The Beautiful Mess Podcast

Software Development As Collective Learning With Hazel Weakly

Apr 28, 2024

Software developer and blogger Hazel Weakly discusses transitioning from individual to collaborative learning in software development. They cover topics such as emergence, systems, developer productivity, architecture, migrations, values, culture, and feedback. Hazel emphasizes the importance of continuous change and effective leadership in the industry.

27:15

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Episode guests

Hazel Weakly

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Quick takeaways

Shift from individual to collective learning for societal advancement.

Architects play a vital role in creating systems for ongoing learning and adaptation.

Deep dives

Hazel's Transition to Collaborative Learning

Hazel discusses her shift from focusing on being an individual force multiplier to emphasizing collaborative learning and collective knowledge development. She highlights the importance of working together in a collaborative manner rather than solely focusing on individual productivity. Hazel shares her experiences in platform engineering and infrastructure, stressing the significance of scaling collective learning for societal advancement.

Introduction

2min

Embracing Collective Learning in Software Development

5min

Exploring Developer Productivity and Knowledge Work

3min

The Role of an Architect in Collaborative Software Development Learning

2min

Navigating Technology Stack Pitfalls

15min

Back in late February, Tom Kerwin and I wrote a post titled How Capable Leaders Navigate Uncertainty and Ambiguity. The post listed 18 competencies—things like Accept We are Part of the Problem and Blend Diverse Perspectives—along with sample questions you could ask yourself, or someone else, to reflect on each competency.

A couple days later, Hazel Weakly shared a deeply introspective post where she used our post as the basis for a personal retrospective. I was completely blown away by the depth and thoughtfulness of the post, as were many others on LinkedIn.

In this episode we talk about Hazel’s journey from individual force multiplier to focusing on collaborative learning and scaling that up. We talk about emergence and systems, developer productivity, architecture as a catalyst for coherent autonomy, migrations, being Done, Done Done, Done Done Done, and how being explicit about values, culture, and collaboration enables more graceful and continuous change. We end by talking about how leaders can’t wait for outcomes to introspect and get feedback (hence Hazel doing that deep dive personal retrospective).

Hazel is currently a Principal Platform Architect at Datavent, and serves as a Director on the board of the Haskell Foundation and is known as the Infrastructure Witch of Hachyderm (a popular Mastodon instance).

Hope you enjoy the episode, and thanks for your patience as I become a better podcast host.

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Will Larsen’s post on migrationshttps://lethain.com/migrations/

More info on Stripe’s migration to TypeScripthttps://stripe.com/blog/migrating-to-typescript

Cat Hicks (and team)’s Developers Thriving work

https://www.pluralsight.com/resource-center/guides/developer-thriving-research-paper

Hazel’s retrospective post

https://hazelweakly.me/blog/observations-of-leadership-part-one/

Hazel Weakly’s contacts info:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hazelweakly/

Mastodon: https://hachyderm.io/@hazelweakly