FutureTalk with Blithe Rocher + Happy Half-Hour

The Scientific Method of Troubleshooting (http://bit.ly/1ScJoTc)*

For software engineers, troubleshooting is one of the toughest and most important skills to develop. When problems arise, a beginning developer's first instincts are to panic and head to StackOverflow. Rather than rushing to deploy quick fixes, it's important to identify the root cause.

Biologists, chemists, and physicists increase understanding about the world by applying the logical steps of the scientific method to discover solutions to complex problems. Like scientists, developers can learn troubleshooting skills by treating each problem like a mini "science" experiment.

In this talk we'll explore how using the scientific method can lead to greater understanding and more viable solutions to complex problems.

Blithe Rocher is a software engineer based in Oakland, California. She works for Fastly (https://www.fastly.com/) as part of the core engineering team to build the customer-facing Configuration API. Prior to becoming a developer, she received a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Southern California.

Additionally, Blithe is passionate about teaching other women how to become developers. She helped organize Rails Girls ATL, a monthly meetup for women interested in learning about programming.

Details

*note: no need to RSVP via Eventbrite

› Doors will open at 5:30 for a 30-minute networking happy half-hour! The food, beer and drinks are provided by Bellagios and New Relic. The presentation will begin right at 6p.

› FutureTalks is brought to you by New Relic (http://www.newrelic.com/) in collaboration with TAO (http://www.techoregon.org/).