Chad Fowler talks with Dave Rael about being mindful, working at Microsoft, fear of letting people down, and being deliberate
Chad Fowler is an internationally known software developer, trainer, manager, speaker, and musician. Over the past decade he has worked with some of the world’s largest companies and most admired software developers. Chad works for Microsoft, leading Wunderlist and Venture Partner at BlueYard Capital. He is co-founder and organizer of RubyConf and RailsConf and author or co-author of a number of popular software books, including Rails Recipes and The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development.
Chapters:
- - Dave introduces the show and Chad Fowler
- - From music to programming
- - Wunderlist and Chad's story of joining Microsoft
- - Chad's definition of value
- - The things that "light Chad up"
- - Value not easily recognizable - "I want our users to feel it..."
- - Chad's story of failure - "The big rewrite" - wasting time - "I let people down"
- - Chad's story of success - Wunderlist - pushing in the right places and staying out of the way
- - The makings of a fun, rewarding, and productive workplace and the importance of fun
- - Eating his own dogfood - Chad on using Wunderlist
- - The importance of being deliberate
- - The todo list application is the new Hello World
- - How Chad stays current with what he needs to know (or doesn't)
- - Meditation, mindset, and a great story about living with a Tibetan monk - favor mindfulness - meditation is practice for minfulness
- - Chad's book recommendations
- - The things that have Chad most excited
- - Chad's greatest sources of pain
- - The things about which Chad like to geek out apart from software
- - Chad's prediction for the future of software
- - Chad's top tip for delivering more value
- - Keeping up with Chad
Resources:
- Chad's Blog
- The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development - Chad Fowler
- Chad's Books
- Wunderlist
- BlueYard Capital
- RubyConf
- RailsConf
- ELIZA
- Doom
- Tom Preston-Werner - How I Turned Down $300,000 from Microsoft to go Full-Time on GitHub
- Simon Peyton Jones
- Stop Improving Yourself - Robert Whitcomb
- Chad On Being 40
- Maslow's hierarchy of needs
- Chad On The Big Rewrite
- Two Awesome Hours: Science-Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get Your Most Important Work Done - Josh Davis
- Chad's Talk: Don't Follow the Lemmings
- Doom Metal
- Funeral Doom Metal
- Amazon Drone Delivery
- Craig Newmark and Customer Service
Chad's book recommendation:
Chad's top tip for delivering more value:
- Practice empathy