It actually rained on my parade.

After months of planning, the CSS Dev Conf crowd paraded through New Orleans’ French Quarter complete with side line band, stilt walkers, and police escort.

A couple of attendees brought juggling gear. Other attendees dressed up in costume. Most carried masks given to them at the Opening Reception the night before. 

I walked around as a furry Chewbacca and we had all ended up in Jackson Square. 

Right into torrent of Gulf Coast rain.

We were prepared. We had plenty of plastic rain ponchos for everyone that showed up.

However, it’s almost impossible to put a poncho over Chewbacca. And not recommended, either.

At Jackson Square, attendees separated by some of the best tour guides in New Orleans based on their interest: Ghosts, True crimes, or New Orleans history. 

Me? I looked on as attendees dispersed into the dark, wet French Quarter architecture.

Happy that the attendees braved a tornado watch for the parade and were now on tour of New Orleans, I was a bit dejected thinking of what could have been. The missed laughter and jokes that only a cool New Orleans evening could afford.

I stood as a wet wookie in the rain.

With nothing left to do, I headed over to Café Du Monde, the legendary beignet and coffee shop, where people not on tours were already gathered and where all the tours would eventually end up.

About to cross the street to the cafe, I bumped into a city native that also braved the weather.

Beer on his breath and an unopened beer can in hand, “Excuse me,” he said instinctually. “Sorry about—CHEWBACCA?! What are YOU doing in town?”

I smirked, haven forgotten my attire for the evening.

Then I pointed, “Crossing the street. To Café Du Monde.”

“Well, that’s great… no, WAIT! No, sir. No, sir.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Uhm..?”

“Chewbacca is NOT getting rained on. Not in my city! Not on my watch!”

Then in his other hand, opened up his umbrella covered my head and escorted me across Decatur St. safely to Café Du Monde.

I thanked him and I walked into cafe to find my crowd with a growing smile on my face.

It never rained on me in New Orleans that night or the rest of my time in the Crescent City.

Foo Camp 2014 is an unconference hosted by O’Reilly Media where sessions such as “Impostor Syndrome” are suggested and scheduled by the attendees themselves.

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• Impostor syndrome is dragging us down. 
  • It can also drag others down when our work impacts other people.
• An expert is someone that can optimize that she knows quite a bit, but not someone who knows everything. 
  • Be at least one step ahead (esp. if you have kids); you don’t have to know everything.
• Symptoms of imposter syndrome: 
  • You are the only one in the group that doesn’t know what’s going on.
  • And you will be found out is one of your worst fears.
  • Struggle with trying to find out what their strengths are.
  • Give more weight to negative comments, people than more weight, control than positive ones
• If you are bad ass, you cannot experience imposter syndrome. 
  • See Dunning-Krueger effect. A.k.a., Kanye West syndrome.
• When we talk to others to find out the value of our work, we are dis-empowering ourselves. 
  • Questions of worth should be self-realized, understood internally: 
    • “What is good enough?”
    • “What is my best work?”
• Impostor critic:
  • Inner critic reinforces impostor syndrome.
  • You have a inner critic, if you are hearing youeslf say a lot of “I should”.
  • Give your inner critic a name, like “F@!& ‑o”.
  • Change the voice of your inner critic or negative comments to that of a cartoon character.
• Perfectionism is stifling the release of code, projects. 
  • Perfectionists procrastinate.
  • Often times there’s a feeling of not knowing what to do or how to do it
  • Then there is stuff you don’t want to do–not realizing how it’s helpful.
  • To cope with perfectionism: 
    • Break projects into smaller steps
    • Outsource to freelancers, when possible
  • Ways to change a mental view of perfectionism: 
    • Embrace mantras:
      • “Done is beautiful.”
      • “Done is enough.”
      • “Real artists ship.”
    • Deliberately make something bad. 
      • Make bad sentence; make series of bad sentences; make bad paragraphs.
• Satisifcing = Satisfying, suffice 
  • Realize there’s a difference between “excellence” and “perfectionist”.
  • A satisfactory solution is better or chosen over an optimal choice.
  • 80% completion of a project is better than 100%. 
    • Realize that going from 81–100% can take a lifetime.
    • The last 3% is Olympic level of perfectionism
  • In the digital age, adding corrections or updates to software is easier than creating fixing.
  • Iterating is embraced on web projects often better to revise/update than redesign.
• It’s hard to embrace achieving or accomplishing for people with impostor syndrome. 
  • When something amazing happens to you because of your own effort, embrace it.
  • Understand that you worked hard for this.
  • Realize that “This is mine because it’s supposed to be mine” and say, “thank you.”
• Recommended reading:
  • Getting Things Done by Paul Allen
  • “Breaking the Perfectionism-Procrastination Infinite Loop” at Web Standards Sherpa
  • “Banishing the Inner Critic” at A List Apart

Foo Camp 2014 is an unconference hosted by O’Reilly Media where sessions such as “Introvert Hacks” are suggested and scheduled by the attendees themselves.

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• Scheduling, tracking:
  • Track energy level on Google calendar. If you have a few-to-several low energy days in a row, schedule a “do nothing” day.
  • When getting invited to hang out, say “no” first, then “maybe”.
    • Next, put it on the calendar. When the time comes for the event, you can then decide if it feels right to go.
    • If you do decide to go, limit your time there. E.g., stay for one hour or portion of the event.
  • Schedule on the calendar a “do nothing” weekend
  • You don’t need to be everywhere, embrace JoMO or Joy of Missing Out
  • Try to be realistic with your workload 
    • “Past-Me is really ambitious compared to Current-Me”
    • Don’t get upset with yourself when you pile on work.
• Related to conference events: 
  • At a conference, give yourself compassion to take breaks so you can maintain people skills.
  • Speaking at an event is better than being an attendee for an introvert since at a large number of people will hear what you have to say and, if they want, seek you out to follow-up after your talk.
  • When giving a presentation, focus on 3–4 key people in an audience when speaking. Talk to them, don’t get fluster yourself looking into a sea of people.
• Conversation tips:
  • Frame a question in terms of “First”, “Best”, “Last”, “Worst”. E.g. “what was the best thing that happened to you at XYZ company?”
  • “What was the most interesting thing you saw/learned/did today?”
  • After someone tells you what they do, simply say, “That sounds hard.”
  • Get a service dog to get others to start the conversation.
  • Exit conversations by saying: 
    • “I’ll be right back.”
    • “I’ll be a second.”
    • “It was nice meeting you.”
    • “Alright. All the best.”
• On finding quiet: 
  • Use Musician earplugs for bars, large networking events, etc.
  • One of the greatest things you can do is change the venue of a conversation with someone. 
    • While it moves the conversation to somewhere quieter, it signals to the other person that you want to focus on them and what they have to say.
    • Change the noise level by suggesting a move to a new, nearby location. Feeling adventurous? Invite the other away from the venue completely for something new.
• Making the most of your alone time: 
  • Use earplugs, if needed.
  • Meditate, if it suits you.
  • Write down in a journal, like DayOne app, one thing you are grateful each day
  • Schedule your alone time for first thing every day as way to pay yourself first before giving your time, energy, and resources to others.
• Recommended reading:
  • Five Languages of Love by Gary D Chapman
  • Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Scott McCloud, creator of Eisner Award winner Understanding Comics and Jack Kirby Award winner Zot!, delivered a keynote address on the second day of the AIGA In Control Orlando 2014 Conference.

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• “If I don’t need to think it, I don’t need to see it.”

Scott McCloud makes the case for great user experience design. When creating moments for your users–no matter if it’s digital design, story telling, or how to make a cup of cofee–don’t give extraneous information to your audience. 

When they need the information, deliver the information to them. 

Not a moment before.

• “Content should not be a bitter pill.”
• “Form and content must never apologize for one another.”

Don’t dress up badly-written content with gorgeous graphics or animated GIFs.

On the flip side, don’t add visuals to wonderful prose. 

Both misguided approaches end up ruining the form and undermine the message.

Make good content that people want. 

• “You don’t want to piss off Family Circus fans.”

This line just made me laugh out loud.

• “The open book is the shape of print.”

Print media isn’t a closed book or, if I may, a neatly folded newspaper. 

When a book is opened, it makes a horizontal rectangle. This format is better for our eyes since the eyes are placed on a horizontal axis, placed side-by-side only to be separated by a nose. 

When the print matter is opened, it’s a working medium.

Viewing digital comics on an iPad, when it’s vertical, isn’t how it was intended. A crafted two-page spread fails miserably to convey information–causing more work for the reader to understand what’s going on. 

Comixology’s guided view for reading comic books reinforces the flawed construct of mistaking the medium for the message. That the shape of a physical comic book is the comic book itself.

With Comixology, there’s a “guided view”. The guided view shows a panel at a time until it comes to the end of the page, where it breaks the reader out from the world of comics reading to show that they are now zooming out of the panel, flip to the next page, and then zoom to the first panel on that page. But, why zoom out at all? Why not use this new medium to display panel after panel rather than reinforce print restrictions in the digital age. 

• “The art of coming in second place is when the client says, ‘I want to do what they did.’”

In my own opinion, an absolutely brutal take down of every instance when a client wants to copy the competition. 

Try to get your client to be themselves. If you are working on your own brand, be true to yourself.

• “Once upon a time, a ‘good talk’ was one that where the presenter didn’t read the content off the slides to their audience. Now a good talk is called a ‘TED Talk’.”

All talks should aspire to be a TED Talk. Otherwise you’re just reading. 

1. Learn from everyone
2. Follow no one
3. Watch for patterns
4. Work like hell

Follow the four rules above to pursue your own vision, not what you think is important. If you do, you will be satisfied with your work and, with luck, others will, too. 

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For more about Scott McCloud’s work and insight, see these resources:

• Video: Scott McCloud’s TED Talk
• Video: Scott McCloud icon 01 Interview
• Video: Understanding McCloud
• Book: Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud