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Where do you want to go today?

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Where do you want to go today?
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Are you in the place you want to be? Are you moving into unknown territory or thinking about stepping up, but you don't really know how? We'll talk about the different roles a developer can, and probably will, have in a lifetime, how to handle them, how to prevent some of them and how to get to the ones you want faster. In short, how to manage your career like a proper project and not just wing it all the time. I'll claim to have picked up some insight in a few different roles, warn you against some of my stupid mistakes and share some stories. All in all you should get some inspiration and tools to help you decide where to go and how to get there.
Data miningMultiplication signMachine visionSpacetimeTerm (mathematics)Video gamePolygon meshGoodness of fitEndliche ModelltheorieDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Software developerData managementBitMeasurementInformation technology consultingLatent heat2 (number)Order (biology)NumberMoment (mathematics)Insertion lossWeightWaveSystem callDecision theoryDisk read-and-write headSemiconductor memoryWhiteboardEmailWebsiteProcess (computing)Key (cryptography)PlanningUniverse (mathematics)Annihilator (ring theory)Office suiteGroup actionRoyal NavyAreaArithmetic meanPosition operatorState of matterAdditionNetwork topologyComputer hardwareResultantFerry CorstenPhysicalismMobile appMach's principleShared memory
Universe (mathematics)CodeProgrammschleifeScaling (geometry)Computer programmingFamilyStructural loadRight angleMultiplication signQuicksortChemical equationInstance (computer science)Line (geometry)Queue (abstract data type)Royal NavyData miningDot productStudent's t-testSocial classOrder (biology)MeasurementData storage deviceLatent heatWeightStress (mechanics)Branch (computer science)BitRevision controlWeb crawlerMereology19 (number)Product (business)Different (Kate Ryan album)FreezingDecision theoryAveragePoint (geometry)Projective planeGoodness of fitTerm (mathematics)Expert systemUniverse (mathematics)Video gamePosition operatorSet (mathematics)AngleSimilarity (geometry)Task (computing)Process (computing)WritingPlanningLattice (order)Software engineeringProgrammer (hardware)Speech synthesisDevice driverDemonLocal ringCodeComputer animation
CodeProgrammschleifeCellular automatonPiBuffer overflowStack (abstract data type)Local ringMultiplication signConfidence intervalGroup actionPosition operatorProcess (computing)Point (geometry)Query languagePressureDecision theoryMereologyExpert systemFilm editingHypothesisWeb-DesignerResultantUser profileAttribute grammarOpen sourceSoftware developerCore dumpInformationTime zoneSource codeShape (magazine)Computer configurationDrop (liquid)Form (programming)Web 2.0Event horizonCASE <Informatik>Web pageUniformer RaumEmailAdditionRevision controlDifferent (Kate Ryan album).NET FrameworkProjective planeBlogMathematicsDrag (physics)Client (computing)Right angleMoving averageCrash (computing)WritingTrailSinc functionSpeech synthesisState of matterFigurate numberObject (grammar)SequelView (database)Numbering schemeFocus (optics)Game theoryQuicksortField (computer science)Computer animation
Physical lawOpen setData managementConfidence intervalProduct (business)Right angleData structureDifferent (Kate Ryan album)Group actionClosed setPresentation of a groupLattice (order)Data storage deviceMultiplication signVideoconferencingOffice suiteSoftware testingTerm (mathematics)CuboidInstance (computer science)DialectGoodness of fitMereologyQuicksortForm (programming)
Software developerTerm (mathematics)Group actionComputer-generated imagerySoftware developerInheritance (object-oriented programming)Observational studyMultiplication signFigurate numberUniverse (mathematics)Right angleMusical ensembleMedical imagingCASE <Informatik>Perfect groupFluidSet (mathematics)Shift operatorMereologyNumberFinitismusType theoryProjective planeCodeDivisorFlow separationLevel (video gaming)BitLimit (category theory)AreaLocal ringFocus (optics)Group actionNP-hardData managementResultantVideoconferencingGoodness of fitDisk read-and-write headTask (computing)Different (Kate Ryan album)Cartesian coordinate systemSoftwareEnterprise architecturePhysical systemBlock (periodic table)DatabaseWeb pageYouTubePoint cloudWeb applicationWeb-DesignerPoint (geometry)Instance (computer science)Moment (mathematics)Service (economics)Fitness functionSoftware testingContext awarenessSoftware development kitForm (programming)Content (media)TheoryLatent heatVideo gameMeasurementInterpreter (computing)Integrated development environmentOptical disc driveBeat (acoustics)FamilySpacetimeProfil (magazine)Social classFront and back endsNatural numberInclined planeStudent's t-testArrow of timeProcess (computing).NET FrameworkTraffic reportingWave packetRoboticsBookmark (World Wide Web)Maxima and minimaData miningWordElectronic mailing listServer (computing)QuicksortLine (geometry)View (database)Control flowTrailConfidence intervalNeuroinformatikEmailBlogTouch typingTwitterPlastikkarteSelf-organizationProduct (business)Revision controlBit rateTotal S.A.WeightWebsiteMechanism designImplementationSign (mathematics)Computer architectureNumbering scheme1 (number)Term (mathematics)Scripting languageCellular automatonFacebookLink (knot theory)Theory of relativityGoogolTime zoneSystem callFormal languageDataflowOrder (biology)Computer animation
Transcript: English(auto-generated)
Right good morning or afternoon. I don't know these hours keep going back and forth for me Anyone enjoyed the party last night Somebody enjoyed it too much like oh, yeah So I'm Glenn I work at kept Gemini. I'm a managing consultant and yada yada yada more importantly
I have a wife and five kids these are four of them one was missing She was working I do martial arts on my spare time But usually I'm left mending something around the house unless I can get my kids to do it. That's the fifth one That's why she wasn't in the car. I Tried to geek out as much as I can but usually stopped playing with my kids, which I enjoy
They're good fun, and they're lovable little creatures, so that's me in three seconds I'm gonna come back to me because I want to say what I want to talk about first. I'm gonna talk about careers roles and stepping up
That's what this is about so if you're not interested in any of this you're in the wrong room Just adjust this one a little bit there we go So why am I qualified to talk about this? Well I've been around a bit I've been in this business for about 20 years. I've been a co-owner
I've been a developer an architect mentor manager Lots of different things I worked at small companies large companies, and I work at a huge company I managed a few good things along the way. I've learned a few lessons some the hardware some the good way In addition that I met a lot of people and a lot of them have interesting stories and interesting experiences, so then I'm gonna share
Some of those now. I don't have all the answers. I'll tell you that But what I've seen is there's a lot of people that go through work and their professional life without any goals or vision They have no idea of where they're gonna end up. They're sometimes thinking of what to do in the very short term
That's what we call tactically thinking But the long-term goals are few and far between at best. They're thinking about what's my next position most mostly
And I think that's a shame since I believe People would be happier Faster and more successful if they set goals not just the short term, but long term maybe a three-year goal Maybe even a ten-year goal. Maybe even a goal that you're never gonna reach Now and this is really important. I'm not here to tell you what successful means
That's your job. The definition of successful varies from person to person to person I have a definition you have a definition you have another definition is deeply personal what we what is successful to me What does that mean? But what's common is for most people it doesn't just happen
You don't wake up one morning like dude. I'm successful today This is awesome. But having a plan and executing on that plan Take an action Getting results and changing the plan along the way When it doesn't work, that is the key to get into the place where you want to be faster
Or maybe even just getting there at all So what I'm gonna do I'm gonna talk about some things or techniques to help you along your way to achieve your definition of successful and Also, I do realize that I'm a large white male and gives me some privilege in a bunch of situations
especially when interacting with people But the stuff I'm gonna talk about isn't really about that It's more it's not about me coming on to people and forcing them to bend to my will and help Have them help me define my successfulness
But it's about you. It's about what you can do and how you can think to do things now For yourself What is your definition of successful? I'd like you to write it down take out your phone and send yourself an email or something Just keep that maybe put out the notes app or if you're have a good memory put it in your head
but You don't have to share with anyone. I'm not gonna ask anyone what your definition is. Don't worry about it But take a little moment and think about what is successful to you When do you think you're really successful and not just in the moment like I'm successful when I get up in the morning
But when would you consider yourselves like I made it This is awesome. I am a success. I have arrived What is that for you? Now In order to get someone you meet goals your definition of successful could be a goal in itself
But it's probably a bit vague. It's probably a bit hard to say This is a proper goal. So goals need some things they need to be specific and they need to be measurable so Does anyone have a smart goals raise your hands? Okay. Yeah, they're specific. They're measurable. They're achievable. They're
Realistic and they're time bound Now for these kinds of goals that we want now the long-term goals Three of those suck Specific and measurable. That's fine
They make sure you know what you want and then make sure that you know when you've achieved it But achievable and realistic are only in the way when we're setting long-term goals Let me tell you a couple of stories This is a good friend of mine doctor When we were kids his dream like for many of us was to become an astronaut
He had a huge fascination for everything to do with space and space technology He built models of the moon with paper mache in his basement and all kinds of stuff That is pretty far out there. That's a breeze Unreachable goal. It's not particularly realistic and it's not particularly obtainable
But he moved right on that goal He stayed straight toward it. He studied physics took a bachelor's in STEM took master's in STEM. He went to a Space University There's such a thing an International Space University He did doctorate up on small ball studying space
something over there and In his doctorate he designed and built an experiment that ended up on the International Space Station and Today he's actually working on making tomatoes grow in space That's his job. What do you do for a living? I make tomatoes grow in space
How awesome is that So he still hasn't been in space He's been in some airplanes that do the weight like they want the vomit comment. They call them those airplanes that go on a Wave and do your weightless for some number of seconds
There's done that a couple of times with his experiments, of course and So he's not been to space yet, but he's daily working with space problems and space technology And this is because he set this weird goal a long time ago. This is another friend of mine Andreas He also had a dream and that was a sale around the world
Literally around the world not just here and there but go around So I made that decision I am going to sail around the world but there were some problems with that Minor problems one. He didn't have a boat To he couldn't say
Three he was 12, but he's a methodical guy So he worked at it for several years. He bought a boat He sailed around in Norway. He traded in for something else. He sailed around the Mediterranean Mediterranean and ran out of money So sold the boat joined the Navy
Tied along that he taught himself a lot of stuff. He'd need he bought a new boat Sailed across the Atlantic worked the Caribbean as a renting his boat and himself out as a skipper went to the Panama Channel Sailed Australia and ran out of money So he went came back sold the boat Worked went to school to become a deck officer became a first mate worked on tankers and ferries
Quit his job Bought a new boat and long this time with his girlfriend who works in financial. So he's got faith this time And They just bought the picked up the boat in Trinidad and now they're on an island called Bonaire a small island just north of
Venezuela So they started the journey that will take a little tree around the world. They just have to go around South America first Because they want to go to Antarctic So these are two guys that for me are a huge inspiration because they set out Enormous goals really early and
Especially I'm glad he did a lot of other stuff as well He went to film school and all stuff, but all the time that goal of Sailing around the world was always there So every major decision he made he factored in What can I do how will this help me go around the world
So what is the most significant goal you ever achieved? thinking about that what's the most significant goal you ever achieved and Ask yourself. Was it easy? Was it realistic? Was it attainable or demon time bound? Did it take a significant amount effort? Did you have to learn new skills?
Were you scared along the way another speaker who Adam Cogan said yesterday if you're scared is probably worth it So myself most people I talked to
Their most significant achievement achievements were never attainable never realistic and they weren't time bound They were difficult required new skills. I caused a fair bit of distress along the way So you don't put a dent in the universe with realistic and attainable goals now What are your goals?
specific and measurable goals, so you have your definition of successful now in order to Achieve that you need some goals Take a little time to think about that as well How can you tell when your definition of successful is? Achieved for instance your definition of successful could be to spend lots of quality time with your family
That's not measurable So your goal one goal could be to be in a position where you work less Say you work 50% You work half-time That would be a clear goal. That's
specific and as measurable Perhaps your definition of success is being able to travel and see the world But one goal could be to have four months of vacation every year specific and measurable Maybe you have a goal to be an internationally recognized expert on some topic
What does that mean internationally recognized expert is not specific? So a goal could be to have at least 10 engagements in a foreign country every year for instance and then the next year 20 and so on and now we're over to the I've said tactical thinking Now we're on the strategic thinking
Strategic versus tactical so strategic is the what and the tactical is the how So these have been strategic goals what you want to achieve. This is really important You need strategic thinking to have that anyone to drive a car here anyone has driver's license
When you were Taught as when I was taught driving and if you weren't yours driver lessons sucked When you were driving you talked to look far ahead Because you can look straight in the road in front of you you go back and forth like that when you drive So you fix a point really far ahead and look at that then you drive straighter It's the same thing with goals. You need those goals that are far away
Not just right in front of you the whole time. So when people the mistake a lot of people do they're thinking tactical only So you're here and you're wondering where to go And without having that long-term goal. It's hard to make a meaningful decision on what to do next right
So imagine this new and improved version of ourselves Is a version that achieved the goal or the goals we just made it is Are you version two is successful, but instead of standing here and trying to work my way. What did I do to get there?
There's a trick We'll start at the other end and we'll go back So this you 2.0 What did you do right before you got there? What was the last thing you did before you became successful before you had achieved success? And you when you get that what was the last thing before that again? And then it's a lot easier to backtrack a path
To where you are now the path may branch out you might have several ways to go But make sure you always get back to your red dot So now that you're back here You can start going the other way up a friend of mine. He was also in the Navy
Up in Buddha. I think it was where they have one taxi queue, and it's really long So what he would do He would go to the front of the queue and it would say hi to everyone on the way back Hi, how you doing and walk himself back greet himself back
And then it would get to the end and we turn around and we go back. Excuse me excuse me excuse me and everybody let him through because he was coming from the front because Nobody reacted to that so he went to the front line instead, so it's sort of the same we go Say hello to everyone we met on the way, and then we go back and just pass them all
So some of you are seeing some similarity When we're here we can say okay. What's the next step? What's the next step was supposed to do is that attainable and realistic now we can start doing that now We can start making smart goals If the next step is not attainable and realistic you have to break it down some more And you're seeing a similarity or project planning break down tasks make sure the task aren't too big and so and so and it is
Exactly the same thing Another angle depending on your goal is looking at what skills are you missing? This is particularly useful in our professional setting which we're talking about now since Goals here are often much more skills driven than goals in your personal life the techniques of this you could use the same technique
for your personal life, but So what if for instance the top three skills you need to obtain your goal? How can you develop these skills and it doesn't necessarily have to be technical skills it could be Skills that help you move into another role it could be skills like speaking in public
They have had great classes on that here with Jesse and Denise How to do good product review meetings was another session here how to motivate others your writing skills perhaps But that's up to you to figure out so what If I'm going to reach that goal. What skills do I need to do that? So that's the goal part
Where do you want to go try to visualize a path there it might not be correct the whole time? But make sure is there the other part is stepping up so getting ahead and work is not just working with you
You need to be noticed you need to see you need other people to see that you are epic So how many here at work? Think they're feel think or feel that they are the smartest guy in the room most of the time there's right
Okay, you guys to put your hands up. How many felt a bit awkward doing it because it was a bit like yeah there was no one going yeah me and Then there were all the others like yeah, probably I'm but I'm not gonna put my hand up you can you know who you are
So remember this there's nothing wrong with being epic But particularly Scandinavians we have a particular problem with this So here's another story. I teach a class software engineering class at local university
every year I divide the students into teams of five to seven people in each team and Give or take But I need to share the teams are relatively reasonably balanced balanced, right? They need somebody can organize they need someone who can take charge and they need someone who can actually program
So we can't have all the good programmers in one team and all the sucky programmers another team I need to balance this out so they can help each other So give it a questionnaire where among other things I ask him to rate themselves on a scale from one to five and One of the question is how good are you a programming right? So what do you reckon I mostly get threes?
Right, there we go three Yeah, I guess I'm about average Unless As usually we get when you get people how good are you it's like I'm but average unless you ask men how good
If they're better than average at driving 90% will say they're better than average That doesn't work But I get mostly threes I get the occasional four some twos The odd one never know again. Nobody picks five except last fall
one guy Five and my first reaction was what a douche What a pompous muppet who the hell is anything is five. I would you don't write symphonies in code You're 19 for Christ's sake
Why is that? Why are we so quick to judge our job to judge other people just for standing up? And that's what we fear. We fear that someone will when you go like yeah, I'm good I'm great And people look at you That's wrong And we can't fix other people what we can keep it we can keep that in mind ourselves
And praise those to stand up and ask the stupid question Adam Kogan again He was a speaker here as well. He's in Australia has his own company. He's got 50 employees He could widely be considered considered successful. His kids are doing great. Everything is awesome and
One of the things he's done Consistently throughout his career is that I don't understand. Can you say it again? I don't understand what you just said Can you say it one more time in different way and so many people are afraid to say I don't get it So I wasn't this they introduced
Exchange Microsoft introduced new version of exchange. Well, and they showed up the web email client. This is back in 2003 I think it was and And This one guy raises his hand. Well, can you drag and drop emails in folders?
This is the web in 2003. I Don't know if most most of you guys were probably not even born there But you hear this collective groan in the audience like oh Idiot, of course you can't this is the web And the instructor goes, I don't know. Let's see and he drags a male puts drops in the folder and it's gone
And it worked and the whole room learnt a little thing there because that one guy Was not afraid to look stupid So don't be afraid of asking I don't understand And don't be afraid of standing up. So here works a developer
Where's your hands? Okay, that mostly develops. I focus this on developers. This is a developer conference But I'm sure if you're not a developer you can apply parts of it. So who's good at it? Awesome So you're not the smartest guy in the room, you're not writing symphonies, but yeah, you're pretty good. That is cool
Remember there is nothing wrong with being epic Take that with you. So here's the challenge You know, you're good at something now other people need to know that you're good at it There's basically two ways to do that one
Go around telling people you're epic To say nothing and let them figure it out on their own. That's your options You can either make sure that people discover you as epic or you can just keep doing your thing and People will notice your epic. That's a sleep seep out through your pores
The first one is faster, but takes more work and it needs for you to get out of your comfort zone I believe that the best part the best way of showing other people that you're epic is being part of a community
That could be in many shapes and sizes. It could be from just Taking part in showing up at user groups talking to people networking is important Talking to people discussing problems coming up with solutions It could be through your work at open source. Have a project online that people enjoy and like and use
Maybe you have a blog maybe you're good at writing and can write about stuff. Maybe you'll speak at user groups Maybe you're a hotshot of Stack Overflow Nobody knew who John Skeet was until Stack Overflow came and then suddenly everyone knows who John Skeet is John Skeet is the guy that breaks Stack Overflow SQL queries
seriously They changed some queries on Stack Overflow for the user profile page and they broke on John Skeet's page because he gets so many upvotes But only his page so he's an edge case but
The point is you can put your skills out there in some form or shape This is part of building a brand So when we say brand people think of a corporation like coca-cola Microsoft Apple and so on but you also have a brand so your brand is the
attributes that people attribute to you Or they associate with you Do people what do people think about when they see you or hear your name do they think expert douche Do they web developer problem solver Azure guy so
People have a brand whether you like it or not so what you can do is manage that brand you think about what you put out there and what you tell other people and What would you like to be known for is that the same as what you are known for if you don't at all so I moved I wasn't I
Co-owned a small company, and I wasn't part of any community And we just worked and our asses off and trying to make next month's paycheck Which one does when you're doing a cut when you own a company yourself? so I Moved company, and I needed to know more people and I needed more people to know me
So I went a conscious decision great. I'm gonna I'm comfortable standing in front of people and saying stuff, so I'm gonna start speaking at the local user group So I started speaking at local dotnet user group in addition I use those events to force myself to learn more about technology. I'll come back to how I did that
I just worked better under pressure So I signed up to speak about a topic and then I had a deadline To learn everything I knew about that topic two birds with no stone So two options one put your brand out there and manage it or two Let people discover your brand by chance and over time
The first one will probably yield faster results if the other one yields results at all so now you've Figured out what you want hopefully You've designed a path to get there or you have a hypothesis of a path and
You're starting to manage your brand to get people to notice you This is when opportunity is coming So you're setting goals gaining skills planning your steps at some point opportunity is going to come knocking
Hopefully it looks better than these guys of course you can always open the door for opportunity yourself So this might be the possibility of a go over a new job there might be a position that's opening up there
You're looking at I want that that'd be great. Maybe someone mentioned something It could be a conference is looking for speakers and so on and so on And this is where we meet our next hurdle on our path to greatness What's called the confidence gap or also known as the imposter syndrome?
The imposter syndrome is a phenomena where you are unable to internalize your own success You don't really believe it. You're basically waiting to be exposed as a fraud or an imposter It's like putting on a uniform and a pair of Ray-Bans and try to fly an airplane
Sooner or later this thing is going to crash and they're going to figure out. I don't know how to do this If you have success or acknowledge your own success you dismiss it as luck Or of other being fooled by your they didn't well a good thing. They didn't know what I I knew before they hired me So there's a gap between your abilities and your confidence in set abilities
So what happens when you have the confidence gap or the imposter syndrome is that when opportunity comes? We quickly become convinced that we are imposters like an actor in a role, and it's easier not to even try
And that's a bad thing So we know ourselves from the inside But everyone else we only know from the outside, right? So we're constantly aware of all our faults our anxieties our doubts or the ocus's Anything week that comes from within we know about this, but I don't know what you have inside, right?
All I know of you guys is what you tell me or what you display and This is a far more narrow and far more edited source of information Michelle de Montaigne French philosopher 16th century So the kings and philosophers shit and so do ladies
Even on the highest door in the world. We are seated still upon our arses And this is not just about kings and taking a royal dump. It's about CEOs artists experts Entrepreneurs that are great success. They all have these feet same feelings of self-taught they bump into things
They feel that I might choke under the pressure. They look back on decisions, but shame and regret Everybody does this So we end up in this place Where we're thinking what am I doing here? Or I'll never make it. I might as well just not try is Easier not to try now also it turns out that this confidence gap
Have in research shown to affect women more than men For instance women men are more likely to apply to position where they don't have all the qualifications but that'll apply anyway and Women are more likely to say no, I can't do that because I don't know all the I can't take all the boxes
Men are more simply more likely just to fake it till they make it Now there's lots of reasons why this stuff happens a lot of it has to do with society and structural societies and structures But and it's not a solution just to tell women don't behave more like men
That doesn't work either it turns out that that's actually detrimental it doesn't work But there's something to be aware of if you're a woman competing with men And there's definitely something to be aware of if you're this someone looking for talent Remember loud does not equal being skilled
Right So just because someone is being loud. There's a story in one of the the research papers for this Of a Woman that works as a manager in a law firm I think it was a law firm and she hires two interns a male and a female and the male guy
the guy comes by her office all the time and Have suggestions and how about this I was thinking about this and they're often completely wrong and off the wall Well, she is
Methodical she if she wants an appointment she books a meeting Much more serious and does all the right work and presents nothing. That's what not well thought through and all but still the lady manager Is more impressed and she recognized this on her own. She's more impressed by the guy just Steamrolling in and being a bull in China shop because confidence
Affects how people think of you, so I'm not saying you should be the bull in the china shop, but have some confidence in your own abilities There's been research that says
Where they're doing tests and just being told before you do the test that this is gonna be good You're gonna be you're gonna ace this this is gonna be good and having them walk in with a good confidence increases their score so It's another story and this was about me Microsoft has something called the regional directors
it's a small group there about 150 people worldwide and They work as technical and strategic advisors to different product groups in the different product group in Microsoft Now they have openings in every country. They're sort of this they're spread out so I got wind of an opening here in being available here in Norway and
I want to apply but I had a friend that was applying it's like Yeah, he's but he's gonna get it anyway, so It's no use in even trying imposter syndrome Like why even bother it's not gonna work, and it was just wasted work So luckily for me my friend badgered me until I actually applied. He's like dude. You should do it go on
So if you're watching this video, thank you Niall But I ended up being awarded that title And I was this close to not even bothering to fill out a form the confidence got prevented me from even trying almost
So one of the things that the RD groups Here's the other bad part about the imposter soon once you try and you actually make it You get to a place Where the imposter syndrome really hits you you're thinking why am I here?
so one of the things the RD group does is before in between when Microsoft has conference like build conference. They have a day or two where they all gather and do a lot of stuff and I find myself in a room with a bunch of people have done amazing. There's this little alien middle here This is what happens when you people move when you're taking a panoramic shot
That's Billy Hollis So some so many of these guys are alleged literally Billy Hollis was named software legend by Microsoft in 2002 He has the title software legend because this guy he manages a hundred thousand servers I
Can't even begin to phantom how he does it There's another guy here. He regularly speaks to world leaders at UN summits It's like what the hell I thought these guys were just geeks So we're sitting there and we're going doing introductions
There's like holy crap This is kind of suck Yeah You have CEOs and CTOs and people own companies and sold companies and Dotnet rocks guys are there. That's Richard So these guys have achieved so much and I'm thinking they're
Man, they picked the wrong guy So it's my turn. I rattle off what I was doing Where I came from tried to mention as much as possible and Nobody better than I was totally anticlimactic. It's like oh, yeah, awesome good. So it turns out that if you actually get in somewhere
You probably deserve to be there You didn't get in there despite of who you are you got in because you are who you are right So even if you don't think so yourself another thing as well Talent totally overrated sometimes they are she's so talented and it's easy for him because he's so talented
I don't have a talent for doing that. So I won't do that. This is also part of the imposter syndrome You're attributing traits to others that you don't have and you probably never will like now I can't do that because I said So somewhere in life we get this notion that we need talent to do something. So I see this when I teach the class
That Some students are like no, I'm not a good developer. I don't have the talent for it like shut up Of course you do sure Some people have an inclination for certain tasks that gives them a head start
but when most part hard work kicks talents ass Kids, I'm right. They have no limits There's been quite a bit of research on this and it shows that the biggest factor For you to become really good at something is the number of hours you put in for self-study
That time when you sit by yourself You experiment you screw around with things you don't know that's when you take the steps towards perfection there's a music University in Berlin, I think it is that they
did some studies here and they have Performers to become soloists they have performers that play in symphony orchestras and they have performers that teach others And those are three distinct levels of skill where the soloists are the most skilled people
so they did some research on what can we predict who goes where and It turns out the single most differentiating factor was number of hours of self-study The number of hours of self-study would vary between nine hours a week To more than 20 almost 30 hours a week, and it was consistent the more you practice on your own the better you became
There's no such thing as natural talent. It's just simply a matter of failing over and over again until you make it Teresa you have
Currently the world's best cost country skier in the women's class She's won gold medals. She has seven World Championships and a lot of other medals I wanted to put all the medals, but if I put all the bells you wouldn't be able to read the text Well many people don't know is that when she was starting out she wasn't very good at all
She was in her early teens and she would come in Last dead last over a minute behind Everyone else she had a friend that didn't practice this hard, and she just went past her but she enjoys skiing so she kept going and going and going and
She set goals She said okay next time. I'll be 40 seconds behind So she made that I'll next time. Okay. I'll be 30 seconds behind And she made that and she worked and worked and worked the more she trained the smaller the gap became and when she was 18
She took a bronze in the World Championships on 30 kilometers And since then she's only gotten better And she said herself if someone had told her back then that you're not talented enough. She would have quit done But they didn't she was given space to go on and she worked hard
So hard work beats talent every single time 80% of life is showing up just showing up taking that opportunity and saying yes instead of no But sending that email saying hi. I'm interested in next wise that can we talk?
That puts you head of almost everyone else That's what I did with the RD. I sent an email to Microsoft here. It's like I hear the RD things open What do I do? Oh Well, that's cool. You fill out this form and so on so on. Okay, great What prevents us from showing up? Impostor syndrome
The thing that you tell yourself now, I'm not good enough to show up Now I can do a whole talk just an imposter syndrome, but I've got more ground to cover just be aware of that it exists If you notice it try to overcome it. I will if anyone wants to we can talk more about that in the break We're gonna talk a little about roles
different roles you might have in your career Again, I'm doing this for a developer standpoint, but it's similar. So as a developer We have many hats. That's why I picked these guys. They have all different hats Sometimes we're the same different hats at the same time. We have different roles. We have a junior developer
We have developer a technical lead an architect Some are even chief wizard That's an awesome title There's 82 people I can find on LinkedIn that have the title chief wizard, but this is the path most people take Oops, I never just that's an hour too much
That's where you go and die. I Senior here some people call the lead developer But yeah, actually that arrow wasn't supposed to be here and should come afterward But it actually makes sense because a lot of people think that architect. Okay, that's the that's the end
That's the endgame. I can go no further But all of these are just titles. You can call yourself chief senior wizard instead But what some decide to do is leave that path and go into other place They want to be project managers managers go into sales Again sales is like dying a little bit
And that's okay It's okay to switch paths. Okay, this is not for me, but that looks interesting But one problem is that for some These other arrows are presented as the only career paths available to you Like well, I'm done coding. I guess I'll be a manager then
Problem is that these roles are very different from a developer role. They're not the same at all They require a completely different set of skills So if that's what you're after by all means pursue it aggressively go for it figure out what do you need?
I want to be a manager. What skills do I need top three skills, right? Go for it But don't do it because it's the only way for you to advance now I'll focus on this path here except the dying part at the end It's a bit simplified, but it's okay for the purpose of this talk For instance, there's several types of architects, but they have so much in common that we can treat them as one role here
So the biggest shift is going from developer to architect and I hear that a lot to what are your goals well I want to go into architecture. What does that even mean? Well, simply speaking the architect designs and develops implement Now this is a fluid role and in many cases people have both roles, but we're talking roles not people, right?
But the architect is responsible for seeing the big picture Now, let me just inject here that I don't believe in the non coding architect. I think there's an abomination and They should be
coding not shot, but coding Now if you can't Code and you can't and you you really can't create a regime that other people will code in Now we're talking about the solution architect that makes architects a software project You have other architects like the enterprise architect which designs systems and you have the
Systems architect that has a small bunch of systems and so on but we're talking about the immediate path area of developing Developer architect so the difference between developer and architect is on what level you care But then I'm sorry different when the different architects is what level do you care what how big picture do you want to see?
Another difference within developer and architect that the architect role usually interfaces more with the business. I Keep saying that I interpret business problems into technological solutions
That's my architect role. That's what I do now I might be a dev on one project and then I'm architecting the next project fun Generally the difference between a developer and an architect is in their skill profile So along the X is the a bunch of skills
Along the Y is how skilled you are How proficient you are? These are two different profiles. Can you tell which one's which? make a guess So the architect needs the big picture So this is the architect the architect needs to know of
Not necessarily know but know of a broad set of tools He knows needs to know about all the Lego pieces the developer Can be more focused. How come I'm working on this. I'm a front-end developer I'm working on web applications. I know HTML CSS JavaScript. That's it
But I'm super good at it Right, but the architect needs to know that how that works and it needs to know about backend systems Distributed systems databases and so on and so maybe some cloud in there as well
So if you're going from a developer role where you're often like this Into an architect role you need to broaden your skill set. You need a broader part knowledge of what's possible what exists But there's a finite amount of time in a day
so you'll never get Everything to the same level here because that just doesn't add up And this is what one area I've seen a lot of people struggle with is they want transition from developer to architect But they need to broaden their skills. So how do they do that?
Well, my suggestion is you've taken as much knowledge as possible that way you can get a good overview of what's available what's possible to do and Thereby enabling you to have a more informed opinion on what you should look closer at
right So you won't really know it but you know of it Personally I consume a lot of podcasts and videos so I But like I said, we have a finite amount of hours and days while multitask I listen to podcasts in the car on the way to work
Dotnet rocks usually ask me back and forth for a day handsome minutes last me in one way depending on traffic or If I increase the speed I find that I can listen to podcasts quite nicely if you play my 1.4 X Will go faster you still get what they get
As your Friday videos are a favorite of mine there by 12 minutes perfect for when a folding laundry So good on the basement Bring it a bunch of clothes and I stand there watching a video while I fold laundry They're really good as well because they're pretty focused and to give you a good introduction to a topic
General line videos, I'll use those as a radio Have it all listen to him while I'm working in the garden or on the house maybe because it's enough to Hear what this I don't need to get a deep understanding of what they're doing and actually see it some videos kind of suck when you Don't do it. So let's keep those but a lot of the videos you're fine
But just listening to them. The audio track is usually sufficient to get a handle on what this is And Sometimes I'll even have it on the back one on my computer while I'm working if something interesting pops up What's that? That sounds fun people to have different needs and do different things all at all enables me to have an opinion on
when something might be applicable and Then I look into it deeper and figure out is this an actual good fit for this project or not? so that gives me a broad awareness of Of different kinds of technology what's coming what's not coming what are people doing with it and so on
My my biggest enemy when I'm trying to learn new things is the instant gratification monkey That's the little monkey in my head. That's looking for quick fix and don't have the patient to wait until
The substantial reward is down the road. He just want a quick hit right now His biggest drugs are Wikipedia and immature Who find a picture he's that little bastard tells you click that What's that what's that inside there you just watch a YouTube video what's that recommended for you video over there check that out
Next picture looks funny. I was boring keep going until you find a funny picture We'll tell you stuff shit like that. It's like yeah, I'll quit when I find a really funny picture
He's the guy that makes you procrastinate and not do what you're supposed to do Now some people have a better than others some people have worse my monkeys pretty ripped is badass But I've seen a lot of people with their own monkeys. I'll brought up here as well now remember smart goals Specific measurable attainable realistic and time bound one trick to prevent the gratification monkey
Is to pit him against the deadline gorilla time bound remember one of the reasons I'd be giving talks So I signed up to do talks at the local user group Because then I got myself a deadline I
Brought home the deadline gorilla, and he kicks the gratification monkeys ass well still My gratification monkey is awesome. If we don't have deadlines I get interesting results I should not have done that I should not have done that and they're pretty weird those habits as well
By the way, they're pretty screwed up see half you're thinking. I'm gonna look that up So yeah, that's your monkey going oh, let me check that out
Certainly, you're not doing the next session because you're on Wikipedia reading about giraffes making out actually if you Cool thing Google for a video called how to talk to giraffes You'll thank me later the worst parts. I have no idea how I ended up here, and this is not
This is not a joke this actually happened I Didn't just figure make this up But that's when I decide no this is enough close so My deadline gorilla takes care of my gratification monkey
Another trick I use because My gratification monkey is a picky little thing he has some things he likes better than others, so there's an application called rescue time Where I can block web pages I? Can say I get 10 minutes of image or a day?
And when that's done. It's done. So yeah So we're getting close to the end, but one more thing this is also important. I think figure out what you suck at And stop doing it Seriously, if you're not good at something chances are you want to join Your gratification monkey gets an easy job. You're not getting shit done. It weighs on you and just gives you grief
And this is not just things you find boring This is things you're not good at For instance me I suck and managing money It's not my strong side at all, so I left that to my wife. She takes care of all that stuff
And it works out great She has less grief. I have less grief Another thing I suck at is delivering expense reports But that I kind of have to do Otherwise I won't get money, and then my wife will be upset And I don't want that I want both the money and the happy wife
So I have to do that so some things you just can't stop because you have to do it But can't try to work around it try to minimize stuff. You're not good at and focus on the stuff. You're good at because that makes you happier and That makes you
It's so much easier to get better at stuff you like Then get better at stuff you don't like so I heard on the the train in here I chatted with some other guys, and we're talking about when the robots take over the world
The value of our service is going to plummet Why? Because we like our job the price of a McDonald's burger is going to go through the roof because nobody wants to stand at McDonald's at 4 a.m.. Flipping fries So when robots take over the world and we get this everybody gets like a minimum salary thing
If you want someone to get out of work and work at McDonald's when they have basic income already covered You're not going to do that unless you give them lots of money, but hey you want a word press lecture I'll fix that for you. Don't worry about it. So this was a dense talk, so let me summarize it a little bit
Now this list is sort of prioritized, so if nothing else start at the top Define successful and set yourself some long-term goals most dreams die on the tyranny of how
the how becomes apparent When you have the what? Right when you have a clear view of what you want Then it's easy to figure out the how Forget how things will happen Focus on what you want to happen, so if nothing else take that with you. What do you want to happen? What?
So define successful for yourself derived long-term goals from your definition Imagine the future you you v2 and go backwards What do you v2 do right before the end and so on and so on and so on?
Dare to feel epic lose that imposter syndrome get a little bit of confidence It will help you go a long way and just having confidence in your abilities Makes other people more confident and trusts you more screw talent
It doesn't work put in the hard work instead Work kicks talons ass And stay focused and stop doing the things you suck at if you want to follow Andreas and Margrethe, they're sailing around the world. They have a blog sailing stellar Polaris calm
You find them in Facebook, too They're pretty interesting Otherwise you get in touch with me on Twitter on email Anyone have any questions Yes
so how do you differentiate between things you suck at and you Actually should be doing and things you suck yet, and you really shouldn't be doing Well, if you don't do it is anybody gonna kick your ass There's somebody gonna come and complain to you if you don't do the things you saw you the thing in question
Is somebody gonna be disappointed and give you grief or avoid it or give it to someone else? So as if you suck at it try to get rid of it But some things you can't get rid of because nobody else will do it for you
I cannot get my wife to fill out my expense reports Is it fun Well
So the thing is you suck at that but you enjoy it and now we're down to prioritizing So do I enjoy that more than This other thing that it could do instead
Yeah, yeah, that's another way, but I'll agree with that. We have a common understanding So another thing the definition of successful So we have different areas of success Work professional environment is one you have a definition of success and you have a definition of success in your family, perhaps Those two might be at odds Right. So being successful at work
Might require a sacrifice on the family and the other way around So there you end up with a point where I have to prioritize like, okay What do I be what do I mostly want to be successful at? Can I do both if I go a little bit down on that can I do that but still like keep the goals keep the definition
But maybe you'll come to a point say okay, I can do that to get there But then I can't do that. So I'll do that instead because I enjoy that more That is more important to me so For instance for me, I don't I Don't submit for a lot of conferences because I want to spend more time with my kids
So I don't do the whole like I know some people who did 52 talks last year I Talked to that guy. He did 40 talks last year. I talked to this other guy He for the past week, he didn't not spend more than 20 hours in a single country
So I but that's his definition of fun enjoyment. It's I for the moment have a different one So yeah Other questions Yes
So in this in the transition to developer and architect you have to broaden your skill set, but you can't go deep So, how do you define what is deep enough? I usually stop at awareness
Like I know of it, but I don't know it. I couldn't sit down and do it For instance, I know of service fabric as your service fabric is a thing I know of I have no idea how it actually works in practice If you gave me if you said go spin up a service fabric cluster, I couldn't do it. I don't know the commands
I don't know. I I have no idea, but I know how it works I know some of the how the internals of it work. I know what problems I can solve with it but if I actually thought that oh I want to I Need to solve that this could be a fit for my problem then I would have to do more research
I would have to figure out how this actually works and I'd probably have to do some testing and stuff like that So I stop at awareness that I know of it and I know what problems I can solve with it But I don't know the technical details of it or how the mechanics of it. How would I use it? Did that answer your question?
If anyone else has a different definition, then go ahead. I can't stand here because I can't see anything. What are my goals? When I was 20, one of my long-term goals was to have a helicopter.
That was my definition of success, to have a helicopter. I'm not there yet. I still like a helicopter, but I realized the opportunity is getting smaller and smaller. I still want that helicopter, though. But I researched it. I figured out how much it would cost.
I could order a kit that I could build myself for so much money. I could order a more complete version, a three-seater from Sweden that came with a shipping container. But there's some problems, like where do I put a helicopter? But that was one of my goals. I have another goal, which is I have a goal of working about two days a week.
That's one of my goals. Being able to work two days a week and that's it. I have no idea how I'm going to get there. Nobody said goals were easy. I have some ideas, but right now the place I'm at, family-wise right now,
doesn't allow me to do the things I would do to get that goal. So that's a prioritization thing going. And I have a bunch of other goals that I keep to myself. Any other questions? Yes, Mike.
When do I get to own a goal? Or when I get too old for goals? When you die. You're never too old for goals. So whatever you're doing, if you don't have goals, you're not going anywhere.
To me, if you don't have any goals, any form of I'd like to do that, then that's pretty sad. You're not going anywhere. You're just standing still. Personally, I can't imagine being there. To me, that would suck.
That would be the end. Or you're happy. Yeah, content. That would be... I don't know. Do you ever get there? I don't know. I think when you get to a certain goal, if I should achieve this, I have the helicopter, I'm working two days a week,
everything is all golden. I probably could have some more goals, some stuff to do. Then I could have goals of using my success for achieving other things. Yeah, so the theory of... So the theory of the...
The best way of being happy is just set a really low bar for success. It's like I managed to get up before noon. Success. Super happy. I don't die today. Awesome. Winning. Hashtag winning. No, yeah. That's why I like having bold goals.
Be bold in your goals and set some really freaky goals. Like deciding at 12, I'm going to sail around the world and sticking to it until he's now almost 40. Now he's doing it. It took him almost 30 years. Actually, he just turned 40.
38 years it took him. Now he's got a chance. We'll figure it out in two or three years if we've made it. Right. My time's up. Thank you guys for coming. Thank you. If you want to catch me, I'll be around here and probably down in the comments.
Don't be afraid to say hi.