RailsConf always boasts an exciting variety of talks that highlight the creativity and interdisciplinary nature of the Ruby community. As a tech sector newcomer, I thought it would be fun to curate a series highlighting speakers whose stories about their experiences in tech captured my curiosity. Read on for today’s speaker spotlight…
Title of Talk:
10x your teamwork through pair programming
Speaker:
Selena Small
How Did you get into Ruby?
I was working as a bar tender in a night club and Tom the regular would come in, he started teaching to me to code - first Assembly 68k, then C, then Ruby and I never looked back!
What’s your favorite part about working on Open Source Software?
While I don't actively contribute, but developing the open means ideas can be easily shared and I rely on that.
What’s your least favorite part about working on OSS?
OSS doesn't promote pair-programming and doesn't always promote good TDD practices.
What inspired you to give this talk?
I've been working in a heavy pairing environment for the last 6 years and have learned the benefits - I want to share those with the world because there are a lot of misconceptions about what it is and what's involved. What makes a great pairing environment is what organisations often strive to be able to claim - a strong sense of psychological safety and collaboration to deliver better outcomes than what an individual can do alone.
What do you want people to take away from it?
Software is about people. Two heads are better than one. Be vulnerable and give it a try.
What are you most looking forward to at this conference?
Meeting some really cool people and enjoying some great social events.
Do you have any other fun plans in Atlanta during the in-person conference week?
What is there to do in Atlanta?