Glyph Lefkowitz talks with Dave Rael about empathy in software development, the importance of a focus on people, and big social problems
Glyph Lefkowitz is a human being who writes computer programs. The thing he's most famous for is having written the Twisted framework, which is an event-driven system for writing programs in Python. He's done some other things too. He currently works for Rackspace on open source technologies like Twisted. He has worked for Apple on an enterprise calendaring software.
Chapters:
- - Dave introduces the show and Glyph Lefkowitz
- - The sources of Glyph's significant interest in diversity
- - Taking the feelings of people into account and software development as a people-focused activity
- - The things that "light Glyph up"
- - Glyph on email, communication, net etiquette, and social order
- - "Nobody was ever really taught how to make good use of email and a technology is only as powerful as the user."
- - Fundamental principles of communicating, wasting the time of others, courtesy, and empathy
- - How Glyph got started in software
- - Glyph's story of failure - Overbuliding infrastructure and inability to respond to change and escape technical debt - hubris and fundamental attribution error
- - Startup culture, the hubris of believing every social problem can be solved with a new product, and the importance of having checks in place on multiple levels
- - Testing as a vehicle for expressing intent and experiencing empathy
- - Glyph's book recommendation
- - Glyph's top 3 tips for delivering more value
- - Keeping up with Glyph
Resources:
- Glyph's Blog
- David Reid Tweet on Life in Programming
- Glyph's Father, Robert Lefkowitz
- Twisted
- Ashwini Oruganti
- Amber Brown
- Steve Jobs - Computers Are Bicycles For The Mind
- Glyph's Blog Post on Email - Email Isn’t The Thing You’re Bad At
- More on Glyph's Blog Regarding Email - Letters To The Editor: Re: Email
- Eternal September
- APL68000
- Hypercard
- Fundamental attribution error
- Glyph's Fan Club on IRC
Glyph's book recommendation:
Glyph's top 3 tips for delivering more value:
- Practice self-care ("Empathy starts with you")
- Expand the circle of emphty outward from self to those with whom you interact
- Don't trust your intuition - verify your expectations and get a different perspective