Adrienne Lowe: Coding with knives

DANIELE PROCIDA: We are going to give folks some time. I am Adrienne, I will be speaking, thanks for coming to my talk.

Starting in about 5 minutes.

All our technical crew in place, ready to go, you are already to go with the projector, smashing. Welcome back, I hope you had a nice lunch. If you didn’t have your lunch you have got just a few minutes to run up the road and get some. Really pleased to welcome Adrienne from Atlanta Georgia.

(APPLAUSE).

ADRIENNE LOWE: Thank you so much for coming to my talk. I am Adrienne, thanks for cutting your lunch short. It is an honour and a great pleasure to be here, like Daniele said, I will tell you about what it is like for a professional cook to get into coding. How cook and coding are not that different.

My goal, if you are new to get started with Django, to tell you a few lessons.

Before I get started I want to say thank you to Jamie and for the foundation that enabled me to come from Atlanta means so much to me that I get to come over here and share a bit of my journey, I am proud to be part of a community that values diverse perspectives, believes some of us who get started with Python and Django, have a unique and meaningful things to say and given a platform to say them.

I hope you that feel you feel the same sense of respect and welcome, if you are coming for the open day. It is something we are working hard to engender, as you are here, please feel invited to get curious to ask us, to share your valuable perspective, we really deeply value the input of the new coder, whether you are here for years you are welcome.

Something I will go into later, it is remarkable how often talking something through with someone new helps me gain a greater sense of the subject at hand. I think this applies to cooking and programming.

Thanks for having me here from Atlanta Georgia. This was supposed to be the point where I mentioned my southern accent but, this morning, on the way here, I got a cab because I was running a little late. I didn’t want to miss the first talk. The driver was like, so, cab driver, where are you from? Canada right? Oh I was like oh, I am from Atlanta Georgia, maybe I should give you a sense of what I sounded like when I was small.

So, maybe I will read the PyLadies motto, back home, I am the co-organiser of the....

In my 7 year old accent? Fair. Good.

Our mission is to promote educate and advance a diverse Python Community throughout reach, education, conferences, events and social gathering. (APPLAUSE).

That is really what I sounded like when I was little.

But I did drama in high school in college and ...

NEW SPEAKER: Can you teach us how to do that?

ADRIENNE LOWE: Yes, I did a production of Romeo and Juliet and I had to do a Cockney accent.

So I mentioned back home, co-organiser of a PyLadies HDL and if you don’t know what PyLadies is, I will give a quick plug for it, an international mentorship programme. Helps women become leaders in the community.

For the first time we will be Django Girls to Atlanta because of me, there are a lot of people. I am an advocate for the group.

We are here at Djangocon, maybe curious why I am using the word Python., a refresher, Django is a free and open-source. ... programme that is use Django that you may have used already include the social science pinterest and ... ... discuss, we here like Django because it enables us to build applications rapidly, cleanly, securely with the minimum of repetition. Also superfast as the Django Girls workshop proves time and time again. Even someone without experience can build a Blog about a tutorial in a Blog in about a day.

So now that we have got some of the terminology down I want to take a few moments to tell you about myself and share what it is like to come from Django, from an entirely untechnical background. I grew up on a family farm in Georgia where we always had a huge garden this was a source of a lot of contention for my parents because they are about 250 ochre plants in the image, no family of 4 need 250, but my dad thought it was a good idea. That is what you see, 250 plants. We all love food, I started cooking at a pretty young age, went to college for history and philosophy. I started working in kitchens full time, working up to 80 hours a week. I moved to grad school, I went to a Quakers Seminary. Frequently cooked for one hundred person community mill and wrote my Masters on the different interfaith conceptions of hospitality and how different faiths think and share about food.

Grad school was where I used free and open-source software. Our lab was ... which I think was really cool. That is not common at a lot of American Universities, most are Mac everything, so cool we were using to (NAME - INAUDIBLE). Since finishing, I love this image from this year’s ... since finishing grad school, worked as a personal chef, doing many consulting for restaurants, lots of restaurant related stuff private and group cooking practices. I came through coding through the passion for open-source software as a user, I want to help women in a nontechnical backgrounds get started on the journey with programming. Along with the rest of the folks hosting this conference I believe that you do not have to have a degree in computer science a background in math or engineering or really any experience coding to get started with Django today. But there are a few things while I have getting started I want to share with you today, might save you a little bit of time.

So first, I want to emphasise how helpful it is to source your learning materials, your tutorials from a wide variety of perspectives and to remember, this is very important, to be very general with yourself if it seems like one tutorial isn’t working out for you. When I started learning Python, I did myself a tremendous disservice by using one tutorial and one alone. When that tutorial wasn’t really working out for me, I thought, I was the problem and that was very discouraging. I started to doubt my ability and to ask myself if I should even be doing this?

Let’s contrast that with the experience of being in the community. So you are learning to cook and you have to use recipes, don’t listen to anyone who doesn’t tell you they use recipes, anyone who is serious has to use recipes. You want to learn to cook a particular dish. You get a cook book, what happens when you read it, you realise you don’t really understand the way the recipe is written or what the authors are saying and in general it doesn’t make sense. Probably just get another cook book right? That makes a lot of sense. This bakery book didn’t work, so I will try this one instead. That seems like a sensible thing to do, as a new coder, I thought I was the problem. One teacher’s method wasn’t working for me, and since he is the expert right, like I am must be the problem?

Wrong. Just like you had you may have had a teacher in grade school who you really connected with, who really inspired you, who helped you understand material that you found really difficult. You will find that some resources you connect with better than others. That is totally okay.

You are not wrong. You just need to find out what works and you will. There are really too many great resources outed there for anyone to drag themselves over the coals because one is not working.

You get another cook book. The second suggestion, please let us know if something doesn’t make sense and reach out when you are struggling. When I struggled with a particular tutorial, I made a sat tweet on twitter, it was the first time I had ever done anything like that. I was really nervous about it. I didn’t want to seem pathetic or didn’t know what I was doing. But the truth is, like, I was sad. I was anxious confused, doubted myself. That tweet happened to get noticed by my friend Anna, incredible friend she is an inspiration to me and a leader in our community. Co-organiser of Django Girls and Djangocon, you should follow her, there is her handle.

She is a chapter leader of the new PyLadies remote. Which is something we are working on. Runs a, shares interviews with women whose stories of using Django, sometimes from a nontechnical background, if you want more experience, check that out.

Anna is also self-taught from a nontechnical background. It reminded her of how she felt when she first got started. Wrote me a long thoughtful e-mail, it is okay if one tutorial is not working for you, shared her stories and shared a long list of new resources to try.

So if I hadn’t taken to twitter to let off steam, perhaps this interaction never would have happened, our friendship wouldn’t have an opportunity to be deepened. Maybe I would have ended my studies.

Come on in, you are welcome here.

Hope lunch was good if you had it.

But I tried certain things, I watched “Amazing Python talk” signed up for a course, already done it through Georgia tech on music technology, we used Python at the end. I didn’t think to look into more of Python. She gave me some good suggestions there, I finally started reading, how to think like a computer scientist, I got the help to move forward.

The reason I want to remind you, when you are first starting out to code, it can be really hard to reach out to you the more experienced developers and in general to let people know that you are struggling. Sometimes you feel like the risk of exposing your vulnerability or who you really are much greater than the potential reward.

So, as a new coder you keep to yourself, you say, oh no, no, I am not going the bother my more experienced friend about that because I have received that you are so much smarter than I am. We minimise ourselves, we say, oh this is probably some little thing that I should already know and, oh man, why don’t I already know it? Maybe I shouldn’t be doing this?

So like the example of hitting a dead end with a particular tutorial, not reaching out, you can feel insular and isolate yourself and it will cause you doubt your potential and purpose. It will keep you getting from what you need to continue on your journey with Django.

So, I want to share that I found that in every case where I have taken a risk and shared when I was struggling this community, you guys, have poured yourself out to me, you have been there for me, you have showed up in incredible ways. It wasn’t in my Blog post in coding with knives, that got noticed by Django Europe, finished up in my invitation to speak here, if I hadn’t taken the risk, perhaps I wouldn’t be here today. I can’t think of a more powerful personal example to share where you are and ask for help when you need it. Who knows what marvellous opportunities await you? Please take my word for it, speak up, say what you want to make do, dream, especially when you are struggling.

If you do feel that you are burdening someone by asking questions, the better you get, the better he/she will get and the better altogether. This is because we are asking what feels basic to you, gives someone an opportunity to flex their teaching skills. It is mutual learning, you get the answer and your teacher learns more to hand from their interaction with you.

I, as experienced cook, I am so far removed from the experience of being new, I move too quickly through my explanation, take for granted that someone understands, it is great to ... never feel like a waste of my time. Help me rethink my processes and procedures and help me to be a more effective cook and educator.

My third piece of advice, have a goal for yourself, sometimes this manifests as a project you want to work on or build. It may be a more general goal but, you can use it to refer to and use as guidance during the very inevitable periods of discouragement and de-motivation.

The thing about teaching yourself to code and from what I understand about the experience of programming in general, professional programming in general, is that you are going to have moments when you feel like such a genius, like you are going to do this tutorial and you are like, oh my gosh I got this. But I think, also be in equal measure those times when you feel like you are not getting anything and nothing makes sense and maybe again you will start to doubt yourself.

I just like this. Somebody else used it in a presentation, it resonated with me. You may think your goal looks like that, but in the middle there is tangly bits. Likewise cooking professionally is hard you guys! there are lots of opportunities that through your spoon go in your hair and storm out of the kitchen. I am not sure what the working conditions are in the UK, in the US, kitchen work is notorious for 4 things, long and inflexible hours, bosses, no health benefits and really low pay. So, it is not very appealing work.

Yet, millions of us still do it as servers, line cooks, food runners and yes even chefs. I think it is because whether you cook professionally or for your friends at home. The most satisfying, we simply love seeing the delight on your face when we put something we made down in front of you. I spend way more time cooking for people – I won’t feel my best if I don’t serve you a simple meal. So you can prepare yourself for these periods of frustration and encouragement, being mindful of your goal, help guide you through the times when you want to give up.

For me, my goals to continue to open-source projects which I want to talk to you about later and to help get more women into Python and Django, the two projects I use, I feel you have given me so much and I want to give more back, getting more women into computing is precious to me. I had to fight for it myself and I would like to make it easier for women like me.

When I start to feel down and out, I just remember these goals that is kind of like setting a big plate of food in front of somebody I love. Like these lovely people at a dinner party I have.

There you go, examples of my cooking and coding are not that different. If you can cook a simple meal for yourself, you can start with Django today. Sourcing materials from the library, don’t take it personally if one doesn’t work, you are not the issue, you just need another cook book, there are plenty out there.

Let us know when you are struggling, don’t be afraid to reach out for help and to bring your full self to the enterprise.

Third and finally, having a goal and purpose will get you through the tough times.

So that was the recap. This is me, my cat, named after the programming language, I have another cat called pearl.

If you want more pictures of my cats you can follow me on instagram and I am also on twitter, follow me on there. Sometimes I tweet about coding and sometimes I don’t. If you are interested in coding with knives, I haven’t done much in the last two weeks, it is cool., lots of people referred to and said they have found it really helpful. This is the first of two talks, this was the open talk, geared towards newcomers. Giving another one on Wednesday that will maybe be a bit more salient for experienced developers.

Yes, be in touch and just thanks so much. It is a pleasure to be here. (APPLAUSE).

DANIELE PROCIDA: Thank you very much. So we have got a few minutes for some questions. So, if anybody from the floor has a question for Adrienne?

Funnily enough, Russell.

RUSSELL KEITH-MAGEE: Thanks for talk. You mentioned at the beginning you hit a wall with the tutorial. I was wondering if you could, share which tutorial you hit the wall with, and what the nature of the wall was, what got you over that?

ADRIENNE LOWE: Sure. Best possible question. No offence to other potential questions, one that makes me nervous, I don’t want to upset anyone. The tutorial was Python the hard way. I don’t know Zed, but I am sure he is a lovely person, but I struggled with his tutorial.

Where did I start to struggle? I think part of, I think part of what caused my struggle really had to do with imposter syndrome. Had been invited, received sponsorship to give my first talk at a conference, in the southern US, and I really worked myself up for that. I felt like I had to complete learn Python the hard way in a certain amount of time. That schedule was ultra-condensed and it didn’t work out for me. I think I got to some of the later chapters in the 20’s and 30’s, he would say like, oh you need to spend a week on this or two weeks on this. Then he would have others, oh you can do this in a day and that actually took me much longer, then the things he said would take much longer, was more condensed for me. So some editorialising in his tutorial. It is hard to teach. Just like we all had our favourite teachers in school, like some you will connect with more than others, he was not my favourite teacher, he has done a lot for all of us. But his tutorial didn’t work for me. So the thing that got me over the hump was reaching out. I had been documenting my process of. My friend said, you are flying, you need to slow down. She reached out to me and said that. If you see somebody doing that: Dang girl! Feel free to say Dang girl! It must be what they need to hear? Anything else?

DANIELE PROCIDA: I have a question.

ADRIENNE LOWE: Thank you.

DANIELE PROCIDA: What kind of difference are there in the cultures of the programming communities and the cooking communities that you have encountered?

ADRIENNE LOWE: That is interesting, I would say that among us programmers we tend to be free spirited and we have lots of things we want to work really hard and I think we want to make a difference, I think you also see that in the kitchen, people will consider that a plate, to be creative and work very hard. I will say, I haven’t experienced this much in this community, the kitchen is highly regimented. We have the chef who is at the top and then we have the Sous chefs and Salad chefs and food runners you get a sense for that kind of, the way it is very regimented. Very much stay in your place, don’t step out of your place and be respectful. While I feel we have respect in this community, I don’t think we have the sense of you are this and you can’t do that. That is freeing especially coming in from a marginalised group. Does that satisfy?

DANIELE PROCIDA: One more question.

FROM THE FLOOR: Anymore projects that bring your coding and your cooking together?

ADRIENNE LOWE: Still learning, I am hoping I have a couple of little things maybe I could chat with you privately about. I am still new. That is why it is an honour to be here in this community.

DANIELE PROCIDA: Thank you so much. Thank you (APPLAUSE).

One thing I have not mentioned, if you haven’t already seen in your conference bag one of the items is a signed numbered, limited edition print by a local artist of the animal wall next to Cardiff castle so we approached Cardiff print workshop, asked them to produce their interpretations of the sculptures on this wall a very famous Cardiff landmark so look in your bag look after the print because it’s a lovely piece of work and the artist will be at the conference on Wednesday.

I am very pleased to introduce Árni St Sigurðsson from Iceland who is talking about data driven democracy and his work round the Icelandic general elections. Thank you. {Applause}.