Circumventing Fear of the Unknown

Presented at try! Swift NYC 2018: https://www.tryswift.co/events/2018/nyc/#fear

Slides with speaker notes are here: https://static.ashfurrow.com/try_swift_2018/deck_with_notes.pdf

I'll link to the video when it's been uploaded.

Transcript

1. Circumventing Fear Of The Unknown
2. Story Time
3. Agenda 1. Fear Cannot Be Avoided 2. Struggling is Normal 3. Work Smarter, Not Harder
4. Fear Cannot Be Avoided
5. Everyone experiences fear
6. Fear cannot be avoided
7. Fear cannot be avoided… But it can be circumvented
8. We can change our relationship to fear By acknowledging it
10. We can change our relationship to fear By talking about it with others
11. The best work environments Invite you to ask questions And talk about feelings
12. As a human being You deserve a supportive environment
13. Leaders need to exhibit curiosity And praise curiosity in others And encourage empathy
14. Struggling is Normal
15. https://jvns.ca
16. https://jvns.ca
17. Computers are actually Pretty difficult
18. Engineers don’t write code Engineers solve problems
19. Don’t get attached to your code Don’t get attached to your tools
20. There is always someone Lower-stack than you
21. Work Smarter, Not Harder
22. Humans want to have an impact
23. When starting your career You focus on learning a lot of new things And gaining experience
24. Engineers tend to over-specialize
25. Expert
26. Expert Generalist
27. Expert Generalist T-Shaped
28. Branching out of expertise is difficult You will struggle That’s okay
29. As your career grows You need to shift And focus on improving how you work
30. Forget about flow state
31. Skill Level Challenge Level Apathy
32. Skill Level Challenge Level Relaxation
33. Skill Level Challenge Level Anxiety
34. Skill Level Challenge Level Flow
35. Do shallow work
36. Skill Level Challenge Level Flow
37. Skill Level Challenge Level Flow Anxiety
38. Skill Level Challenge Level Shallow work
39. Pair with other engineers
40. Focus on a minimum-viable next step
41. Learn how you work best But don’t overdo it
42. Wrapping Up 1. Fear Cannot Be Avoided 2. Struggling is Normal 3. Work Smarter, Not Harder
43. You’ve Got This (And it’s okay if you don’t)