The Berserker Always Dies

This past Tuesday, I gave an Ignite-style talk at DOSUG. I recorded the audio and combined it with the slides (with their prescribed timing) and uploaded the finished product to Vimeo. (It turns out 20 slides of 15-second auto advance works out to be more like 5:06 than 5:00, but who’s counting?)

The talk is an exploration of the hero culture in software development, with lessons drawn from the epic poem Beowulf. Beowulf is, the consensus of medieval scholars notwithstanding, a parable about software teams gone bad. We ignore its lessons at our personal and collective peril.

from on .

October 8, 2010 · Filed under presentation

7 Comments »

  1. Arun Batchu Said,

    October 8, 2010 @ 10:16 pm

    Tim, I really enjoyed this presentation. Brian Sletten mentioned that it was worth watching. He was absolutely right. Thanks for doing this. I am sure it is going to positively impact scores of geeks inspiring them to empower others and hence lead.

  2. tlberglund Said,

    October 8, 2010 @ 10:26 pm

    Thanks, Arun! I certainly hope so. I’m really glad you liked it.

  3. Peter Pascale Said,

    October 11, 2010 @ 8:38 am

    While I was hoping for a Leroy Jenkins references – the use of Beowulf far surpassed my expectations – Great food for thought. I’m going to ask my tech leads to watch and discuss…

  4. tlberglund Said,

    October 11, 2010 @ 8:43 am

    Thanks, Peter! I would be pretty jazzed if you shared (here) any insights those discussions generated. Glad you liked it.

  5. John Rellis Said,

    November 9, 2010 @ 9:19 am

    Great presentation, really enjoyed it. I wholeheartedly agree. People that have found happiness and success in their field should share that with others rather than starve them of the experiences. This should be done even if this “holds” the experienced person “back” somewhat. I think this is true in most fields, not just development…… or ancient poetry :) Well, thats what I took from it. Thanks!

  6. Jack Crews Said,

    April 14, 2011 @ 10:25 am

    Well said Tim! I never had much respect for people who tried to be the hero but the servant leader can make things happen. It’s interesting how using XP practices like pairing and self-organization help solve this problem.

  7. May 11th Combined DJUG and DOSUG event | DenverJUG Said,

    April 27, 2011 @ 3:14 pm

    [...] Tim Berglund’s example on “Heroism” in software development: https://augusttechgroup.com/tim/blog/2010/10/08/the-berserker-always-dies/ [...]

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