Post on 21-Oct-2014
description
Star Trek: Voyager A Model for a More Inclusive
Community2014 Fox Valley Drupal Camp
September 20, 2014 bit.ly/voyager-inclusive
@fredricmitchell
Fredric
• Unabashedly an engineer
• Efficiency over everything
• Senior Dev @Phase2
• Continuously striving to do better
@fredricmitchell
What
@fredricmitchell
What We’re Talking About
• Journey to a better experience (User and Developer)
• The allegory of Star Trek: Voyager and it’s characters
• Context and Blind Spots
• The Diversity Trumps Ability Theorem
@fredricmitchell
Talent hits a target that no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.
German Philosopher
Arthur Schopenhauer
“ ”
@fredricmitchell
Superheroes love the journey@fredricmitchell
Software is Hard@fredricmitchell
[A great show] has to teach you how to watch it.
TV Critic
Alan Sepinwall
“ ”
@fredricmitchell
Captain Janeway• First female captain
• Bullheaded, simultaneously
dogmatic and impulsive
• Melded together a dynamic crew,
including Maquis rebels
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Photo Credit: http://bit.ly/1pxAYEL
The Janeway
@fredricmitchell
“Keep your shirt tucked in; go down with the ship; and never abandon a member of your crew.”
Am I open to unorthodoxy?
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Tuvok
• Black Vulcan
• Calm, logical, and expert botanist
• Keeps the peace through his
wisdom, experience, and vitality
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Photo Credit: http://bit.ly/1mrGYLB
It’s not easy“On the contrary, the demands on a Vulcan's character are extraordinarily difficult. Do not mistake composure
for ease.”
Is logic guiding my decisions?
@fredricmitchell
B’Elanna Torres
• Half Hispanic Human and Klingon
• Chief Engineer
• Tough, knowledgeable and
independent
• Brash, bold, and extremely complex
@fredricmitchell
Photo Credit: http://bit.ly/1sDE4ct
Hidden Potential“If I sprain my ankle, at least I feel something […] I'm not
trying to kill myself! I'm trying to see if I'm still alive.”
@fredricmitchell
How am I evaluating talent?
@fredricmitchell
Seven-of-Nine
• Former assimilated Borg
• Forced to adapt after separating
from the collective
• Logical, pensive, and extremely
blunt
• Lightning rod
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Photo Credit: http://bit.ly/1AZrhVT
Signal to Noise“But that is irrelevant.”
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What are the facts?
@fredricmitchell
Math. Science.
@fredricmitchell
Emotional Intelligence of Groups
• Source (HBR): bit.ly/ei-hbr-2001
• Teams who develop greater emotional intelligence (EQ) boost
their overall performance
• EQ: Trust among members, a sense of group identity, and a
sense of group efficacy
• At the heart of these three conditions are emotions, like the
ability to listen
@fredricmitchell
Women are Key to Smart Teams
• Published in HBR 2011: bit.ly/women-hbr-2011
• Little correlation between a group’s collective intelligence and the IQs of its individual members
• If a group includes more women, its collective intelligence rises.
@fredricmitchell
What do you hear about great groups? Not that the members are all really
smart, but that they listen to each other.
Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon
Anita Wooley
“ ”
@fredricmitchell
Points of Clarification
• Emotional Intelligence != Being Emotional
• Men can have high EQ
• Correlation and Probability are implied
• Gender is not limited to two choices
@fredricmitchell
The Difference
• Scott Page
• Professor of Complex Systems,
Political Science, and Economics
• Published 2007
• bit.ly/scottpage-difference
@fredricmitchell
Perspective, Heuristics
• Perspective
• How one looks at a problem
• Heuristic
• Tells a person where to search for a solution
@fredricmitchell
Diversity Trumps AbilityConditions
1. The problem must be hard
2. Each solver has a local optima to the problem
3. An improvement can be made to a non-optimal solution
4. Large pool of solvers to form a decent-size collection
Proof
The context of perspective and heuristics are key
http://bit.ly/div-v-ability
@fredricmitchell
Problem solvers with diverse perspectives may have trouble
understanding solutions identified by other agents.
Professor at Univ. of Michigan
Scott Page
“ ”
@fredricmitchell
And thus, EQ comes full circle
@fredricmitchell
So, what can I do?
@fredricmitchell
Get off the ‘its a pipeline
problem’
@fredricmitchell
Who is the the ‘most qualified’
candidate?
@fredricmitchell
Keys to Live By
• Be an ally
• Recognize my privilege
• Remember the science!!
• Stay bold in the compound interest of action
• Strive for maximum group collective intelligence
@fredricmitchell
How great can our community be?
@fredricmitchell
How will I help get us ‘home’?
@fredricmitchell
SourcesDiversity Articles
Groups are smarter with women - http://hbr.org/2011/06/defend-your-research-what-makes-a-team-smarter-more-women/ar/1
EQ (HBR link) - http://www.mindsetmatters.com.au/Portals/0/dox/building%20emotional%20intelligence%20of%20groups.pdf
Group Intelligence Correlates More with Social Aptitude than IQ - http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/10/collective-intelligence-and-th/
Being an Ally as a Person with Privilege - http://www.scn.org/friends/ally.html
Risk of Speaking Up - http://www.ashedryden.com/the-risk-in-speaking-up
21st Century Talent Spotting: Potential Trumps Brains, experience, and competencies - http://www.egonzehnder.com/files/_b_77ddd4d.pdf
Mathematical Model of Diversity - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/science/08conv.html
Scott Page: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Schools, Societies - http://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/~spage/
thedifference_content.html
Diversity Trumps Ability - http://www.crowdsourcing.com/cs/2008/05/chapter-6-the-m.html
Scott Page Research - http://www.pnas.org/content/101/46/16385.full
Voyager Articles
http://www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/now-voyager-the-least-beloved-star-trek-offered-some-of-the-franchises-strongest-feminist-
messages
http://www.startrek.com/page/star-trek-voyager
@fredricmitchell
Thanks for Listening
@fredricmitchell
bit.ly/voyager-inclusive !
2014 Fox Valley Drupal Camp September 20, 2014