#SpaceCityJS

Otherwise known as….how I spent my Saturday, and the most re-tweeting I have done in one day….ever(hence the hastag).

This was a JavaScript conference in Houston. It was awesome for so many reasons. But, the one that stuck out to me the most was the focus on learning to understand and relate to others. I have listened to many talks on YouTube discussing elements of code, how to improve as a developer, how to incorporate new tricks in your developer toolkit, etc…

These have all been influential, but not nearly as inspiring as some that I heard on Saturday.

Since I was volunteering, most of the talks I heard were through a speaker in the front while we helped check in attendees. I was surprised to hear words like, art being used to describe becoming a better developer. It caught my hear because I am constantly trying to find ways to be an artist and a scientist. I was surprised to hear words like empathy, to discuss the need to learn to relate to others, and how essential that is to creating products and services that matter. As a social scientist, I was impressed to have Kubler-Ross stages of grief distilled down and applied to life as an open source developer. Maybe my background was leading me to software development after all?

I have to say that although I was truly exhausted (mentally and physically) by the time I got home, it was totally worth giving up my Saturday, and I hope to do it again next year.