A lot of companies I visited have a thriving development culture where things like sharing knowledge and organizing meetups are the rule, not the exception. When I ask about it, I always get the same answer: “We only hire people who believe experimenting en cooperation are important.” In other words: They didn’t create a culture, it was a logical consequence.

Though the answer seems obvious I wasn’t ready to accept it. It is no help for organisations which don’t have this kind of culture yet. What should they do? Fire every developer and hire new ones? So…

(more…)