is how 00:01:15.770 --> 00:01:19.070 I'm gonna get your attention. Usually it means it's 00:01:19.070 --> 00:01:22.170 time to shut up. But not always. But we're 00:01:22.170 --> 00:01:25.799 gonna do some activities, and I have to get 00:01:25.799 --> 00:01:29.329 your attention somehow, so, that's effective. 00:01:29.329 --> 00:01:31.319 For now, I would like you to. We've been 00:01:31.319 --> 00:01:33.920 sitting all day, right? And how can you keep 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:36.100 your brain going if you're sitting? So I want 00:01:36.100 --> 00:01:38.170 you to, to stand up and take a three 00:01:38.170 --> 00:01:41.670 minute stretch break, if you're able to stand. And 00:01:41.670 --> 00:01:44.289 introduce yourself to your neighbors. So you have three 00:01:44.289 --> 00:01:51.289 minutes. 00:01:53.329 --> 00:02:00.329 Wow. You guys are so good at that. This 00:02:03.899 --> 00:02:07.850 is really great. One of my favorite things about 00:02:07.850 --> 00:02:12.080 that activity is that everyone, every time I do 00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:16.190 something like that, people tell me, nerds won't do 00:02:16.190 --> 00:02:18.190 activities. They won't stand up. They won't talk to 00:02:18.190 --> 00:02:21.430 each other. That's crazy. And every time it goes 00:02:21.430 --> 00:02:23.840 over gang busters. In fact, I think we gained 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:26.500 fifty people just cause we were making tons of 00:02:26.500 --> 00:02:29.630 noise. That's good. 00:02:29.630 --> 00:02:33.960 We're gonna talk about inspiration, partly. Every, every RailsConf, 00:02:33.960 --> 00:02:36.470 I go for the inspiration track. They don't actually 00:02:36.470 --> 00:02:39.430 have that listed. But there's always clearly those talks. 00:02:39.430 --> 00:02:41.210 I'm going to try and inspire you to take 00:02:41.210 --> 00:02:48.060 action on education at home. 00:02:48.060 --> 00:02:50.740 I have a one point takeaway, because you've been, 00:02:50.740 --> 00:02:53.050 like, how much, how much knowledge can you really 00:02:53.050 --> 00:02:56.700 retain in a day of conferencing? So, I want 00:02:56.700 --> 00:02:59.340 you to remember one thing, and, and that's that 00:02:59.340 --> 00:03:03.320 internal education is easy. I'm gonna start around Monday. 00:03:03.320 --> 00:03:05.060 Hopefully you'll be able to say that by the 00:03:05.060 --> 00:03:07.150 end of the talk. 00:03:07.150 --> 00:03:11.070 But, two point takeaway, cause there's slightly more content, 00:03:11.070 --> 00:03:14.460 is that you don't need to know everything to 00:03:14.460 --> 00:03:18.930 teach. And also that education isn't particularly expensive or 00:03:18.930 --> 00:03:24.290 hard to do. I make it look difficult because 00:03:24.290 --> 00:03:28.860 that's how I get paid. But you don't have 00:03:28.860 --> 00:03:30.770 to do it that way. 00:03:30.770 --> 00:03:33.170 So, I had a number of. I had a 00:03:33.170 --> 00:03:37.930 number of titles that my wife vetoed. One of 00:03:37.930 --> 00:03:41.210 them is Covert Education: Sneaking in Education Without Them 00:03:41.210 --> 00:03:46.220 Knowing. I also had, How to Education When You 00:03:46.220 --> 00:03:48.870 Don't Know What the Hell You're Doing, which is 00:03:48.870 --> 00:03:50.060 very true. 00:03:50.060 --> 00:03:53.760 But, like I said, they got vetoed. So, like, 00:03:53.760 --> 00:03:56.170 like I said, my name is Chuck Lauer Vose. 00:03:56.170 --> 00:03:57.680 I have bright hair. You can find me around 00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:00.260 the conference if you have questions about education. I 00:04:00.260 --> 00:04:05.350 like ferrets, food, photography. I wish photography had an 00:04:05.350 --> 00:04:07.760 f cause I'm kind of like that. I was 00:04:07.760 --> 00:04:10.240 a founder of the Portland Code School and I 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:15.670 am an education engineer at New Relic. 00:04:15.670 --> 00:04:20.738 Also I like magnets and ponies and pets wearing 00:04:20.738 --> 00:04:23.470 clothes. And my coworkers are jerks. 00:04:23.470 --> 00:04:26.810 But I love them. 00:04:26.810 --> 00:04:31.930 So, first I want to start and talk about 00:04:31.930 --> 00:04:35.690 some inspiration from myself. Akira Matsuda, who, I don't 00:04:35.690 --> 00:04:38.280 know if he's in the, in the room at 00:04:38.280 --> 00:04:40.910 the moment, but was just doing a talk over 00:04:40.910 --> 00:04:42.740 there. Two years ago I saw him at Ruby 00:04:42.740 --> 00:04:45.870 on Ales. And the thing that was so cool 00:04:45.870 --> 00:04:49.139 was that at the time, this was, I guess 00:04:49.139 --> 00:04:52.340 this was 2012, he, he didn't speak a lot 00:04:52.340 --> 00:04:55.870 of English. And he decided he wanted to talk 00:04:55.870 --> 00:04:58.270 through code, cause we all, it was our common 00:04:58.270 --> 00:05:03.460 language, right. And he was very nervous. He was 00:05:03.460 --> 00:05:07.220 incredibly nervous. But the thing he did, by accident, 00:05:07.220 --> 00:05:10.970 was by, he very clearly demonstrated what he expected 00:05:10.970 --> 00:05:13.750 of the audience. What he said at the beginning 00:05:13.750 --> 00:05:16.000 was, at the beginning of his talk was, he 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:19.500 said, every time I pause, I want you to 00:05:19.500 --> 00:05:23.200 reassure me by clapping. 00:05:23.200 --> 00:05:24.680 And so I want to ask you to do 00:05:24.680 --> 00:05:26.520 the same thing. This is my first talk and 00:05:26.520 --> 00:05:28.780 I'm, I'm a little nervous. I'll be honest. So 00:05:28.780 --> 00:05:31.020 every time I have like a, a, you see, 00:05:31.020 --> 00:05:33.060 like a big title slide or something, or every 00:05:33.060 --> 00:05:36.580 time I, I pause and, and look nervous, I 00:05:36.580 --> 00:05:40.590 want you to just, like, applause the shit out 00:05:40.590 --> 00:05:43.520 of me. That would be really helpful for me. 00:05:43.520 --> 00:05:50.520 Thank you so much. That was so much better 00:05:52.700 --> 00:05:55.550 than I had planned. 00:05:55.550 --> 00:05:58.300 OK. So, I want to talk about how I 00:05:58.300 --> 00:06:01.480 got started in education. And unfortunately, it's an incredibly 00:06:01.480 --> 00:06:04.310 embarrassing story for me. How many of you know 00:06:04.310 --> 00:06:08.840 Eve online? All right. So, you all know that 00:06:08.840 --> 00:06:14.160 this is the, like, the nerdiest, nerdiest MMO game, 00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:18.610 commonly referred to as spreadsheets in space. So, that's 00:06:18.610 --> 00:06:20.900 how I got started teaching. 00:06:20.900 --> 00:06:24.180 And the reason is that, you know, this is 00:06:24.180 --> 00:06:27.680 the, sort of, common learning curve thing. Eve is, 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:30.840 Eve is the black line with the dead bodies 00:06:30.840 --> 00:06:34.919 everywhere, and it's so true. In fact, it's so 00:06:34.919 --> 00:06:38.050 difficult to learn, there's an entire alliance of, I 00:06:38.050 --> 00:06:42.360 think, last count, 2,000 people all educating each other, 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:44.680 because it's just that damn hard. 00:06:44.680 --> 00:06:49.889 Well, not satisfied to, to just join Eve, or 00:06:49.889 --> 00:06:52.800 the Eve University, I wanted to do my own 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:55.190 thing. They were doing, they weren't doing what I 00:06:55.190 --> 00:06:56.990 wanted to do at the time. So I started 00:06:56.990 --> 00:07:00.150 my own guild and we got eighty people, which 00:07:00.150 --> 00:07:03.230 I think was a huge success. We had weekly 00:07:03.230 --> 00:07:06.610 speaking events by prominent PVP players. But it was 00:07:06.610 --> 00:07:09.710 the first time I'd done public speaking, ever, and 00:07:09.710 --> 00:07:12.680 I have to say that, that was way more 00:07:12.680 --> 00:07:16.750 intense and way more indicting than space piracy or 00:07:16.750 --> 00:07:21.630 PVP. Just so, so scary. 00:07:21.630 --> 00:07:27.139 After that, I, apparently added in a lot of 00:07:27.139 --> 00:07:33.419 animation slides. Burnside Digital was a forty person company. 00:07:33.419 --> 00:07:37.000 This was actually at work, now. But, education was 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:39.699 not a thing. It was something that I had 00:07:39.699 --> 00:07:43.639 to sort of hack in around the edges. I 00:07:43.639 --> 00:07:46.220 still, at this point, didn't realize I was educating, 00:07:46.220 --> 00:07:48.690 but I was doing things like lightning talks and 00:07:48.690 --> 00:07:51.600 little jazzy rolls. 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:53.479 So I started small and I, I tried to 00:07:53.479 --> 00:07:55.729 share success with other people, and it, it actually 00:07:55.729 --> 00:07:58.490 went really well. By the end we had lightning 00:07:58.490 --> 00:08:01.460 talks that the entire company came to and were 00:08:01.460 --> 00:08:05.690 wildly heralded, and we started seeing other things popping 00:08:05.690 --> 00:08:09.509 up, like pair programming workshops and other cool things. 00:08:09.509 --> 00:08:12.270 So, it was really neat to, to not have 00:08:12.270 --> 00:08:15.520 any mandate to do this and still find ways 00:08:15.520 --> 00:08:17.740 to, to take a little bit of time each 00:08:17.740 --> 00:08:20.900 week, and as it was successful, it grew and 00:08:20.900 --> 00:08:23.479 grew and we got more financing and, and we 00:08:23.479 --> 00:08:25.740 were able to buy lunch for everyone. It was 00:08:25.740 --> 00:08:30.020 just cool to demonstrate that success. 00:08:30.020 --> 00:08:32.698 Sort of still at that, that school, or at 00:08:32.698 --> 00:08:35.698 that company, Burnside Digital, I started an intern program 00:08:35.698 --> 00:08:40.490 gone terribly wrong. And I say it went terribly 00:08:40.490 --> 00:08:42.578 wrong because it was supposed to be three people 00:08:42.578 --> 00:08:46.389 every three months and ended up being seventeen people 00:08:46.389 --> 00:08:48.630 shortly afterwards. 00:08:48.630 --> 00:08:50.320 But I still didn't know how to teach. I 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:52.740 still had no idea. In fact I, I think 00:08:52.740 --> 00:08:55.310 I'd only barely accepted the fact that I might 00:08:55.310 --> 00:08:57.910 educating at that point. But I had a really 00:08:57.910 --> 00:08:59.930 smart guy talk to me in the beginning, and 00:08:59.930 --> 00:09:03.070 he said that an educator, at least in the 00:09:03.070 --> 00:09:07.029 maths and technologies, is not someone who knows everything. 00:09:07.029 --> 00:09:09.710 It's someone who creates a space where people can 00:09:09.710 --> 00:09:13.020 learn. I think that's such a crazy difference of 00:09:13.020 --> 00:09:17.040 thought to say, to realize that they weren't expecting 00:09:17.040 --> 00:09:20.190 me to know all the things. Just to set 00:09:20.190 --> 00:09:22.740 up a place where people could go and read 00:09:22.740 --> 00:09:26.480 their book and, and get it done right. 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:28.850 And I can definitely say that PCS was the 00:09:28.850 --> 00:09:32.710 most inspiring experience of my life. Definitely the most 00:09:32.710 --> 00:09:36.200 proud. I am still connected to all the students. 00:09:36.200 --> 00:09:39.200 And it still kind of, I don't know if 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:41.649 it's the highlight of my life. It kind of 00:09:41.649 --> 00:09:42.860 makes me sad to think that that might be 00:09:42.860 --> 00:09:45.839 in the past. But I wonder what I go 00:09:45.839 --> 00:09:47.000 towards next. 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:49.770 Now, now is different, though. I work for New 00:09:49.770 --> 00:09:55.370 Relic, and New Relic really cares about education. And 00:09:55.370 --> 00:09:57.940 I didn't, I didn't quite know how much they 00:09:57.940 --> 00:10:04.080 cared about it until month six. But, and so 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:07.390 I, I work on building internal education for engineers. 00:10:07.390 --> 00:10:12.460 They're way smarter than me. Like, terrifyingly, frighteningly smarter 00:10:12.460 --> 00:10:16.110 than me, and I, I can't teach them anything. 00:10:16.110 --> 00:10:19.740 I literally don't know anything more than them. 00:10:19.740 --> 00:10:22.640 But I can create a space for learning. And 00:10:22.640 --> 00:10:25.709 I, I can, I can help do some things 00:10:25.709 --> 00:10:29.480 that allow engineers the, the extra time to get 00:10:29.480 --> 00:10:31.459 back to their day life. Like, they can communicate 00:10:31.459 --> 00:10:33.529 to me and then I can build curriculum for 00:10:33.529 --> 00:10:36.270 them. So, like, I can do things there. And 00:10:36.270 --> 00:10:38.709 I can help organize events, too, which is a 00:10:38.709 --> 00:10:41.649 huge time sink for most engineers. Believe it or 00:10:41.649 --> 00:10:44.270 not, engineers are not good at organizing events for 00:10:44.270 --> 00:10:46.330 the most part. 00:10:46.330 --> 00:10:49.540 So that's something I can do. So this was, 00:10:49.540 --> 00:10:51.410 this was our mandate when I first talked to 00:10:51.410 --> 00:10:54.730 them at New Relic. Make the already awesome engineers 00:10:54.730 --> 00:10:59.330 at New Relic awesomer. It's like, ah, that's cool. 00:10:59.330 --> 00:10:59.990 Holy shit. 00:10:59.990 --> 00:11:03.800 I don't know how to do that. Like, I've 00:11:03.800 --> 00:11:05.810 been trying, I've been applying here for ten years. 00:11:05.810 --> 00:11:07.760 I, I can't, like, I want to come here 00:11:07.760 --> 00:11:14.760 so I can level up. Wow. That's super intense. 00:11:23.680 --> 00:11:26.029 I totally have to recommend that. It's like the 00:11:26.029 --> 00:11:27.130 best tactic ever. 00:11:27.130 --> 00:11:29.420 OK. So, you don't need to know everything. That's 00:11:29.420 --> 00:11:30.810 the one thing I want you to take away 00:11:30.810 --> 00:11:34.010 from this. Well, OK. That's one of the three. 00:11:34.010 --> 00:11:36.010 I kind of lied. You don't have to know 00:11:36.010 --> 00:11:39.870 everything. You need to be passionate and inspiring and 00:11:39.870 --> 00:11:42.100 you need to give of yourself in this activity. 00:11:42.100 --> 00:11:45.610 I still have no idea what I am doing. 00:11:45.610 --> 00:11:50.800 I'm learning it, too. And you can do it. 00:11:50.800 --> 00:11:57.800 OK. Activities. So, I want you to spend thirty 00:12:02.610 --> 00:12:06.459 seconds thinking about an effective educative experience from your 00:12:06.459 --> 00:12:08.040 past. I want you to share this with your 00:12:08.040 --> 00:12:15.040 neighbor. Two minutes. I'll raise my hand. 00:12:19.839 --> 00:12:26.839 Wow. That is like half the time. You are 00:12:27.779 --> 00:12:31.480 continually impressive to me. 00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:38.480 So. OK. So, a good educator pushes people out 00:12:43.040 --> 00:12:46.010 of their comfort zone. I know that most everyone 00:12:46.010 --> 00:12:50.040 else. I haven't seen another presentation where people have 00:12:50.040 --> 00:12:53.250 forced you to talk to people. And I think 00:12:53.250 --> 00:12:57.290 it's important. So, I really like, I really like 00:12:57.290 --> 00:12:59.580 that quote. And I like this image in general. 00:12:59.580 --> 00:13:01.490 If we're growing, we're always going to be out 00:13:01.490 --> 00:13:05.459 of our comfort zone. So, in some ways, you 00:13:05.459 --> 00:13:08.640 know, we, we talked about, an educator is just 00:13:08.640 --> 00:13:11.330 someone who creates an effective space for learning. And 00:13:11.330 --> 00:13:13.700 part of that is pushing people. You saw me 00:13:13.700 --> 00:13:17.279 walking around, and if anyone wasn't talking, I'd force 00:13:17.279 --> 00:13:21.790 them to talk to me. Which is way scarier. 00:13:21.790 --> 00:13:24.490 So I think that's a, that's a huge part. 00:13:24.490 --> 00:13:27.240 Who knows these guys? 00:13:27.240 --> 00:13:32.050 Yeah. Everyone. This is Bill Nye and Neal Degrasse 00:13:32.050 --> 00:13:34.519 Tyson. I didn't know Neal Degrasse Tyson when I 00:13:34.519 --> 00:13:36.390 was a kid, but Bill Nye I sure as 00:13:36.390 --> 00:13:40.180 hell knew. And I really love how much they, 00:13:40.180 --> 00:13:43.860 they inspire people. That seems to be their, their 00:13:43.860 --> 00:13:46.390 main thing, now, right? I know that, I know 00:13:46.390 --> 00:13:48.360 Neal Degrasse Tyson, at least, still has a class 00:13:48.360 --> 00:13:50.760 room somewhere. But I don't know where it is. 00:13:50.760 --> 00:13:53.529 His, his primary thing for me is just the 00:13:53.529 --> 00:13:57.399 inspiration to continue, to continue learning. He keeps exposing 00:13:57.399 --> 00:14:00.240 me to new, to new things about space that 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:03.839 I never thought about before. And for me, when 00:14:03.839 --> 00:14:07.230 I educate you, I'm exp- I'm gonna expose you 00:14:07.230 --> 00:14:10.350 to the idea that you could, in fact, do 00:14:10.350 --> 00:14:13.380 these things. You could be the teacher. 00:14:13.380 --> 00:14:15.320 And I hope that when you go home and 00:14:15.320 --> 00:14:18.180 talk to people, you'll inspire them to learn the 00:14:18.180 --> 00:14:21.360 code that you're thinking about. 00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:23.350 The last thing I think a good educator does 00:14:23.350 --> 00:14:26.829 is, gives of themselves out of love. And I 00:14:26.829 --> 00:14:30.160 think this really applies to the open source community 00:14:30.160 --> 00:14:33.120 as well and the open source ethic. And, I, 00:14:33.120 --> 00:14:36.640 this is, this is partly a preparation for you, 00:14:36.640 --> 00:14:41.470 that education may take some time outside of work. 00:14:41.470 --> 00:14:44.390 Sometimes. But so does open source. And I can 00:14:44.390 --> 00:14:46.610 tell you that it's worth it. 00:14:46.610 --> 00:14:49.910 So turn to your neighbor and give them a 00:14:49.910 --> 00:14:50.120 high five. 00:14:50.120 --> 00:14:57.120 I don't, I don't think this would work in 00:15:13.760 --> 00:15:18.279 many other communities than the Ruby community. So, I, 00:15:18.279 --> 00:15:22.050 I actually thought about making that activity, applaud for 00:15:22.050 --> 00:15:24.550 the next thing only by using your neighbor's hand. 00:15:24.550 --> 00:15:28.680 But I think that'd be very difficult. 00:15:28.680 --> 00:15:32.399 How many of you have seen this XKCD strip 00:15:32.399 --> 00:15:37.070 about nerd sniping? If you haven't. So, I taught 00:15:37.070 --> 00:15:39.610 my wife this a little while ago, that one 00:15:39.610 --> 00:15:41.550 of the. So nerd sniping is where you just 00:15:41.550 --> 00:15:46.100 sort of, you say one little thing that forces 00:15:46.100 --> 00:15:49.029 someone to just spawn off, like, a number of 00:15:49.029 --> 00:15:53.810 different thought processes. It's basically a mental fork bomb, 00:15:53.810 --> 00:15:55.510 if you know that term. 00:15:55.510 --> 00:15:58.279 And, one of the best ways, and this is 00:15:58.279 --> 00:16:00.709 a very dangerous tool. I'm giving you very powerful 00:16:00.709 --> 00:16:03.070 tools here. One of the best ways to do 00:16:03.070 --> 00:16:06.320 this is to say, hey Joe, what's the most 00:16:06.320 --> 00:16:09.149 efficient way to do whatever? Doesn't even matter. What's 00:16:09.149 --> 00:16:14.209 the most efficient way to sweep the floor? They're 00:16:14.209 --> 00:16:15.339 done. 00:16:15.339 --> 00:16:19.459 So, efficient is this funny word. I'm talking about 00:16:19.459 --> 00:16:25.800 being an efficient educator, and so I apologize in 00:16:25.800 --> 00:16:30.820 advance, cause I, I hope this destroys you. Mostly 00:16:30.820 --> 00:16:33.579 I'm gonna talk about some, one of the things 00:16:33.579 --> 00:16:35.560 you mentioned was, how do you create a space 00:16:35.560 --> 00:16:37.889 conducive to learning? Is it a physical space? Is 00:16:37.889 --> 00:16:40.160 it an actual thing? Like, do you have to 00:16:40.160 --> 00:16:43.070 have a classroom? And the answer is, no, it 00:16:43.070 --> 00:16:45.970 is not generally a physical space. However, it does 00:16:45.970 --> 00:16:48.740 tend to involve some real estate somewhere. But it 00:16:48.740 --> 00:16:50.600 could be a mixed use space. It could be 00:16:50.600 --> 00:16:52.490 the couches. Whatever. 00:16:52.490 --> 00:16:55.209 So, the first one. My most favorite. The place 00:16:55.209 --> 00:16:58.970 I started was lightning talks. And the thing I've 00:16:58.970 --> 00:17:02.519 seen work the most was thirty to sixty minutes 00:17:02.519 --> 00:17:05.849 before lunch on Friday. And the reason I think 00:17:05.849 --> 00:17:10.109 that works is that, as you, as you finish 00:17:10.109 --> 00:17:13.148 the talks, people can continue their discussion through lunch. 00:17:13.148 --> 00:17:14.409 Very effective. 00:17:14.409 --> 00:17:17.130 The other thing is that if it goes well, 00:17:17.130 --> 00:17:18.839 you can move it back by thirty minutes and 00:17:18.839 --> 00:17:22.429 get your company to buy lunch, thus increasing your 00:17:22.429 --> 00:17:26.689 happiness and your number of people coming. Which is 00:17:26.689 --> 00:17:27.349 great. 00:17:27.349 --> 00:17:30.010 Lightning talks are super easy to do. You just 00:17:30.010 --> 00:17:31.549 need to find a couple people who can do 00:17:31.549 --> 00:17:34.750 five to ten minute talks on whatever. I've seen 00:17:34.750 --> 00:17:38.080 effective lightning talks done with no technical content. I 00:17:38.080 --> 00:17:41.210 would recommend some technical content. Just, you know, for 00:17:41.210 --> 00:17:41.740 reasons. 00:17:41.740 --> 00:17:44.360 But I've seen, I've seen lightning talks that were 00:17:44.360 --> 00:17:47.630 very well-received on homebrewing. In fact, I've seen entire 00:17:47.630 --> 00:17:51.720 presentations on homebrewing. I've also seen really effective ones 00:17:51.720 --> 00:17:54.049 where you demo a product. Especially if you have 00:17:54.049 --> 00:17:56.390 a big thing, like New Relic. It would be 00:17:56.390 --> 00:17:58.530 really useful to me if I could just see 00:17:58.530 --> 00:18:01.770 one person's take on one feature every week. I 00:18:01.770 --> 00:18:03.940 might actually make it through my product by the 00:18:03.940 --> 00:18:08.450 end of three years. It's so big. 00:18:08.450 --> 00:18:10.700 But also showing off a new gem or just 00:18:10.700 --> 00:18:13.710 generally inspiring the people around you. This, education is 00:18:13.710 --> 00:18:16.140 so much about inspiring people. You can't force people 00:18:16.140 --> 00:18:19.350 to learn, right. You can't, well, you can sit 00:18:19.350 --> 00:18:20.880 them down if you have the mandate, but they 00:18:20.880 --> 00:18:22.700 don't have to learn unless they really want to. 00:18:22.700 --> 00:18:24.120 So, it's all about inspiration. 00:18:24.120 --> 00:18:26.320 And the last pro tip I have for you 00:18:26.320 --> 00:18:30.360 about lightning talks is that, if you bring food, 00:18:30.360 --> 00:18:33.169 they will come. That's great. So that's how we 00:18:33.169 --> 00:18:35.910 ended up with a whole company basically showing up 00:18:35.910 --> 00:18:39.220 every single Friday to an event that involved sitting 00:18:39.220 --> 00:18:41.840 on the couches. Which I realize is probably not 00:18:41.840 --> 00:18:45.570 that hard of a proposition, but. 00:18:45.570 --> 00:18:48.010 So the other, the other one, some of my 00:18:48.010 --> 00:18:50.870 coworkers have been working on this recently. Mob refactors. 00:18:50.870 --> 00:18:53.830 In fact, Kayla?? (00:18:53) was the person who introduced 00:18:53.830 --> 00:18:56.150 me to this idea that you get everyone in 00:18:56.150 --> 00:18:59.260 a room, pick some bit of code you really 00:18:59.260 --> 00:19:02.710 want to hack on, and everyone hacks on it 00:19:02.710 --> 00:19:04.240 together. 00:19:04.240 --> 00:19:07.580 It's important to review the code, not the author. 00:19:07.580 --> 00:19:09.419 Because that can be really offensive to the author. 00:19:09.419 --> 00:19:11.270 Especially if they're in the room. And if they're 00:19:11.270 --> 00:19:13.230 not in the room, that could just be bad 00:19:13.230 --> 00:19:16.520 in general. But you rewrite the code together, and 00:19:16.520 --> 00:19:18.390 then, and this is the part that kind of 00:19:18.390 --> 00:19:21.070 blows my mind, you throw it out afterwards. 00:19:21.070 --> 00:19:24.490 It's like mind maps. They're not really that helpful 00:19:24.490 --> 00:19:26.900 after the fact. And the code you write during 00:19:26.900 --> 00:19:30.020 the mob refactor is probably bad. But the conversation 00:19:30.020 --> 00:19:32.299 you have during a mob refactor is very good. 00:19:32.299 --> 00:19:35.040 So, this has been working really well for us, 00:19:35.040 --> 00:19:38.000 and, in fact, looking back on it, I saw 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:40.160 groups doing it. But it wasn't called mob refactoring. 00:19:40.160 --> 00:19:41.870 I didn't know what it was called then. I 00:19:41.870 --> 00:19:43.570 just saw them doing it, and it being really 00:19:43.570 --> 00:19:46.549 effective. 00:19:46.549 --> 00:19:50.390 Pair programming is something that everyone knows they're supposed 00:19:50.390 --> 00:19:52.530 to be doing, right. But no, none of us 00:19:52.530 --> 00:19:56.980 do. Because it's hard. And, and the thing people 00:19:56.980 --> 00:20:00.190 don't talk about is that, pair programming, to me, 00:20:00.190 --> 00:20:04.580 is a trade off of speed for quality. And, 00:20:04.580 --> 00:20:07.179 and I think that's really important. So if you 00:20:07.179 --> 00:20:10.130 find yourself, or your product in a place where 00:20:10.130 --> 00:20:12.000 things are not going as smoothly as you would 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:16.100 like. I don't know if anyone's had that problem. 00:20:16.100 --> 00:20:18.000 Pairing may very well be one of the, the 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:20.400 big power tools to look at. 00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:22.500 So I have two, two sneaky little methods to 00:20:22.500 --> 00:20:24.630 get pairing happening, because I know a lot of 00:20:24.630 --> 00:20:27.640 you have tried getting your company to pair. You've 00:20:27.640 --> 00:20:30.520 tried, like, getting a manager mandate and, and they 00:20:30.520 --> 00:20:33.330 can't make it happen. There's two methods that have 00:20:33.330 --> 00:20:34.220 worked well at New Relic. 00:20:34.220 --> 00:20:36.830 So, the first one, is my method, is called 00:20:36.830 --> 00:20:40.600 the sneaky monitor. And, what you do here, is 00:20:40.600 --> 00:20:42.240 you set aside from time, like you make an 00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:45.309 appointment with your, your team mate, and you literally 00:20:45.309 --> 00:20:49.210 bring your monitor to their desk. And it's annoying. 00:20:49.210 --> 00:20:50.910 Because then you're gonna sweep like half of their 00:20:50.910 --> 00:20:54.510 shit off their desk. And then at the end, 00:20:54.510 --> 00:20:56.090 you try to be a nice citizen. You help 00:20:56.090 --> 00:20:58.880 them, like, put all the things back in order, 00:20:58.880 --> 00:21:00.150 and you know, maybe it's the first time their 00:21:00.150 --> 00:21:02.960 desk has ever been dusted. But that's cool. It's 00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:03.380 nice. 00:21:03.380 --> 00:21:06.000 And then the next week you come back again 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:08.080 and you sweep all the shit off their desk 00:21:08.080 --> 00:21:10.660 and put your monitor there. And by the third 00:21:10.660 --> 00:21:12.860 week, you know, maybe they just haven't put their 00:21:12.860 --> 00:21:16.140 desk back into shape, and you just plop your 00:21:16.140 --> 00:21:18.860 monitor down and, and by the fourth week, you 00:21:18.860 --> 00:21:22.260 find a, a little monitor there. You're like, aw, 00:21:22.260 --> 00:21:25.039 that's nice. Thank you. And then by the fifth 00:21:25.039 --> 00:21:27.549 week, you've got actual monitor there, and you thank 00:21:27.549 --> 00:21:30.370 the IT people and, and then you go find 00:21:30.370 --> 00:21:33.840 someone else and start it again. 00:21:33.840 --> 00:21:37.240 And I've, I've, it sounds silly, right. You can 00:21:37.240 --> 00:21:39.720 only touch one person at a time. But then, 00:21:39.720 --> 00:21:43.169 then they start taking their monitor somewhere, after they've 00:21:43.169 --> 00:21:45.780 seen the fun of it. And then you've got 00:21:45.780 --> 00:21:47.799 two. Two people doing it. And I've seen this 00:21:47.799 --> 00:21:51.150 happening at New Relic to, to both great affect 00:21:51.150 --> 00:21:54.299 and great detriment. Because we're totally out of space. 00:21:54.299 --> 00:21:56.530 And now I see these monitor, like, pairing stations 00:21:56.530 --> 00:21:59.190 popping up everywhere, and the management is pissed at 00:21:59.190 --> 00:22:02.240 me cause I've taught them pairing. And so. 00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:05.640 There was another cool method that came up recently 00:22:05.640 --> 00:22:09.280 that I really like. This is Emily's method. Emily 00:22:09.280 --> 00:22:13.090 Heinleind in the Insights team, and what she recommended 00:22:13.090 --> 00:22:16.260 was sending out an open invite to anyone who 00:22:16.260 --> 00:22:20.090 wants to try pairing, to bring their monitor to 00:22:20.090 --> 00:22:22.490 the lunch room, and I'll, I'll find you a 00:22:22.490 --> 00:22:25.480 buddy to work on for that one hour, or 00:22:25.480 --> 00:22:28.429 whatever. We'll talk about some style. Some thing you 00:22:28.429 --> 00:22:32.380 can practice. And then go to town. That's it. 00:22:32.380 --> 00:22:33.780 It's a great way to get those who are 00:22:33.780 --> 00:22:37.289 already interested in it going, because they don't have 00:22:37.289 --> 00:22:38.799 friends who they can do it with on their 00:22:38.799 --> 00:22:41.679 team, maybe. So they can't practice, and there, therefore 00:22:41.679 --> 00:22:43.830 they can't well know well enough how to convert 00:22:43.830 --> 00:22:44.970 their team mate. They just don't know enough yet. 00:22:44.970 --> 00:22:48.330 It's a great idea. 00:22:48.330 --> 00:22:52.100 There's only a couple more. So workshops. I mentioned 00:22:52.100 --> 00:22:55.740 these. Basically, you pick a theme. We did this 00:22:55.740 --> 00:22:57.610 maybe a week ago on refactoring, and it was 00:22:57.610 --> 00:23:02.289 so cool. So we, Katie Miller picked a, a 00:23:02.289 --> 00:23:07.570 topic. Some Rails Cast on the service object pattern. 00:23:07.570 --> 00:23:09.850 So we watched, we all watched the Rails Cast. 00:23:09.850 --> 00:23:11.730 She showed us, like, ten minutes of her code 00:23:11.730 --> 00:23:13.669 where she tried to apply that and we talked 00:23:13.669 --> 00:23:15.190 about it a little bit. And then for forty 00:23:15.190 --> 00:23:18.080 minutes we paired on trying to do that on 00:23:18.080 --> 00:23:21.039 a random snippet of code, to various effect. You 00:23:21.039 --> 00:23:22.940 know, sometimes it didn't work. Sometimes it did. 00:23:22.940 --> 00:23:25.740 But it was really cool. And then for the 00:23:25.740 --> 00:23:28.049 last twenty minutes we, we came back together and 00:23:28.049 --> 00:23:31.340 we all demoed. And it was so, like, I 00:23:31.340 --> 00:23:33.700 feel like I got two days of education out 00:23:33.700 --> 00:23:35.630 of that hour and a half. And it was 00:23:35.630 --> 00:23:37.870 shocking to me. I mean, not only was I 00:23:37.870 --> 00:23:42.830 exhausted afterwards, which, maybe not super great, but I 00:23:42.830 --> 00:23:45.309 really felt like I learned a lot. And it's, 00:23:45.309 --> 00:23:47.720 it's an education experience I had never had before. 00:23:47.720 --> 00:23:52.600 I'd never tried this. So it was really cool. 00:23:52.600 --> 00:23:59.600 Thank you. I. I have to tell you, like, 00:24:04.230 --> 00:24:06.500 I've been rushing a little bit, because I was 00:24:06.500 --> 00:24:10.570 worried if I paused long enough that you, that 00:24:10.570 --> 00:24:12.150 you were gonna clap at me again. I feel 00:24:12.150 --> 00:24:14.549 like, this is, this is actually ideal though. Like, 00:24:14.549 --> 00:24:16.760 I would rather feel embarrassed by how often someone 00:24:16.760 --> 00:24:20.220 is clapping than the opposite. So this is good. 00:24:20.220 --> 00:24:23.600 So, this one, this one I've only seen a 00:24:23.600 --> 00:24:27.700 couple times at New Relic, but it was amazing. 00:24:27.700 --> 00:24:30.620 This was literally one of the most amazing things 00:24:30.620 --> 00:24:33.760 I have ever seen or experienced. And it was 00:24:33.760 --> 00:24:35.760 a total accident. They had no idea they were 00:24:35.760 --> 00:24:37.730 doing it. I only later found out it has 00:24:37.730 --> 00:24:39.200 a name, later. 00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:41.630 Basically, all of our smartest engineers got around the 00:24:41.630 --> 00:24:43.929 table, like they usually do. But this time, there 00:24:43.929 --> 00:24:46.020 were too many of them to have the discussion, 00:24:46.020 --> 00:24:48.000 so they did it in our lunch room. And 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:50.280 our lunch room has two monitors that are paired 00:24:50.280 --> 00:24:53.630 together. And it's also open enough that anyone could 00:24:53.630 --> 00:24:56.169 hear. So they were sitting around the little table 00:24:56.169 --> 00:24:58.690 talking, and what I noticed was that there was 00:24:58.690 --> 00:25:02.559 a growing crowd of about forty people listening and 00:25:02.559 --> 00:25:05.010 looking at the second monitor, the paired monitor. 00:25:05.010 --> 00:25:07.350 And they were discussing amongst themselves. They were clarifying 00:25:07.350 --> 00:25:11.580 the concepts. Because the super nerds were over here 00:25:11.580 --> 00:25:14.120 talking about this really hard concept, and we were 00:25:14.120 --> 00:25:15.659 just trying to understand what the hell they were 00:25:15.659 --> 00:25:18.620 talking about. But it was really cool to hear 00:25:18.620 --> 00:25:21.730 our elders speaking. Like, what do they, what do 00:25:21.730 --> 00:25:24.360 they worry about during the day? I don't know. 00:25:24.360 --> 00:25:29.340 And, and, and also these, these conversations are normally, 00:25:29.340 --> 00:25:33.789 like, closed-door. You don't normally have any impact in 00:25:33.789 --> 00:25:36.789 this. And so, being able to like, sort of 00:25:36.789 --> 00:25:40.900 listen in was definitely, like, one of the most 00:25:40.900 --> 00:25:43.600 enlightening and eye-opening things I think I have seen 00:25:43.600 --> 00:25:46.110 in a long time. So I would highly recommend 00:25:46.110 --> 00:25:47.900 something like this. And I think this works for 00:25:47.900 --> 00:25:49.960 anything. I think this works at the director level. 00:25:49.960 --> 00:25:53.350 Like, as long as you're not talking about employees, 00:25:53.350 --> 00:25:56.870 I would love to hear what your VPs or 00:25:56.870 --> 00:26:00.669 your executives are talking about. Super cool. 00:26:00.669 --> 00:26:05.640 And then, I think this is the second to 00:26:05.640 --> 00:26:09.370 last one. But the last real one. So, the 00:26:09.370 --> 00:26:11.860 last one, I had never heard of this concept, 00:26:11.860 --> 00:26:13.690 but now that I see it in effect, I 00:26:13.690 --> 00:26:17.080 love it. Basically, when you get a new hire, 00:26:17.080 --> 00:26:20.230 assign someone to them for a day. It's nothing 00:26:20.230 --> 00:26:26.250 big. Maybe if, maybe if you have, have the 00:26:26.250 --> 00:26:29.980 resources, you can assign someone half time for two 00:26:29.980 --> 00:26:32.400 weeks. Or maybe even four weeks. 00:26:32.400 --> 00:26:36.010 And what I can tell you is that if 00:26:36.010 --> 00:26:39.830 you do that, so when New Relic onboards we 00:26:39.830 --> 00:26:41.679 think it takes about six months for someone to 00:26:41.679 --> 00:26:43.909 truly get up to speed, and I actually agree 00:26:43.909 --> 00:26:47.010 with this. What we've found is that if you 00:26:47.010 --> 00:26:49.460 have an onboarding buddy helping you through that first 00:26:49.460 --> 00:26:53.880 month, it drops to about three months. Which is 00:26:53.880 --> 00:26:57.190 crazy. You get one, one engineer's half time for 00:26:57.190 --> 00:27:00.570 one month, and that's three months of extra productivity. 00:27:00.570 --> 00:27:04.370 That is money. That is a lot of money. 00:27:04.370 --> 00:27:06.520 Huge. Huge difference for us. 00:27:06.520 --> 00:27:09.090 So, we now do this a hundred percent of 00:27:09.090 --> 00:27:10.919 people, come into New Relic and they have a 00:27:10.919 --> 00:27:15.350 person guaranteed for four weeks, if not two people, 00:27:15.350 --> 00:27:17.429 dedicated to them, in addition to their team. And 00:27:17.429 --> 00:27:22.789 one of them is usually me. So very cool. 00:27:22.789 --> 00:27:26.880 The last one. Dedicated trainers. Hmm. I wouldn't recommend 00:27:26.880 --> 00:27:29.370 it. I mean, unless you have a lot of 00:27:29.370 --> 00:27:33.460 people, or the quality of training is, like, absolutely 00:27:33.460 --> 00:27:37.659 critical, or. But, it's just, the dedicated trainers have 00:27:37.659 --> 00:27:40.559 to be crazy efficient. And so, if you're at 00:27:40.559 --> 00:27:42.659 the size where you have two, three, four hundred 00:27:42.659 --> 00:27:46.730 people. Yeah. All right. Dedicated trainer time. But most 00:27:46.730 --> 00:27:48.450 of us aren't there. Most of us are forty 00:27:48.450 --> 00:27:55.039 person companies, right. 00:27:55.039 --> 00:28:02.039 You know, I'm just reading the slide. Sorry, I 00:28:06.150 --> 00:28:07.049 forget what these are. Yeah. Turn to your neighbor. 00:28:07.049 --> 00:28:10.240 Talk very, very briefly. Not three minutes. About what 00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:12.240 these have tried, or what, which of these you've 00:28:12.240 --> 00:28:14.539 tried and which you think would work in your 00:28:14.539 --> 00:28:15.390 work. 00:28:15.390 --> 00:28:20.370 And I'll tell you the secrets. 00:28:20.370 --> 00:28:25.350 I'm sorry we had to cut that one short. 00:28:25.350 --> 00:28:30.309 I'm running out of time. It's all the clapping. 00:28:30.309 --> 00:28:34.140 OK. I, my plan for your organization. If you 00:28:34.140 --> 00:28:35.980 do this, you will have education and I will 00:28:35.980 --> 00:28:40.380 be happy and, and pleased with you. As if 00:28:40.380 --> 00:28:43.490 you need to work for my pleasure. So I 00:28:43.490 --> 00:28:47.020 want to, to next week, next Friday at 11:30, 00:28:47.020 --> 00:28:50.210 I want you to do lightning talks. It's the 00:28:50.210 --> 00:28:52.650 easiest thing you can do. It's super easy to 00:28:52.650 --> 00:28:55.010 find three people who want to talk. They need 00:28:55.010 --> 00:28:58.500 to make three slides. How hard is that? 00:28:58.500 --> 00:29:01.549 Also, I want you to ask your team to 00:29:01.549 --> 00:29:03.850 review your code at some point. If you're willing, 00:29:03.850 --> 00:29:05.650 bring some snacks. And they will like it a 00:29:05.650 --> 00:29:09.970 lot better. Third one. Set aside some time for 00:29:09.970 --> 00:29:12.000 pairing. Bring your monitor. You know the sneaky monitor 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:14.730 trick now. And also, I think the next time 00:29:14.730 --> 00:29:17.010 you have a new hire, try it. I think 00:29:17.010 --> 00:29:24.010 you'll find that it's immensely pleasurable and pride-filled endeavor. 00:29:24.610 --> 00:29:26.360 For this activity, I would like you to say 00:29:26.360 --> 00:29:31.700 these things on the screen. So. Yeah, so. I, 00:29:31.700 --> 00:29:34.529 I'm gonna count to three. Because, thank you. I'm 00:29:34.529 --> 00:29:35.960 gonna count to three and then we're all gonna 00:29:35.960 --> 00:29:38.299 say this thing. All right. 00:29:38.299 --> 00:29:42.169 One. Two. Three. Internal education is easy. I'm going 00:29:42.169 --> 00:29:48.289 to start on Monday. Yeah! Excellent! I am fulfilled! 00:29:48.289 --> 00:29:50.270 You know the two point take away. You don't 00:29:50.270 --> 00:29:53.850 need to know everything. You can teach right now. 00:29:53.850 --> 00:29:57.059 Education isn't expensive or hard to implement. Chuck just 00:29:57.059 --> 00:29:58.110 makes it look that way.