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Title:

Coding with a Baby (Lessons learned from a developer with small children)

Abstract:

Now you have done it...you and your spouse created a tiny human. Despite all the software you have written, the child will be your greatest creation. Did you know there are apps to track your child's every sleeping and waking moment, as well as groups of apps which integrate to streamline your daily workflow, so you can spend more time with your family? Do you wonder how much technology you should expose your little one to? Come and learn how a developer can survive having a baby with tips, tricks, and technologies to ease the transition into parenthood, and your child's first exposure to technology.

Outline/Timeline

  • Talk about the timeline of activities (show a timeline as the outline)
    • Biography
    • Pregnancy, Reduce Project Impact, Delivery, early years
    • The New Reality strategies to cope with your limited time
    • Introducing your child to technology

Biography

Professional

  • HMBer Work for HMB
  • Professional Stuff
  • 15 years experience
  • Work for HMB
  • Architect
  • Scrum Master
  • Life Learner
  • General Software Enthusiast
  • Father of 2 children
  • Sizes of comapnies worked for
  • TODO: Research other things I should include with bio
    • GitHub
    • Twitter
    • Blog
    • Link to presentation

Personal

  • The Wife
    • Understanding
  • The Big Brother
    • 4 years old
    • Really into the Ipad, games, and Movies
  • The Baby
    • 5 months old
    • Keeps the wife and I up at night
  • Note: try to keep my children's personal identities private
    • Working for school district learned about privacy of children pictures and names
    • As a parent you are the digital guardian of your child's online presence
    • TODO: Look into parenting and managing digital presence of children, being steward of online persona

Having the baby

Pregnancy

  • What technology can you use to help with pregnancy?
    • services tell you how big your baby is and what is developing
    • TODO: List some services for use during pregnancy and why we used them
  • You will be debugging in production
    • It is like having a test suite where the names of the tests are A,B,2,4,5...yes you know there is an issue, but you have no idea what the issue is.
    • I guess you could say my first child was the Prototype for the second, but the first got way more attention, so not sure
    • How do you over come this difficulty?
      • Practice...attend some how to care for baby classes
      • TODO: Look for apps to help new parents instead of how to care for baby classes

RPI (Reduce Project Impact)

  • Plan for extended time off
    • You will have many months to inform your project leaders about the upcoming baby
    • Tell them when you feel comfortable ?after first trimester
  • Communication plan
    • First talk to your boss about the exciting news, and formulate plan on how to inform
      • your stakeholders, PMs, and CoWorkers
    • Formulate the time you would like to talk off for the baby and talk timeline
    • If someone is taking over your work and interacting with stakeholders, introduce them early and begin including them in on meetings.
    • Know your rights and policies
      • Company Policy for Maternity and Paternity leave
      • Family Medical LeRave Act (FMLA)
      • What costs your medical coverage
      • Short Term Disability, sometimes you have to elect
      • Checklist of documents you will need to have your baby
    • For the first baby I took one week off to start with the new baby and wife
      • Then I took another week at 1 month to watch the baby while my wife started work
      • I used FMLA for the next 4 months to take off every Wednesday to spend with the baby (unpaid)
    • For the second baby, my wife was taking more time, and I started a new job
      • I phoned a friend, and got an old co-worker to come in and keep my project going, thanks Ben
      • So I only took a week off
    • For both I communicated clearly with everyone on my Service Level Agreement, and when I would be available
      • In my experience if you give people enough warning of the changes that will occur they are very supportive and excited for you
      • When and if you will respond to emails or phone calls
  • Remove yourself as primary on anything
    • Help others prepare to take on your responsiblities
    • You will be out for a bit, make sure others know how to do your work
    • as you get closer to the delivery date, begin taking on non-critical tasks
      • At the end of the day ensure someone knows where you are on tasks
  • Form relationships with your co workers
    • Create your own support network
    • You will need there help as your brain power diminishes due to sleep deprivation

The Delivery

  • Don't pass out
    • TODO: Picture of husband passed out in delivery room with nurses surrounding

Entertainment

  • Delivery may take a while prepare you and your spouse for the long haul
  • I used some technology to help during the delivery of each of our children
    • Made playlist
      • Relaxing
      • Exciting
    • Used bluetooth speaker for music, so could stay close to my wife and control the music
  • Don't forget chargers for cell phones and other devices you have packed in your bags

Pictures

  • Do take picutes of your newborn
  • Do not take pictures of your baby coming out...no one want to see that
    • Talk to your spouse on what shoud be recorded and what should not

Informing others

  • Make a list of people you want to email or txt
    • Include someone at work, so they know what is going on
    • Draft an email
    • Facebook
    • Use a service
      • TODO: List services
  • Maybe don't tweet your centimeters dialated...TMI

Early years

Geek out

The New Reality strategies to cope with your limited time

  • The new reality is you have less time on your hands.
    • TODO: find way to info graphic show less time or research the amount of time you lose when you have a baby
      • Instead just make it up...when you were single in college you had 6 hours of school and 18 hours of free time, when you got married it was like 8 hours of work 4 hours with wife 8 hours sleep 4 hours free time, when you have a baby...8 hours of work, 8 hours with the baby 4 hours for wife and 4 hours sleep.
    • Your coworkers may talk about exotic topics like "Free Time", having slept poorly because they only got 7 hours of sleep, and drinking beer
    • You will grace your coworkers with pictures that can never truely capture the pure joy of a smile and the feeling a baby snuggled in for a midday nap
      • TODO: pictures of boys smiling

Get organized

Keeping up with whats new

  • Use the time you have available
    • Podcasts during driving
    • Videos while holding baby
      • Invest in a tablet and bluetooth headphones, preferrably without blinking lights
  • Find the aggregators of the world to help give you breadth
  • Find the experts of your field to give you depth
  • Spend some time each week staging content for you
  • Select a topic and spend a couple of weeks diving into that topic
  • Having the content staged will ensure that you can continue learning on one topic
  • Be mobile...you will get short bursts on time...utilize them to acheive something
    • You never know when a baby will pass out...most likely while walking through mall
      • Man I wish I had that article I was reading
  • Use conferences as a way to jump start interesting topics
    • I like to create items on the todo list as a take away item from each session I attend
  • Find a friend
    • Just like a spotter at the gym or workout buddy, someone to push you and make you better

Work Life balance

  • talk about exercise and 7 minute workouts
    • TODO: App for 7 minute workout
  • Take some time to be alone with your significant other, get a baby sitter your child will be fine

Other

  • Changes in your daily work engagement as a result of the new baby
    • You will have less time for overtime...good planning is needed to limit overtime
    • You will be fuzzy from lack of sleep
      • My CoWorkers kept a running total of number of days without good sleep
      • Form relationships with your team members, projects and teams work in an eb and flow style. You will need their help when you are diminished due to sleep deprivation.
    • Less time to dive into problems at night
    • TODO: Move this whole section to after birth.

Children with Technology

Protect Devices

Notes from the corner office (Tech leaders)

  • Common Sense Media did study and found about half of all families with incomes over 75,000 had downloaded apps for their young children
    • Amoung all children under 2 they average 53 minutes of tv or dvds more than twice the average time children are read to, 23 minutes
    • Almost one third of children under 2 have tv in their bedroom
    • 12 percent of children 2 to 4 use a computer every day, and 24 percent use it once a week
  • Stats on average usage
    • By 3 months old, 40% of children regularly consume electronic media. By 24 months, 90%.
    • Screen Time Trends for kids under 6:
      • 52% of kids under 1 watched daily TV (30% watched videos), 2.5 hours/day
      • 60% of 1 year-olds watched TV; 47% videos; 3 hours/day
      • 71% of 2 year-olds watched TV; 53% videos; 3+ hours/day
  • There is a trend of decreased screen time from 2 hours 16 minutes in 2011 to only 1 hour 55 minutes in 2013
  • American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) discourages screen time for kids under 2 and advises limiting daily screen time to one to two hours for older kids.
  • Industry leaders limit the technology their kids can use
    • Steve Job's did not allow gadgets at dinner table, and talk about books, history, and other things
    • Bill Gates - held off his daugther from hard-core computer use until 10 and limits game play to 45 minutes
      • His son asked if he was going to have limits on screen time his whole life? Bill said "when you move away you can set your own screen limits."
    • Chris Anderson, former editor of Wired, institute time limit an parental control on all devices in the house
      • No screens in the bedroom
    • Evan Williams, founder of Blogger, Twitter, and Medium gave children hundreds of books instead of ipads
    • Ali Partovi, a founder of iLike and advisor to facebook, dinstinguishes passive vs active media interactions
    • Dick Costolo, chief executive of Twitter, decided to allow unlimited usage but only in the living room
    • Why?
      • Studies show that excessive media can lead to attention problems, school difficulties, sleep and eating disorders
        • The American Academy of Pediatrics children and teens should engage with entertainment media for no more than one to two hourse per day.
        • there is no educational value in screen time for kids under 2
      • sleep disorder
      • obesity
        • more exposure to marketing
      • behavioral problems
      • Academic performance
      • violence - desensitized
      • Less time for play - active or creative
      • Limit exposure to harmful content, porn
      • Bullying from other kids
      • Addiction to devices
      • Want to foster imagination, creativity, and wonder
        • Our generation has created some amazing things, but we all started without ubiquitous tech
      • all these playtime gadgets can distance families, hurt academic success, and pose the risk of addiction
      • If you don't let kids have some access they may binge when they get older
      • Reduction in fine motor skills because of too much time with touch devices
    • How can you implement these strategies?
      • Talk about how reducing sitting and encouraging movement promotes a health life
      • Be a good role model in your use of electronics in front of children
      • Log the amount of time child in front of any screen, computer, phone, tablet, DS, etc
      • set screen time limits
      • Create screen free bedrooms
      • Meal Time == Family Time, no gadgets
      • Provide other habits, family exercise, reading physical books
      • Don't use screen time as reward or punishment, b/c makes devices seem more important
      • encourage active screen time, jumping jacks on commercials
      • No gadgets during the week and only 30 min to 2 hours on weekend
      • Some parent do not let their teens have social media accounts except services like snapchat which delete messages after they are sent
      • Differentiate passive consumption from creation time, which is similar to playing piano or writing
      • Some Silicon Valley parents send their kids to Waldorf School in Los Altos, which focuses on hands on learing, so there are no computers

Digital Guardians

  • How do we manage our children's digital persona?
    • Do you put pictures and names of children on public websites
    • How do you communicate about your children to others
    • Do you reserve digital domains for your children?
    • Can we give our children a leg up on creating an easily identifiable digital persona?
      • Squat on accounts?
    • TODO: Some other services which are ephemeral like Snapchat which deletes messages
  • Personal Privacy refers to you kid's online reputation
  • Consumer Privacy refers to data companies can collect about your kids during online interactions and transactions
  • Use strict privacy settings in apps and websites
  • Know your kids passwords to social media sites
  • Teach kids to be aware of personal information they are giving away online
  • The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, prevents kid-targeted websites and apps from collecting data on kids younger than 13 without parental consent
  • Never let kid share name, school's name, age,phone number, email, home address with strangers
  • Never open email from strangers

How to teach coding

  • There are some good apps to help teach coding
    • Koadable
    • Hopscotch
    • Scratch

References

Bio

  • Github address
  • Twitter Handle
  • Blog
  • Link to presentation

Having the Baby

Pregnancy

Delivery

Early Years

Geek Out

Planning

Career

Children With Technology

####Digital Gaurdians

How to teach coding

TODO:

  • put easter egg pictures of the babies throughout the presentation
  • big picture of Ben to thank him for his help when I went on paternity leave

Old Stuff

  • Your co-workers may talk about exotic things like "Free Time", Drinking Beer, and Sleeping for 10 hours
  • Your kids are only young once, so try not to use the electronic baby sitter too much
  • Warn your co-workers you will not be firing on all cylinders
  • You will eventually get all your smarts back
  • If your wife is on maternity leave see if you can trade her some early even hours for a contiguous block of sleep for you
    • 6 hours of contiguous sleep is worth more than 8 hours of interrupted sleep
    • Remind your wife that this will be the only time this child is a baby and that she should take more maternity time
  • Discuss with your wife the plan of attack in the middle of the night, make sure she is explicit
    • You will reach a point where you will rationalize not following the plan so you can get more sleep
  • No matter how cute and wonderful your baby is...you will think ok, that thing is awesome, can I go back to work now?
  • Interestingly enough your co-workers are NOT interested in color or consistency of your child's poop
  • If you can go out to a company happy hour, it will seem like a vegas style oasis, big lights lots of excitement and booze
    • about 20 minutes into the happy hour you will be wondering if your kid is doing something amazing
  • Your threshold of entertainment is lowered dramatically
    • You will put the baby on a blanket in the middle of the room and just stare at it...note it won't do anything
    • after about 2 - 3 months your baby will smile at you, and you will simultaneously think two things. 1) It is about time you did something anything 2) I will do anything...literally anything for you to smile at me again
      • A baby's smile and laugh is the purest form of joy
      • you will try to create an infinit loop of smiles and laughs
  • Do not take picture of the baby coming out with your phone...your wife will not appreciate it...had to learn that the hard way
  • Make no bones about it for a significant period of time after the baby is born...you will be in survival mode
  • While the iphone is a great invention...zipper pajama's were created by a true genius
    • snap pajamas are more difficult than writting a web app in assembly
      • button pajamas - forget about it - it is like coding blind folded

Extra Notes

  • Goals are achieved and inch at a time, in order to move your goal forward you can spend an hour every evening
    • so you need to break up your goals into small chunks
    • a way to store your tasks, so that you can jump into the flow as quickly as possible
  • http://blog.codinghorror.com/on-parenthood/
    • a good article on a parent and developer, kind of emotional stuff
  • http://spin.atomicobject.com/2014/09/06/development-and-parenting/
    • article about how being a parent is like developing software
  • Online presence later in life - be afraid of how this might impact them in the future
  • TODO: Photos of R and G carrying around cords at age 1

#Extra

TODO:

Pictures of me and the boys 6. Work on transition from Keeping organized and staying current 7. Work on adding the why is this talk relevant to non-parents + We are creator of technology so we should be aware of concerns of parents when creating + You may some day have kids + You may interact with a kid and technology + Preparing to go on extended leave from work is not just for pregnancy and a baby + Staying organized is a universal issue + Staying up to date with technology is a universal issue

  • Don't forget to have a shout out to Cassandra Faris for the idea for the talk

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