Episode 44: Crossing The Chasm with Tobie Langel

Sponsored by Linode
Panelists Allen "Gunner" Gunn | Justin Dorfman | Pia Mancini
| Richard Littauer Guest Tobie Langel Show Notes Welcome to
Sustain! On today’s episode, we have special guest, Tobie Langel,
the Founder of UnlockOpen, from Geneva, Switzerland. Tobie tells us
all about UnlockOpen and what he does there. He tells us how he
focuses on convincing companies that they need to contribute back
to Open Source. Other topics we will talk about are DevOps culture,
prototype JavaScript framework not being updated since 2015, which
Tobie extensively explains what happened, as well as speaking about
lessons to be learned and things we need to be aware of. There is
so much great advice and stories shared on this episode. Download
it now! [00:01:19] Tobie tells us about UnlockOpen and what he
does. [00:02:30] Richard wants to know how do you get in the door
as a consultant to try to talk to people about how they should use
Open Source and how do you pitch that to people that don’t know
what Open Source is? [00:08:04] Tobie discusses how he focuses on
convincing companies that they need to contribute back to Open
Source. Pia wonders if Tobie thinks we’re making progress towards
cultural changes within the audience? [00:12:10] Allen asks Tobie
if he’s advancing the notion of DevOps as a gateway drug for all of
this open culture. Tobie mentions a book he’s reading called,
Accelerate, that_ _talks about the benefits of DevOps culture to
companies from a business perspective. [00:14:13] Justin wants to
know where Tobie got his kind of background and he also wonders
about project abandonment, and prototype JavaScript framework
hasn’t been updated since 2015. So, what happened there and what
lessons could be learned? [00:24:06] Tobie speaks about learning
from history, about lessons to be learned, and things we have to be
aware of. [00:26:06] Tobie mentions how he’s a huge fan of DHH and
Basecamp and he gives some great advice that he’s learned on
focusing on things that matter long term. Justin and Richard also
have some positive advice and stories to share as well. [00:35:25]
Richard makes an awesome statement here about being resilient.
[00:36:20] Tobie tells us where we can find him to learn more about
him. Spotlight [00:38:03] Justin’s spotlight is our first bonus
podcast episode (#41) with Dave Gandy, and we discussed Font
Awesome 6, the donut diet, commitments, and more. Check it out!
[00:42:23] Allen’s spotlight is Open Tech Fund. [00:38:56]
Richard’s spotlight is Aral Balkan, a cyborg rights activist.
[00:39:17] Toby’s spotlight is a book by Nadia Eghbal called,
Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source
Software. Quotes “It boils down to bottom line and top line. To
some degree it’s more than that, obviously, culture, brand, making
people feel happy to work in a company. All of those are critical
for a company.” [00:10:45] “And we are at the point where we need
to cross the chasm. So maybe move that from being something that is
essentially something adopted by a few really performant companies
at the helm of this effort and move that across to become more
mainstream. [00:16:47] “And so the funny thing is I essentially
learned JavaScript by reading the source code because there was no
documentation and I started contributing to the library by writing
documentation for it.” [00:17:44] “It took a lot of time for Sam to
realize that he was burning out and just couldn’t spend the time
that was needed to give more authority to other people on the
project.” [00:21:58] “There was a lot of energy, and people are
ready to do a lot of things for the rocket ship because you also
benefit personally quite a bit when you’re investing your time in a
rocket ship.” [00:25:19] “This goes right to the heart of what
we’re trying to talk about here. And so I think one of the things
that I’m really picking up from what you’re saying is that it’s
better to dedicate yourself towards an ideology of working well in
the open, of working with other people, of trying to consistently
not just stay ahead of the curve, but work in a way that what you
do will matter later.” [00:34:20] “At the same time you could carry
that comparison even further kind of ad absurdum, like everything’s
the same, because we all need to eat and we all get tired and we
all get sleepy and we all get hungry, we’re all kind of anxious and
we have to work with other people and what wears kind of annoying
and it’s pretty tough.” Links Tobie Langel Twitter
(https://twitter.com/tobie?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
UnlockOpen (https://unlockopen.com/) Sustain Podcast-Episode 41:
The Donut Diet, Commitments. and More Awesomeness with Dave Gandy
(https://fireside.fm/s/fxw-Bcan+HH3L5owT) Open Technology Fund
(https://www.opentech.fund/) Aral Balkan (https://ar.al/) [Working
in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software by
Nadia
Eghbal](https://www.amazon.com/Working-Public-Making-Maintenance-Software/dp/0578675862/ref=sr12?dchild=1&keywords=working+in+public%3A+the+making&qid=1592942530&sr=8-2)
[Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps:Building and
Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations by Nicole
Forsgren,
PhD](https://www.amazon.com/Accelerate-Software-Performing-Technology-Organizations/dp/1942788339/ref=sr12?dchild=1&keywords=accelerate&qid=1592942345&sr=8-2)
Credits Produced by Justin Dorfman (https://www.justindorfman.com/)
Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound
(https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at
Peachtree Sound (https://www.peachtreesound.com/) Ad Sales by Eric
Berry Special Guest: Tobie Langel.