Podcasts about Girl Develop It

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In this episode, which premiered on 10/31/2023, I talked with Erkeda DeRouen (MD) about her passion for merging the humanistic aspect of medicine with the new field of emerging technology. Erkeda shared her experience working in a healthtech startup company in the early days of telemedicine, going into full time business for herself as a healthcare consultant, and her non-profit leadership role in helping women & non-binary adults learn software development skills. Erkeda and I also talked at length about her thoughts on emerging technology's ability to improve healthcare for all and how she plans to revolutionize health care with community, collaboration, and cybernetics through The Pace Makerz organization. This is a conversation you won't want to miss!   KEEP IN TOUCH

Yasmine Mustafa is a social entrepreneur and the CEO of ROAR. Fueled by a passion to leverage technology for good, she leads the ROAR team in their mission to cultivate safer workplaces and empowered communities. Dedicated to fostering inclusive opportunities in business and education, Yasmine draws upon her own experiences as an immigrant and woman in tech to create a platform for conversation and igniting change. In addition to ROAR, Yasmine launched the Philadelphia chapter of Girl Develop It (a non-profit providing affordable opportunities for women to learn software development) and serves on the board of Coded by Kids (a non-profit providing free tech education to inner-city youth). Her role as a leader and advocate has been recognized by the BBC, CNBC's Upstart 100, Philadelphia Magazine, Philadelphia Business Journal, Technical.ly Philly, and the City of Philadelphia, among others. She is a 2x TedX speaker with a roster of speaking credits that also include SXSW and CES. Prior to launching ROAR, Yasmine founded and sold her first company to a prominent content marketing firm in Silicon Valley. She graduated summa cum laude from Temple University with a Business Management Degree.

In this week's podcast episode, we speak to healthcare professionals about their experiences with burnout and the importance of bringing back human connection and empathy in medicine. Join Dr. Kara Wada and Dr. Erkeda DeRouen as they explore the landscape of Health Equity and dive into how Telemedicine and Lifestyle Medicine are transforming our healthcare system. ======================================================== ABOUT DR. Erkeda DeRouen A triple board-certified Family, Diversity, and Lifestyle Medicine physician. She serves as a thought leader in healthcare innovation. She is passionate about merging the human aspect of medicine with the field of emerging technology. Dr. DeRouen believes in putting people first, utilizing her gift of listening, communicating, and connecting the missing pieces to solve complex problems. She finds joy in mentoring, as she believes that one should always share their gifts to uplift others. Dr. DeRouen hosts a pre-med and medical student geared podcast to expand the amount of people that she can mentor called The Prospective Doctor. She also is a board member for Girl Develop It, Inc, increasing the number of women and non-binary people in tech. Two time best-selling author, who also has a TEDx talk entitled "Did Disney Just Save Healthcare?!? Imagine This...” CONNECT WITH DR. ERKEDA Instagram: www.instagram.com/doctordgram LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/erkedaderouenmd Website: www.drerkeda.com BUY DR.ERKEDA'S BOOK Medicine Women: An Anthology of Stories and Letters by Female Doctors and Health Professionals Get it Here: https://a.co/d/eik72Yc Taking Care of You: The Empowered Woman's Guide to Better Health Get it Here: https://a.co/d/bU1r2h6 ======================================================== Subscribe to our Newsletter to stay posted on navigating healthcare and wellness industries with more clarity and control.

As Sara Chipps delved deeper into the world of open source and moved up into senior engineering and management roles, there was a specific skill she learned about how to work with and manage engineers. "This is something you never get taught in school. This is something we don't stress to junior developers. This is something that senior developers learn late in their careers, is that the ability to influence the opinions of others without conflict is a superpower. "By conflict, I don't mean not disagreeing. I'm more mean in this case, conflict of like a, a public fight or, or people getting angry or upset, like to be able to coach people through what you think is an incorrect opinion to a place where you're in agreement. It's hard, it's sometimes you're impossible, but it's an incredible skill to have. "I love of bureaucracy and open source because that's a place that I've learned that I can be effective. "My responsibility is identifying when people have a limiting mindset of you know, things should be this way and helping them to see the possibilities. What I've learned is that it takes time. Sometimes you have to say the same things 50 times in a row. Sometimes it doesn't work, but growing that muscle of having a message, staying on that message, learning who to identify as allies and to talk through things, that has been a really cool learning as part of my work here." Resources mentioned in this episode https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarajchipps/ (Sara Chipps), Engineering Manager, Flagship Infrastructure, LinkedIn https://jewelbots.com/ (JewelBots), Craft Kits for Budding Inventors https://girldevelopit.com/ (Girl Develop It), women and non-binary adults learn software development skills https://girlswhocode.com/ (Girls Who Code), the world's largest pipeline of female engineers https://www.linkedin.com/in/rginn206/ (Robin Ginn), Executive Director at OpenJS Foundation https://openjsf.org/ (OpenJS Foundation), driving broad adoption and ongoing development of key JavaScript solutions and technologies

We sit down with Katie Franco, Executive Director of Girl Develop It. We dive into how they support woman and non-binary people in the development space. https://codingcat.dev/podcast/1-51-creating-opportunities-with-girl-develop-it --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/purrfect-dev/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/purrfect-dev/support

¿Quieres iniciarte en el código abierto pero no sabes por dónde empezar? ¿Ya eres colaborador y no entiendes por qué solo se aceptan algunas solicitudes de extracción? ¿Eres mantenedor y te sientes abrumado? En este episodio analizamos lo que implica el compromiso con un proyecto de código abierto. Acompañamos a nuestros héroes a medida que avanzan en su papel de colaboradores del código abierto: desde encontrar proyectos y contribuir a ellos, hasta desarrollar y mantener comunidades prósperas. Shannon Crabill nos cuenta cómo se inició en el código abierto en Hacktoberfest 2017. Existen muchas maneras de contribuir al código abierto. Vamos a verlas juntos.

Tess is a Principal at GSV Ventures, an early-stage venture fund focused on education technology. Tess spent time at Pluralsight on their strategy team, was a top sales executive at Andela (start-up transforming talent across Africa), and the Head of Talent at Timehop. Tess holds an MBA from Stanford and a BA in International Relations/Economics from New York University. Tess was a Teaching Assistant at Stanford GSB for “Diverse Leadership in Education.” She serves on the Advisory Board for Girl Develop It, a non-profit providing software engineering courses for adult women.

Chris Bolin serves as the VP of Engineering for Formidable Denver and is an accomplished speaker and instructor. Prior to joining Formidable, Chris was the first engineer at Jumpshell, the lead data scientist at Autotegrity, and an engineer at National Instruments. Chris serves as technical lead on high-profile projects while also directing the Formidable Denver office. Chris holds a Master’s in Computational Engineering from MIT, and loves teaching, mentoring, and presenting. He has taught at MIT, University of Denver, Girl Develop It, and Startup Institute, tutored high school students in mathematics and environmental studies, and is the Founding Editor of The Disconnect. In addition, his projects have been featured in Vice, Lifehacker, the CBC, CJR, Le Monde, and The Next Web. We discussed how to build a good engineering culture and how to keep the joy of software engineering.

All that I need is within me now, on the Daily Grind, your new weekly motivational podcast. This episode features Kelly Johnson and special guest Stacey ‘Grace' Fenton! Fenton is a leading educational trainer & tech speaker, specializing in exploration, wonderment, and kindness using technology. She has led training and workshops for Girl Develop It, Grand Circus Tech Bootcamp, United Shore, Wayne County, MI, and colleges and Universities across the country. She is launching two projects this Spring: Anon Kind Notes and Show & Tell After 5, intended to spark curiosity, fun, and kindness in the lives of busy young professionals. Fenton is originally from Detroit, MI and currently lives and works in San Antonio, TX. In today's episode, Fenton shares how to overcome challenges, stay organized and create goals for the week, and manage anxiety or depression based on her own personal experiences. In addition, Fenton shares the ‘Top 5 things you need to know going into the real world!' Also, Fenton recommends reading “Stop Saying You're Fine” by Mel Robbins and checking out “The 5 Second Rule” TED talk. Audio Credit Intro: Draw The Line Mastered by Connor Christian Follow Our Podcast: Instagram: @kjfdailygrind Facebook: @kjfdailygrind Podcast Network: https://www.ambiguousproduction.com/ Follow our Host: Twitter: @kellyjlefty Instagram: @kellyjlefty Follow our Special Guest: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staceymfenton/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dailygrindpod/support

Brittney Ball is a Software Engineer on Gatsby's Learning team. Throughout the years Brittney has made it her mission to pave the way for other people trying to create a better future through Tech. She has hosted the Charlotte Devs JavaScript Study Group Meetup to help developers solve challenges and give to the community. She has also organized events for Girl Develop It, QC Bytes, and TechByChoice to mentor other women in tech. Her goal is to pay it forward and help people see that you don't have to go the traditional route to be successful. As long as you want it, you can achieve it.Podcast Music by Dj QuadsSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BlkWomenRising)

Erin is a Tech Lead at Spotify. With a degree in Art, Erin started her career as a graphic designer at NBC. She designed posters and marketing material for the company and its affiliates. Two of her colleagues taught Erin frontend development so she could further upskill herself. After NBC, Erin moved to Bitly and then Adobe for a couple of years. At Spotify, Erin has picked up a lot backend skills and data skills. Erin also works in mentorship programs, she teaches at Girl Develop It.

Yasmine Mustafa is a social entrepreneur and community leader fueled by a passion to leverage technology for good. She's the CEO of ROAR for Good, a certified B-corp with the mission of utilizing technology and education to create safer workplaces. Before that, she founded and sold her first company to a prominent content marketing firm in Silicon Valley. Yasmine brought Girl Develop It to Philadelphia, a non-profit providing affordable opportunities for women interested in learning software development. In addition, she sits on the board of Coded by Kids, a non-profit organization committed to providing free tech education to inner-city youth. She is a 2x TEDx speaker, discussing challenges she experienced migrating to the United States as a refugee and discovering she was undocumented. Her "Birth Lottery" talk highlights the challenges (and opportunities) inherent in each life. BBC selected Yasmine as one of its 100 Women of 2016 due to her work in empowering women. She was also recognized as Upstart 100's most dynamic people shaping business, Philadelphia Magazine's Top 20 Best Philadelphian's, Philadelphia Business Journal's 2016 Tech Disruptors, Technologist of the Year by the Philly Geek Awards, and Innovator of the Year by Rad Girls. She is the recipient of the "Women of Courage" award from Lutheran Settlement House and "Visionary Leader" by the City of Philadelphia. Yasmine graduated summa cum laude from Temple University with a Business Management Degree. “I think the learning that I had in terms of ‘treat others the way they want to be treated' versus the way you want to be treated, its helped me so much. I would say this has been the number one most critical leadership skill that I have learned that I would pass on to other people”…[Listen for More] Click Here for Show Notes To Listen or to Get the Show Notes go to https://wp.me/p6Tf4b-7fF

Tech Heroes podcast host, Aliza Carpio interviews Rocio Montes. Rocio is a Staff Software Engineer working on Intuit’s enterprise architecture. She’s a lead for scaling and revamping the Open Source & Inner Source strategies and efforts across Intuit and an champion for women in technology. Outside of Intuit, she is on the leadership team of Girl Develop It and the Co-founder of EMAR, whose mission is to connect small businesses in the US who have tech needs with software engineering interns in Peru. As an Intuit Awesome Assessor, Rocio shares her advice for prospective Intuit intern and co-ops, her excitement around Grace Hopper, advice for women at the mid-career level, and the audio books she’s currently listening to.

Live from DevOpsDays Toronto, I meet up with my fellow DevRel road warrior, Quintessence Anx of Logz.io. Quintessence bring years of experience and compassion to her role. Quintessence is a champion for mindfulness around accessibility and diversity. In her own words... I’ve worked in the IT community for over 10 years, including as a database administrator and a DevOps / Cloud / Infrastructure engineer. I was a core contributor to Stark & Wayne’s SHIELD project, which adds backup functionality to Cloud Foundry, as well as a technical reviewer for Learning Go Programming published by Packt Publishing. Currently I am the US Developer Advocate for Logz.io, driving DevOps community engagement. Outside of work I am a chapter leader of Girl Develop It’s Buffalo chapter to help women in the Buffalo community launch careers in development. https://twitter.com/QuintessenceAnx https://twitter.com/inctechbuffalo

On this very special Bike Shed, Steph and Chris celebrate reaching the 200th episode. They discuss the origins of the show and thank some of the wonderful folks who helped make it happen (thanks Derek, Sean, Amanda, Laila, and of course Thom!). They discuss Chris's recent trip to RailsConf and some strategies for making the most of conference attendance. Also, Steph's recent work hosting an intro to web development course. They wrap things up with a series of questions captured live from RailsConf at the community meetup covering career growth, naming, graphql, joy, and more. Sandi & Derek's Rules - The Bike Shed's first episode, from Oct 31 2014. New Podcast Hosts! Derek Prior Sean Griffin Laila Winner Amanda Adams (Amanda Hill at the time) Intercom Pacman rule - Eric Holscher Girl Develop It Women Who Code "What happens when you type google.com into your browser's address box and press enter?" Atom Neocities Netlify Heroku Minneapolis Sculpture Garden Dependabot Semisonic - Sculpture Garden

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pgbovineSupport with PayPal, Patreon, credit/debit: http://pgbovine.net/support.htmhttp://pgbovine.net/PG-Podcast-48-Pamela-Fox-returns.htm- [AP Computer Science Principles](https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-computer-science-principles/course)- [My Unexpectedly Awesome AP Computer Science Class](http://pgbovine.net/ap-computer-science.htm)- [TEALS - Computer Science in Every High School](https://www.tealsk12.org/)- [Older Adults Learning Computer Programming: Motivations, Frustrations, and Design Opportunities](http://pgbovine.net/older-adults-learning-programming-paper.htm)- [PG Vlog #173 - Knowledge is Hyperlocal](http://pgbovine.net/PG-Vlog-173-knowledge-is-hyperlocal.htm)- [Girl Develop It](https://www.girldevelopit.com/)- [AP Computer Science Principles (AP CSP) | Khan Academy](https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/ap-computer-science-principles)- [Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results 2019](https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019)- [Pyodide: Bringing the scientific Python stack to the browser](https://hacks.mozilla.org/2019/04/pyodide-bringing-the-scientific-python-stack-to-the-browser/)- [JavaScript Language Fundamentals: ES6 using Google+Airbnb style guides](http://pgbovine.net/javascript-language-fundamentals.htm)- [CS Equity Guide](http://access-ca.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2019/04/CSforCAguide-opt.pdf) by Access CA- [PG Vlog #290 - high school tour (1 of 2) - the physical landscape](http://pgbovine.net/PG-Vlog-290-high-school-tour-1.htm)- [PG Vlog #291 - high school tour (2 of 2) - the digital landscape](http://pgbovine.net/PG-Vlog-291-high-school-tour-2.htm)Recorded: 2019-05-09 (1)

Front-end architect and speaker Mina Markham is Jeffrey Zeldman's guest. Mina discusses her career path, her work at as a senior engineer at Slack, how she came to create the Hillary Clinton UI pattern library “Pantsuit,” her time at IBM, helping others and inviting women of color into STEM fields, becoming a public speaker in spite of deep introversion, a recent South African safari, air travel, conferences, the joys of visiting Italy, and more. Enjoy a relaxed and illuminating glimpse into the life of a private and highly creative person. Links for this episode:Mina Markham, DeveloperMina Markham on Twitter (@minamarkham)Mina Markham on GitHubMina Markham on LinkedinSassy StarterFront Porch ConferenceSlackSlack on TwitterMina's storyBuilding Pantsuit – the Hanselminutes Podcast by Scott HanselmanBlack Girls Who CodeGirl Develop ItBrought to you by: Blockstack (The Blockstack ecosystem is hard at work and we'd love to have you, learn more and get started at blockstack.org/bigwebshow).

GUEST BIO: Nina Zakharenko is a Senior Cloud Developer Advocate at Microsoft, focusing on Python. Before joining Microsoft, she was a Software Engineer with over a decade of experience writing software for companies like Reddit, Meetup, and HBO. In her spare time, she enjoys snowboarding, hiking, and tinkering with wearable electronics from her home base in Portland, OR. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: My guest on today’s show is Nina Zakharenko. She is a Senior Cloud Developer Advocate for Microsoft. Nina is also a well-known conference speaker who covers many technical subjects. Although Python is her area of expertise. Before joining Microsoft, Nina spent a decade writing software for a range of companies, including Reddit, Meetup, HBO and several PayPal subsidiaries. She has also run several JavaScript, Jquery and Git workshops for Girl Develop It. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.07) – So Nina, can I ask you to expand on that brief intro and tell us a little bit more about yourself? Nina describes herself as a “newly minted Developer Advocate”. For the 10 years preceding her joining Microsoft, Nina worked as a software engineer. About 5 years ago, she started giving conference speeches, for fun. She really enjoyed it, so took things more seriously. Today, she is a regular conference speaker. (1.40) – How many conferences talks have you given? Nina says that she has lost count, but it’s a lot. She has spoken in Russia, Prague, Scotland and given several keynote speeches. (2.03) Phil asks Nina if she speaks on a range of different subjects or if she mostly repeats the same speech. Nina explains that she speaks about a range of IT subjects. For example, technical debt and how to develop excellent code review processes. However, the bulk of the speeches she delivers are related to Python, which is really her area of expertise. (2.25) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? Nina’s ultimate career tip is to focus on doing one thing, at a time. New things in tech come and go, so keeping up with everything is very challenging. The trick is to find one thing that you feel passionate about and stick with it. If you do not, you will end up being pulled in all directions. Nina’s passion is Python. As soon as she started focusing on it and getting involved in that community her career flourished and really took off. (3.23) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. Nina has found that her worst career moments occurred when she is following the money instead of her passion. For example, one of the startups she was working for was taken over. Overnight, everything changed. Nina did not feel 100% comfortable with the ethics of the new company and did not share their leadership values. So, she was no longer happy working there. But, she tried to make it through to the four year cliff period, so that she could secure her share options. This decision ended up being a big mistake. Basically, she burned out. So, she had to leave before the four years were up, without her shares. Of course, it meant that she was a bit poorer. But, it was the right decision. Overnight, she felt happier and soon landed another job, one which she really enjoyed. It is important to understand yourself. To know what you want to get out of your job. Nina’s advice is to find a job that offers you the right balance for you. (5.08) – Phil asks Nina what her best career moment was. Nina says that was probably when she gave her first talk in front of a big audience of about 400, at PyCon.   She was shaking throughout her speech. Despite this, she was able to deliver a great talk. After giving that first speech, Nina realized that people were really interested in her experiences and what she had to say. One of Nina’s ambitions is to give the keynote speech at PyCon. (7.42) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? Nina likes the fact that in the IT field there are lots of opportunities for those who want to act as mentors, far more than in other industries. This is a good thing for everyone. It means that those that want to mentor can, while those that want to learn can do so easily, which is great for the future of the industry. (9.08) – Phil says that, over the past decade or so, he has noticed big changes in this area. The industry is far more open and inclusive than it used to be. People are now more commutative and ready to respond positively when they are asked for help or advice. (9.32) – What drew you to a career in IT? Nina has always wanted to be a software engineer. At 11 years old, she said exactly that in one of her school essays. Curiously, it was her dislike of the band Hanson that motivated her to build her first website. She learned HTML, just so she could put together her anti-Hanson site. (10.44) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? Nina says she was once told not to think of her career as being something that is attached to a specific workplace. If you are not getting what you need from your current work all you need to do is to move onto something else. When you work in the IT industry, there is no need to let your career stagnate. (11.21) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Nina says that if she were to start out again, she would make sure that she started her career working in a field that she felt passionate about. Her first job was in the finance sector writing enterprise applications, which she never really enjoyed doing. If you have multiple offers take the time to choose wisely. Choose the place that is going to help you to stay passionate about what you are doing. Don’t just throw a dart and see where it sticks. (12.27) – What objectives are you currently focusing on? Right now, it is becoming a better developer advocate that is driving Nina on. She comments that at first she thought she already had all of the skills she needed for her new role. Now, she knows there is more for her to learn, something that she is very keen to do. Currently, she is focusing on her customers and making sure that they have the best possible experience. (13.18) – What is the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career?  Nina says that her ability to take hard or complex problems and break things down into easy steps so that anyone can understand it has proved invaluable. She uses this skill when she writes and when she puts together her videos or speeches. Without this ability, it would have been possible for her to have helped so many people to experience that ‘aha moment’. (13.50) Phil asks Nina if she structures her delivery in a particular way. For example, selling the big idea first then drilling down to the detail. Nina says yes in a way that is what she does. She likes to add a little bit of mystique into her conference talks. If she can, she takes her audience in one direction then switches things up part way through. She finds that doing so holds their attention and turns what are sometimes quite dry subjects into something that is a little more interesting. (14.21) – Phil asks Nina to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. Nina’s parting piece of career advice is to “trust your gut.” If something catches your attention or excites you, listen to your gut rather than just your logical mind. We like to think of ourselves as being logical beings. But, in reality, we are mostly driven by our emotions. BEST MOMENTS: (2.35) NINA – "Focus on doing one thing well, at a time." (3.34) NINA – “My worst IT career moments came when I was trying to follow the money instead of following my passion." (9.09) NINA – “I think the openness and the sort of inclusiveness within the IT industry have certainly grown over the last decade." (11.11) NINA – "If you feel like your career is stagnating, it's okay to look around." (14.55) PHIL – “We think we're logical. But when it boils down to it, we're all emotionally driven" CONTACT NINA: Twitter: https://twitter.com/nnja @nnja LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninaz Website: https://www.nnja.io

Podcast Description “If we’re not going to make progress in our matriarchal organizations, then we’re just as oppressive as our patriarchal organizations.”Marisa Catalina Casey is an artist, educator and social entrepreneur. Prior to serving in Ecuador for two years as an Education and Business Advising Volunteer with the Peace Corps, she founded the Brooklyn-based nonprofit arts organization, Starting Artists, Inc. (SA). SA served hundreds of youth in New York City over the 5 years of Marisa’s leadership, inspiring and educating 10-19 year olds through hands-on training in the media arts and entrepreneurship.Marisa obtained her BA from Brown University and her MA from Columbia University and has held positions at the Hearst Foundations, CARE, Alliance for Children Foundation, Teen Ink, APERTURE, The Nature Conservancy, and Girl Develop It. In addition, she led the Communications Team for Mindy Domb’s successful Massachusetts State Representative campaign and serves as a volunteer grant reviewer for the Pollination Project on the International Economic Development panel.Marisa co-authored the book, Born in our Hearts, with her adoptive mother, with all proceeds donated to international orphanages, including her own in Bogotá, Colombia. She has served as a board member of the Americans for the Arts Emerging Leaders Council and founding board member of Emerging Leaders of New York Arts. Marisa has been chosen to participate in several leadership programs including the International Youth Foundation Global Fellowship, American Express Nonprofit Leadership Institute, Lucca Leadership Foundations Program in South Africa, and the British Council’s Transatlantic Network 2020 bringing young leaders from Europe and North America together to address social issues.Currently, she lives with her husband, their daughter, and a turtle in Western Massachusetts where they can be seen on outings in their avocado green 1978 VW Camper Van. See more of her work at: www.marisacatalinacasey.com. Additional Resources Article on White Supremacy CultureMore resources from Dismantling RacismResearch about Stereotypes - Warmth/Trust and CompetenceImage of the Warmth/Trust and Competence chart Twitter Marisa Catalina Casey Become a #causeascene Podcast sponsor because disruption and innovation are products of individuals who take bold steps in order to shift the collective and challenge the status quo.Learn more >All music for the #causeascene podcast is composed and produced by Chaos, Chao Pack, and Listen on SoundCloud. Listen to more great #causeascene podcasts full podcast list >

I’ve told very few people about this (and now I wonder why) but one of the long term goals is my business is to contribute to more girls learning technology and coding. I still believe there are not enough women leaders in tech and this is impacting the world at large.   In this episode, I go through a couple stories about why I think having more women in technology could change we perceive the world and some science to back it up.   Finally, I talk about some key steps I think need to happen so that this slowly shifts to a more equal environment of women and men leaders.   Sources mentioned in the episodes:   Difference between men’s and women’s brains: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hope-relationships/201402/brain-differences-between-genders Perception and Emotions in Men and Women: https://www.powerofpositivity.com/ways-men-women-think-differently/ Tech Diversity in 2018 : https://www.recode.net/2018/6/21/17489450/tech-diversity-inclusion-women-leadership-engineer-culture Women Tech Leaders today: https://www.fastcompany.com/40547212/people-were-asked-to-name-women-tech-leaders-they-said-alexa-and-siri Organizations helping educate more women in technology and how you can get involved, Girl Develop It: https://www.girldevelopit.com/ Women Who Code: https://www.womenwhocode.com/ Black Girls Code: http://www.blackgirlscode.com/ Code Like A Girl: https://codelikeagirl.org/ Ladies get Paid: https://www.ladiesgetpaid.com/ Ask for it Book by Linda Babcock  and Sara Laschever   https://www.amazon.com/Ask-Women-Power-Negotiation-Really/dp/0553384554   http://digimorphs.com https://www.instagram.com/digimorphs/  

"This was one of the most controversial and acrimonious we have had in a long time, maybe ever if you’re new to WordPress."Matt Shows off Shape Divider Blocks - 3:12Matt mentions vendors that are making blocks for Gutenberg - 3:73Matt talks about LazyBlocks https://wordpress.org/plugins/lazy-blocks/ - 4:73Gutenblocks are easier if you were brought up using them - 7:17Regardless of device used - 7:30Bridget mentions that it’s too bad you can use WordPress on mobile without WordPress.com being involved. - 8:23To Review - Matt mentions for the first time this Phasing of Gutenberg - 8:77Phase 2 - 10:08Matt shows the widget manager screen and how it’s “still there” - 10:68Editing menus inline - 12:05Phase 2 is thinking outside of post_content - 12:72Collaboration with multi user editing of Gutenberg. Gutenberg and Google Docs functionality - 14:25Core is open - “tackle our 6,500 open issues” is listed at the bottom - 16:50PHP7 is the minimum version for WordPress - 17:40WordPress 4.9 had 173 million downloads, 68.4% are running 4.9. - 18:48Release Cycles 4.9 to 4.9.8 - 18:92WordPress 5.0 - 19:40Matt mentions controversy with WordPress 5.0 and forcing the release date. - 19:63What we learned - 23:25Matt mentions having more Javascript talks at WordCamps - 23:98Here’s what we learned “the betas were tested more than any other releases”. - 25:97“This was one of the most controversial and acrimonious we have had in a long time, maybe ever if you’re new to WordPress. Some were bad, I blame Twitter partially. I blame everything on Twitter. Between Twitter and Facebook we have all the worst problems… and some of warts and some of the debates and some of the sort of open source product” then he goes on to mention this as a “company this would all happen behind the scenes or not at all” he continues “For us, we have all of this happening in the public and it’s all archived and linkable and version controlled and everything. So, we just have to keep in mind that, well, in addition to having good etiquette and realy conversation in a productive way for whatever we’re doing, keep in mind that things might appear worse than they actually are” he continues “because the conversations and things happening on twitter or blog posts or whatever else might not actually be representative of the basics or fundamentals or first principles of the software”Bridget says “did he just reprimand us?” - 28:50Then for some reason Matt then goes into talking about https not the nicest of segues. - 28:57“The community is the only thing that makes WordPress!!!!” - 29:60He now goes on into WordCamps and shares some stats regarding them.do_action - 30:55WordPress Foundation - Internet Archive $10k, Girl Develop It $10k, Black Girls Code $10k. We’re all in agreement that 10k per is a very small amount. - 31:8385 donors. - 32:15Currently, there was 407 people watching the live stream from WordCamp US. - 34:12Matt mentions jiggling, wiggling and dancing #jiggleandwiggle - 35:50200+ volunteers helped out with WordCamp US - 36:22Q&A Begins - 36:57Question 1: John - 37:63Jason asks about the styles of the blocks that are being made and making sure they work with all themes. This has to be a challenge.Bridget mentions Matt’s suit. Jason asks “Matt, who are you wearing?” - 39:25Bridget wants to know what the hex color is for his shirt - 39:68Question 2: Nick Adams - 41:30wordpress.org/blog and the number of posts done by employees not the community. Automattic has 830 people and 40 of them work on WordPress core.Question 3: Fred Meyer - Making Layouts more robust in Gutenberg. - 44:93Question 4: We were critical about the time he told to get his question out but he took 4 minutes to ask Matt about democratizing publishing.He then asks another question: - 54:13Question 5: Victor from Miami Why isn’t there a WordCamp Canada? Why is this called WordCamp US? Shouldn’t it be WordCamp North America? - 54:13Question 6: Birgit - Health Insurance & Accessibility - 56:92Question 7: Adam from Colorado - 59:32Question 8: Morten from planet Earth “The use of the word, WE” Matt responds with “We, is contextual..”“And if English is not your first language as well I completely understand how things are confusing as you go through”Morten responds with “Can I just add a comment to that? What you are describing is a governance structure without governance”Matt: “If only there were a meetup for that” - 60:83Question 8: Andrew Taylor from Portland - 67:52Question 9: Matthew - 70:00Question 10: Dimitri - WordCamp Moscow - Themes and styling with plugins adding blocks. Will there be a repository for Blocks? - 72:38Question 11: Cristy Chrinos of Caldera Forms - “How are you going to make sure that people that were burned by WordPress.."Feature Video: - 79:00Fin - 80:35Our reaction after the fact - 80:55 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Podcast Description “I’m thinking of all the other people that think that my presence in this community and this space in this organization is a stamp on this is also safe for you.”Shanise Barona is a web developer and community builder with a passion for where tech and social justice intersect. Additional Resources How White Women Use Strategic Tears to Silence Women of ColourEpisode's Transcript Twitter Shanise Barona Become a #causeascene Podcast sponsor because disruption and innovation are products of individuals who take bold steps in order to shift the collective and challenge the status quo.Learn more >Transcript0:30K: Hello everyone, and welcome to today’s episode of the #causeascene podcast. I have someone who I met a year ago and we’ve spent some time together so I’ve been able to get to know her better. I’m very happy to have Shanise on. Shanise, please introduce yourself to the audience.Shanise Barona: Hi everyone, my name is Shanise Barona. Happy to be on your podcast!0:55Kim Crayton: Shanise, tell me why is it important to cause a scene and how are you causing a scene?Shanise Barona: I think of the quote by Zora Neale Hurston that says, “If you're silent [about your pain], they'll kill you and say you enjoyed it.” Kim Crayton: Okay, that’s fucking deep. Okay. Go ahead.Shanise Barona: That’s why it’s important to cause a scene. And how am I causing a scene? Many ways… Primarily, just existing. 1:31Kim Crayton: There’s a specific reason that you’re here, but we’ll get to that. Tell me why — fuck it, we’re just gonna get into it. I’m just not even gonna beat around the bush. Many of you know that I’ve had some issues with some of the “women’s groups” in tech, particularly the groups that are run by white women. Because, like many “feminist”/”feminism” organizations, it’s about white feminism. And these organizations are focusing on white women’s issues in tech. As many of you know (and if you don’t know, I’m gonna say it again), white women are NOT “diversity.” Although they are underrepresented in tech, no, WOMEN are underrepresented in tech… White women — very few, if they don’t come from other marginalized groups, as in, having a disability, LGBTQ, all these other things that makes a group of people marginalized, particularly in tech — don’t belong to that group. White women, they are underrepresented, but most are not marginalized. And so, they cause harm to most marginalized individuals who they recruit. They have this “we’re open to everyone” “we’re safe spaces for all” when in actuality I’ve had far too many people in my DMs who are part of these organizations who can attest that these are not true stories. These organizations are focusing on white women’s issues and it’s causing harm. Like I said, I’m just gonna fuckin jump into this. This conversation is about Girl Develop It. I tweeted about them and I also tweeted about Women Who Code. If anyone wants to come on the show to give me some specific examples of Women Who Code, I have my own, but I’m gonna leave that alone. Women Who Code is a problematic organization because I’ve been DMs from people from there as well. But we’re going to focus on Girl Develop It. Shanise, this is going to be about you telling your story. I just really… I’m gonna tell you: you are a godsend. And I haven’t said this before. Because these “leaders” of these organizations are causing such harm. Really marginalized groups, particularly black women, are being shut down, silenced, all these others things. I’m just at a place where I’m just tired of us being harmed and not being able to say anything. Tell us about your relationship with Girl Develop It. It’s your time to tell your story.4:28Shanise Barona: Sure. I worked at Girl Develop It. I held two positions there over the last couple months. Actually, let me backup. I started there as a student. I started at Girl Develop It in 2016 as a student.

Looking to get into open source but not sure where to start? Are you a contributor trying to understand why only some pull requests get accepted? Or are you a maintainer who’s feeling overwhelmed? This episode looks at what it means to commit to an open source project. We follow our heroes as they progress through the roles of open source contributors: from finding projects and contributing to them, to building and maintaining thriving communities. Shannon Crabill shares how she got her start in open source at Hacktoberfest 2017, and Corinne Warnshuis describes how important it is to include people from all backgrounds to create good software. There are many ways to contribute to open source. Let’s walk through this together. For more about the characters, history, and stories of this episode, visit redhat.com/commandlineheroes. While there, check out how you can contribute to hero-engine and Command Line Heroes: The Game — all levels welcome.

Ben solved the case of the misplaced ice. Hannah received some new socks that are very ridiculous. The gang gets schooled on how kombucha works via email, in addition to a bigfoot-style video of a "moose". Hannah saw and loved a film that literally everybody else already knew was great. Erin took a great solo trip to Chicago, learned about intersectional feminism, and saw Shoutouts to Rachel! Ben has been watching one of his favorite shows in a different language. HOMEWORK: - Watch Black Panther! And if you've seen it before, watch it with audio descriptions. - Go to Chicago, have a Chicago dog, walk around on the river walk listening to a podcast or audiobook - Check out Girl Develop It! if you’re an underrepresented person in tech - Go to twitch.tv/twitchpresents and watch pokemon in a different language - CALL US! 774-326-0420 (Voicemail only) - Follow @ErnBrn, @Nicelyprovedben, @Hanthropology, and @TooBroadPod on Twitter - Follow LesbianMovieReviews and WayTooBroad on IG - Listen to So Dreamy - Email us at waytoobroad@gmail.com - Visit our website! www.WayTooBroad.com - Please leave us a rating/review/subscribe on iTunes or Podknife! If you leave us a review and let us know how to get it to you, we will send you a very large durable sticker!

Hello Everyone! This is a re-airing of Episode 21 with Suzie Nieman. Girl Develop It was just awarded $50,000 at the WeWork Creator awards, so we thought it was a great time to showcase Tiffany's interview with Suzie, the co-lead of Philadelphia's Girl Develop It chapter. • https://technical.ly/philly/2018/09/18/girl-develop-it-wins-50000-at-wework-creator-awards/ • Tiffany speaks with Suzie Nieman, a rock-star woman with her sights set on increasing inclusivity in tech. Suzie works as a technical project manager for Four Kitchens, a digital agency, and volunteers as co-lead for Girl Develop It Philadelphia, the local chapter of a national non-profit providing education and support for women entering tech. They speak at length about Suzie's unusual journey into coding and project management, how she overcomes challenges, and how she's at a point in her career where she is gaining confidence. Links:• https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzie-nieman-931978148/ •• https://www.suzienieman.com/ •• https://twitter.com/fourkitchens •• https://www.fourkitchens.com/team/suzie-nieman/ •• https://t.co/WJX5AdNu7R •• https://www.girldevelopit.com/ •• https://twitter.com/suzienieman •• https://www.facebook.com/TECCDC/ •• https://twitter.com/PhilaTEC •• https://www.instagram.com/westphillyfoods/ •

When Lena Levine first moved to Buffalo almost 10 years ago, she went searching for technology meetup groups to connect with like-minded people. What she found was minimal and, as she looked around the room, there were almost no other women. That's when she decided to start the Buffalo chapter of Girl Develop It. Today, Girl Develop It has grown exponentially, and dozens of other support groups have joined the now booming tech scene in Buffalo Niagara. 1:33- Finding footing in Buffalo 4:51- Up to 867 members for Girl Develop It 12:56- Why Buffalo Niagara? 19:09- Binge TV show you'd recommend?  

Yasmine Mustafa is a social entrepreneur fueled by a passion to leverage technology for good. She's the CEO of ROAR for Good, a certified B-corp aimed at reducing assaults against women using smart safety wearables and empathy education. Before that, she founded and sold her first company to a prominent content marketing firm in Silicon Valley.  Yasmine brought Girl Develop It to Philadelphia, a non-profit providing affordable opportunities for women interested in learning software development. In addition, she sits on the board of Coded by Kids, a non-profit organization committed to providing free tech education to inner city youth. Due to challenges she experienced migrating to the United States as a refugee and discovering she was undocumented, Yasmine is also a champion for immigrants. Her "Birth Lottery" TEDx Philadelphia talk highlights the challenges (and opportunities) inherent in each life. BBC selected Yasmine as one of it's 100 Women of 2016 due to her work in empowering women. She was also recognized as Upstart 100's most dynamic people shaping business, Philadelphia Magazine’s Top 20 Best Philadelphians. Support Philly Who? Donate via Paypal, Venmo: @podphillywho, Become a Monthly Patron, Purchase a T-Shirt or Hat, Become a Sponsor

When Lilly Chin knew she couldn’t lose during Final Jeopardy, she decided to give a joke answer: “Who is the Spiciest Memelord?” But that joke became a meme itself—turning Lilly into not just the College Jeopardy champion, but an internet sensation. Today, we chat with the MIT grad student about what it was like to be on the show, how the internet treats women in the public eye, and how her brush with fame changed the way she looks at online visibility. We also talk about Lilly’s research on soft robots, mentorship, Twitch streaming, and doing it all for the stories. > We’re so used to thinking about women in terms of their outward appearance that even when it’s on a very academic game like Jeopardy, people are still defaulting to thinking of, like, an object of attraction. > —Lilly Chin, MIT PhD student and College Jeopardy champ _Note: We’ve donated net proceeds from this episode to RAICES, the largest immigrant legal services organization in Texas, and ActBlue’s fund supporting 12 organizations working with migrant, detained, or deported children and families. Please join us. _ Links from the interview: Lilly’s website The infamous “Who is the spiciest memelord?” clip The Jeopardy subreddit Talia Levin’s article about appearing on Jeopardy, “Big Tits for $600” Justine Sacco’s tweet about AIDS in Africa So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson The “right to be forgotten” concept The field of soft robotics Also in this episode: Creating intimate spaces online, from our newsletter to Tiny Letters to private Slack accounts Shopping feminist, ethical, local, and just plain good companies Why Katel has the best sweatshirt ever Sponsors This episode of NYG is brought to you by: Shopify, a leading global commerce platform that’s building a world-class team to define the future of entrepreneurship. Visit shopify.com/careers to see what they’re talking about. WordPress—the place to build your personal blog, business site, or anything else you want on the web. WordPress helps others find you, remember you, and connect with you.   Harvest, makers of awesome software to help you track your time, manage your projects, and get paid. Try it free, then use code NOYOUGO to get 50% off your first paid month. Transcript Katel LeDû [Ad spot] Shopify builds software to help anyone with a great idea build a successful business. In fact, more than 50 percent of the entrepreneurs who use Shopify are women, including me! I use Shopify to power abookapart.com and so do people in 175 different countries! Now Shopify needs more great people to join their team. Visit shopify.com/careers to see open positions, learn about their culture, and so much more [music fades in, plays alone for 12 seconds, fades out]. Jenn Lukas Welcome to No, You Go, the show about being ambitious—and sticking together. I’m Jenn Lukas. KL I’m Katel LeDû. Sara Wachter-Boettcher And I’m Sara Wachter-Boettcher. And we did it, everyone. We did it! KL What? SWB We got Jenn’s dream guest on the show. JL Is it Kesha? SWB Ok. We got Jenn’s second dream guest on the show. That would be Lilly Chin, who’s the 2017 College Jeopardy winner, and a current graduate student at MIT. We talk with Lilly about what it was like to be on the show, how her final Jeopardy answer made internet history, and how the whole experience changed the way that she looks at things like networked culture and online visibility. KL Ugh you know something that really got my attention in Lilly’s interview, I’m really wondering if we can start there for a second. If you subscribe to our newsletter, I wrote a letter to introduce Issue #4 and I talked about how I used to get really bad panic attacks, and I still struggle with a lot of anxiety, and I’ve, you know, done a lot to sort of figure that out. It’s still an ongoing process and while I felt really great to have a platform to share something really personal like that, I also felt really exposed and, I don’t know, it made me think that like, I kind of forget that, you know? We’re in a room talking to each other and it feels really safe and supportive and we’ve had such good feedback about the show, which is great, but, I don’t know, you kind of forget that you’re really putting yourself out there. SWB Yeah, I think about this a lot because I think podcasts do feel intimate, and they feel intimate for the listener, too, but you don’t really who might be listening. And I mean I think with something like a newsletter, you don’t know where that might end up or where it might get screenshotted and shared around. And I think, you know, we’re going to—we’re going to talk with Lilly a little bit more about this, but there’s ways in which that kind of like hyper-visibility or like constant networked feeling online can make it hard to know what context you’re in—and the context shifts on you sometimes without you realizing it. [3:04] KL Totally. I mean even writing that letter for that issue, I was like, ok, this went out to, you know, a hundred some odd people. Thank you for subscribing. But it lives in… forever in internet, and like anyone can find it. And I had these moments the day after we sent it out where I was like, ok. It’s just like, it’s out there. And I think, I don’t know, like it’s a weird feeling. SWB What was making you feel like vulnerable or exposed about it? Or like what is the fear that you have about this letter existing out there where you talked about anxiety? KL I mean I think part of the anxiety that I talk about is the sort of spiral that happens where you start to feel small or weak or like you’re not, you know, up to snuff or you’re not like performing or you’re just not like the person that you’re “supposed” to be. And I think that just is compounded when there’s eyes on that—when people are looking at it and you’re offering it up. And I think ultimately I feel, like I said, very grateful—and I’ve said this I think, you know, to you, if not, you know, recorded it—I’m really proud of the therapy work that I’ve done, and I’m so, so happy that I get to share that. But it’s also, like, weird [laughs] and raw. And so yeah, I don’t know, this whole thing has been like a process a little bit. JL Yeah, it’s never just one feeling. It’s not like [yeah], “Oh ok. I know I’m going to feel exposed so I don’t want to do it,” because there’s things that make you want to share all of this like with people too. The internet’s not just like, “Uh well I don’t know what’s going to happen, so I’m outta here.” It’s very much like not one-sided. SWB And I think some people probably have that feeling. Like I don’t what’s going to happen, so I’m outta here. But clearly we don’t, because we keep doing this podcast [laughter]. And so we are—we have things we want to talk about and things that like… it’s not just about, like, “I want to talk about this,” or even, “I want other people to listen to me”—although I do, I want everybody in the world to listen to me. I’ve got a lot of opinions— but, that I think that the kinds of stuff that we’re talking about and sometimes struggling with are things that are really normal and that are under-discussed. And just the act of having natural conversations about them in a shared space is really powerful [yeah]. But also there is risk there, and I think that that’s one of the things that we have to kind of like constantly make peace with, or at least I feel that, that like I have to make peace with what kinds of risks those might be. And so, you know, we’ve talked about this in the past, right? It’s like, “If I tweet that, what kind of randos are going to come troll me?” And is it just going to be your, like, everyday rando that I can block, or is it going to be actually something more sinister? And like those are real like internal monologues that I’m having on a regular basis. At the same time, though, there’s something to me that’s a little different about both like podcasting and also something like a newsletter—or like, I subscribe to a lot of people’s Tiny Letters—that is a little bit more intimate feeling, and in some ways almost feels like there’s been a resurgence in that. And I look at it almost like a way to reclaim space. Or reclaim something that’s not exactly privacy, but that it feels a little bit more private in a world where so much of our communication feels so, like—actually as Lilly talked about—hyper-networked [chuckles]. [6:34] KL Mm hmm. Yeah. Or like, just branded. And that can feel weird too. I mean I love that some of my friends have Tiny Newsletters because I feel like I’m reading their journals, which is such a cool—it’s such a cool feeling, you know? JL It’s got that same feeling of like, you know, blogging back in the day, or like, you know, it felt just more like … I don’t know, more connected with the people. And I think that’s sort of like what’s nice about the podcast, too, and getting feedback about the podcast is I just feel like it’s a different way to be connected with people. SWB Blogging has certainly changed a lot and, you know, now it’s like, what’s the difference between a blog and an online publication? What is Medium? Like everything has sort of collapsed into like one big text box on the internet. And some of these spaces that we’re talking about give it a little bit of definition, you know? I think the same thing about a lot of the like private backchannel Slack accounts I’m in. I’m in a few of them that are like professionally focused, kind of… but what they really are is private communities of people who I’m close to for one reason or another where we can talk really openly and honestly about things that are happening in our professional world, but in a space where we have absolute trust with people. And I find that to be really valuable, and I feel like that’s where I turn so often to process how I’m feeling about things that are happening in the world. Where like that used to be Twitter, and that doesn’t always feel safe enough. Or sometimes it’s not even about safety. It’s like, sometimes that just feels too loud. KL Yeah. Well [quiet sigh] my therapist what says that what we’re doing is a gift. So. I just want to share that [laughing] with you. SWB Oh my god. If anybody listening has not listened to the episode where we interviewed Katel’s therapist, it is so good. Talk about a gift. Like that—that was a gift. KL That was really wonderful. JL And if anyone listening has not subscribed to our newsletter yet, you definitely should because it’s full of more little gifts. SWB If you aren’t subscribing to our newsletter, we started it about a month ago and we are doing it every other week. We have, like, super-intimate letters from us about things happening in our lives, plus a whole bunch of links and things that we love. And it is called, maybe fittingly, I Love That [laughter]. So if you go to noyougoshow.com/ilovethat, you can subscribe and you can also check out the back issues [music fades in, plays alone for four seconds, fades out]. [9:02] Sponsors SWB [Ad spot] Before we get to our interview with Lilly, we’ve got a couple awesome folks to tell you about. The first is Harvest. Harvest makes software to help you track your time, manage your projects, and get paid. It’s super easy to use on the web or via the app, and it’s made my work life way easier over the years. I’ve seriously been a customer since 2011. I can barely remember 2011. Harvest does all kinds of stuff, including integrate with other tools you love like Basecamp, Slack, and Trello. You can also send and manage invoices right from your Harvest account, and even take online payments. Try it for free at getharvest.com and get 50 percent off your first paid month with the code noyougo. That’s getharvest.com, offer code: noyougo. JL [Ad spot] We’d also like to take a moment and thank our friends at WordPress. WordPress has been a supporter of NYG since the start, and we’re big fans of theirs too. After all, it’s how we run our website, noyougoshow.com. We trust WordPress because it’s super easy to set up and customize, but it’s also really powerful. For example, we added plugins to host our podcast, and also gather sign-ups for our newsletter. You can even set up a ‘buy’ button or add an online store. Plans start at just four dollars a month, so what are you waiting for? Start building your website today. Go to wordpress.com/noyougo for 15 percent off any new plan purchase. That’s wordpress.com/noyougo for 15 percent off your brand new website [music fades in, plays alone for three seconds, fades out]. Interview: Lilly Chin JL Lilly Chin is a graduate student at MIT working towards a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Her technical research interests are in robotics hardware design. She studies how old and new forms of media collide, chiefly in video games, film, and internet culture. You might recognize her name, as Lilly was also the 2017 College Jeopardy Tournament champion! And she even created a meme while doing so. Welcome to No, You Go, Lilly. Lilly Chin Yeah, it’s great to be here. JL Oh so we’re super excited that you’re here. We’re big fans of Jeopardy both at my house and at work [Lilly chuckles]. I have to tell you that we followed the College Tournament really intently, and we were definitely all rooting for you when you were on. LC Thanks [laughs]. JL [Laughs] We had this joke that I was going to miss who won because the final day of the tournament was also actually my son’s due date. LC Oh! Oh! Oh. [Laughs]. JL And uh, sure enough, I went into labor that morning. At one point during labor, I think I definitely said to my husband and doula, “I wonder who won College Jeopardy.” [Laughter] We were very stoked the next week to find out that it was you. [11:29] LC Oh thanks [laughs]. JL [Laughs] So what got you interested in being on Jeopardy? LC The RA from my dorm, actually, he had been on Jeopardy the summer before and we had all like made viewing parties and gone to see him. So when it came time for the test to be taken, he was like, “Oh, you all should just take it and see how you do.” And so it actually took a couple of tries before I was on the show, but then, yeah, my second time I tried out I got on. So. JL Nice! That’s awesome. What—what’s the audition process like? LC So it’s pretty cool. The first round is just this online test and it’s just really quick-fire, just asking you trivia questions. And if you do well enough on that, they invite you to an audition, which is in person. And the producers themselves definitely have a ton of energy because at the end of the day, Jeopardy’s a TV show. So they want to make sure that you’re really excited, that you have some sort of stage presence, and that, like, you know, you’re actually the person who took the exam since it’s all online. JL Hmm. Yes [laughs]. Were you nervous going into that? LC I was very nervous the first time, but the second time I actually was thinking like, “Oh, I have to go all the way to New York. It’s kind of a pain,” and I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to go. But I had a lot of fun, so I ended up just going. And I think being more relaxed the second time around helped me out, like, be more natural in front of the camera. JL When did—do you find out right away if you’re going to be on? LC Oh no, so for the tournament you actually have to wait for like a month or so. I had forgotten actually when I got the call that I was going to be on, and for adult Jeopardy you actually have to wait. You’re in the contestant pool for like a year and a half before, so you’re just waiting there. JL Wow! [Yeah] So when you found out and then you went to the show, what was the energy like on set there? LC That’s really interesting. because it’s—like you have 15 people that definitely don’t know each other just sort of randomly in this place. And the thing I was struck by was that the set was actually quite large, right? Like you’re so used to seeing it on the TV just like cutting from the clues to the contestants and back again, but like actually seeing it as a space that you inhabit, it was really interesting. I guess also the energy is [stammers] it’s just the same thing of like, oh I understand, all of these contestant producers are really trying to hype you up and have you really excited. And so at the end of the first day, I just immediately went to bed. I didn’t even have dinner or anything. Just like, conked out, because I was just so exhausted from being that high-energy. Yeah the next couple of times I went on the show actually it was a lot more comfortable, because I knew how sort of the filming schedule works. But it’s a very tiring experience. [13:46] JL How did you prepare for being on the show? LC So I did trivia in high school, so like Quiz Bowl and those things. So I had most of my trivia knowledge from there. But I would say like the one month before the show it was like learning about betting strategy, reading up of what the common questions are. I don’t think I did as much preparation as other people did, but definitely looking into betting strategy was a big one. JL I feel like it’s such a wide variety—like, you never really know. I mean there’s like some repeats on Jeopardy all the time in like topics but it’s like, how could you possibly narrow it all down? LC Yeah, I mean, it’s a funny thing, right? Because it’d still a TV show, so you need to have the answers be things that people at home will be like, “Oh! I’ve heard of this before.” So you can’t have it too obscure. I—I remember one thing funny though is that the popular culture is definitely like, right, like I’m a 2000s kid and so I think one of the things was like ’80s and ‘90s TV shows, and I was like, “Well, I know I’m not going to do well in this.” [laughter] Yeah. JL I know I think—my co-workers and I always watch that, and that’s, like, definitely our alley so [laughter]. So we mentioned a bit in the intro that you are also the creator of a meme, which happened during Final Jeopardy. Can you tell us that story? LC So I had seen like people give funny Final Jeopardy answers in the past. So I decided beforehand that, oh if I ever have a chance to do a lock game, like a game where I would win no matter what, I would put some funny answer down. And I decided to do “dank memes,” but then I was like, oh that’s probably not PG enough for Jeopardy, so I decided “spicy memes.” And then on the Final Jeopardy thing it turned out it was a “who is” question, so then I said, “Who is the spiciest memelord?” And got Alex Trebek to say it on national television [laughter]. [15:26] KL That’s amazing. LC Yeah. JL So it was not planned? LC I knew that like if I had the chance, I definitely wanted to say it, but it was also not planned for how viral of a reaction was gotten. Like it turned out—I was just thinking about my friends. Like, “we watch memes all the time at home, they’ll like it.” And then it turned out the internet also [laughs] really likes memes. So I did not plan for that at all. Yeah. JL Right. Yeah. How has that—how has that been? LC So I’ve been actually thinking about writing more academically about this experience, but this idea of the sudden burst of fame—like I was on the front page of Reddit twice, there’s like a million views on that video, and then it suddenly has a spike and then this long tail of just there’s still this ambient fame, especially since I’m still at MIT for graduate school where people, especially other students, will recognize me. But, you know, just the other day I was in the North End and got recognized on the street, and it’s not something I’m expecting. And this idea of like, you know, this sudden burst of fame. Like going up and then going down again and then suddenly like, “Oh reruns are happening, I’m getting a lot more Facebook messages from randos.” It’s sort of interesting, and it’s also interesting to be known more for Jeopardy than for my research, which is something I’m more excited about, I guess. But at the same time, the fame that I’ve gotten from Jeopardy might’ve helped me in terms of like recognition for my own research, right? Like whenever my advisor introduces me to someone else from a different lab, she’s like, “Oh do you know that this is the [laughing] Jeopardy winner?” [Laughter] So that’s an interesting balance. Yeah. JL You’ve even taught a class about this, right? At MIT? LC Yeah. So there’s an educational studies program where MIT undergrads and grad students can teach high school and middle school students. And so this was related with the comparative media studies part, where I really enjoy sort of showing that like it’s not just like analyzing books or film, like you can actually do all of these cool analyses of contemporary media culture. So that’s what I was trying to do was take my current case example and being like, “Look: here’s how these media analysis techniques can really help you understand what’s going on in your life, even if it’s something as weird as like national television.” [17:34] JL I mean have your views changed a lot about what it’s like to be a public figure? LC Yeah. I think I’m more confused—I get more and more confused about why people want to be famous. Like when I’m doing my Twitch streaming, I think it’s interesting that there’s always like these people who are like, “Oh I want to make it big,” and there’s some crazy statistic about one in three British children want to be a YouTube star when they grow up [laughter][oh]. Yeah it’s because I mean that’s what you’re growing up with, and that’s what you’re seeing as your content. It’s not like TV or movies as much anymore. It’s like, “Oh, I see these kids making videos on YouTube.” And I’m sort of like wondering why people want the fame, because like I kind of get it, right? Like I want my research to have exposure because then more people are thinking about my ideas and I think I really appreciate that. but then at the same time it’s like there’s so much attention to your life. Also like the harassment part of it, and it’s a weird public/private divide that I’m not sure people know fully what they’re getting into when they sign up for this. And some people enjoy being like a figure of controversy, right? Like Kanye West and Donald Trump come to mind, where it doesn’t matter what the press is but as long as people are talking about you, it sort of continues like some gratification. JL Right. I mean there’s—I mean you talked about being on the front page of Reddit and there’s also a Jeopardy community subreddit, and how does it feel to, like, look at people talking about you? LC I was worried at first that there was going to be—about the internet hate. And there’s a Woman of Jeopardy Facebook group where people sort of like commiserate about the experience. Yeah there’s a really good Vice article that’s called like, “Big Tits for $600,” and it’s just sort of like a very good compilation and just sort of talking about the experience of being a woman on national television and sort of what that means. So I was—I was a little bit nervous about that, because I had read these stories before, but when it came down to it and I saw what people were writing, it just sort of seemed so petty that people were coming up with these impressions of me after 20 minutes of national television. I was actually more taken aback the second time I went around for the Tournament of Champions where people were actually extremely nice and just sort of doing analysis of the game and less about me because I had braced myself for all of this verbal abuse, and then when it wasn’t there and people were just really kind it’s like, “Oh she tried really hard,” it was really not what I expected and sort of threw me off guard. JL For those who don’t know, on Reddit you can like you have like a little identifier that says that you were a contestant on the show to prove that it’s you. And I’ve seen like a couple of people definitely get into the threads with other people and reply to some of it, and I feel like a lot of is positive but then, you know, as you mentioned, like with women I’ll see a lot of comments like, “Oh her—” Not about you, about like other contestants that will be like, “Oh I hated her! Her voice was so annoying.” And it’s like wow! [Chuckles] People are harsh. [20:19] LC Yeah it’s just also like… in some sense of being like a female figure like in the—in the spotlight, it sort of puts you up. Like we’re so used to thinking about women in terms of their outward appearance that even when it’s on a very academic game like Jeopardy, people are still defaulting to thinking of it, like, as an object of attraction or something. JL You’ve talked about, you know, you have an interest in the “fight to maintain one’s identity and narrative in a hyper-mediated network culture.” [Mm hmm] Can you describe a bit what that means? LC What I found really is that … usually you have some control over your own identity. It’s very closely tied to you. Obviously you can’t control everything about what people think about but you, you know, you talk to people it forms an identity. But what happened is that with Jeopardy there was this very immediate division between myself and my image, right? So like millions of people saw me saying, “Who is the spiciest memelord?” on national television and so some people—so some people are trying to co-opt this as like, “Oh look! It’s a meme culture.” And then other people are like—Jeopardy itself is trying to co-opt this in saying like, “We need to target the 18 to 35 age demographic for advertisements and this is like, you know, a cool kid.” So they kind of go over and it’s like, “How do you do fellow kids?” And my friends from high school when they were like, “Why—why are you on my Instagram feed?” And I was like, “What?” And it turns out that they had used my image to advertise on Instagram to try to encourage more people to apply for the college test. Which I think is crazy like sure,  yeah, I signed off all my rights, but in some sense, right? Like their curation of my image is no longer outside my control. I’m like fighting against, you know, Jeopardy, I’m fighting against 4Chan, I’m fighting against all of these forces about who gets to control my image. So it becomes an interesting thing, because I think this happens on some level to everybody, right? There was a good article talking about how Snapchat is dying and this idea that even on Facebook, even on Twitter, all of these things were cultivating our own personal brand of how we want to come up with. That everything is now sort of a online interactive CV, and there’s not really a chance for you to be yourself because you’re worried about how it’s going to be taken either way. So not everyone has this experience of, like, “suddenly national television is taking my image and running with it,” but we’re always sort of trying to deal with this idea that now that everything’s on the internet, there’s so many different forces that you’re really trying to curate something, and is it even possible anymore? [22:47] JL Do you think it’s possible? LC I think in some sense you have to accept that like you no longer have control of your image which [chuckles] is—which is kind of like what I’m doing. But at the same time, so this is coming from a book I read from Jon Ronson, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. It’s this idea where individual people have to sort of be their own PR firm. That like you have to do, like, this brand curation. I think it is possible, but it becomes a lot more effort and you sort of have to understand what you’re doing, right? There’s a lot of talk about the right to be forgotten, because it’s like, oh kids don’t understand what they’re doing and you might say something dumb on the internet. I don’t think we ever had the right to be forgotten, like within your community—it’s the classic like, you know, small town, scarlet letter, everybody knows what you did wrong—but I think encouraging more people to understand how these forces happen and how to better protect yourself, I think that’s sort of the best you can do. JL I do a lot of public speaking in the web field and I remember like the first time that I got back from a conference and the conference had posted pictures of me, and of course I’m, like, in mid-word so my face is all distorted, and it’s just like, I’m like, “Oh my god, that’s awful!” But I was like, “Hey, I guess I made it.” [Laughter] And I remember now because I have like, you know, people will be like, “Hey, can you take a picture?” And then they’ll like, you’ll take a picture of them and they’ll want to see the picture to like see if it’s ok [yeah] and I don’t—that doesn’t happen to me anymore. Like I’ve just given up on that battle [right][chuckles], because I think there’s so many bad pictures of me on the internet. But I did a talk one time for a Girl Develop It group here which was like sort of trying to encourage more people to get into public speaking and it was just sort of like, you know, “What’s the worst that could happen?” And I went through and showed highlights of all the terrible pictures of me on the internet and it just sort of was like one of those, “Well, like really what is the worst-case scenario of this?” And sort of, “Is it that bad in protecting yourself, like maybe against the things that are really bad? Not things like, ‘Oh here’s an unflattering image of me’.” LC For public speaking, you go out there and you know really clearly that, “Oh I’m going to put out a face and I’m going to present myself and so I should prepare myself for, you know, being judged by other people.” But now with the internet, it’s less clear that really like anything that you do, like, it could be subject to like people seeing it and people making judgements of it. There was a famous case, which is Justine Sacco who made a tweet that was like, “Oh I’m going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding, I’m white.” [Oh yes] Yeah. JL Before she got on a plane, right? LC Right. [25:15] JL And then she got off the plane and there was an obvious amount of backlash, yeah. LC And but the thing was, is that she only had like 200 followers before that, and so she probably thought, like, “Oh I’m just going to make this like off-color joke to like my 200 friends,” and then so what she thought was a private transaction actually blew up into like a huge like, you know, trending on Twitter like number-one thing. And I think that’s really the idea that I’m trying to get at is that it’s less clear what your private and public actions should be. So you sort of overprotectively try to curate everything. And then you sort of, like you were saying about the pictures, it’s almost impossible to do that. JL Right. So you know all of this, like you know all of the potential [laughs] for repercussions of being on the internet and what can happen. But that said, like, you are still like I think sort of embracing this public figure. So, as you mentioned before, you have a Twitch stream, right? LC Yeah. JL Tell us a little bit more about that. Like, what makes you stream? And what sort of things are you streaming? LC So I stream on Twitch, and Twitch is primarily for video games, and so I started streaming because one: I had the Jeopardy fame and I was like, “Oh, this would be a good platform to jump off on,” and two: a lot of my friends stream speed runs, which are trying to play video games super fast and I was like, oh, as a media scholar, I don’t understand why they do it so the easiest way to learn would be to do it myself. And it started off from this academic interest and then it turned into, I really appreciate the community. There are a couple of people from Scandinavia who like tune into me like super regularly, even though it’s like 3 am in Sweden time. And I find myself that like I’m putting on this like show for them, that I enjoy talking to them. I enjoy like, you know, discussing the video games, or like what’s going on in my life. And that’s sort of an interesting feeling, like it’s gone beyond just like, “Oh I want to put my ideas out there,” and it’s to, “I want to talk to these like two or three people,” and then I make more friends and it’s quite nice. JL It’s again that balance, right? Like here’s a potentially like field that we’re like opening ourselves to all this potential negativity, but you keep finding really positive things. [27:20] LC Because in some sense the reason why it is still [chuckles] a positive experience is because I have like, you know, ten people who watch me regularly on a twice-a-week basis, right? And similarly I have sort of private I guess IRC, you know, like internet chat channels that I do with my friends, and in some sense like the only reason that these are still nice is because they’re public, but they’re still private in a way. And sort of finding these spaces on like an increasingly networked world is difficult. In the past it used to be that you would be in these local communities, right? Like, “Oh, I live in the Cambridge area so I’ll like talk to all of the people in Cambridge and find similar things,” but now in some sense we’re creating local communities but on the internet. So it’s no longer local geographically but it’s local in terms of interests or maybe like respect for each other and things like that. JL Like you were you saying, you know, you just jumped into streaming because you wanted to learn more about, which is just so neat like to just like, “Ok. I’ve got an interest in something. I’m just going to do it,” is that generally how you live your life? LC Yeah. I definitely do things because like, “Oh, it’ll be a lot of fun.” Or like, “It’ll be a good story out of it.” The whole thing about doing the spiciest memelord was definitely like, “I’ll get a good story out of this,” or like, you know, even trying out for Jeopardy in the first place. JL I think that’s like such a neat idea. You know, I was reading a bit on your Reddit AMA, you had said, “One of my guiding principles for whether I’m wavering between whether or not I should do something is, will I get a good story out of it?” LC Yeah [laughing] exactly. JL This year the College Jeopardy Tournament of 2018 just happened and you also offered advice to the folks taking part in it. And you’ve also been an MIT Women in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science mentor. And worked with Girls Who Code. You are a mentor extraordinaire! LC Oh. I don’t know. It’s just like, I have advice and, like, I appreciate all the people who gave me advice. So it makes sense to just sort of give back because I can. Yeah, I don’t know, I thought it was interesting because recently someone came up to me and was like, “Hey, do you want to be part of my admissions consulting group, where like, you know, parents pay a lot of money and you, like, review essays and stuff like that?” And it just felt really bad like because—because on one level, right, I enjoy doing this work and like it would be nice to get paid for it. But on the other hand, it felt like contributing to these systems of like people not getting the mentorship that they need just because they don’t have the right networks or they don’t have a ton of cash, and it feels like the right thing to do is to—is to give back in whatever ways you can. Like oftentimes I feel like I’m not giving as much as I could. I was a MedLink in the dorm system, which basically like we’re students and we live in a dorm and we have basic first aid training. And we also know about all the medical resources on campus. So if people are having relationship troubles we can point them to mental health or, you know, if they got a cut we have band-aids and things. And I think that was one of like most rewarding experiences because it’s not just that, “Oh like I want to help people because like it boosts a resume,” or something like that. It’s just that people are—people are having trouble and you want to help them out how you can. I guess like I don’t see… I feel like I could do more for mentorship like because like, as you’re saying, like I’m doing a lot of different things, but at the same time I feel like being there and at least like reminding people that there is somebody who cares is important. [30:31] JL Right. It’s really neat so I mean you find it rewarding, I’m assuming. LC Yeah. Like I said I have a sort of insecurities about, am I actually doing enough to help people? Because when you’re doing so many things, like, is it on a superficial level or not? That’s why—that’s why I was a little—I was a little like taken aback when you were like, “Oh you’re a mentor extraordinaire.” Because on some level it’s just giving advice to people because you’ve been through these experiences and, you know, they haven’t. Even the older grad students when I’m freaking out about things and they’re just being like, “Yeah I freaked out about this too,” it’s sort of comforting [chuckles]. JL So what’s next? What has you super excited? LC I’m really excited about my research, especially now that it’s summertime because I don’t have—sort of going from undergrad to grad school is this transition away from other people are setting the curriculum, and like telling you what to learn, to I’m setting my own path and like my own research. So I’m working in soft robotics. So usually when you think of a robot it’s this hard metal skeleton, but soft robots is this thing, “Hey! What if we make robots out of rubber or silicone, like soft materials, so that they’re safer around people and they can pick up squishy things?” So I’ve been working on, how do we make these soft robots work? How do they grab things? I’m also really excited about sort of this Jeopardy paper that I’m doing: how do we think about fame and identity using myself as a case study, but sort of broadening it to other people. And then finally, I guess, the combination of these two interests is as robots are becoming more and more commonplace, as algorithms and big data are sort of changing the way we approach things, how can we have people still be like comfortable with this—with these new algorithms and things? Like it’s more than just like, “If I have the robot from the Jetson’s show up like can I interact with it?” It’s more on a fundamental level of when I say “AI” most people don’t know what this means. And it’s actually pretty understandable but we need to stop thinking about scientists as like, you know, these like mad scientists who are doing whatever they want in their lab coats and more of something approachable, especially as the future is heading towards that direction. [32:15] JL We’ve talked a little bit before with one of our previous guests, Alison, about this idea of what the scientist—the white man in the white lab coat. LC [Laughing] Yeah exactly. JL [Laughs] The crazy hair. And I think like generally, you know, you start talking about robots and generally there’s like the, either like, “I am intimidated by that subject,” or like, Skynet questions I think starts being thrown out. LC Yeah. I think, especially for my research, right? So soft robotics, it’s intentionally for like, you know, being around humans instead of not being in a factory somewhere, and I remember someone—there was a conversation about like, what does the future of work look like? And they were like, “Oh! You know, service jobs will be ok because who wants a robot to take care of grandma?” And I was like raising my hand, I was like, “Actually this is literally my [laughing] research!” And so on some level, I really want to tell people the thinking behind it of like the direction because I can’t predict the future of what research is going to be like, but to reduce the fear of like, “What does AI mean? What does deep learning mean?” I think would help people understand like, ok, like one: this is a future that I can understand; and two: this is a future where I can actually belong in. JL So, what are you telling people? LC So one thing that I need to keep remembering is that when I am not in MIT, and everyone’s working on like robots and drones and what have you, that like most people when they hear “robots” they’re like, “Woah! Like you must be really smart!” And I’m like, “Wait, no, I’m not. I’m not that smart.” And it’s just like—it’s just like, you know, you know how to build things, you know how to build things with Legos and stuff like that and when also when people hear “algorithms” they think of like ones and zeros flying everywhere, but at the end of the day an algorithm is just a set of instructions, you know. When you follow a recipe you’re already following an algorithm of some sort. So I think like, you know, it’s the same thing of like being able to talk about your experiences and sort of destigmatizing things whether it’s like, you know, “Math is hard,” or like, “Algorithms are mysterious black boxes.” I think just explaining things and, you know, being patient. I mean I think that people are going to realize at some point that robots are just a tool, right? And that like you still need to remember that like tools are for humanity. [34:23] JL Lilly, before you go, where will the next place be that we see you? LC Hopefully on, like, the cover of the New York Times for some cool robot research. KL Yes! Also you’re welcome back here anytime. JL Definitely! LC Oh, thank you! [Laughs] JL Please let us know how the soft robotics are going. And how we can make sure to [Katel laughs] welcome our new overlords. LC All right [chuckles]. JL So. KL Awesome. Thank you so much for being with us. LC Yeah, thanks for interviewing me [music fades in, plays alone for two seconds, fades out]. KL So this week I want to say a “fuck yeah” to Pride Month, because June is Pride Month and I’m—that’s awesome. It’s also my birthday. Just PS. Just letting you know. And, I don’t know, this got me thinking about some of the folks that I follow on Instagram, and one of them is a brand called Wild Fang, and I really love them because they like they really walk the walk. They’re—they—they sort of say they’re not just a brand, they’re a band. And I—I love that because they’re very focused on the people who buy their clothing, and their very feminist, and they like—you can see that in everything that they do, including the fact that they give a lot of money that they raise to charity. And this month a percentage of their proceeds is going to The Trevor Project, which is the world’s largest non-profit organization focused on suicide prevention and crisis intervention among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youth, which is fucking amazing. So this just got me thinking and we sort of started talking a little bit about who we’re shopping and brands that we’re supporting and I think it just led us to talking about like paying attention to that a little bit more. [36:32] SWB Yeah. One of the things that I’ve really been noticing is just, it feels like there’s a lot more options all of a sudden for brands that I can support that are doing things that are important to me or that are offering products that are like just more inclusive and also just better suited to like me personally. And it seems like a big sea change that’s happening just in the last couple of years. Like for example I know a lot of folks go absolutely wild for Everlane, and one of the things Everlane does is like, they do luxury basics is their market. Luxury basics like reasonably priced or something. I don’t think that’s their actual tagline. And one of the things that they do is they tell you exactly how much of that money was spent on paying the garment workers, how much of it was spent on shipping, how much of it they get as profit, and so it’s really clear exactly where that money is going, and I think that that is, you know, that’s like one example of a way that they’re kind of trying to set some new standards. I’m really excited to see organizations that are like making cool shit with a good cause in mind, making cool shit that is going to serve a wider range of people, just making cool shit while throwing away some of the like bad practices of retail industry. KL Another place that I have bought a couple of things from which is just like a fun clothing shop that does like t-shirts and sweatshirts. It’s actually… I’m wearing this sweatshirt in my photo on the website and it says, “Smile,” and it has like a possum and it just has, “Smile,” is crossed out and it says, “Nope.” Which I fucking love. It’s like my favorite sweatshirt, and it’s by a company called Culture Flock, and they are a company that, quoting them, “believes in equality for all, being kind to others, and protecting the planet, and having fun every day.” And I love that because it’s very simple, but they’re also—we’ve talked about this on the show a couple of times, about like place and that you can do really fucking cool things in like a lot of different places—and they’re based in Springfield, Missouri, which I think is super cool. JL I’ve also been trying to remember to shop local. And trying to pick up things at like places nearby where I live, because just like people in Springfield, Missouri, there’s places everywhere that have a lot of—a lot of local, great shops near there. So I’ve been trying to remember to do that instead of doing my very easy and convenient ordering that I do sometimes, sometimes I’ll go down the street to get the baby shampoo that I need instead of ordering that and getting it in five days. KL Totally. It also like feels really good when you can see the person who is either, you know, either owns the shop where they’ve obviously done a lot of thinking about what they’re stocking there or, you know, they’ve even made it. It’s very cool to buy something directly from that person. JL Totally. [38:44] SWB I just really like the way that we are having a lot more conversations, at least like in the circles that I’m in and I think like in the circles that maybe a lot of our listeners are in, about sort of what we’re buying and where it’s from, and why we’re buying it, and it’s not to say that I’ve stopped all like bad impulse buys when it comes to, like, t-shirts that I think I’m going to love and then I don’t love or whatever. But it really has made me think a little bit more carefully about the way that I think about things like fashion, or the way that I think about like who and what I’m supporting. But yeah! I’m like really excited to see just a lot more options and a more stuff that I can feel better about and not just feel like I’m, you know, just spending money on fast fashion. So I guess I would say, fuck yeah to having way more options when it comes to places we could shop locally, places we could shop online, and maybe an even bigger fuck yeah to the fact that now I know what to get Katel for her birthday, which is definitely going to come from Wild Fang. KL Yesssssss. Fuck yeah! That’s it for this week’s episode of No, You Go, the show about being ambitious—and sticking together. NYG is recorded in our home city of Philadelphia, and produced by Steph Colbourn. Our theme music is by The Diaphone. Thanks to Lilly Chin for being our guest today. If you like what you’ve been hearing, please make sure to subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcast. Aaaand subscribe to our newsletter! Your support helps us spread the word, and we love that. We’ll be back next week with another great guest [music fades in, plays alone for 34 seconds, fades out to end].

Erin Peterson and I first crossed paths when she was in a senior role at Microsoft, and I luckily added her to an advisory board for a trade show I was running at the time. I have since appreciated all the wisdom from her years of experience in the industry. Erin has a very impressive background and shares with us what’s happening in her current role at Synacor, along with what she has learned while holding leadership positions at AOL and Time Inc. and her work with philanthropic organizations.   She then talks about what positive changes we will be able to look forward to both in the short and long term development of blockchains, and what challenges we may face as we shift towards this relatively obscure technology.   Takeaways: [3:46] Synacor provides all the backend services to Talko service providers and ISPs. They have had a ton of work and responsibility this year, including powering all the sign-ins for HBO GO. [5:46] For a lot of people, blockchain has become synonymous with cryptocurrency. However, the potential for blockchain is so much bigger than cryptocurrency. It will be able to store data on any machine that has extra storage available on it, as well as speed up the pace of authenticating transactions. [8:23] One of the valuable opportunities that will come in a blockchain based world — you can record every transaction that has happened and you can prove that something was or was not sent. Things will become simpler and faster. [11:19] One of the challenges of blockchain technologies that we will need to develop before it becomes actionable for consumers is matching the verification and monitoring of data. [15:25] When it’s easier to pay for a technology then get it for free, that’s a great indicator of it being ready for consumer adoption. [16:37] Erin says that we have just hit the point now where we see the first real blockchain operating system around the corner, thanks to the EOS team. [23:25] In the recent years, digital advertising has lost its way, and has taken away investment in the tools to develop advertising which deeply resonated with the human experience. [32:59] Not only have we not seen a resurgence in engaging advertising, but only a handful of campaigns to rise to the quality of what we have seen in the editorial and creative media distribution. [39:21] Erin speaks on the shocking information she has uncovered in the data with her philanthropic and volunteer work on women in the workplace. [49:48] Erin’s focus is to bring more people with diverse backgrounds and ideas into the technology workforce.   Mentioned in This Episode: Microsoft  AOL  Time, Inc. (Now Meredith)  Amazon  Synacor  Talko  HBO GO EOS #LikeaGirl campaign Girl Develop It 

In this ver. Clark talks with Chris about the current state of our web culture, accessibility on the web and well a few angle brackets. Chris DeMars is a UI developer first, UX architect always, working out of Detroit, Michigan. Chris is also an instructor, teacher assistant, and volunteer for the Ann Arbor chapter of Girl Develop It and co-organizer for the Ann Arbor Accessibility Group. Chris loves coming up with solutions for enterprise applications, which include modular CSS architectures, performance, and advocating for web accessibility. When he is not working on making the web great and inclusive you can find him writing blog posts, recording episodes of his podcast, Tales From The Script, watching horror movies, drinking the finest of beers, or in the woods of northern Michigan. You can find out more about Chris here: http://chrisdemars.com.

Starting something new can feel super overwhelming…and kind of terrifying. The good news? A lot of us feel this way—no, really, that’s the good news! That, and we’re all in this together. On this week’s show, we talk with Saron Yitbarek about how she started, grew, and nurtures CodeNewbie—the most supportive community of programmers and people learning to code. It all started with one little (but powerful) sentiment: be nice. We also talk to her about what it’s like to be new at something, making a place for yourself at the table even if you’re not sure there’s a seat for you, and living up to your own potential. > I don’t think I’ve ever taken a piece of feedback that I didn’t immediately inside respond with, like, intense anger and, you know, taking offense to it. But…we’re not optimizing for my feelings. And we’re not optimizing for me patting myself on the back. That’s not the point. We’re optimizing for creating a really strong and amazing community and to be a resource for other people. > —Saron Yitbarek, founder of CodeNewbie Also in this episode, we: Swap stories about first jobs, finding office advocates, and gaining the confidence to take the reins at work. Get pumped about summertime vibes and vow to spend a little more time outside, even if it means sweating a little. (A lot.) And don’t forget to check out CodeNewbie’s Twitter chat, podcast, and Codeland conference. Sponsors This episode of NYG is brought to you by: Shopify, a leading global commerce platform that’s building a world-class team to define the future of entrepreneurship. Visit shopify.com/careers to see what they’re talking about. WordPress—the place to build your personal blog, business site, or anything else you want on the web. WordPress helps others find you, remember you, and connect with you.   Harvest, makers of awesome software to help you track your time, manage your projects, and get paid. Try it free, then use code NOYOUGO to get 50% off your first paid month. Transcript Sara Wachter-Boettcher [Ad spot] Do you want a workplace where you can hone your craft and make an impact? Then you should check out Shopify. Shopify creates commerce tools used by more than 600,000 merchants around the world—and they’re looking for smart, passionate problem solvers to help them grow even more. Learn more about Shopify and see all their current openings from Toronto to Tokyo at shopify.com/careers [music fades in, plays alone for 12 seconds, fades out]. Jenn Lukas Welcome to No, You Go, the show about being ambitious—and sticking together. I’m Jenn Lukas. Katel LeDû I’m Katel LeDû. SWB And I’m Sara Wachter-Boettcher. KL Today is all about being new. How do you find your footing; adapt to new environments; and, ultimately, get a place at the table; and how can those of us who already feel comfortable in our industries or our jobs just do a better job of holding the door open for those who come after us. Our guest today has lots of experience with that. Her name is Saron Yitbarek and she’s the founder of CodeNewbie, an organization that’s all about, well, supporting people who are new to code. But before we get to Saron, do you all remember what it was like when you got your first sort of grown up job? SWB I had a couple of like semi-grown-up jobs where like I still had to do a lot of like customer service but they were—like I had a salary. But my first proper grown up job, I was just about 23, about to be 23, maybe something like that, and I got a job as a junior copywriter at an ad agency. And let me tell you what: they really emphasized the “junior” [Katel says, “Aw!”] whenever they could. It took me a few months to figure out, like, who wielded power and who I could turn to, and who everybody secretly hated. And that always like—that always takes time in a job, but in that particular moment I felt like in a lot of ways I felt like really vulnerable. Like I was trying to build at the time what I thought was going to be some kind of writing career and that morphed a lot in ways that were awesome. But I was like, “Ok, this is my chance to get my foot in the door in—in some kind of industry that I want to be in,” also it turns out I don’t like advertising but, you know, I was like so kind of anxious about fitting in and performing. And it was really tough. I mean I felt I was like super tucked off by myself. I didn’t necessarily know who I could trust or who to go to. And I learned a lot while I was there but I remember feeling like such an outsider. And that feeling sucks. KL Looking back on that, I mean I think one of the sort of nice things about getting older and growing in your career you can kind of look back and say, “I wish I had known this,” or, “If I could tell myself something.” Is there—is there anything you look back and think, “If I had known this or if I had had the confidence to do this, I could’ve gotten by a little bit more easily?” [2:58] SWB I think in that particular environment the thing that I wish I had realized was that they were optimized to like wring whatever they could out of their junior staff on the creative team, but also the account management team. Like that was really how they operated, and I couldn’t see that at first, right? That that was the entire structure of the business was such that you would work the hell out of the most junior people, because those people were so desperate to want to fit in and want to succeed. And not even that that would’ve like changed my behavior necessarily, because obviously I was using that as my own stepping stone or whatever, but I think what it would’ve changed is the way that I looked at it, because I think that I internalized a lot of weird shit for a while that looking back I want to be like, “Oh, baby Sara, that was some toxic bullshit that had nothing to do with you.” JL Agency life [laughter]. My first real adult job was actually a pretty good experience. I made Navy training simulations at Lockheed Martin. KL Woah! JL I know [laughs]. It was different but you know what? I just worked with a really great group of people. It was a interesting scenario that a bunch of people that graduated from the same college as I did we all like went and worked there. And so it just started like someone worked there and then they were like, “Hey, you should hire my other friends,” and like they just kept hiring all of us. My first boss, his name was Bob Eagle and he had a sign outside his office that said “The Eagle’s Nest” and Bob was awesome. He’d walk around with a stress ball and he’d just be like, “How’s it goin’?” And he’d like come by and like see how things are going, and like he just genuinely cared. Like if you needed something he’d like help you out and, I don’t know, it was just like one of those things like it definitely wasn’t going to be the job for me for life. For instance there was another woman that worked there who was not in my department. I’m not sure what she did but she would come down and she—all the time she would look at me and say, “You look like the coroner chick on NCIS!” [Laughter] Yes! The super goth one [laughs]. SWB Ok sidebar: I love that she’s still super goth even though that show’s been on [laughter] a very long time. I really like that she’s like a permanent goth. I’m pro living a permanent goth lifestyle if that’s your truth— KL Completely. SWB —like you should do it. KL It sounds like Bob Eagle was kind of like a coach figure though. JL He was awesome. KL So that’s, like, that’s amazing. I think when you have that early that—that makes you feel like, “Ok, if I can identify the advocates in this scenario or if I can kind of like figure out who the people are who are going to help me either make the right connections or like get involved in the right areas or the right groups or whatever.” That is so helpful. [5:49] JL And the other thing was like, really like, for that… how I left that job was really important. Because you’re working on confidential information, you sort of like get stuck in a—like how do you get another job after that? Because you can’t really show anyone anything you’ve worked on, because it’s all classified. And so I was in a position where I was like, “I don’t want to stay here longer than a year.” There’s other stuff I did want to like get more into agency and design life. And so I like applied for—I didn’t—I wasn’t sure how to do that because I didn’t, again, I didn’t really have a portfolio because all of my stuff was classified. So I applied for internships, honestly, as my next job and I decided to take one and so I went to put my notice in, and when I went to tell Bob he was like, “Huh. How many days a week you working there?” And I was like, I think it was like two or three at the time. He goes, “Why don’t you stay and work here the other two or three days til you’re ready to leave?” And I was like, “That would be amazing!” And it was just one of those things that because I was honest with my intentions and I think like I didn’t like leave in like a blaze of glory. It made it that like here was someone who was able to like look out for me who wanted me to stay and work as long as I could, so it was like beneficial for both of us. So I think like an honest conversation ended up working out really well. SWB You know it’s interesting there’s something else that you mentioned when you were talking about that workplace. Like one of the things that made it really great was also that you—it sounded like you didn’t ever really feel like an outsider, because you had these connections to people from the college you’d gone to going in. And I think for a lot of people that’s just not going to be the reality. And obviously, like, hiring only people from one college is kind of problematic in a lot of workplaces already. So I always think of like, “Ok, now that I have a little bit more sort of like stability and some amount of context about how my industry works, how can I help other people feel less like outsiders? Because they’re not necessarily all going to have that kind of experience, and like, so what do I do with people who come in who don’t have the connections or the network or the like, “Oh I worked at my uncle’s firm last summer and learned the ropes of this industry”—like, what do you do to help those people? And I’m thinking about that a lot when it comes to the people that I encounter now who are in their twenties and who are trying to get their footing and get that door open a [chuckles] little bit. I don’t want them to feel so, like, at sea. KL Yeah. I love this idea and I—we just hired somebody, you know, part-time at A Book Apart and she’s amazing and she’s wonderful, and I mean I think completely aside from this, she is wonderful. But a big part of when she came on board that I wanted to make sure I had in place was—and I know this can sound sort of like prescriptive, but I made sure to do a lot of planning work in the onboarding, because we’re a remote company. And I wanted to make sure she felt like she was part of a team, even though it was, you know, everyone’s remote and she didn’t know anybody she was going to be working with. So I just wanted to make sure that I introduced her to everyone and that she knew sort of what everybody did and there were some expectations for the first month and the first three months and sort of like there was a roadmap that we could follow together. And it wasn’t just like, “Ok, you’re hired! Like here’s your computer and [laughs] like you’re on your own.” [9:05] JL We have a summer internship program at Urban that’s starting next week and one of their managers on our team will be this woman Dee, and Dee was suggesting to call them summer associates instead of summer interns because “interns” you get the obligatory coffee jokes. And so I felt like it was like nice that she was like looking for ways to like make them feel more included right away instead of like, “Oh the interns are here.” SWB Right, like they actually work there and they matter. JL Yeah. KL Right. SWB One of the things that Saron talked about in her interview that I also thought was super interesting was feeling like she walked into rooms and didn’t feel like she had a place at the table, and she had to make space for herself. And I know I’ve had that feeling a lot, too, and I think it comes back to that same concept of making space for people. And I’m—I’m curious: have you ever had that feeling of, like, finally realizing that you had a place at the table? And how did that come to be? KL Yeah. I definitely have. I think I sort of felt it in a couple different ways in my career, you know, in the last couple jobs I’ve had. When I worked at National Geographic I was there for a really long time and sort of worked up this, you know, ladder of management and I was getting invited to executive-level meetings and I was getting a chance to sort of like be part of those conversations but even though I was invited and I was sitting at the table, I never felt confident enough to really like say everything I wanted to say. And I think that was, you know, a combination of things not having someone who sort of made me feel empowered to do that and also I think just some general cultural stuff that was going on there. But by the time I sort of felt confident enough to do that, I was switching jobs and when I went to A Book Apart, I was facing a completely different scenario where I walked in and I had a seat at the table immediately and it was sort of like, “Here you go.” Sort of, “here are the keys.” And like, you have a seat at the table and you’re also allowed to make all these decisions, and that was sort of scary in a different way. [11:18] SWB Like how did you get to that place where you were new at A Book Apart and you knew you were supposed to be in a leadership role but you didn’t necessarily know what like the boundaries of that are because it’s a small, you know, small company. How did you get to a place where you like kind of took those—took the reins? I don’t know we’re talking about keys and tables but let’s throw [laughter] reins in there too. Where you like felt like you could take the reins and just be like, “Ok! I’m—this is what we’re going to do now.” KL I felt like it was sort of double-edged for me and how I work because, like I said, I sort of came into this scenario where we were all sort of figuring out what the job was which was super exciting. It was like figure out what this role is and you make it what you—you want it to be. And that was extremely exciting but it was also terrifying because I was so used to having structure and boundaries and clear expectations. So it was like, “Ok, what do I do?” [Chuckles] Like, “What do I next?” So I think just becoming aware that I had to set some of those was—was super helpful. And I think that you don’t recognize that right away. JL It’s interesting that like the freedom to like do these things is based on the fact that you are responsible and capable of doing these things and it’s like weird that we have to like remind ourselves of that sometimes but it’s good to know that. Be like, “Yes, I can do this.” I remember back when eventually I did start going into agency life as a junior developer and, again, that junior word. Ugh. It always really grinded my gears [laughs]. Really, really working in the vocab swaps today, ladies. You know I would like, there’d be—I’d be working on like an email campaign, let’s say there’d be an issue, but I couldn’t just tell the client what the issue was. I had to tell my manager, my manager had to tell the project manager, the project manager had to tell the account manager, and then the account manager could tell the client. The email would get forwarded, and then an email would get forwarded back down the chain to me, and by the time it got there it was like a bad game of telephone where they didn’t even describe the right problem anymore, and I was like, “But that’s not what the problem was.” “Oooh.” And I remember when I went later on to my next job I was like working on something and I was like, “Ok, you know, this is ready for the client.” And they were like, “Ok, email them.” And I was like, “What? You want me to tell the client that their templates are ready?” And they’re like, “Yessss. You are a capable adult [laughs] like who can do this.” And I was like, “Oh! Thank you for trusting me to be able to email a client,” like again not something like we’re all capable of sending an email and leaving out like expletives like of the email and writing a response. SWB Well [laughter] speak for yourself. JL [Laughing] “Here are your fucking templates. Have fun!!” [Laughter.] That’s exactly how I would’ve written it. You know of course we can do this, but because of the fear I think at the last job it like instilled in me of being junior, it was like, “Oh! I don’t know if I can write an email.” [14:14] SWB You know it’s interesting this whole concept of being a junior or whatever. I think obviously everybody has to be new at their thing at some point, like there’s no escaping that. But in some cultures I think that that labelling of somebody as the “junior” person and the way that they then get treated can be really problematic. And so something that I really loved about talking  to Saron was the way that she sort of celebrates being new to something as being a really powerful place to be. And I was really excited to hear about the way that she has built that community, and it—it’s specific to code for her community, but I feel like so much of it applies to like literally anything. Can we listen to the interview? KL I can’t wait [music fades in, plays alone for five seconds, fades out]. Our sponsors SWB [Ad spot] But before we get to the interview we have got to tell you about two awesome companies that make No, You Go possible. First up is Harvest, an awesome online tool designed to help teams keep track of time they spend working on different projects and client work. I started using Harvest when I worked at an agency, one of the good ones, and it made it easy for us to see who was working on what and whether we were on track and on budget. I also used Harvest as a consultant because they make it so easy to send invoices and get paid fast. Harvest also has a super sweet timer feature which helps you track how long tasks take and bill accurate hours. You can start the timer on your desktop app and then stop it on your way home from the iPhone app. It’s super easy. Start your free trial now at getharvest.com and when you upgrade to a paid account, enter coupon code no you go for 50% off your first month. That’s getharvest.com, coupon code no you go. KL We’re also supported by our friends at WordPress. They’re the platform we use for noyougoshow.com, and we’re not alone. Nearly 30% of websites run on WordPress. With plans starting at just four dollars a month, they make it easy to get your website, portfolio, or online store up and running in no time, and their friendly customer support is there to lend a hand 24/7. It’s true. We’ve tried it and they’re awesome. So what are you waiting for? Start building your website today. Go to wordpress.com/noyougo for 15% off any new plan purchase. That’s wordpress.com/noyougo for 15% off your brand new website [music fades in, plays alone for four seconds, fades out]. Interview: Saron Yitbarek KL I am so excited to welcome Saron Yitbarek to the show today. Saron is the founder of CodeNewbie, which is the most welcoming, supportive, just plain fucking awesome international community for people learning to code. We are going to talk about how she built CodeNewbie; what it’s become; and what’s next for her and her company. Saron, welcome to No, You Go. Saron Yitbarek Yeah, thank you so much for having me! KL Awesome. Well, let’s start at the beginning. How and why did you start CodeNewbie? SY So I started CodeNewbie as a reaction I guess to my own learn-to-code experience. So when I decided to first learn to code four or five years ago now, I started by doing it on my own. So I quit my job, I spent 12 to 16 hours a day couped up in my apartment, doing online coding tutorials, reading books, doing courses—anything I could really get my hands on—and it was just hard. It was really, really hard and it was hard in a different way that I expected. It was really lonely, it was frustrating, I found myself internalizing a lot of failure because, you know, when it’s you versus the computer, the computer is always right which means that you are always wrong [chuckles]. And after about three months of doing I said, “You know I think I need a little bit more structure in my learning,” and so I applied and got accepted into a bootcamp and all of a sudden I had 44 other people in the room who were going on that exact same journey with me and they—they got it. They understood it, you know? We cried when things didn’t work, we high fived when things did work, and it was so interesting to me that the biggest thing, the biggest difference, biggest bonus of having—of being part of a bootcamp is that community and that community really made all the difference. And when, you know, it was near the end of my time at the bootcamp I thought to myself, “Wow! This was one of the biggest benefits of this but I only got it because I could afford to take three months, you know, without continuing to not work and I could spend, you know, thousands of dollars on this program and that’s not accessible to most people. So how do—how do you provide that same community, that really essential community if you, you know, are not in that position of privilege.” And so I at the time Twitter chats were like a huge thing. You know people—I think people still do them now but like back then like everyone had a Twitter chat and so I thought, “Wow! Twitter chats are a really great format to, you know, to—to reach a lot of people all you need is a Twitter account and an internet, and to be awake during the time of the chat, and with just that you can get a bunch of people in the same, you know, quote/unquote “room”, virtual room and get people talking and connecting and sharing resources and that’s what happened. [19:14] KL That sounds really amazing and I love the fact that you built something based on sort of like a challenge that you were running into. So I want to ask a little bit about you. You’re an Ethiopian woman who’s become somewhat of a public figure, you know, working in tech and—and running this company. Can you tell us a little bit about that experience and your journey? SY Yeah, for me my experience has been less defined by specifically being Ethiopian and more defined by being an immigrant. Like I feel like growing up as an immigrant, I never really felt like I belonged anywhere. You know? And even though I was raised in this country, I was raised in America, I came to the US when I was almost three years old. We always talked about Ethiopia as home. You know? You say, “I go back home.” You know which like even now when I think of like the word “home” I’m thinking like, “Oh! Obviously Ethiopia.” Never lived there. You know [chuckles] I’ve—I’ve been here my whole life but like in my mind there’s always this sense of occupying a space versus belonging in that space. You know with my family we were—parents are very strict, and I also like raised Jehovah’s Witness. So like there’s a whole other strictness and, you know, don’t be a part of the world that comes with that religion. My dad was very much about you know, “Get your education. Be, you know, a doctor, a lawyer. You know, don’t get—don’t get distracted by boys.” You know that whole thing. And so, yeah, I—I feel like I was very much watching the world around me and didn’t really feel like I could actively participate until I became an adult, until basically [chuckles] I like left home. And that’s my worldview. Like my worldview when I walk into a room is never like, “I own this.” Or, “This is for me.” Like there—there are very, very few times I’ve ever walked into a room or been in a place and felt like, “Yes, there’s a seat for me here.” I always feel like I have to make a seat or take someone else’s or just be loud enough that even if I don’t have a seat they can’t ignore me, you know? And I think just that element of—of always feeling like the outsider is something I’ve carried with me and has been, you know, a good thing and a bad thing in different situations but that’s probably been like the—the one part of being Ethiopian that has very strongly shaped, you know, definitely being in the tech industry and really everything else that I do. [21:29] SWB That’s so amazing to hear you explain it in that way, because it makes your desire to do something like CodeNewbie make a lot of sense to me. Where it’s like, oh you were out there thinking, you know, “There wasn’t a space for me. Ok, I have to figure out how to create one.” SY Mm hmm. SWB So I’m curious like you mentioned that CodeNewbie started out as being this Twitter chat and then it’s really grown and expanded a lot since then. Can you tell us a little bit more about that piece of it? So like once you started creating that space for you and for people like you to have these conversations and to feel more supported, how did it evolve? SY It evolved by mostly just listening and reacting. We did the Twitter chats every Wednesday night at 6pm Pacific Time, 9pm Eastern Time for one hour, using the hashtag codenewbie and the general structure is that I would tweet out questions usually based on some type of theme and everyone in the community would answer and the value of it wasn’t really in the questions and the answers, it was more in the opportunity to hear other people’s thoughts, opinions, perspectives, stories, and the chance to connect with them. You know when you say like, “Hey, I’m going to ask a question everyone gets to answer,” you’ve kind of given permission to the community to have them talk to each other. Actually we explicitly encourage that. We say like, “You’re more than welcome like, you know, use the hashtag but you’re more than welcome to respond directly to each other.” And so that’s the real value of the Twitter chat. And so we did that for five, six months and it got to a point where I still had to kind of promote it. You know I still had to ask for retweets and, you know, push it and, you know, and all that, and then at about five, six months I said, “Huh! I don’t really need to push it anymore. Like people—people get it. You know they already know what it is, they know what it’s about, and they—they keep showing up.” And that was the moment when I was like, “Ok I think I have something. I don’t know what it is but it’s—it’s something.” And what I realized about a year into doing the Twitter chats is that—if you’ve been on Twitter you probably know that Twitter is a great way to start conversations, it is not a great way to have a conversation. 140—I guess 280 characters now is just—it’s just not enough to—to have people understand you before you piss them off [laughing] and so I kept thinking to myself, “You know what’s—what’s a good way to dig deeper into a topic if you want to unpack a particular story, a particular problem, what’s a better tool for that?” And my first job out of college was actually working at NPR and so I thought, “Oooh! Audio! Podcasting! That’s a really great medium to focus on a story, a problem, a person. To dig in for, you know, 30, 40 minutes, an hour, and, you know, just kind of live in that world for a little bit and extract as much value from that as you can.” And so, you know, that was a direct response to how—understanding limitations of the Twitter chat led to the creation of the podcast. And then I think at some point after doing the podcast, people kept asking for, you know, a—a place to meet physically which, frankly, I was kind of opposed to because, you know, I thought that the whole beauty of CodeNewbie and kind of, you know, the point was to connect people who aren’t connected. And so when I thought of meetups there was like so many limitations. You have to physically be there. You have to be able to drive there. You have to be available for a set number of hours, you know, doing nothing but the meetup itself. So it felt very exclusive in—in a way but I had like too many requests and too many who said like, “I just need in-person physical support. Like I, you know, online is great but it’s not—it’s just not the way for me.” That I kind of gave in and said, “Ok, let’s do some meetups.” So we did that in response to the community but I guess the last like big thing that we did was the conference. So when I graduated from my bootcamp two months after graduating I applied to speak at a conference which I had absolutely no business doing. It was RailsConf 2014 and I had this what I thought was a really shitty idea and I was talking to a woman, Vanessa Hurst, who is one of the co-founders of Girl Develop It. It was a really, really big really amazing non-profit teaching women to—to code and I told her my idea and she’s like, “Oh! It’s so good! It’s great!” And I’m thinking like, “Ok. If she thinks it’s good then, you know, I’m going to listen to her.” And—and then I said to her, “I’ve never spoken before, you know, do you think I should do it at a few meetups first and then, you know, maybe like sometime down the line, you know, pitch it to a—to a conference?” [25:36] SY [Continued] And she looked at me and she said, “I don’t believe in stepping stones.” And it just gave me chills and I was like, “Ahhhh! I too do not believe in stepping stones.” Like [laughing] it was—it was amazing. And so because of her I submitted that idea. I think it was that day—I think it was like the last day to—to submit talks and I remember so vividly being on the train, you know, on the way back home from work. And this was maybe like a month later and I—I saw the email and it said, you know, “We’re excited to offer you a position, you know, a—a speaking slot at RailsConf,” and I literally—I gasped, I laughed, and then I cried. And I was sitting across from these two little old ladies and they were very afraid of me. I looked very—I looked very unstable [laughs]. And so that was my first speaking opportunity and also my first conference. And when I got there it ended up being an amazing experience. I’ve done a ton of speaking since but what I recognized is that tech conferences are not made for newbies. They’re made for industry people. You know the idea is that you want to level up, you want to learn more about your framework, your language, your particular domain, and you go to level up. If you don’t have a solid foundation first, if you’re not up with the trends, if you just don’t even know enough to know what the trends even are, then it can be a really hard place to find value and—and to feel like you belong. And so when I was there I kept kind of making little mental notes of like, “Ah like this didn’t work for me,” and, you know, “This—it would’ve been so good if they—if they had this and that.” Everytime I go to a conference I’ve kind of just been adding to that list of things I would do differently and things I like, things I don’t like. And so I—I said to myself, “You know at some point I would love to do a conference but if I do it’s going to be super newbie friendly and I’m going to make sure no one feels lost or overwhelmed or like they don’t know what’s going on.” And I guess it was three years after my first tech conference, I produced CodeLand which is our conference specifically designed for newbies and that was also a reaction to my own experiences. So that’s a long way of saying it’s been a lot of listening. It’s been a lot of listening to the community, figuring out what the best solution is, figuring out how to hopefully execute that well, and give people the tools they need to succeed. [27:46] KL That’s so cool. I feel like when you were talking about that advice that you got of, you know, not believing in stepping stones it was like that was the message you needed to hear in that moment. I really love it. When you were getting into tech and into this industry and building a huge community there, has that shaped your experience in your work and your life in general? SY It’s made me a lot more tolerant of [chuckles] people’s differing opinions, meaning like, you know, when they’re different from my own very strongly held opinions. It’s really—you know we talk about inclusion a lot and, you know, to be clear CodeNewbie is not, you know, a diversity effort, it’s not a diversity initiative but I think that everything should inherently be inclusive. I think we should always strive to include as many voices and perspectives as possible, regardless of, you know, what industry or what problem you’re trying to solve, and so in the efforts of doing that I’ve learned that I have a ton of blind spots. You know even being an Ethiopian immigrant woman, you know, non CS holding, you know, person. Like I have a ton of blind spots that I didn’t realize that I had and it’s from being very open to being critiqued—actually that was—I had like a little closing talk at CodeLand and the message of that was please call us out. If you see us do something that you feel like is a little off brand. If you see a better way that we can do something. If you see that we’ve excluded someone. If you see that we’ve, you know, done something that it just doesn’t follow our values, the values that we’ve stated, please send me a message. Send me an email. And people have. People have over the years and, you know, it’s one of those things where it’s never fun to be called out. You know especially when you pride yourself on certain values and someone’s like, “Mm mm! No. You didn’t—you know you did that thing and that thing is not the thing.” So you’re—you know, it’s—it’s hard to—to listen to that and kind of not—and I don’t think I’ve ever taken a piece of feedback that I didn’t immediately inside respond with, like, intense anger and, you know, taking offense to it. But then I say like, “Ok that’s not—that’s not what we’re optimizing for.” Right? Like we’re not optimizing for my feelings. And we’re not optimizing for me patting myself on the back. That’s not the point. We’re optimizing for creating a really strong and amazing community and to be a resource for other people. And if we’ve decided that that’s the goal, that’s what we’re working towards then it’s a lot easier to, you know, feel your feelings but then put ‘em aside and tell ‘em to shut the fuck up. And then go about and, you know, go about and, you know, listen to the things that people say and implement those changes. So just being more open to being critiqued, being more tolerant, and just understanding that even though I’m a double minority or a triple minority, it’s probably, you know, quadruple I’m sure if we think harder. Everyone has their biases, everyone has their blind spots, and, you know, and I’m not an exception to that. [30:37] SWB Gosh, that is so important. It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot, because I give a lot of talks that are about, you know, the way that bias gets actually built into tech products, right? Which means that I have to talk about all these issues and like I’ve had to really come to terms with the fact that I’m going to fuck it up sometimes or like I think that for me it’s been like this process of saying, “Ok. I’m going to talk about things that are difficult and uncomfortable, and—and the reason that they are difficult and uncomfortable is that they are not talked about enough and that like we are bad at talking about things if we don’t practice it [chuckles].” So, guess what! You’re going to have to do this and sometimes you may do it badly because you won’t be able to do a good job at it without some missteps along the way, and like to try to look at it as like this is—this is just what you have to do now. I also feel you though, oh my gosh, Saron, I like—[sighs] I get that same response. That first like immediately like— SY “Who do you think you are?!?” SWB Right! Like, “Can’t you see—can’t you see—” SY “I’m trying so hard.” SWB Yes! Exactly! “Can’t you see I’m trying so hard here?!?” And then it’s like, hmm, nope. Not—valuable. Like, you can have that feeling but like that doesn’t add anything to the world. And it’s so hard and it’s so important I think to like acknowledge that that’s like a super normal response. We can all have that feeling and then like you can’t make that the important thing of the conversation, right? Like I’m so tired of—I think so many of the problems we face are like people putting their feelings at the same bar of like actual harm being done. SY Yeah!!! Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. And what I’ve learned is that the tendency is to justify it, right? The tendency is to explain yourself, the tendency is always, “No, no, no, no. That’s not what I meant.” What, you know, like, ok, fine, I, you know, I keep saying the word “guys” that I know that it’s not inclusive but like I’m not a bad person, you know? Like [chuckling] that’s really what it comes down to is you convincing, frankly, usually like this stranger on the internet that you’re not a bad person, and what has—there’s two things that have kind of helped me not do that and number one is, you know, people have done that to me and I’m just like it just looks so bad. It looks so bad. But also I’ve learned to recognize that when someone takes the time to give me constructive feedback, it’s because they trust that I’ll do something about it. Like it’s a sign of faith. You know I’ve never given feedback to—and I see a bunch of questionable things all the time in the tech community and when I give feedback it’s usually because I know the brand didn’t mean to, right? Like if I saw a brand and they’re obviously sexist and then they, you know, do something like that’s a little questionable, what’s the point? You’ve already decided that you’re sexist. It’s risky for me to put my neck out there and it’s not helping my life, like I’m trying to help you be better. And if I think that you actually don’t care and I think you actually are sexist, racist, whatever-ist, I’m not going to bother. But if I email and say, “Hey, I noticed blah blah blah blah. You—you know I know you really care about blah blah blah so you might consider doing blah blah blah.” That’s a huge sign of faith. That’s a huge sign of me saying, “I trust that you actually care. It probably wasn’t intentional. It’s probably a blind spot you weren’t aware of and, you know, and—and I want—I want the best for you and so I’m going to try to be helpful.” Like that’s actually what that means. Recognizing that that’s usually what people mean when they do it to me really helps me get over myself. [34:01] SWB Totally! I’ve referred to it before as, like, that kind of feedback doesn’t feel like it, but it’s actually a gift. SY Yeah, absolutely. SWB It’s somebody doing you a kindness. KL Mm hmm. This makes me think of, again, that—the idea that the things that are—are driving this community and what you set out to do with this community are really baked into, you know, every piece of it. Are there a set of values and principles that drive the community? SY Oh yeah definitely. We start every single Twitter chat with our three rules: be helpful, be supportive, be nice. We—we declare it every single week and we really try to embody that as much as possible. So if you—it’s so funny, if you look at, you know, the CodeNewbie Twitter account compared to like my Twitter account, it’s very different brands. Like it’s very different branding. [Chuckles] I think that, you know, especially with the CodeNewbie account my—my goal was to be your biggest cheerleader. This characteristic—this like quality, you know, really came out to me I think it was two years ago? Yeah I think it was about two, three years ago. I was at work and I had this—this terrible, terrible pain in my right shoulder and I write with my right hand. So I had this terrible, terrible pain on my right shoulder and it was actually like my first week at a new job. So it was very bad timing. And it hurt so much that I ended having to go home early to see a doctor. That day—that night, it came back again really, really strong. It just it hurt—it hurt so bad that my—my shoulder was like frozen, meaning I just I could barely move it. Like I just physically couldn’t move my arm and it hurt so much that I was crying. Like I was just—just howling in pain. And this was two minutes before the Twitter chat was supposed to start. And so I’m sitting at my computer and I’m like, you know, like holding my arm and just, you know, crying and howling, and my husband’s looking at me and he’s like, “We have to go to the emergency room.” And I said, “No!! It’s time for the Twitter chat!” And so I—I said to him, I was like, “You are going to type. I am dictating to you. You’re going to type and you’re—we’re doing this chat together.” And, you know, he knows better than to—to mess with me. So we sat at my desk and opened the computer and, you know, I’m—I’m dictating to him and that’s when I realize like how seriously I take this because, you know, he’ll type something that’s pretty friendly and I’m like, “There’s not enough exclamation points!” [Laughter] “You need three exclamation points minimum!” You know? And—and Suzy will be like, you know, “I—I just contributed to my first open source, you know, request.” And I’m like, “Congratulate Suzy!!!” You know? [Boisterous laughter] “With–with smiley faces!!!” [36:28] KL It’s so obvious to me that you do such a great job of bringing people along with that and an explicit sort of member criteria of being nice and I think that that’s so incredibly important and it draws other people who value that into the community. Did that come from a specific place? And like how—how do you maintain it? SY I really—I wanted it to be very clear the type of behavior that’s expected. Like very, very clear. Like there’s no question of who we are, what we’re about, and—and what we will, you know, put up with, and what type of behavior we encourage which is why we start every Twitter chat, you know, for the last four years has started with those three rules and we embody that. We, you know, we—we show that in every tweet that we do and every post and the podcast—in everything we do, we try to be as supportive and positive and inclusive as we can be. And so I think that when you are showing the values that you declare and you’re like showing them off, you know, and—and really just pushing them really hard, you tend to, I think, kind of gross out people who don’t believe that. Like it kind of becomes annoying. You know? Like if you’re like, “Everyone’s amazing all the time!!!,” you know? That can be annoying for assholes. So I think what I found is that by being aggressively positive and kind of over the top with displaying these values and these qualities, we’ve given people an opportunity to self-select. And if you are mean, you don’t believe these things, I think you just don’t want to sit with us. You know? I think we would just annoy the crap—like it’s not fun to hang out with us. And that was very intentional. SWB I was also thinking about it as like, I think that it’s so intensely positive that that might seem over the top, except that when you step back and you realize that so many people are plagued by self doubt and also have, like, other voices that are not positive. It’s like, I think people are really hungry for that. And it’s such a gap that they don’t—they don’t have. And so if you were a person—like if CodeNewbie was literally just a human person, like it was just you, coming from your voice, it might feel like, “Ok, ok. This is a little much.” But coming from this other entity and kind of making it this bigger community feel, it feels totally right. [38:50] SY Yeah! That’s—you absolutely nailed it. It’s what people need, and if you don’t need it, then you won’t be with us. It’s just that simple. SWB So, I think it’s pretty clear people needed that because CodeNewbie has grown and grown and grown and become this big, massive thing and it’s now your full-time job, right? SY Yeah, I’ve been doing it full-time for almost two years. SWB That is really amazing. KL Yeah. SWB So can you—can you just tell us, how did you turn that into something that you could really like leave your job for and be able to make not just a supportive community but, like, something that could also sustain you? SY Yeah. So I think it was three months maybe after doing the—the podcast, the CodeNewbie podcast, that someone emailed and said, “Hey, can I give you 200 bucks to run an ad on your podcast?” And I thought, “I can paid for this? That’s crazy! That—that’s amazing!” You know? And so I—I took that and I said yes and I thought like, “Oh. Like maybe—maybe there’s a way to—to like turn this into something that’s actually sustainable.” And so that was kind of the—the beginning of that. You know I found that a lot of community leaders—I think one of the fundamental mistakes that they make is that they tend to undervalue what they have. So I remember this was maybe a couple of months ago I remember seeing—I don’t remember if it was a tweet or like an email in a mailing list. I remember seeing something where this person was or—was trying to organize a conf—her first conference, I think it was her conference, for a community and she was looking for sponsors. And the way she was pitching it and talking about it was, you know, “Oh! I—I just need a little bit more money to—to be able to, you know, pull this this off and if you all work at companies that could possibly help me out, I’d really appreciate it.” And I was like, “Oh no. Oh no, no, [laughter] no, no. That’s not—that’s not how you do that.” You know? And her community was women in tech or something. And I, you know, I’m thinking to myself, “Do you know how valuable that is?!? Do you know how many sponsors, how many companies, are dying to get in front of, you know, badass women in tech? Like that’s—you have—you have an asset! Like that’s what it is. You—you have so much value in your community leadership and you need to—you need to at least recognize that, you know, whether you use a thing about it is another thing but you need to at least see that.” And I think what I’ve been—why I’ve been, you know, more successful than most people who start communities is recognizing that and thinking, “Ok. Who else would find this valuable? And how can I turn that into something that allows me to support myself and to do more projects and dedicate more time to it?” And I think it’s understanding the value that you bring. I think that is the key to—to sustainability. [41:37] KL Yeah, absolutely. So I have a question for you, and I’ve just been thinking a lot about, you know, everything that you’ve been talking to me sounds like it takes a lot of energy and drive. So I wanted to ask you about a tweet that you had pinned to your account for awhile and it read, “I struggle with depression and a year ago I made this video for myself. Totally forgot about it, made my night.” And the video is sort of a video note to your future self giving yourself a pep talk. Why—like why did you make that video and how did you find yourself being so open to talk about that? SY I have a hard time being by myself. I have a really hard time being by myself and I think that I have unintentionally unknowingly been distracted by the fact that I’m always thinking about other people, whether it’s my, you know, before I did CodeNewbie full-time, whether it was like my—my quote/unquote “real job”, or whether it was doing CodeNewbie. I feel like I’ve always been in some way doing some type of community work or just something that just involves a huge amount of collaboration and just, frankly, putting everyone’s needs first and I think that that has been a really awesome distraction from my own problems [chuckles] and it wasn’t until I uh so I used to work at Microsoft before I—I quit to do CodeNewbie full-time and it wasn’t until I didn’t have Microsoft anymore and I was working on my own that like quote/unquote “all of a sudden” all these mental health issues kept coming up and I—I just found myself, you know, upset for no reason, sad for no reason, just, you know, just depressed. It was, you know, and—and it got, you know, it got really bad last year. Like 2017 was such a shit year. I mean for many reasons but like personally just like easily the worst year of my life. And and it was really, really, really fucking hard and it was—it wasn’t hard because I had to do CodeNewbie and kind of like put on this persona of taking care of everyone else but it made it weird. It made it weird to kind of like, you know, spend all day in bed crying hating my life and then right at 6pm Pacific Time: “Hey, everybody! Welcome to the CodeNewbie Twitter chat!” You know? Like that’s weird. It’s really weird. And I’m—and frankly I’m really proud of myself for still, you know, maintaining my duties during that period but that was—it was very, very bad. It was a very, very dark year. And it’s really forced me to reevaluate really like every part of my life. Like I’ve changed my eating, my exercise habits, I’ve changed like the way that I work. I really felt like I had to rebuild myself. I felt like I had to rebuild it thinking like, “Ok you—you need to consider this—this new friend of yours now, called Depression, and you need to—like we have to address this. We can’t just, you know, pretend it’s not there and just kind of, you know, hope it’ll leave. It’s—it won’t. So, we need to—we need to like actively work on it.” It became like a—I think it got really bad in like June, it was like right after CodeLand, I think it was like June. So it became like this six, eight month project that I was actively working on. I’m super, super—I mean, honestly, like the—my greatest achievement is, you know, being able to address it and get to a place where I can manage it now but, yeah, it’s—I find that when I’m—when I’m alone with my thoughts that’s when I have to deal with my thoughts. And that has been the hardest part. [45:04] KL That’s so incredibly encouraging to hear and I—I completely I feel so much of what you said. I think just becoming aware of it and knowing that it’s this new thing that is in your life that, you know, you have to manage. You have to, you know, deal with. So I think that’s—that’s really great to hear and I mean personally I’m—I’m really glad that you’re—you’re in that place that you can support the amazing thing that you’re building. So we have just one last question for you, you know, on that note, what drives you to keep pushing at this and keep growing and nurturing what you’ve built? SY My drive really comes from answering the question, like, “Can I live up to my potential?” You know the way I was, you know, I—I was raised like I mentioned really strict parents actually my mom was—I think she was pretty lax. I think it was really just my dad. But, you know, a strict upbringing. It was all about like, you know—like my dad would make homework for me. You know what I mean? Like—like that type of family. Like he would like create his own homeword. And so I think, for me, it’s just always been about just internalizing, frankly, what my—what my parents taught which is that complacency is—is not an option. If you want to be great, you have to work super fucking hard, and you have to work super fucking hard forever, and that’s like—like that’s life. Like that’s just how life works and so, you know, whether it’s CodeNewbie, whether it’s, you know, something else, whatever it is that I do, if I care about it, it really comes down to like, “Can I live up to the potential of this thing that I’m doing?” And that’s—that’s my biggest driver. SWB Well, Saron, I think it’s very clear that you’ve worked very hard on CodeNewbie. I think it definitely shows [Saron laughs]. So can you let our listeners where they can find out more about you and about CodeNewbie? SY My Twitter handle is @saronyitbarek, just my first name and last name. And you can find out more about CodeNewbie at www.codenewbie.org. The CodeNewbie Twitter handle is very, very active, so @codenewbies with an ‘s’ because someone already took codenewbie but, yeah, those are the places to learn more about us. SWB Awesome! It has been so great to chat with you today and we _really_ appreciate you being on the show. Thanks, Saron. KL Yeah, thank you so much. SY Thank you! This was a lot of fun. Thanks so much for having me [music fades in, plays alone for five seconds, fades out]. [47:18] Fuck Yeah Of The Week SWB Well, I know it’s time for the Fuck Yeah of the Week, because Katel has a huge smile on her face. JL And she’s dancing. SWB She just shimmied, actually, in this room. I swear to god. Katel, what is the Fuck Yeah this week? KL It’s true I was shimmying, and that is because—so I just had a nice cold, refreshing glass of rosé when we started recording tonight, and it was wonderful, and that made me think of how it’s sort of the unofficial official start of summer. And I’m so glad because I just love being outside. I think a lot of us do. And I’ve been thinking about just—not just being outside and kind of walking instead of taking a cab or whatever but sort of reconnecting with nature [laughs] as, you know, sort of cheesy as that might sound. There are a lot of nice hiking trails around here and I really want to take advantage of more of them and, I don’t know, I just—I hope that we all take a little bit of time to explore our own cities, and towns, and neighborhoods, and I know we’ve talked a lot about doing that a little bit more now that the weather’s nice. I also vow to not complain about how hot it gets this summer because this winter so cold and so long. So if you catch me complaining, feel free to—to stop me but I’m just glad it’s so nice out now. SWB I make no such vow [laughter] to not complain about how hot it is. KL That’s ok. SWB I gotta be honest: I’m really glad that you can’t like see me on the podcast, because I feel like I’m just a sweaty person [light laughter]. But I’m trying to make peace with that because the reality is that I love to go outside and do stuff outside all year round. And I always think of like my birthday as the launch of summer because my birthday’s always around Memorial weekend. KL Yeah! SWB And so on my birthday this year—actually, Katel came with me, we went to look at like some historic ships [laughing] in the harbor here in Philadelphia and sat outside at a beer garden. And that to me was so refreshing, not just because we looked at boats, or because we were drinking beers on the Delaware, but because there’s a moment this time of year where like a—a switch flips in me where I just care a little less about stupid bullshit. And I’m like, “Ahhh! Summer.” And I want to kind of like lean into that a little bit and like let myself take it a little easier. You know I had a _very_ busy spring that was like made busier by some unexpected stuff and so I’m _really_ hyped to sit in the backyard with my rosé or my iced coffee or whatever, depending on time of day, day of week. And like enjoy that. And not feel like I should be doing something else, and allow myself to be like, “Hey! It’s 3:30 pm on a Friday in the summertime, like, maybe you can knock off for the weekend?” And like, you know, like give myself a little bit more permission to say, “Fuck yeah to fuck it.” [50:16] KL Yeah. JL I’m listening to you both, I’m like, “Ah that sounds really nice.” I’m trying to think of like how to apply that to my life. I mean I can’t really knock off at 3:30, I’ve got the—I’ve got the old 9 to 5 and then I’ve got the child. But what I have been doing recently is like we talked before in like a previous episode about like meal prepping. So like we could eat together as a family, and like get our son to bed at like a decent hour. And then essentially when we’re done with that I feel like, “Ok. So from eight o’clock to nine o’clock I’m like trying to like clean up a bit, maybe like answer some emails, do some like last things,” and then I’m like, “Ok, I’m going to bed because I am tired from the day.” And the other day we did instead after he went to bed I was like, “You know what? I’m just going to sit outside and paint my nails.” KL I love that! JL It was awesome! I was like, “Oh I miss this. I miss this.” And so trying to balance the like getting a good night’s sleep and like taking a moment to like sit outside and enjoy the air, and I’m not really sure what my balance will be on that yet but I have to try like think more about it and maybe see if I can sneak a few more of those in somewhere. KL Yeah! I think just like let’s just try to go outside, a little bit more. SWB Fuck yeah. KL Fuck yeah! That’s it for this week’s episode of No, You Go, the show about being ambitious—and sticking together. NYG is recorded in our home city of Philadelphia and produced by Steph Colbourn. Our theme music if by The Diaphone. Thanks to Saron Yitbarek for being our guest today. If you like what you’ve been hearing, please make sure to subscribe and rate up on Apple Podcasts. Your support means the world and it really helps us spread the word. We’ll be back next week with another great guest [music fades in, plays for 32 seconds, fades out to end].

In this ver. @csell5 talks to @saragibby about women. This is just the start of many conversations to come about supporting women in tech, fostering a better workplace and community. Sara has 20 years in software engineering worked across the county, different industries as employee and consultant. Once leader of a Girl Develop It chapter, now founder/facilitator of Girls Who Code club while working as Director of Engineering for Quikly.   Find Sara at: http://saragibby.com  https://www.linkedin.com/in/saragibby/  https://twitter.com/saragibby 

Panel: Charles Max Wood Guest: Marla Brizel This week on My Ruby Story, Charles talks to Marla Brizel. Marla works at Test Double and has been programming full time for the past four years. She first got into programming when she got a job at a startup where they helped her learn how to program for herself and she fell in love with it. They talk about her background as a project manager and the importance of empathy for the user. They then touch on how she got into Ruby and things that she is particularly proud of contributing to the Ruby community. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: Marla intro How did you first get into programming? Has been working in tech for the past decade Working at a startup What was it about coding made you want to make the switch? Likes that there are always more puzzles to solve You can always be learning new things in the programming world Get a Coder Job Course Code is the easy part of the job How programming has progressed over the years Test Double Project management background How did you wind up as a project manager? Building empathy for the user How did you get into Ruby? Girl Develop It Why Ruby? Ruby reads like English How did you wind up at Test Double? The value of conferences What have you done with Ruby that you are proud of? Denver Startup Week Ruby on Rails Elections And much, much more! Links: Test Double Get a Coder Job Course Ruby Girl Develop It Denver Startup Week @MarlaBrizel Marla’s GitHub MarlaBrizel.com Picks: Charles TripIt NG conf MicroConf RubyHack Microsoft Build Podcast Movement Get a Job Course “Ruby Rants” coming soon Marla Vokl Aura Skis dry-rb GitX Silvercar Denver Airport Train Denver Startup Week

Panel: Charles Max Wood Guest: Marla Brizel This week on My Ruby Story, Charles talks to Marla Brizel. Marla works at Test Double and has been programming full time for the past four years. She first got into programming when she got a job at a startup where they helped her learn how to program for herself and she fell in love with it. They talk about her background as a project manager and the importance of empathy for the user. They then touch on how she got into Ruby and things that she is particularly proud of contributing to the Ruby community. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: Marla intro How did you first get into programming? Has been working in tech for the past decade Working at a startup What was it about coding made you want to make the switch? Likes that there are always more puzzles to solve You can always be learning new things in the programming world Get a Coder Job Course Code is the easy part of the job How programming has progressed over the years Test Double Project management background How did you wind up as a project manager? Building empathy for the user How did you get into Ruby? Girl Develop It Why Ruby? Ruby reads like English How did you wind up at Test Double? The value of conferences What have you done with Ruby that you are proud of? Denver Startup Week Ruby on Rails Elections And much, much more! Links: Test Double Get a Coder Job Course Ruby Girl Develop It Denver Startup Week @MarlaBrizel Marla’s GitHub MarlaBrizel.com Picks: Charles TripIt NG conf MicroConf RubyHack Microsoft Build Podcast Movement Get a Job Course “Ruby Rants” coming soon Marla Vokl Aura Skis dry-rb GitX Silvercar Denver Airport Train Denver Startup Week

Panel: Charles Max Wood Guest: Marla Brizel This week on My Ruby Story, Charles talks to Marla Brizel. Marla works at Test Double and has been programming full time for the past four years. She first got into programming when she got a job at a startup where they helped her learn how to program for herself and she fell in love with it. They talk about her background as a project manager and the importance of empathy for the user. They then touch on how she got into Ruby and things that she is particularly proud of contributing to the Ruby community. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: Marla intro How did you first get into programming? Has been working in tech for the past decade Working at a startup What was it about coding made you want to make the switch? Likes that there are always more puzzles to solve You can always be learning new things in the programming world Get a Coder Job Course Code is the easy part of the job How programming has progressed over the years Test Double Project management background How did you wind up as a project manager? Building empathy for the user How did you get into Ruby? Girl Develop It Why Ruby? Ruby reads like English How did you wind up at Test Double? The value of conferences What have you done with Ruby that you are proud of? Denver Startup Week Ruby on Rails Elections And much, much more! Links: Test Double Get a Coder Job Course Ruby Girl Develop It Denver Startup Week @MarlaBrizel Marla’s GitHub MarlaBrizel.com Picks: Charles TripIt NG conf MicroConf RubyHack Microsoft Build Podcast Movement Get a Job Course “Ruby Rants” coming soon Marla Vokl Aura Skis dry-rb GitX Silvercar Denver Airport Train Denver Startup Week

Panel: Charles Max Wood Tara Manicsic Kent C Dodds Special Guests: Henrik Joreteg In this episode of React Round Up, the panel discusses redux-bundler with Henrik Joreteg. Henrik spoke at the first Node Conf, leans towards progressive web apps and single-page apps, and recently has gotten into independent consulting. He also has written a book called Human JavaScript and is working on his second book right now. They talk about his redux-bundler on GitHub and the ability to make changes behind the scenes without having to bother the user. He gives a general background on why he created the bundler and how you can use it in your programming to make your life easier. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: Henrik introduction What is the redux-bundler? He despises using behavioral components If it can be local, keep it local Don’t bother the user if you don’t need to Service Workers vs redux-bundler Making changes behind the scenes He loves to build apps Can you see any case where it would be useful to have a Service Worker in the background? Redux-bundler example Redux-bundler worker example What are the pros and cons to using the redux-bundler? At what point do you need Redux? React How did you get to the point to where you decided to make this bundler? Uses React as a glorified templating language He gets nervous when people start writing a lot of application code Speedy.gift Easier to use this from the beginning This bundler is used to show patterns And much, much more! Links: React Dev Summit Human JavaScript Redux-bundler Redux-bundler example Redux-bundler worker example Redux React Speedy.Gift Henrik’s blog @HenrikJoreteg Reduxbook.com coming soon Picks: Charles Black Panther DevChat.tv/15minutes React Dev Summit DevChat.tv Adventures in Angular Views on Vue Tara Women Who Code Women Techmakers Kent International Women’s Day Girl Develop It Application State Management blog post Tools without config blog post Concerning toolkits blog post Henrik Anki Partial JS Deviate by Beau Lotto

Panel: Charles Max Wood Tara Manicsic Kent C Dodds Special Guests: Henrik Joreteg In this episode of React Round Up, the panel discusses redux-bundler with Henrik Joreteg. Henrik spoke at the first Node Conf, leans towards progressive web apps and single-page apps, and recently has gotten into independent consulting. He also has written a book called Human JavaScript and is working on his second book right now. They talk about his redux-bundler on GitHub and the ability to make changes behind the scenes without having to bother the user. He gives a general background on why he created the bundler and how you can use it in your programming to make your life easier. In particular, we dive pretty deep on: Henrik introduction What is the redux-bundler? He despises using behavioral components If it can be local, keep it local Don’t bother the user if you don’t need to Service Workers vs redux-bundler Making changes behind the scenes He loves to build apps Can you see any case where it would be useful to have a Service Worker in the background? Redux-bundler example Redux-bundler worker example What are the pros and cons to using the redux-bundler? At what point do you need Redux? React How did you get to the point to where you decided to make this bundler? Uses React as a glorified templating language He gets nervous when people start writing a lot of application code Speedy.gift Easier to use this from the beginning This bundler is used to show patterns And much, much more! Links: React Dev Summit Human JavaScript Redux-bundler Redux-bundler example Redux-bundler worker example Redux React Speedy.Gift Henrik’s blog @HenrikJoreteg Reduxbook.com coming soon Picks: Charles Black Panther DevChat.tv/15minutes React Dev Summit DevChat.tv Adventures in Angular Views on Vue Tara Women Who Code Women Techmakers Kent International Women’s Day Girl Develop It Application State Management blog post Tools without config blog post Concerning toolkits blog post Henrik Anki Partial JS Deviate by Beau Lotto

Hannah watched It at 10AM on a Saturday! Erin shares a less-than-inspiring story from the Winter Olympics. Ben's grad school adventures are continuing with a trip to VA! And that's just the upfront stuff! Hannah shares a new Netflix sci-fi obsession. Erin has been teaching classes in her spare time! Ben has been thinking a lot about a topic addressed in many works of Isaac Asimov. HOMEWORK: - Watch Altered Carbon on Netflix - Check out Railsbridge and Girl Develop It! if you're interested in getting into programming (but not sure where to start) - Read about the singularity - Read the Isaac Asimov short story The Last Question - Follow @ErnBrn, @NEDiscoGreg, @Hanthropology, and @TooBroadPod on Twitter - Follow LesbianMovieReviews on IG - Email us at waytoobroad@gmail.com - Join our Facebook group! - Please leave us a rating/review/subscribe on iTunes or wherever!

It’s no secret that 2017 was a trash year, and 2018 hasn’t been…easy. But somehow, we’re still here, making it work—and even finding inspiration, joy, and success. We want to talk about how we’re coping during even the most trying political and cultural times. To help us, we sit down with none other than a climate scientist working in government to find out how _she’s _keeping her head up in rough times. > I try as much as I can to talk with college kids or high school kids and most of the time my message is just, “Hi, I’m a scientist and I also happen to be a woman.” It doesn’t have to be much more complicated than that. > > —Allison Crimmins, climate scientist Here’s what’s in store in Episode 6 (and as always, there’s a full transcript): Show notes First up, we look back on last year and how we made it through. We talk about how even though we had some big successes, it was hard to feel accomplished while the world seemed to burn in turmoil. We discuss: How we stayed (and stay) focused amidst a never-ending news cycle Why asking for help is important Why being accountable to something or someone can serve as a bright north star We also discover how to recognize when it’s OK to just turn off and tune out. Hint: it’s always OK when that’s the most healthy choice. Interview: Allison Crimmins Our guest this week is Allison Crimmins, a badass friend who works on climate change in Washington, DC, during the day and cancer research at night—no big. She takes us through her typical Tuesday and tells us how the hell she’s doing these days. We cover: Doing good work during crap times. How limitations and constraints can feel frustrating but also provide opportunities to be more creative and strategic about accomplishing goals. Why good communication matters—and if you truly understand and believe in your work, you should know how to talk about it. Being seen and heard as a woman in a male-heavy field, and normalizing it so we can talk more about the actual work we’re doing. Cutting through the mysticism around science and STEM, and how you don’t have to be a super nerdy genius to be a scientist—you just have to be curious. When kids draw what they think a scientists looks like, the results will astound you! (No, they won’t, but we need to change that.) How bobsledding and curling might just reignite our faith in the human spirit. Fuck Yeah of the Week Finally, we swoon over the unveiling of the absolutely brilliant Obama portraits. If you haven’t checked the work of Amy Sherald, who painted Michelle Obama, and Kehinde Wiley, who painted Barack Obama—do it now. Sponsors This episode of NYG is brought to you by: Shopify, a leading global commerce platform that’s building a diverse, intelligent, and motivated team—and they  want to apply to you. Visit shopify.com/careers to see what they’re talking about. _WordPress—the place to build your personal blog, business site, or anything else you want on the web. WordPress helps others find you, remember you, and connect with you. _   _CodePen—a social development environment for front-end designers and developers. Build and deploy a website, show off your work, build test cases, and find inspiration. _ Transcript Katel LeDû [Ad spot] This episode of No, You Go is brought to you by our friends at Shopify, the leading global commerce platform for entrepreneurs. In fact, my company, A Book Apart, runs on Shopify … and great news: they’re hiring more awesome people to join their team. And they don’t just want you to apply to them, they want to apply to you. Join a diverse, intelligent, and motivated team, and work on the leading global commerce platform for entrepreneurs. Visit shopify.com/careers to see what they’re all about [music fades in]. [0:39] Jenn Lukas [Music fades out] Hey and welcome to No, You Go, the show about being ambitious and sticking together. I’m Jenn Lukas. Katel LeDû I’m Katel LeDû. Sara Wachter-Boettcher And I’m Sara Wachter-Boettcher. SWB You know we all know that 2017 was a trash year, and 2018 looks like it’s going to be stressful too. So today we are going to talk about what we do during these tough times, how do we stay motivated, and how do we keep it together. To help us do that, we’ll talk with Allison Crimmins, who is an environmental scientist working in government — yes, government — on issues related to climate change. Talk about tough times. But before we steal all of her coping methods, let’s talk about the state of our union. KL I don’t know, I had a weirdly good professional year last year, and I don’t know, it was in a lot of different ways. I really wanted to grow in a couple of different areas that I previously didn’t know if I was going to be able to. We had sort of locked down a lot of things that go into the day to day running of A Book Apart, and one area was just marketing. I really was like, “I don’t feel confident in this. I really want to get a better grasp of it,” and [exhales deeply] I feel like I got better at it by asking for help and just realizing that I wasn’t going to get there alone and that I really — I wanted to get stronger in that area and, you know, some others to actually sustain the business. It was really cool to be able to find that and also, I don’t know, just feel like I had really made some progress and felt like I achieved something. And while I felt kind of successful and that I had made an accomplishment, there were mornings, like a lot of mornings, that I would wake up and just feel like, “What the fuck? Like maybe this doesn’t even matter.” It was a weird feeling to have that juxtaposition. It was tough. SWB Yeah, I mean I definitely felt like that too, right? I was working on a book for a lot of last year: finishing writing it, going through the editorial process on it, waiting for it to come out, doing all of the legwork in advance of it coming out. You know, you need to be excited about it, right? Like you have to be excited about your own book if you want anybody else to be. And meanwhile I would be reading Twitter, because I’ve got to keep up with what’s going on in the thing that my book is about, and what do you see on Twitter? Well, you see a bunch of garbage the president said, and all of this stuff that was just really depressing, and it was really difficult to keep focused on anything else, and I felt like that was hard. It’s hard to think about things that are going well and to think about like, you know, if you get praise for something, or sales at A Book Apart go up, or whatever, and to be excited about it when you’re also kind of like, at a macro level what the fuck even? KL Yeah and I mean I think for me too just feeling like, if you’re excited about it, and you’re feeling like, “Ok, we made progress, we had successes.” That obviously rubs off on other people and you want them to feel like things are moving in the right direction. So it’s hard to, obviously not just feel that for yourself but then, make sure [laughing] that you’re not falling apart and that that’s spreading. JL So Katel, what did you do on those days when you were wondering, does it matter? Does this matter? How did you cope with that? KL I mean really and truly it was the fact that I’d done the work of putting a network together and really surrounding myself with people who knew the right steps to take and in the right direction, and having folks that I could rely on. So I think — I mean also being accountable to having a vision and making sure that you are moving in the right direction was huge. JL It’s weird to say this but it’s almost refreshing for me to hear this just because, you know, I think a lot of times we have feelings like that: is everything going to be OK? Am I going to make it through this time of my life? Whether it’s because of external situations going on or internal ones, or just things you can control, things you can’t control. So it’s almost refreshing to hear that other people go through that as well and that just because you have those feelings doesn’t mean that you won’t get through them or learn how to cope with them at the same time. So I think it’s really nice. So thank you for sharing that. SWB Yeah, Jenn, did you ever feel dissonance last year because you had a baby: big exciting thing, awesome thing, not without its own challenges, right? [Laughter] JL Different challenges. SWB But where it’s like, “Oh my god the largest source of joy I’ve ever had in my entire life also what the hell is happening in this country?” 5:16 JL Yeah, I’ll tell you that I struggled, I think, with feelings of guilt a lot last year because I turned off. I turned off a lot of social media, I turned off a lot of news. The current events and just keeping up with sort of like the social network around me I felt all to be a little too overwhelming while trying to make sure that I stayed healthy to be able to give birth to a child. SWB Like what can we do to make you feel less guilty about that? Because like I think you should feel no guilty about that. JL Thank you for saying that but, you know, it’s hard because I’ve read — there were so many great articles and I tried to read about like what can we do, what could you do last year, and how could you get involved. And I have great friends that were doing a lot of things locally that were really awesome. At the time, you know, I was eight months pregnant. Besides just wanting to sleep all the time, like physically you have this physical being inside of you [laughter]. That is like draining. KL Draining you. JL It’s like having this alien sort of inside — he’s going to listen to this when he’s older and he’s going to be like, “You called me an alien.” But I mean like that’s what it is. SWB You know what? Here’s the thing: your kid is never going to be interested in your podcast [laughter]. KL That’s true. But we’re still — by the way, we’re still going to be doing it then. So just — [laughter] get ready. SWB We’ll be extremely famous. JL Um but I mean you have this, like, life force inside of you, sucking your energy and making you tired, and then I would like try to turn on the news for a second and I would be like, “I can’t.” For me it was really important to recognize that I couldn’t. Katel, you mentioned accountability and um, you know, there’s being accountable to employees or a team. For me, I felt accountable to, at the time, my unborn son and being like, “I need to make sure that I’m doing this for you.” So sometimes having a thing that’s not you or a person or — can help you figure out how to make it through this next step. Sometimes I can’t see what the next five steps are, so if I can see through someone else’s eyes it helps me figure out where I need to go. SWB Well, I mean I think it’s very important that now that you have this child, right? What is one of the biggest things that you can do for the world? Raise a son who’s a good person and who’s not a terrible misogynist. I would greatly appreciate that and that’s also — that’s a big task, right? You’re raising a kid in a culture that is going to present some problems and you’re going to be aware and there to work through it. So you didn’t watch the news for awhile. I do think it’s important to pay attention to what’s going on in the world. I’m not trying to say that like, “Oh and none of it matters. Hashtag selfcare, turn it off all the time!” I just mean that you have to recognize what’s going to be useful for you at any given moment in your life and at the moment in your life when you’re like, “I cannot actually do anything about this because I don’t have anything to give.” Turning it off is probably the most productive. So it’s not sucking more energy from you, right? So I actually I applaud that. I applaud that you were able to do that and I hope that you have forgiven yourself for doing that by now because it doesn’t fucking matter that you missed some news. I can fill you in: it was bad [laughter]. KL I think that’s the thing too, like you realize that it’s this cycle of panicking and just being like, “Fuck does it matter?” And then being like, “Well, wait, there are things in my life that I know it matter for or to,” and then realizing like that you need to prioritize and maybe prioritize for other beings or people in your life and then being like, “OK, it’s going to be fine.” And then maybe it starts all over again when things get rough. JL And I think that’s a great point and in terms of forgiving myself now it’s like, “OK, well, let’s podcast. Let’s talk to people. Let’s get out there.” What else can I — what can I do next on things? So it’s not always, “Well, just because I didn’t do anything in 2017 doesn’t mean I can’t do anything in 2018.” So I think it’s that whole like terrible cliche about tomorrow’s another day in here. SWB What I also think a lot about is that gluing yourself to a news stream and going through cycles of freaking out is also not doing anything. That is not actually doing anything. And it’s not to say that there’s something wrong with being informed, but I do know what it’s like to sort of reflexively refresh to figure out like what new fresh hell has unleashed. And what I realized of course is the biggest things that I did last year was, like, I raised a bunch of money for abortion access. I donated a tremendous number of hours to Fair Districts PA, which is working on stopping gerrymandering in this state, and there’s significant progress on that, like we’ve just recently, in Pennsylvania, won this lawsuit against the districts that were drawn last time, which are super gerrymandered. And I was a direct part of the team that worked on digital strategy, and made sure they actually had a brand, I mean I did all of this hands-on work. And then, those don’t do anything to stop Donald Trump. Right? Like in this sort of like — in some of these macro ways that you know things are screwed up, I didn’t necessarily affect those things, but those are really tangible things that I did that are important, and that are important to human people who live in the communities that I care about. And like I was able to that because I had some and energy and expertise to give. And maybe this year you’ll have a little bit of time, or expertise, or energy to give to something you care about, but you gave a lot of time, energy, and expertise to birthing a child last year. 10:45 KL I mean: props [music fades in]. SWB [Music fades out][ad spot] Hey Jenn, do you know what always works during difficult times? JL What, Sara? SWB WordPress.com! So, WordPress.com is one of our wonderful sponsors, and we are so happy to be supported by them. Whether you would like to build a personal blog, a business site, or both, creating your website on WordPress.com helps others find you, remember you, and connect with you. And, you know, you don’t need any experience setting up a website. WordPress will guide you through the process from start to finish, and they take care of the technical side. In fact, we use WordPress here at No, You Go, and we never worry that we’re going to get hung up on a question, because WordPress has 24/7 customer support, and it’s great because we are all working on different schedules, trying to get our side project up and running. Plans at WordPress start at just four dollars a month. Go to wordpress.com/noyougo to get 15 percent off your website today. That’s wordpress.com/noyougo. JL You know what else has always been super reliable for me? Our other sponsor: CodePen. CodePen is a social development environment for front-end developers and designers. Ever want a place where you could write and share front-end code with others? Maybe even a potential employer? Your profile on CodePen is like your front-end development portfolio. I’m working in CodePen at least ten times a week. I love it. And if you’re ready for even more more CodePen, be sure to check out CodePen Pro. With a pro account you can upload assets like images to use in your code, you can create private pens — I have so many of those! And you can even see changes as you build with live view. Not to mention there’s a cool professor mode for teaching and working real time with your students. Pro accounts start at just nine bucks a month. Learn more at codepen.io, that’s c-o-d-e-p-e-n dot i-o [music fades in]. KL [Music fades out] Allison Crimmins is an environmental scientist working in Washington, DC. Along with her day job in climate science, she works on ambitious side projects like an early stage thriving biotech startup — no big deal! And volunteers to help encourage young folks to engage in STEM. She also happens to be one of my very close friends and every time I talk to her I feel either inspired, or assured, or pumped about something, and sometimes all of the above. Allison, I am so happy to have you on the show today. Welcome to No, You Go. Allison Crimmins Thank you! I’m very happy to be here. KL First can you tell us a little bit about your work or your area of expertise? AC I am a climate scientist with a background in oceanography but I also have a degree in public policy. So I’m in this kind of interesting place where my job involves some kind of wonky, nerdy climate science but also thinking about how that applies to policies, and thinking about ways to communicate that science to all sorts of different audiences, from policy-makers, state and local decision-makers, or just general members of the public. Yeah I really enjoy the sort of some science, some policy, some communications. I like that I get to do a piece of that everyday in my job. SWB Can you tell me a little more like what does that look like on a day-to-day level? AC Yeah, like my average Tuesday? [Laughter] SWB Yeah. AC So I have ongoing research projects that look at the impacts of climate change, specifically how they affect human health, and, in some cases, how they affect our economy. And so I help manage different research projects that publish peer-reviewed papers that go into wonky scientific journals and that’s kind of the science side of my job. The other side of my job would be making sure that that science actually gets applied and also communicated. The taxpayers pay for that science, and so they have a right to see it and know about and learn from it. KL So we know this is kind of a difficult time for people who do what you do, sort of generally, how are you? In this job? In this environment? Right now? [14:50] AC Yeah I get asked that a lot nowadays. Or if I meet someone new and I tell them that I’m a climate scientist, I usually get a, “Ooh, thank you for your service.” Which is — it’s actually been kind of nice that people have been coming out of the woodwork to actually let us know how much they appreciate the work we do. It’s hard to do good science and then not see it get used or be appreciated as much as it once was. But it doesn’t stop us from doing the good science. In fact, in a lot of ways it inspires us to work even harder. It’s kind of proof that what we’re doing is really important. KL How do you stay motivated or focused or even sane through all of this? AC Well, I guess it’s probably important to admit first off the bat that I don’t handle it every day with the utmost grace and aplomb. I’m an average person in a lot of ways, and so I have good days and bad days. But there’s always that driving factor that I’m doing good science and I’m helping to make the world a better place, and I’m surrounded by lots of people who feel that same way and have that same goal. And so in a lot of ways it’s the people I work with that have really helped me keep going every day and keep pushing through. KL Have you and the people you work with had to redefine things like progress or success in the initiatives that you’re trying to get through or the projects you’re trying to push out the door? AC I think by necessity you have to. I mean, I’m a civil servant. I work with a lot of other civil servants. You know you think about administrations shifting and you think that might cause a huge upheaval of the people that work there, but really the government is made up of mostly civil servants like myself who through whatever administration comes through will keep doing the good work and the good science and making sure that our country’s moving forward. So, you know, for people who have been there for decades, a lot of those people see this as just an inevitable shift in the political winds but not really altering their mission, or their long term goals. I think it’s harder for people who are newer in government to have such a severe shift, I guess, from the last administration to this one, especially in terms of climate change because in the last administration it wasn’t just that we had an administration that was pro-science, it was actually that we had a hunger and an actual request for more information to better understand the impacts of climate change. So we’ve had to, you know, we’re still doing the good work, we’re still doing good science. That’s still happening. We just have to be more strategic or creative in some places about how we accomplish those goals. SWB Yeah, what does that mean? So when you say getting strategic or creative, like, what kinds of techniques are you using day-to-day to feel like you can still make some incremental progress or get things communicated in a way that gets adoption, or in some way feel like you’re still moving toward those goals? AC Yeah, I think I’ll start by telling you a story that my father-in-law told me. He was in advertising for many years and he told us that oftentimes you’re able to be more creative when you’re forced into a situation with lots of limitations or restraints. So in his case, you know, he would be working on a commercial for a product and suddenly the company would say, “Well, we don’t want any people in this commercial, and it has to be this long, and you can’t say these words.” And they’d set up a bunch of limitations which can feel very confining and frustrating but it’s in those situations where I think anyone can be even more creative. It forces you to be creative. And I think about that story often in my day-to-day job when I am faced with maybe the normal way we would do something is now off the table. You can look at that with frustration or you can look at it as an opportunity to be even more creative. So in this time I’ve, you know, I guess to get more specific I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about other people or other groups that I can collaborate and maybe I can do the science but they can do the communicating. Or maybe I can connect to researchers who haven’t worked together in the past and one has the data and one has the model and, you know, maybe there’s a way I can put those two together and I don’t need to have my name on it but that science still moves forward. It forces you to really, I don’t know, get sneaky and strategic about how to keep this science progressing. [19:58] SWB In some ways it clarified what’s really important here. You’ve been able to say, “OK, it’s really important that the science keeps happening even if your name is not on the paper,” which I think is kind of hard though, right? Like if you’re somebody who has a lot of career ambition and is doing this work, is it ever difficult to feel like you can’t be as recognized for the work that you’re doing? Or as valued for that work? AC I mean that’s always hard if you’re not appreciated for the work that you’re doing. But in this case I think I don’t mind it so much. I’m happy to actually see information get out to people even if my name is not attached to it. And even kind of bigger picture: if I’m successful in my life-long career of addressing climate change, no one will have heard of my name because climate change won’t be an issue anymore that we’ll be dealing with. It’s kind of that counterfactual element of my job is, you know, we don’t talk about the ozone hole as much as we did, or when was the last time you heard about acid rain? If I’m truly successful at my job, you won’t ever know it. KL Has doing this kind of work, even in the last five years, the way that you’ve had to shift or change approaches, has that made you learn anything about yourself that you weren’t expecting? AC Something I’ve learned about myself is that, you know, when I first started this job I was moving kind of out of what we call bench science. So I wasn’t working in a laboratory anymore, working at a lab bench doing sort of the wet lab-type science, I was doing more work to apply that science. And when I first started my job and maybe I would work with a contractor or another researcher and I would look at the work they were doing and I would almost be jealous of it and think, “Well, that’s where I should be. I should be the person in the lab doing that experiment.” But over time I came to really appreciate sort of the project management aspect of my job, that I can guide the research and be sort of the big thinker behind coming up with new research questions and connect researchers together and in some ways it feels a little bit like I’m able to conduct more of the orchestra rather than play one instrument. KL Mm hmm. AC And that’s something I never thought growing up. I was the kid with the “Save the Whales” poster on their wall, you know? [KL laughs] From an early age, I thought I was going to be the, you know, that girl out on the boat saving the whales. But I actually feel a lot more powerful in the position I’m in now that I can help the larger movement of science progress. KL Right, you’ve sort of felt out all of the places you’re strong and you’re using those skills to do it like more holistically. You’re also the director of strategy for Remedy Plan, the biotech startup that I mentioned in our intro. Can you tell us a little bit about it? AC Sure. This is a startup company that my husband has started that does cancer research and it also kind of started out of two researchers coming together to discuss their … seemingly separate fields and finding a very interesting overlap and coming up with a really, really great idea of a new way to find cancer therapeutics. And so when my husband was first dreaming this up, you know, he’s on this very rigid academic traintracks. You know? You go and you get your PhD and you get your post doc and you follow this exact pathway and suddenly he had an idea that was like too good to pass up. It really was. And when he explained it to me, I instantly recognized it as too good of an idea to pass up. And so he quit his job and started this company, and we’ve been going for two years now and the science is going great [chuckles]. It’s interesting to be working on climate change during the day and cancer research on the weekends — KL It’s not, you know, it sounds totally laid back. SWB Does it ever feel just like a lot? Because it sounds like a lot when you describe it. AC It is a lot, yeah. I mean I don’t work full-time, of course, for Remedy Plan, but I try to help out where I can and it’s a pretty small startup, so, you know, the few people working there end up wearing a lot of different hats. But also both my husband and I are scientists and so all our training comes from science and we’re being forced to learn a lot of new skills. Like how to write a business plan, or thinking strategically about our branding and our website, or how does one even go about pitching potential investors for a Series A round? So it’s also kind of exciting and in much of the same way I love science because it’s an act of discovery, this side project has also been a really fun act of discovery for me, kind of exploring this whole other world. [25:16] KL That’s so cool, and also, I mean, I just want to say that you are incredibly good at communicating complex scientific concepts, you know, sort of real talk here: a lot of scientists aren’t always good at this, and it’s like, why is that, do you think? AC Yes. I don’t think a lot of people go through school or go through their PhD with any pressure or any element to explain what they’re doing to anyone else besides their immediate colleagues who understand the same language. And I hope that that is something that is changing. I think the other element is that scientists are wary to talk about their science in what they might view as a more simplistic or a way that could be misinterpreted which is unfortunate because I think if you really understand your work and your science, then you should be able to explain it to anyone. And I think, especially for my field of science, I think you have a responsibility to explain it to other people. KL Absolutely! I mean how did you get good at it? AC I think probably just because I’m really geeky about it and I like to talk about it a lot. And I want other people to be as excited as I am at these discoveries and so it’s something that I’ve always enjoyed doing. SWB I’ve met lots of scientists over the years. Actually both my mother and my brother are chemistry professors. They’re all geeky about their science, right? It’s not like any of them are not geeky about it, they all love talking about it. But what they don’t all love to do is come to you with it, they want you to come to them, right? So it’s like they want to talk about it on their terms because that’s what they’re comfortable with. And it sounds like something you’re really comfortable with is being able to bring things to other people and have a little bit more of that collaborative spirit, which to me seems kind of crucial to being able to communicate it in a way that’s going to work for different audiences. AC Absolutely, and I think even going back to, you know, the story of Remedy Plan. It came out of two people in slightly different fields who were able to communicate how exciting the thing was that they were working on and then see where those things overlap and provide an opportunity for something greater than the sum of its parts. KL So I gotta ask this: women make up half of the total college-educated workforce but only 29 percent of the science and engineering workforce. How have you navigated that? AC Yeah it’s a really tough field to be a woman. I mean a lot of fields are. This one’s definitely tough and at every step of the way, from undergraduate and grad school and post docs and jobs, we struggle and it’s hard, especially because we don’t have a lot of role models to look at, or we haven’t so far. Hopefully that’s changing. And often the role models we do have are those super amazing, you know, titanium women who can do it all. And it’s like, well, do you have to be made of titanium? I mean, can you just be someone who’s really into science and curious about life to enjoy being a scientist? So I got some advice early on in my career from a very wonderful female scientist who said to be wary of the people who are maybe hierarchically a little higher than you, and to be extremely giving and helpful to the people who are coming up behind you. And so I try as much as I can to talk with college kids or high school kids and most of the time my message is just, “Hi, I’m a scientist and I also happen to be a woman.” It doesn’t have to be much more complicated than that. That I think when I first started going into classrooms, the teachers would have the kids draw a picture. Before I got there they’d have the kids draw a picture of a scientist and the kids would, of course, draw a man in a white lab coat with crazy hair and glasses. Like to a kid that’s our image of what a scientist is: this like wacky guy pouring chemicals from one jar to another. You know and then they introduce me and here I’m just kind of a normal lady coming into the room to talk about the fact that being a scientist let me travel to the Great Barrier Reef and explore these new lands, and make exciting discoveries, and I think just actually being seen is important. So I try to make that a part of my life as well to help when things get tough. [30:00] SWB Yeah I love that. It reminds me of this interview we did for an earlier episode with Elizabeth Fiedler, who’s running for the Pennsylvania Legislature. And she talks about how she has gone to campaign events with her baby strapped to her and on the one hand she — you know her children are extremely central to her life, and they’re also central to her campaign, to the issues that she cares about, and they’re present. And she wants people to see them there, right? But on the other hand she doesn’t want to hang out and be the baby candidate. She is there to talk about specific issues and it’s kind of this idea of like normalizing it, right? “Yeah, yes, I’m a mom. That’s great. That’s important to me. It’s very obvious. And then also let’s talk about the issues that we’re here to talk about, and let’s talk about what we’re going to do in this community.” And it’s kind of that same idea, right? It’s like, “Yeah, yup, I’m a woman. I’m here. And that’s extremely normal. And let’s talk about the science.” AC Absolutely. I mean there’s also times where I’ve had to be, or I try to be, more direct. I’ve been asked to speak on panels and blatantly told, you know, they’re so thankful I said yes because I’m the only woman on the panel. So when I am in those situations, or even when I’m sitting, watching a panel, I try to actually note out loud, “Hey, [chuckles] there’s no women on that panel.” A couple of weeks ago some colleagues and I were coming up with a list of people we wanted to reach out to review something we were working on and we came up with a list of ten names and not one name was a woman, and so I was like, “Hey guys, can we think of a few women?” And it was like — it’s not that the people I was working with were purposely not choosing women, they didn’t even recognize it until it’s said out loud. So, I think, sometimes just kind of shining a light on it in hopefully not too pushy of a way but just, you know, noting that this is the state of affairs helps, again, draw attention to the fact. SWB Yeah, like you don’t realize your own biases around what you think of as a default human and are until you can kind of take a step back. In tech, all the time, we have these conversations about representation and I remember this one time when I was being invited to speak at a conference and I was not available to speak during those days and so I declined. And he replied to me kind of exasperated and upset and what he told me was that I was the ninth woman that he’d asked to turn him down. KL You’re like, “Uh huh?” SWB And I was like — and then he was basically complaining that he couldn’t find any women who would speak at his conference. And I’m like, OK, first up: do not tell people that you’re the ninth person that you went to. Thanks for that. But second: it’s like, OK well you’re asking me really late, the conference was far away and it was only a few weeks out or maybe a month out or something and it was going to require, like, an eight-hour plane flight. And, you maybe haven’t done enough work to have women in your network who know you are, who trust you, who can talk to other women about whether your event is a good place for them, who you know et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Like, why are you upset that women are turning you down instead of wondering, ‘Huh, what is about my event that is making it not a desirable opportunity for them?’ Look internally, bud.” Um but I’m not sure he actually did that. KL Well I am really glad that you are being seen and that you are on those panels and the author of these papers and I’m just really glad that you are. You’re such a great role model and you’re a really amazing motivator. Is there anything that you tell people, especially younger folks who are entering this field or trying to find their path? AC You don’t need to be some super nerdy genius to be a scientist. And, you know, of course, we have this persona in our society that that’s what a scientist looks like, that they’re some socially inept, weirdo, kooky nerd. Or that they are just an absolute genius at math. And I try to let them know that you don’t have to be any of those things. You know, I got a D in my seventh grade science class. But what you do need is curiosity, and if you’re curious and you like to explore and you like to discover, if you have those traits, that’s what makes a good scientist. I mean, I was a huge Indiana Jones fan as a little kid and, I know from the outside it probably looks like I’m sitting in a cubicle, working on an Excel spreadsheet, but I am like parting cobwebs from ancient stone ruins and finding hidden caves and using this decoder ring to find the treasure. That’s how I view science: as this very exciting opportunity to discover new things. So I feel like a lot of people, or especially kids, I think they don’t see themselves as a scientist if they’re not, you know, getting straight As in math. Or if they’re not a whiz at science class in school. But it only takes curiosity to be good at science. [35:24] SWB I totally want to dig into this a little bit more because I think we hear that kind of thing a lot about certain fields, anything related to science and technology too. We hear that about programming, right? That like in order to be a programmer you have to be this socially awkward person, usually a dude, and you work by yourself until the middle of the night, hacking away at something, and you had to start coding when you were 11, and all of these things that are really unachievable for a lot of people, or just not realistic, or that are just very alienating, and I think particularly alienating to girls who, no matter what they do, never fit that particular mold. Right? Like they’re never going to look like the kooky guy in the lab coat. And so I think that it creates all of these weird boundaries and this sort of like mysticism around science and technology as if it’s something that normal people can’t do or don’t do. And I think that’s the kind of thing that I want to push back on all the time because most of science is just normal people doing work. And that work is interesting and that work is powerful, but you don’t have to be special to do that. AC Absolutely, and it’s that sort of image that kids are forming in their mind when they’re young, that “scientists are not me.” They’re someone other. That they’re this, you know, other kind of human being with these other skills, and none of those skills happen to be social skills, that does science. And when those kids grow up to be adults that’s a really pernicious feeling to have. That scientists are other people and that also makes science feel like something that’s not approachable, that’s not being done with good interest at heart. It makes it into that sort of creepy, mad scientist. And that hurts us and we see that, of course, with climate change. We see that there’s this distrust of science, and distrust of scientists, and even just a distrust of people who are experts. And so that sort of stereotyping even when you’re young I think leads to pretty big problems for the advancement of science when those kids grow up. SWB Yeah, yeah, absolutely and I think back too to like the conversation about, you know, having kids draw scientists when they’re little. It’s like, man, not only are they all drawing a guy, but I bet you none of them drew a black scientist. Right? Like it sort of perpetuates this cycle where it’s like we just see the same stuff over and over again and you think about something like environmental science and something I think really immediately about is the way that climate change definitely affects, you know, people in poverty than people who have means. And it’s likely to affect communities of color and the idea of having like lack of representation in science from those communities that are likely to be really affected. Seems like such a massive problem. AC Absolutely, and I think it’s exciting to see the environmental justice gaining more legs and I think there’s a lot more work that needs to be done. You kind of can’t separate environmental damages from the justice movement. So it’s a super important topic and I hope that — you know, maybe science isn’t your thing. Maybe you are a genius graphic designer or, you know, you want to work on, you know, social justice issues. There’s still all sorts of opportunities in the scientific field for people like that to make the world a better place. SWB Would you be able to talk a little bit about the environmental justice movement, for those listeners who aren’t familiar with that term? AC Environmental justice is basically just the idea that we need to treat people in a fair way in whether that’s their race or their color or how much money they make or the type of place they live. Those people should all be involved in environmental laws or environmental policies and it’s really important to have all those different groups sitting at the table, thinking about how to improve our environment moving forward, and it’s an unfortunate fact that, of course, when there are thing that harm our environment, they harm the most vulnerable people in our society. So when someone’s building a power plant that’s going to have emissions that give kids asthma they’re often building it in a, you know, not in the backyards of people who are wealthy but in the backyards of people who are already facing a lot of environmental struggles, or a lot of existing health struggles. And so when we’re thinking about how to improve our environment going forward, you can’t think of that in a vacuum. You can’t think about it without considering social justice issues and getting those people who are affected by the inequalities in our society, they have to be at the table for those sorts of decisions. [40:37] SWB Yes! Like this totally dovetails with so many of the other conversations we’ve been having around different subjects but it all comes down to the same thing, right? Like you can’t have a really narrow slice of the population making decisions that affect everybody else — AC Yup, absolutely. SWB And that’s kind of what we’ve had for a long time. AC I mean in my work I spend a lot of time thinking about the impacts of climate change on human health. And you can talk about the impacts on extreme summer temperatures or Lyme Disease or air quality issues or water quality issues, but time and time again it’s those vulnerable populations who are most affected by these impacts. So it’s the elderly population, it’s the children, it’s people with low socioeconomic status, or tribal groups, it’s people with preexisting health conditions or disabilities. And so it’s important that any action that we’re taking to improve our environment involves those people. KL So I mean between your day job and Remedy Plan and all these things that you’re doing, you work on a lot and you give yourself to a lot of this work that is really passionate. What are you doing that helps refill your energy jar? AC This week the Winter Olympics are starting, and I’m a big Olympics nerd. And I also find that the Olympics completely like reignite my faith in humanity like, “Wow, all these countries can still come together over sportsmanship!” You know it gives you a little bit of faith that — KL Yeah. AC The human spirit can solve these problems. KL Like we just have to try. We just have to show up and try. AC If we can all come together over bobsledding and curling, we can come together over climate change [music fades in]. JL One of the things I really loved about Allison’s interview is when she said what you need is curiosity. I think that’s so important, especially when we talk about getting more people interested in STEM and the work that I’ve done with Girl Develop It and this idea, lots of times, we don’t necessarily think of ourselves, “Oh well, you have to be a math nerd to do something.” It’s so important to think like, “No, what you need is curiosity to see if this something that appeals to you once you start doing it.” So I love these things that’s like let’s find out more about it to see if does appeal to me, not just assume it doesn’t apply to me. SWB Yeah, you know I think about this a lot because having my mom be a scientist, I think I grew up with this understanding that like that’s what a scientist looked like, right? And it was my mom and she wasn’t always wearing a lab coat and she wasn’t even particularly nerdy looking. She’s pretty cool. And I thought of that as being pretty normal and it took me actually a long time to realize other people did not see that as normal, that like people were like, “Oh you’re from that weird smart family.” And granted not everybody’s going to be a scientist, by any means, I mean it’s not for everybody. But to really normalize that as something that, like, people can do, women can do, people from different backgrounds can do, like that whole conversation about going in and having people draw a scientist and I think like, “Yeah, nobody would’ve drawn my mom.” Like, I would have drawn my mom. Representation matters a lot and having people understand at an early age, like be able to see themselves in something. I think that’s huge. I’m so glad that Allison talked about that and talked about sort of also the social justice and racial justice parts of environmental science, because I think that we don’t talk about that nearly enough or talk about it in those really human terms. KL If more people like her can do this work and be as articulate about what she does and how she does it and why it’s so important and why it’s so important for other young girls to get into it, I mean it’s like a no brainer. [44:28] SWB OK this totally brings me to what I want to talk about for the Fuck Yeah of the Week. KL OK. SWB Can we have a Fuck Yeah now? Is it time? KL Yes. JL I could use a little Fuck Yeah! SWB So our Fuck Yeah this week is the new Obama portraits, which we have been ogling over. So one of the things that I love that about them, and we’re going to get into some of the other stuff we love about them, but one of the things I love about them is that they’re such a powerful reminder, even during this time when things are difficult, even during this time when it feels like we are going backwards on a lot of issues, that we are still seeing amazing movement on representation of diverse people and specifically black people in all kinds of culture, including art. I mean obviously black people have been making amazing art forever. That’s not new. But what I think we’re starting to see more of is black art showing up in more prominent places and getting more attention. I’m paying attention to things like huge book deals that black writers are getting or, you know, Get Out last year and then this year we’ve got Black Panther coming out. And I think it’s so important to note that that is huge and that is big and that matters. And that that kind of representation, like we talked about with Allison, right? Representation of who a scientist can be, representation of like who is depicted in art and what are they doing. Like, it’s so important and I want to say a big Fuck Yeah to that. JL Yeah, there was a great quote from Michelle Obama and she said, “I’m thinking about all the young people, particularly girls and girls of color, who in years ahead will come to this place, and they will look up, and they will see an image of someone who looks like them hanging on the wall.” And so, you know, just like we talked about with Allison, the scientist, I just think the more that people see other people in these roles, the more that it becomes feasible to be them. SWB One of the other things that I loved about Michelle’s portrait, in specific, is that Amy Sherald, the artist, painted her in a sleeveless dress. I dunno if you all remember but in 2009 Michelle was criticized, I guess is the kindest way I could put it, but I would say that she was shat upon by conservatives for having her first White House official portrait be in a sleeveless dress. She was wearing this very classic black sheath with pearls, she looked great, but she was treated like she had done something wildly inappropriate. That, you know, of course it’s like somehow too revealing, too slutty, I don’t know, it makes no sense because arms — arms are fine. We all have arms. I’ve seen lots of arms. It’s OK, everybody. But it was just one of these ways that we could see the Obamas being treated differently than other candidates or presidents would’ve been treated and being treated in a way that was designed to make them seem like they weren’t credible or they didn’t belong there or whatever. But here we have Michelle in this sleeveless gown, looking amazing, but also just kind of giving her own fuck you to everybody who called her out for that because now that gets to be in the National Portrait Gallery forever. KL I love that. Also I was so struck by the portrait of Barack Obama. And I just I saw this tweet that Brittany Packnett had written and I thought the exactly same thing. I mean, she says, “Can we talk about how stunningly powerful it is to see a black man in a garden the way Kehinde Wiley painted Barack Obama? It dismantles so much and creates new visions of masculinity that black men rarely have the public permission to explore.” That is amazing. It’s so — I just feel like if that doesn’t resonate with you … SWB Yeah, I mean you know one of the things I noticed right away was like, “Oh yeah, have I seen ever a painting of black man in a garden in that way?” KL Right. SWB It’s like, no, you know, I’ve seen a thousand pictures of white people in, like, you know, impressionist paintings, or romantic paintings, like strolling in gardens with the little umbrellas or whatever. But I have definitely never seen a black person depicted that way. When you start paying attention to who are you seeing and then also like what roles are you seeing them in, I think that it helps you be much more aware of just how many gaps there are in how people are represented, and I’m so excited to see this kind of representation, and, you know, it’s not to say like that we’re saying like, “Oh we need to go back in time.” Or we’re trying to live in the past. It’s not about that. It’s about like what does that mean for our future to be able to have this on the wall and have kids go to a museum and see it? [48:54] KL So I think we can say that is a for sure Fuck Yeah for amazing paintings, for black artists, and for just representation that moves us forward in even the tryingest of times. SWB Fuck yeah! KL Fuck yeah. That’s it for this week’s episode of No, You Go, the show about being ambitious—and sticking together. NYG is recorded in our home city of Philadelphia, and produced by Steph Colbourn. Our theme music is by The Diaphone. Thanks to Allison Crimmins for being our guest today. If you like what you’ve been hearing, please make sure to subscribe and rate us on Apple Podcasts. Your support helps us spread the word. We’ll be back next week with another great guest [music fades in and ramps up to end].

Today’s show is all about getting started: taking the steps to turn new ideas into living, breathing (and sometimes even money-making) projects. Our guest this week is the totally rad Sara Chipps—the co-founder of Girl Develop It, and now the CEO of Jewelbots, which makes smart, open-source friendship bracelets that girls can code. (We want some for all our BFFs.) > Just start with those baby steps. It’s going to take a thousand baby steps. Everyone has a good idea, right? Everyone. Ideas are worthless unless it’s something that gets made. So you know, if it’s going to take a thousand baby steps, then if you start today, you only have 999 left. But if you don’t, then it’s never going to happen. > > —Sara Chipps, CEO of Jewelbots and co-founder of Girl Develop It Here’s what we covered (and as always, you can find the full transcript below). Show notes First up, we talk about all the URLs we’ve purchased—and how sometimes, spending $5 is just what you need to take your own idea seriously. Jenn shares her love for David Allen’s _Getting Things Do_ne method (and explains how it helped us GTD for our first episode). Katel tells us why “Write Book” is maybe not the best item to put on your to-do list. Sara recounts her love for Jenn’s web series, Cook Inside the Box—where Jenn and our friend Sequoia made recipes from the sides of boxes. Sara’s favorite episode? The one about hot dogs rolled in cornflakes. Mmm hmmm. Then, we fangirl out during our interview with Sara Chipps, who not only created Jewelbots, but also co-founded Girl Develop It. We talk about: Why Sara C. has made it her mission to get more girls and women into coding. The joy of friendship bracelets—no matter how old you are. How to bounce back (and learn something!) when a bunch of kids tell you your idea sucks. Highway1, the hardware accelerator that helped Sara prepare to launch Jewelbots. The importance of finding a co-founder who gets you—like Brooke Moreland, Sara C.’s cofounder at Jewelbots. Why you don’t actually need to be good at math to be a programmer—and how our industry has done newcomers a disservice by pretending otherwise. How Girl Develop It went from a single class in New York City in 2010 to a nonprofit operating in 58 cities and serving 55,000 members (and counting) nationwide. Also in this episode: Woohoo! It’s now light out till, uh, 5:15pm here in Philly, and we can’t be happier about that. We’re already dreaming about two of Philly’s best summertime hangouts: front stoops and beer gardens. Yes, please. Being, like, a totally cool adult. No, really. Ask the kids. Sponsors This episode of NYG is brought to you by: _CodePen—a social development environment for front-end designers and developers. Build and deploy a website, show off your work, build test cases, and find inspiration. _ _WordPress—the place to build your personal blog, business site, or anything else you want on the web. WordPress helps others find you, remember you, and connect with you. _   Transcript Sara Wachter-Boettcher Today’s show is brought to you by CodePen. Ever want a place where you can write and share front-end code with others? CodePen is that place. It’s full of awesome inspiration and projects with a great community. And speaking of community, the CodePen World’s Fair is happening in May. We’ll talk more about that in a bit, but be sure to sign up for an account at codepen.io. That’s [spells out codepen.io]. [Intro music] Jenn Lukas Hey! And welcome to No, You Go, the show about being ambitious and sticking together. I’m Jenn Lukas. Katel LeDû I’m Katel LeDû. SWB And I’m Sara Wachter-Boettcher. On today’s show we’re excited to talk about getting started. We’ll discuss how we come up with new ideas and then, once we’ve got ‘em, how do we actually take them to fruition? We’re totally pumped today to talk to Sara Chipps, who has taken two of her amazing ideas, Girl Develop It and Jewelbots, and made them into reality. But first on the agenda, let’s talk about how five bucks turned into a new podcast. Getting started with just $5 [1:20] KL So a couple of weeks after we started talking about the podcast, uhhh, got an email from info@noyougoshow.com and saying that we’re paying five dollars a month for the email address and now we really have to do the podcast. And at that moment I really think it became real and like this thing was really going to be real. So we kind of wanted to start there and talk about how that happened. JL Five dollars is all it takes. Five dollars and a dream. SWB [Laughs] yeah, so I was the one who sent that email and I was like, “Well, I got a credit card! I got five dollars a month. I spend five dollars a month on a lot more dumb shit than [others laugh] email accounts.” So for me it was a really low investment to also look at it and be like, “Dude, we are going to take this seriously. And I think that that’s how most anything I’ve ever done sort of came to be—by figuring out something that was small, but really concrete. And the concreteness is what helps it feel real and feel like something that you’re seriously going to do. KL And a little skin in the game. I mean, I know it’s not much, but you know when you kind of feel like you’re putting some actual cash to it, you’re like, “All right.” [Chuckles.] SWB That’s like a whole latte I can’t buy now. KL Absolutely. JL Yeah, I think that there’s definitely been a couple nights where, you know what? Maybe I’ve had a few glasses of wine and that helped make the appeal of certain domains sound good [laughs]. I’ve been known known to buy a domain or two. SWB I can’t relate to this at all. KL No, me either [all laughing]. JL After an exciting night out. But, you know, there’s one thing, you know, you’ll be at the bar with a friend, you’ll be at the coffee shop with a friend, you’ll be at the house with a friend, and you’ll be like, “Oh I have this idea,” and you’re sorta joking around and you’re like, “You know what? Lemme—lemme just pull that trigger and buy that URL,” and the next thing you know: you’ve got a URL and you’re on your way. SWB Yeah, I’m curious, Jenn, you had Cook Inside the Box a couple years ago, this web series little episodes where you and our friend, Sequoia, would cook recipes from the sides of boxes. I loved this series so much, everybody please go Google this right now if you haven’t seen it [laughter]. So I’m curious: how did that start? JL So I do remember how that happened. Oh my god, so many years ago at Converge in South Carolina, one of my favorite conferences. I think I was with Val Head and Chris Coyier and maybe a couple of other people and we were walking to go get some food. And I was telling them about how I was eating a box of Nilla Wafers and um you know those delicious cookies? And there was a recipe on the side of a box for Nilla Wafers which didn’t make any sense to me because a Nilla Wafer is just like a cookie. You just— KL You just eat it. JL You just open up the box and eat it, right? [KL chuckles] But they had this recipe and I was like, “This is amazing.” We talked about, like, what other boxes could possible have recipes on them and then I became a little bit obsessed with figuring out [laughter] that, and I thought it was really funny. And then one day a few weeks later I was telling Sequoia about this conversation and she was like, “I would totally do that with you.” And I was like, “Really?!?” I was like, someone else— KL This is a good idea. JL —someone else is in invested in this?! That’s amazing! And then that was it. We went to the grocery store and started our user research. SWB What was the first recipe you made? JL It was the Nilla Wafers’ Nilla Yogurt Freeze, which was a mix of strawberry yogurt, frozen with Nilla wafers, and the serving size was: one [laughter]. KL Was it as delicious as it sounds? JL It really actually was. It was just a little bit sad. SWB I think my favorite episode was the one where you rolled hot dogs in ketchup and then rolled them in— JL Cornflakes! Yes, cornflakes. [5:00] SWB Yes! And baked them for…not long enough? And that was a treat. Mm hmm. JL Yeah I heard that was quite—that was when I was a vegetarian so I had an easy out of not eating that, so I avoided that one. KL Yeah, you were like, “That’s all you.” JL Yeah. But yeah, you know, all of a sudden you take this thing that just happens in casual conversation, next thing you know you’ve got a YouTube web series [laughs]. SWB You know something I always think about is that one of the challenges is anything that feels big. Like there’s a lot of steps, there’s a lot of moving parts, there’s a lot of pieces to it. And so some of the biggest stuff that I’ve needed to take all the way from end to end is book stuff. And I don’t consider myself necessarily a like typical writer, just because I think everybody has a different process. But the way I do it tends to be, like, I need to have some kind of outline that’s enough structure, enough substance to it that I can imagine it coming together. And then I have all these weird tricks to actually getting it done where it’s like I pick off the easy chapters first, so then I feel like I have something of substance, all of these different things. But I don’t know a lot about techniques or process for getting something big like that done, just sort of what I’ve cobbled together and made up. Katel, running a publishing company, do you feel like you have developed some of those tools or techniques for people to kind of tackle big things? KL I was actually just talking to an author recently who had [chuckles] told me that for the past couple of months a “to do” on her list had been “write book.” And I was like, “No!” [Laughter] “Don’t do that.” I was like, “That’s too big. You’re never going to get to check it off and that’s going to feel terrible.” So along with looking at kind of how she could break things down and sort of structure them and, just like you said, pick off some things that were a little easier. You know, get a framing set up first and kind of plug in the meatier bits. One thing that we’ve started doing is just having check-ins during the writing process and I think that’s helped a lot because it’s a bit of accountability. So folks don’t feel like they’re just off in the ether writing and writing and not knowing whether they’re going in the right direction. So I think just having some tetheredness helps a lot. JL One of my favorite books of all time is Getting Things Done by David Allen, and he’s got a really, for me, approach that really resonated well, which is, you talk about what the next step is that you have to take. And you don’t worry about, like, what’s the 20-step-ahead step? It’s, what’s the next thing I want to do for this exact thing? So if it’s something like, you know, I want to write a book. Well, I was like, “Well, what’s my next step? Maybe it’s get in touch with someone who I know, like Katel, who publishes books. So my next step is to email Katel.” Just that. Not even, like, come up with an idea, not write it, not find a publisher, it’s just write someone I know. And then the other thing that I really liked about the getting things done approach is if it’s something that it’ll take less than two minutes, to do it right away. So if I can write you an email that just says, “Hey Katel, I want to talk to you about books. Let’s grab dinner sometime this week,” and that’ll take me less than two minutes, then I’d send that email. KL Yeah, I think breaking things down to as small as possible so that you can actually start checking things off your list is—it feels better than anything. SWB You know something that you just said, Jenn, about “if it takes two minutes, just do it.” I totally noticed that when we were working on starting this podcast. So you know one night we’re sitting, talking about lots of different things we needed to do, like all these macro to-do lists, right? Like, “we need to figure out microphones,” and like themes, and guests, and schedules, and like—you know it was very, very broad. And one of the things that we knew we needed to do was start recruiting a few people who could contribute to our first episode where we wanted to have these short snippets. And Katel and I, I think, both had kind of the same reaction, like, “Okay, let’s make a list of those people and assign each of us a list of those people to contact. And then, you know, we’ll do that after this meeting,” and meanwhile Jenn is literally over there like, “Okay, I sent all my emails to my people!” [Laughter] And you know that doesn’t obviously work for everything. It works for those short things though, and I think that that really gave us some momentum, and that momentum at that particular moment was really, really important and helpful, and got us all the way here where we are today! [Laughter] JL GTD, man! KL That’s right [music fades in]. Thanks to our sponsors SWB Hey Katel, do you know what I love getting done? KL Um, nails? Snacks? SWB I mean yes, and also yes. But more than anything, I love thanking our sponsors, because I’ve realized that starting a podcast is just a lot of work. There’s so many little details to take care of and so many pieces that have to fall into place. Getting some support from wonderful sponsors has made that so much easier. One of those great sponsors is wordpress.com! WordPress is the first place I went to create our site: noyougoshow.com. It’s also how I run my personal site, sarawb.com. [10:00] Whether you’d like to build a personal blog, a business site, or both, creating your website on wordpress.com helps others find you, remember you, and connect with you. I love WordPress because it’s easy. You don’t need any special skills to create an amazing site fast. You can just pick up a template and go. But it’s also super customizable. So if you’re working with an awesome developer like our co-host Jenn, you can turn your WordPress site into pretty much anything you want. Plus they have 24/7 support and plans that start at just four dollars a month. Go to wordpress.com/noyougo to get 15 percent off your website today. That’s wordpress.com/noyougo. KL We’re also so excited to have CodePen as our sponsor. CodePen is the place to write and share code with the front-end community. You can share your code with others and explore what they’ve created by browsing all sorts of Pens. And this spring, the CodePen community is coming together in real life for the first time ever with a CodePen World’s Fair, taking place May 30th through June 1st in Chicago. Three radical days of hanging out with people who love CodePen as much as you do. Day one is an expo with art exhibits and interactive installations, day two will be amazing conference talks about front-end dev, and day three will feature fantastic workshops! Sign up at codepenworldsfair.com to hear more. That’s codepenworldsfair.com. [Interstitial music fades in and out] Interview: Sara Chipps [11:15] JL So though I’ve had a slew of my own ideas, some better than others, I’ve also been fortunate enough to be part of other projects that were the creation of others. One of these was teaching for Girl Develop It, a non-profit organization that provides affordable programs for adult women interested in learning web and software development in a judgment-free environment. I met Sara Chipps over six years ago. She co-founded GDI in New York and was looking to expand it to Philadelphia. I can’t begin to explain how flattered I was when Sara had asked me to teach the first class here in Philly, which was an intro to HTML and CSS class and, to this day, I can say that it’s been one of my favorite parts of my career. She has since embarked on new feats in robotics and wearable technology, and is the CEO of Jewelbots. I am so, so excited to have Sara here today to talk about the opportunity that she has given people to join in some of these projects with her and hear more about her current adventures! So, welcome to No, You Go, Sara! Sara Chipps Thank you so much for having me! That was the best introduction I’ve ever gotten in my life! JL [Laughs] yay! I’m fangirling here a little bit to have my friend on the show. So I’m super pumped! So, Sara, tell us about Jewelbots. SC Yeah, so Jewelbots is a project that I’ve been working on for the past almost four years. You know, I polled a lot of my male peers about how they got started in programming and how old they were, and what I heard from them is often they were, like, middle school years was apparently the prime time for people to get started programming, and often it was because of gaming or something that is traditionally masculine, which might help explain why there is such a big gender gap. So we set out to make something that was more traditionally feminine and open source. And so we met with about 200 young girls in that demographic and we talked to them about what we could build for them, what would be exciting. And what we heard from them is that their friendships and their friends are the most important thing to them at this point in time. Do you guys remember being that age? JL Oof. Yes [laughter]. SC So, yeah, so what we did was we made smart friendship bracelets. And the way they work is they detect your friends when they’re nearby and they light up when you’re together, and you can use them to send secret messages and things, and they’re also open source. So girls can program them to do all kinds of things, like go rainbow colors when all their friends are in the same place, or one girl made a metronome. They can do all kinds of animations in really cool colors, they can make games, that kind of thing. So it’s been a lot of fun. JL That’s so neat. We did, like, a beach trip a couple of years ago and we made friendship bracelets on the beach and it was the best [laughter]. SC That’s so great! JL So I don’t think that joy of friendship bracelets has faded. SC That’s so awesome. JL Knowing you from Girl Develop It and knowing a bit about Jewelbots, I think that it’s quite obvious you want to encourage women in the STEM field. For this one, would you say that you were thinking more about wearables, like were you really into that? Or were you thinking, like, “Okay, well, I’ve worked with adults. How do I get into younger girls and women getting into this?” What was your inspiration for getting this project started? SC Really it was hearing from adult women things like, “I didn’t know what an engineer was until I got to college.” And just stuff like that made us say, “Okay, when are people learning about this stuff that are getting involved in this field, and how can we make sure that that is something that they know about?” And so that’s kind of how we settled on this age group, is, you know, it’s when a lot of men are typically exposed to programming. JL Right, yeah, so you had this idea and you mentioned you know you got together with about 200 girls that gave you this feedback. How did you decide to sort of start with this? I mean it’s user research, right? How was that the next step you took? [15:00] SC So I started with an idea. So I knew I wanted to do a wearable. I knew it needed to be a bracelet just because you know if you’re doing notifications or anything like that and it’s around your neck you don’t see it, and if it’s on your—if it’s like a ring, it has to be a huge, huge ring. Yeah it’d just be like this monster. JL I would wear it probably—[laughter]. SC That’s great. So my idea was that we would make a bracelet and you could change the color based on your outfit, right? So like I wanted to wear blue today, I would make my bracelet blue. That would be like my look for the day. And I thought this was a great idea. I also thought I had remembered what it was like to be 12. So myself and a friend at ITP, which is a program here at NYU, made a prototype and brought it to schools to see what girls thought, and they were like, “That’s a dumb idea.” Well, they saw it and they’d be like, “This is cool! What is it?” And we’d tell them and they were like, “Oh, I’d never use that.” [laughs] like, “Okay, god!” [Laughter] I know, it was really rough. Because you think you remember, right? I found myself in front of classrooms, like, explaining that I was a cool adult [boisterous laughter]. Like, “I know most adults are lame, but I’m not.” And I was like, “Oh my god, I am, I really am.” [Laughter.] SWB So what did they tell you that they actually wanted to use? Like after they told you that your idea was lame, how did you get out of them some good ideas that would be things they would want to use? SC So instead of saying, like, “What’s your idea?” We asked them more about their lives and their day-to-day and the things that they enjoy using. And just every conversation went back to friendship. You know, like, they all still wear the friendship bracelets—like the ones that we used to make, either the thread ones or those like plastic lanyard type ones, and they still make those, they still wear them, sometimes they’ll wear ‘em like all the way up their arms. So one day when we had compiled some of this feedback and started talking about, “What if we made like a real friendship bracelet?” And we started talking to them about that. That’s when they started really freaking out. Like their whole faces would light up and they’d be like, “Oh my god! I would have to have that!” SWB It’s so refreshing to see people really take their user research seriously, because I think so often user research gets like straight up ignored. So I think that that’s such a huge difference and I think it also speaks to what makes this valuable for actually hitting that mission of encouraging girls to enter STEM because you know you didn’t like accept kind of a shallow answer to that and you really looked at what was going to make it meaningful and connect with them at that deeper level. SC Like we didn’t even think about this until we actually did a hardware accelerator in San Francisco called Highway1. This was my first foray into hardware and so it was a really big help getting into Highway1 where you know what they do is they kind of incubate your company and they have experts there that can help you and guide you through the design and development prototyping process. And our first I just heard some nightmare stories about like, “Here’s something that we built and we didn’t talk to anyone. And here’s how we wasted like millions of dollars for this company because we built this thing that either doesn’t work or there’s this huge error we didn’t foresee or the people just don’t want it.” And so after hearing those stories I was like, “You know what? Um we should probably go talk to some people.” That’s one thing about my job and what we do is that girls in this age group are so fun. They’re so fun. They’re so opinionated and like fierce and hilarious and independent. And so it’s definitely the best part of my job is just meeting these girls and hearing about their lives and just being so impressed. I’m like constantly impressed by girls in this age group and like the cool stuff that they’re doing. JL How did you break into that? Like, how did you get access to being able to talk to these girls and finding out what they wanted? Was it through one of the incubator programs? Was it through NYU? Was it through something else? SC So there’s a statistic like 94 percent of parents in the US want their kids to be exposed to more you know programming and programming resources. And not even 40 percent of schools have computer science programs, and what is called a computer science program in most schools is like not something that we would consider programming. One thing that this has really exposed me to is just what a huge gap there is. Like we tried to like visit the entire demographic of you know socioeconomic classes uh in this age group. So if you go to a private school they will have a computer science program taught by a programmer and if you go to most public schools they have like a typing program taught by a teacher that doesn’t know anything about programming and – if they even have that, you know, sometimes there’s like a computer for an entire classroom to share. [20:00] So what we did is we volunteered to teach some classes. We were like, “Hey, we’re programmers. We’ll teach, you know, some beginner programming classes to your students in exchange for them answering some of our questions.” So that was kind of how we got in there. And it was a pretty neat thing to be able to meet girls and talk to them. JL Yeah, that’s so smart! So you work with a co-founder, Brooke Moreland, on Jewelbots, right? How did you come together? How do you find that you’ve surrounded yourself with people to help make your vision come true? SC Brooke was—when I moved to New York—one of the first people I met. She had a company called Fashism with an ‘s-h’. It was kind of like Instagram before Instagram, where people would upload pictures of their outfits or like fashion and people would like rate their fashion. And it was really popular with teenagers. Like hugely popular. And so with her background, you know, her skillset is just really complementary to mine in the way that she has fashion and business in her background, and I’m more focused on the technology side of things. And so when I started working on this, I reached out to Brooke and was like, “What do you think?” And she’s like, “This sounds awesome.” JL And for me sometimes, I have the problem of like how do you hold an idea that’s like so precious to you and then like trust others? Or like even be brave enough to first mention the idea to someone else? SC Yeah, yeah, I had been working on it for a few months already. And it’s so funny like when you first start prototyping something, it looks like garbage. Right? Like you’re always like—and when I was first working on this I was using Arduino and things were, like, taped together and falling apart and all this stuff. And so I just kind of showed her this thing. And she’s like, “Oh this is cool!” And then you have to find people that I think are like…can see past the tape. KL [Laughs] yes. JL So once, you know, you showed Brooke the idea and she was like, “This is great.” Were you both like, “Okay, we’re going full-time on this”? How did you sort of build up to what Jewelbots is now? SC At the time it was just me and I was full-time on it. And going full-time on a side project is really hard. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without getting into Highway1, as they give you seed funding for your business. So I had already been full-time on it for a few months and then she had just left her job. So we kind of both just jumped in. JL Monetary blockers I think are tough when people have ideas. You know, do you have any advice for people that are sort of like, “Well, what do I do? I have this idea. I’m not sure how to take it to the next level.” SC Before that I had a full-time job and it took me – I had been working on it for maybe about eight months or so part-time before we got into Highway1, before I was able to quit my job, and I’ve definitely been there. You know, Girl Develop It, I always had a full-time job. And it’s really difficult and one thing I learned fairly early in is even if you make the smallest bit of progress at night—you know, like, you get home, you’re exhausted, you don’t feel like working on anything—and you just spend five minutes writing one email, right? If you can get that one email out, or do that one thing that will push things forward, you know you’ll just keep going. The place where you get lost is when there’s, like, three weeks and you didn’t work on it and you’re just procrastinating because you’re like, “I have hours and hours of work to do.” But if you just make sure to take a little time every day, or you know just a few times a week, making sure you’re spending 15 minutes, 20 minutes, you can make sure that things keep growing. JL I like that a lot. Because things can feel overwhelming. You know you take a break from something and all of a sudden there’s so much to do versus a little. So I think that makes total sense. So before Jewelbots, you know as I mentioned, I know you through GDI, Girl Develop It. Can you tell us a little bit about Girl Develop It and how that got started? SC Yeah! So we never set out to make the company that it is today which is a really awesome, big non-profit. So one thing that happens to female developers is you will meet—like someone will be like, “Oh it’s so cool that you’re like a female developer! I know another female developer. You guys should be friends.” [Laughter] And you’re always like, “I mean, thank you, but like [laughs] I have work, I have a job.” SWB And like there’s more than two of you out there. You know, like, “Oh gosh, you have to know this one other person who they happen to have the same job.” It’s like, do you say that every time you meet somebody who’s an accountant? [Laughter] “I also know an accountant!” No, you don’t. SC “Do you know them? Do you know this other accountant?” [Laughter] Yeah so when—so someone had done that to us, and it was actually fortunate because we were talking about how in our computer science classes often we felt like we were afraid to ask questions because we were afraid that, you know, sometimes you feel like you ask a stupid question, it’s something you should know. Like, people in the class are going to be like, “Oh god! Of course the girl doesn’t know this!” [Chuckles] and, like, start throwing batteries at you or something. I dunno [laughter]. JL Huh, Philadelphia style [laughter]. [25:00] SWB But that sounds frustrating, right? It’s like you feel like you can’t just hang out and focus on learning and getting the most out of your class because you have to sit down and be like, “Oh I’m also somehow like a representative for my gender here.” It’s like, that’s a lot of extra pressure and a lot of bullshit. SC It is. It is and so having both shared that experience, we were like, “Wouldn’t it be great if there was a place where you know like people could learn and they could ask every stupid question that they think of?,” you know, and not be afraid of having to know that? Because also learning as an adult…like, kids are so fine not knowing things, you know? Like, because kids: you’re not supposed to know. But as an adult, you know, it can be scary asking questions because, you know, you’re supposed to know. So we scheduled just one class, one HTML/CSS class. This is in 2010 when there wasn’t a lot of these boot camps and things like that teaching. And we didn’t know how people were going to come or if they would be into it or anything like that but it ended up selling out, you know, in the first day. And then we planned another class and another class and then people in other cities were like you know, “We want to do this. This sounds cool.” So finally you know it started growing and it kind of like grew like a weed. Like it just kind of—yeah, it was pretty wild. JL So in a lot of teaching for Girl Develop It, I know a lot of times the students they want to make a change in their career and they’re ready to try something new. Do you have advice for people that would want to start a new career, how they get started in doing that? SC Programming isn’t hard. Like, you know, we’ve done this disservice as a community to say that you have to be good at math to be a coder, or you have to be some kind of genius to be a coder, and it’s so not true unless—I mean, yeah, there are, like, people that work—there are like quants that work in finance, and they have very specialized degrees. But most, you know, development jobs where you’re doing web development, it’s not rocket science. You know, it’s not anything that the average person can’t understand if they put in the work. So I think that, first of all, don’t be daunted by it—don’t think it’s not for you or you’re not smart enough, because I promise I’ve yet to meet the person that can’t understand how to, like, do an HTML/CSS page after like you know sitting down for a bit and working to understand it. And also, you know, be ready to put in the work, because it’s definitely hard work. SWB That really brings me back around to thinking about Jewelbots and how powerful it is to bring that to girls who aren’t getting that message, right? Who are like getting far too many messages about technology being something complicated and foreign and sort of you know being kind of alienated from it already at a young age and not even knowing you know what an engineer does. I really like the idea that you’re making it feel accessible and relatable because you’re totally right, this isn’t something that normal people can’t do. It’s not just for special people. And so I’m curious, like, as Jewelbots has grown and developed like, where do you see that going? SC We’re on target.com, we’re on our own website, we’re in a lot of places and it’s grown a lot, which has been very cool. We also were in the Wired store, and I think that the way we see things going is a good question. We’re about to make some big announcements for Jewelbots and kind of ask our audience and our community what they want to see from us in the future. You know, this community has come together of young ladies and they’re building things and sharing with each other and the coolest thing I think is the tiny speaking careers that are launching because of these eight-year-olds—eight-, nine-, 10-, 11-year-olds—that are going out there giving conference talks about programming their Jewelbots, which is so adorable. Like, I cry every time. I really do. And that’s not a joke. I’m just like sitting there crying [laughs]. JL That’s so amazing! SC I know! SWB Yeah, that’s super cool. SC Yeah. But so we’ve shipped 10,000 of them now, and we’re working to figure out what’s next and what we should be working on next. So we’re about to announce some big stuff and then ask the community what they want to see from us. JL Oh I can’t wait to hear more about that. Speaking of speaking, I know that you cut back on speaking to make time for Jewelbots. How’d you come to that decision? SC I don’t know about you, but when I was younger I didn’t really travel. Like my family, like we went to Disney once and my family was very like we drove 20 hours to see family members and that was our vacations which I loved them for. Like [laughs] I’m not complaining. But getting older like being able to travel the world to give conference talks was such a cool experience because I got to see so many different places. But what I started realizing that even though it was fun and glamorous and things it was getting in the way of work, it was getting in the way of like getting things done. And so now when I do talks or when I get you know asked to do talks, I evaluate like, what will this do? Will this help the business? You know um or will this be you know a distraction? [30:00] JL That’s great and then, Sara, have you ever felt blocked or in a rut? And if so, how have you gotten out of it? SC Yeah. And that’s a really good question. Focus can be hard, because there’s just so much going on, and often you feel like you’re doing the same thing every day. I usually focus on my personal life then, or, like, what habits I can bring to my life in general that will be beneficial because often it’s not work, often it’s work affecting life, right? So if in work I need to be doing the same thing every day for a while, that means my other time I should try to do something fun. So I usually focus on adding a new habit or, you know, something in my life that can distract me from the the rut, the day-to-day. JL And then before we wrap up, do you have any final advice for anyone that’s got an idea and wants to get that idea to a product? SC What I say all the time is, just start with those baby steps. It’s going to take a thousand baby steps. Everyone has a good idea, right? Everyone. Ideas are worthless unless it’s something that gets made. So you know, if it’s going to take a thousand baby steps, then if you start today, you only have 999 left. But if you don’t, then it’s never going to happen. So it can be really daunting. You know, I look back and I can’t believe we have like a manufactured product. Like I never—it’s just insane. I never would imagine I could do something like this. But, it just took a thousand baby steps. JL I love it. Sara, thanks so much for joining us on No, You Go today. SC Yeah! [Music fades in] JL You’re so awesome! SC Thank you for having me. [Music fades out] Fuck Yeah of the Week [31:45] JL You know when you’re so excited about something that you just start going google wild and you have like one million tabs open and you can’t wait to read them all? That’s our next segment: the Fuck Yeah of the Week—where we get super excited about someone or something that we just want to google the shit out of. Katel, who’s our Fuck Yeah this week? KL I’m gonna go ahead and say it’s daylight, because this morning when I was making coffee I looked up and I realized that it’s now light out in the morning a little earlier, which is so awesome, because you know just a few weeks ago it was like dark when I was making coffee, which is just really depressing. So I’m just really excited that our days are getting a little longer and I feel like we can get a little bit more light and a little bit more time back into our lives. SWB And a little more energy, right? KL Yeah, definitely. JL I love that. I mean I know when I you know I work on sites so when I’m leaving work when it starts getting dark at four, I’m like, “Okay, well,” you know it’s hard to sort of keep in that mind set where like I’m still at work because then it feels like daytime is work— KL Yeah. JL —and nighttime is home. And so when like the day starts pushing more forward, then I’m like, “Okay, look, I still have this crossover.” It’s not such a hard line between like work and home. It’s just like, “Oh, here’s just my day.” Instead of like, “Here’s work. Here’s home.” It feels so versus each other— KL Yeah! You’re totally right. JL —when it’s day versus, you know? KL It feels like there’s a much crisper line. SWB Plus, every day is one step closer to it being summertime stoop beer season, and that is something that I look forward to saying, “Fuck yeah” to very soon. KL Me too. And beer garden weather. So, fuck yeah, daylight! [Music fades in.] SWB Fuck yeah, daylight! Outro [33:25] JL Well that’s it for this week’s episode [music fades out] of No, You Go, the show about being ambitious—and sticking together. No, You Go is recorded in our home city of Philadelphia, and our theme music is by The Diaphone. Thank you to Sara Chipps for being our guest today [music fades in]. We’ll be back next week with another episode [music ramps up to end].

By day, Christine Chapman works as a software engineer at Audible, where she's been ever since leaving her previous role as a full-stack Android developer at Amazon. But her love of tech doesn't stop when she leaves the office: Christine is also passionate about giving back and spreading computer science literacy to her community. Some of Christine's favorite organizations to get involved with are ones that make an effort to increase diversity in the tech world, like Black Girls Code, Girl Develop It, and Women’s Coding Collective. She teaches courses for Girl Develop It and volunteers at Uplift, a nonprofit dedicated to combating sexual violence online. In our conversation, Christine talks about her early experiences studying computer science and interning in competitive programs, gives advice for a job at a company like Amazon, and encourages us all to volunteer outside our day jobs, with actionable tips for getting involved.

Hannah watched Over the Garden Wall for the first time this week! Erin watched Westworld for the first time this week! Ben is learning to organize computers!   HOMEWORK: - Watch Over the Garden Wall- 1st ep available on Youtube and the entire series is available on Hulu - Read Simone de Rochefort's Article BEFORE you watch and Aliterator's Article AFTER you watch! - Watch Westworld on HBO Go/Now - Leave Erin alone so she can watch more Westworld - Learn to program (check out Girl Develop It! to locate classes in your area) - If you know how to program already, look into assembly - Follow @TooBroadPod, @Hanthropology, @NEDiscoGreg, and @ErnBrn on Twitter and @LesbianMovieReviews on IG - Email us at WayTooBroad@gmail.com - Rate, Review, Subscribe!

In this episode: Chris Martinez, CISO of DigitalGlobe, is our featured guest this week. News from: Sling TV, EasyMile, root9B, Webroot, InteliSecure, CableLabs, Red Canary, Ping Identity and more. Full show notes: https://www.colorado-security.com/news/2017/8/24/30-828-show-notes A french robot shuttle company's headquarters is coming to Denver? Oui oui After last week's fireworks, we are back to a bit more normal news week. More details about root9B's upcoming asset auction, Webroot keeps growing, InteliSecure gets a pentesting certification, thought leadership by CableLabs, Red Canary and Ping Identity, and a lot more. Sign up for our mailing list on the main site to receive weekly updates - https://www.colorado-security.com/. We're continually working to improve the show, and appreciate the feedback we get from our listeners. If you discover any audio issues, or have suggestions for our format, let us know. This week's episode is available on Soundcloud, iTunes and the Google Play store. Reach out with any questions or comments to info@colorado-security.com Feature interview: Chris Martinez, CISO of DigitalGlobe, sat down with Alex this week to discuss some exciting happenings there. DigitalGlobe is in the process of moving their entire operations into the cloud which includes over 70 petabytes of mapping data. Chris also discusses his thoughts on hiring and retention along with his career path.  Local security news: Colorado = Security store! Buy things now. Sling TV CEO left for Pandora French autonomous shuttle maker (EasyMile) names Denver its new U.S. headquarters Identity thieves hijack cellphone accounts to go after virtual currency root9B is in trouble; faces auction of its assets Webroot announced significant growth in fiscal year 2017 InteliSecure earns CREST certification CableLabs paper - A Vision for Secure IoT Red Canary blog: Detecting Ransomware: Behind the Scenes of an Attack Ping blog: What is Web Access Management (WAM)? CSA Meeting Survey Cybertech Girls 2017 Job Openings: DigitalGlobe - Information System Security Engineer DigitalGlobe - Information System Security Site Reliability Engineer TeleTech - CISO KPMG - Manager, Cyber Security Services Deloitte - Cyber Risk & Compliance Manager Coalfire - Client Engagement Director - Cloud and Technology Services OppenheimerFunds - Cyber Security Manager Identity and Access First Western - Risk Analyst LogRhythm - Senior Security Analyst, GRC Lockheed Martin - Penetration tester (mid career) MacAulay-Brown, Inc. - Intercept Coordinator Crocs - IT Network Security Analyst (mail to: nroyter@ascentsg.com) Upcoming Events: This Week and Next: CTA - Sip and Connect - 8/29 SecureSet - Hacking 101: Girl Develop It! Workshop - 8/30 Colorado Springs ISSA - 7th Annual Cyber Security Training & Technology Forum - 8/30 - 8/31 NCC - First Responder Cyber Exercise - 8/31 DenverSec - South Meetup - 9/4 Other Notable Upcoming Events: SecureWorld Denver - 11/1-2 NCC - Governor's Cyber Symposium - 11/1-3 CTA - APEX Awards - 11/8 View our events page for a full list of upcoming events If you have any questions or comments, or any organizations or events we should highlight, contact Alex and Robb at info@colorado-security.com * Thanks to CJ Adams for our intro and exit! If you need any voiceover work, you can contact him here at carrrladams@gmail.com. Check out his other voice work here. * Intro and exit song: "The Language of Blame" by The Agrarians is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Holy is the tech editor-in-chief at UNTOUCHD Magazine where she covers all aspects of tech, from data science to UX design to programming. In her spare time she hosts Girl Develop It’s Code & Coffee, mentoring workshops by helping others write their first line of code. Her mission is to empower women to embrace their abilities and pursue their passion in technology. Her perseverance led to her building a supportive online community on Instagram which led her to create UNTOUCHD Magazine – to inspire more women to write their first line of code.

In this episode: Patrick Walsh, CEO of IronCore Labs is our feature guest. Plus bad news from root9B and DirectDefense, and good news from InteliSecure, Optiv, Target, Oracle, Denver Startup Week, and WebRoot. Full show notes: https://www.colorado-security.com/news/2017/8/18/29-821-show-notes Will root9B be around for next quarter's Cybersecurity 500 list? "Welcome to the world’s largest pay-for-play data exfiltration botnet." That's what Colorado's own DirectDefense said about Carbon Black this week. And root9B, the public security company in Colorado Springs that's topped the Cybersecurity 500 list for the last 6 quarters, is in dire straits. Creditors are planning to auction their assets on August 31st. More routine stories include: Three Colorado security companies made the Inc 5000, Target brings next-day delivery to Denver, Gail Coury and ISSA COS get recognized, there WILL be a Cybersecurity Panel at Denver Startup Week, WebRoot makes an acquisition, and a chance for you to help out students at Red Rocks Community College. Sign up for our mailing list on the main site to receive weekly updates - https://www.colorado-security.com/. We're continually working to improve the show, and appreciate the feedback we get from our listeners. If you discover any audio issues, or have suggestions for our format, let us know. This week's episode is available on Soundcloud, iTunes and the Google Play store. Reach out with any questions or comments to info@colorado-security.com Feature interview: Patrick Walsh is the founder and CEO of Boulder-based IronCorp Labs. They just made it through the TechStars program and tells tales of the experience. Patrick has had a great career, and shares his learnings along the way. Local security news: Colorado = Security store! Buy things now. International oil firm BP begins hiring for new 200-person Denver office - Hiring for a security architect (click here) Target expands next-day delivery to Denver Inc 5000 - 113 Colorado companies (Including DirectDefense, InteliSecure and Optiv) root9B assets to be auctioned Colorado Based DirectDefense Incorrectly Asserts Architectural Flaw in Cb Response | Carbon Black Snowmass Village hit by $60k phishing attack Gail Coury named to ISSA Honor Roll + COS ISSA wins chapter of the year Cybersecurity founders panel at DSW Webroot acquires Oregon security firm to fix the security industry's weakest link: humans Red Rocks CyberLab looking for hardware and you can help! Job Openings: MarkWest Energy - Enterprise Security Architect Frontier Airlines - Sr Network Security Engineer Assured Information Security, Inc - Advising Computer Engineer Kaiser Permanente - Analyst Cyber Risk Defense CU Denver - Instructor in Information Systems Navigant: Senior Consultant - Information Security and Forensics, Legal Technology Solutions - Remote Locations Westech - Robotic Network Security Engineer Deloitte - Senior Data Protection Security Analyst Upcoming Events: This Week and Next: CTA - CTA 101 - 8/22 CSA - August chapter meeting - 8/23 SecureSet - Securing Your Digital Health Company - 8/23 SecureSet - Cybersecurity Hackathon - 8/25 CTA - Sip and Connect - 8/29 SecureSet - Hacking 101: Girl Develop It! Workshop - 8/30 Colorado Springs ISSA - 7th Annual Cyber Security Training & Technology Forum - 8/30 - 8/31 NCC - First Responder Cyber Exercise - 8/31 Other Notable Upcoming Events: SecureWorld Denver - 11/1-2 NCC - Governor's Cyber Symposium - 11/1-3 CTA - APEX Awards - 11/8 View our events page for a full list of upcoming events If you have any questions or comments, or any organizations or events we should highlight, contact Alex and Robb at info@colorado-security.com * Thanks to CJ Adams for our intro and exit! If you need any voiceover work, you can contact him here at carrrladams@gmail.com. Check out his other voice work here. * Intro and exit song: "The Language of Blame" by The Agrarians is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Chad is joined by Sara Chipps, cofounder of Girl Develop It & CEO of Jewelbots, to discuss integrating with custom hardware, building a community of young coders, working with retailers, and branding. Sara on Giant Robots Jewelbots #JewelbotsBuild First Lego League Radical Candor Podcast Zero to One- Peter Thiel Robot Conference Room Signage Sara on Twitter Become a Sponsor of Giant Robots!

Yasmine Mustafa is the CEO and founder of ROAR for Good, a hardware company that provides women with technology to help keep them safe. In this interview she shares with us her journey into tech and how she led Girl Develop It into Philly.

We talk with Cecy Correa about how to hire and get hired. Cecy Correa Girl Develop It Austin on Rails Why We've Stopped Saying “Culture Fit” — and What We're Saying Instead Jobs at Return Path Jobs at thoughtbot

  Rob and Jason are joined by Sara Chipps to discuss Jewelbots, Arduino and getting girls interested in STEM fields.   Sara Chipps is a JavaScript developer based in NYC. She has been working on Software and the Open Source Community since 2001. She’s been obsessed with hardware and part of Nodebots since 2012. She is the CEO of Jewelbots, a company dedicated towards drastically changing the number of girls entering STEM fields using hardware. She was formerly the CTO of Flat Iron School, a school dedicated to teaching people of all ages how to build software and launch careers as software developers. In 2010 she cofounded Girl Develop It, a non-profit focused on helping more women become software developers. Girl Develop It is in 45 cities, and has taught over 17,000 women how to build software.   News The C++ Annotations, a free up-to-date learners book/reference manual Choosing "Some C++" Over C GCC's move to C++ PacifiC++ Sara Chipps @SaraJChipps Sara Chipps' Blog Links Jewelbots Jewelbots Support Jewelbots is a friendship bracelet that teaches girls how to code Johnny Five Girl Develop It Flat Iron School Sponsors Incredibuild JetBrains  

Unleash your inner nerd this episode with Girl Develop It Austin! Girl Develop It (GDI) is a nation nonprofit geared toward women coders. Originally beginning in New York City in 2012, GDI offers affordable and informative lessons in coding. GDI has paved the way for women to enter the male dominated tech space. In the season 2 finale Charlie & Kyle chat with Ashley Lowry of Girl Develop It Austin. They discuss the current state of women in the engineering world, and its bright future thanks to groups such as Girl Develop It. Ashley shares with the duo her hacker origin story, and how coding from an early age brought her into the exciting world of startups. And to top it all off, they all share their favorite video games. We guarantee you that this episode will make your inner nerd grin from ear to ear! More on Girl Develop It Austin Click here to learn more! Register for classes on MeetUp.com Like them on Facebook Follow them on Twitter More on Girl Develop It Learn more on GirlDevelopIt.com Join the community on LinkedIn Show your support on Facebook Get in the know with on Twitter And of course, donate here More on Everyday Superhumans Click here for our official website! Rate us on iTunes Like us on Facebook Tweet at us on Twitter Follow us on Instagram Special thanks to Adam Dodson Designs for our shiny new logo! Music in this episode: Opening & Transition Themes Themes - Take a Chance Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Closing Theme - "Door to Door" by Alex Allen

We are so happy to have Shannon and Megan from Girl Develop It Fargo back on the show to visit about their upcoming events. Tune in to find out more about what Girl Develop It does and their Tech Trivia night this Thursday at 6:30pm at Pounds. A fun night for a great fundraising cause! Find out more at https://girldevelopit.ticketleap.com/tech-trivia/.

Episode 5 - Cecy Correa: Full-stack Developer and Coding Teacher Google new logo redesign, Fixed vs. Growth Mind, Design Your Self

In this episode, LaToya Allen, developer at Big Cartel and founder of SheNomads talks about apprenticeship and mentoring, finding community while working remotely, how companies can be more inclusive for hiring women and people of diverse backgrounds in technology, and avoiding burnout and maintaining balance. LaToya Allen: @HashtagLaToya | latoya@shenomads.com Links: CodeNewbie Ep. 34: Newbie Story: LaToya Allen The SheNomads Podcast Garage Cowork (Polanco) Dear Tech Companies: Focus on Diversity, Not Foosball The SheNomads Job Board Women in Tech Wellness: Chicago Resources: Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby by Sandi Metz Exercism.io The CodeNewbie Twitter Chat Transcript: BRANDON: Hello everybody and welcome to Episode 44 of the Frontside Podcast. I'm your host Brandon Hays and I help run the Frontside. STEPHANIE: Hello, I'm Stephanie Riera and I am a developer at the Frontside. BRANDON: Awesome. And we have a special guest today, LaToya Allen. So you're a developer at Big Cartel, is that right? LATOYA: That is correct, yes. BRANDON: Cool. We wanted to talk a little with you today about your day job, your work with SheNomads, your recent blog post about inclusivity and how you balance all that stuff for people. We wanted to start, if we could, by having you introduce yourself for the listeners that don't already know you. LATOYA: Sure, my name is LaToya. I am a software developer at Big Cartel and I'm also the founder of SheNomads. BRANDON: Cool. We actually listen to your podcast and found out some cool stuff about you. One of the things is you used to tend bar. Would you be okay telling us a little bit about your story about how you got into software, what you did before that, and why you're doing this now? LATOYA: Absolutely. I was bartending in Chicago, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life because I knew that it wasn't staying up until 5 in the morning, making Martinis for folks even though it was fun and I do appreciate that time of my life. One day my yoga class got cancelled and I needed something to do. I ended up stumbling upon some coding tutorials and I really fell in love with it. I noticed that hours had gone by, I wasn't bored, I really felt engaged, and it didn't really feel like work to me. It felt like something that would be a cool hobby. I, like many people at that time, felt that you needed a college degree to become a software developer, so I really looked at it as more of a hobby. I started going to different meet-ups in the city and I discovered that wasn't true. And I was lucky enough to find people that are willing to help teach me when I was very early in my career. BRANDON: Cool. And I guess the rest is history now, right? You've had a couple of jobs since then and you went through an apprenticeship program and after the apprenticeship program, you're developing lots of different kinds of software. Are there any software projects you're working on now? I know I met you at Ember Conf but you're doing less of that now. Are there any software projects now that you're fun and exciting, like what languages are you using? LATOYA: At work, we are primarily a Rails app. I've been doing a lot of work in Rails, a little bit of JavaScript. I had the opportunity to learn Ember when I came on to Big Cartel. So, that was pretty cool. As far as side projects, I started an open-source project for SheNomads as a way to help teach folks how to do simple things like create a pull request in GitHub or just the basics of working with Rails. But SheNomads has become an entirely different thing since I started that, so I don't do any coding outside of work right now, unfortunately. [Laughs] STEPHANIE: How long was your apprenticeship? LATOYA: I was an apprentice at 8th Light in Chicago and I was there for one year as an apprentice. STEPHANIE: And is that where you learned Ember? LATOYA: No, when I left 8th Light, I landed a job working in FinTech for 6 months. And then after that, I went to Big Cartel and Big Cartel is actually where I learned Ember. STEPHANIE: What was your apprenticeship experience like? Do you have any advice or anything that you think really helped you along the way? LATOYA: I got to learn from some pretty great people such as Mike Ebert, Colin Jones, just off the top of my head. I learned from a ton of people when I was there. Ginny Hendry was also very helpful. Basically at 8th Light, they really focused on test-driven development and pair programming which test-driven development is a lot of fun and tests are great, that they're very in these days. I got to learn how to test-drive applications and languages such as Ruby, JavaScript, Clojure which is probably my favorite language that I'd never get to work in because it's not popular enough, I guess. I think I did a little bit of REST while I was there as well. And then I was working in frameworks such as Sinatra, Rails, and I worked in ClojureScript as well. STEPHANIE: Nice. I also wanted to ask if during this journey of becoming an engineer, were there any experiences that helped shape the way that you think today? And I'm asking this because I'm curious to find out where the 'She' in SheNomads comes from. And why not just make this a very general digital nomad type thing? Why was there a focus on being a woman? LATOYA: Because I am one. [Laughs] I'm a woman. I think that people tend to think in gender in terms of their own. So for me, it was just fair enough for all to come up with the name SheNomads. STEPHANIE: Gotcha! Obviously, there is a difference, it seems like, in becoming an engineer when it comes to being a woman. I've participated in a lot of events and usually I have women come up to me afterwards and talk to me. And they usually tell me their experiences and how they know that they haven't been participating. They know they haven't been going to hackathons and other events. And I asked them why and 90% of the time, their answer is they're just intimidated. They don't want to be the person raising their hand in a room full of guy developers and hoodies. They don't want to be seen as the amateur or the person that doesn't know. So, I wanted to see how your experience was if it was similar to that or if it was any different and see if there is anything you learned along the way. LATOYA: Look, we all know that tech has problems. I live at two different intersections in the majority of people that are in tech being I am both a woman and I am black. Being a woman – not just a woman, but being a woman of color in tech does come with its challenges. For me personally, I have never been one to shy away from raising my hand in a room or speaking up in a room. But I think that tech in a lot of ways did dole that part of my personality because I wasn't being listened to. I wasn't being considered. For example, there are plenty of times where I've been in a meeting, I've been showing my code and someone else takes credit for my work. And I just don't even bother to say anything because honestly, it's like, "What's the point?" At that point, you just find another job. Or I've been in situations where I say something to someone about the code or about a test or about a change that we should consider and then someone who happens to be male turns around and says basically the exact same thing. And while no one really reacted to what I said, people say, "Oh, that's such a great idea." I have also been in meetings where people don't even look me in the eye for the entire meeting which is very awkward when you're sitting in a room for an hour and you're the only woman in that room. And the person leading the meeting can't even bother to look you in the face. So I think that it's been an interesting journey. [Laughs] And don't get me wrong, there've definitely been a lot of positives with it. But to your question, those are some of the things that I've experienced and it certainly made me aware of how women or people who live at different intersections of the majority of folks in tech get treated and how we need to do better. STEPHANIE: Yeah. I think you and I are kind of outliers. I'm also a woman of color, I would consider, I'm a Latina. Nothing really stopped me from attending meet-ups and hackathons and I've always been very straightforward about what I know and what I don't know. So, that's never really been an issue for me but usually, I'd be probably one of two women out of a room of like 40 people. It's not very comforting. So that's why I'm wondering is there anything for women that aren't like ourselves, do you have any advice for women and for companies that want to be more inclusive, what can they do, how can they be more proactive or get over that fear or intimidation? LATOYA: Absolutely. So, one of the first things that I tell them to do when they are thinking about getting into tech is find communities that will be supportive of you because there weren't a lot of boot camps because Chicago was full of meet-ups. And because there were meet-ups like Chicago Women Developers, I was able to find that community [inaudible] and women were very forthright in sharing their experiences, both good and bad in tech. So, it definitely helped to prepare me a bit. [Laughs] But also when I had bad days, when I had times where I knew I wasn't being treated equally, it was easy to say, "You know what? I'm going to a meet-up after work because I can knock with you people." So, definitely finding a community. STEPHANIE: Sometimes, I feel like those negative experiences where you feel like you're not being respected or you're not being treated equally, at least for myself, that was like adding wood to the fire. That just made me want to succeed more. It made me want to become a developer. It just made me more passionate. I guess for other people, it can have the opposite effect. But I feel like the best revenge is to have them see you succeed. BRANDON: I wanted to ask kind of a follow-on question there about SheNomads. You talk about finding community being really important and you were lucky because you're in Chicago. But now, it seems like you're doing more travelling and there are other people that travel a lot. Is that where you found kind of a hole, the people that travel sort of nomadically? It can be difficult for those people to find a community. Is that where that comes from? Or what was the genesis of SheNomads? LATOYA: SheNomads started because when I landed the job at Bog Cartel, I knew – and I discussed this when I was interviewing with them as well, so it's very transparent. I knew for me working remote from home, that working remote from wherever I wanted home to be within reason as long as there's WiFi and espresso, I promise you I can work from there. [Laughs] So, I started my podcast actually because I had no idea how to work remotely. I had no idea how to pack a suitcase for three months and I didn't know how to find good co-working spaces. I didn't want to feel isolated while I was in the road. So, it kind of evolved. I started a Facebook group for it as well and that was very helpful because for example, I was in Tel Aviv, I was there for two weeks and I didn't know anyone and I really wanted to meet other women who worked in tech. And through the Facebook group, I was able to meet someone who ended up taking me to a co-working space that's sponsored by the government there with free food, free coffee, free WiFi where a lot of other people who happen to be digital nomads who work in tech were as well. For me, it ended up being this thing. It ended up being like an international community but that wasn't the intent when I started it. It's just like a lucky coincidence. BRANDON: And so now, you're putting a retreat together around that. Can you tell us a little bit about that? LATOYA: Yes. After I started the podcast, I started talking to them about their experiences. I knew that I wanted to really dive into it. I wanted to find a digital nomad retreat. But the thing is that the ones that I was coming across were very reflective as the tech industry as they are now. They're very young, people working for like 18-hour days and drinking beer for the rest of the time. And I looked at the attendees and it's like, "Okay, you're all men." [Laughs] And I didn't really want this thing for a week or two in a house full of drunk 22-year old dudes. It's just not for me. BRANDON: You don't want to stay in the front house, huh? LATOYA: Yeah. For me, I like my sleep, I like my yoga, I really like doing things like journaling and standing a long time. And I also enjoy what I do. So for me, I was like, "Okay, I want to be somewhere beautiful where I can have free WiFi, where I can practice yoga, and where I can talk to other people who want to work remotely but maybe want to explore a city." So I was working for Mexico City and I happen to have found the most beautiful house just south of the park. And I was speaking to one of my friends who was a yoga instructor and she said, "Yes, I will come. I will lead morning yoga. I will lead candlelight yoga at night. We could do some [inaudible] actions of people who are into it." And then I had been working in a co-working space in Mexico City and I told them about my idea. They offer to sponsor 30 hours for each attendee and that's Garage Cowork, it's in Polanco which is a gorgeous neighborhood in Mexico City. And then I used to work with a friend who's now the CTO of MealSharing.com. He said, "Hey, first of all I wish I could be at this retreat." But since it's women only, we talked about MealSharing.com sponsoring an authentic Mexican cooked meal for us. So, that's how they got involved. BRANDON: It sounds like things kind of fell together in a way that actually is going to create an experience that, I have to imagine, you're happy with the idea of. LATOYA: Absolutely. I'm very excited because if this already existed, someone else will be getting my money. But since it didn't, I just said let's make this happen and I feel very lucky that it all just kind of come together very organically. STEPHANIE: You recently had an article on Medium. I wanted to ask about that. What made you feel compelled to write this article about how companies approach what they write on their careers page? LATOYA: I had been talking to a friend who started tech a little after I did. And we had both attended the Sandi Metz POODR workshop together which is amazing. If anyone listening to this is a Ruby dove and you want to up your skills, I would highly recommend it. So we attended that workshop together, it was a great experience. I keep talking to women who are significantly underpaid, underappreciated, and are having all of these problems in tech. And so, I was just lying in bed on a Sunday night, working at careers pages and I was thinking about reasons that women leave tech because they keep coming in but it almost seems as if we're losing them too quickly. And I was thinking about these reasons why. I was looking at careers pages and it dawned on me that the careers pages of these companies were not very inviting and that I would not want to work on the companies based on those careers pages. Even though some of them, I knew people that worked at them and I knew that they were all about diversity and inclusion and they were paying women practically, if not the same, as what they're paying men. And I knew that they were positive work environments, so I knew that people were learning from them but the way the companies were presenting themselves was so different. So I thought, "If I was applying for jobs," and I'm not, I'm very happy at Big Cartel and I'm very happy with what I'm doing with SheNomads but if I was, I wouldn't apply at their company and this is why. And I just sat there that Sunday night in my bed, flipping through careers pages and I just noticed a common theme and it was that they weren't very inviting. They seemed to think that alcohol was a bigger selling point to the people they wanted to attract than things like maternity or paternity leave. Their pictures looked like they were trying to throw a party or something. I don't know. It was just – I was very surprised. STEPHANIE: Yeah, it seems to be the popular thing right now like this whole Silicon Valley vibe culture type thing. But it's interesting. I have two friends that are both recruiters for tech companies and mainly trying to find developers here in Austin. And last weekend, we were having the same conversation about how they don't like to admit it, but they have seen over ageism and just general discrimination. How they have seen countless times people that were definitely qualified for the position but because – I think one of their examples was a young lady but she was Indian. And this company that was looking, they were all white guys and they had rejected her because she wasn't "culture fit". But I find that very interesting because I think, as a company, you would actually benefit from having people of all kinds of backgrounds, someone who's 20 years old to someone who's in their 50's or 60's. They must have different sets of knowledge and experiences that could benefit the grander picture. LATOYA: You would think so, you think companies would think that way but unfortunately, a lot of people don't. For starters, if you are a person who isn't interested in working with women or people of color, you're going to look at a careers page in the opposite way that I would. You don't want to work with people over the age of 35, people with brown skin, people who identifies varying genders. Those careers pages are going to attract you. STEPHANIE: Right. LATOYA: Which is unfortunate but that's just the world that we live in right now, and I have had people say this to me as someone who is a woman and someone who is a person of color. But a lot of companies, unfortunately, once they have a base of all straight cisgendered males, for them it becomes a liability to bring in women or people that live at other intersections because they have to worry about things like the woman getting hit on because she's the only woman that these 30 or 40 men can look at all day which is ridiculous, I think. But at this point in time, sometimes they just say it's a culture fit thing when really this is a law-suing happen thing. BRANDON: I saw this rag regressive 1940's thing about a woman in the workplace. [Laughter] BRANDON: And it's both hilarious and really sad because that actually sort of regressive feeling has just kind of morphed into that law suit type of thing. It's the same exact thing of just like breaking that sort of mono-culture and people are fearful of it because they don't know what the consequences are going to be. That cost-benefit calculation doesn't happen because a lot of people in tech haven't experienced what a diverse workplace is and does and the benefits of bringing people from different backgrounds would care about different things. And so, I'm curious. We kind of talked a little bit and one of the things I want to ask you about we already kind of covered is why people don't do that. Why do people continue doing that if it's not that productive? I'm curious to see if there are things that you've seen companies do like what attracted you to Big Cartel and other companies that would be able to bring some people from different backgrounds? What are the things that companies do currently or you'd like to see them do that would make it more attractive and more inclusive? LATOYA: I think one thing right off the bat that I noticed about Big Cartel and one thing that I noticed about many companies in tech that I'm really excited about is that they put people first. And I think that when you operate from that standpoint, you're not going to have problems that come with creating a diverse or inclusive workspace. You're not going to have women wanting to leave because you're treating them like human beings. So, that's first and foremost. I think some companies really care about the people that work for them. They really care about their client base, their user base. So, for me personally, I always recommend that if people aren't happy at their current situations and they want to find something more inclusive, look for companies that put people first. That's the first thing. I think the benefits that they offer and the way that they talk about their benefits are really important. I have no intention of being a mother; there are lots of great mothers out there and it's a lot of work in the world's best [inaudible] in my mind, anyway. I also wouldn't ever interview with a company that didn't have a good maternity leave policy. It's one of the things that I look for upfront. So, even just putting your maternity leave policy and paternity leave, if you have it, on your careers page can be a really big seller. I think starting early on, once you have your core team in place, if you haven't already had women or people of color or someone who isn't like you, this may be a good time to stop and think about why that is and what you can do to pull in diverse candidates. And there's also reaching out to communities that do have them, like SheNomads is one example of many communities that exists. There are also bigger more established communities like Girl Develop It, for example. Reach out with them, host a couple of meet-ups at your space, if you have it. If you don't, figure out a way to work with them. BRANDON: Right. So you're saying if you make it a top-of-mind goal, you will find ways to reach out because there are people out there looking. LATOYA: Yeah. BRANDON: But they may just not be in your immediate vicinity. In my experience, that's the actual problem. The problem is that it's not in my proximity to see and know these people that are involved in these communities. And so, connecting into those communities naturally, organically, and through effort is a way that I've actually seen people grow that. That's how you can kind of go from saying 'I care about diversity' to actually growing a diverse and inclusive workplace. LATOYA: Absolutely. I think another thing that folks that can do is have a remote position. You get a remote culture going if it's something that you're comfortable with. I understand not everyone wants to work from home and not every company will do well having remote positions open. But if it's something you're open to, that is a great way to do it because you might be living in an area where all the people are like you. So, you're going to have trouble getting someone to drive in a car. So, there are two other ways that I was thinking that people can attract diverse candidates. I'm actually launching a Job Board for SheNomads. I got to the point -- it's actually once the article came out on Medium that a lot of people were emailing me wanting to know how they could find jobs and a lot of companies were emailing me wondering how they could find diverse candidates and like what they could do to be more welcoming to other communities. So I said, "You know what I'm going to do? I'm putting together a job board." BRANDON: So where is the job board? LATOYA: The job board you can find on SheNomads.com. BRANDON: Cool. There are a lot of things – and this is really what I wanted to drill into was the blog post helps kind of point at the problem, "Hey, your careers page is sending messages that are actively turning away people that you want working for you. You say you want a diverse workplace but it's so far down the list of your actual priorities, or at least whoever it is that's running your careers page, that you're actively turning people away that you don't even realize you're losing people through that funnel that are bouncing out before you even have a chance to meet them and know them and know what they can bring to you." And so, that's actually a really big deal and a big problem in tech. I also appreciate your jumping in and that we have some sort of concrete things a person can do. Get involved with GDI or with Women Who Code. We had a thing here in Austin and I ran the local Ember meet-up for several years and it's a lot of work and it was really challenging. One thing we noticed was that there were only two or so women, on the average, at a meet-up of 30 people. And I recognized it as a problem but I didn't feel like there was anything I could do about it. And so, I handed the reins of running the meet-up over to a group of people that included the women. And sure enough, the women were like, "You know, we might be able to do something about this." Stephanie actually got involved with this, and they held an event for women and it's changed the makeup of that meet-up significantly. You can have an impact on this stuff. You just, sometimes, have to step out and think differently about the problem. LATOYA: Yes. BRANDON: I'd like to shift gears a little bit and talk about – you're involved in so much stuff. Running SheNomads, running retreats, you have a full-time job, you're traveling a bunch and balancing all of that stuff, I have to imagine, is really tricky. And I'd like to dive into that and have you kind of talk about like do you ever get burned out? Do you feel like giving up? What do you do to manage that? Do you have preventative maintenance that you do? What is it that you do to try to keep all that together? LATOYA: One thing that I find very interesting is you asked me specifically about burn out because burn out is something that I recently experienced. I am not good at knowing that I'm setting myself up for burn out. I'm not even good at knowing that I'm in burn out until I'm there. For the most part, I think that I've gotten better as my tech career has evolved. So for example, when I first started, I was working a lot of hours. There were days when I had to be in the office at 7 in the morning because I was mentoring people who were in London even though I was in Chicago. So for me, there is no more of that. [Laughs] One thing that I really like about working at Big Cartel is that most of the team is on the West Coast, so I get to do things like sleep and if I want, I can go to the gym, I can run all of my errands before I even start my work days. Once I start my work day, all of I have to do is worry about work as opposed to waking up and not having time to do nice things for myself, not having time to run errands and I'm starting my day having all of these stuff on my mind. For me personally, working remotely allowed me to become a more balanced person as well. I don't like riding trains with crowded people. When I was working downtown, it would take me an hour to get to work every morning. If I have to go downtown in the middle of the day, it might take me like 20 minutes or half an hour just because there's not as many people running around. Also for me, I didn't particularly like going to the grocery store. At times, you can go to the grocery store if you have a 9 to 5 job. If I realize that I don't have anything for dinner, I can just tell my pair, "Hey, do you mind if we take a 20 minute break?" And then I can go to the grocery store and get whatever I want, knowing that I'm the only person at the grocery store. I mean, it gets a little bit to my inner introvert but I know myself well enough. Let's see here. Practicing yoga is something that's very important to me and taking walks as breaks is something that's very important to me. I think when you love what you do, it can be hard to take breaks. So, it's always nice to be pair programming with someone and have them say, "We haven't taken a break in a while." I find that when I work on my own, I don't take as many breaks. When I take a break, I pop my yoga mats always open. So, I'll do yoga for 10 minutes or take a nice little walk outside or just get away from my computer for a while. BRANDON: It sounds like working remotely kind of gave you the flexibility you need to implement your own self-care regimen, the one that works for you. LATOYA: Yes. And I would not have even thought to implement this regimen had it have not been for working remote, I think, because it's not as easy. It's bad enough being one woman amongst a hundred men but then you're that cliché woman with a pink yoga mat walking around the office trying to find some space. BRANDON: I actually did use to work in an office that had a yoga studio on site. LATOYA: That is so nice. BRANDON: Things like that do exist but I have to imagine that's about as uncommon as it gets. LATOYA: Absolutely. I had the idea of starting a meet up which I started in Chicago called Women in Tech Wellness. Basically, we get together and we practice yoga for an hour. And then after that, there's a little bit of networking. Luckily for me, Braintree is sponsoring the event which is so great because it allows us to keep it free. I think having free and low cost events in tech are really important because there are people that are trying to figure out how to break into this and if they have to spend $10 or $15 to go to a meet-up, they're not going to go. Also, it's nice to go to a meet-up where you might be stressed when you show up because you just left work but you know in an hour, you're going to be feeling really good. Plus the Braintree office in Chicago has this amazing atrium where we do the yoga. So when you're lying on your mat, you're looking straight up into the sky and you see plants and you see all of these amazing stuff. It's just a great place to do yoga. So, thank you Braintree. [Laughs] BRANDON: I think that's really cool. I have one question, though. Do you ever have the ironic circumstance of the things that you create to help you and other people find balance wind up actually contributing to your overall sense of being overwhelmed? LATOYA: Oh, absolutely. There's only 24 hours in a day and right now, I am all of SheNomads at SheNomads party of one. [Laughs] I would love to get to the point where I can afford to hire a couple of people just to help even if it's part time. So, absolutely. Doing a podcast is a lot of work, booking guests is a lot of work. I would say that organizing the meet-ups is fairly easy just because I'm lucky enough to have people that wanted to step in and help there. But yeah, I think having a few things on your plate other than work is always going to contribute to a little bit of imbalance. BRANDON: Stepping back and looking at the arc, you haven't been in tech for a million years but you've been in it long enough to start drawing some themes through it. If you look at your career like where it's been and approximately where it's going, are you starting to feel like there are some themes to the stuff that you do and some themes that are kind of common threads in it? LATOYA: I can tell you some themes in common threads. Yes, for my personal tech career. For me, I really care about code and I really care about people, so I'm glad that I was able to early on learn clean code and learn how to refactor and learn test-driven developments. First job I had at 8th Light taught me all those things. I think for me, that is a theme that will be throughout my career. Test-driven development, who knows, 10 years from now there could be a better way to write clean code, but for now, it's the best way I know how. And finding community, even though I am absolutely happy with where I'm working. Big Cartel does a great job at creating an inclusive space, but still I like being a part of a tech community. I know that's not for everyone but it's something that I think I will continue to do. BRANDON: From just my casual place of observation of seeing what you do, definitely finding and creating the communities that you want to see exist certainly seems to be a theme. And I think it's really cool that you do the SheNomads stuff. I think it's really cool that you run that podcast. For a person that hasn't been doing this for 15 years, I think it's really awesome that you found a community early on. It's something that certainly has accelerated my journey as a developer. I haven't been a developer forever, either. So I appreciate seeing you do all that stuff. I think it's a really good example for other people that getting involved can benefit everybody and you can have an impact in ways that are sort of uniquely yours. I mean, certainly the stuff that you do is sort of unique to you and your perspective and I think that's really cool because it winds up benefiting a lot of other people. LATOYA: Thank you. I wish I would have said that as my answer. [Laughter] BRANDON: It's sometimes easier to see from the outside in, even as a casual observer. STEPHANIE: I did want to make a comment about balance. That's something that's very important for me. It's something that I've been trying to implement in my daily life. I recently started going to the gym and I try to work out either early in the morning or in the afternoon after work. Sometimes, I realize that even when you try to do something, you still don't accomplish what you're trying to do like keeping that balance. I started this about two months ago. And last week, I realized that I was not in balance at all. I spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday really focused on trying to learn certain things. I was going over Clojure actions and trying to destructure and get rid of components and change the actions from where they originally were. I'm a junior developer, so I feel like if you are an apprentice, it's really hard to not be in this state of overdrive of like you really want to accomplish things. You really want to learn as much as you can and just be a sponge and absorb everything. But if you're spending eight hours, give or take, going over these things, at the end of the day, I just feel sometimes my brain is just like it's done. I can't even formulate sentences. I can't function. I just get home and I want to keep working on this but I just literally can't. I think on Wednesday, I just had a horrible headache and I got home and I was like, "I'm just going to lay down for a little bit." Laying down turned into a 3-hour nap and I will go [inaudible] 8:00 and I felt so much better. And then on Thursday, when I came in, everything just made sense to me. All of the problems and everything that didn't make sense before made sense. And I hadn't reviewed, I hadn't done anything, all I did was I got a nap. But I feel like there's definitely this struggle when you are wanting to achieve and prove yourself and to get to this next level, it's really important to try to remind yourself to give yourself breaks even during the work day because if you can't continue, if you're at this point of mental fatigue, it doesn't matter how much longer you're sitting in front of the computer, trying to read about it in the documentation, it's just not going to do anything. So, I wanted to ask if perhaps you ever had those moments of frustration especially in the beginning as you're trying to learn all of these difficult concepts. LATOYA: For me, yes. I love taking naps. I consider myself a professional. Luckily, Big Cartel is very flexible, so if I feel like I need a nap instead of lunch, I might take a 2-hour lunch break because I'm taking a nap. And for me, there's just something about resetting my brain through sleep that allows me to be more productive in a way that's just walking away from my computer and doing something else. Also, I spent two months this summer working abroad. So, I worked from the UK, Israel, Spain, Portugal, and Norway. So I worked abroad for two months and because of the time difference, I would wake up in the morning and work for three hours and then I would have all day to do whatever I wanted which primarily meant being a tourist in some of the most beautiful places, I've been very lucky to place my eyes upon. And then I would do another three or four hours pair programming at night and I think that I was able to get more done and I had a greater sense of clarity because I had such a big break. I was only working for three or four hours and that's it and you're taking three or four break because no one else is awake yet. It's almost as if you're working two separate days. I think I would like to go back sometime soon, actually, and do that again because I'm not getting up at three in the morning here to work for three hours and then take a break. STEPHANIE: Definitely. And that makes sense. It makes sense to stimulate your brain in a different way. Looking at the beautiful buildings and reading about the history and walking around and being outside. Even just a 30-minute break can just be just so wonderful and be like a refresher for the brain. Nice. Before we go, I wanted to ask if you have any shout outs. LATOYA: I do. I will give you three resources that I tell everyone who's a junior developer, where they should look in to break into tech and what they should look for. Number one, I kind of already mentioned a little bit, but Sandi Metz has a great book called POODR. She also has a POODR workshop. If you can go to that, I highly recommend it. I know that she offers scholarships for that as well, so you can apply. Number two would Katrina Owens' Exercism. It's a great way to learn how to code. It's also an open-source project. So not only can you go to exercism.io and pick a programming language and work with people on teams to learn how to code. But if you want to contribute to the open-source project, you can. And the third thing would be the CodeNewbie twitter chat. I love it. I really need to get my stuff together and be there on Wednesday nights. I believe it's Wednesday at 8 or 9 Central – don't quote me on that. But those are the big three things I like to shout out, even though you only asked for one. [Laughs] STEPHANIE: That's perfectly fine. I was going to ask you anyway if there were any open-source projects or programs that you are involved in. LATOYA: Yes, I have been involved in exercism in the past. I think I might have mentioned this, but I tried doing open-source project with SheNomads but I would need someone who's like at least a mid-level developer to come in and help out all of the juniors and the people that are trying to get started to learn how to code because my time is very thin these days and I'm trying to maintain some level of balance. STEPHANIE: Right. And that's a huge challenge too. So, lots of time management and just time is a resource itself. BRANDON: There are a lot of mid-level developers out there that are looking for, "Hey, how can I contribute to open-source?" So, it sounds like you have a project that if people out there are looking for a way to contribute to something meaningful, then you have stuff that you could certainly use help on. LATOYA: Absolutely. If you want to contribute, you can email me or tweet me, find me on Facebook, do whatever, and I will happily add you as a contributor to the project. BRANDON: That actually is the last question I want to ask. How do people get a hold of you to volunteer for this or ask additional questions or find out more about the retreat? LATOYA: The three best ways are number one, you can go to SheNomads.com and if you wanted to find out about the retreat or the job board, there are contact forms there. Number two, I am always on Twitter. You can tweet me at either accounts. My personal account is @HashtagLaToya and then I have a SheNomads account, so it's @SheNomads for that. And then the third way is email. My email is LaToya@SheNomads.com and I always am up for answering any questions you may have. BRANDON: Awesome. LaToya, thank you so much for coming. I really appreciate you sharing your experiences with us and you've certainly learned some unique things. I think your take on self-care actually is really sharp and something that people don't think were talked about enough. And it probably [inaudible] as a developer in lot of ways and I think people can learn a lot from that. I wanted to thank everybody else that's listening to this. I'm Brandon Hays. I'm on Twitter also @tehviking. We are @thefrontside on Twitter. And Stephanie, you are also on Twitter, is that right? STEPHANIE: Of course. I'm Stephanie Riera and I'm @stefriera. And thank you so much, LaToya. It was a pleasure talking to you. BRANDON: Absolutely. Thanks everybody and thank you, LaToya. We will see you all next time.

Summary Stephanie Viccari tells me about the Boston chapter of Girl Develop It, an organizations that encourages women to enter software development professions. Details Who she is, what she does; Girl Develop It, Code and Coffee Boston, any one can go, wide range of technologies in use; getting a degree or not, easier to target web dev, cost of education vs benefit, are bootcamps a replacement for degrees, ease of getting started with development; how to join or help Girl Develop It.

In our final installment of the special Tech Tailgate edition episodes of the G3 Podcast, we sit down with women behind the tailgate as well as Girl Develop It Fargo. Find out about Girl Develop It and how their working relationship took them on similar paths to found the local Girl Develop It. Catch this and all the week's episodes to preview the groups from Tech Tailgate 2016 tonight! We hope to see you there. Come out to Tech Tailgate 2016 tonight, September 8, 2016 from 5-8pm at Fargo Brewing Company's Brews on Broadway. Find out more at http://techtailgate.com.

Girl Develop It by Ann Arbor SPARK

Emily Xie spends most of her time coding in PHP. But recently, she got a chance to do some making by organizing a laser-cutting class for her Girl Develop It chapter. In our first episode for March Is For Makers, our month-long celebration of everything making, we dig into the differences of software and hardware, and how Emily's software background gave her an interesting perspective on her laser-cutting experience. Make sure to check out marchisformakers.com for more maker content with our partner, Scott Hanselman of the Hanselminutes Podcast. Show Links Digital Ocean (sponsor) MongoDB (sponsor) Heroku (sponsor) TwilioQuest (sponsor) Hanselminutes March Is For Makers Girl Develop It Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

Brenda Storer is a Designer & Front End Developer at ThoughtBot and Instructor at Girl Develop It.

Brenda Storer is a Designer & Front End Developer at ThoughtBot and Instructor at Girl Develop It.

Brenda Storer is a Designer & Front End Developer at ThoughtBot and Instructor at Girl Develop It.

If you're involved in the Sass community, there's a good chance you've heard of front-end architect Mina Markham. She's definitely known in the Dallas area for her work with Girl Develop it, Black Girls Code, and other non-profit organizations, and she's currently working on the campaign staff for presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton! We talked about Mina's journey as a designer, her love for giving back to the community, why she loves Sass, and the people that motivate and inspire her. Mina is a true testament to the power of hard work, and I'm really glad to have the chance to share her story. Enjoy! Mina Markham's Website Mina Markham on Twitter Mina Markham on Github

Brenda talks with Sara Chipps on the desire to educate in code, her inspiration to work on hardware, and the troubles of manufacturing. Upcase: 50% Off Your First Month For Giant Robots Listeners! Jewelbots CSS Dev Conf Girl Develop It Mesh Networking FIRST Robotics Programs Web Summit Barbie, You Can Be Anything Campaign NodeBots Highway1 Sara on Twitter Sara on Medium

Ben talks with thoughtbot designer Brenda Storer on fitting both development and design in her job title, tips for public speaking, and introduces a new change to the show. Upcase: 50% Off Your First Month For Giant Robots Listeners! Girl Develop It CSS Dev Conf The Tim Ferriss Show Startups for the Rest of Us Comedy Bang Bang The Bike Shed Savage Lovecast Get to know your new sometimes-host better! Brenda on Twitter Brenda on Reboot Podcast Brenda on Tentative Podcast

Don’t forget to check out Angular Remote Conf!   02:29 - Aysegul Yonet Introduction Twitter AnnieCannons 02:51 - D3.js 04:29 - Aysegul’s Background in Teaching Computing and Social Interest San Quentin Girl Develop It Black Girls Code Women Who Code Hack Reactor The Last Mile Organization AnnieCannons 09:08 - Using D3 The D3 Gallery Pens tagged 'd3' on CodePen 11:49 - Angular + D3 Aysegul Yonet: Creating D3 Components with Angular Slides (Angular U Conference) 12:49 - Directives Angular-nvD3 17:17 - Visualization Creating multiple charts inside ng-repeat with Angular-nvD3 (Plunk) 20:06 - Other Uses for D3 A Visual Introduction to Machine Learning 23:51 - Mind Blowing Aspects of D3 25:16 - What’s Wrong with D3? 27:26 - Debugging 28:22 - Animations 29:42 - The Learning Curve and Getting Started (Resources) SFHTML5 Presentations from 8/26/2015 Elijah Meeks: Challenges of Complex Data Visualization in D3 Christoph Holz: visalyze D3 Visualization to gamify analytics Ali Almossawi: D3 in Practice Ayesegul Yonet: Introduction to working with D3.js   Bay Area d3 Meetup YouTube Channel 30:42 - D3 + Angular 2 Aysegul Yonet: Creating d3 components with Angular2 and TypeScript @ ng-vegas 2015   Special Offer! Get codeclass: Data vizualization with D3 for 20% off with the code AYSEGUL Get your ticket(s) to Angular Remote Conf for 25% off with the code ADVENTURE or ADVENTURES Picks Starbucks Mango Black Tea Lemonade (Lukas) Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty (Lukas) Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty (Lukas) Angular Remote Conf (Chuck) Orphan Black (Chuck) Coworking (Chuck) Dashing D3.js (Aysegul) The Bletchley Circle (Aysegul)

Don’t forget to check out Angular Remote Conf!   02:29 - Aysegul Yonet Introduction Twitter AnnieCannons 02:51 - D3.js 04:29 - Aysegul’s Background in Teaching Computing and Social Interest San Quentin Girl Develop It Black Girls Code Women Who Code Hack Reactor The Last Mile Organization AnnieCannons 09:08 - Using D3 The D3 Gallery Pens tagged 'd3' on CodePen 11:49 - Angular + D3 Aysegul Yonet: Creating D3 Components with Angular Slides (Angular U Conference) 12:49 - Directives Angular-nvD3 17:17 - Visualization Creating multiple charts inside ng-repeat with Angular-nvD3 (Plunk) 20:06 - Other Uses for D3 A Visual Introduction to Machine Learning 23:51 - Mind Blowing Aspects of D3 25:16 - What’s Wrong with D3? 27:26 - Debugging 28:22 - Animations 29:42 - The Learning Curve and Getting Started (Resources) SFHTML5 Presentations from 8/26/2015 Elijah Meeks: Challenges of Complex Data Visualization in D3 Christoph Holz: visalyze D3 Visualization to gamify analytics Ali Almossawi: D3 in Practice Ayesegul Yonet: Introduction to working with D3.js   Bay Area d3 Meetup YouTube Channel 30:42 - D3 + Angular 2 Aysegul Yonet: Creating d3 components with Angular2 and TypeScript @ ng-vegas 2015   Special Offer! Get codeclass: Data vizualization with D3 for 20% off with the code AYSEGUL Get your ticket(s) to Angular Remote Conf for 25% off with the code ADVENTURE or ADVENTURES Picks Starbucks Mango Black Tea Lemonade (Lukas) Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty (Lukas) Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty (Lukas) Angular Remote Conf (Chuck) Orphan Black (Chuck) Coworking (Chuck) Dashing D3.js (Aysegul) The Bletchley Circle (Aysegul)

Don’t forget to check out Angular Remote Conf!   02:29 - Aysegul Yonet Introduction Twitter AnnieCannons 02:51 - D3.js 04:29 - Aysegul’s Background in Teaching Computing and Social Interest San Quentin Girl Develop It Black Girls Code Women Who Code Hack Reactor The Last Mile Organization AnnieCannons 09:08 - Using D3 The D3 Gallery Pens tagged 'd3' on CodePen 11:49 - Angular + D3 Aysegul Yonet: Creating D3 Components with Angular Slides (Angular U Conference) 12:49 - Directives Angular-nvD3 17:17 - Visualization Creating multiple charts inside ng-repeat with Angular-nvD3 (Plunk) 20:06 - Other Uses for D3 A Visual Introduction to Machine Learning 23:51 - Mind Blowing Aspects of D3 25:16 - What’s Wrong with D3? 27:26 - Debugging 28:22 - Animations 29:42 - The Learning Curve and Getting Started (Resources) SFHTML5 Presentations from 8/26/2015 Elijah Meeks: Challenges of Complex Data Visualization in D3 Christoph Holz: visalyze D3 Visualization to gamify analytics Ali Almossawi: D3 in Practice Ayesegul Yonet: Introduction to working with D3.js   Bay Area d3 Meetup YouTube Channel 30:42 - D3 + Angular 2 Aysegul Yonet: Creating d3 components with Angular2 and TypeScript @ ng-vegas 2015   Special Offer! Get codeclass: Data vizualization with D3 for 20% off with the code AYSEGUL Get your ticket(s) to Angular Remote Conf for 25% off with the code ADVENTURE or ADVENTURES Picks Starbucks Mango Black Tea Lemonade (Lukas) Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty (Lukas) Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty (Lukas) Angular Remote Conf (Chuck) Orphan Black (Chuck) Coworking (Chuck) Dashing D3.js (Aysegul) The Bletchley Circle (Aysegul)

Episode 107 of our weekly live broadcast was an awesome combination of repeat guests and first-timers as we talked DevOps, career transition, an upcoming iOS developer bootcamp, the politics of networking groups and more... From our usual discussions about the latest news, events and information that have caught our eye out to our upcoming Pink Slip Party, our first segment was the usual round robin of conversation and topics. For segment two, we dove in with Jamie and Brian to talk about the upcoming DevOpsDays conference in November. Segment three focused in with Erika, Elyse and Chioke to talk about Girl Develop IT and an upcoming iOS developer bootcamp taking place at Grand Circus. Our fourth segment was back to the usual round table discussion format, about other stories we noticed, including one about a lawyer filing suits against technology networking groups started by and for women, and what the repercussions of that might be... [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/222017996" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /] DevOpsDays can be found at http://www.devopsdays.org/events/2015-detroit/ Girl Develop IT can be found at https://www.girldevelopit.com/chapters/detroit Grand Circus can be found at http://www.grandcircus.co/ Right Brain Networks is at http://www.rightbrainnetworks.com/ Detroit Labs is at http://www.detroitlabs.com/

Check out RailsClips!   01:53 - Michele Titolo and Women Who Code Introduction Twitter Blog Facebook 02:15 - Origin Story 501(c) Organization 03:11 - Stated Mission “Inspire women to excel in technology careers” 04:12 - Mentorship Glassbreakers (A peer mentorship community for professional women) 08:54 - Getting Started and Getting Involved 11:27 - Value 12:42 - Remote/Virtual Membership/Communication 15:08 - What Makes Women Who Code Different (from other groups)?     18:02 - Is there a need for groups like this? What issues do these address? 22:34 - Implementing Diversity into the Workplace Job Postings Michele's tweet about a job posting Practical and Universal Interview Questions Workplace Culture Benefits Communication & Teamwork Cate Hudson: Programmers and Racecars 32:29 - Terminology (Using words like “guys”) 35:16 - Is it really harder for women to get jobs? Resume Anonymization Dropping Out/Reentering the Tech Industry Re-Recruit From the Leaky Pipeline (Model View Culture article) 43:13 - The Community at Large (How can we help make the community more open and welcome?) Inclusive Events Codes of Conduct Change Within *Your Own* Organization (Advocacy) Learning About Other People (Be Empathetic; Be Respectful) 46:08 - Are there people who can help people/companies diversify? Ashe Dryden The Diverse Team by Ashe Dryden The Ada Initiative Natural Introductions 49:49 - How can I help? (as a man) Donations Fund Club AlterConf Volunteering 51:47 - Study Resources (Proof) Model View Culture Cosmodrome (from Brianna Wu)   Groups and Mailing Lists (mentioned in this episode) Glassbreakers Women Who Code SF (San Francisco) DevChix Tech LadyMafia   Girls Who Code Black Girls Code PyLadies Ladies Who Code RailsBridge App Camp For Girls Girl Develop It Mobile Bridge Geekettes PowerToFly MotherCoders The Ada Initiative Fund Club AlterConf Picks Power Up Your Animations! with Marin Todorov (Alondo) Poker Theory & Analytics (Alondo) Paracord (Chuck) Soto Pocket Torch (Chuck) Kate Heddleston: How Our Engineering Environments are Killing Diversity (Michele) Ashe Dryden: The Responsibility of "Diversity" (Michele) Conference proposal writing: From brainstorm to submit @ 360iDev 2015 (Michele)

Check out RailsClips!   01:53 - Michele Titolo and Women Who Code Introduction Twitter Blog Facebook 02:15 - Origin Story 501(c) Organization 03:11 - Stated Mission “Inspire women to excel in technology careers” 04:12 - Mentorship Glassbreakers (A peer mentorship community for professional women) 08:54 - Getting Started and Getting Involved 11:27 - Value 12:42 - Remote/Virtual Membership/Communication 15:08 - What Makes Women Who Code Different (from other groups)?     18:02 - Is there a need for groups like this? What issues do these address? 22:34 - Implementing Diversity into the Workplace Job Postings Michele's tweet about a job posting Practical and Universal Interview Questions Workplace Culture Benefits Communication & Teamwork Cate Hudson: Programmers and Racecars 32:29 - Terminology (Using words like “guys”) 35:16 - Is it really harder for women to get jobs? Resume Anonymization Dropping Out/Reentering the Tech Industry Re-Recruit From the Leaky Pipeline (Model View Culture article) 43:13 - The Community at Large (How can we help make the community more open and welcome?) Inclusive Events Codes of Conduct Change Within *Your Own* Organization (Advocacy) Learning About Other People (Be Empathetic; Be Respectful) 46:08 - Are there people who can help people/companies diversify? Ashe Dryden The Diverse Team by Ashe Dryden The Ada Initiative Natural Introductions 49:49 - How can I help? (as a man) Donations Fund Club AlterConf Volunteering 51:47 - Study Resources (Proof) Model View Culture Cosmodrome (from Brianna Wu)   Groups and Mailing Lists (mentioned in this episode) Glassbreakers Women Who Code SF (San Francisco) DevChix Tech LadyMafia   Girls Who Code Black Girls Code PyLadies Ladies Who Code RailsBridge App Camp For Girls Girl Develop It Mobile Bridge Geekettes PowerToFly MotherCoders The Ada Initiative Fund Club AlterConf Picks Power Up Your Animations! with Marin Todorov (Alondo) Poker Theory & Analytics (Alondo) Paracord (Chuck) Soto Pocket Torch (Chuck) Kate Heddleston: How Our Engineering Environments are Killing Diversity (Michele) Ashe Dryden: The Responsibility of "Diversity" (Michele) Conference proposal writing: From brainstorm to submit @ 360iDev 2015 (Michele)

Corinne Warnshuis sat in a Girl Develop It workshop to learn to code. Her love for the community and her community-building skills propelled her from coding newbie to Executive Director of Girl Develop It. She talks to us about her mission to make coding more accessible to women, how to be a good ally, and how the diversity movement in tech has impacted her work. Show Links Digital Ocean (sponsor) MongoDB (sponsor) Heroku (sponsor) TwilioQuest (sponsor) Sara Chipp's episode Vanessa Hurst's episode Girl Develop It Fetch Softworks iMac #RaceTogether Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

We, as developers, consume so much information. We read blogs, use our social media to get the latest happenings, follow startup & corporate companies in the news, and we pull in so many libraries and frameworks that power our applications and reduce the amount of work we need to do. Many of us take it for granted that the libraries, frameworks, gists, codepens, blog posts, screencasts, podcasts, & books we consume are all someone elses hard work. That work probably required a lot of time & energy but more importantly, those community contributors took the mindset that others could benefit from their work. Why would they make it a priority to spend the extra time and effort doing this when they have their own deadlines & their own struggles? Surely these people must be crazy, right? Perhaps this is true...but what if it's not?   Who are the people that create for us? Why do they do it? What can we gain in our own work by delivering our own content to others? How can we help contribute? These are only a few of the questions that tend to surface when we discuss the topic of contributing to the community. Episode 30 takes a strong & hard look at the reasons why we produce content and why we consume it. More importantly, we talk to the benefits developers can gain by both producing & consuming code and content in their own work.   Levent Gurses (@gursesl), mobile developer and founder of Movel, talks with us about his experiences running meetups, building software in the open, and sharing with the community. Movel is a mobile product & services company that specializes in building scalable corporate Resources Github - https://github.com Anvil Connect Id Server - http://anvil.io CodePen -  http://codepen.io Assembly - https://assembly.com/ Gist - https://gist.github.com/ The Web Animation Newsletter -  http://webanimationweekly.com Movel - http://movel.co Mobile DC - http://www.meetup.com/mobile-dc/ Code For DC - http://codefordc.org/ Code School - https://www.codeschool.com Code Academy - http://www.codecademy.com/ Khan Academy - https://www.khanacademy.org/ Rails Girls - http://railsgirls.com/ Hack Reactor - http://www.hackreactor.com/ Girl Develop It - http://www.girldevelopit.com/ egghead.io - http://egghead.io Lets Code Javascript - http://www.letscodejavascript.com/ Panelists   Erik Isaksen - UX Engineer at3Pillar Global Christian Smith - Open Source Developer & Startup Enthusiast Danny Blue - Front End Engineer at Deloitte Digital Rachel Nabors - Web Animation Developer Advocate & Founder of TinMagpie

Adarsh talks with thoughtbot designer Brenda Storer. Brenda started out as a psychology major and waitress in California, moved to New York City right after 9/11, and finally threw away her waitressing shoes to work as web designer. Bryant Park Chico State Brenda's Robbie Williams site from 1999 David LaChapelle Tilde Club DreamWeaver BUNAC Study Abroad Program 3Com Fountain Titanic FIT, Fashion Institute of Technology Quark Imposter Syndrome Girl Develop It Sara Chipps

2:55 - Introducing Joseph Mastey and Jill Lynch Enova 3:20 - The origins of Enova’s apprenticeship program 6:20 - Creating and teaching the curriculum Rails Guide to Active Support Code School 11:05 - Realities of implementing an apprenticeship program 15:30 - Jill’s experience 21:10 - Feedback processes 22:50 - Advice for setting up an apprenticeship program 24:20 - Ideal candidates and mentors Women Who Code Code2040 Girl Develop It 28:05 - Apprenticeship and new hire diversity 28:45 - Experimenting with bias, communication, and engagement 33:20 - Do trainees take too much time away from regular employees? 37:05 - Teaching the codebase 39:50 - Firing apprentices 42:05 - Advantages of working at a lucrative company 45:45 - Learning outside the program Edx Coursera 47:40 - Breaking into the industry Email panel@rubyrouges.com with your experiences 58:10 - Who decides the circle? Picks: Ruby Tapas (Avdi) Nozbe (Avdi) Postach.io (Avdi) Neo4j (Caroline) Thinking in Systems by Donella H. Meadows (Caroline) DeskTime (Charles) “Codes of Conduct 101 + FAQ” post by Ashe Dryden (Joe) The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak (Joe) Practical Object-Oriented Design by Sandi Metz (Jill) Edx CS50 Class (Jill)

2:55 - Introducing Joseph Mastey and Jill Lynch Enova 3:20 - The origins of Enova’s apprenticeship program 6:20 - Creating and teaching the curriculum Rails Guide to Active Support Code School 11:05 - Realities of implementing an apprenticeship program 15:30 - Jill’s experience 21:10 - Feedback processes 22:50 - Advice for setting up an apprenticeship program 24:20 - Ideal candidates and mentors Women Who Code Code2040 Girl Develop It 28:05 - Apprenticeship and new hire diversity 28:45 - Experimenting with bias, communication, and engagement 33:20 - Do trainees take too much time away from regular employees? 37:05 - Teaching the codebase 39:50 - Firing apprentices 42:05 - Advantages of working at a lucrative company 45:45 - Learning outside the program Edx Coursera 47:40 - Breaking into the industry Email panel@rubyrouges.com with your experiences 58:10 - Who decides the circle? Picks: Ruby Tapas (Avdi) Nozbe (Avdi) Postach.io (Avdi) Neo4j (Caroline) Thinking in Systems by Donella H. Meadows (Caroline) DeskTime (Charles) “Codes of Conduct 101 + FAQ” post by Ashe Dryden (Joe) The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak (Joe) Practical Object-Oriented Design by Sandi Metz (Jill) Edx CS50 Class (Jill)

2:55 - Introducing Joseph Mastey and Jill Lynch Enova 3:20 - The origins of Enova’s apprenticeship program 6:20 - Creating and teaching the curriculum Rails Guide to Active Support Code School 11:05 - Realities of implementing an apprenticeship program 15:30 - Jill’s experience 21:10 - Feedback processes 22:50 - Advice for setting up an apprenticeship program 24:20 - Ideal candidates and mentors Women Who Code Code2040 Girl Develop It 28:05 - Apprenticeship and new hire diversity 28:45 - Experimenting with bias, communication, and engagement 33:20 - Do trainees take too much time away from regular employees? 37:05 - Teaching the codebase 39:50 - Firing apprentices 42:05 - Advantages of working at a lucrative company 45:45 - Learning outside the program Edx Coursera 47:40 - Breaking into the industry Email panel@rubyrouges.com with your experiences 58:10 - Who decides the circle? Picks: Ruby Tapas (Avdi) Nozbe (Avdi) Postach.io (Avdi) Neo4j (Caroline) Thinking in Systems by Donella H. Meadows (Caroline) DeskTime (Charles) “Codes of Conduct 101 + FAQ” post by Ashe Dryden (Joe) The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak (Joe) Practical Object-Oriented Design by Sandi Metz (Jill) Edx CS50 Class (Jill)

Vanessa Hurst, founder of CodeMontage, has spent a lot of her career making tech an inclusive space for all people, particularly women. We talk about how she created that space through Girl Develop It, the non-profit she founded, her perspective on managing your career as a code newbie, and particularly about getting that first tech job. Show Links Digital Ocean (sponsor) MongoDB (sponsor) Heroku (sponsor) TwilioQuest (sponsor) Breast Pump Hackathon Sara Chipps Moto360 Girl Develop It xkcd: How it works Megan Smith So Good They Can't Ignore You Codeland Conf Codeland 2019

This week we chat with Catherine Farman about Grunt and how the tooling can make your front end work flow easier. We also talk about this weeks sponsor, Girl Develop It, and all of the excellent free resources they provide for anyone to learn.

IT in the D, Episode 66. This episode was pretty much exactly what it needed to be. We were joined by two great guests talking about things they're doing around the area, ranging from an upcoming comic convention to zombie themed energy drinks and sodas to a new group getting off the ground helping people learn how to code and how to transition into a career in information technology...if that's what they really want to do. And, of course, there was the elephant in the room... Guests: Dennis L Barger, Jr: Wonderworld Comics, Detroit Fanfare and Deadworld premium zombie beverages Alan Languirand: Apprend In our opening segment, we talked about our talk last week over at the Detroit Regional Chamber with Social Media Club Detroit about How Not To Suck at LinkedIn, as well as our upcoming event this Thursday over at Stray Cat Lounge. As a reminder, details on all of our upcoming events can be found here on the site - http://www.itinthed.com/meet/, on our Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/ITinTheD, or in our Meetup group - http://www.meetup.com/ITintheD/ Hope to see everyone on Thursday night! And then...well, then we didn't really get into our usual discussion of news and items that had caught our eye over the previous week, mostly because the only thing that caught our eye was the stick that got poked into it. So yes, we talked about the elephant in the room for the better part of the entire first segment.  No clue what we're talking about? No worries, just skip ahead to the second segment.  But if you do, yes, if you think you know what I meant, or what my intentions are, or how I think...particularly if you're basing that solely off of how someone else wrote...do yourself, and me, a favor and at least listen to the first segment.  I assure you it's worth the listen. In our second segment, we dove in with Alan Languirand, who's launched something pretty cool downtown.  Leveraging his own background as a designer by training who became a developer by necessity, he has been a teacher for both Grand Circus and our friends at Girl Develop It, and now he's striking out on his own in forming Apprend.  Apprend is a group for people passionate about software and technology education. You should join Apprend if you want to learn about technology as a student, want to teach others about tech in a classroom / workshop environment, or are a tech professional that wants to connect with other in a more casual and social setting.  Great conversation with Alan, and we expect good things from Apprend moving forward.  Find out more about Apprend, and register for their first scheduled class, out at http://apprend.org/ For our third segment, we talked with Dennis L Barger Jr, a guy with about as many irons in as many fires as us...if not more.  He owns and runs Wonderworld Comics, a comics and collectibles store in Taylor.  He's organizing Detroit Fanfare, a comic con taking place in February of 2015 that you're going to want to be at.  He's involved with Deadworld premium zombie beverages, and was at the premiere event that I was at this past Friday.  It also turns out that Dennis and I have some shared history from more than a decade ago, and we didn't even remember each other from a hilariously off the wall night that we dove into a little bit. Our final segment was the usual wrap up with our guests on points that we'd neglected to hit earlier, as well as just some closing thoughts. Oh, and the premiere of something new we're playing with..."Real Detroit Heroes".  Enjoy. We'll see you Thursday night, and listen live again next week for more fun. [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/177597699" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /] Again: Apprend can be found at http://apprend.org/ Wonderworld Comics can be found at http://wonderworldcomics.

  Tracy Levesque is one half of Yikes Inc, a WordPress and Cold Fusion shop in Philadelphia. She speaks at WordCamps, teaches at Girl Develop It and is a big fan of getting up close and personal with her fears. In this episode, you'll discover how they have grown their team, learnt to say no to clients and how Tracy uses Trello to keep her life organised. The post Episode #57 Tracy Levesque from YIKES Inc appeared first on WP Elevation.

For Tracy Levesque co-owner of Yikes, the details make a difference in the delivery. Beyond adding a client's logo to the WordPress login screen, it's about really listening to how your client will use the new WordPress website you are creating for them. Tracy explains how she fine tunes the dashboard elements to give comfort and ownership to her client. By changing small details of the dashboard, it can speed up the onboarding and training process. The admin settings can speak in the client's terms instead of the standard WordPress jargon (which is often meaningless and possibly confusing to the users that may be new to WordPress). Yikes is a thriving family business. One of the two main business segments is focused on WordPress: creating custom themes for clients, giving back to the WordPress community in several ways, and supporting a free plugin with more than 50,000 downloads. Tracy and her wife Mia, as business partners, strive to balance the challenges of separating work life and home life. Listening options Itunes:subscribe to MattReport Stitcher:subscribe to MattReport Viewing What was discussed during the conversation between Matt and Tracy Levesque 1:30 Tracy please give us your 2 minute elevator pitch 2:00 Do you talk about WordPress to your clients and in your agency life or do they not care and just want a solution? 2:40 What is it like for folks to hear about WordPress in the early stage selling process? 3:40 Do you feel like WordPress is becoming more of a household name with your clients? 4:45 How have you focused on non-profits? 5:40 What do you think non-profits are looking for with agency partners? 9:30 In your agency, what is team Cold Fusion and team WordPress? 12:00 How do you deliver your WordPress websites? 15:45 How did your Easy Mail Chimp Forms plugin get created and how do you maintain the plugin in the context of agency life? 19:30 Matt reads a review of the Easy MailChimp plugin from 2013. 21:50 How do you manage agency life as a family business? Our skillsets and personalities really complement each other in this business. 26:45 How important is client communication? 28:30 How did you get involved in Girl Develop It? 30:15 What are you speaking about at WordCamp San Francisco 2014? 30:40 What parting advice would you give to our audience? 33:00 What did you contribute to WordPress version 4.0? Resources mentioned Yikesinc Liljimmi ColdFusion Oncolink Easy MailChimp Forms Plugin Make.WordPress.org/training Girl Develop It Philadelphia chapter WordCamp San Francisco Dashicons WordPress 4.0 contributors ★ Support this podcast ★

Jeff interviews Kassandra Perch, an engineering evangelist at RetailMeNot and an instructor for Girl Develop It!, to discuss modular JS architectures and lessons learned from teaching JavaScript

IT in the D, Episode 50. We were going to call it "Girls, Girls, Girls", but then we realized that we'd probably get "Slapped, Slapped, Slapped", and so...yeah, no. As we knew it would be, this episode was a blast. We were joined in-studio by Kate Catlin of Assemble: Giving Small Businesses a Bigger Chance, Elyse Turner from Brightwing, and Erika Carlson of Girl Develop IT - Detroit and Detroit Labs. It was a wild ride from the get go... As always, our first segment ran through the introductions around the room, and then dove into some news and events that have caught our eye over the past week. The links to find those stories...and some we didn't get to due to time constraints but are still worth taking a look at...can be found down below. Kate Catlin For our second segment, we hopped in with Kate Catlin to talk about her project geared towards helping small business downtown improve the way they do things. She's got a Rockethub (kinda like KickStarter) campaign going to help fund site development of an online marketplace and exchange for local businesses to partner and work together. There's a whole host of cool incentives for donors, including coffee mugs from Great Lakes Coffee, a great lunch, a spin class, a tour of historic downtown bars, flower delivery, something for foodies, and tons more.  Even though she hit her original goal, she's now aiming higher to get even more done, so check it out and donate at http://www.rockethub.com/projects/44667-assemble-giving-small-businesses-a-bigger-chance Elyse Turner Our third segment focused in with repeat guest Elyse Turner from Brightwing. We talked about the job market and the kinds of positions that Brightwing is currently on the hunt to fill, as well as what they're seeing in the local industry scene with regards to contract, contract to hire and permanent placement positions. We also dove into some common ground that we've all walked over from time to time - helping out college students (and others) who are woefully unprepared for the real world upon graduation. Students with 3.8 and higher GPAs that should be a lock for the jobs that they're not getting, and the feedback coming in says it's because of the lack of softer skills - they can't communicate properly, they don't know how to talk with people, they can't express what it is that they actually do or want to do...or even worse, they're showing up unshowered, completely unprepared... ...or they have their mom keeping tabs on the recruiter and the interview process... ...yeah, that's a great idea.  Check out Brightwing and everything that they have going on out at http://www.gobrightwing.com/ Erika Carlson We saved the best for last (no offense to Kate and Elyse, of course) and our fourth and final segment roped our other repeat guest for the night, Erika Carlson, on to center stage. Erika has her hands in just as many (if not more) things as we do, and so it's always good when we get can our schedules to sync up so we can play catch up with her.  And get a new drop or two for future usage... Her two main areas of focus these days are her work as one of the founders of Girl Develop IT - Detroit and her "real world" job at Detroit Labs.  For those not in the know, she not only talks the talk, but has walked the walk herself.  She was studying clinical psychology just a few years ago (which probably explains why she knows how to manipulate the three of us so easily and well) when she made the gutsy decision to switch gears and head into coding.  Her frustration with finding good resources led her to partnering with a few others to start the Detroit chapter of Girl Develop IT, a 501c3 charitable organization dedicated to getting women more involved and engaged with technology by teaching them how to develop in various languages and get them up to speed for a new career track.  That whole backstory can be heard way back in Episode 2 of our show here.

The 'get girls interested in coding' push is growing from techie pet project to mainstream movement. Now it has a celebrity spokesperson. A very girly spokeswoman to be precise.  "For someone like me who does identify as traditionally girly, it's a good way to trick girls into thinking its fun and colorful and then they stay because they can do other stuff with it." Actress and TV producer Mindy Kaling of The Office and the Mindy Project is a spokesperson for Google's new Made With Code initiative. And she says, meeting girls where they are is definitely the way to go.  And if you look at the Initiatives and after school projects popping up left and right with names like Girls Who Code, Girl Develop It, Girls Teaching Girls to Code, Black Girls Who Code... well, there's a lot of pink mixed in with the computer science.  We want to know why? And if it is really necessary to embrace gender norms on the path to bridging the gender divide in tech.  (Listen to our episode 'The Way We Teach Computer Science Hurts Women' for a sense of why this is so urgent).   In this episode:   Mindy Kaling, actress, TV producer, first Indian-American to create and star in her own sitcom Jocelyn Leavitt, creator of Hopscotch (and best friend of Mindy Kaling) Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code Carol Colatrella, author of Toys and Tools in Pink And some 14 year old girls explaining code to host Manoush Zomorodi.   

Jeffrey Zeldman interviews front-end developer Jenn Lukas about how to tell if you're a designer or coder; in-house versus product development versus consulting; Girl Develop It, a code teaching activity for budding women web developers; the designer/developer collaboration; tabs or spaces; jumping on the SASS bandwagon; staying sane during #siteweek; maintaining an active roster of side projects; the importance of writing; and more.

Jeffrey Zeldman interviews front-end developer Jenn Lukas about how to tell if you're a designer or coder; in-house versus product development versus consulting; Girl Develop It, a code teaching activity for budding women web developers; the designer/developer collaboration; tabs or spaces; jumping on the SASS bandwagon; staying sane during #siteweek; maintaining an active roster of side projects; the importance of writing; and more. Links for this episode:http://girldevelopit.com/https://twitter.com/#!/jennlukashttp://www.thenerdary.net/http://www.netmagazine.com/http://www.the-pastry-box-project.net/baker/jenn-lukas/http://cognition.happycog.com/article/redesign-weekhttp://www.uwishunu.com/2009/10/phillies-fever-theres-nothing-cheesy-about-being-a-superfan/http://v2.happycog.com/about/lukas/Sponsored by AppsFire and MailChimp.