Dr. Neil Roodyn on the Social Impact of Technology - Episode 40

Today's guest is Dr. Neil Roodyn — an entrepreneur, founder, consultant, trainer, and author! Neil travels the world, working with technology companies and helps software development teams become more productive. He spends much of his time each year flying between Europe and the U.S. working with software teams and writing about his experiences. As an author, Neil has been involved in several technical books, including: Mixed Reality Fundamentals, where he was a co-author; The Digital Table, which he also co-authored; and eXtreme .NET: Introducing eXtreme Programming Techniques to .NET Developers.

An interesting fact about Neil is that he is often at the forefront (or ahead of) technology trends. In 1995, Neil worked on 3D graphics and VR; in 1999, he worked with smartphone technology; in 2002, he was actively involved with the tablet PC; in 2005, he focused on online mapping; in 2008, it was digital tables; and in 2011, it was all about vision-based computing. And now, since 2016, he has been working with AI, cognitive services, and mixed reality! A core part of Neil's work is his belief that technology should help us; not hinder us — and right now, that's not always the case.

Dr. Neil Roodyn has seen many technologies, paradigm shifts, and has done a lot of thinking around how the different technologies impact how we behave and communicate — i.e. the social impact of technology. In this episode, Neil gives his take on the social impact of technology, the huge challenges that come along with it, and his ideas on how to address it from both an individual and team level.

This is an incredibly important topic for developers (or anyone in the industry really!) — so tune in to learn more about the social impact of technology and how you can become less distracted and more productivity!

Topics of Discussion:

[:53] How to get your hands on Jeffrey's book, .NET DevOps for Azure.

[1:35] About today's guest!

[2:57] Jeffrey welcomes Dr. Neil Roodyn on to the podcast!

[4:37] Neil's thoughts around the struggle to get high quality in software building.

[5:57] What has changed in the industry in the last 12 years around automated testing?

[7:49] Neil's general take on the social impact of different technologies.

[15:30] Neil's ideas on how to become less distracted by technologies as an individual and as a team.

[17:47] A word from Azure DevOps sponsor: Clear Measure.

[18:12] The challenges of not being in the same space as your team while working.

[21:12] Jeffrey and Neil discuss trades without the challenges that technologies can present and the unique challenges that are a part of industries where you do work with technologies.

[24:11] Talking productivity vs. technology interruptions

[27:20] How technology decreases our ability to be present.

[29:38] Neil gives his advice on how to create a development environment that enables focus.

[36:36] Neil's recommendations on what listeners should follow-up on after listening to today's podcast.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Azure DevOps

Clear Measure (Sponsor) — Reach out if you have a user group or conference and would like some free copies of .NET DevOps for Azure!

Microsoft Build Conference

.NET DevOps for Azure, by Jeffrey Palermo

eXtreme .NET: Introducing eXtreme Programming Techniques to .NET Developers, by Dr. Neil Roodyn

Dr. Neil Roodyn's LinkedIn

Dr. Neil Roodyn's Twitter