Coders Only

This is an informal book club: we meet to share our thoughts, questions, and half-formed reactions to what we've read. Everyone is welcome, whatever your relationship to the software engineering world and however long you've been in it. The only preparation needed is reading the chapter for that session.
We'll shape the group and its format together, taking inspiration from the book club guide the author put together herself: https://catharsisinsight.com/book-club-guide

Want to go deeper?
For Chapter 2, Cat recommends two pieces of companion material:

• Her LeadDev talk from 2023 "Where we’re going wrong with developer productivity" — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLJCut3VwwQ
• Lee, Hicks, & Foster-Marks (2024), “My code is shit”: Negative automatic thoughts and outcomes of a behavioral experiment for code review anxiety.

Reflection prompts
The guide includes two "Try it" prompts for this chapter. Sit with them for a few minutes before the session if you can.

• Look at your team through the lens of all three traps (Brittle Productivity, Lone Genius, and Chilly Climate), then pick whichever one feels most salient right now. Name one concrete, observable sign of it (for example, a sprint that “succeeded” but left everyone wrecked; a story where one person is framed as the only source of breakthroughs; a cue about whose identity is really welcomed in the room). Then identify one small step you could take this week that would help break the thinking trap.
• Look at a tech community you’re part of (an open-source project, a meetup, a Discord or forum, a professional network) through the same three traps. Pick whichever trap feels most salient. Brittle Productivity might appear in unpaid maintainers burning out while everyone praises the project’s “amazing momentum.” Lone Genius might show up in who gets thanked in the release notes versus who did the coordination and community work. Chilly Climate might be present in a community’s inside jokes, its default assumptions about who’s “actually technical,” or who stops showing up to events. Name one concrete sign of the trap, and then write down one thing you personally could do this month to interrupt it.

— from Dr. Cat Hicks' book club guide: https://catharsisinsight.com/book-club-guide

About the series
The current plan is to have one session per chapter and meet every other week, giving everyone plenty of time to prepare. We also have a discord channel to keep the discussion going between the meetings: https://discord.gg/FApmy7zYkn

See you there!

Join us for the Zürich edition of the Global Day of Coderetreat (coderetreat.org) — an annually occurring code
retreat happening worldwide, simultaneously, on the same day.

It's a safe space for developers to practice their
craft, away from the pressure of delivering.

You must register for a ticket here — RSVPing on Meetup alone does not reserve your spot:
https://infomaniak.events/en-ch/training-courses/global-day-of-coderetreat-zurich-2026/863d8dd3-c07a-42db-b0d0-a91aea8ddc1a/events/398544

We'll spend the day coding in pairs, focused on Pair Programming and Test-Driven Development (TDD). Six 45-minute
sessions, each tackling the same problem (Conway's Game of Life) under different constraints, followed by a
15-minute feedback round to share what we learned.

No impostor syndrome here — this is a place of practice, not performance. Getting it right matters more than
getting it done, and after each session, you delete your code and start fresh.

Bring a laptop with your IDE set up for TDD.

All languages and experience levels welcome.

Organized by Coders Only, the Zürich developer community/association.