Nickel City Ruby Conf 2013 Why Developers Quit by Jeff Casimir

people watch video the only see me
they will get to see the thousands people in the audience
it's so they'll hear your
subtle after your courtesy laughter to my jokes
but thank you all for coming this morning I
if you read the schedule I have developed taco why developers quit
and started writing the talk and I don't
it started depressing me smuggling re-live pivot this talk a little bit
and let's turn on the clicker and make it work
click so then I change the two great teams are built
and then I was liking passive voice
so it's good he tweet me about that I said
alright developing mastery and it just didn't really feel
to general demise would use a keynote
and so I of course as you do when you have a question
I go on Twitter star talking
and a friend of mine
based in New York actually says
this house Lake don't worry bro
I like to use the sarcastic bro or Brock I got up are taken care of hugo's
know that's the title
scary maker
I so this the talk
kind of some races a lot of the things that I've learned and read in part about
over the last 10 years my professional career and I hope
there are one or two things that are interesting about that to you
before we get started
I would like to go goes down on you for a moment and it would like to ask you to
close your eyes and take a few seconds
to think about why you came today
and why you came to the conference at all
because i guilted went into a dance troupe
and then more importantly
want to ask you a question how does it fit into your life
play how does it move you forward to more
towards becoming the person you want to be
archer done
door they'll be more jokes be serious there's a talk about 10 call the longing
and I A and really interested
in strong like his mommy and
a have really interested in how we build
reliance I think it's interesting in the technology world
how much of our time is spent trying to build things that explode
right getting an out and that seems kind of sad to me I don't
you know I met some guys when I was in DC /url
lived in DC for seventeen years and a guy was given a presentation to a room
for business people in me
I can't stand you people and then
ads since I just can't spend a whole room a business people
some business people are fine the sleek I remember the moment when I mean my
first exit
and that's a high you just keep chasing its lead to it again and again
hope I really don't care bro
sorry this about the long game love
living a fun interesting successful life if you talk about a company
were team what's the most valuable
asset that the team holds is it
the name of the company
if you had to change the name the company could you survive if you had to
change
the product scrap the product could you survive
deleted all the customers
they'll hate you could you start over again and I think in general the answer
is you could
if you have the right people and
what value we put in the people you know right now everybody knows it's hard to
hire developers
it's even harder to keep them
and keep them happy for more than 18 months
right as the sexiness
love the difficult problem starts to fade rate the
once you get past the honeymoon period do people want to stick around for our
team
there are six of us now and
I work hard
to make sure that this is not only the best job that they've ever had
but that best job that they'll ever happen hopefully the only job bill over
like I don't hire people
because they're good at being hire people because
I basically want a professionally marry them you know particularly Katrina and
Frank
you I they get to get me through a lot of days
and why not do it that way like doesn't it seem
obvious why set out to be a one-hit wonder why try and do small things
for year 2 doesn't really make any sense you won't walk away
really an start over the next time you know you have the solution at the NEX
company I work at everything's gonna be great
all those problems as middle managers at the whole place they won't be there
and these middle managers the seem awesome the drink beers
it'll be fantastic it's a lot more complicated than that
and specifically wants are we talking about
developing happiness why
come from a back on public education
and its 10 things that were never friends all teacher friends comment or
an office I meant like
there's a fridge with beer in it people are drinking at their desks
I know isn't it weird me I
orth bourbon or whiskey you're all these things why do you have that
because you can number one I have T-shirts
we hallways cranking out more more t-shirts site you is actually have low
density a prison he has work at harvest
overall most people are wearing normal people clothes most of us
take our company and our friends companies and so forth and just wear
them around all the time
why we do that and I think it trick connects back to
Abraham Maslow you probably in one time or another
talked about Maslow's hierarchy of needs done at the bottom level he talks about
physiological needs that in order to be
a happy person you need to have the Spurs illogical needs met
you need to for your like everything is okay
you have confidence and what's going on
you to be safe right so
keep on going up the stack belonging you want to be a part of something
steam you want to feel good about yourself and feel that others
feel good about you as a person and then after all that you can reach what he
considers the pinnacle
self-actualization the process becoming the person you want to be
development world that's where the beer fits in
right or the food and having nice yes and the safety comes
from Sri cash homie like you don't want if your boss
you want your developers speaking about how my gonna pay my cell phone bill
coming to pay my rent because they're not gonna be able to focus on those
higher order tass
as a big part of why pay is so high those t-shirts demonstrate that you're a
part of something
and also shows that other people are part of the same things you are
I'm a harvest user because they got the teacher
and we get to express through each other that were part of the same club
but the top two levels we really suck steaming actualization
let's talk about improve that so how do you build this team the
check with this team's that's built backwards you can't
front load steam i cants really effectively
stand here in like pump you all up you're good people
I don't know you but you're really awesome and you're gonna do great work
its steam comes from the work you have done
and the things you have done in the past as teams
as developers how do you reflect on your work
if you fall agile processes you probably have retrospectives
if you follow practical prostheses those retrospectives often get pushed back
with enough time for retrospective will do it after the next iteration
cetera were terrible about looking back right because that's not really the
engineering way
the question that you try to solve on a daily basis on is this possible
can this be done right and want it done it's not really that interesting to you
anymore
and so it's very easy to walk away from those problems
walk away from those accomplishments and just move on to the next hard thing
in order to continually improve your process ease
you have to focus on both the problems and the success
when we do retrospectives
my students my students coined the term well Arabic or anybody
spread it across the entire class snitching bitch
house that's funny but I each
and thats a lot of time with retrospective turns into
you sucked you said you're going to have this done on Wednesday
it's still not done today oh yeah well you're a jerk
yeah Greek or even if it doesn't sound like that
that's kinda under the surface and not often enough to be spent retrospective
time
same like you know what that thing you did on Monday
that's pretty awesome because it's hoc word right like we don't spend a lot of
time
giving each other kudos it is nice to come to a conference
and Wayne comes up and gives me a hug a small things I love about conferences
is getting to see friends maybe haven't seen a few years and
just enjoying each others company but when you're at work
when you're on the dev team how often are you giving
high-fives how often are you recognizing the work that other people have done
and complimenting them on for no reason other than to make them feel good about
themselves
it's that much easier to kill this team
often we do this by focusing on blame right things go wrong
things always go wrong right deadlines always
managers I think poor managers are are one of the biggest killers this team you
know you hear people say
this kind of on the the quitting topic developers don't quit
companies the quick managers and
difficult or top manager not shinseito
tough but a failing manager special someone who like takes credit
that they don't deserve some a dozen pass those clues
kudos down some who focus on what's wrong to really kill the steam from a
team
really the comes down be hassles
but it doesn't have to be that way is the Incan
is built really well in communities
when you feel like you're all in it together
when you celebrate their successes when you do hit a deadline
and then you celebrated and not celebrated like
hey we're gonna leave early so everyone can get the hell outta here right
but celebrated like a let's have a party let's
look back at what we did let's look at the code code review et cetera
overall more than anything else steam comes from shipping and
it was fascinates me I was recently
contracting at a big company for a long time for a year
and to see the effect
not shipping software was really amazing to see some other
most passionate smart interesting people I know work super hard on software
see it get ninety ninety-five percent done
and then to get the project cancelled and to watch with that did
to their spirit to their steam crushing
you code reviews
is often the purpose make sure you
denied instead
you can build this team by focusing on the story of the code
why did it turn out this way all code is bad in one way or another
all code is good if it works right so how did you arrive at this point
it's too easy as a team to have people do with a good at
it's a lot harder to have them constantly shifting around
you know it's talking to some a friend from pivotal
the other day and he was explaining the process love pairing with one other
designers
he's a long-time developer pairing with the designer and how I opening it was to
their process
and its I don't think you need to pair with the designer every day
but he did for an hour a week how might that change your
approach to your programming your approach to your team et cetera
are is your our gonna be that valuable while there slinging pixels and you're
like I don't know just make everything black
probably not right but the value to the team the long run
the long game values hi
you do those retrospectives instead of looking out what went wrong in
and trying to make sure it doesn't happen again focus on what when Ryan
just two more that
things always go wrong you'll never solve all the problems
right do the right things into more
if you build up that a steam you can start to reach self-actualization
which goes back to that question who you want to be when you grow up
as a team lead you think about who they want to be the people on your team
and there's a difference between dreams angles
right dreams are like I wanna be here in Paterson
okay goals say I wanna be a comparison and this is how I'm going to do
you have to have a trajectory above where you're going
and that's why I asked you that opening questions like how does this fit into
your
life plan and there are probably a lot of you that selection I don't know
it seems like I don't have to go to work today that's as part of my life plan
rate but it has to be more than that like you could just
has Mexico up to the deaths in play minecraft or whatever
it's not just the work but hopefully this fits into a part of your plan for
where you're going
stock about becoming a programmer I'm presuming the most view self-identify as
programmers
I I pretend to and
my two-year-old always is less Palmer home daddy
okay very through climb in the car seat base in like three minutes later as a
gun in the car
okay you ready for me to help you eighth
right and I think when you ask most programmers the majority of programmers
space in our community how did you become a programmer I'd myself
yeah I have this computer science degree but it was pretty much worthless all the
time you were like assembly
analyst never use all the real stuff had teach myself
as a really sweet illusion that we've convinced ourselves
back in my day which was not as long ago as some people assert
as we talk last night that the speakers that are some ways like we don't really
have that much
each diversity Jeff your all
will thank you I was born in the 80's
I don't know I'm not there I've kongers
up
I love video games and the way I got into computing and eventually
well here's what happened we had this sweet packard-bell
I think it was a sixty six megahertz
and I wanna play games my parents then I wanna buy any games
so I said alright I gotta figure out how to get these things for free I found out
about this america online
you 3 expect to see our video see
a so then I got system games let's just get the middle part
MN I remember
there was a day that I the very legally downloaded
this thing called windows ninety-five and there was windows 3.1
one before that and I'm like windows ninety-five
it's just like a new version and I install it number one it doesn't work
and number two I'm dead right because
my dad's computer it's midnight I'm supposed to be sleeping
I have now fuck to the computer 0
shit I've got six hours let's do this
try all kinds random stuff
get to finally booty like everything will be cool now it's past the little
start screen
and comes up in like this does not look like Windows 3-wood
he's got really good no the
the story that's really like where
my story started like breaking my parents of and then
having to fix it before gonna ass kicked in the mornin
you know secure masters be very stern now stir fry
rate but I love video games I got into hardware and I wanted to do computer
systems engineering
for Computer Engineering video cards were always the dream right when I was
gonna say
every new video attacked the thing I want to have that my Ferrari
right cost $300 all cock mp3 for something
but I believe that those things were made by
the works like me because I i din know a lot but I knew that
like middle class white dudes make computers me
I can do this but they could do it I could do it does go to school to learn
what I have to do
and then I'll go do it and went to school
shit I'm not this is is way too hard
and if you have never done hardware before
you living in this fantasyland
have software were things do the same thing pretty much every time
you read it program you run it it does the thing you're running again doesn't
think good hardware it's like
you run it once I'm networks right the next time hope
the same thing with molecules it's like there's electricity there's all kinds of
stuff going on
and it goes wrong rate and
I had gone far enough at that point that it was okay it was okay to change
direction
I just realign the person I want to be
one the most
influential books I read about teaching is this book
strongly recommended if your personal reads I say that because I'm not really
theres like where the five books I've ever read
okay so a bit more than that he talks about 3
key ideas and that's what I wanna address must talk ignition
the practice and master coating source talk first about
ignition been over this is
white dude running answer
right a better and so you can tell it's old
they have top at or not %ah pass but like bozell
there either hip or sold a
missus Roger Bannister here in the first four minute mile
and this was a feat that was I
considered impossible for a long time among runners
and what's interesting is not that he ran the four-minute mile
but that his record lasted forty six days
and then within the next three years seventeen different runners did
I and now it's considered achievable
by reasonably elite runner right so you mean
very quickly he was in on HGH urs stare or
in there were all these things right he fought height for goal
and then something really amazing happened issue chief did
he got press for it other people learned about him achieving it
and they started to believe like shit it's not impossible
that skinny bro did it due to
seventeen people did in the next three years ignition means
someone showing you what's possible but the critical piece of it
is that it's someone you can identify with someone that you can chart
plausibly chart Delta between them in you
they might kinda look like you they make a sound like you my kinda
run like you and you could say like I see that
I just do what he's doing and I'll get the same results
it's someone you can aspire to be and that's why
diverse voices matter if you maybe a week ago decided to
follow all the speakers on Twitter you have been privy to some amazing
conversation the past few days
this talk has more treats in it than any presentation I've ever given
in there is more than just those few of
I asked about a week ago who inspires you
to be a great developer and I love the responses I got
I Ford if nothing else
just that for that a steam peace because we don't give enough shout-outs
like even in the programming community open source community
their people like you know aaron is always agree want to bring up
where airing gets kudos in areas I'm sure he's been really here or whatever
whatever
and if you ask him I bet you years 10 negative makes every positive things
that he's
but here's so it's a great excuse to get people to mention others and give them a
little Twitter hi5
these were some other people that were pulled up some people I knew
some people I'm know well some people I never heard of
I thought that was cool that people were willing to both showed out like
the common ones that you would expect and a couple people that I have no idea
who they were
you know and then to see those people respond back thanks
figuring out who are the people you wanna be or what are the parts the
people
but you wanna be I'm not saying I want to be gary I like the type like Gary
have you ever seen Gary type if you havent
during lunch okay it was a socialist sometime soon go get one has the story
all software
videos and you will be convinced that it's on fast-forward
and it's not even just be in his like sleazy I would love the type like Gary
evolution is how we move forward right and
there is a solution that when you create things like if you were going to become
a painter
and you go to art school what do you do on day one of our school
you people were great but then P the two
do the show you the plane campus hand you some pain to make shit
now be pointless
instead the way we develop mastery is by imitating and then innovating
if you were a painter you would start by copying the Masters
right you would take existing paintings and try and reproduce them
and try and reproduce them and try and reproduce them until you plausibly have
reproduce them
and then you start to remixing you say let's take starry night
and let's make everything red fire night I don't know it's gonna be called now
by you twist things around a little bit and that's how
in Fort until eventually your able to start with up on campus
and see the painting that should be there
talk about are its culture you know let's ask
if you're a sculptor what's the hardest part
what's the peace that hard about making its culture
and the answer is not shipping the marble
how much of our time and energy to be put into
writing more code spending more time et cetera should be more marble
it really doesn't matter what matters is seen this culture beneath a marble
seeing
patterns behind the code
ignition happens when you see somebody
and you can see that's torture inside a view right you can see that person that
you want to be
if you just round a few more elbows and chip away a few more bits
spar Tuesday practice
opportunity number two
moved thank you Carol corrects I
met Holly except me high I knew his name is still kinda google it
I couldn't get close enough for you as well should I know that he was booked so
I can go find that and then
that about professor psychology wrote a book of low
you should read and he has the same that are completely coopted and
sayin sound smart myself for each learner
you need to challenge them just beyond their ability
and support them just below their need and that's
when you achieve the practice challenge just
outside your comfort zone and support just
suit just barely uncomfortable and if you try and teach
that's the sweet spot that's one hit but that's difficult for us
instead we trying to characterize experience
time which is meaningless
right five years experience and you know in our work with up to you to work with
a lot of great people
I including many developers have been in their jobs for ten and fifteen years
and its honestly heartbreaking to work with some
damn bro you have been solving the same
shitty problem for 10 years and Mike
you're not good at programming I'll say that to them
that's gonna rip apart their hierarchy in not help them
that something in my head like Jesus Christ like your
I'm sorry sensor a your team is really letting you down
like your managers are letting you down because they are not pushing you hard
enough
to become the person that you could be you seem like a smart
person you could be a great developer right now %um
putting in time really doesn't matter d practice doesn't mean just being busy
and it doesn't even mean
hard so I don't like to plea too much with words but
I i do draw distinction between hard in difficult
hard or things you don't want to do there are many days that I wake up and
I'm like
email her there so many of them
writing all those emails hard but it's not difficult
difficult jobs are ones that you're not sure if they'll come
you not sure how it's gonna be achieving United sure if you can be successful at
all
I know that if I put enough hours in my Inbox
it's gonna be empty for a few minutes
if not a difficult problem with a heart problem
d practice when things are difficult pushes your limits
it's something that you get so excited about you go home
and you tell your significant other about it you tweet about it
check out this thing I did go love the practice
is not just to push forward
but to build your scar tissue right there's this
cheesy phrase that I like says
amatures practice until they get a right professionals practice until we can get
it wrong
and that's with the practice supposed to be your source to develop that scar
tissue
and sort so hard that it can't be broken and acid
developer especially in our field web development
our little our little piece
the ecosystem you have to seek out that the practice
because the problems we saw large generally not that difficult
sorry some other ways you can do difficult work
algorithms a year ago
my daughter was having a hard time sleeping and for
extended period and I would sit in program and I needed something that was
exciting
decided to try and clone Warcraft in Ruby and now that sounds like a very
ambitious goal which was
and the trust that the achievement was at best 4 percent
that'll I but it led to algorithms and I was like yeah
when you wanna move up little character from point A to point B
and there's all these other characters in water and stuff in the middle
how do you figure that out like there must be some Wikipedia about this
I found out about the East our algorithm and it's the most fun I had programming
for just a few hours right but a year later I still think about that day
like that was difficult I didn't understand what I was doing I wasn't
confident it to work
I followed the resources available to me to give me a little support across the
world none of them were in Ruby below
I can figure this out and I did
at all my wife about it my wife is much more than me but man she does not care
about
algorithms has like a star you can move this guy
appeared here great can you play it like no you can't play it
but the tests run and remove the guy Chris like
let me know what a good player
data structures same kind I think right
I've been thinking about this a lot particularly lately I'm giving a talk
later this year
about simulating hardware and Ruby just because it's something I wanna see if I
can remember how to do
I can I build up and gates and NOR gates and turn those into
matters and multiplexers and registers and build up a CPU
and all that in ruby and of course like it I'm sure you will be other measured
in megahertz
4 o'clock then there'll be just hurts a as it goes through the
but things like those kinds of challenges user experience I put in
there
you know it doesn't have to all be computer science I think difficult
problems as
problems that are inherently unsolvable and user experience is one of those
performance optimization and lastly code on a constraint if you've never had the
opportunity to
do a code retreat scorching on Sunday rate
do it if you have them on before I want my favorite things from KOTOR she
insists all in the same problem over and over
and adding in new constraints right and some core haynes
the first quarter 2012 I like I got this I teach programming no problem we're
going in like I don't know what I'm doing
all right this time watching a program with no its
hope what's
if statements are not object-oriented programming
and ever since then Mike if statements are not object or a program is not use
the
some other ways in practice those things Cocotte as
refactoring existing code what I think that's interesting that we factoring so
catchy now see talks a lot about the factoring
which then means I talk with her a lot about refactoring
you don't have to keep it I you refactoring doesn't have to move things
forward to my rick has a phrase a
refactoring for understanding where when he dies in new code base
he'll start just three factoring to understand how things are put together
I start pulling on the various pieces and see where the strings or
and then throw it away presuming that he's new to the prosecutors and
understand all the intricacies
he's just gonna be factor to understand the connections
consuming open sources a difficult typical one trying out a new language
but then lastly teaching and mentoring is as people say look there's not a
surprise
it's incredibly challenging it's incredibly difficult
I've learned so much through through teaching when I started teaching Ruby
I know that much about programming and people there are so many things I was
like just do this
it works like this: yet us it's a black it works like that
I get back to you tomorrow contributed yeah so it doesn't work like that
in fact that works like this up Katrina
has been working on a group project called exercise are there any excess
users lock thousands
a excesses the is the project's to
give you simple Co challenges these are challenges that we rode up for class
warm up exercises
that you can try post your solution to get feedback from and
people do a pretty good job you can tell from someone's code
generally what kind of feedback they need I do they think they're hot shit or
not
and people that are easier they generally get easier feedback
and my coach tuner refute parts the player Mike
his lady like unto your think can
Camille that's with the practice should look like
the practice should be uncomfortable I guess to move faster to me stores
getting feedback
ignition practice feedback
you can't have deep practice without feedback and this is
one other parts that were worse that we all think you can do it by my own
by the reality is that computer science
and programming you're one of the only fuels
you get constant feedback
the computer is your teacher it's just a shitty one
right for you pocket feedback you like what's
which one is which which one means and the file which one means missing and
no still don't know I you've made it this far
on that she feedback right error German development like
any %uh view thank you like would assert your didn't learn programming away rely
and it's not good enough it's not good enough to push you forward for a whole
career it's good enough to get you moving
but it's not good enough for a whole career
yeah that's what I say any coach
and you need outside coaching you need coaching not necessarily from
someone who's a better programmer than you you just need
coaching from someone who knows how to coach
let's talk about your okay opportunity number three
you're learning right i John Wooden
the Pascual one-timed a smoker to UCLA won something like
10 championships in 12 years
an is studied widely as a master of coaching
and when they observe his feedback that he gives
to his players 75 percent information
embers under three seconds so it's very close to the action
it's very small so that they can digest them and
react to it very quickly
feed not all feedback is created equal good feedback
a specific this feedback is not specific
what do I do with it right good feedback you should use in a case
when I write JavaScript here right
measurable I know whether or not have succeeded in correcting what
the issue that you saw instead
gimme a threshold
actionable it's clear what to do or
any viewing the design thing like design feedback is
is often worse part from clients you know my good friend runs a design agency
enable is the band words their clients agree not to use
but one of them is pop in these more pop
pop is not actionable you do not there's not a tax in which gives more pop
instead you describe what needs to be done
realistic as one we def we struggle within programming
right instead take the small steps
you're more likely to get them right
and lastly timely when we do those retrospectives and we put some of them
we push him off
push him off it's why they lose value because they're no longer timeline
instead we need that feedback as soon as we've done it
right coach Wooden it's not valuable for him to watch video from two weeks ago
and give a player feedback on it its take a shot feedback on shots naturist
specific measurable actionable realistic
timely yes the forms algorithm are acronym
he acronyms I think they're stupid so that
cheese I can't hurry up it was so short when I practiced was close
where you tryna get as a second-half coaching coaching us feedback
in God where is that place that you're trying to get
if you do want to be am Paris and what's the Delta between Aaron Patterson you
it's probably not a large the ideals that you strive for things that can
never be fully achieve
I wanna be a great open source programmer
that's a great idea because you'll never get there you always think you're a
mediocre
source programmer a bad idea was one that is strictly measurable and
achievable such as you can move on from it
right but instead to say I value readability above cleverness
it's more like a mantra it sticks with you over time
on the other hand you have exemplars and exemplars are your checkpoints along the
way
these are the little pieces that show you that you're getting somewhere that
you are making progress
instead of code should be well written say Kotsay's under 80 lines
right I can't say is our fight itself
school fight 80 calls up it was like a look
I
ideal so your direction exemplar show you that you're getting some
wanna most important roles coaches is to figure out that Delta
so say you want to become sentiments
what do you study a good coach is gonna help you figure this out
object decomposition fractal design and many layers APO
solid encapsulation and most importantly
if you wanna be same as you're gonna have to learn about bikes
that's the role of the coach help to find that chart
help find the goal and then work backwards from that goal until they get
to where you are now
and now they've lay out a roadmap you know that plans gonna change right
we stay in teaching that nope lesson plan survives contact with the students
and that's how coaching goes to like you have the school that's all we're always
heading for
even though we're going to stray off here and stray off over there
feedback helps you call correct the course along the way feedback is what
keeps you
Hatchell
so a master coach
I'm gonna recommend to you for your career if you're a developer
and for your company if your boss
that you need a dedicated coach there you should have someone
on the team that delivers no direct business value
it's probably gonna be your highest papers
a person who's only responsibility is the Quality Inn growth
that team that's when you know
you're playing the long game right when you have that
engineer that person that could be building great stuff right now
but instead you're gonna sacrifice those years and you're gonna turn
the rest of the team into those same people right
would you rather have one excellent developer today or 12 excellent
developers
to three years from now if you're playing a long game
there's no question a great coach has few qualities
empathy is number one expertise in the subject
experience having done it and those things are subtly different
organization to keep track of all these people where the goals are and what
they're doing
and passion if you have to give up
one of these five which one would you give up
his will support expertise
its actually not important as a basketball coach
that you can shoot free throws as a developer
as a coach developers its actually not that important that I can program
all the other format or much more and so if you think about coaching you say to
yourself
I can even hire an experienced developer consider what would it coach look like
that's not even a developer
right somebody that's just been in the business world maybe been in the startup
world maybe been in the tech world
maybe god forbid some high school teacher a good start shouting shit
people
Greek coaching is the difference between sure came along
how great would it feel
twenty years from now feel like you are part over technology
dynasty wanted to be a ridiculous phrase the same number one
whenever to damn we've been doing this together
for so long yes
doe okay I really need to finish on time
yes okay that's the end
you know in honor of iPhone day
there's one more thing I
side with that we've been having a lot of conversation last few days
specifically around
I think all rubicam headed to Miami Beach
anybody planning on going nice
its Miami Beach not that I don't love coming to Buffalo
Miami Beach so
couple days ago the program goes up
like is my first week of talks is my very first talk
my very first technical talk was a really confident 2008
calling our reliving tour ridiculousness that when I showed up the night before
was like so
Abdu and two screens
with two projectors and he's like what the fuck you talking about
like don't worry I brought my own projector and screen from my classroom
an extent according to look it all up is like mmm
all rights so where things got interesting
is peeps are looking at the program you're like dude
dude dude dude three dudes in one talk
are also
if I bring when well I didn't do my
research as a turnout of people didn't actually also
that their originally the search we got to was a
there were two women actually 61 I
I love Sarah and
I mean not in a way like my wife would be bothered by but
X-ers a person that you talk to for 30 seconds and you just feel that passion
I'll whatever you're doing love died so when I saw her write this
Sarah that makes me sad
I don't like this I she's very
weasel and I think knows all these people very well
and went on to this I an
I've been thinking about it time traveling by myself
if you have kids then when you travel by yourself like so easy
I so much time to just sit and think I me thinking and thinking and thinking
and thinking
and I have a long-term goal
love creating the community that I wanna see I have
spent the last 10 years teaching programming particularly to
persons who are not like me and I want to push this thinking for
I got me and a half it's much like the standardized testing problem
people love to talk to all your education what do you think about
standardized testing
say it doesn't fucking matter huts
be up in arms and putting it on a list like now if you know math
you can pass a standardized test the problem is not just the promise kids
don't know math same problem here
if everything was hunky-dory and industry
we wouldn't be talking about conference right conferences will look exactly how
we think we want them to look
if are in this year already that way but it's not
and conferences have both the ability
and the responsibility to reflect the place we want to go to to be
that ideal that we want to pursue the direction that we want to go
and conferences being appear on the stage
have a tremendous ability to ignite
people to be that first step in the process
to show them the person that like I thought I wanted to do that thing
I saw well I saw that you're doing don't do that but the next person who comes on
her pretty good
I think I could do that a lot of people
you know use this of race and I have
adopted and say to myself often
this variance and so I said to myself are we got a problem
I do what I can to fix it I for me your more minutes
alright you can just cut the Michael source out I
so we are starting a thing called speaker core
and every good idea I've had pretty much my whole business I
stall ruthlessly from Teach for America a
Haven start issuing some other language from Teach for America cetera
if you haiti's for america we could debate at once and this is a program
that were launching to coach under-represented voices
self-identify as not seen people like them
give conference talks and so if that means your woman you don't see people
like you
means your sexual preference you don't see people like you
your economic background I don't care we're gonna help you
we're gonna help you become the person you want to be between the six of us
lost up to in six overs I think we've given a hundred conference talks
I presume that other people are going to help us out
and the South can work we're going to take 24 people power grab open
application
I don't know how we're gonna pick the right 24 out of that that next
we're going to join them up one on one with mentors from the community
we're gonna help them brainstorm topics we're going to help them right proposals
and give them feedback
and if you ever done any learning with me you know that
I like to get out of the way as soon as possible so when I say help them
it's more like he did you do this hey did you do this hey did you do this
not like right this on the first line rate this on the second line
I'm not trying to take over his people's lives I'm trying to help
share what we know about it and person for
help with structuring in practicing a talk help
connecting with local user group to get them in there to practice
help talk to conference organizers and say
this is somebody should check out I'm not interested if
Nick comes to me and says like alright the sounds great we're gonna hold two
spots
for your people say fuck you Nick
have have your competition I want sex I like
have the competition and if they're not the best fuckin speakers in the bunch
don't pick because that's how we build
and lastly we do have a nonprofit that we recently set up
if we can put together some dollars that will help people actually get to the
conference's
because we don't want to just change
a little bit we don't want to change in events we want us help
store amplify the fire the changes industry
that's a if you want to join us that's the URL
I'm just