CODELAND 2019
Tags: beginners, techtalks, todayilearned
Published: 2019-07-29 14:35:52

Last Monday I attended my first tech / coding conference. As someone who has major social anxiety I am quite proud of not only going but even staying for the after party!  I give tons of credit to how Codeland made it an inclusive and supportive environment. I also got to speak and interact with a lot of new developers who will hopefully be my coding partners-in-crime!

In this blog post I’m not going to recap each speaker but speak about the major points I gathered from attending Codeland.

##PROBLEM SOLVING - The Tool of Code

Problems do not need to be removed and abstract. Sometimes when I think of technology it seems very distant, almost like a sci-fi film! We see many great things happening and wonder how did they do that?... how can I do that?! As someone who does not come from a background in technology I found this very interesting.

Kaya Thomas, Pedro Cruz, and Scott Hanselman all had issues that they were passionate about and that were individually personal.  The problems they were solving were directly impacting them in some way be it gender and racial inequality, natural disaster aid, or a lifelong disease.  These three talks stuck with me because it was less about the code and more about how can I fix this problem with the tool of code. Also one MAJOR point from Thomas' talk was

<blockquote>You do <b>NOT</b> have to quit your day job! You can still make an impact.</blockquote>

I have seen countless articles on "How to quit your day job," and although that is the path some of us would like to take,  I loved Kaya's point. It breaks down the dichotomy of you either having to do this or that.  Sometimes we just create small projects we just want to see exist in the world.


##WINNER’S TOTALLY QUIT!

I needed to hear this. Viewing quitting as a sign of weakness I though if I just pushed through I would become better and a stronger worker for it in the future! (*cue Kanye West' Stronger*) In the end, sometimes these bouts of determination were just wearing on my physical and mental health. All through my 20s rather than working out better, more efficient solutions I stuck through many challenges I should have let go of. I could have been using my efforts on projects that were worth my attention but that's not to say all my hardships were for nothing! Failing is often masked in our society even though we, "fail a lot!" Recognizing that that is a failure and when to move on is the key! 

Coming from a film production background I resonated with some of the tips Katrina Owen stated like,

<blockquote>To-Do Lists <b>DOES NOT</b> equal Strategy</blockquote>

I am known to be a busy bee and I had a major misconception that if I was always doing something that I was progressing, successful, and productive. For the remainder of the week I analyzed my day and I took a hard look at some of my choices, career wise and personal.  Owen's talk reminded me it is important to take some mindful moments and understand when something is not working. Those failures are our stepping stones and if we let go of those failed experiments it can lead us to a more successful path.