Many are rewatching great Redford movies after the actor passed away at age 89.
But only one flick is being covered by this Developer Trust Memo. And it’s the same one included in my book Technical Content Strategy Decoded:
Sneakers.
The film came out in 1992 and has the best of analog-era hacking. Think telephone lines. Modem screeches.
One scene shows this encrypted server:
Gibberish, right?
Not for Robert Redford, who has gathered a ragtag team that includes nicknames like “Whistler,” “Mother,” and “Marty.”
Whistler is a blind character whose hearing is so good he can use it to interpret telecommunications tones.
He plugs a nondescript box into the appropriate port and… this encrypted banking system is suddenly accessible:
Perhaps too easy.
Good translation is hard to distinguish from magic.
Whether it happens in a box, with a multilinguist, or by listening very, very carefully.
As you might expect, this ability to decrypt, to translate, is one of the lessons in Sneakers for developer marketers.
But that’s really the final step. An important one, but would not be possible without the preparation. It’d be like skipping to the third act of the movie.
We all want the inevitable hacker van chase scene, but it only works if you put in the work up front.
Redford’s character is a hacker, but that’s not his most important role. He’s the leader who assembles these specialists. And that’s what really makes it a Robert Redford movie.
Here’s how to bring Sneakers into your work without becoming a /-/4CK3R:
- Put together a strong team
- Listen carefully to developers
- Translate dev problems to your product
Truth is, you can do all these things without watching (or rewatching) Sneakers, but I nominate it for movie night anyway.
While you’re at it, you could also recruit EveryDeveloper to your team. We can help you listen and translate.
Your voice is your passport.