This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences.
In this podcast, Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Elisabeth Hendrickson about using systems thinking to understanding relationships between problem elements rather than focusing on individual parts, and how quality engineering practices become even more critical in the age of AI where tools can accelerate code production but humans need to remain in charge of verification and validation.

Read a transcript of this interview: http://bit.ly/3JfJhIc

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Transcript

Elisabeth Hendrickson on Systems Thinking for Quality Engineering

Welcome back to another exciting episode! Today, we’re diving into one of the most electrifying activities your workplace will ever experience – the Team Building Roller Coaster Challenge Activity! Imagine your teams brainstorming, designing, and constructing their very own mini roller coasters – all from scratch! This isn’t just a creative task; it’s a full-blown collaboration experience. From energizing warm-ups to the final launch showdown, each phase pushes your team's communication, critical thinking, and innovation to the next level. The roller coaster challenge team building format inspires leadership, fuels fun, and strengthens trust – making every twist and turn worth it. Stay tuned for more activities that power up productivity and bring the thrill back into teamwork. Until next time, keep building, keep bonding! Want to bring this high-energy experience to your team? Explore the full details at:https://www.sosparty.io/booster/activities/team-bonding-and-culture/roller-coaster-construction-team-building-event


Team Building Roller Coaster Challenge Activity

Welcome to today’s episode, where we explore the vibrant world of Team Building in Ho Chi Minh – a city where culture meets collaboration. If you're planning your next offsite, Ho Chi Minh offers the perfect mix of luxurious venues, energetic activities, and unforgettable entertainment. From 5-star stays at Park Hyatt and Sheraton to thrilling challenges like F1 car racing and drum circles – every moment here is designed to unite teams and boost morale. As trusted corporate event organisers in Ho Chi Minh, we bring together seamless travel, curated sightseeing, and immersive engagement experiences. Whether it’s a rooftop party, a fire show, or a team strategy game – Ho Chi Minh turns your corporate retreat into a memory of a lifetime. To explore more, visit👉 https://www.sosparty.io/corporate-vietnam-offsite-event-and-mice-travel


Team Building Ho Chi Minh

Welcome to the Team Vibes Podcast – your go-to space for energizing team engagement ideas! Today, we’re diving into a unique and energizing experience – Body Percussion Team Building! Imagine transforming your team into a human orchestra, using nothing but claps, stomps, snaps, and rhythm! This rhythmic team building activity for corporates promotes coordination, creativity, and communication – all without any instruments. Through structured segments like rhythmic exploration and harmony building, employees create and perform their own musical pieces using body sounds. Perfect for stress relief and boosting team synergy, this workshop is an excellent pick for in-person engagement across India. Ready to feel the beat, sync with your team, and move in rhythm together? Tune in, tap it out, and let the rhythm bring your team closer than ever:https://www.sosparty.io/booster/activities/team-bonding-and-culture/body-percussion-workshop-for-corporate-employees


Body Percussion Team Building

This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences.
In this podcast, Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Thiago Ghisi about building engineering culture through leading by example, advancing careers by embracing "glue work" (non-technical but necessary tasks), taking full ownership of projects, and developing self-awareness to choose between technical and management career paths.

Read a transcript of this interview: http://bit.ly/3Uen9jV

Subscribe to the Software Architects’ Newsletter for your monthly guide to the essential news and experience from industry peers on emerging patterns and technologies:
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Upcoming Events:

InfoQ Dev Summit Munich (October 15-16, 2025)
Essential insights on critical software development priorities.
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QCon San Francisco 2025 (November 17-21, 2025)
Get practical inspiration and best practices on emerging software trends directly from senior software developers at early adopter companies.
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https://ai.qconferences.com/

QCon London 2026 (March 16-19, 2026)
https://qconlondon.com/

The InfoQ Podcasts: 
Weekly inspiration to drive innovation and build great teams from senior software leaders. Listen to all our podcasts and read interview transcripts:

- The InfoQ Podcast https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/ 
- Engineering Culture Podcast by InfoQ https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/#engineering_culture 
- Generally AI: https://www.infoq.com/generally-ai-podcast/ 

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Engineering Leadership: Building Culture, Career Growth, and Ownership

Cast of characters:
Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)– @josh-clary-1 –Josh – Warwick fretless four-string bass, composition
J.J. Terrell– @j-j-terrell – organ and synth
K2 and the Three [and the Four]--@k2andthe3, @k2-kara –Ken — drums and percussion
Mistermark-- @user-432503709 -- Mark –- clavinet, VST saxophone solo, VST horns, effects, production editing
TexMex Shaman– @texmex-shaman –Stephen — Tom Anderson Custom T electric guitar, production, mix, and mastering
Llanpsych -- @llanpsych -- Tez – Fender Telecaster HHS electric guitrar
The Beautiful Dark -- @thebeautifuldark -- Carl — vocals and lyrics

This song began back at the beginning of the summer, when Josh was messing around on his electric piano and found a structure to which to add his bass. As soon as he opened the project to the rest of Eclectic Collective, JJ jumped right in, adding his thrilling organ and ethereal background synth. Thus, Josh dropped his original e. piano part in favor of JJ's new parts. Ken was next up, adding the drums in reverse order from how he and Josh usually do it. Ken is very skilled at being able to add drums to a pre-existing bass line, which he displays in here. He also added the clever auxilary percussion you hear throughout. Mark was next to the trough, adding his funky clavinet, as well as his sax solo you hear lighting it up in there. He also added some well composed horns toward the end, not to be confused with JJ's synth. 
  Then it was time for the guitarists to do their thing. Stephen added the strong, melodic solos in the first two breaks with his guitar and wah pedal. After Tez added his thrilling solos at the end, Stephen went back in and added the funky rhythm guitar part. Tez also added the funky guitar riffs throughout the verses.
  All that was left was to get Carl in on the action, as he is the newest core member of Eclectic Collective. He wrote a poem and sung it in his signature, wild style for us.
  This is Eclectic Collective at its almost full strength, pulling six musicians from two different continents and four different countries together to create a song. We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed creating it.
   On a side note, this will be Eclectic Collective's last song for two weeks. As most of you know, we release a song every Thursday at midnight. Due to vacation and travel at the end of summer, we'll be skipping  next Friday, the 15th, but should be returning the following Friday, the 22nd. We may also put something out this coming Tuesday, the 12th, so please stay tuned. Can't thank enough those of you who tune in regularly and support us every week. 
Original lyrics by The Beautiful Dark:
Hey Human
It's official
The get down on fire funk
Future sizzle
All members agree
Gotta collect that love
Then give it back and well, we see
Fuel for that musical party

Initition ceremony
Transcontinental spanking machine
Uh oh it's a musical tri sexual
Try anything that melody mentioning
Do it for the song
We gonna right some wrong
Rolling rhythm unkown
The human touch
The get down

The get down
Friends don't frown
We got each-other man
Music
Keep that campfire warm
Ooo Ooo
The get down
Friends don't frown
We got eachother man
Music
Keep that campfire warm
Ooo Ooo

Aw man, I'm feeling back tingle
Lads, go tell Fiona Apple I'm single
Llanspych, nudge PJ Harvey
Jamming that genius soul new wave!

The get down
Friends don't frown
We got each-other man
Music
Keep that campfire warm
Ooo Ooo
The get down
Friends don't frown
We got eachother man
Music
Keep that campfire warm
Ooo Ooo

Thrust that rush
Sine waved funk
Flying musical J's
Aw man it's Mike like dunk
Thrust that rush
Sine waved funk
To musical 24
You get a song
Drained 81 now on this floor

The get down
Friends don't frown
We got each-other man
Music, keep that campfire warm
The get down
Love legends loud
Rest in peace good Kobe one
This one's for you
Good G.O.A.T of stun!

The Get Down (Eclectic Collective)

This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences.
In this podcast, Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Myles Henaghan about the open-sourced "Hierarchy of Engineering Needs" - a systematic framework inspired by Maslow's hierarchy that helps engineering leaders identify and prioritize the most impactful constraints limiting their software delivery systems among competing improvement initiatives.

Read a transcript of this interview: http://bit.ly/45OBs54

Subscribe to the Software Architects’ Newsletter for your monthly guide to the essential news and experience from industry peers on emerging patterns and technologies:
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Upcoming Events:

InfoQ Dev Summit Munich (October 15-16, 2025)
Essential insights on critical software development priorities.
https://devsummit.infoq.com/conference/munich2025

QCon San Francisco 2025 (November 17-21, 2025)
Get practical inspiration and best practices on emerging software trends directly from senior software developers at early adopter companies.
https://qconsf.com/ 

QCon AI New York 2025 (December 16-17, 2025)
https://ai.qconferences.com/

QCon London 2026 (March 16-19, 2026)
https://qconlondon.com/

The InfoQ Podcasts: 
Weekly inspiration to drive innovation and build great teams from senior software leaders. Listen to all our podcasts and read interview transcripts:

- The InfoQ Podcast https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/ 
- Engineering Culture Podcast by InfoQ https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/#engineering_culture 
- Generally AI: https://www.infoq.com/generally-ai-podcast/ 

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Finding Your Engineering Bottleneck: The Hierarchy of Engineering Needs

@q3o
@idks3lfish

я становлюсь другим ты меня не узнала
у меня нету сил все начинать сначала
я убиваю мозг больше он мне не нужен
я источник твоих слёз что так терзают душу
теперь вновь по новому ужастен
твоя шалава в дме она хочет страсти
я могу дать ей у меня во лбу семь пядей
залечи все мои раны чтоб смог тебе передать их
я давно исчерпан
можешь меня даже не считать субъектом
можешь даже смело мне разбивать сердце 
всё равно под таблом мои глаза меркнут



я забываю обо всем
разрушается мой мозг
разговоры ни о чем 
может мы заново начнем?
не знаю к чему мы придём
но я надеюсь что найдём
(я так устал)
я распадаюсь на части
(я так устал)
я к этому не причастен
вижу там в конце свет
вдруг разразилось ненастье
на встречу своему счастью
и я нему я прийду 
попутно все разукрасив
они не понимают насколько наш мир
прекрасен 
в тоже время ужасен но мне все по плечу

another +eosin (qweshkka)

Photo from left to right: JJ, Josh, and Ken
Cast of characters:
The Beautiful Dark -- @thebeautifuldark -- Carl — Ovation guitar, lead vocals, lyrics, and compostion
Mistermark-- @user-432503709 -- Mark –- VST Chinese gong and VST cello
J.J. Terrell– @j-j-terrell – light VST Latin percussion, synth, and piano
K2 and the Three [and the Four]--@k2andthe3, @k2-kara –Ken -- drums
Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)– @josh-clary-1 –Josh – Warwick fretless four-string bass, chant vocals at the end 
TexMex Shaman– @texmex-shaman –Stephen — ebow, production, mix, and mastering

 This song is the fourth Carl has written and composed with a member of Eclectic Collective in mind. This time JJ is being honored, and we all agree that he deserves it, too. Carl is a wonderful singer, songwriter, composer, and musician, and we're all grateful that he's joined our collective. 
  Here's what Carl had to say about it. "The music for this was a personal song written to myself which I never really released as I was trying to say goodbye to my own ego in the song. From that point of view I have always seen the piece as a great bit of personal therapy for me. None of the original lyrics survived and JJ gets painted by the new words .. But I thought it would be nice to reuse the composition for this. There was no big reason for it only when I decided to start a 60bpm song for JJ on piano .. I started playing Goodbye Ego and the rest is history..."
  We tackled this song like we would any other, though. Mark was first up on this, adding his VST magic in the form of a Chinese gong, as well as the cello you hear throughout. The subject of our adulation came next, with JJ adding not only his hot, yet minimal Latin percussion and essential piano, but moody synth, as well. Ken added his spicy drums after that, and once they were down, Josh jumped in with his four string fretless bass to complete the rhythm section. Josh also added the vocal chant at the end.
  All that was left was for Stephen to mix it all down for us, which he did in his always pro manner. But before he did, he also added some subtle, yet stirring ebow on his guitar. 
  As stated above, this is a continuation of our songs about us. Hope no one thinks it's arrogant. When Carl presents us with these little treasures, it's hard not to run with them, though. Always a ton of fun to make music together. We hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed creating it.
Original lyrics by The Beautiful Dark:

Praying hands
Whatever cause
Once our greater good not lost
Bored children create their fun
We shelve French horn for this fine one
"Nice one lads" We read it all!
Vacation taken
To JJ calls
Neighbour to good Mickey Moore
Find Michigan piano pure

JJ calls
Just for us
Love lit up
Just for us

Down the road city of cars
To Howell front deck
Dad and Guitars
We jam that love then tell the world
Love and service human highway knurled
Good bi-product of happiness sought
With Croatian fun to cloud we court

Terrell Terminator in Jungle
Predator for good
Keys like Mr Bungle
Faith in more like we could
He Thanks you
It's lifestyle
Built from a porch
Good collective friend
Keep lighting that torch

Some moments sealed, marked and moulded
Pure intention
Dark blindfolded
Howl from human to Howell good soul
Keyed keystone as collective role

JJ calls
Darkness falls
Love lit up
Just for us
Love lit up
Just for us
Love lit up
Just for us
JJ calls

JJ calls
Just for us

JJ Calls (Eclectic Collective)

This is the Engineering Culture Podcast, from the people behind InfoQ.com and the QCon conferences.
In this podcast, Shane Hastie, Lead Editor for Culture & Methods, spoke to Matthew Card about his resilience framework (CAPSS - Confidence, Adaptability, Purpose, Social Support) which has helped him overcome career challenges and now guides him in building inclusive engineering cultures by empowering teams and breaking echo chambers.

Read a transcript of this interview: http://bit.ly/41iuZNl

Subscribe to the Software Architects’ Newsletter for your monthly guide to the essential news and experience from industry peers on emerging patterns and technologies:
https://www.infoq.com/software-architects-newsletter 

Upcoming Events:

InfoQ Dev Summit Munich (October 15-16, 2025)
Essential insights on critical software development priorities.
https://devsummit.infoq.com/conference/munich2025

QCon San Francisco 2025 (November 17-21, 2025)
Get practical inspiration and best practices on emerging software trends directly from senior software developers at early adopter companies.
https://qconsf.com/ 

QCon AI New York 2025 (December 16-17, 2025)
https://ai.qconferences.com/

QCon London 2026 (March 16-19, 2026)
https://qconlondon.com/

The InfoQ Podcasts: 
Weekly inspiration to drive innovation and build great teams from senior software leaders. Listen to all our podcasts and read interview transcripts:

- The InfoQ Podcast https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/ 
- Engineering Culture Podcast by InfoQ https://www.infoq.com/podcasts/#engineering_culture 
- Generally AI: https://www.infoq.com/generally-ai-podcast/ 

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Building a Resilient and Inclusive Engineering Culture with Matthew Card

"Magic is what we do. Music is how we do it." -- Jerry Garcia

Welcome to my page, my peers, associates, friends, and musical family. I'm a lifelong, multi-instrumentalist musician who records prolifically and joyfully. You'll hear me play guitar, bass (regular four string, and four and five string fretless), mandolin, banjo, keys (piano, organ, synth), lap slide, sitar, and sing on my recordings here. I've been in a few dozen bands in my life, playing everything from bluegrass, jazz, rock, jam band, reggae, funk, afrobeat, Middle Eastern, traditional Irish, singer/songwriter, pop/covers, to experimental/avant garde. 
  Since I found SoundCloud a couple years ago, I've found many talented, creative people with whom to create music. However, in the summer of '23 I formed a band called The Eclectic Collective with some of my favorite musicians I've met through here. It started as a loose collective of musicians and coalesced into a core group of musicians who find other musicians with whom we'd like to make music, then run their songs through our process, and in effect add a full band. That core of The Eclectic Collective includes Tez (Llanpsych), J.J. Terrel, Ken (K2 and the Three), Stephen (Texmex Shaman), Chris (cgmaness), and Mark (mistermark). A couple of other musicians are frequent collaborators, as well, including Artur of Surfers Like Us, and Steve Vervaet of Steve's World. More recently, we've been joined by Carl of The Beautiful Dark fame. 
  The magic of music is amplified exponentially by each person adding to it. So, we really try to add our sorcery all kinds of music from all kinds of artists. Sometimes, we keep it within the group, but a lot of what we do is collaboration with other artists. Therefore these days, 100% of what I do is collaboration, within the group or with other artists on the side.
  I, and we, are also available for hire if you have a song or lyrics and you really want to add bigger instrumentation or a band and good production to it. 
  A small sampling of the artists whom I consider primary influences, and whom you will hear coming through my fingers include Phish, The Flaming Lips, The Grateful Dead, Radiohead, Rye Cooder, Steve Earle, Miles Davis, Fela Kuti, Arcade Fire, Mikey Dread, Yellowman, Purpleman, The Meditations, Michigan and Smiley, Lee Perry, Dillinger, Django Reinhardt, Impossible Recording Machine, The Allman Bros Band, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Bela Fleck, Les Claypool, Sam Bush, David Grissman, John Prine, Talking Heads, Beastie Boys, MMW, Moe., Morphine, Ween, Steve Lukather, Michael McDonald, John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, John Scofield, Victor Wooten,  Cannonball Adderly, Thelonious Monk, Flea, Parliament Funkadelic,  Frank Zappa, Prince Paul, Pete Rock, Thievery Corporation, Amon Tobin, Chet Baker, Joao Gilberto, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Carol Kaye, Tame Impala, Mumford and Sons, Japanese Breakfast, LCD Soundsystem, Beach House, Sean Lennon, and Billy Strings, but of course there are many more. I also really like and am influenced by traditional Iranian, Palestinian, Indian, Sri Lankan, Sudanese, Mauritian, Somalian, Egyptian, West African, and Syrian music. I welcome anyone who plays non-western music to contact me for a collaboration, too.
 I'm overjoyed to have found my community on SoundCloud. This is a truly unique forum where everyone is sincerely trying to build each other up. The profoundly supportive and positive SoundCloud community has really opened up an exciting new world of collaboration for me. That is the main reason I'm in the Cloud, actually, to connect with other musicians and make music that I enjoy listening to, and hopefully others do, as well. I am ALWAYS looking to collaborate with interesting musicians, mostly though BandLab, which is where I record almost exclusively. It's a solid, free digital audio workstation hub where you can share recording projects, even if it's not where you make your recordings.
  Everything I do is live instrumental, not programmed, and using no computer beyond my phone. That's not to say that I would be opposed to using that kind of tool, it's just not my preferred medium with which to paint. If you like my music, please share it. If you want to collaborate, my BandLab handle is @bingo_pajama. Feel free to contact me at cornbreadband@hotmail.com, as well, even if you aren't on BandLab.
  If your music is primarily AI, please don't come around my page, as I'm not at all interested in complimenting a machine.
  Here's a link to music I've recorded live with a group of musicians here in Pittsburgh called The Northumberland Street Ramblers.
Check out The Northumberland Street Ramblers on #SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/fU4Me

Software engineers, architects and team leads have found inspiration to build better, high performing teams by listening to the weekly InfoQ Podcast. We have achieved that by interviewing some of the top CTOs, engineers and technology directors from companies like Uber, Netflix and more. Over 500,000 downloads in the last 3 years.

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