The Alan Barr Show: Recent Episodes
Alan Barr
A podcast on topics and themes I am interested in related to technology, business, self-improvement, and many others.
00:00 Intro
01:15 What is Flow
04:40 The Autotelic Personality
07:00 Developer Productivity for Humans
13:30 Summary
Engineering Enablement - Measuring Flow and FocusDeveloper Productivity for Humans, Part 6: Measuring Flow, Focus, and Friction for Developers
(00:00) Introduction
(01:12) How are we using AI.
(03:40) AI Products and Testing.
(06:26) AI Testing.
(10:09) Summary
Article: Testing LLM-Based Applications: Strategy and Challenges
Topics I'll cover in 2024.⁃ AI / LLM / Machine Learning⁃ Book Summaries⁃ Domain Driven Design⁃ Flow⁃ Metacognition / System Thinking⁃ Software Engineering, TestingLinks:- Website - https://www.alanmbarr.com/- X - https://twitter.com/alanmbarr
- YouTube - https://youtube.com/@alanmbarr
The Start of The Journey
Recovery, The Journey so far
Figuring Out the Next Level of my Learning
https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/health/info-2019/dementia-warning-signs.html
If you like the podcast, please subscribe and share it with others.
Act 1 - Your Elevator Pitch
Act 2 - Prepare and Edit, liberally and ruthlessly
Act 3 - Three Act Narratives, but mix it up
Resources
- Start a Podcast - Kristen Meinzer
- Make Noise - Eric Nuzum
- NPR's Podcast Start Up Guide - Glen Weldon
Edison Research, April 2019 "The Podcast Consumer"
Edison Research Podcast Consumer - 2018
Otter Voice Meeting Notes - Otter.ai
Voice Coach Yawning
Be a great communicator Podcast
Today’s Topic is a Book Summary by Vishen Lakhiani from the book The Buddha and the Badass.
Act 1 - Make a big vision and great people will find you
Act 2 - Massive Transformation Purpose and Make a Stand
Act 3 - Craft Your Identity
Chainguard -The Principle of Ephemerality via Carlos Santana
- Get on with ephemerality; it's 2022. We had no choice but to build it ourselves before then. Nowadays, chaos engineering is an option. We use serverless and stateless technologies all the time. Virtual machines aren't even on our radar. Maintaining stateful systems is difficult. Make sure you have backups and failovers.
- To ensure that we have evidence of malicious software, you can test your code regularly. The COVID test provides a means of ensuring that historical evidence is reviewed over time.
- Combining and shortening an app's lifespan makes it more likely for an attacker to fail.
Today’s topic is the VU Software Engineering Conference
Act 1 - Architectures are relative
Act 2 - TDD + Architectures
Act 3 - dev.lab stories
Summary
- Trade-offs depend on the needs of your business.
- Test-Driven Development can make your tests run faster and make a change quickly.
- Inner source communities in businesses are a real opportunity.
Every week, I'll be posting one episode. I stopped in the past because I didn't have enough content to create a podcast with what I wanted to talk about. The podcast will help me improve my writing and voice. Hopefully, the content will be good as well.
- Improving my writing and sounding.
- Feel like I'm at 95% of what I used to be.
- Alan's education schedule from morning to night.
- I'm happy that normal people can't even tell I had any issues.
- Speechify is a tool that helps me read a hard text and speech it quickly.
- Summarizing writing.
- Preply is a helpful tool for tutors of English
- Recording sounds to type words for Asphia apps.
- Went back to part-time work for learning again.
- Saturday Zoom Python Meetup
- Discord Accountability Group
- Comprehensible Input
Today's topic is Mindfulness and Awareness.
Mayo Clinic says, "Mindfulness is a type of meditation in which you focus on being intensely aware of what you're sensing and feeling in the moment, without interpretation or judgment."
Act 1 - Awareness Act 2 - Desire and Suffering
Act 3 -Be Responsible for our actions and Let It Go
What Didn't Work? * Phonics * Elysian Disco * John Maxwell Books * Teen Books
Tools * Grammarly and Word Tune * Accentia - Naver dictionary * Bold Voice * AnkiUse * English for Everyone Vocabulary * Typing.com
Tutors and Preparing * YouTube Videos from Tarle Speech and Rachel's English. * Google search pronunciation on any search * ESL Tutor Class ( Preply ) * ESL Chat ( Tandem / Hello Talk) * Tactus Therapy IOS APP
Creating Content to help me learn again * Alan's first podcast try * Kdenlive is an open-source Video Editing App * YouTube of BoldVoice * Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy help * Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It * Work Emails * Manga * Mind Maps
I am out so this week. Please enjoy the techniques of Negotiation such as Never Split the Different
Act 1 - What is persuasion and why should we be persuasive?
Act 2 - Low Stakes Persuasive Techniques
Act 3 - Higher Stakes Persuasion
Alan Barr Podcast Interview with Tyler Lemke
Don't make me think
Empathy Mapping
Mentors in tech
MIX08 Microsoft Office 2007: The Story of the Ribbon
Get Your First Dev Job
Danny Thompson
Tyler's Youtube
Tyler's Website
Junior To Senior Dev Podcast
The Five Disciplines
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Systems Thinking
-
Personal Mastery
-
Mental Models
-
Building Shared Vision
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Team Learning
Leverage Points in Systems
Gergely Orosz Hiring juniors
Dark matter developers
"The average tenure of software engineers in small companies is only 1.5 years, where it’s 2.3 years for large companies." - Why Programmers Shouldn't Stay in One Company for a long time.
Michael Nygard Coupling Definition
Dave Farley Junior Developer Mistakes
What are the skills you think juniors should be learning?
Act 1 - Your First Ultralearning Project
Act 2 - Nine Principles of Ultralearning
Act 3 - Alan’s Version of an Ultralearning Project/Habit
Summary
You will be more successful if you start by researching your learning plan. You can ask experts or review guides. Shape your environment to focus. Participate in activities that allow you to use the learning in a real or near-real environment. You can learn what you are learning is composed of and learn to drill the parts that provide leverage. As you are applying the learning you are forced to retrieve that information or you are testing your knowledge via other tools. You either seek others to give you specific feedback for improvement, give yourself feedback via tracking, then use that feedback to tweak your learning. To retain what you learn you space learning out over time. You use the Feynman technique to teach others what you know which forces you to confront if there is a gap in your understanding. Finally, you play with variables with what/how you learned something so that it is more interesting and you learn new things about what you are learning.
If you walk away with nothing else:
- Plan what you are going to learn and how you will learn it.
- Systematize your learning, What activities will I apply it to, how can I get feedback to improve my performance, Incorporate the ideas into the learning.
- Experiment to keep it interesting and to stretch yourself.
Raw Book Notes
Andrew Huberman’s neuroplasticity super protocols
In this episode, I review a few books on API Design. The Design of Web APIs byArnaud Lauret the API Handyman, Irresistible APIs by Kirsten Hunter, and API Design Patterns by JJ Geewax. I also brainfart may refer to Kirsten Hunter as Kirsten Stewart so just ignore that.
Act 1 - What is the goal of the API?
API Goal Canvas - Who - What - How - Inputs - Outputs - Goals
Alan's Digital Garden if the Manning link doesn't work in the future.
Act 2 - What makes a “good” API?
Act 3 - RESTful HTTP Guidance and Support
Summary
- Define the goals and metrics of the API via design discussions and the API Goal Canvas and get feedback.
- A good API is fit for purpose, consistent, and expressive.
- RESTful HTTP Guidance and Supporting your API is more than the implementation. Support, Examples, Tutorials, workflows. etc.
What do you do when the majority of software in the world is vulnerable to a remote code execution exploit via the logger? The one type of system the majority of programs run. How can we get better as an industry to benefit from sharing our code but also keeping our code up to date? Can we show restraint in adding features? Can we improve our quality and review processes to find these types of mistakes sooner?
Act 1 - Influence
- Automatic Triggers - We use mental shortcuts to reduce thinking such as adding because to justify something which most people will simply accept.
- Reciprocity - Return favors and gifts.
- Commitment and Consistency - Human desire to stay consistent with commitments we made in the past especially written.
- Social Proof - Testimonials, Reviews
- Liking - We like those who like us and want to do business with them.
- Authority - Appearance of prestige or rank.
- Scarcity - Valuing what is limited or rare.
- Unity - We can influence others if we're part of their tribe.
Act 2 - Sales
"If your story describes their problem better than they can describe it themselves, they will automatically assume you have the best solution." - Chris Orlob
Selling is a process of connecting people with a problem with your solution. Your goal is to make them feel confident that you, your company, and your product are the best solution to their problem. Chris Orlob calls out Alcoholics Anonymous as the best of connecting the problem to the solution. It started with a few drinks on the weekend...
Disconnect the "cost" of the solution from the understanding of value. “Does the idea make sense to you? Do you like the idea?”
Use tones to short circuit people's decision-making so they know when to listen or when to agree or disagree. People on the sales journey will have objections. It is your job as a salesperson to handle objections and educate the buyer as an expert on their problem.
Act 3 - Negotiation
- Negotiator Types
- Why me?
- Accusation Audit
- Labeling/Mislabeling
- Late Night FM DJ
- Mirroring
- Dynamic Silence
What is design Mike Montiero says, "A designer solves problems within a set of constraints".
What is API Design?
The goal of API design is to try and get the defined API interface as right as possible at the beginning because the consequences are severe and lasting when you don't get them right. The reason it is severe is because people can build on top of the API and you cannot change it easily after that.
The goal of API design is to try and get the defined API interface as right as possible at the beginning because the consequences are severe and lasting when you don't get them right. The reason it is severe is because people can build on top of the API and you cannot change it easily after that.
API design is a cultural change in how people apply a process to doing their work. Microservices, domain driven design, cloud native, project to product, and inner sourcing are types of cultural transformations companies go on.
The Goal of Design
You are responsible for the work you put into the world based on Mike Montiero's summary of Victor Papanek's Design for the Real World.
API-First Design versus Code-First?
According to Kevin Sookocheff, this might be a false dichotomy with api development existing on a continuum.
- API Description First
- Coded API Description
- API Framework
- Implementation First
Implementation First suffers from two problems that other practices do not. A lack of forethought in API design and the risk of the API description becoming out of synchronization with the API description.
Good APIs according to JJ Geewax.
- Operational
- Expressive
- Simple
- Predictable
API Creation Process according to Kirsten Hunter
- Business Value
- Metrics
- Use Cases
- API Design & schema model
As designers of software it is our job to frame for others the decisions they are making.
Publishing an API is a consequential and irreversible decision. By adding friction to this activity we can create compounding leverage by developing a foundation of proven API design patterns to start with instead of starting from scratch each time. We can create better software products by removing the friction that makes doing work hard for no good reason. We can also improve what we make by adding friction that results in better quality experiences.
Poor designs cause real problems in the world like the Amazon s3 cli that cause an outage and the Citibank $500,000,000 UI problem.
Wardley Maps are a technique to visualize business strategy on a dual-axis of value from invisible to visible and another axis to illustrate the evolution. From genesis to commodity.
- Sun Tzu's Five Factors of Strategy
- Team Roles
- Make your own map.
Cheatsheet and reference material. In progress refer to learn Wardley mapping if digital garden not working.
Learn Wardley Mapping
A digital garden is a website featuring personal notes you share. The purpose is to curate, grow, and prune the thoughts you are developing. The benefit is that you can share your ideas with a wide community without the overhead of a full blog post.
Linkerd certificates expired this week so learning how to deal with rare incidents like architecture is a gift to learn from.
Credibility is core. Never sacrifice it. You might win deals because of your credibility and reputation where others wouldn't.
Presentations - Some in person, Some recorded with presenter on hand in slack or the platform. Some given virtually. Wide spectrum of quality and content.
- Upstream Kubernetes Focus
- Downstream Kubernetes Focus
- Vendor related
- Individual experience related to Kubernetes or tangential topic
API Clarity - Tooling to detect shadow and zombie APIs. Depends on Istio.
How NOT to Start with Kubernetes - Christian Heckelmann, Dynatrace
Improving Dev Experience: How We Built a Cloud Native Dev Stack At Scale - Srinidhi S & Venkatesan Vaidyanathan, Razorpay
- One Engineer across 3 months. We are still building a lot of features, as we speak.
- Simplify developer workflow and reduce time to rollout features independently.
- Due to limitations with telepresence rebuilt a tool that might not was aware of. Okteto for file syncing.
Jasmine James Keynote
- Discoverability
UnderstandingScreen recordings
User interviews
Search Analytics
MetricsOnboarding time
Number of merges per developer / day
Deploys to Production
eNPS
Core Improvements
Single-sourcing guidanceTemplates
Hubs
Centralized Support * Usability
Understanding
Usability TestingOpen Ended Tasks
Closed Ended Tasks
MetricsSuccess rate
Time-based efficiency
Core ImprovementsGolden Paths
Automation
Error Prevention * Capability
UnderstandingJourney Mapping - Book Reference
Surveys
MetricsCustomer Satisfaction (eNPS)
Core ImprovementsPersona mapped capabilities
Real time tool feedback * Stability
UnderstandingIncident Management Data
Post Mortems
Surveys
Focus Groups
Metrics
Tool and Capability uptimeEnvironment specific SLOs
Mean Time between Outages
Core ImprovementsIntentional post mortems
Centralized Support
Change is Hard - Securing the Future Today- Andrew Clay Shafer, Red Hat
- Software is eating software. Software is eating software security.
- You build it you run it. Software layer not the platform or infrastructure services.
Developer Experience - Platforms as a Service - Thursday
Vendors that I liked
- Rookout - Debugging code paths in production.
- Gitpod
Practice and find opportunities to give talks
Use pauses for effect
Connect with your audience
Tell stories
Use your tone
Be you and tell your stories
Prepare for uncertainty and let hiccups wash past you
Use words like imagine and call out names of people in the audience
Every talk cannot be perfect if virtual ask for people to use reactions. If in public practice in the venue.
Take the feedback and apply what makes sense for the next time.
Act 1 - Developing Self-awareness of your gifts
Act 2 - Tools to Reflect on your and others strengths
Act 3 - Leveraging your gifts
Based on Gong.io how to sell technical products via a pitch deck.
Use a nexus
Explain that the status quo is no longer tenable.
Present the value of adopting your solution to solve the pain.
Tell a story about others that had the pain and the value they unlocked from using the solution.
Present data comparing the old world and new world.
They'll assume you have the best solution if you can explain the problem better than they can.
Act 1 - Learn from Failure and Move Forward
Act 2 - Overcoming Obstacles, Roadblocks, and Identifying Failure
Act 3 - Leverage the Skills and Abilities of Others to Help You Succeed
Act 1 - Communication is sales
Act 2 - Mediums, methods, and repetition
Act 3 - Writing is the ultimate vehicle for communication leverage
Tool For Recording to Writing
Otter Recording
Act 1 - Noticing and Observing Fear
Act 2 - What the Fear is Telling You
Act 3 - Harnessing Fear
Act 1 - Preparing for Change, Unlearning, and Learning
Act 2 - Training and Communicating the Change Little by Little
Act 3 - Transform Yourself
A vision will make your journey easier. Deferring the creation of a vision is like saying. I want to make this as hard as possible.
- Visualizing the future.
- Feel it in your body and share it out.
- Help people see the journey and their part in it.
Act 1 What's the point of a vision?
Defining an outcome helps lead you to a more successful future.
Act 2 How to craft a vision?
Cameron Herold's Vivid Vision
Act 3 Marketing the Vision
Share your message in groups of 3. Use imagine, you, because in your marketing communication.
Kubernetes is the abstraction layer for infrastructure standardization.
Act 1 - Advocating and starting the change for a new platform.
People Process Technology
Unlearning and learning.
Communicate and engage leadership to advocate for your platform.
Act 2 - Marketing, Education, Training
Training is a great investment that communicates the value and gives everyone a baseline to understand. People using your system will have old mental models they will need to update. New patterns will be discovered and it takes time to understand and change how to apply. Encourage new habits and behaviors. Constantly market your product because people will not know and may see communication but not engage.
Act 3 - Completing the change and monitoring the results
Use metrics to advocate and promote the change. Be prepared for the next horizon to change. The journey is constant and there will always be a new place to go. The cycle will repeat.
Todays Topic is Recovery
Act 1 Breaks
Take breaks!
Act 2 Vacation
Take a vacation and recuperate
Act 3 Sabattical
I like the idea of a sabbatical I think it could provide an opportunity to learn new things.
Today's Topic is Your Learning and Knowledge Management System.
Table of contents
Act 1 - Second Brain Tiago Forte Notion and Organization
Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives
Collect, organize, distill, express. Or Find assemble speak teach.
Act 2 - Smart Notes
Elaborate on what you are learning, space it out over time, vary the context, and actively retrieve that information.
Act 3 - Make it a habit
Atomic habits. Identity change. What habits do you need to be a constant learner?
Make your learning a system
Todays Topic is Writing.
Table of contents
Act 1 - Writing is for communicating ideas to others that add value
Writing as thinking FAST, CRIBS. David Perell and his articulate thoughts on writing.
Act 2 - Writing for others
Software Documentation four types of documentation. Writing in context.
Act 3 - Writing to Persuade and Align
Visions, Decision making, clarifying thoughts, taking a stand, constructing a narrative to illustrate a good decision. Structuring reality and a framework for thinking. Illustrating how decisions are being made.
Conclusion
Writing is for communicating ideas to others. It adds value or it moves a conversation forward. In some cases, it provides a framework for others to think and to do their work.
Act 1 - What is persuasion and why should we be persuasive?
Act 2 - Low Stakes Persuasive Techniques
Act 3 - Higher Stakes Persuasion
Conclusion
Add tone, mirroring, and labeling as part of your daily low-stakes practices.
In this episode, I explain the lessons I learned in making an internal developer platform built on Kubernetes.