 Good morning wonderful people of Eurocamp. Thank you very much for having me. I'm honored to be here with all of you today And I am here to talk to you about a phrase that I find just as problematic as my appreciation For the angry white dude whose music actually inspired the talk title that I'm about to give to you today Will the real technical people please stand up? So how often throughout your career have you heard this particular phrase so-and-so is not technical How often have you found yourself saying this particular phrase? Oh, there's so few hands. I knew I came to the right place. That is terrific So I've been hearing this phrase for about the past 15 years quite regularly which is coincidentally the exact amount of time that I've been working in the technology industry and Frequently I hear it applied to myself Which doesn't really resonate with me? I was privileged to have access to a computer Almost from birth and we'll learn a little bit more about that in the next slide And I was also immensely privileged in that I went to school in Silicon Valley and we happened to have a computer lab Filled with Apple to e computers allowing me to write my very first program almost well more than 20 years ago I'm getting old and Even before that I spent a lot of time abusing VI Doing ASCII art illustrations of lyrics from the sound of music because I was a weird kid and I'm still weird So even more strange to me though is not just when people apply this phrase to me because I can understand That since I've chosen I have chosen to have a slipping microphone I've chosen not to be a developer. I've chosen to be a community manager and someone who's a practitioner of developer relations Okay, maybe you feel like that's not technical But what I feel is very strange is as part of this career I go to a number of conferences every year giving talks like this one or just hanging out in a trade show booth and The number of people who will walk up at a conference like Oskon Or what's another great one the open-source developers conference or Linux Conf AU and Who will reach out to shake your hand? And then the next phrase out of their mouth will be I'm not technical, but So I don't usually think of non-technical people as the kind of folks who attend Oskon. I don't know just to find So when I think about people who aren't technical Someone immediately springs to mind My mom My mom the Unix programmer My mom the person who exercised Great patience all the years of her life dealing with my dad My dad the technophobe My dad whose Nokia candy bar phone is never actually charged because he refuses to use it My dad who I had to teach how to use an ATM When I was 14 years old because he had never withdrawn cash from the bank Without talking to a live human being This was a very interesting experience, which I will tell you about over a delicious beverage if you would like to hear It did not go well You know and when I think again about the people in my life who I would think of as not technical I think of these women might some of my dearest friends in the US and These are the same folks who are consistently handing me their smartphones And I'm performing all sorts of software updates for them And I'm introducing them to the mystical powers of the yahoo male app which they did not know existed and You know they refer to me as the the techie genius of the family and Yet when I when I think about their daily lives, right? I think about my friend the veterinarian Who required more years of medical school training than a doctor who works with human beings and Whose patients cannot actually speak to her to tell her what is wrong. I Think of my friend the high school teacher in South Florida who teaches Children English who have just arrived as refugees from countries like Haiti and Who is able to navigate a grossly underfunded public school system in order to teach them a brand new language? and also able to navigate the cultural nuances that she's not familiar with and I Am going to switch mics because this is totally not working. Hang on one second. We are experiencing technical difficulties BBB Hey, look now I have a mic I win So my friend the school teacher who can navigate all these cultural nuances with which she's completely unfamiliar or my friend the office manager who I have watched do so many bizarre workarounds for the for the our office software that does management of dental records and If any of you in the audience hate, I mean hate filing expense reports Try using software to manage dental records that has to be compliant with about 15 different insurance companies back ends and That has to do voice recognition because you would rather use oracle financials immediately So again when I think of these these folks in my life and I think you know I don't think that they're not technical I just think they're not my flavor of technical So I find the praise Person is not technical to be incredibly problematic And I think one of the biggest reasons I find it to be problematic is I can't even tell you what this means I Don't know what so-and-so is not technical actually means It seems to have different definitions. It seems to be applied completely at random and Even if we like let's dive in let's analyze it. What does it mean? So maybe it's someone who doesn't have a computer science degree except we're all very happy to tell stories of Very famous developers very famous business people who dropped out of college or who never went to college all Is it somebody who doesn't write code? Well, I've written code. I don't do it for a living And what about all of those people who work like I don't know civil engineers civic planners the people who design our roadways and Build our bridges. They don't write software Do you want the person who builds your bridge to be not technical because I do not Anyone who would like you know who would like to indulge in that I suggest you let me know what city you live in and I will not visit you But you can come hang out with me in Amsterdam any time not a problem Are we also to say that if only things that are technical or things that involve software? What about all the hardware engineers out there? How many of you once the last time you soldered something I? See a few hands these lovely people are technical too Also, I have some thermal compound that I would love to share with you because there is nothing more fun than putting together a board And it's been a long time so we should do this so This phrase is difficult Because when you hear the words so-and-so person is not technical this implies some kind of immutable binary, right? Which is just it's simply false There is not a single one of us who was born keyboard in hand Knowing how to program that would be deeply uncomfortable for our mothers and it was also logistically impossible so when we use this phrase When this is this is the phrase that shapes our thoughts We need to think about What thoughts we're thinking and what information we're projecting out into the universe when we use these words? And I'm going to say that I firmly believe That this phrase is utterly and completely toxic. I think it's code for I Don't have to think About what you really know and What you really don't know I? Don't have to spend time to teach you Things you don't know because you are not technical. I have no responsibility To do so and there is no value in doing so I Think that this phrase is often code for This person is not enough like me For me to believe in their skills and abilities And if you think that perhaps that's not true. I challenge you to count the number of women or Other folks who are at underrepresented groups in the technology industry who have started a Conversation with you with the phrase. I am not technical People don't start that conversation with you because that's what they're thinking It's because that's what they've been told over and over again And that is the message that they have absorbed and that they carry with them into the world and This phrase is awful It stops us from all sorts of things from achieving pay equity To really having effective collaboration in our organizations Because we are not valuing the contributions that everyone brings to our projects to our companies to our teams We are deciding that people are other We are deciding that what they do is not good enough and This is only going to harm us as an industry and as a community So I would urge everyone to simply edit this phrase out of your vocabulary When you say so-and-so is not technical perhaps what you mean is this person does not know how to program yet or This person does not understand the TDF IDF algorithm Which I can tell you right now. I do not understand. So if anyone would like to explain that to me later I welcome your education Just don't use it Just like I had to teach myself not to say This code is lame We can teach ourselves to not say this person is not technical I'd like to conclude with some extremely wise words From a woman named Kara souls. Does anyone have the opportunity here to meet Kara? Kara is the knees of bees. She is fantastic She's a community human at puppet labs and when she saw me tweeting that I would be here speaking at Euro camp She was really really excited and she wanted to chat about the talk and I Sat down with her and we shared some notes and and once again Kara's extremely wise words stuck with me and she said I don't understand Why I would stay in an industry that defines me solely by what I cannot do Instead of all the things that I am capable of doing and As we hear consistently that we have a pipeline problem Or more accurately that we have a leaky pipeline problem and that we are not able to effectively retain technical talent How can we then continue to use? Fraziology and thinking that under values so many of the activities That are the first step towards people becoming developers be that writing documentation Program management or any number of sophisticated tasks that simply don't involve Creating software so my friends I ask you will the real technical people please stand up? And that is all of you here today You guys are awesome. I'm so excited to be here This is my favorite. This is question guy question figure guy Does anybody have any awesome questions or experiences? They would like to share because I know I'm between you and coffee which is terrible Hi Thanks for your talk. I Myself I mean I must be technical I just stand up and I'm sitting here and I'm also studying this field, but I would also consider myself not as to being too technical But I would see it more as a compliment because I think there's so much more you should know when you program and Yeah, I don't there's so much more you should have empathy and you I mean technique is just for the people and you should know about their their feelings about technical and their Needs of technique so I think being not Totally technical is just a plus in my opinion. I Agree with you completely. Sorry. I had to read I'm losing my hearing in my old age Yes, I agree Besides I how many of you have friends who literally only spend time with their keyboard I mean I have some of them and I and I really love them dearly, but occasionally I would like to talk to you not on IRC Just because you know Seems like it could be fun more questions. I Feel like people have a deep need for caffeine Which I respect Nice human Hi Thank you for sharing your points. I totally agree with most of the things that is said, but The only thing that I would like to add is I think technique Are you technical can mean different things in different regions? So for example? I am from Brazil and we have a special kind of course which we call technical course so when you ask someone like are you technical you can ask this for anyone and You just want to know if the person has a bachelor degree or this kind of technical degree and In this case, I think I think it's not harmful because it just want to know what kind of degree the person has in order to Maybe select a kind of salary or something and but I I totally agree that this may cause Confusion if you are in America if you are in Europe and if you're in Brazil, so Would you have some suggestion on how to do with this because in Brazil you don't have an alternative question like So Thank you for your question. This this is not a part of my experience So it is always great to learn about how folks around the world actually experience life I have not spent enough time in Brazil clearly I don't have a suggestion right at the moment, but I would like to think about that and get back to you If that is okay Cool beans, okay other nice human So you're talking to a group of people for instance at this conference and someone says about someone else that they are not technical How can you respond? Well Excellent question. Thank you. So it depends on kind of the kind of interaction. I'm having with someone like if someone says I'm not technical then usually I say oh, okay great So what brought you here today and then I typically hear something along the lines of well I'm a program manager and I oversee the design of this software package or I'm a user experienced designer And I'm working on this project or etc. etc. Etc. And then I say wow, that's that sounds pretty technical to me and I've also had a lot of conversations with partners at conferences and Sometimes gentlemen are the plus one just so everyone knows actually. I think this crowd is not the crowd that I need to explain that to And you know when they tell me that they are you know, I'm not technical, but the number of them who will have had in-depth conversations with their wives or husbands about The topics that they encounter every day is non-trivial and then I just smile and say I think you're a lot more Technical than you give yourself credit for just just so you know And you know usually people take that pretty well and it encourages them to think better of themselves Cool. Thank you anyone else Copy copy. Okay Thanks for this this talk. I think it's a very important to To remind that's what we saying will frame the world and I just want to come in with something You know this comments to pit gender division About children that girl is for literature and math and science for boys I think it's very horrible and It's important that there are just knowledges and means to achieve something and whatever it is. It's as you said What you do that frame you and not what you know what you have studied so thanks. Thanks a lot Awesome plus one. Thank you. Let us go and have a delicious beverage of your choice. Thank you for having me