Episode 407 | Sarah Withee - Open Learning

Guest:

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Sarah Withee talks with Dave Rael about teaching, being a geek, sharing secrets and vulnerability, and the rewards of learning

Sarah Withee is a polyglot software engineer, public speaker, teacher and mentor, and hardware and robot tinkerer located in Pittsburgh, PA. She has a passion for technology, and has ever since she wrote her first computer programs in elementary school. Sarah has given incredibly popular conference technical talks as well as powerful talks capable of making people laugh and cry at the same time. She's given workshops to teach programming and hardware building to women in tech, as well as to students of all ages. She's mentored middle and high school robotics teams to world championships. She's even helped organize six conferences, and is presently the director of programming for Abstractions conference. She has even been on a Google Year in Search video, and started the viral hashtag #SpeakerConfessions. She passionately tries to connect with people and communities, both online and offline, and encourage and support new people going in tech.

Chapters: 0:29 - Dave introduces the show and Sarah Withee2:33 - Sarah's love of learning and how she got started in software4:50 - Sarah's experiences with teaching9:25 - Conference talks with human appeal, vulnerability, and personal connection17:06 - The problems with job interviews21:08 - Sarah, the podcaster26:55 - Sarah's story of failure - visibly breaking the build the associated anxiety30:29 - Sarah's success story - learning on the fly and exercising latitude33:17 - Sarah's book (rather, tech news magazine) recommendation34:41 - The things that have Sarah most excited35:56 - Sarah's top 3 tips for delivering more value37:28 - Keeping up with Sarah

Resources: Abstractions Conference Google Year in Search Video Including Sarah Commodore 64 Sarah's "The Power of Secrets" Talk Life, Gender, and the Pursuit of Happiness - Sarah's Intense and Emotional Blog Post Nate Taylor on Developer On Fire The Rest of Us in Tech - Sarah's Podcast Kent Beck on Developer On Fire #SpeakerConfessions

Sarah's book recommendation: Wired

Sarah's top 3 tips for delivering more value: Remember empathy Keep learning Be kind