Acting, Improv, And Software Engineering - Interview With Rita Iglesias

Episode Overview

• Rita Iglesias shares her unique career journey from running a theatre company for eight years to becoming a successful software developer.
• The conversation highlights how skills from acting and improv, such as creative problem-solving, collaboration, and communication, are highly transferable and valuable in a tech environment.
• Rita emphasizes a learning philosophy centered on embracing discomfort, active problem-solving, and hands-on practice as the most effective path to growth.
• The discussion explores the importance of building a vulnerable and psychologically safe team culture, where leaders model that it's okay not to have all the answers.

Key Concepts

• Transferable Skills: Skills from seemingly unrelated fields like acting and improv—including communication, collaboration under pressure, and creative problem-solving—are highly valuable in software engineering. The improv principle of "Yes, and..." is particularly useful for building on ideas and fostering effective teamwork.
• Learning Through Practice: True learning comes from active engagement, experimentation, and embracing the "uncomfortable zone." Struggling to solve a problem independently before seeking help solidifies knowledge far more effectively than passively consuming tutorials.
• Vulnerability in Tech Culture: A strong team culture is built on psychological safety, which is fostered when leaders and senior developers are vulnerable and openly admit when they don't know something. This encourages the entire team to ask questions and learn without fear.
• Problem-Solving Mindset: A core passion for problem-solving is the common thread between Rita's work in theatre and software development. She finds coding empowering due to the vast resources available (like Google) compared to the constraints of live performance.
• Coding as a Creative Act: Software development is presented as an inherently creative field, much like building with Lego, where you combine fundamental pieces in unique ways to create something new and functional.

Quotes

• At 9:58 - "If you force you to be in the uncomfortable zone all the time... you will grow super fast. Like, it's the best way to grow." - Rita explains her philosophy on growth, which she applied by pushing herself to learn and apply for jobs even when she felt unprepared.
• At 13:16 - "'Yes, and...' means you are never blocking the other person... You are building something together." - Rita explains a core principle of improv and how it directly applies to effective collaboration and constructive feedback within a development team.
• At 16:08 - "In theater... if something broke in the middle of the show, you need to figure it out with the things that you have in that moment... but with programming, you have Google." - Rita contrasts the resource constraints of live theatre with the vast resources available to developers, highlighting why she finds coding so empowering.
• At 23:44 - "Don't overthink it... Just do the first step. That's the hardest thing." - Rita offers her primary piece of advice to anyone considering a career change into tech, encouraging them to overcome initial hesitation and just begin.
• At 33:55 - "Let's show ourselves vulnerable because it doesn't make sense." - Advocating for a culture where developers, especially leaders, are open about what they don't know to foster a better learning environment.

Takeaways

• Leverage your unique background; skills from non-traditional fields like the arts can be a significant advantage in tech for problem-solving, communication, and collaboration.
• Embrace active struggle as a primary learning method, as the effort to figure things out independently builds deeper and more lasting knowledge than passive learning.
• Foster vulnerability within your team by being open about what you don't know, which creates the psychological safety necessary for collective growth and innovation.
• To make a significant career change, focus on taking the first small step rather than getting paralyzed by overthinking the entire journey.