"Poets & Programmers: What to do when you are not a genius"; examines the idea of "genius" in poetry and programming; posits that our ideas of the genius lead to stereotypes about software developers that translate to both gatekeeping and unproductive practices.

1. POETS & PROGRAMMERS
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE NOT A GENIUS
GLUECON 2019
KELLYANN FITZPATRICK, REDMONK

2. ABOUT ME
• Industry Analyst, RedMonk
• Twitter: @drkellyannfitz
• Ph.D. in English (Medievalism)
• Former Lecturer & Writing Center Assistant Director,
University at Albany
• Affiliated Researcher (& former postdoctoral fellow),
Georgia Institute of Technology
• Industry experience: technical communication, QA, test & release

3. POETS

4. IS THIS POETRY THE
WORK OF A
GENIUS?

5. POET #1
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

6. POET #1
EMILY DICKINSON
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all –
-From an untitled poem,
first published 1890

7. POET #2
The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn’t just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.

8. POET #2: T. S. ELIOT
The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn’t just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
- From “The Naming of Cats” (1939)
Published In Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

9. POET #3
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

10. POET #3:
MAYA ANGELOU
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
-From ”Still I Rise” (1978)

11. WHAT IF THERE IS NO
AUTHOR?

12. Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,
monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas.

13. BEOWULF
So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by
And the kings who ruled them had
courage and greatness.
We have heard of those princes’ heroic
campaigns.
There was Shield Sheafson, scourge of
many tribes,
A wrecker of mead-benches, rampaging
among foes.
This terror of the hall-troops had come
far.

14. CHANGES IN POETRY
AND POETS

15. BEOWULF
Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,
monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas.

16. BEOWULF
Hwæt We Garde
na in geardagum þeodcyninga,
þrym gefrunon hu ða æþelingas ellen
fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena
þreatum, monegum mægþum meodosetla
ofteah egsode eorlas.

17. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

18. A B C D E F G
H I J K L M N O P
Q R S
T U V
W X
Y and Z

19. GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT
SIÞEN þe sege and þe assaut watz sesed at Troye,
Þe borȝ brittened and brent to brondeȝ and askez,
Þe tulk þat þe trammes of tresoun þer wroȝt
Watz tried for his tricherie, þe trewest on erthe:
Hit watz Ennias þe athel, and his highe kynde,
Þat siþen depreced prouinces, and patrounes bicome
Welneȝe of al þe wele in þe west iles.

20. GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT
SIÞEN þe sege and þe assaut watz sesed at Troye,
Þe borȝ brittened and brent to brondeȝ and askez,
Þe tulk þat þe trammes of tresoun þer wroȝt
Watz tried for his tricherie, þe trewest on erthe:
Hit watz Ennias þe athel, and his highe kynde,
Þat siþen depreced prouinces, and patrounes
bicome
Welneȝe of al þe wele in þe west iles.

21. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

22. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, SONNET 18 (1609)
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

23. THE
ROMANTICS

24. THE GENIUS
What is poetry? is so nearly the
same question with what is a poet?
that the answer to the one is involved
in the solution of the other. For it is a
distinction resulting from the poetic
genius itself, which sustains and
modifies the images, thoughts and
emotions of the poet's own mind.
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia
Literaria (1817)

25. GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
From “She Walks in Beauty” c. 1813

26. SIR WALTER SCOTT
Select Poetry:
Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)
Marmion (1809)
Lady of the Lake (1810)
Select Novels
Waverly (1814)
Rob Roy (1817)
Ivanhoe (1819)
Select Essays (1815-1824)
Essay on Chivalry
Essay on Romance

27. SCOTT AS “GENTLEMAN”
In that pleasant district of merry England
which is watered by the river Don, there
extended in ancient times a large forest,
covering the greater part of the beautiful
hills and valleys which lie between Sheffield
and the pleasant town of Doncaster. The
remains of this extensive wood are still to be
seen at the noble seats of Wentworth, of
Warncliffe Park, and around Rotherham.
-Opening lines of Ivanhoe (1819)

28. ADA
LOVELACE

29. BYRON’S DAUGHTER’S
WORK

30. PROGRAMMERS

31. ELITE TALENT
• Steve jobs believed that an elite talent
was 25 times more valuable to Apple
than an average alternative.
• Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg:
“Someone who is exceptional in their role
into just a little better than someone who
is pretty good. They are 1000 times
better.”
• For Bill Gates, the number was 10,000
times better.

32. CULTURAL IDEAS OF
CODING ABILITY AS
TIED TO CERTAIN
TYPES OF PEOPLE
AND BEHAVIORS

33. STEREOTYPE 1: WHAT DEVELOPERS LOOK LIKE
“Groups of Five” scene from Silicon Valley, 2014

34. Hacking and drinking scene from The Social Network, 2010
STEREOTYPE 2: HOW DEVELOPERS WORK

35. The other piece that gets overlooked in the Google story is the value of hard
work. When reporters write about Google, they write about it as if it was
inevitable. The actual experience was more like, “Could you work 130 hours in a
week?” The answer is yes, if you’re strategic about when you sleep, when you
shower, and how often you go to the bathroom.
-Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO
Interview with Bloomberg Business Week
August 4, 2016
http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-marissa-mayer-interview-issue/
STEREOTYPE 3: HOW MUCH DEVELOPERS WORK

36. STEREOTYPES
TRANSLATE TO
GATEKEEPING

37. GATEKEEPING TACTIC #1: ARE YOU “TECHNICAL”?

38. GATEKEEPING TACTIC #2: WHAT IS YOUR JOB TITLE?

39. GATEKEEPING TACTIC #3: ARE YOU “PASSIONATE”?

40. STEREOTYPES
TRANSLATE TO
UNPRODUCTIVE
PRACTICES

41. STEREOTYPES ABOUT DEVELOPERS AND WRITING
• Developers are poor writers/communicators.
• The best way to teach developers to write: give them a form and make them
fill it out.
• Developers can write only from their own point of view (because they are
narcissists).
• The only way for developers to get writing done is through high-pressure, last-
minute situations that allow them to tap their inner “genius.”

42. WRITING APPROACHES OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
-From Ellen Lavelle & Nancy Zuercher, “Writing Approaches of University Students,” Higher
Education 42: 373–391, 2001.

43. Approach Motive Strategy
Low Self-
Efficacy
To acquire skills/avoid
pain
Study grammar, collaborate,
find encouragement
Procedural Please the teacher Observe rules, organize and
manage writing
Elaborative
Voice
To self express Visualization, audience
Spontaneous-
Impulsive
To get done Last minute, no planning or
revision, just like talking
Reflective-
Revision
To make meaning Revision, reshaping, drafting

44. STEREOTYPES ABOUT DEVELOPERS AND WRITING (2)
• Developers are poor writers/communicators. (Low Self-efficacy)
• The best way to teach developers to write: give them a form and make them
fill it out. (Procedural)
• Developers can write only from their own point of view (because they are
narcissists). (Elaborative Voice)
• The only way for developers to get writing done is through high-pressure, last-
minute situations that allow them to tap their inner “genius.” (Spontaneous-
Impulsive)

45. THE REFLECTIVE-REVISION APPROACH
• Motive: “To make meaning” (Lavelle & Zuercher)
• Strategies:
• Brainstorming/Idea maps/clouds
• Timed writing (e.g., the “Pomodoro method”)
• Set drafting goals (with time in between for a perspective refresh)
• Revising (vs. simple editing)
• Feedback, collaboration, and communication

46. WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU
ARE NOT A GENIUS

47. WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU
ARE NOT A GENIUS*
* Or even if you are a genius

48. •Whether or not you are a genius, recognize that you may
still benefit (or suffer) from our ideas of what a genius
is/is not.
•Realize that habits and processes associated with genius
are likely not the best way to structure your own processes.
•Develop a process that works for you and record the
steps.

49. •Give yourself time.
•Seek out feedback from people you trust (without creating
an echo chamber).
•Find ways to give constructive and supportive feedback to
others.

50. THANK YOU!