Jason Wodicka
Independent Engineering Advocate
Seattle, Washington, United States
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Jason has spent almost twenty years in the tech industry. In that time, they've been a teacher, a test engineer, a development manager, a software engineer, and performed one ill-advised attempt at program management. Today they're working in engineering advocacy, helping people find new ways to think about our industry. They live with their husband in the drizzly paradise of Seattle. Ask them about board games, community-building, puzzle design, queer theory, or anything you're deeply excited by.
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Being Human
A brief history of ChatGPT, the Turing Test, and the quest to build thinking machines.
The idea of artificial intelligence isn't new, and we've seen bold claims before.
The proponents of today’s disruption claim that it’s unprecedented, and we need entirely new frameworks to think about what’s coming - frameworks that they would like to provide.
There is precedent, if we know where to look.
As George Santayana wrote, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
History can show us times when we've been here before, and what happened then. Philosophy can equip us with the tools to evaluate the claims we're hearing.
Understanding the context of the current boom in AI can leave us prepared to guide it in a positive direction.
Intentionally building community through ritual
The dev team has a 15-minute standup. Everyone in the online classroom unmutes and greets everyone else at the same time. Someone at Codegarden shouts "Sea" and a crowd replies "Bass!"
All around the world, people do the same thing in the same way, over and over. Rituals are big pieces of the structure that transforms a group of people into "a team" or "a community." They're also sometimes the walls that make a community seem like a clique, with no room for new entrants.
And while some rituals seem to appear out of nowhere, there's actually a craft to building them, caring for them - and sometimes, to letting them go.
At Codepath, I've been working this spring on building and shaping some of the rituals that help students bond and support each other in learning. At Codegarden, we've got decades of ritual that we've built up to use as examples.
Let's talk about how ritual works, and learn to craft the right rituals to build the communities we want.
The brilliance of not being brilliant
A talk about how our drive to be exceptional gets in the way of actually doing the ordinary work that yields exceptional results.
Codegarden 2025 Sessionize Event
Umbraco US Festival Sessionize Event
LeadDev New York 2024
A nudge in the right direction: How to give just enough help
Working on teams, we need to help other people every day.
But some of the most common feedback about help given is that it misses the mark: We can give so little support that we're no help at all, or so much support that it feels like we've just taken over the task. How do we calibrate the support we give to the situation?
I've found useful insights for this problem outside the technical field, particularly in the design of puzzles like escape rooms. I'll share what I've learned from the experts in hinting, and some examples of how I've applied these techniques, both one-on-one and in the design of better processes. You'll come away with a concrete model to give better, more effective guidance in any context, whether it's helping a team member stretch to tackle a new problem, or helping with your child learn from their homework.
Codegarden 2024 Sessionize Event
LeadDev London 2023
Engineering a more equitable hiring process
Engineering leaders often struggle to find the right people for the right roles. At the same time, common industry practices lock out qualified candidates by introducing bias and inequity to our processes. In this talk, Jason lays out some of the places where bias enters our hiring process, and shares concrete actions you can take to make your own hiring more efficient, equitable, and effective.
Codegarden 2023 Sessionize Event
Jason Wodicka
Independent Engineering Advocate
Seattle, Washington, United States
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