Talks To Inspire You - January 2024
In this new recurring blog post series, I'll share awesome talks from great speakers. Some talks will be older, some more recent, but hopefully they'll all inspire you and show different ways of giving talks.
It all means nothing in the end
What do you do when you've attached your sense of self to work, and work suddenly feels meaningless? In this talk, Amy Hupe explores burnout, purpose and making meaning in an increasingly confusing and calamitous world. I got to see Amy give this talk at State of the Browser last year, and it's one of those talks that really gets you reflecting and thinking about your own life. I love how Amy uses humour in this talk and keeps coming back to the same punchline. [Watch on YouTube]
How to crash a plane
I mentioned this talk in the last article where I interviewed Nickolas Means. This is a great talk from him which he gave at Lead Dev London in 2016. It's such a feat in storytelling and keeping the audience captivated. [Watch on YouTube]
Reading code is harder than writing it
This is a 4-year-old talk from Trisha Gee from SCLConf 2019, but it's still so relevant today and is applicable to most languages. In her talk, Trisha provides useful advice on how to learn and practice skilful code reading. I love Trisha's use of hand-drawn drawings in her slides. [Watch on YouTube]
The DevRel Layoff Survival Guide
I saw this talk from Shy Ruparel at DevRelCon London last year, a few days before being made redundant myself. Little did I know when watching it, how useful it would be for a week later! It's full of helpful tips and helped prepare me, even though my previous role wasn't DevRel-focused. Shy makes great use of his slides to emphasise what he’s saying. [Watch on YouTube]
What are your favourite talks? Have a suggestion for a talk you want included in the next Talks To Inspire You? Hit reply to this email and let me know!
