In this episode of Distributed, host Jack Hannah talks to Chris Lucian and Austin Chadwick, the creators of the Mob Mentality Show and longtime engineering leaders at Hunter Industries. Chris, Director of Global Software Development, and Austin, Distinguished Engineer, reflect on mob programming and how practices spread. They open up about what it takes to protect team culture while growing, discuss lessons from their 300+ videos on mob programming and agile, and how AI is just another member of the mob.
How mob programming went from one team’s experiment to org-wide practice
What Chris and Austin learned from publishing 300+ episodes on agile and XP
How AI fits into social coding and the future of pairing and mobbing
(00:00) – Kicking things off with Chris Lucian and Austin Chadwick
(02:00) – Rearranging cubicles to make pairing possible
(03:00) – The first mob and why it worked
(05:00) – Repairing a wonky relationship with the product owner
(06:00) – Austin’s first mob and learning a new language on the fly
(07:00) – The Mob Mentality Show origin story
(09:00) – How Chris and Austin keep their episodes lean and sustainable
(13:00) – Diffusion of innovation and spreading practices
(15:00) – AI-generated code with domain languages
(20:00) – Growing the mob through cellular division while keeping culture
(25:00) – What to do when there are no internal XP mentors
(28:00) – Using AI like another member of the mob
(32:00) – Will AI replace pair and mob programming?
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