 Okay, is this anyone's first time in Austin? All right. My first time in Austin, I live in Raleigh now, I lived here for a year last year, but my very first time here was in 1990. I was going to KU in Lawrence, Kansas, and I took a spring break down here, and so a few months later I dropped out of KU and I moved here, and I took some time off of school and saw a lot of bands. Eventually I transferred back into UT and eventually I graduated from UT. So it's been really fun for me also to be back here, and if you haven't explored campus yet, I encourage you to walk around. I have a little hole in the wall, sign up there, and the hole in the wall is right across the street from the university, and if you haven't been there, it's been around since the early 70s and had my graduation party there, but a lot of bands got started there. So it's a cool place to stop by and check out if you haven't been there yet. It's got a lot of Austin history and music history. So who's wondering why I would be speaking at DjangoCon if I'm not involved with Django? Yeah, okay, that's a legitimate question, but I am kind of connected to Django, and it's a funny story. So as Jeff mentioned, my career started at Sisatman Magazine. After I graduated from UT, I moved back to Lawrence, Kansas. And I got a job at a tech publishing company and customer service. And after a few months, I transferred over to my first job in publishing. And Sisatman's not around anymore. And sadly, this is about the only sign of it I could find online, the magazine. It's unfortunate because it was an exceptional magazine, and I'm really proud to have gotten my start there, even if it was by accident. It's what introduced me to Linux, and it was just the Journal for Unix Sisatmans, and then once Linux started getting big, we expanded our coverage for Linux admins also. And some of the relationships I have all these years later, date back to the very beginning of my career. And so I want to talk about doing what you like to do for a long time with a diverse group of people that you like working with, and who like working with you, which is also an important part of this. So Frank Wiles is right up here. And this is an example of somebody I've ended up working with for a very long time, he wrote back for us back in 2003. I couldn't find archives from Sisatmans, but I could find a newsletter online, which is really weird. But so this is a newsletter I sent out in 2003, promoting an article that Frank wrote for us. And so I was at Sisatmans for about ten years. And then I moved over, a German company was expanding and wanted to open an office in Lawrence, Kansas. And so I helped them open that office, and I was an editor of Linux Pro Magazine, which is still around, and they have since launched several other magazines. I'm going to use their magazine and Admin Magazine. A lot of the writers from Sisatmans still contribute to Admin Magazine. And so the Journal World wrote an article about this, what was it, 2007. Is anyone familiar with the Journal World? Or the World Company? Right, see, you're seeing where it's all coming together now. So as I'm traveling the country and going to conferences talking about Linux Pro Magazine and Linux Media and how we have an office in Lawrence now, I kept hearing, that's where Jing goes from. And Jing was not even officially released yet, it's a project, right? And so this was really weird that we kept hearing this from people in San Francisco, international people who were here at events. It was very strange to be hearing about this already. And so when I got back home, I was like, hey, Frank, can you write an article about this Jango that I keep hearing about? And so he did and he submitted the article and he probably submitted it about August 2008 because in publishing for print, you submit it and then several weeks before it goes through printing. And then it hit new stands in September in Europe because we were international and they got printed over in Europe. And so I called it French Free, that was my idea for the title. So I thought it was clever. So it didn't hit over here in the States until October. But so it's hitting in Europe in September right as Jango one gets released. So that was kind of cool. So yay, ten years later, Jango, happy anniversary. So here we are, ten years later and 19 years after I graduated from UT and 18 years after I started my career in tech. And I'm happy to say that Frank has even contributed to the project I'm on now, opensource.com. And I encourage everyone to do that. I like these long-term relationships and hearing about cool new projects. So anyway, back to my talk. What inspired this talk? I wasn't able to attend PyCon, but being from Lawrence, I know a lot of the people involved in PyCon projects and Jango. And so I was watching some of the YouTube videos that came out of PyCon. And I saw Jacob's keynote. And I really liked it. I thought it was cool how he was able to tie in the Rockstar developer myth. And if you haven't seen the talk yet, I really encourage it. He talked about how what we need is more average developers. And the idea of a Rockstar developer is very limiting. And he also managed to tie in trail running, which I thought was cool. Because we used to run together also. But so anyway, that inspired this talk. And if you're not familiar with the whole concept of Rockstar developer, I know many of you are, but I know we also have some newer people here. It has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. And I've given talks about recruiting at other conferences and how we have to get rid of this idea of recruiting for a Rockstar developer. Here's one of the bazillion articles that you'll find online, which recruiters apparently don't read these. But this one was interesting because Scott writes, it sets an unreasonable expectation for regular folks. Calling out Rockstars demotivates the team and telling someone that their Rockstar may cause them to actually believe it. And one of the many reasons I have a problem with this whole idea of a Rockstar is it takes a lot of people behind the scenes. As an editor, as a publisher, I often got credit for the magazine. And I was the one that just kind of plugged in holes. There were a whole bunch of people that actually did the heavy lifting, like writing the articles and editing and doing art and getting it to the printer and all of that. So same thing with this idea of a Rockstar developer. And so if you want to increase diversity, as Jacob was talking in his keynote, this is one of the many things that you can do is eliminate these limiting terms that clearly when I read this, I mean, people see different things when they see Rockstar developer, but I'm seeing young white male. And I think a lot of people probably see that. And also I like a lot of country, so I might not relate to this. And a lot of people have no desire to be a Rockstar. When I see a recruiter that talks about beer in the kitchen, I personally don't work well after I've had drinks during the day. And so that's not a big motivating factor for me to apply for a company. There was a keg in the kitchen. So when I was looking a little bit more about what people have said about Rockstar developers, Nathan Hearst wrote on Hirelight. He wrote an article about what developers think when you say Rockstar. And he also, he posted a question on Hacker News and asked developers, what do you think when you see Rockstar in ads? And he got some pretty funny comments. Like this one? I said, yeah, I like that one. If by Rockstar you mean someone that parties all night, comes in late and hung over, has weird contractual demands and trashes hotel rooms on business trips, then yes, I guess I'm a Rockstar. When do I start? Don't forget to bite the head off a bat and trash the place on your way out. And one of the comments that was kind of funny, somebody actually wrote to the recruiter and said, what do you mean by Rockstar? And she wrote back, I'm sorry, I meant Ninja. So this is from the article. He said, next time you're thinking about saying Rockstar, Ninja, Guru, et cetera, in your job post, consider it a sign that you have more thinking to do about your hiring requirements. And I mean, it's lazy to say Rockstar, Ninja or whatever. It's just lazy. It doesn't say anything. To me, when I see that, I'm thinking this must be an intern who wrote this or somebody who has no idea what they're recruiting for. Doesn't understand the technology perhaps or the business if this is what they're doing. So obviously it would make more sense to say, what do you want me to be able to do? What level of experience are you hunting for? What am I supposed to know? What do I need to be really an expert in and somewhat competent in? What can I just pick up really fast on the job? But more importantly, I'm at the position of my career where I want to know what you have to offer me. What's your company like? What's your culture like? What am I going to like about the project? So that's going to make more sense when you're recruiting and you want diversity. So back to Jacob's talk. I have ADD. People who have ADD, it's not that they're not listening to you. As I'm watching his Picon talk, I'm five steps ahead because he's not talking fast enough as far as I'm concerned. And so I'm thinking steps ahead. And I'm thinking, I've leapt past his talk. And I'm thinking about Django Reinhardt, which is where Django gets his name. And I like Django Reinhardt if you haven't listened to him. I encourage you to. It's wonderful gypsy jazz music. It never goes out of style. But here's where Willie Nelson comes in. Django Reinhardt is one of his biggest musical influences. So I go from Jacob's talk at Picon right into a Willie Nelson moment. And it all happened really fast. And so I went home. And like you do, I pulled out all my records. And I started playing Willie Nelson records after work. And if you're not familiar, the flat ones are albums, LPs. And the little ones, they're cassette. They play on much bigger devices than you're used to now. The cat was, I did not place her. If anyone's got a cat, they place themselves all in your business. And that's what happened there, but that's Buffy. So that's what I was doing when I got home. And I started listening to records, watching YouTube videos, and thinking about Willie Nelson developers as opposed to a Rockstar developer. And so I wrote that article in eight ways. Developers could be more like Willie Nelson. And I thought about lessons that Willie Nelson has for developers. And I'm not going to go through all eight here, but I have a few. And one of them is that he helps others succeed. He actually wrote his first song when he was about seven. And he didn't make it big until the 60s or 70s. So if you've been doing this for a few decades, don't worry, you still could get really big and get a good paint job at some point. So he worked behind the scenes quite a bit at first. He was a disc jockey. He played bass in Ray Price's band, who I saw in Austin in college. He was excellent. Rest in peace. And he's written a lot of songs that other people made famous. He wrote Crazy, which is Patsy Klein's probably biggest hit, right? And he wrote songs that Roy Orbison and 50 billion together people have recorded. And then I think that all of us, not just developers, should constantly be learning new skills. Willie Nelson, I think he's 81 now. 81 or 82, but I think he's 81. And he got his fifth degree black belt to celebrate his 80th birthday. So this is pretty recent. He's just awesome. He's constantly learning new skills. He's, in addition to recording and writing music, he has dabbled on TV. I believe he was on episode of Dukes of Hazzard. He's been on the Colbert Christmas or Hanukkah special, whatever it was. And you can look on YouTube, and there's a video of him doing a magic trick in his tour bus. That was pretty funny and just a bunch of different skills. And then I also think that, regardless of how far you are in your career, you should be accessible to a wide range of people. And so as Willie records with a range of people relatively new in the field. And then he just released an album recently. I think it's with Merle Haggard and where they do Django Reinhardt songs and Jimmy Rogers songs. And then I've seen him play in a rodeo type situation, a county fair. And then I've seen him play in a really fancy, very expensive theater. I got free tickets, so I wouldn't have been there. And I saw him play in Liberty Hall, which is a cool historic theater in Lawrence, Kansas. And it's the only time I've ever stood in line for tickets. But they are only about 30 bucks, so it was affordable. And so I think that's a big lesson for anybody who's working in open source that it's very important to be thinking about helping new people, in addition to working with people that you know and like and have worked with for a long time. And that helps keep it all fresh also. And so he also uses the best tool for the job. The guitar he plays, he's had since 1959, I believe. And 59 or 69. Anyway, he paid 50 bucks for it. And it's a classical guitar. It's not meant to be played with a pick, and that's why it has a giant hole in it. If you've ever seen him play, I cropped that there, I guess. And he's had it patched repeatedly. And he was inspired to do this from Django Reinhardt. See how I'm tying it all together? Because that's what Django Reinhardt plays. And so that's not normally what you hear in country music, but he gets this unique sound out of it that he really likes. And so he has stuck with it and used it in an innovative way. So think about that the next time you're at an open source or a Linux event and you see people with Macs. Because I used to bring a Mac to events, and I would get grief once in a while. And I was like, get off my ass. You're allowed to use multiple operating systems. You don't have to just print or online as your favorite. You can subscribe to Magazine and read online publications. You're allowed to do this. Right? Thank you. And I also think it's important to lead. And like I said, he's perfectly comfortable working in background roles. He still records on other people's albums. But he's also a leader, and he really sets the tone for his band. I know somebody who works with him who calls him St. Willie because he's so delightful to work with. But leaders, I know some people in our field are really uncomfortable being in front of people, or maybe talking on stage, or they don't want to lead a team. But you can lead by answering questions in IRC. You can lead by welcoming newcomers to your event. You can lead by helping organize events or attending a meetup and participating. So there are many ways you can be a leader in open source. You don't have to be in front on guitar. This is not a picture of William Elson, but I like the picture. Collaborate with a diverse mix of people. And I think that this is really important. This has helped me so much in my career. Any time I'm feeling a little bit stagnant, it's very important for me to reach out and think of, where haven't I worked yet? What haven't I learned? And who haven't I worked with yet? And what events haven't I been to? I haven't been to DjangoCon yet. I've been wanting to come for a long time. So I was happy to get invited to this event. He, William Elson records with everybody. I mean, the outlaw music scene that he got into when he moved back to Austin, he kind of retired and quit in the late 60s, early 70s, because he wasn't getting the fame and record sales or whatever that he had expected. But when he got here, he started hanging out with these different people, the Austin people. And it helped him come up with this new sound, the outlaw music sound. And it completely changed the direction of his career. And he got some commercial success, finally. So, and he's recorded with jazz artists, country rock artists. He's covered rock songs. And he's recorded with Snoop Dogg, which I think is kind of cool. And apparently they're kind of good buddies and hang out. So that's some good advice from William Elson. So, if you are not a rock star developer and that you're never feeling like you're going to want to be a rock star developer, that's great. Like Jacob says, watch the video. It's perfectly awesome to be an average developer. We need a lot of just good dependable developers. And William Elson, one of my favorite quotes from him, he's been around for decades now. And he said, I never gave up on country music because I knew what I was doing was not that bad. And so, you know, he's had some not great songs and not the best-selling albums, you know? I mean, he's had a whole range. And he, I think he even recorded a reggae album, which I've never heard of. So apparently it wasn't a huge hit, right? So, but I think it's okay to get out there and try new things and you're gonna fail at some of them, you know? And then you can keep doing the stuff that you're real comfortable with also. And that pays the bills, I guess. So here are the few of the highlights from, but I think we can learn from William Elson. There are many more, but I know this isn't a whole week about what I think you can learn from William Elson, so I try to condense it. But help others succeed, learn new skills, be accessible to a range of people in your community, experts and novices. Also, I think it's always important to be considerate for people who don't have the funds to attend events because I certainly have been in that position and I know a lot of people who are, and so make sure you're able to, you know, be accessible online in IRC or a community advanced low-cost events. Use the best tool for the job or innovate on an existing tool or create a better tool or, you know, document the tool because you think it's crappy and realize it's just that the documentation's crappy, you can help that way too. Play supporting and leading roles and collaborate with a diverse mix of people, which I know here you all are really good about doing that, but we can always improve in this area. And so if you all have not seen the William Elson statue that was developed, it was dedicated a few years ago on 420. It's over on 301, William Elson Boulevard. It's only about one and a half miles from here, which I would say walk, except that it's supposed to be about 100 degrees out. But I think it would be fun if you do go over and make that pilgrimage, post a picture on Twitter, Instagram or wherever and tag DjangoCon because I would love to see if anyone makes it over there. It's a cool statue. And I wanted to thank everybody for having me and for inviting me. And also, I'm not gonna take questions right after this. I will be happy to be taking questions or talking to everybody in the hallway track during the break. And if you have questions about opensource.com and how you can contribute or participate, please let me know. So thank you so much. Thank you.