Your Story Matters

Transcript

1. intro yourself Tom Ridge @tjridge
2. your unique history your perspectives and path to here are what make you, you and what gives your talks a flavour that only you can provide our community can only be the richer from your input. if you're not at all interested in giving a talks. hopefully you'll learn something about story telling and how it can help you in the workplace. Your story and your experiences make all the difference.
3. in some part because I can't attend as much as Id like. I help source talks for the Brisbane Ruby meetup.
4. If you find yourself saying...
5. "I don't know what to talk about."
6. "Someone's already given a talk on my subject."
7. "I don't have enough experience to give a talk."
8. We're going to tackle all of these, but first we need to understand why story telling is important if you understand why story telling is important, we can identify how it helps us craft great talks Bullshit.
9. we are the sum of our collective experiences. Handed down from generation to generation. stories in all mediums have served as entertainment, as knowledge transfer, as warnings and a way to preserve history. Storytelling allows us to understand and connect with the world around us and helps us feel like we are a part of something. It is an important, memorable and valuable social tool. stories are an effective way to get your point across. Note this doesn't mean theyre necessarily fictional. Just that you're able to tell that message from your perspective. we can learn and lean on other's experiences in their technical capacities. Our history is shared through story-telling.
10. it helps us as an audience empathise and understand why change is needed, and why its needed now. because they force us to question our idyllic view of how code or our industry should be your call to action could be the driver of that change you want to see in the world. Stories enable us to forge new ideas to challenge the status quo.
11. we cheer with our heroes. we identify with our heroes having heroes like us, makes that connection, that much stronger. it might help inspire us to be better humans, or write better code. stories stimulate the brain and can change how we act in our lives http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/ opinion/sunday/the-neuroscience-of-your-brain-on- fiction.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Stories can help us aspire to something greater.
12. Stories can help us empathise and understand.
13. has anyone seen ratatouille? The scene where they describe the flavour, and they visualize the separate flavours of cheese and strawberry then both of them together is just genius. Because in that small scene, you're along for the ride, you can get a sense of what cheese tastes like, then strawberry, then you start to imagine both of them together and relive your own experiences.s In an industry where our presence is largely in front of a keyboard. Being able to empathise with others and try to understand things from the perspective of our clients, our customers, our colleagues is vital that empathy and understanding, arms us to be more effective at getting our points across.
14. “Personal stories and gossip make up 65% of our conversations.” http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the- secrets-of-storytelling It's something we already do anyway.
15. you have a unique perspective and lens that has been built up over time. you might come from a different career path, background or any other avenue that makes your path to here different from someone else. but. parts of that path will be similar or the same as some of the audience. and talks that you can immediately identify with because someone has struggled, or succeeded and they happen to share a similarity with you are huuuuge. stories where we can identify with our heroes are the ones that resonate. even if we can't relate to that path. We can build our understanding anew of the problem, or the path to here made by someone else. And Your story can help us see your view of the world.
16. All of a sudden a talk can elevate from something I listen to, to something I can relate to, or be captivated by. it locks in to something a lot of speakers miss. Talks are entertainment. when we start talking about experiences, rather than things, we're more likely to engage our audience. telling and being told a story activates parts of our brains and enables us to take on information more readily. http://www.nytimes.com/ 2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-neuroscience-of-your-brain-on- fiction.html?pagewanted=all some of my absolute favourite talks had elements of story telling, Sandi Metz frequently draws on her personal experiences. Jeff Casimir gave a great talk at RubyConf AU 2016 drawing on his own personal experiences. Turns out, good stories make for good talks.
17. hopefully I've convinced you about the value of story telling but how do you find your own? Convinced yet?
18. "I don't know what to talk about."
19. we can hear about how you finally conquered git or how you overcame a troubling interpersonal issue in the work place or how you're long term plan came to fruition. maybe you want to play with an idea and pull in your own personal experiences on that idea. take time to reflect and recognise those moments, because they will become great talk topics. What was it about yourself that made those events easier/harder to deal with? Recognise that your journey is made of multiple steps.
20. "Someone's already given a talk on my subject."
21. fair enough, you might not want to give two of the same subject in a night, or within a few months. but so many stories rehash a common theme or ground, but your unique background makes that story yours and a story that is still interesting and worth listening to. not only that, but your ideas on that subject might be different and just as valid or interesting. Like that's somehow stopped Hollywood.
22. "I don't have enough experience to give a talk."
23. Entry level talk topics, are often some of the most requested and frequently lead to higher meetup turnout. Recent brisruby meetup was solely entry level focussed, attendance was doubled. if you're new to programming, you're experiencing this all for yourself the first time. Telling us how you've experienced it means those of us who've been here for longer can better appreciate what its like now. some of the best talks have been on the driest of subjects, or subjects i knew very well, because the speaker injected themselves and their experiences into the talk. Your lack of relative experience, makes old topics new again!
24. Don't be afraid to tell a story that doesn't always have a happy ending.
25. Lauren posted this late last year. And with her permission i've plugged it in here. I'm not going to post the replies, but i think this neatly encapsulates the value of stories that don't always deal with successes. sometimes we have shit days, or shit experiences and we need to know that our heroes have dealt with that too and still found the will to keep moving. https://twitter.com/Zajakot/status/806792841242415105
26. hope that we can deal with what life has to throw at us on our darkest days or what we're going through right now, might not be that bad in the scheme of things. for the speaker, it's often cathartic, because you can move on from that failure by no longer internalising it. to be honest, these are the talks id love to see more of. they also make really excellent warnings. Stories dealing with failure, give us hope.
27. sharing your experiences, helps grow the community culture sharing your experiences can help you make the community in the image you want to see. Sharing is caring.
28. it's you the audience have come to hear. Your personality and opinions should drive the talk. I've never met someone who couldn't tell me a story of some description. Above all else, inject your own experiences.
29. please do us the honour of sharing your experiences if you've been holding off doing so. talks are a great way to help you level up, and get involved in the community. but above all else, we'd be all the richer as a community for having your talks take part in it. A plea