01: Laurent Bossavit of Institut Agile

My guest is Laurent Bossavit of Institut Agile, known on LessWrong.com as Morendil. His book on The Leprechauns of Software Engineering, mentioned in the podcast, shows some interesting cases of industry legend in software: "How folklore turns into fact and what to do about it."

In this 29-minute interview, we discuss

• The Leprechauns book
• How CfAR-style rationality techniques apply specifically to tech work: Do they give you "superpowers"?
• Building a career as a software engineer and consultant
• Business networking for techies
• LessWrongers as potential employees, employers and business  partners.

Audio


Bio:

After a first career as a software developer (20 years of coding experience) and a few years as an independent consultant, Laurent Bossavit now heads Institut Agile, whose aims include helping Agile software development become better established as a research topic and as a discipline, and helping grow a healthier market for clients and suppliers leveraging these practices. 

Passionate about helping people in various Agile communities network and support each other, Laurent is a former member of the board of the Agile Alliance, a recipient of the 2006 Gordon Pask award for contributions to Agile practice and co-founder of the Coding Dojos.