Hybrids Rule Everything Around Me
A talk given with ❤ by Bryan Veloso
http://simpledesktops.com/browse/desktops/2013/apr/06/wiresphere_black/
Slide 2
Slide 2 text
Specialization is dead.
Slide 3
Slide 3 text
Specialization is dead. No, not really.
Slide 4
Slide 4 text
Specialization has evolved.
Slide 5
Slide 5 text
The common term?
Well, I find it boring...
Slide 6
Slide 6 text
A generalist.
“yeah, I’m generally ok at things.”
Slide 7
Slide 7 text
A jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none.
Cool story bro. What does a jack even do?
Slide 8
Slide 8 text
Yo jack-of-all-trades, I’m really happy for you and Imma
let you finish but hybrid is the best title of all time.
Slide 9
Slide 9 text
Come on guys, srsly. Mega Man or
horses with horns? You pick. But I’m
going with hybrid.
“Unicorn” is prey cool too.
Slide 10
Slide 10 text
No content
Slide 11
Slide 11 text
Hi, I’m @bryanveloso.
Slide 12
Slide 12 text
I live in LA.
Slide 13
Slide 13 text
With my wonderful wife, Jen.
Slide 14
Slide 14 text
... and 1 cat.
Slide 15
Slide 15 text
... and 2 cats.
Slide 16
Slide 16 text
... and 3 cats.
Slide 17
Slide 17 text
... and 4 cats.
Slide 18
Slide 18 text
... and 5 cats.
Slide 19
Slide 19 text
I work at .
Slide 20
Slide 20 text
.com/bryanveloso
Slide 21
Slide 21 text
So, let me tell you a story.
Slide 22
Slide 22 text
I’ve been designing since I was 13.
My first website was a fan-site for Final Fantasy 7. It was
pretty wicked. If you’ve heard of “Avalonstar” or the
“ChaoticSoul” WordPress theme... yep, that’s me.
Slide 23
Slide 23 text
I turned that hobby into a career in 2005.
Graduated college. Joined thefacebook as their 2nd
designer. Still kinda sorta in college.
Slide 24
Slide 24 text
“I will never get into programming.”
Said around 2006. PHP was icky and all I was using it for
were WordPress themes and templating at Facebook.
I wanted to be a “pure designer.”
Slide 25
Slide 25 text
So, let me really tell you a story.
Slide 26
Slide 26 text
Don’t panic, there’s a pony in it.
This is the Django Pony from the Python web
framework of the same name. I am its father. o_o;
Slide 27
Slide 27 text
This is the story of Hello! Ranking.
This is the story of how my wife and Japanese Pop music
made me a hybrid and changed my life.
Slide 28
Slide 28 text
No content
Slide 29
Slide 29 text
design + development + ops = devignops?
I wanted to control the entire stack. Having the power to
go from idea, wireframes to the back-end and deployment
is awesome.
Slide 30
Slide 30 text
September 2008 – May 2011 (Codebase 1.0)
Slide 31
Slide 31 text
October 2011 – Present (Codebase 2.0)
Slide 32
Slide 32 text
No content
Slide 33
Slide 33 text
No content
Slide 34
Slide 34 text
No content
Slide 35
Slide 35 text
5 years later, Hello! Ranking hasn’t shipped.
Just because you don’t ship, doesn’t mean you don’t
learn. I’ve learned more about programming (and design)
with this project than any other. And I continue to learn.
Slide 36
Slide 36 text
What did I learn?
Wait for it...
Wait for itttt...
Slide 37
Slide 37 text
No content
Slide 38
Slide 38 text
No content
Slide 39
Slide 39 text
Learn by scratching your own itches.
No, you’re not trying to create the next Facebook. What you
are trying to do is keep the motivation and excitement up.
Slide 40
Slide 40 text
Asking the right questions is an art.
The more specific the question, the more specific the
answer. You get out what you put in.
Slide 41
Slide 41 text
Everything is a challenge.
You know what you say to those challenges?
Come at me, bro.
Slide 42
Slide 42 text
Turn discouragement into motivation.
Can’t even name the number of times I was this close to
giving up. Cheer up emo kid, you can do it.
Slide 43
Slide 43 text
Failures make success even sweeter.
Now I know why people throw launch parties. When I
launch H!R, I know I’m throwing one.
Slide 44
Slide 44 text
At we’re all hybrids.
Slide 45
Slide 45 text
My co-worker Cameron
went from motion graphics
to building a Ruby gem for
our icon typeface in his
2 years with GitHub.
Slide 46
Slide 46 text
It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this.
Slide 47
Slide 47 text
The first step is the hardest.
When you get home, pick up a book or read an article about
something you’ve always been meaning to learn.
Slide 48
Slide 48 text
Build. Force yourself to build.
You’re a designer? Remember when CSS was foreign to
you? But you really wanted to make that fan site, so you
learned and you built.
Slide 49
Slide 49 text
You’re a developer? Remember when used to be foreign to you? But you really disliked b2
to blog. So you learned and you built.
Build. Force yourself to build.
Slide 50
Slide 50 text
You’re neither? You have no excuse. You have the ideas,
learn to build them. Learn to speak the language and help
yourself in the long run.
Build. Force yourself to build.
Slide 51
Slide 51 text
Once you get your footing, a new hotness can possibly
become more attractive than where you came from.
Be mindful of your roots.
Slide 52
Slide 52 text
We’re striving to be hybrids, not a “designer now” and a
“developer later.” It’s not easy. I’ve personally be struggling
with this for years.
Be mindful of your roots.
Slide 53
Slide 53 text
Hybrids thrive off of exchanging knowledge. Trade some of
your design chops for your friend’s programming know-
how. Even better, build things together.
Knowledge exchange through pairing.
Slide 54
Slide 54 text
As you learn, you will be able to better communicate with
peers and understand their lingo.
Be a babelfish.
Slide 55
Slide 55 text
The important note is to gain an understanding. A
designer asking “yo, I need these variables available in the
template” is certainly more than most devs hear normally.
Be a babelfish.
Slide 56
Slide 56 text
If you ever find yourself in a place where the new is just too
hard to take, just remember a 30-something Asian kid
still hasn’t released his social web application yet.
Never give up.
Slide 57
Slide 57 text
It’s time to build.
Let’s conquer the world together.
Become a hybrid today.
Slide 58
Slide 58 text
Hybrids Rule Everything Around Me
A talk given with ❤ by Bryan Veloso
http://simpledesktops.com/browse/desktops/2013/apr/06/wiresphere_black/