Don't be afraid

It’s amazing how much inspiration you can get just by visiting an event and watching people present their learnings. If there’s one special event to inspire people and make them respect their trade, it must be Beyond Tellerrand.

The conference might have been more design-oriented than I anticipated, but if anything, it only served to reignite my love for design. (There’s a good recap of the event. What really triggered me to blog about this, though, was the fact that Josh Brewer sang his entire talk and blogged about how he overcame his fear to do it. Talk about going outside of your comfort zone!

What especially resonates with me is what Josh tells us about the Impostor Syndrome: being afraid we’re in the wrong place, pretending to be better than we are. I recognize in myself being afraid of showing my vulnerabilities – by now, I’m supposed to be a skilled senior web developer, capable of knowing and answering all the tricky questions my colleagues or customers might ask me. In reality, my strength lies in wanting to constantly learn new things, apply them to what I already know, and get inspired by the people around me. 

Looking in the past, I recognize it has always been easier for me to be the underdog, because there lies the greatest potential for awe and surprise: when you have less responsibility and there are no great expectations towards you, you feel less constrained, have less pressure, and are even perhaps more likely to ship something cool. I can’t help but to think that all this being afraid of letting people see what I can or cannot do is only slowing me down.

I am still a long way from letting fears go, but I think I might have just taken the first step. Thank you Josh, thank you Linda.