I attended my first Hackathon this past weekend, organized and hosted by the amazing Women Who Code. It will probably be remembered as one of the best experiences I’ve had. Ever. I learned so much, I met so many amazing people, and I gained a great deal of confidence, and I made some wonderful, talented, incredibly inspiring friends. I am definitely going to attend more hackathons in the future, and I recommend that you guys do too! (For those of you who don’t know what a hackathon is, I’ll go ahead and take the description off the Women Who Code Hackathon’s website: A Hackathon is an event in which computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers and project managers, collaborate intensively on software projects.)
Tag: women who code
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past few months, it’s that in order to get into a good habit, you have to start small. (Or maybe not. Perhaps you’re one of those people who can jump right into something and make it stick. If so, hats off to you.) I’ve also learned that sometimes, it is okay to ask for help or create something to force (ahem) motivate yourself. If forming habits and turning something into a regular event in your life were easy, there wouldn’t be so many people failing or giving up on their New Year resolutions every year. For me, at least, I like to have outside motivations to keep me going. I’m great at meeting outside expectations, but when I’m the one making the rules and setting the schedule, I have a hard time following through. (This is something author Gretchen Rubin calls being an “Obliger.” Her book, Better Than Before talks a lot about creating habits for different personality types. I definitely recommend a read!) To keep myself going and accountable, I’ve recently started setting goals and asking people close to me to keep me more motivated and set expectations for me.
Over the weekend, I attended We Rise, a conference that focuses on women in technology. It was my first time at a tech conference, and I didn’t know what to expect from that experience. In fact, the night before, I was anxiously telling William, “what if I don’t know who to sit with at lunch? What if I don’t have anyone to talk to?” (and he was just looking at me like, “really? that’s what you’re worried about right now?) I went in not knowing what to expect and feeling terrified that my socially awkward introversion would take over. I came out of the conference feeling the complete opposite.
Here are some of my take-aways and highlights: Continue reading
