The Introspective Developer

He imagined he could make the web shinier, so now he does.

Join us as we talk with Kristian Hamilton about his passion for helping adults and children learn to code. We explore his hypothesis, "There's no better escape from poverty than education," and how that inspired him to become a volunteer coach and organizer at CodeBar.

Kristian Hamilton (LinkedIn) is a Senior Front End developer keeping Signavio running at SAP, a global software company.

Listen as we talk about mentoring as motivation, being black in very white spaces, intersecting art and code, and eating delicious British food.

This episode is packed with insights about:

(00:00:22) Starting in East London
(00:02:50) One-line word processors
(00:07:41) Copying code from magazines
(00:14:08) Teaching kids to build games in Scratch
(00:17:21) Rolling the dice at Codebar
(00:24:02) Creating the workshop vibe
(00:28:37) Breaking it down like Feynman
(00:30:34) Making things shiny
(00:40:57) Berlin <3 Code + Art
(00:43:14) Hum of not belonging
(00:48:10) More black people in tech
(00:49:52) Websites on the brain
(00:56:15) Flash pages were cool, but...
(01:00:01) British food is delicious

Mentions:

CodeBar - International non-profit that enables minority group members to learn programming in a safe and collaborative environment.
Scratch - Scratch is the world's largest coding community for children and a coding language with a simple visual interface.
Feynman Technique - A study method for students to learn through the act of teaching.
Creative Code - Part casual hang out, part show-and-tell, the Creative Code Stammtisch is a free event for artists, coders, and anyone interested in using code for self-expression.

Check blog.introspectivedeveloper.com for transcripts and show notes.

Zeke Arany-Lucas is a principal engineer, consultant, and coach living and working in Berlin since 2014. He was previously a leader at Amazon and Microsoft, where he started his career building Internet Explorer. You can also follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Mastodon, and Instagram.

Artwork by Emre Aydogan & Laura Diezler — ©️2022 Zeke Arany-Lucas

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He taught himself to build websites for fun and function. Now they fuel his businesses, while he surfs all year and codes at night.

What's crazy is that he writes code almost every week, but has never worked as a professional software developer. Today, Lennart Quecke (LinkedIn) owns and operates two businesses:

Secret Wave - an upscale surf bed and breakfast for adults in southwest France
SportyJob - a European job board for the sports industry

He is German and grew up in France. He always did a lot of sports, and in university, it was natural to get his degree in sports management. His career started with desk jobs in Germany, but his heart already belonged to the ocean.

As a customer learning to surf at his camp, I found out about his hidden habit of writing PHP in the evenings. Without ever wanting to make a career out of it, the urge to tinker with tech had made him the website guy in school and the office.

In our chat, we talk about following dreams, owning a business, and learning to code without a team.

This episode is packed with insights about:

(00:04:44) Start with your passions: Surfing
(00:09:29) Generalists (and entrepreneurs) volunteer for everything
(00:16:01) Helping people break copy protection was a great start
(00:30:32) Every company needs Website Guy
(00:35:23) Website guy recommends Joomla for a calm website
(00:48:43) Outsourcing is a test of nerves and patience
(00:54:31) Living in the seasons
(01:03:20) Know what you love and pursue it
(01:10:51) Bedtime thoughts are guidance

Mentions:

Joomla

Check blog.introspectivedeveloper.com for transcripts and show notes.

Zeke Arany-Lucas is a principal engineer, consultant, and coach living and working in Berlin since 2014. He was previously a leader at Amazon and Microsoft, where he started his career building Internet Explorer. You can also follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Mastodon, and Instagram.

Artwork by Emre Aydogan & Laura Diezler — ©️2022 Zeke Arany-Lucas

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The first rule of Feminist Fight Club is to talk about Feminist Fight Club. A radical slacker finds a future building software.

Today, Kaja Santro (LinkedIn, Portfolio) connects art lovers with lovable artists, as a platform engineer at Artsy, a Series-D based out of NYC.

In university, she loved learning about historical linguistics, but her inquisitive mind rejected the toxic gender dynamics and left her uninspired about a job in academia.

Kaja was unemployed when she met WordPress while helping her boyfriend. He ran out of money before the freelancer could finish the website for his hostel. That led to late nights Googling SEO, and a new hunger to learn. She found her tribe at Rails Girls in Berlin. Ruby is the most inclusive language, and she will fight you to prove it.

In our chat, we talk about Studio Ghibli, Moroccan partners, radical negotiations, mashed potatoes, open source, and the advantages of hedonistic priorities.

This episode is packed with insights about:

(00:00:43) Princess Mononoke is a metaphor and an inspiration
(00:11:07) Becoming a developer, but first historical linguistics
(00:18:56) Toxic environment squeezes love out of anything
(00:23:27) First exposure was practical WordPress
(00:29:22) P2: Learn to code with zero f***s (thanks Rails Girls in Berlin)
(00:36:29) Healthy learning and growth mindset required
(00:42:11) Harness the inner hedonist
(00:45:44) Get your bootcamp paid by the Arbeitsamt
(00:54:54) Get lunch to clinch that job opening
(00:57:38) P3 - The first job was magical (and problematic)
(00:59:26) Ruby has inclusive values (Rails maybe not)
(01:02:14) It's a lot of work to be the only woman in engineering
(01:10:22) Claim your value, claim your salary
(01:15:57) Find your dancing star (mentors take many forms)
(01:20:24) Beware of pushing unpaid labor
(01:26:10) Potatoes are the new smart food

Mentions:

Read Feminist Fight Club
Watch Coraline Ada Ehmke - The broken promise of Open Source
Use Discourse, a free and open-source Internet forum software
Eat at Osmans Töchter
Learn to code at Career Foundry

Zeke Arany-Lucas is a principal engineer, coach, and consultant living and working in Berlin since 2014. He was previously a leader at Amazon and Microsoft, where he started his career building Internet Explorer. You can also follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Artwork by Emre Aydogan & Laura Diezler — ©️2022 Zeke Arany-Lucas

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They hired her as a PowerPoint designer. But soon she found out coding requirements was much better than transcribing them.

Refactoring is the name of the game for Julia Swidron (LinkedIn, Portfolio). She rewrites legacy frontend experiences at Deloitte, one of the biggest consultancies in the world.

She didn't have a linear path. She started in graphic design but soon realized that she would burn out as a profession. She was exploring her options in different cities when she got an internship at Maersk, which was a perfect launchpad.

In our chat, we talk about moving around, making engineering choices as an extrovert, and writing code without calling herself a developer.

This episode is packed with insights about:

(00:07:07) What is it like as a software consultant at Deloitte?
(00:16:37) What gets you excited about refactoring legacy code?
(00:20:15) What does socialized engineering look like?
(00:27:40) Python was my first attempt at coding, and it didn't stick
(00:32:15) Homework was not enough to get the job (some self-teaching required)
(00:42:20) The magic of translating ideas between technical to non-technical
(00:46:52) She sent 250 job applications to find Deloitte
(00:51:07) What makes a good manager?
(01:02:26) Julia is explicit with journaling and organizing
(01:05:20) Notetaking can become brainstorming

Mentions:

Styled Components
Tailwind
Bun
Deno

Check blog.introspectivedeveloper.com for transcripts and show notes.

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, or your favorite platform.

Zeke Arany-Lucas is a principal engineer, coach, and consultant from Seattle, living and working in Berlin since 2014. He has been in the tech industry for over 25 years, starting with web browser development in the 90s, including long stints at Microsoft and Amazon in multiple leadership roles. You can also follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Artwork by Emre Aydogan & Laura Diezler — ©️2022 Zeke Arany-Lucas

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She claimed to have terrible luck. But in InfoSec, a healthy dose of paranoia became her advantage on the path to Staff Engineer.

Laurel impressed me with her patience and dedication to building trust. After her start in the IT department, Laurel became a developer through an internal upskilling program for women. Her stunning nature photography reveals her eye for life's fragility. It's also a surprising advantage in her approach to building a career.

Today, Laurel Rivers (Photography) stays intentionally private while she secures the critical assets of a major US media company.

In our chat, we talk about the importance of health care, COBOL coming and going, risk aversion, and how to keep an open mind in a hostile world.

This episode is packed with insights about:

(00:03:55) Company had a special program to upskill women
(00:06:18) How to detect aptitude?
(00:08:14) Tech career can change lives
(00:12:02) Build your network, vitamin B
(00:15:58) Volunteer for projects to improve your orbit/visibility
(00:17:25) Politics: Building good systems requires building good organizations
(00:24:55) Backup and look at the whole picture sometimes
(00:29:53) Be motivated, ambitious, and willing to learn
(00:33:58) Pay attention to the personal risk security ratio
(00:38:36) Turn vulnerability into strength
(00:40:21) Learning is reading, doing, and adapting
(00:43:55) Mentoring is bidirectional growth
(01:01:13) Branch out of just tech: communication, writing, collaboration
(01:02:50) Working in customer service helps with soft skills

Check blog.introspectivedeveloper.com for transcripts and show notes.

Zeke Arany-Lucas is a principal engineer, coach, and consultant from Seattle, living and working in Berlin since 2014. He has been in the tech industry for over 25 years, starting with web browser development in the 90s, including long stints at Microsoft and Amazon in multiple leadership roles. You can also follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Artwork by Emre Aydogan & Laura Diezler — ©️2022 Zeke Arany-Lucas

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She thought Rails Girls would be a cool hobby. Seven years later she is a non-profit trustee at Codebar.io, helping newbies break into tech.

During the day, Priya Patil (LinkedIn, Email) helps companies of all sizes solve their problems as a polyglot engineer for 8th Light, a consultancy based out of London and Chicago.

At night, people like Priya are building a more diverse future for the tech industry. She was one of the first students of Codebar.io, a non-profit inspired by taking Rails Girls workshops. She continued by becoming a coach, and now is one of 6 trustees that steer the vision and execution.

You can also be the change for diversity by joining Codebar as a student or coach.

In our chat, we talk about hands-on learning, taking breaks, the history of Codebar, growth patterns, and successful software without test-driven development.

This episode is packed with insights about:

(00:01:44) Take a sabbatical when you can (and be intentional)
(00:08:39) Rails Girls starts with connection and empowerment
(00:12:07) "I owe my career to Codebar,... but it's not unusual."
(00:27:50) A great environment is where everyone is humble and willing to learn
(00:31:01) Tech expectations are immature compared to other industries
(00:33:58) Success starts with engaged communication
(00:42:19) Balance humility with taking healthy credit
(00:50:20) Effort + Practice = Expertise
(00:51:48) Helping people grow needs many different hats
(01:02:23) Code-based systems are more predictable than human-based systems
(01:03:38) Big companies don't have panaceas to "big" problems
(01:11:35) Sometimes success is just throwing more talent at the problem

Check blog.introspectivedeveloper.com for transcripts and show notes.

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, or your favorite platform.

Zeke Arany-Lucas is a developer, coach, and consultant from Seattle, living and working in Berlin since 2014. He has been in the tech industry for more than 25 years, starting with browser platform development, including long stints at both Microsoft and Amazon in multiple leadership roles. You can also follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Artwork by Emre Aydogan & Laura Diezler — ©️2022 Zeke Arany-Lucas

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Her drive to grow made her jump career paths twice in the same company, and that became a pilot program for discovering new female engineers.

Today, Julia Miller (LinkedIn, Blog) is a Software Engineer building the orchestration platform for Machine Learning workflows at Zalando, a public online fashion retailer based in Berlin.

She joined Zalando first as a working student, while studying business mathematics. It was such a good fit that they were her first choice after graduation. Julia started as an analyst, shifted to product manager, and finally decided to go full developer by attending an Ironhack bootcamp over sabbatical.

In our chat, we talk about joining the right company, finding the right teams, natural networking, product engineers, and leaning into joy.

This episode is packed with insights about:

going broad before going deep
how she creates her own luck with simple acts
speaking up for what matters (your leads may surprise you)
how Julia inspired Zalando's new upskilling program for women

Check blog.introspectivedeveloper.com for transcript and show notes.

Zeke Arany-Lucas is a developer, leader, and consultant from Seattle, living and working in Berlin since 2014. He has been in tech industry for more than 25 years, starting with web browser development in the 90s, including long stints at both Microsoft and Amazon in multiple leadership roles. You can also follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Artwork by Emre Aydogan & Laura Diezler — ©️2022 Zeke Arany-Lucas

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Two years ago, Mira was still a lawyer, now she is a fullstack dev. Her message about power structures and rational self-care is quite striking.

Today, Mira Vogt (LinkedIn) helps travelers find adventures as an engineer at GetYourGuide, a Berlin scale-up.

Mira became a developer after attending the Ironhack bootcamp. She studied business law, first in Switzerland and then in Germany, but after working she felt mismatched there. SQL exposed her to becoming a builder instead of a lawyer.

In our chat, we talk about language, power structures, gender, inclusivity, pronouns, gatekeepers, and the value of staying a generalist.

This episode is packed with insights about:

using rational self-care as a career booster
when GetYourGuide had trouble hiring mid-level female engineers, they did something radical
being selective with opportunities
translating skills across jobs

Check blog.introspectivedeveloper.com for transcript and show notes.

Zeke Arany-Lucas is a developer, leader, and consultant from Seattle, living and working in Berlin since 2014. He has been in tech industry for more than 25 years, starting with web browser development in the 90s, including long stints at both Microsoft and Amazon in multiple leadership roles. You can also follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Mais Aroq (LinkedIn) was trying on all the hats in accounting and none of them fit. But code was love at first click. Mais left a secure accounting career in Tel Aviv then moved to Berlin to join a bootcamp and become a developer.

But success needed more than a bootcamp and she has a great approach for anyone approaching interviews.

Check blog.introspectivedeveloper.com for transcript and show notes.

Zeke Arany-Lucas is a developer, leader, and consultant from Seattle, living and working in Berlin since 2014. He has been in tech industry for more than 25 years, starting with web browser development in the 90s, including long stints at both Microsoft and Amazon in multiple leadership roles. You can also follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Sprouting in the Dominican Republic, Jennifer Cruz (LinkedIn) started out working in marketing, but always knew it wasn't a good fit. So she signed up for all the classes on Udemy and eventually became a self-taught software engineer at Amazon in Berlin.

I am inspired by her equal use of breadth-first and depth-first as an approach to living and learning. It takes time to get it right.

Listen to how she finds her own rhythm, motivation, and even a little satisfaction.

Check blog.introspectivedeveloper.com for transcript and show notes.

Zeke Arany-Lucas is a developer, leader, and consultant from Seattle, living and working in Berlin since 2014. He has been in tech industry for more than 25 years, starting with web browser development in the 90s, including long stints at both Microsoft and Amazon in multiple leadership roles. You can also follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Lennart Querter (LinkedIn, Medium) was working as a DJ before deciding to become a software development engineer. Six weeks at an immersive bootcamp started his path to becoming a Staff Engineer in just six years.

Our journeys are 20 years apart, but we find many lessons are timeless. Check blog.introspectivedeveloper.com for transcript and show notes.

Zeke Arany-Lucas is a developer, leader, and consultant from Seattle, living and working in Berlin since 2014. He has been in tech industry for more than 25 years, starting with web browser development in the 90s, including long stints at both Microsoft and Amazon in multiple leadership roles. You can also follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

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Germany is famous for its industry leading car companies, which dominated manufacturing tech in much of the 20th century. USA is home to the information tech giants which dominate the 21st century. Right now these juggernauts are increasingly converging on shared technologies, but how is it going for the organizations? What's the difference working at a "German company in Tech" vs a "Tech company in Germany"?

My guest, Ben, works in a German automotive company as a software engineer and has experienced first hand how the companies are changing (and how they aren't). USA Tech companies are also changing as they expand and adapt to international markets. We chat about some of the differences and changes we are seeing in this new world.

Zeke Arany-Lucas is a senior principal engineer from Seattle, living and working in Berlin since 2014. He has been in tech industry for more than 25 years, starting with web browser development in the 90s, including long stints at both Microsoft and Amazon in multiple leadership roles. You can also follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and his Personal Website.

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I loved to play games as a kid, all kinds of games. Listen as I explain how my early dedication translated so effectively into professional skills for the office.

Especially pen and paper games are fertile ground for learning:

Communication - reading, writing, speaking, listening
Project Management - campaigns and tournaments
Teams - dungeon crawling and bridge clubs
Ambiguity - open ended cooperative world building

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A little of my history and what I am trying to do here.

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It's so easy to get caught up in the day to day grind that we forget how awesome our mind works with a little more space. As a result of moving to Berlin and eventually taking a sabbatical, I let my mind go and created some new habits.

How do we claim time to let ourselves explore? What changes happen when we un-schedule our discretionary time? This was recorded in winter before corona, and seems even more relevant now.

Zeke Arany-Lucas is a senior principal engineer from Seattle, living and working in Berlin since 2014. He has been in tech industry for more than 25 years, starting with web browser development in the 90s, including long stints at both Microsoft and Amazon in multiple leadership roles. You can also follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter, and his podcast, The Introspective Developer, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Instagram, and Facebook.

The Introspective Developer: Recent Episodes

Zeke Arany-Lucas