If technology is getting you down, gentle developer, you're not alone. It's easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff out there in the wide wide world of webs, not to mention the frustrations that come with trying to wrangle all of these tools into some semblance of order. Pile on some peer shame and unreasonable expectations of our own performance and it might be time to hide the razor blades. Take heart, however. Cue up some Billy Joel and when you can take no more of that (my max time is 49 seconds), switch over to my lightning talk on Technical Intimidation I gave at RailsConf 2013. Maybe some cheesy jokes and a dense helping of quotes from smart people will help put that spring in your typing once again.
I reference some TED talks by Brené Brown at the end of it - here they are - go watch them now:
Listening to Shame
The Power of Vulnerability
Here's the Ashe Dryden talk mentioned at the end of the RailsConf version:
Must Have 10+ Years People Experience
Greg Bauges also has some excellent content on Devs and Depression.
Blog
Many of the quotes from the talk I culled from my BlogKi here:
46AbstractionLayers
9OrdersOfMagnitude
BeTheWorst
CodeMyopia
FractalUIDesign
GrowYourself
TheKeyToSuccess
LookingForTrouble
OwnYourIgnorance
Jess Eldredge sketchnoted my talk! Check out all her RailsConf sketches.
Here's a prior version I gave at BigRubyConf 2013.
Trivia: Mythbuster Adam Savage is the nerdy kid drowning in that Billy Joel video.
