We all want our code to be stable and resilient to future challenges. But we need to strike the right balance between testing our systems and the cost of failure. This is much harder to achieve than it sounds. 

Today we talk with Melanie Frank, Managing Vice-President of Cyber Engineering at Capital One. Her teams innovate boldly to secure the enterprise while obsessing over excellence. Before Capital One, Melanie worked at Honeywell at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where she tested software that conducted scheduling, command, and control for space network communication satellites. 

Drawing from her experience in the aerospace and financial industry, she tells us about the significance of testing and how to do it right for your product. 

When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Melanie on LinkedIn. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Melanie on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-frank-06b3675/ 

Capital One at https://www.capitalone.com 

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center https://www.nasa.gov/goddard 

Corgibytes at https://corgibytes.com 

Empathy in Tech at https://empathyintech.com 

We all strive to write an ideal code - easily readable, functional, and clean. We use many tools to achieve this. However, we often forget why we need our code to be tidy. 

Today we are talking with Samuel Taggart, President of GDevCon N.A. and the owner of SAS Workshops. Sam is a natural teacher, and he enjoys sharing what he learned with others. We talk with Sam about the tools and methods that make our code clean - refactoring, retrospectives, and style guides. While they are all meant to keep us and our code in check, we forget that these tools and methods also need to be under control. Sam reminds us of a crucial question that will help us do just that. 

When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Sam on LinkedIn and Twitter and visit the SAS Workshops website at www.sasworkshops.com. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Samuel Taggart on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/taggartsam/

Samuel Taggart on Twitter at https://twitter.com/sasworkshops

GDevCon N.A. at https://gdevconna.org

SAS Workshops at https://www.sasworkshops.com

Mikado Method at https://understandlegacycode.com/blog/a-process-to-do-safe-changes-in-a-complex-codebase/

Legacy Code Rocks - Living Documentation with Cyrille Martraire at https://www.legacycode.rocks/podcast-1/episode/2fd0fdeb/living-documentation-with-cyrille-martraire

Zettelkasten Method at https://zenkit.com/en/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-the-zettelkasten-method/

Corgibytes at https://corgibytes.com 

Imagine if you could compare concepts side-by-side between a programming language you know and one you don't. Well, now you can!

Today we talk with Sarah Withee, a polyglot software engineer, international tech speaker, and robot tinkerer. Sarah is also the author of Code Thesaurus, the polyglot developer reference tool. She tells us about the reasons behind the creation of the thesaurus, its continuous development, and what you can do to make the thesaurus even better. 

When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Sarah on Twitter and LinkedIn and check out the Code Thesaurus project on GitHub. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Corgibytes at https://corgibytes.com 

Sarah in Twitter at https://twitter.com/geekygirlsarah 

Sarah on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahwithee/ 

Sarah’s website at https://geekygirlsarah.com 

Code Thesaurus at https://codethesaur.us 

Code Thesaurus project on GitHub at https://github.com/codethesaurus/ 

Coders spend most of their time reading rather than writing code. Yet, when you look at the undergraduate programs, boot camps, and conferences, everything seems to be dedicated to code production. 

Today we talk with Felienne Hermans. Felienne is an associate professor at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science at Leiden University and the author of the book The Programmer's Brain. She also developed Hedy, a new programming language that makes it easier for kids to learn textual programming. She tells us how to help young programmers better understand both the code they are working with and their own cognition. 

After you finish listening to the episode, connect with Felienne on LinkedIn and Twitter, visit her website at https://www.felienne.com, and make sure to check out her book. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Felienne on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Felienne 

Felienne on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/felienne 

Felienne’s website at: https://www.felienne.com 

Hedy Programming language at https://hedycode.com 

The Programmer’s Brain at https://www.manning.com/books/the-programmers-brain?utm_source=felienne&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=book_hermans2_programmers_12_8_20&a_aid=felienne&a_bid=d7c7c538

Empathy in Tech at https://empathyintech.com 

Some of the biggest risks for cyber security frameworks come from employees meant to maintain them. The reason for that is simple, and it couldn't be more human - people who don't feel well don't perform well. 

Today we talk with Nyota Gordon, the founder, developer, and all-around do-gooder at Transition365, a cyber resiliency firm that helps cybersecurity professionals increase their leadership and life skills.

Nyota digs deep into the intersection between cyber security, resiliency, and personal wellness. She shares with us some mental health strategies that will improve our well-being and, as a consequence, our work performance. 

When you finish listening to the episode, make sure to connect with Nyota on LinkedIn. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Nyota on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nyotagordon/

Transition365 at https://transition365.com

Brené Brown, Shame Resilience Theory at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1606/1044-3894.3483

Symantec Cyber Resiliency White Paper at https://informationsecurity.report/whitepapers/symantec-white-paper-the-cyber-resilience-blueprint-a-new-perspective-on-security

Amy C. Edmondson, The Fearless Organization at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KLT8RKM/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0

Charles Feltman, The Thin Book of Trust at https://www.amazon.com/Thin-Book-Trust-Essential-Building/dp/0988953862/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1646648424&sr=1-1

Empathy in Tech at https://empathyintech.com

When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Prabhjot on Twitter and LinkedIn and visit Pyze's website at https://www.pyze.com.

Mentioned in this episode:

Prabhjot on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/psinghsf/

Prabhjot on Twitter at https://twitter.com/psinghsf

Pyze at https://www.pyze.com 

Today we talk with Clare Sudbery. Clare is a lead engineer at Made Tech, and she is the host of the Making Tech Better podcast. Clare tells why it is so important to be compassionate to ourselves and shares with us some techniques on how to achieve this. 

When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Clare on Twitter and dive deeper into the subject of empathy in tech by joining our new community. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Clare on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ClareSudbery

Making Tech Better Podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/making-tech-better-made-tech/id1558845124

Made Tech Academy at https://www.madetech.com/careers/academy/ 

Self-Compassion by Dr. Kristin Neff at https://self-compassion.org

Empathy in Tech at https://empathyintech.com 

Everyone wants their software system to be resilient - to continue carrying out its mission-critical tasks in the face of disruption or adversity. But resiliency has its cost, and not just in a material sense. With resiliency, your system becomes more complex and harder to maintain. That is why we always have to balance our resiliency requirement with other non-functional requirements around the system. 

Today we talk with Briana Augenreich, a Senior Software Engineer at HubSpot. Briana wears many hats in the software engineering world, but she officially calls herself backend and infrastructure engineer. Briana has extensive experience working with large and complex mission-critical systems. This gives her unique insight on finding the right measure while striving for resiliency. 

When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Briana on LinkedIn. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Briana on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/briana-augenreich-93b4a191/ 

David Woods, The Theory of Graceful Extensibility at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327427067_The_Theory_of_Graceful_Extensibility_Basic_rules_that_govern_adaptive_systems 

We all get excited about that new, shiny code, but more often than not, our company can live without it. On the other hand, some old and boring lines of code laying around are usually the backbone of our entire business system. And while inventors tend to get all the praise, those who keep the wheels running smoothly are content with, well, the wheels running smoothly. 

Today we talk with Tramaine Darby, a Senior Manager of Content, Subscriptions, and Insights Engineering at Red Hat. She tells us how to manage teams responsible for maintaining the systems that make companies run and how to defend these systems from hard-cuts and radical changes. 

When you finish listening to the episode, connect with Tramaine on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Mentioned in this episode:

Tramaine on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tramainedarby/

Tramaine on Twitter at https://twitter.com/tdarby4

Red Hat at https://www.redhat.com/