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About This Keynote
In this talk, I relate the practice of masterclasses in music to feedback cycles and how we can apply that to sof...
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I love the number of musicians I've seen in the tech world. I've worked for years in the theater as a musician, singer and actor, but I've always been in love with technology which made me a bit weird among my co-workers. It's awesome to see this representation.
There must be a correlation between musicians and tech, because there is a surprising amount of musicians that I know that are also in tech, and vice versa!
The skills are definitely transferrable! (Speaking from experience). Plus, supply/demand is more in our favor in tech. It's a shame there aren't more opportunities to make a sustainable living in the Arts.
It really is such a shame, I've always been open that I ended up in a web development job because of money and insurance and because at the end of the day, I do love the piano and being a musician, but I like the computer just about as much and if I look at this pragmatically it makes more sense to make a living on the computer. I wish it weren't that kind of a choice, but here we are.
I feel 1000000% the same.
There really are! I used to play with a string quartet that was made up of other people who had previously done serious music study but had switched over into tech for various reasons. I linked this in another comment as well but here's a talk I gave about some of the other connections :) wordpress.tv/2016/06/30/helen-hou-...
Just recently heard discussions on how musicians make great software engineers because of not only the environment of artistic critique and artistic separation from the art created, but also how musicians are experts at practice!
Indeed! Self-driven practice, especially. I've given a talk about those aspects of musicianship and their impact on me as a developer as well: wordpress.tv/2016/06/30/helen-hou-...
Oh, thank you for the link!
Loving this comparison for feedback and learning music - as a prior music education major, this is all too familiar to me, and honestly something I haven't thought about how they could connect.
Props to you, music education is possibly the hardest major there is. So many credits, so many zero credit classes, so many requirements. If you can do that, you can do this tech thing :)
Thanks! I ended up switching to general music ultimately because I realized halfway through that teaching was not what I wanted to do lol, but I have immense respect for those who do. :) I got a lot of great experience through it, though! Especially learning how to play all the different instruments - great mindset for getting a good overview of how different frameworks work!
I love the insight on feedback as a newbie. I recently broke the barrier of hesitation in seeking feedback. The fear of failure is so strange when first learning how to code.
Fear of failure has been the driving force behind the majority of the poor decisions in my life. Its something I struggle with to this day, but we all have our issues I guess. Well done for breaking that barrier.
I feel ya on that! Fear of failure is so strong sometimes and can really be quite debilitating. I have to remind myself that trying and failing is infinitely better than not trying and nothing happening. I feel like generally if I don't do something because of fear of failing then I'm going to regret it.
Michael, I couldn't agree more! It's almost a negative feedback loop where you don't want to fail but feel guilty for not trying in the first place. :)
Thanks Peter! I definitely still have moments of doubt but then I remind myself that no one learns a new skill/trade on the first attempt. You've got this!
It's so, so human to be afraid of failure and to really struggle when you've reached a point in your life where you've mastered a bunch of things but have to start as a beginner all over again. I really struggled with that in undergrad with my secondary instrument choice - I thought the organ would be a reasonably convenient parallel but it turned out to be frustratingly difficult because it was so similar and yet completely different and I had to relearn how to learn all over again.
It is inspiring to hear this. :) Thank you for sharing your experiences with us newbies!
This is really giving me flashbacks to my own studio performances. I remember having a performance with feedback almost exactly like this- vary the voicing, make this part louder, this part softer, pause here, etc. I love the connection between music and tech, I think they're more intimately related than most people think!
I love this combination!! music and engineering yesss
It was so wonderful to hear this talk. I, too, made the change from professional musician to engineer.
Cool! What do you do as a musician?
I used to play flute with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Milwaukee Symphony, Hawaii Symphony and taught flute and piano. (I'm wondering if we know some of the same musicians) :) Here's me (including music life): madelenecampos.com/
Oh cool! I wonder if I ever saw you play, my husband did his MM at DePaul so __I came out a number of times to visit and did some freelancing and going to concerts. I think we almost certainly must share some mutual musician contacts :)
Nice! DePaul is a great school for music. I did my MM at Roosevelt (downtown)
I love the ties between code and music in terms of feedback and communication.
Im digging the connection between the different levels of music in correlation to giving and receiving feedback as a dev.
Great talk πππ
first keynote and we're already about to jam to some music, hyped! π₯
Music is so underrated. It indeed is an excellent healer. Awesome talk. Loving it!
Excellent keynote π
I am passionate about music - particularly, singing as a tenor/bass. I remember how my fellow musicians in the church music group I used to belong give feedback to one another on the fly during practice. I just did not realize until now that such feedback loop applies in software development as well.
As I said in my intro to the community. I used to work in the βold eraβ of software development where I saw none of this at all.
I remember more a game of one-up-manship, whack-a-mole, or hide-under-the-rag approaches. But maybe, it is still the case. Iβm just not in the development environment at the moment.
I am in the retail industry customer service and aiming at going back to software development.
There are definitely different cultures in different places - solo piano is notoriously full of one-up-manship, for instance. But we all have to learn, at the very least, even if we don't become good teachers, so there's no escaping the feedback cycle completely.
Super fascinating -- I think both coding and music can be solo adventures but it's definitely much more fruitful when you learn to collaborate and work with others.
really enjoyed this keynote, i love the way you explained how feedback works using music, it really influences the way one should interact with the community. i'm pretty sure it fits for the beginners up to the veterans, as i am personally a student dev that is still working my way in to the community. thank you for your time! amazing play of the piano btw :D
Yes, if anything it's us veterans who need to be the most mindful about how feedback works and make it better for everybody :)
Thank you, Helen, that was awesome! The feedback cycle really resonated with me. Coming from a science teaching background, it's a lot like our PLCs (professional learning communities) where teachers share with peers, receive/provide feedback and ideas, revise and implement, and then revisit and discuss.
Yes! Sometimes I think about how engineering and design managers are a lot like the educators and pedagogues of the industry.
I loved your talk so much! I'm also a piano major -> software developer and it was really awesome seeing how you made the connections. And so cool to incorporate actual playing during a talk! Also, I just moved to Rochester so hearing that you studied in Eastman made me really happy :)
I always feel sad we didn't link up to play together while I was still in NJ! I've heard Rochester has changed a lot especially downtown, while the snow was rough for me it did have its great things and of course the music scene is amazing. I hope you enjoy :)
I know! With two kids, I'm shocked you were even entertaining the idea. I now have a 4-month old and I feel like I have zero time to do anything, nevertheless commit to plans with people! Hope all is well.
The feedback literacy concept was entirely new to me. Thank you for a wonderful talk! I found your comparison between three feedback tiers most interesting.
What advice would you give to younger devs in teams where the culture for giving feedback is a little lacking?
That's good feedback to give you to your manager! You can suggest things like structuring 1:1s with an agenda that includes feedback in each direction, and/or a group sharing type of forum to a manager, or organize one yourself as a peer-to-peer kind of exercise. A great book that talks about how to shape the manager/report relationship is Camille Fournier's The Manager's Path - the first section is for reports and how to be managed.
Thank you! Iβll read up on your suggestions! π€©
Helen, I loved your talk and your tip about attending rehearsals. I live near SΓ£o Paulo Concert Hall, home of SΓ£o Paulo Symphonic Orchestra (OSESP) and some of their rehearsal are open to public. I'm looking forward to attending it after pandemic state ends.
Thank you for sharing with us today. I love how you connected music to coding. Feedback is something we need, but often don't ask for. Your tips on processing and actioning feedback were very helpful and something I have never thought about.
I'm glad you found it useful and hope it serves you well in the future!
Live Piano π©βπ€ππΆ sounds good.
I thought that this was a really great talk. I played the snare drum from 5th grade into college, concert and field, I've had the the opportunity to practice feedback and performance based on the feedback in the dynamic teachings of percussion. I would have never thought about applying this to my coding journey. Thanks so much Helen!
Awesome! Some friends and I just made a "battle of the bands" playlist earlier this week, those marching band and drumline vibes :)
this is amazing, i love listening to moonlight sonata <33
you play beautifull
music while coding will help you put more energy into solving a programming problem and will make you more productive
Really enjoying the relation between music and techies. This is certainly going to increase my love for music and the tech world even more!
Thank you! This was excellent, and provided an interesting additional perspective on feedback.
Moonlight Sonata !!! :)
Wow Awesome ππ
What a cool way to make another connection between making music and working in tech!
This was a wonderful talk! Thank you!
Thank you for the interesting topic! Very cool perspective and beautiful music also.
Loved the keynote! Thanks a bunch.
Very cool to dive deeper into how to give and accept feedback! Thanks :)
I have an Oculus and play Synthriders and there are many musicians who love the music tracks and the rhythm games. They can see the beauty in the custom maps.
Amazing!!!!
Despite the title, I wasn't ready for the lovely music! Thanks for a great talk, Helen. The analogy got me out of my head and into flow mode.
Where can we find the masterclass?
Great question! I think Helen said that she was going to pop back into the comments later and drop this info.
Found it!
youtube.com/watch?v=eVbvFYRzIAE
Woot! π
Thank you Helen! I am transitioning to tech from music, and for me this was a very comforting start to this conference.
Nice! What do you do as a musician?
My primary instruments are baroque cello, viola da gamba and violone. So, a lot of continuo playing and collaborative orchestral work.
Love it, one of my first orchestral keyboard experiences was on harpsichord for some Vivaldi continuo :) the people who can work entirely off figured bass remain magicians to me.
This talk sounds seriously awesome! Really looking forward to this. π
Hello hello πβΊ
Here's the masterclass I mentioned for y'all to check out! youtube.com/watch?v=eVbvFYRzIAE
This was so cool!
Im digging the connection between the different levels of music in correlation to giving and receiving feedback as a dev.
Great talk!
Thanks for this nice Keynote!
Feedback as a topic was not the first thing i was thinking about in coding :)
Hey Helen, just came here to say I really enjoyed your talk and the way you gave the talk in general, awesome π
This music is soothing π
Brilliance , Take bow to thee guys who can chain lyrics with code in other ππ
Sounds amazing, and I love your message about the nuances of feedback!
That's an incredible topic! As for a musician who's trying in tech that definitely resonates to me! Thanks for wonderful presentation!
Great job on the crescendo!
Here's the link to the masterclass Helen was referring to, found it on her blog post. Hope it helps :)
youtube.com/watch?v=eVbvFYRzIAE
Thank you so much Helen for this great keynote speech.
I have a question; what do you think is a good way to receive feedback on my coding skills if Iβm learning by myself?
That can definitely be hard to find. The places I would start are any local communities you might have around you, and posting about what you're learning in places like CodeNewbie or your own blog and asking people for feedback. I've also had a good time during the pandemic with streaming while livecoding something that can be shared, where people will join in the chat and offer up tips and tricks or just kind of hang out and socialize. Another piece of advice you may here and that I of course am biased toward is to contribute to an open source project. PR review is a lot like a masterclass because you are getting feedback from somebody you might not ever directly work with but has a ton of knowledge, and if you contribute to an open source project that you yourself are using, also get the benefits of learning it more deeply and helping keep it sustainable.
Thank you Helen for these helpful tips π ... I'll definitely try to join an open source project.
I also come from a music background university formation.
I have been learning how to code for 4 months looking for a career change and one of my biggest fears was that my music degree would become an obstacle in the future. Now I feel that it can be a huge advantage if I play my cards well :D
This short lecture was so inspirational, thank you!
I definitely spent a while feeling self-conscious as a musician, and there are definitely areas of tech where you'll find people flexing what school they went to and that sort of thing. I'm not going to pretend like it's not intimidating, but yes I definitely think you can show that it's an advantage, and places where people focus on things like school credentials are maybe not the places you want to be anyway.
youtube.com/watch?v=b2S-OjTb4nU. I think this is one of the masterclasses she was referring to. Great talk, some very suprising concepts!
This is going to be exciting.
That was awesome Helen! Thank you so much for this!!
Excellent π―
So this is about communication skills and understanding? Not receiving critisim, but understanding comments?
What makes feedback more than criticism and how to both give it and do something with it :)
Amazing starter! Thanks a lot π₯
Hello
Hi! @helen thanks for posting
Loved your keynote. Amazing.
Thank you for this nice Keynote <3
Feedback as a topic was not the first thing i was thinking about in coding :)
The music was beautiful. I liked the correlation of music feedback and code feedback.
Hi All
Fabulous x 10
I really liked this comparision, never given a thought for it before.
I think everything we learn in life can be used into different areas and you gave a really good example for this.
Really good presentation and loved the live piano music :)
Thanks for sharing. You can listen to music on Spotify Premium for free and moreover there are many great songs from famous singers around the world here: apkcima.com/spotify-premium/
Thank you for the slides