Episode 252 | Felienne - It Doesn't Have to be Painful

Guest: Felienne Hermans @felienne Felienne talks with Dave Rael about teaching kids, teaching adults, the nature of programming, and gratitude Felienne is assistant professor at Delft University of Technology, where she researches programming for everyone, from spreadsheet users to young kids. Felienne’s biggest passions in life is to share her enthusiasm for programming with others. She teaches programming in a community center in Rotterdam every week, she organizes the Joy of Coding conference, a one day developer conference in Rotterdam celebrating the joy and art of programming, and she is a host at SE radio, one of the most popular software engineering podcasts on the web. If she is not coding, blogging or teaching, she is probably dancing Lindy Hop, running or playing a (board)game. Felienne blogs at felienne.com Chapters: 3:00 - Dave introduces the show and Felienne4:28 - What is programming?7:38 - The existence of professional programmers, accessibility of programming, and bringing the domain back into programming9:47 - How Felienne got started in software11:36 - Gratitude, the good fortune of having access to computing and excellent teachers, and balance13:47 - Felienne's teaching experiences17:52 - Teaching at university18:28 - Felienne's experiences with podcasting22:09 - Felienne's unique perspective in programming23:45 - Felienne's story of failure - providing goals to students rather than empowering them to create their own31:12 - Felienne's success story - getting kids excited about programming32:35 - How Felienne stays current with what she needs to know33:58 - Felienne's book recommendation36:54 - What makes for a good programmer?40:15 - The things that have Felienne most excited42:57 - Being recognized by only a first name43:42 - Felienne's causes of pain and suffering46:46 - Event-driven internet service API orchestration as programming50:20 - Keeping up with Felienne Resources: Felienne's blog Software Engineering Radio Joy of Coding Felienne as a host on Software Engineering Radio Radio Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software - Eric Evans "It is unworthy of excellent men to lose hours like slaves in the labour of calculation which could safely be relegated to anyone else if machines were used." - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Jon Mills on Developer On Fire Frogger Crossy Road I am going to stop saying I taught myself programming when I was 10 and maybe you should too - Felienne Robert Blumen on Developer On Fire Chris Granger - Coding Superpower Chris Granger The Parable of the Chinese Farmer Felienne interviews Michael Feathers on Software Engineering Radio Michael Feathers on Developer On Fire Programming is Writing is Programming - Felienne Felienne's book recommendation: A Small Matter of Programming: Perspectives on End User Computing - Bonnie A. Nardi Felienne's top 3 tips for delivering more value: Track your time Listen and understand what's happening in other brains Volunteer