"A ship in port is safe; but that is not what ships are built for. Sail out to sea and do new things."

Title quote from Grace Hopper.


First things first, a couple of mandatory videos. Seriously, go watch these:
1. Sheryl Sandberg's Keynote. Quite a bit different than her TED talk, though part of that is encompassed in the talk. It's a bit long (45 minutes) but absolutely worth it! Sheryl had some great advice and some funny comments - very inspiring to hear.

2. a)Grace Hopper Interview on David Letterman
b) If you've ever heard this quote, it was Grace Hopper! "It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission."
c) Longer video on Grace Hopper.

Seriously, read up on her. She's an inspiring lady, and it's pretty cool that she was involved in Technology before it was even an issue how many women were in technology or not because there just weren't that many people in technology. She also coined the term "Bug" after finding a moth in a vacuum tube.

Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing happened last week in Portland and it was awesome. It was very interesting to be in a room filled with 3,000 women (and a handful of gents) that were all interested in technology or wanted to celebrate women in computing. As I was explaining to some non-tech buddies later that week, it's a very weird but not in an unsettling sort of way to be surrounded by that many women with whom you have "more than vaginas in common." Just that feeling that you can walk up to anyone and have some sort of discussion with them and it doesn't need to be about shoes (or your lack of knowledge of shoes). I expect this to be drastically different than I will feel Monday when I launch in to a female dominated workplace. That will be a NEW experience for me.


On Feeling Like a Fraud
One of the things Sheryl talked about in her keynote was feeling like a fraud, and how it's a very personal experience for her. I think the most interesting thing for me was finding out that this feeling is basically a shared experience for women in technology. I often sign up for something (classes, new responsibility, new jobs) and at some point after agreeing to do it FREAK OUT that I am not qualified or am going to fail or have no right to be in X situation. I usually get over this feeling and do it anyway (enough confidence to sign up and hate backing away from things...). I've felt this way at least since High School about a lot of Opportunities I've taken on but it was... reassuring probably isn't the right word... but very interesting to learn that It's not just me that feels this way.

On Apologies
One beef I had with the conference was this feeling that I got that when most people were talking about Computing they were really talking about Computer Science and Computer Engineering. Time after time women would get up to the microphone and basically apologize for being a "non-traditional Computer Scientist". I think many of these women were some of the most inspiring at the conference! I also think we need to promote their experiences widely. Aside from just getting Technical Women in front of girls, we need to get non-traditional computing folks in front of youth because that's how we'll encourage more diversity in design fields (all STEM fields). There were some alarming stats given that even though there are massive amounts of funding going in to STEM education, the least amount of funding is going in to Computer Science.

I tweeted this from the conference when people kept apologizing for not being "A Computer Science Person" (and even Sheryl saying she didn't feel like she was qualified to speak at a Celebration for Women in Computing!!!!), and I think it will need to become one of my major tenets going forward :
" My theory: computing should be looked at as a toolset. It does not need to be THE thing you do so much as a means to do what you want"

A couple quick things I left out from Yesterday's post:
- All the awesome people I got to hang out with! Sam, Sara, Jeff, Jeff's friends, Tara, Rachel, Dave, Lindsey, and Emily!
- Saw 3 different cities worth of Occupy campouts (Portland, Seattle, and Anchorage). Thought about how it would change your perception of the city if you didn't know about the nationwide movement.
- Explored 3 new cities and thought about how bizarre it would be to either grow up or try to date in those cities.