00:01:32.700
right
00:01:33.970
yes oh yeah I was supposed to screw that
00:01:36.850
slide that's cool so whenever I give
00:01:40.479
this talk I now always think of the
00:01:42.310
first time I did Jonah Scheffler was I'm
00:01:45.070
seeing keep Ruby weird and he had asked
00:01:46.899
me earlier in the day about my talk and
00:01:48.729
how I wanted to be presented later when
00:01:51.880
I started putting together my clarinets
00:01:53.110
on stage he came up to me he was like
00:01:54.670
wait you're actually gonna like play
00:01:56.950
those things yeah so before I begin an
00:02:00.520
important question show of hands who
00:02:02.530
here used to play the clarinet in middle
00:02:04.690
school yeah yeah we're gonna be best of
00:02:08.950
friends you see I too also used to play
00:02:11.319
the clarinet middle school I just didn't
00:02:12.910
know when to stop so my name is Chris
00:02:17.019
arc and I work for software for good
00:02:18.580
software for good is a company that
00:02:21.069
pairs cause with crafts we developed web
00:02:23.440
and mobile applications for
00:02:24.660
organizations working towards positive
00:02:27.519
and in social change
00:02:28.930
simply put we build software for good
00:02:31.510
humans doing good things most often this
00:02:35.200
means partnering with benefit
00:02:36.640
corporations social enterprises large
00:02:39.400
nonprofits startups educational
00:02:42.130
institutions all these different places
00:02:44.290
to engineer change in industries like
00:02:46.440
clean energy clean tech biotech health
00:02:49.989
care education all sorts of different
00:02:52.030
things we're based in Minneapolis
00:02:54.100
Minnesota which is where I'm from and
00:02:56.049
you can find even more information at
00:02:57.579
software for good.com so also please
00:03:00.639
come say hi to me after the talk and
00:03:02.139
throughout the rest of the conference I
00:03:03.340
don't bite and in fact I'm known to give
00:03:05.590
you super awesome stickers and t-shirts
00:03:06.940
so do come say hi so this is me now yeah
00:03:12.609
I mean at some other conference or here
00:03:14.109
you'll see I'm just another developer my
00:03:16.870
computer science degree and settled
00:03:18.639
happily in a suburb outside of st. Paul
00:03:20.590
Minnesota I really love what I do and I
00:03:23.950
wake up every single day understanding
00:03:26.079
that I'm a very lucky and entitled
00:03:27.819
individual and should take none of it
00:03:29.530
for granted now before I got into
00:03:31.989
software I was doing something very
00:03:33.579
different I've been playing the clarinet
00:03:36.280
since I was nine years old and growing
00:03:38.680
up I had grand aspirations of becoming
00:03:40.060
an orchestral clarinetist
00:03:42.190
and if you think this picture is super
00:03:44.050
nerdy I want to say two things number
00:03:45.819
one you're in a programming conference
00:03:47.230
look around you everyone looks very
00:03:48.610
nerdy and number two I have a whole lot
00:03:51.100
more pictures that are really
00:03:52.480
embarrassing of me holding the clarinet
00:03:54.069
oh yeah I like the side one yeah so I
00:03:59.200
could go on for a while about my own
00:04:01.000
personal background but that's not
00:04:02.200
really why you're here I'll just say
00:04:03.700
that growing up I got to study with some
00:04:05.380
of the best teachers in my area and
00:04:06.910
played in a ton of youth symphonies
00:04:08.500
after high school i dition doll over the
00:04:10.750
northeastern United States and got
00:04:12.400
accepted at a few fancy conservatories
00:04:13.989
that really wanted me to sell them my
00:04:16.570
soul for about forty to fifty thousand
00:04:18.100
dollars a year but in the end I was
00:04:20.859
lucky enough to not in fact sell my soul
00:04:22.750
and was able to stay straight in my home
00:04:26.680
of Minneapolis Minnesota fortunately one
00:04:30.970
of the most talented and well-known
00:04:32.320
clarinetists in the country happened to
00:04:34.600
live in Minneapolis and play principal
00:04:36.669
clarinet in the Minnesota Orchestra he
00:04:39.130
was also on the faculty of the
00:04:40.450
University of Minnesota School of Music
00:04:42.220
and I got accepted there on a pretty
00:04:44.350
good scholarship as one of only two
00:04:46.570
undergraduates the rest were either
00:04:48.430
graduate students or dmas
00:04:50.680
doctoral of Musical Arts yes if you want
00:04:53.800
to become a doctor of clarinet
00:04:55.570
that is totally a thing you can do if
00:04:57.610
you really want to I remember the first
00:05:01.660
wind ensemble rehearsal there after
00:05:04.180
playing one piece of the group I was
00:05:05.560
absolutely terrified these players were
00:05:08.200
extremely good and the music was really
00:05:10.360
complex and I was used to playing at
00:05:12.430
this level but not at the speed and
00:05:14.350
quantity that it was I quickly learned
00:05:17.860
my first lesson I needed to learn how to
00:05:20.500
deal with looking at complex music in a
00:05:22.750
very short amount of time in high school
00:05:25.510
and previously you can't do in high
00:05:28.210
school and previously you don't need to
00:05:30.310
do that you can basically just show up
00:05:31.840
at a group rehearsal and just kind of
00:05:33.490
blend in with the group and learn your
00:05:35.650
part and be on your merry way but at
00:05:37.600
University and beyond you can't do that
00:05:39.789
you need to get every note off the page
00:05:42.930
scheduling time for 80 musicians and
00:05:46.360
some hotshot conductor isn't cheap nor
00:05:49.660
is paying your accompanist to go over
00:05:51.760
your music for your recital over and
00:05:53.710
over and over again the practice
00:05:54.860
either in rehearsals you need to
00:05:57.860
concentrate on the expressive aspect of
00:06:00.199
playing with the group and not
00:06:01.370
scrambling to practice technical
00:06:03.169
execution so getting new music that
00:06:07.490
initially looked really complex was
00:06:09.430
extremely daunting for me and fueled
00:06:11.990
many intense feelings of impostor
00:06:14.210
syndrome how do I even begin all these
00:06:16.159
notes all these things on the page like
00:06:18.050
where do I even start
00:06:19.490
well I want to do that with music first
00:06:22.189
you look at it as an overview you'd ask
00:06:24.379
yourself sorts of questions like what
00:06:26.090
sort of piece is this what time period
00:06:28.340
is it from when was it written maybe
00:06:29.449
that dictates the style what's the form
00:06:32.000
and structure
00:06:33.250
what's the temple like is it fast is it
00:06:35.810
slow then I'd sing the rhythms to myself
00:06:38.569
because if you can't sing it you can't
00:06:41.029
play it I don't mean seeing it like
00:06:42.610
totally perfect and you know like some
00:06:45.710
great singer I just mean can you like
00:06:47.180
really sing out the rhythms yourself and
00:06:49.129
internalize it then I find phrases
00:06:51.710
circling specific ideas and practicing
00:06:54.020
those areas individually and under tempo
00:06:56.360
slowly start to put it together until
00:06:58.610
you get to a point that you can actually
00:06:59.750
wait and looking back I'd often think to
00:07:05.990
myself oh you know this actually isn't
00:07:08.300
that hard now that I've all put it
00:07:10.039
together easy right well how does this
00:07:16.669
relate to software and software as you
00:07:19.789
all know seeing a new code base it can
00:07:21.800
be extremely daunting but eventually as
00:07:25.819
you all know often you'll look back at
00:07:28.069
that once daunting code base and think
00:07:29.659
oh yeah I kind of get it I don't know
00:07:31.189
every single detail of the entire code
00:07:33.349
base but I have enough in my brain now
00:07:34.969
where I can really get start to get
00:07:36.560
stuff done and for me my music
00:07:39.740
experience
00:07:40.819
told me from the start that if I broke
00:07:42.379
things down like that it was gonna be
00:07:44.150
okay not a big deal one of the most
00:07:48.830
memorable things my instructor ever told
00:07:50.960
me was playing the clarinet is easy
00:07:56.139
playing the clarinet is easy
00:07:58.590
there's some obvious falsity to that
00:08:01.020
statement but there's also quite a lot
00:08:02.280
of truth I thought at first he was just
00:08:04.350
being the theory of lead developer of my
00:08:06.450
future who just didn't understand how
00:08:08.700
things looked anymore from my side of
00:08:10.500
the music stand but what he meant was
00:08:12.540
that when you get down to it playing the
00:08:14.820
clarinet boils down to a small list of
00:08:17.040
things and you see those things over and
00:08:19.740
over and over again regardless of the
00:08:22.110
level of playing that you do it's all
00:08:23.670
the same in the end you're using all the
00:08:25.200
same skills taking that into account
00:08:28.130
there are fewer pieces than you'd think
00:08:30.450
that are just that ridiculously hard
00:08:32.550
that anyone regardless of experience
00:08:35.130
level would just say oh my gosh that's
00:08:37.500
just so hard even though you're a
00:08:39.720
world-class clarinetist then you've been
00:08:41.460
you know practicing this and playing it
00:08:43.500
for decades there might be a piece of
00:08:44.820
music that's just so inherently complex
00:08:47.040
and difficult that it just remains hard
00:08:49.440
no matter how much you play it
00:08:52.730
complexity is on a relative scale though
00:08:55.500
there aren't many problems in
00:08:57.420
programming or the code itself is so
00:09:00.090
inherently complex that anyone
00:09:02.100
regardless of experience would say oh
00:09:04.320
that's just really hard no matter how
00:09:06.270
much I work in this codebase or how
00:09:08.550
experienced I get it just remains
00:09:10.230
difficult in my brain don't let initial
00:09:14.370
complexity scare you from diving in
00:09:16.860
don't freak out if something looks hard
00:09:18.840
it was important for me in music and
00:09:21.180
it's just as important the program
00:13:41.269
so looking back I think I spent around
00:13:46.470
1/3 of my entire time that's cool
00:13:49.860
concentrated on one single thing and
00:13:52.379
that is technique and it's been lost in
00:13:54.839
the years but there's a lot more to
00:13:57.540
performing than just playing all the
00:13:59.249
notes off a page and I struggle with
00:14:01.499
that aspect at first and at first I
00:14:02.939
thought it was just learning technique
00:14:04.559
right just just study your technique
00:14:06.360
you'll be better player but what I
00:14:09.660
actually learned is that it's not a
00:14:10.920
question of technique it's actually a
00:14:12.240
question of concentration you need at
00:14:15.149
most concentration performing a piece of
00:14:17.309
music with no technical mistakes and
00:14:19.379
bringing the music off the page in a
00:14:21.360
believable way to your audience you need
00:14:23.309
to be able to block every other single
00:14:25.589
thought from your brain pouring your
00:14:27.480
entire being into thinking about what
00:14:29.160
you're playing and you might be thinking
00:14:30.569
yourself like oh great it sounds kind of
00:14:33.509
corny like what the music take you away
00:14:35.220
to a magical place but however you view
00:14:37.740
it it's actually what's required for
00:14:39.929
technical excellence and in software
00:14:42.300
this level of concentration we often
00:14:44.699
call being in the zone right
00:14:46.610
distraction-free concentrated super
00:14:49.259
productive there's always the image of
00:14:51.149
the programmer where he or she has their
00:14:53.040
headphones in and oh my gosh don't
00:14:54.839
disturb the developer they're in the
00:14:56.009
zone you don't wanna interrupt that Chi
00:14:57.240
right of course that's total
00:15:00.839
and it's not that it isn't true but that
00:15:03.360
concentration is something that anyone
00:15:05.970
has to do any task that isn't trivial
00:15:08.040
can benefit from and I could talk about
00:15:10.290
that for the rest of my talk here but
00:15:12.509
instead I'm just gonna plug a book there
00:15:15.540
is a book called deep work it's by Cal
00:15:18.600
Newport and the subtitle for this book
00:15:20.490
is rules for focus success in a
00:15:23.279
distracted world and in it the author
00:15:25.679
talks about the concept of deep work
00:15:27.360
versus shallow work and in shallow work
00:15:29.879
shallow work is like doing these low
00:15:32.189
demand tasks even if they make you feel
00:15:34.199
super productive something like checking
00:15:35.579
your email in the morning right oh yeah
00:15:37.049
you got all the little meaningless
00:15:38.429
emails archived in your Inbox
00:15:40.679
what a great use of your time right deep
00:15:44.069
work he described as the ability to
00:15:46.319
focus without distraction on a
00:15:48.720
cognitively demanding
00:15:50.380
ask first he makes the case that any
00:15:53.110
knowledge-based profession will reap
00:15:55.240
huge benefits from doing this
00:15:57.040
giving historical examples that seem to
00:15:59.440
follow this pattern then he gives real
00:16:01.420
world advice and strategies to actually
00:16:03.460
achieve a habit of doing deep work it's
00:16:06.340
a really good book I could babble about
00:16:07.960
it forever just go read it so deep work
00:16:13.030
or maintaining concentration is
00:16:15.720
exhausting
00:16:16.990
and so related to intense concentration
00:16:19.180
and deep work is the concept of balance
00:16:21.790
to produce quality so as you can imagine
00:16:26.910
musicians practice their music a lot
00:16:29.980
there was a colleague at school of mine
00:16:31.740
who if I'm a homeless a so was very
00:16:34.120
average player but supposedly spent
00:16:36.220
around seven hours a day practicing
00:16:38.770
their music just individually now seven
00:16:40.870
hours a day whatever seems like fine
00:16:43.180
okay but then you have to factor in the
00:16:44.920
three hours of winds humble or Orchestra
00:16:47.710
that you had every day maybe another
00:16:49.420
hour of chamber a bunch of other group
00:16:51.910
rehearsals in that all in all if you add
00:16:53.470
it all up it's basically having a
00:16:55.210
clarinet in your mouth from before the
00:16:57.100
Sun comes up to after the Sun Goes Down
00:16:59.220
now in contrast my instructor advocated
00:17:02.980
no more than a couple hours a day
00:17:05.140
practicing maybe creeping up towards
00:17:07.390
four or something when you were
00:17:08.709
crunching for additions for a couple
00:17:10.720
weeks from now or whatever but no more
00:17:12.490
than that
00:17:13.290
why why would my instructor tell me
00:17:15.760
don't practice so much because
00:17:18.420
concentrated work is exhausting and at
00:17:21.730
some point if you're not careful you're
00:17:23.650
just mindlessly playing notes and not
00:17:25.390
really pushing yourself to be any better
00:17:27.250
it's even detrimental you perform like
00:17:30.430
you practice you perform like you
00:17:32.770
practice practicing without
00:17:35.020
concentration actually teaches you to
00:17:37.510
practice to perform without country
00:17:41.690
and surprise I discovered the same thing
00:17:44.930
going in software right as I hit the
00:17:47.720
stage in my career where you'd call me
00:17:49.310
an intermediate I over worked myself a
00:17:51.410
lot
00:17:52.460
I worked these ridiculous hours and had
00:17:55.070
a hard time decoupling my thoughts from
00:17:56.960
work at the end of the day I wasn't
00:17:58.760
productive with my time as I could be in
00:18:01.520
a shorter time and my personal life
00:18:03.620
suffered this concept of balance extends
00:18:08.090
itself outside the confines of just the
00:18:10.340
hours in a day - it's about balancing
00:18:12.740
yourself as a person and making time for
00:18:14.600
things that you enjoy outside of working
00:18:17.230
now as members of the Ruby and the rails
00:18:19.880
community you've probably heard this
00:18:21.860
stuff all the time from people like DHH
00:18:24.380
and Basecamp things like avoiding
00:18:26.600
burnout not working 60 hour weeks and
00:18:29.210
not glorifying someone who claims that
00:18:31.160
success means never seeing your kids now
00:18:35.270
I didn't have it all figured out when I
00:18:37.250
started doing software of course but
00:18:38.630
coming from music this notion of balance
00:18:40.700
was already very natural to me as I was
00:18:43.340
reading that deep work book I constantly
00:18:45.980
thought to myself oh yeah I know this I
00:18:47.630
literally learned this exact very thing
00:18:49.430
in school the no practising for more
00:18:51.380
than four hours a day that's literally
00:18:52.820
the exact time estimated in deep work
00:18:55.630
it's uncanny how many things I
00:18:58.160
discovered through music that present
00:19:00.560
themselves directly in that book so my
00:19:02.690
experience in music of how to make the
00:19:04.910
most of my time and understanding the
00:19:06.560
importance of being a well-rounded
00:19:08.030
person outside of your work made me a
00:19:10.550
better programmer right from the start
00:19:11.870
the last thing I want to talk about is
00:19:17.630
hero worship and impostor syndrome
00:19:25.210
they're all my years studying music I
00:19:28.130
got to meet a lot of really well-known
00:19:30.800
important people in the classical music
00:19:32.750
world
00:19:33.740
I studied and played side by side with
00:19:36.050
some really monster players that now
00:19:37.850
have jobs with the National Symphony
00:19:39.140
Orchestra and DC or play on Broadway
00:19:41.500
crazy I got to work with internationally
00:19:46.160
known conductors and composers people
00:19:47.960
that I still can't actually believe gave
00:19:50.090
me their time to listen to me play on an
00:19:52.460
individual level if so many stories that
00:19:54.320
I wish I could tell now these musicians
00:19:57.080
that you see up here these are some of
00:19:59.300
the DHH 'as Aaron Patterson's Chad
00:20:02.060
Fowler's or sandy Metz's of the
00:20:04.130
orchestral music world now I've gotten
00:20:06.800
to know a lot of people in the Ruby
00:20:08.330
world as well and my previous job at Red
00:20:10.850
Hat and especially working full-time on
00:20:12.590
open source I've worked with lots of
00:20:14.510
names that everyone in this room has
00:20:16.190
undoubtedly heard of so I've been
00:20:20.780
internally screaming at myself since the
00:20:22.460
last slide because I purposely been
00:20:24.110
setting humility aside and popping
00:20:25.340
myself up and making myself son so
00:20:26.780
awesome but I'm actually trying to say
00:20:28.010
the complete and utter opposite I'm not
00:20:30.020
awesome I'm a very normal person I feel
00:20:32.150
like an imposter right now talking to
00:20:34.250
you all about this I just have worked
00:20:36.680
and gotten to know enough people from
00:20:38.480
both music and software to authority say
00:20:41.270
that your heroes are normal people all
00:20:46.070
those people on that previous slide I
00:20:47.780
just mentioned are normal people your
00:20:50.180
heroes don't have some superpower that
00:20:52.970
makes them super amazing the
00:20:54.860
clarinetists I met and studied with all
00:20:56.810
started somewhere and it wasn't just
00:20:58.970
sheer talent that got them to where they
00:21:00.950
are today it was almost entirely hard
00:21:04.490
work a lot of sacrifice and quite
00:21:06.290
honestly a little bit of sheer luck
00:21:07.990
there's a reason why the saying goes
00:21:10.250
practice makes perfect and not talent
00:21:12.710
makes perfect your heroes are not
00:21:15.380
inherently better than you and
00:21:17.000
understand things that you never will
00:21:19.310
their knowledge is not a simple superset
00:21:21.470
of your own they don't know everything
00:21:23.090
you do just like you don't know
00:21:24.650
everything they do they can actually
00:21:26.270
learn from you your heroes have simply
00:21:30.940
learned how to constant handle
00:21:33.410
complexity concentrate deeply and
00:21:35.330
balance themselves so as to create
00:21:37.670
quality work
00:21:38.980
you admire and that's not to say that
00:21:41.230
they have it figured out perfectly as
00:21:42.910
well especially the balance bit balance
00:21:44.620
is always an ongoing struggle in life
00:21:46.540
and it changes depending on your life
00:21:48.190
situation as time goes on in the end
00:21:51.730
what I'm saying trying to say here is
00:21:53.620
that everyone including your heroes are
00:21:55.030
just people and they to deal with
00:21:57.100
impostor syndrome and feeling inadequate
00:21:58.780
and me coming from music where I got to
00:22:00.880
study with some of my heroes I feel like
00:22:02.740
I internalized that very very quickly so
00:22:07.840
I did finish my bachelor's degree I
00:22:10.840
taught my own studio of students for a
00:22:13.120
few years but I did decide to move on
00:22:15.220
and the rest of the story brings me to
00:22:17.440
where I am here today so the inevitable
00:22:20.020
question that I know we'll get after the
00:22:21.340
talk is why why why are you here
00:22:23.890
I looked at myself in the mirror and
00:22:26.230
decided I wouldn't be able to keep the
00:22:27.669
balance that I need in my life while
00:22:29.620
still attaining the career goals that I
00:22:31.360
set for myself there's more to life than
00:22:34.059
just playing the clarinet I knew I need
00:22:37.330
to sacrifice more time and effort being
00:22:39.520
a successful musician
00:22:40.630
whereas with software something that I
00:22:42.220
enjoy really just as much maintaining a
00:22:45.280
healthy life balance doesn't require me
00:22:47.169
to sacrifice that time but I can spend
00:22:49.360
doing other things that I love like I
00:22:50.650
don't know seeing my family and although
00:22:55.059
some people might say that I wasted my
00:22:57.010
time not going straight into what I
00:22:58.660
ultimately made my career I don't really
00:23:00.549
regret it at all the things that I
00:23:02.679
learned made me a better programmer
00:23:04.929
before I even got started like handling
00:23:06.610
complexity concentrating balance
00:23:08.559
understanding heroes all those different
00:23:10.780
things so there's a dirty little secret
00:23:14.830
caught up in this and I've actually been
00:23:16.570
noticing that this dirty little secret
00:23:18.280
is manifesting itself in a lots of other
00:23:20.230
talks that I've already seen here at
00:23:21.970
this very conference the dirty secret is
00:23:24.160
that all of these things apply to life
00:23:26.530
in general many of you have likely
00:23:28.780
discovered these very things for
00:23:30.640
yourself from a completely different
00:23:31.780
angle from a completely different
00:23:33.040
background so really these lessons
00:23:36.250
didn't just make me a better programmer
00:23:37.840
that made me a better person so I'm
00:23:41.169
gonna play one more piece does anyone
00:23:43.299
know what a bandoneon is bandoneon not a
00:23:47.260
single one I've never had that before
00:23:48.850
okay so a bandoneon is just like an
00:23:51.760
accordion
00:23:52.450
except it sounds a little bit different
00:23:54.300
it's the instrument that brought about
00:23:57.630
Argentinian tango music and as the
00:24:02.230
bandoneon is considered the you know
00:24:07.080
quintessential tango instrument the man
00:24:11.260
you see up here is the quintessential
00:24:13.090
tango composer this is astro Piazzolla
00:24:15.460
astor piazzolla was a virtuosic
00:24:18.030
bandoneon player and considered the
00:24:19.990
world's foremost composer of tango music
00:24:22.140
he single-handedly invented the style
00:24:24.970
nuevo tango which is basically a mix of
00:24:27.670
tango classical and jazz music so here
00:24:31.120
is an etude by Piazzolla that he wrote
00:24:32.800
for flute but i'm gonna play it on the
00:24:35.170
clarinet before i play that i just want
00:24:39.190
to say a quick thank you to red hat I
00:24:40.780
originally wrote this talk while I was
00:24:42.340
working there so thanks for the Hat for
00:24:43.540
giving me the time and also my current
00:24:45.970
employer software for good if you're
00:24:47.320
looking for someone to craft you some
00:24:48.880
quality web and mobile applications
00:24:50.350
please come talk to me especially if
00:24:52.090
you'd like to make the world a better
00:24:52.990
place just like we do we're doing stuff
00:24:55.570
like currently building web app to
00:24:56.890
increase transparency and like
00:24:58.450
affordable housing wait lists and we
00:25:01.630
don't just work for a benevolent
00:25:02.740
nonprofit so please reach out if you're
00:25:04.780
a company looking to build something
00:25:06.280
great with us and thank you