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I remember a gig I had where one of the developers was someone who didn't seem to be technically that deep. Yet every project she worked on did better because o

I remember a gig I had where one of the developers was someone who didn't seem to be technically that deep. Yet every project she worked on did better because of something nobody at the time understood. I remember having such a great feeling about working with her every day. I didn't get that from other people. I think this article explains why she was so awesome: She made people feel safe. When she talked to you, you felt like the most important person in the room.

decasia 11y ago
If it was a situation where most of the devs were men and your colleague was one of the only women, it seems likely that gender dynamics and stereotypes about women made a big difference in her getting perceived as "non-technical and comforting" (that's one of the usual stereotypes about women developers, after all).
- nickbauman 11y ago
  In this case not a stereotype. I think she had tremendous raw intelligence but she was a fulltime mom with kids and was caregiving for her aging parents at the same time and a husband on the road a lot. This just didn't leave her much time to deep dive on anything. If I were in her shoes I'd probably been fired for not keeping up. So she likely had the potential of being the most technically deep person on the team but her life didn't really give her much time to develop that. In the end it didn't matter for the team as a whole: she made things better because she simply was a better and more preceptive person than most people.
- jameshart 11y ago
  Interesting. If the previous comment had used male pronouns, would it even have occurred to you to associate the described attributes with gender stereotypes?
  - tajen 11y ago
    Yes. There is a very visible pattern. Yes in 2006, but times have changed around 2011-2013 (Twitter's IPO, Mozilla CEO fired, GitHub CEO fired, conferences excluding people for sexual jokes), and if in 2016 I had on my team a woman whose role was to be talkative rather than technical, I would find it sexist. The pattern is "If a junior woman can't code, let's promote her as team lead; If a junior man can't code, let's teach him to code" - and this is wrong because both sides have everything to lose with this behavior.
    - nickbauman 11y ago
      But the better team is the one where she becomes the team lead. That's not sexist. Some of the most important skills are leadership skills. And leadership skills are not about command and control. They're about understanding and leveraging (often intuitively) a million complicated things we barely understand about our ancient primate wiring. Those things make computer programming look like preschool skills.
      - tajen 11y ago
        As long as she becomes the team lead after learning the technical skills like everyone, and as long as it's not out of prejudice that males don't have people skills, yes. After 7 years trying, I've left the corporate game which was rigged in favour of women, and I've created my own company, and I vote against women rights, which is also a racist party. I really don't want to vote for the racist part, but I've worked in 3 companies, in 3 different countries, 19 women met, 18 were in management positions, including 11 promoted in my presence, not all of them skilled, and I've seen only 1 male be promoted. Feelings were hurt. Fairness is out of the window. You bet it's going to take long to repair.
Swizec 11y ago
For future reference, here's how you achieve that effect when talking to people: 1) make and keep eye contact, 2) listen more than you speak, 3) ask follow up questions, 4) if your phone buzzes, ignore it 5) if your computer dings, ignore it, 6) turn towards people when talking with them, 7) reposition yourself so your eyes are on the same level if possible, 8) don't tower over people, 9) always approach from the side, not the back or the front Basically, give people your full attention when talking to them, and avoid primal displays of dominance or subservience. Mostly the attention part.
- mapmap 11y ago
  > 8) don't tower over people Could you elaborate on this? How do you resolve significant differences in height?
  - JabavuAdams 11y ago
    Sit down.
  - guyzero 11y ago
    Stand back from them. In the immortal words of The Police, "don't stand so close to me." From 3 or 4 feet away most people realize I'm tall but when I stand directly next to them there's zero ability to make eye contact.
  - retbull 11y ago
    Lean back slightly if you have to stand. Also look at someone face on but stand a little sideways and back. I am 6'4" and most people don't notice it until I end up standing over them accidentally, they suddenly comment "WOW you're really tall" and it actually surprises them because I work very hard at not being intimidating. Approaching from the side is good advice and so is making sure people notice other things first.
  - Swizec 11y ago
    As others mentioned, distance helps. Another important bit is that if someone is sitting down, you should sit down next to them. If they're at their desk and there's no chair, squat or kneel.
dworin 11y ago
Michael Lewis had an article a few years ago where he described this effect using Shane Battier as the example - none of his stats were spectacular, but somehow his team played better when he was on the court. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15Battier-t.html http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15Battier-t.html

decasia 11y ago

If it was a situation where most of the devs were men and your colleague was one of the only women, it seems likely that gender dynamics and stereotypes about women made a big difference in her getting perceived as "non-technical and comforting" (that's one of the usual stereotypes about women developers, after all).

nickbauman 11y ago
In this case not a stereotype. I think she had tremendous raw intelligence but she was a fulltime mom with kids and was caregiving for her aging parents at the same time and a husband on the road a lot. This just didn't leave her much time to deep dive on anything. If I were in her shoes I'd probably been fired for not keeping up. So she likely had the potential of being the most technically deep person on the team but her life didn't really give her much time to develop that. In the end it didn't matter for the team as a whole: she made things better because she simply was a better and more preceptive person than most people.
jameshart 11y ago
Interesting. If the previous comment had used male pronouns, would it even have occurred to you to associate the described attributes with gender stereotypes?
- tajen 11y ago
  Yes. There is a very visible pattern. Yes in 2006, but times have changed around 2011-2013 (Twitter's IPO, Mozilla CEO fired, GitHub CEO fired, conferences excluding people for sexual jokes), and if in 2016 I had on my team a woman whose role was to be talkative rather than technical, I would find it sexist. The pattern is "If a junior woman can't code, let's promote her as team lead; If a junior man can't code, let's teach him to code" - and this is wrong because both sides have everything to lose with this behavior.
  - nickbauman 11y ago
    But the better team is the one where she becomes the team lead. That's not sexist. Some of the most important skills are leadership skills. And leadership skills are not about command and control. They're about understanding and leveraging (often intuitively) a million complicated things we barely understand about our ancient primate wiring. Those things make computer programming look like preschool skills.
    - tajen 11y ago
      As long as she becomes the team lead after learning the technical skills like everyone, and as long as it's not out of prejudice that males don't have people skills, yes. After 7 years trying, I've left the corporate game which was rigged in favour of women, and I've created my own company, and I vote against women rights, which is also a racist party. I really don't want to vote for the racist part, but I've worked in 3 companies, in 3 different countries, 19 women met, 18 were in management positions, including 11 promoted in my presence, not all of them skilled, and I've seen only 1 male be promoted. Feelings were hurt. Fairness is out of the window. You bet it's going to take long to repair.

Swizec 11y ago

For future reference, here's how you achieve that effect when talking to people: 1) make and keep eye contact, 2) listen more than you speak, 3) ask follow up questions, 4) if your phone buzzes, ignore it 5) if your computer dings, ignore it, 6) turn towards people when talking with them, 7) reposition yourself so your eyes are on the same level if possible, 8) don't tower over people, 9) always approach from the side, not the back or the front Basically, give people your full attention when talking to them, and avoid primal displays of dominance or subservience. Mostly the attention part.

mapmap 11y ago
> 8) don't tower over people Could you elaborate on this? How do you resolve significant differences in height?
- JabavuAdams 11y ago
  Sit down.
- guyzero 11y ago
  Stand back from them. In the immortal words of The Police, "don't stand so close to me." From 3 or 4 feet away most people realize I'm tall but when I stand directly next to them there's zero ability to make eye contact.
- retbull 11y ago
  Lean back slightly if you have to stand. Also look at someone face on but stand a little sideways and back. I am 6'4" and most people don't notice it until I end up standing over them accidentally, they suddenly comment "WOW you're really tall" and it actually surprises them because I work very hard at not being intimidating. Approaching from the side is good advice and so is making sure people notice other things first.
- Swizec 11y ago
  As others mentioned, distance helps. Another important bit is that if someone is sitting down, you should sit down next to them. If they're at their desk and there's no chair, squat or kneel.

dworin 11y ago

Michael Lewis had an article a few years ago where he described this effect using Shane Battier as the example - none of his stats were spectacular, but somehow his team played better when he was on the court. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15Battier-t.html http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15Battier-t.html