Developer Happiness, Remote Work, and the Future of Coding with Thomas Dohmke, CEO of GitHub

Thomas, a seasoned developer, shares his journey from East Germany, learning to code on a Robotron computer and through community clubs. He discusses the evolution of developer culture in Germany, highlighting the significance of magazines and clubs like the Chaos Computer Club. Thomas emphasizes the importance of developer happiness, linking it to creativity and innovation, particularly in remote work settings. He introduces GitHub's Co-pilot, an AI tool aimed at enhancing productivity by keeping developers in their creative flow. Additionally, he underscores the need for early computer science education and discusses GitHub's role in fostering a global developer community.

• Thomas started coding in East Germany, using a computer in the geography lab after school.
• He learned coding basics from a teacher and furthered his skills at a community computer club.
• Resources were limited to books and magazines, such as the Commodore 64 magazine and a German book on learning assembler.

"I learned to code and it was to East Germany and we had a computer and the geography lab in the in the Shelf basically when after school kids could start coding."

• Thomas started coding in East Germany, using a computer in the geography lab after school.

"The best way to learn code was to go to Computer Club so the community center had a computer Club where you could go to on every Wednesday for an hour or two hacking with other kids."

• He furthered his skills at a community computer club, meeting weekly to hack with other kids.

"Everything was based on books and magazines that you could buy right like there was nothing on the internet."

• Resources were limited to books and magazines, as there was no internet at the time.

• The developer community in Germany 30 years ago was centered around magazines like CT and events like the Chaos Computer Club and CeBIT.
• There were fewer forums and conferences specifically for developers compared to today.

"Even back then 30 years ago, the highs of falak which actually in the export today they were already kind of like the center of learning everything going on."

• The developer community in Germany was centered around magazines like CT.

"The chaos Computer Club already was around, you know, and it was influencing in the space."

• Events like the Chaos Computer Club played a significant role in the developer community.

• Developer happiness is crucial for innovation and productivity.
• Companies that treat developers like a production factory are typically less successful.
• Providing a great work environment and headspace for creativity is essential.

"Those companies that innovate typically make everything they can to make their developers happy."

• Companies that innovate typically strive to make their developers happy.

"You can only be creative if you have the headspace to do so."

• Creativity requires headspace, which is facilitated by a good work environment.

• The pandemic highlighted the importance of mental health and work-life balance.
• Remote work blurred the lines between home and office, causing stress and burnout.
• Companies need to actively work on ensuring employee happiness and mental health.

"People working longer hours, it doesn't help us as a company; it creates more burnout, it creates more mental health issues."

• Longer working hours during the pandemic led to burnout and mental health issues.

"No more commute also means no more clear separation between the office and home."

• The lack of commute blurred the lines between work and home life.

• GitHub has always been a remote-first company, which helped during the pandemic.
• Despite being remote-first, GitHub still faced increased stress levels among employees.
• Ensuring employee happiness and a good work-life balance is crucial for innovation.

"GitHub, you know, since its birth was a remote-first company, so in a way we were better prepared for the pandemic than others."

• GitHub's remote-first approach helped during the pandemic.

"We need to make sure that our employees actually are healthy and that they're happy and that they have a good work-life balance."

• Ensuring employee health and happiness is crucial for maintaining innovation.

• Staying in the feedback loop with customers is essential for innovation.
• Talking to customers provides valuable information and energy.
• Customer obsession requires constant communication and feedback.

"As a CEO, what I love doing most and what gives me the most energy is talking to customers."

• Talking to customers provides valuable information and energy.

"You cannot be customer-obsessed without talking to customers."

• Customer obsession requires constant communication and feedback.

• Asynchronous communication allows hiring from around the world but comes with challenges.
• Time zones are a significant challenge in a remote-first world.
• Employees need to manage their work-life balance to avoid burnout.

"Time zones become less important if you don't do many asynchronous meetings."

• Asynchronous communication allows hiring from around the world.

"People that believe they can work 24/7 are just kidding themselves."

• Working 24/7 is not sustainable and leads to burnout.

• Copilot is expected to have a significant impact on developer happiness.
• It aims to make coding more efficient and enjoyable.
• The goal is to enhance productivity and creativity among developers.

"What do you expect will the impact be of Copilot? Everyone is talking about it; it's a big topic especially for developers."

• Copilot is a significant topic in the developer community.

"It aims to make coding more efficient and enjoyable."

• Copilot aims to enhance productivity and creativity among developers.

• DevOps has not significantly improved developer satisfaction.
• DevOps introduced processes that seem to benefit managers more than developers.
• Developers' daily activities remain largely unchanged despite DevOps.

"We have seen that DevOps has not moved the needle on developer satisfaction. It hasn't introduced a lot of new processes that somehow make life easier."

• DevOps processes have not made developers' lives easier.

"I think it makes more managers happy and it actually makes the developers happy."

• DevOps changes appear to cater more to managerial preferences than developer needs.

• Copilot changes the way developers handle coding issues and distractions.
• Keeps developers focused within their coding environment.
• Helps maintain creative flow and productivity by reducing context switching.

"What Copilot does is that you start your morning right, you pick up an issue, you start coding, and then you get stuck. Copilot keeps you in your editor; it keeps you on the wave."

• Copilot helps developers stay focused and maintain their workflow without constant context switching.

"It keeps you being an artist and building the thing you want to build."

• Copilot helps developers stay in their creative flow, enhancing their productivity and satisfaction.

• Life and work are about making the right prioritizations.
• Copilot assists in making better use of time and focusing on important tasks.

"Your whole life is a prioritization game... you have to prioritize, and that's true for everything you have to do in your life."

• Prioritization is essential in all aspects of life, including work and personal activities.

"Copilot helps you to do the things you want to do."

• Copilot aids in prioritizing tasks, making developers more efficient.

• Current AI, including Copilot, cannot replace human developers.
• AI models lack creativity and decision-making abilities.
• Copilot is designed to assist, not replace, developers.

"Today neural networks and those machine learning models are math. They're just mathematical functions that transform words into a number of an area of numbers or Matrix of numbers."

• AI models are fundamentally mathematical and lack inherent creativity.

"There's nothing in there that gives that machine learning model the ability to create something on its own."

• Current AI lacks the capability to independently create or innovate.

• Developers can choose to disable Copilot if it becomes distracting.
• The tool is still in its early stages and will improve over time.
• Encourages open-mindedness and adaptation as the technology evolves.

"The easy solution is to shut it off if you don't like it in that moment."

• Developers have the option to disable Copilot if it doesn't suit their workflow.

"The models will get significantly better, and as the models get better, encourage the people that don't like it today to try it out again."

• Copilot is continually improving, and developers are encouraged to give it another chance as it evolves.

• Copilot is an assistant to the developer, not a replacement.
• Helps with tasks like writing unit tests and managing repetitive code.

"That's why we call it the Copilot, right? It's not the pilot; it's a Copilot. It's an assistant at your hand; you're still flying or driving."

• Copilot is designed to assist developers, not take over their roles.

"If the hints you get from the Copilot are not useful, ignore them."

• Developers can choose to use or ignore Copilot's suggestions based on their usefulness.

• GitHub is used for various non-developer tasks, including legal text reviews and government documentation.
• Open source collaboration on GitHub transcends traditional boundaries and hierarchies.

"Our lawyers use GitHub to review legal texts... what a lawyer calls a red line is just a div."

• GitHub's functionality extends to legal and administrative tasks, showcasing its versatility.

"We saw in the early days of the pandemic that many research institutions were uploading the COVID data as CSV files to GitHub."

• GitHub has been utilized for critical tasks during the pandemic, such as sharing COVID-19 data.

• Open source collaboration focuses on contributions rather than personal attributes.
• Encourages a merit-based approach to contributions, irrespective of personal backgrounds.

"Typically, when you get a pull request, you don't really care who that other person is... all you care about is the contribution."

• Open source contributions prioritize the quality of work over the contributor's identity.

"We need to get rid of the boundaries between the teams and between us humans."

• Emphasizes the importance of breaking down barriers for better collaboration and innovation.

• GitHub is expanding its role in education through tools like GitHub Classroom and GitHub Skills.
• There is a demand for more features and possible certifications in the future.

"We use GitHub Classroom a lot; we love the product. I was wondering with GitHub Skills, what's your roadmap?"

• GitHub's educational tools are well-received, with users seeking further development and new features.

"No software company has ever run out of a backlog, and I think no software developer has ever retired and said my backlog is empty."

• Continuous improvement and feature development are inherent to software platforms like GitHub.

• Emphasis on the importance of education in the software development field.
• Concern about the shortage of developers globally, particularly in the US.
• Comparison of the number of computer science graduates in the Western world versus Asia, highlighting the competitive disadvantage.

"We are really excited about the education space and about what education can do for the world, especially software developer education."

• Importance of education in transforming the world and addressing developer shortages.

"We are short on developers around the world, especially in the US."

• Highlighting the global shortage of developers, with a specific focus on the US.

"There's a term that was coined this year in the US called the great reshuffle because all the companies are trying to hire the best employees from all the other tech companies."

• Explanation of the "great reshuffle" phenomenon and its impact on salary expectations.

"We are not educating enough students, especially in the western world, and we're actually falling behind Asia."

• Concern about the Western world falling behind Asia in computer science and engineering graduates.

• Advocacy for starting computer science education early in students' lives.
• Importance of providing schools with computers and training teachers in computer science.

"We are starting too late in the education cycle; it starts only in gymnasium High School in Germany that you actually have Computer Science Education."

• Critique of the late start of computer science education in Germany.

"It needs to start very early; it needs to start in kindergarten and preschool, it needs to start in elementary school."

• Emphasis on the need to begin computer science education as early as kindergarten.

"That requires schools to have computers and it requires school teachers to have education in those topics."

• Necessity for schools to be equipped with computers and for teachers to be trained in computer science.

• Importance of encouraging diverse groups, including girls and immigrants, to engage in computer science.
• Need for playful and engaging methods to introduce children to coding.

"We need to start Computer Science Education early in kids' lives because that... will be an ultimate skill for every human."

• Early computer science education is crucial for developing essential skills.

"When it comes to girls, when it comes to immigrants, when it comes to people from diverse backgrounds... all kids need to start Computer Science Education."

• Advocacy for inclusive computer science education for all children.

"You have to playfully get kids into this."

• Importance of making computer science education engaging and fun for children.

• Observation that classrooms have not significantly evolved over the past decades.
• Importance of giving children the freedom to explore and use computers creatively.

"When you look at a classroom, it looks the same today as it looked back 40 years."

• Critique of the lack of evolution in classroom environments.

"Give kids the freedom... after school hours to do with the computer what they want to do."

• Advocacy for allowing children to freely explore and use technology.

• Discussion on whether technology makes people less intelligent.
• Argument that technology shifts skill sets rather than reducing intelligence.

"Do you think developers are gonna get stupider or like... because you have to search for the answer you also teach you how to look for information instead of like getting everything presented to you?"

• Question about the impact of technology on developers' intelligence.

"Calculators haven't made us stupid enough to not be able to do math in our heads."

• Comparison of the impact of calculators on mathematical skills to the impact of technology on intelligence.

"We will shift our skill sets and I think we will learn to engage the AI and it will become a different kind of skill set."

• Argument that technology will lead to a shift in skill sets rather than a decline in intelligence.

• Reflection on past technological advancements and their impact on society.
• Optimism about the role of technology in human evolution and innovation.

"It's easy as humans to forget what that video was like... my grandma always thought everything was better 20 years ago."

• Discussion on the tendency to romanticize the past and overlook the benefits of technological progress.

"We innovated and innovated and the innovation has accelerated so much... we need to evolve as humans and hopefully we evolve with the technology around us."

• Optimism about continuous innovation and the need for humans to evolve alongside technology.

• Discussion on GitHub's current features and potential future developments.
• Mention of the conceptual difference between GitHub and its competitors like GitLab.

"We have teams... you can create a team and then you can group repos through teams."

• Explanation of GitHub's current team-based repository grouping feature.

"GitLab allows to have groups at all account levels including individual accounts."

• Comparison of GitHub's features with GitLab's group functionality.

"We do have free organizations... there's really no reason to not create an organization for it."

• Encouragement to use GitHub's free organization feature as a workaround for grouping repositories.

• Discussion on the future of GitHub, including the development of Co-Pilot and its next iterations.
• Focus on continuous innovation and adapting to technological advancements.

"After Co-Pilot comes Co-Pilot Next... we're really looking forward to the general availability or GA this summer."

• Announcement of the next iteration of Co-Pilot and its upcoming general availability.

"We are shipping features that are meaningful and actually help our customers."

• Commitment to delivering meaningful features that address customer needs.

• GitHub has a feature called Co-Pilot Labs in the VS Code Marketplace, which includes functionalities like code translation and explanation.
• GitHub Next is an innovative Horizon 3 team that explores far-out ideas, knowing that many projects may not see the light of day.
• The focus is on fostering innovation, even if it means some projects may be discontinued.

"We already have something called Co-Pilot Labs in the VS Code Marketplace that allows you to have this translate code feature that I showed earlier."

• Co-Pilot Labs provides tools for code translation and explanation.

"We have this amazing team called GitHub Next, which is a Horizon 3 team... it lets your teams innovate."

• GitHub Next focuses on long-term, innovative projects.

"If you work in GitHub Next, just signing up that we might kill your project if it's not worth it to explore it further."

• Projects in GitHub Next may be discontinued if not viable, emphasizing a culture of innovation and risk-taking.

• The importance of maintaining focus in large organizations to ensure the creation of great products.
• The challenge of saying no to numerous ideas to maintain quality and innovation.

"The biggest weakness of any large organization is that you believe you can do everything... if you do too many things, you're not creating great products."

• Large organizations must focus on specific goals to maintain innovation and product quality.

• The CEO's role involves dealing with complex problems that others cannot solve.
• Importance of having a strong leadership team to handle routine issues, allowing the CEO to focus on strategy and vision.
• Celebrating small wins to maintain morale and happiness within the company.

"The job of a CEO is just waiting in the morning until the next problem shows up... the easy problems get solved by my team."

• CEOs deal with complex issues that require their attention and decision-making.

"I have time to sit here and talk about direction and vision and innovation."

• A strong leadership team allows the CEO to focus on strategic goals and innovation.

"We are trying to celebrate them as often as possible because that celebration gets you that dopamine hit that creates the happiness."

• Celebrating small wins is crucial for maintaining employee morale and happiness.

• Balancing innovation with addressing customer needs and support issues.
• The importance of time management and prioritizing innovation alongside operational tasks.
• Encouraging innovation across all departments, not just engineering.

"You're now in a constant struggle between the ideas you have and the deals your customers have to basically make their life better."

• Balancing innovation with customer needs is a constant challenge.

"Innovation doesn't only happen in engineering; innovation happens in sales, in the legal team, in human resources."

• Innovation should be encouraged across all departments within the company.

• The tech industry values both university-educated and self-taught developers.
• Personal experiences with university education can vary; it provides unique opportunities but is not the only path to success.
• Emphasis on a growth mindset and the willingness to abandon unproductive pursuits.

"At Microsoft and GitHub, we have many co-workers that are self-taught, high school dropouts, college dropouts."

• Both formal education and self-taught paths are valued in the tech industry.

"I think it has taught me a lot of how I manage my time and how I balance work and life."

• University education can provide valuable skills, such as time management.

"Growth mindset means you're not a perfectionist... you are willing to give up in the moment where it doesn't give you any value."

• A growth mindset involves recognizing when to abandon unproductive efforts.

• Encouragement for developers to engage with and learn from each other.
• Importance of community events for networking and knowledge sharing.

"Please approach another developer and just introduce yourself; that's the best thing you can do here."

• Engaging with the developer community is valuable for personal and professional growth.

• Stripe's effective developer documentation and its open-source framework, Markdoc.
• Positive feedback on Stripe's approach to developer-first documentation and collaboration.

"Stripe has always done right is the way they do developer documentation and think developer-first."

• Stripe is recognized for its exemplary developer documentation practices.

"We actually just open-sourced the framework that we use for our developer documentation; it's called Markdoc."

• Stripe has open-sourced its documentation framework, Markdoc, for the broader community to use.