The Id, Ego and the Eyeliner

Every engineer knows the thrill and dread of inheriting a codebase: decisions made by people long gone, workarounds nobody remembers writing, and logic that still runs even though no one can say why. Here's the plot twist: you're running legacy code too.

Long before you chose your habits, you absorbed rules about closeness, conflict, authority, and worth from the people who raised you. Those rules are still executing quietly in the background. Psychoanalysis calls this the unconscious, and it's less spooky than it sounds. It's just the part of the system that runs without being called. (Fitting that we're gathering the day before Halloween.)

This is the starting point. In this 90-minute, beginner-friendly introduction, we'll explore:

• What the unconscious is, in plain language
• How it shows up in everyday life: the feedback that stings more than it should, the argument that keeps returning with a new cast, the colleague you can never quite trust
• What your personal legacy code is, and what each old routine was originally built to protect you from
• How to start identifying your own patterns, and how to decide what to keep, update, or retire

Expect short teaching segments, guided reflection, and small-group conversation on Zoom. No background needed. Bring your curiosity and come ready to meet your own source code.

What comes next: This session lays the foundation for what follows. Building on it, we'll turn to team dynamics: why some teams come together cohesively and sustain high productivity, and why others struggle to cohere. Understanding the unconscious in yourself is the first step to understanding it in the groups you work in.