Keynote by Rikki Endsley

Okay, is this anyone's first time in Austin? All right My first time in Austin, I live in Raleigh now. I lived here for a year last year, but my very first time here was in 1990. I was going to KU in Lawrence, Kansas, and I took a spring break down here And so a few months later I dropped out of KU and I moved here. And uh and uh took some time off of school and saw a lot of bands and um Eventually I uh transferred into back into UT and uh eventually I graduated from UT. So it's been really fun for me also to be back here and if you haven't explored campus yet, I encourage you to walk around. Um I have a little hole in the wall uh signed up there. Um hole in the wall is right across the street from the university and if you haven't been there, it's been around since the early 70s

and Had my graduation party there. But a lot of bands got started there. So it's a cool place to stop by and check out if you haven't been there yet. It's got a lot of Austin history and music history. So who's wondering why I would be speaking at DjangoCon if I'm not involved with Django? Yeah, okay. That's a legitimate question, but I am kind of connected to Django, and that's a funny story. So, as Jeff mentioned, um I my career started at Sisadmin Magazine. After I graduated from UT, I moved back to Lawrence, Kansas. And um I got a job at a uh tech publishing company and customer service, and after a few months I transferred over to my first job in um in publishing and sysadmin

's not around anymore and sadly this is about the only sign of it I could find online the magazine it's unfortunate because it was an exceptional magazine I'm really proud to have gotten my start there but even if it was by accident. It's what introduced me to Linux and uh uh it was just the journal for Unix sysadmins, and then once Linux started getting big, we expanded our coverage for Linux admins also. And some of the relationships I have all these years later date back to the very beginning of my career. And so I want to talk about uh doing what you like to do for a long time with a diverse group of people that you like working with. and who like working with you, which is also an important part of this. So Frank Wiles is right up here and Uh this is an example of somebody I've ended up working with for a very long time.

Uh he wrote back for us uh back in 2003 I couldn't find archives from Sysadma but I could find a newsletter online which is really weird. Um but so this is a newsletter I sent out in 2003 promoting An article that Frank wrote for us. And so I was at uh Susaban for about 10 years. And then I moved over, a German company was um expanding and wanted to open an office in Lawrence, Kansas, and so I helped them open that office. And I was a editor of Linux Pro magazine, which is still around and they have since launched several other magazines, Ubuntu User magazine and admin magazine. A lot of the writers from Sysadmin, you know, still contribute to Admin Magazine. And so the Journal World wrote an article about this, uh, what was it, 2007.

Uh is anyone familiar with the Journal World or the World Company? Right, see or see more, it's all coming together now. So as I'm traveling the country and going to conferences talking about Linux Pro Magazine and Linux the Media and how we have an office in Lawrence now, I kept hearing that's where Django's from. And Ancient Ingo is not even officially released yet. It's a project, right? And so this was really weird uh that we kept hearing this uh from people, you know, in San Francisco, you know, international people who were here at events. It was very strange to be hearing about this already. And so When I got back home, I I was like, hey Frank, can you uh write an article about this Django that I keep hearing about? And uh So he did and he submitted the article in um it he probably submitted about August 2008

because in publishing um you know the in for print Uh you submit it and then several weeks before it goes through printing, you know, and then it hit newsstands in September in Europe because uh we were international and they got printed over in Europe. Oh and see what I called it um Front-free, that was my idea for the title, so I thought it was clever. So it it didn't hit over here in the States until October, but so it's hitting in Europe uh in September right as Django 1 gets released. So that was kind of cool. So yay, ten years later. Django, happy anniversary. So here we are, ten years later. Uh and Um 19 years after I graduated from UT and 18 years after I started my career in tech, and I'm happy to say that Frank uh

has even contributed to the project I'm on now, opensource. com, and I encourage everyone to do that. I like these long-term relationships and hearing about cool new projects. So anyway, back to my talk. What inspired this talk, I I wasn't able to attend PyCon, but I being from Lawrence, I uh know a lot of the people involved in in uh PyCon projects and Django. And so I was watching some of the YouTube videos that came out of PyCon and I saw Jacob's keynote and uh I really I really liked it. Um he I thought it was cool how he was able to tie in you know, the rock star uh developer myth and how uh if you haven't seen the talk yet, you I really encourage it. He talked about how what we need is more average developers. And um, you know, the the idea of a rock star

developer is very limiting. He and he also managed to tie in trail running, which I thought was cool. Um because we used to run together also. But So anyway, that inspired this talk. And um if you're not familiar with the whole concept of uh Rockstar Developer, I know many of you are, but I know we also have some newer people here. Um It has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time and I've given uh talks about recruiting at other conferences and and how we have to get rid of uh this idea of recruiting for a rock star developer. Uh here's one of the bazillion articles that you'll find online which recruiters apparently don't read these but uh this one This one um was interesting because um Scott writes, it sets an unreasonable expectation for regular folks. Calling out rock stars demotivates the team and telling someone that they're a rock star

may cause them to actually believe it. And one of the many reasons I have a problem with this whole idea of a rock star is it takes a lot of people behind the scenes. You know, like as an editor or as a uh publisher I often got credit for the magazine and I was just like, uh, I was the one that just kind of plugged in holes. There were a whole bunch of people. you know, that actually did the heavy lifting, like writing the articles and editing and doing art and you know getting it to the printer and all of that. So same thing with this idea of a rock star developer. And so if you want to increase diversity, you know, as Jacob was talking in his keynote, this is one of the many things that you can do is eliminate these limiting terms um you know that clearly when I read this, I mean people see different things when they see Rockstar Developer, but I'm seeing young young white male, you know, and I think a a lot of people probably see that.

And also I like a lot of country, so I might not relate to this, you know. And And um a lot of people d have no desire to be a rock star, you know. Like when I see um a uh recruiter, you know, that talks about beer in the kitchen, I personally don't work well after I've had drinks during the day and so that's not a big motivating factor for me to apply for a company. There's a keg in the kitchen. So uh I and so when I was looking a little bit more about what people have said about Rockstar developers, um Uh Nathan Hurst wrote on Higher Higher Light, he wrote an article about what developers think when you say rock star. And he also he posted a question on the Hacker News and asked developers, what do you think when you see Rockstar in ads and he has some pretty funny comments. Like this one?

So yeah, I like that one. If by rock star you mean someone that parties all night, comes in late and hung over, has weird contractual demands and trashes hotel rooms on business trips, then yes, I guess I'm a rock star. When do I start? Don't forget to bite the head off a bat and trash the place on your way out. And one of the comments that was kind of funny, somebody um actually wrote to the recruiter and said, What do you mean by rock star? And she wrote back, Oh, I'm sorry, I meant ninja So uh this is um from the from the article, you know he said um next time you're thinking about saying rock star, ninja, guru, etcetera, in your job post, consider it a sign that you have more thinking to do about your hiring requirements. And I mean it's it's lazy to say rock star or ninja or whatever.

It's just lazy. It doesn't say anything. To me when I I I see that I'm thinking this must be an intern who wrote this or somebody who uh has no idea what they're recruiting for, doesn't understand the technology perhaps or you know the business if this is what they're doing. So obviously it would make more sense to say, what do you want me to be able to do? What level of experience are you hunting for? What am I supposed to know? What, you know, what do I need to be really uh an expert in and somewhat competent in? What can I just pick up really fast on the job? But more importantly, I'm at the position in my career where I want to know what you have to offer me. You know, um what's your company like, what's your culture like, you know, um what am I gonna like about the project? Um So that's gonna make more sense when you're recruiting and you want diversity. So back to Jacob's talk. Um I I have ADD and people who have ADD, it's not that they're not listening to you.

As I'm watching his PyCon talk, I'm five steps ahead because he's not talking fast enough as far as I'm concerned, you know, and and so I'm thinking steps ahead and and I'm thinking I've leapt past his talk and I'm thinking about Django Reinhardt which You know, is where Django gets its name. And I like Django Reinhardt. If you haven't listened to him, I encourage you to. It's wonderful gypsy jazz uh music. It never goes out of style. But here's where Willie Nelson comes in. Django Reinhardt is one of his biggest musical influences. So I go from Jacob's talk at PyCon right into Willie Nelson. moment and it all happened really fast. And so um I went home and like you do I pulled out all my records and I started playing Willie Nelson records after work. And um If you're not familiar, the flat ones are albums LPs and the little

ones they're they're gonna set they play on much bigger devices than you're used to. Now the cat was I did not place her. If anyone's got a cat, they place themselves all in your business and that's what happened there, but that's buffy. So that's what I was doing when I got home and I started listening to records, watching YouTube videos. And um thinking about Willie Nelson developers as opposed to a rockstar developer. And so I wrote that article and eight ways really uh Developers could be more like Willie Nelson and I thought about lessons that Willie Nelson has for developers. And I'm I'm not gonna go through all eight here, but I have a few. And one of them is that he helps others succeed. His he actually wrote his first song when he was about seven. And Um, you know, he didn't make it big until the 60s or 70s.

So if you've been doing this for a few decades, don't worry, you still could get really big and get a good paying job at some point. Um so he Uh he worked behind the scenes quite a bit at first. Um he was a uh disc jockey. He played bass in uh Ray Price's band, who I saw in Austin in college. He was excellent. Rest in peace. Um and he he's written a c a lot of songs that other people made famous. Um he wrote Crazy, which is you know Patsy Klein's probably biggest hit, right? Um and uh he wrote songs that Roy Orbison and 50 billion the other people have recorded. And then I think that all of us, um, not just developers, should constantly be learning new skills. Uh Willie Nelson, I think he's 81 now. Um 81 or 82, but I think he's eighty one.

And he got his fifth degree black belt to celebrate his 80th birthday. So this is pretty recent. So um he's just awesome. He's constant uh constantly learning new skills. He's um Uh in addition to uh you know recording and writing music, he um has dabbled on TV. I believe he was on episode of Dukes of Hazard. Uh he's been on and the Colbert uh Christmas or Hanukkah special, whatever it was. And um he uh he you can look on YouTube and there's a video of him doing a magic trick in his tour bus that was pretty funny. And uh um you know just a bunch of different skills. And then I also think that regardless of how far you are in your career, you should be accessible to a wide range of people. Um and so as uh you know

Willie uh records with uh a a range of people uh relatively new in the field and then uh he just released an album recently, I think it's with Merle Haggard and um where they do um Django Reinhardt songs and um Jimmy Rogers songs. Um and then I've seen him play in uh uh rodeo type situation a a county fair and then I've seen him play in a really fancy, very expensive theater. I got free tickets or I wouldn't have been there. And uh I saw him play in um Liberty Hall, which is a a cool historic theater in Lawrence, Kansas and It's the only time I've ever stood in line for tickets, but they were only about thirty bucks, so it was affordable. And so I I think that's a a big lesson for um you know anybody who's working in open source that it's very important to be thinking about helping you new people in addition to working with, you know, people that you know and like and have worked with for a long time, and that helps keep it all fresh

also. And so he also um uses the best tool for the job. Um the guitar he plays uh he's had since 1959, I believe. Um And 59 or 69. Anyway, he paid fifty bucks for it and it's a a classical guitar. Um it's not meant to be played with a pick and that's why it has a giant hole in it. Uh if you've ever seen him play, I it I cropped that there I guess but and he's had it patched repeatedly. Um and he was inspired to do this from Django Reinhardt. See how I'm tying it all together? Because that's what Django Reinhardt plays. And so that's not normally what you hear in country music, but he gets this unique sound out of it that he really likes. And so he has stuck with it. um and used it in an innovative way. So um think about that the next time you're at an open source or Linux event and you see people with Macs

because I used to bring a Mac to events and I would get grief once in a while and I was like You know, get off my ass. You're allowed to use multiple operating systems, you know. Um you don't you don't have to just print you know pick print or online as your favorite. You can subscribe to a magazine and read, you know, online publications. You're allowed to do this. Right? Thank you. And I I also think uh it's important to lead. Um and like I said, he's perfectly comfortable working in background roles. He still records, you know, um on other people's albums. But he's also a leader and he really sets a tone for his band. I know somebody who works with him who calls him St. Willie because he's so delightful to work with. Um but leaders, uh I I know some people in our field are really uncomfortable being in front of people, you know, uh

or maybe talking on stage or they don't want to lead up. A team, but you can lead by answering questions in IRC. You know, you can lead by welcoming newcomers to your event. You can lead by helping organize events. or attending a meetup and participating. So there are many ways you can be a leader in open source. You don't have to be in front on guitar. This is not a picture of Willie Nelson, but um I like the picture. Uh collaborate with a diverse mix of people. And I think that this is really important. I've uh this has helped me so much in my career. Um you know, anytime I'm feeling uh a little bit uh stagnant, you know, it's very important for me to reach out and think of, you know, what where ha haven't I worked yet? What haven't I learned and who haven't I worked with yet? And uh what events haven't I been to?

I haven't been to a DjangoCon yet. I've been wanting to come for a long time, so I was happy to get invited to this event. So Um he uh Willie Nelson records with um everybody. I mean he rec he the outlaw music scene that he got into when he moved back to Austin, he kind of retired and quit in in the late sixties, early seventies because he wasn't getting the fame, you know, that and um record sales or whatever that he had expected. But when he got here, you know, he started hanging out with these different people, the Austin people And um it helped him come up with this new sound, the outlaw music, you know, sound, and it completely changed the direction of his career and and um And he got some cor commercial success finally. Um so and he's recorded with you know

jazz artists, you know, country rock artists. Um he's covered at rock songs. He's recorded with Snoop Dogg, which I think is kind of cool. And apparently they're kind of good buddies and hang out. So that's some good advice from Willie Nelson. So um if you are not a rock star developer and that you know you're never feeling like you're going to want to be a rock star developer, that's great. Uh like Jacob says, watch the video. Um it's perfectly awesome to be an average developer. We need a lot of just good dependable developers. And Willie Nelson, one of the my favorite quotes from him, He you know, he's been around for decades now and he said I never gave up on country music because I knew what I was doing was not that bad.

And so, you know He's he's had some not great songs and not the best selling albums, you know. I mean he's had a whole range and and he I think he even recorded a reggae album which I've never heard of, so apparently it wasn't a huge hit, right? So uh But um I think it's okay to get out there and try new things and you're gonna fail at some of them, you know, and then you can keep doing the stuff that you're real comfortable with also and um and that you're that pays the bills, I guess. So here are the few of the highlights from what I think we can learn from Willie Nelson. There are many more, but I I know this isn't a whole week about what I think you can learn from Willie Nelson, so I try to condense it. But help others succeed, learn new skills, be accessible to a range of um of um people in your community, um experts and novices. Also I think it's always important to be con uh considerate for people who don't have the funds to attend events

because I certainly have been in that position, and I know a lot of people who are, and so make sure you're able to uh you know uh be accessible online in IRC or at community events, low-cost events. Use the best tool for the job or innovate on an existing tool or create a better tool. Or you know, document the tool because you think it's crappy and realize it's just that the documentation is crappy, you can help that way too. Play supporting and leading roles and collaborate with a diverse mix of people, which I know here you all are really good about doing that, but we can always improve in this area. And so if you all have not seen the Willie Nelson statue that was developed uh it was uh uh dedicated a few years ago on 420 It's over

on 301 Nelson Willie Nelson Boulevard. It's only uh about one and a half miles from here, which I would say walk, except that it's supposed to be about a hundred degrees out Um but I think it would be fun if you do go over and make that pilgrimage, post a picture on uh Twitter or Instagram or wherever and tag DjangoCon because I would love to see if anyone makes it over there. It's it's a a cool statue. And I wanted to thank everybody for having me and for inviting me. And also, um, I'm not going to take questions right after this. I will be happy to be uh taking questions or talking to everybody in the hallway track during the break. And if you have questions about opensource. com and how you can contribute or participate, please let me know. So thank you so much.