Thread by @geekgalgroks

My #minnebar thread.

The first person from Twitter has found me.

Reminder of what I look like today:

https://twitter.com/geekgalgroks/status/1122115003044200449?s=19

My breakfast.

I am bummed that there are no fitted XL fitted shirts.

If you have swag shirts, have shirts for all bodies please.

I am sitting with Shannon, my #Minnebar friend.

Seriously, I only see her here.

Yay, reminder of code of conduct.

minnestar.org/code-of-conduc…

Oh no! Volunteers have red shirts. Hopefully there are no away missions.

[Gif: Red shirted person on an away mission alone and looking around, a bolt of lightning hits and vaporizes them.]

The maps aren't updated for one room because its named changed.

It is now Bde Maka Ska.

Session 0: Sharon Kennedy Vickers!

@SharonKennedyV

minnestar.org/announcing-min…

Shoutout to gopher, Mark McCahill, and JAWS.

I have complex feelings about the JAWS team.

It needed to be called PAWS because they wrote everything in Perl.

I like her talk.

She is talking about soap dispensers and heart monitors. I didn't think about heart monitors.

Skin tone recognition is a major problem in tech.

If you train autonomous cars on only white people, it will hit people of color.

Her slides are awesome and a great gut punch.

How and why?

Lack of diversity
Prioritized output of users and workers
Undervalued input from users

Basically it is:
Profits over people

Sidebar: People are posting pictures of themselves so people can find them, I think this is awesome.

https://twitter.com/substars/status/1122141303049998337?s=19

(Back to her talk)

What is needed to make a tech force for good.

Impact vs intent
Diversity and inclusion
Co-creation

Center user needs first
What problems are you trying to solve
Get those people in the room

Aim for your team to look like the community you serve.

Session 1: I ended up chatting with colleagues I never see.

Session 2: Shiny Object syndrome

But while I wait for this to start.

There is on site child care! I saw a horde of small children being shepherded from one space to another.

This is awesome.

Also seeing lines for the men's room amuses me.

Anywho talk is starting.

Yay! @jennapederson

(Also I'm sorry for confusing you when I was like "Yay! You! I follow you on Twitter!")

What is shiny?

[Gif: large crab with sparkling gold shell singing "Shiny"]

Using new stuff just for the sake of using it.

Accidental complexities:

Not essential to the problem being solved

Problems engineers create and can fix

Essential complexities:

Directly related to the problem being solved
Very little can fix or remove it

Deciding what to build, the humans, design and testing, the complexity of hardware/software

What is the problem with shiny?

Bullets from the slide:
Doesn't solve the problem
Has less impact
Always starting
And more

Examples, using react to build a site when square space would have been fine.

Using code for the sake of code

Put your focus on the hard things.

It is easy to start, it is harder to finish.

Finishing delivers value and provides impact.

How do you convince people that shiny isn't the way?

Change the conversation to "What is your problem? What is your goal?"

Stop people from coming with the solution, get back to the question.

Don't get preemptively sidetracked with edge cases.

Focus on the minimum viable product (MVP) before chasing the shiny.

"New always means its better!" Isn't always true.

New doesn't have all the support or documentation yet.

New may not be stable.

Don't get trapped in resume driven development.

What happens when you become the biggest group using something shiny?

You get to be the go to for everyone else. You don't get to ask the questions because you are only answering them.

How do we build products people use?

Bullet points from the slide:

Focus on the actual problem
Stop focusing on the solution
Focus on the customer
Focus on the value

Talk to people!

Leave your cube! Leave your desk! Leave your coffee shop!

Talk to the people with the problem.

What do you do when you are not representative of your customer?

Get access to talk with them if possible.

Ask questions.

Do your own independent research.

Ask more questions.

Have strategy when dealing with shiny.

You need a plan so you can innovate and learn.

Learn how to solve the problem and make those decisions.

Learn pathways and approaches so you can decide more quickly as you get more skilled.

Shiny can be good.

But have a goal in mind.

[Gif: Rhianna wearing shiny and glittery head scarf, gloves, and dress.]

Don't tie your identity to a solution.

Found another colleague I only see at conferences.

Session 3: Kubernetes Operability Tooling with @bridgetkromhout

I'm attending to make my husband jealous.

Discussions of speaker clock apps, SeaWorld rules, and Gallagher.

[Gif: Watermelon being smashed with a wooden hammer and the pieces flying into the face of a dude sitting next to it.]

Anywho time to kuber those nettes.

Woo! Talking heads reference!

[Gif: Man dancing in an oversized suit]

Containers solve problems

Containers don't solve all problems

Kubernetes is not new.

Their fifth anniversary is coming up in June.

How do you pronounce kubectl?

Kubernetes may not be for you is you hate YML.

Yes! Babylon 5 quote!

[Gif: (Babylon 5) Woman in uniform saying "Thank you" and then drinking from a wine glass]

Helm charts can be checked into source control.

Save yourself some yml.

You can't roll back but you can roll forward.

[Gif: Cher in a skimpy black outfit and jacket in a group of sailors singing "If I could turn back time."]

Ooh Brigade helps to run tasks based on state in Kubernetes.

Because trying to do that with yml may suck.

Cnab.io

"Vsphere and sadness"

Lots of quick hits about various tools.

I'm waiting for the slide with all the links.

West wing quote!

Winter is coming.

Nope, winter is here.

Kubernetes is in prod.

Clouds are still computers
Silos are for grain
Containers are not actually devops

"Raise your hand if you or your friend works in a change resistent organization."

Bridget is going to post the slides. So I'll link to them when I see them.

Tool choice is hard. They overlap and its messy.

Find the one that solves most of your problems. No one tool can solves them all.

Containers are not hammers.

Go cloud!

Save your hands! Don't bleed for your tech!

(Rack screws are terrible and it is super dry in data centers.)

The happy path in demos will not reflect your terrible reality when things break.

Think of days 2 to 2 million.

And now it is the pizza line!

Which is super duper long.

Ooh and it started moving at a decent rate.

Most dangerous part of the line, people are flying mini copters.

Okay who thought of this? Don't make the line go through stairs, it should have snaked on the ramp.

Muwhaha I see @cherdt

Ate pizza, chatted with coworkers.

Session 4: Personal Brand Development for Technologists

Yay gifs!

[Gif: Woman sitting in a chair and gagging]

(he used that gif to start with)

Why do a personal brand?

Because resumes suck.

Establish precedence
Get a specific job
Show you know your stuff

Personal brands can help you join or build a community.

Personal brands are playing the long game.

Standard communication methods

Written
Photos
Audio
Video

But what should I talk about

Mine job descriptions!
Interview questions
Open source
Announcements from major tech providers

Become a commentator!
Your opinion matters!

Talk about the solution
Don't worry about being the first past the goal
Perfectionism isn't necessary

Your process is valid

Be you

Aka people online suck.

Be consistent

(I need to do more of this)

Follow a content model.

This is a workflow for yourself.

It can differ depending on where and what is being posted.

Have a personal blog!

Write stuff, have it be under your control

I totally don't agree with the focus on Facebook and GitHub.

Because targeting ads is just icky to me. And not everyone's code can be open sourced.

Video?

YouTube has the most eyeballs
Twitch is growing

Audio?

All sorts of options

And here I will rant

Have captions and transcripts if you do video or audio.

Be accessible!

It's the law!

Pictures and infographics

Instagrams has the most eyeballs now

Layout processes!

Layout architecture diagrams!

Explain things!

Content uploaded to the social platform perform better than linked content.

People are in different spaces when they use different social media.

Respect why people are there.

Twitter is a great place to engage people and converse.

Links aren't punished as much.

Have organic usage alongside your automated stuff.

Use agile ceremonies for content sources with your audience.

Content strategy is documentation! Not creation

Aka document who you are don't create a new you.

A lot of worshipping of Gary's model

I'm kinda over white dudes talking about branding.

But now it is more of rage watching this talk.

Oh no! That means its working!

Questions:

Do you mix personal and professional brands?

Paint yourself as a full person. Be complete.

Be wary of company social media policies to make sure you don't step on toes.

Woohoo! Quilting is brought up because it relates to math.

[Gif: woman holding up quilt blocks to a camera, it is captioned "me showing off my quilting project"]

And then frosting cupcakes as it relates to welding.

[Gif: Cupcake bouncing up and down]

Found another co-worker and other people I know via Twitter.

Session 5: Everyone Gets a Car with Marisa Brandt @marisabrandt

Aka negotiation!

Imposter syndrome can stop us from negotiating

Stereotype threat is another reason people do not negotiate.

When is a good time to negotiate?

When making a job offer
After performance review
After a big project being completed

Elation! Fireworks!

Oh shit! I have to have this conversation.

Make sure to prepare and let the other side prepare.

Bring it up so HR can look into promotions.
Bring it up so budget talks can happen.

Women can get negative hits when negotiating.

Build your network to compensate.

Also, if they rescind the offer, they suck and you wouldn't like working for them anyway.

Keep going.

You can take the low offer if you can negotiate to pull it up more often.

Have those check ins.

Oh no! Audience Interaction!

It is negotiation game.

Can you get 13,000?

The trick to negotiation is to let people know what you need.

Figure out what the other side values.

Distributive and integrative negotiations

Slide with the difference between them. Integrative is both sides benefit, win/win, expands options, create value." src="/images/1px.png" data-src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D5LvasVXoAAt4G1.jpg">

Preparation is the key!

[Gif: Animated bunny holding up a key made from a carrot]

Ambiguous information is the enemy.

Have a walk away number.

Know your ideal number (this is your pie in the sky, go home and celebrate number).

Use it as a anchor or starting number.

What is the alternative to the recruiter not accepting your offer.

What would they do without me?

Think about the full package.

What do you care about?
What can you flex on?
What can they flex on?

Practice your negotiation skills!

Practice while you are exercising.

You are angry, you know why your heart rate is up, you know why you are breathing hard. It will be easier.

Also psych yourself up.

Session 6: Wandering and talking with people

Because networking is important!

I have given out three business cards and taken two.

Does anyone else go to conferences to see colleagues?

Session 7: Personal finance for Programmers with @d_feldman

This a session on finance and accounting basics

Most of make enough to pay our bills and maybe save a little.
Most of us don't think about money that much.

Because you don't want to live off of coupons for the rest of your life.

This talk was spurred by a tweet of @IanColdwater around how do you learn what to do with money

Accounting is about buckets.

[Gif: Man wearing a bucket on his head while spinning and holding other buckets.]

If you buy a car, the money isn't gone it is turned into a car.

You can sell the car to get money back.

It isn't as easy to turn sandwiches back into money unless you are Subway.

Assets: things with lasting value. Aka things you can turn back into money.

Liabilities: money you owe someone aka debt, mortgages, loans, credit cards etc

Income: money coming in

Expense: money not spent on an asset or liability

Depreciation is an expense, that car isn't as valuable as when you first bought it

Equity doesn't directly apply to people, it is investing in businesses (aka buying ovens for your sandwich shop)

Net worth for a person is the same idea as
Net assets for a company

A house that is mortgaged is both an asset and a liability.

A signing bonus that you have to repay if you have to leave before a year is both an asset and liability

Stock

Asset for you
Liability for company

Unvested stock options are nothing, after they vest they are assets.

A job isn't an asset.

It is just income but it can be revoked by you or them at anytime.

Is reputation an asset?

You can't sell it but you can sue for defamation of character so kinda?

Finance = Accounting + Time

Save for the future and pay off debt from the past.

This is why banks do interest.
Future you may have more money than current you.

Inflation has been low for a long time.

This is how money loses value, through inflation.

Your not a bank, but it is the same math.

Buying stock is a really complicated way of loaning people money.

P/E 20 = 5% interest rate

100 / 5 = 20

No stock is the correct price all the time.

But averaged over all of them, as a whole, it may be correct.

That is why they pool stocks together for retirement funds.

Half of the stocks (by weight in the S&P 500) are in a few big tech stocks.

Practical advice
Have an emergency fund

And then the screen was disconnected and I missed the other two

Anywho that is it!

Happy #minnebar!

I'll be sticking around for the happy hour, feel free to come find me and chat.