Developer Diary: September 2019

30/09/2019

I have often written blogs in a “developer diary” format for conferences or meetups, but I thought I’d try just writing what I have been up to month to month for an accurate description of dev life… it’s not all conference talks & side projects! I love getting recommendations for podcasts, blog posts or books to read. I thought it would be cool to share this stuff & keep a diary.

Meetups

Women in Tech Scotland -  Not a meetup, but a conference! I travelled through to Edinburgh for Women in Tech Scotland where I was chairing a panel. "A Byte of Advice: Careers in Tech" was a conversation where we discussed our careers so far with our guests from variety of backgrounds and jobs: Nizza, Ewa, Alaine and Angelina. We also go to attend the other talks, it's always great to hear what great things women are working on.

Global AI Nights- I attended a workshop where we learned about AI using Microsoft Azure services. The event was happening around the world so it was great to get involved with the Glasgow event.

Lean Agile Glasgow- This months meetup was a first time speakers event, with 7 talks from people taking that first step to public speaking. I really enjoyed hearing about everything: from SCRUM, design and building mobile apps.

Reading

The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World- A book by Melinda Gates about empowering women around the world. I mentioned this one last month too, hope to finish it soon!

Umbraco Documentation Styleguide - I love this from Umbraco documentation team. A styleguide for consistent documentation including warning for words like "Simply" and "Easily". I am always keen to encourage inclusive language and this is a great way to enforce it.

How to Embed Inclusion in Your Tech Company- an article not only explaining the importance of inclusion but giving actions to help improve it

HttpBey- HTTP status codes explained by Beyonce gifs, what else could you need?!

TV/ Movies

Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates- A documentary series following one of the most famous programmers. However, it's not focusing on his time at Microsoft, but how he is using this wealth and knowledge to solve problems around the world. I am also reading Melinda's book discussing their foundation at the moment so it was good to see more on what they are doing.

NT Live: Fleabag - A live streaming at cinema of Phoebe Waller-Bridge's one women show. The super successful TV show was based on this play and I can see why. PWB was so captivating and incredibly funny, making 1.5 hours feel like 20 minutes!

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Aswell as the above, I also had 3 Umbraco training courses (including a trip to London!) and ran a 10k... it's been another busy one :)

September overview: talks, training and running.