Brian Underwood
Lightning Talks
Lightning Talks
by Michael Hartl, Jonathan Slate, Kyle Heironimus, Yechiel Kalmenson, Heather Herrington, Jen Pengelly, Brian Underwood, Cameron Dutro, Aaron Rosenberg, Starr Chen, Margo Urey, Ryan Laughlin, Julia Cuppy, Jim Remsik, Amir Rajan, Dave Aronson, Sam Livingston-Grey, Noah Gibbs, Heidi Waterhouse, Akira Matsuda, and Adam CuppyThe video titled 'Lightning Talks' features a series of short, engaging presentations given by various speakers at RubyConf 2017. Each speaker shares unique insights ranging from charitable initiatives to practical programming advice and personal experiences.
Key Points Discussed:
- Michael Hartl opens with an invitation to a Rails Tutorial Beerware night, emphasizing community engagement within the Ruby on Rails community.
- Jonathan Slate reflects on the beauty of New Orleans while addressing societal issues, proposing a collective effort to support local charities like the Greater New Orleans Foundation.
- Kyle Heironimus introduces 'Get Blame Driven Development' as a technique for understanding code context, advocating for a positive approach to errors and learning from past mistakes.
- Yechiel Kalmenson, a former rabbi, shares insights from his background in Talmud, linking the lessons of charity and community building to programming as a means to improve the world.
- Heather Herrington discusses common hazards pets face at home, providing a veterinarian's perspective on keeping them safe from various toxic substances.
- Jen Pengelly promotes 'Ruby for Good,' an event aimed at connecting developers with nonprofit organizations to provide pro bono services. She highlights the importance of community and collaboration in tech.
- Other speakers include Brian Underwood, Cameron Dutro, and Ryan Laughlin, each contributing to the diverse topics on Ruby, programming culture, and community engagement.
Conclusions/Takeaways:
- The talks emphasize the importance of community support, continuous learning from errors, and the potential impact of programming skills on societal improvement. The overall message reflects a blend of technical knowledge and compassion, showcasing the multifaceted benefits of the Ruby programming community as it interacts with the local culture and needs of New Orleans.
This format fosters a deeper understanding of the responsibilities and opportunities that come with being part of such a vibrant developer community, encouraging participants to engage with their skills beyond the technical realm.
00:00:10
As per tradition, if you are on this list,
00:00:16
and rather than giving a five-minute talk, you would like to give a one-minute talk without slides, you may do so right
00:00:25
now, independent of where you are on the list. So, do I have any takers? Perhaps Michael Hartl? Shnikeys! We will... I will.
00:00:36
Start after this. Good evening everyone.
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I'm Michael Hartl from the Ruby on Rails Tutorial.
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The Rails Tutorial software is dual licensed under the MIT license and the Beerware license.
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The Beerware license says, you know, hey, if you like the software, maybe buy me a beer.
00:01:00
So, I'm holding the sixth semiannual Rails Tutorial Beerware night tonight at DBA on Frenchmen Street, starting at 6:30 and running to 8:30.
00:01:06
If you're interested in coming, you can go to twitter.com/RailsTutorial. The pinned tweet has an Eventbrite link where you can RSVP.
00:01:14
You can RSVP or not, or just show up. Come on out! Get the information for where we're going. Frenchmen Street's a great place.
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I think it's going to be a great time. Hope to see some of you there.
00:01:25
Do I have any other takers for a one-minute talk? Yes, please come up! The man in the denim pants.
00:01:34
I'm avoiding names now. You like that? Where are you on the list? Okay, very good.
00:01:40
Hi, my name is Jonathan Slate. Have you taken in some of the beautiful city of New Orleans and all it has to offer?
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I love this town, with great people, music,
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food, architecture. It's almost overwhelming. It’s hard not to notice, though, that some people here are struggling.
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I've seen people sleeping in doorways, people asking for a couple of dollars, people who need a hand.
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Matt says Ruby is nice, so we are nice. Let's prove it.
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Every year we swoop into a city, learn about Ruby, take in the local culture, and swoop out again.
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I did some research and ended up calling the Greater New Orleans Foundation, a GuideStar gold-rated charity that would love our support.
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They recommended two funds: the New Orleans Works Fund, which focuses on employment and second chances, helping people just getting out of the criminal justice system.
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I set up a little page with instructions, so if you're interested in making a donation, it's tinyurl.com/NOLARuby2017.
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That's tinyurl.com/NOLARuby2017. I’ll tweet that out with the RubyCash tag as well.
00:02:51
Thank you! A splendid idea. Any other takers?
00:03:00
Yes, very tall man in the blue pants. How long can I keep that up?
00:03:06
Hi, I'm Kyle Heironimus. I'm here to talk about GBDD: Get Blame Driven Development.
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I use it all the time, and I think it’s very underused.
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I think mostly because people are kind of scared of blame.
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You're not supposed to blame people at all, and that's an unfortunate naming, but don't think of it as blaming. Instead, think of it more as getting context before you go in and break something.
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There’s a quote by Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
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What can you learn from Get Blame? Well, of course, you can learn who, but you can also learn what, where, when, and why.
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So, of course, you can remember who committed it: Was this an expert? Was this a newbie? Was this cowboy coder? Those will impact how you react with the code.
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What is the commit message? What was going on at this time? When was this committed? Was it committed yesterday or was it committed a year ago?
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Again, those would affect how you deal with the code. Where were the other changes that got it committed? Were there a thousand other lines as part of this commit, or was it just a single line commit?
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Why? What was the issue that prompted this in the first place?
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To summarize: One more quote from G.K. Chesterton: "Don't take offense down unless you can blame whoever put it up."
00:04:19
Thank you! Thank you!
00:04:21
Last call on the one-minute talks, going once, going twice, and gone!
00:04:29
Okay, so our first speaker, who is not using slides, which is totally fine, is Yechiel.
00:04:36
And on deck is he, yeah, her, so she's getting set up, and I will give you the floor.
00:04:43
Before I was a programmer, I was a rabbi and a teacher.
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I spent a lot of my time learning Talmud, and Talmud is actually very interesting.
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There are tons of things to learn that are relevant to all kinds of areas.
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Every once in a while, I find a gem there that just applies to programmers.
00:05:17
This really should be developed into a bigger talk, but I'll share one of them.
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There's a story about the famous Talmudic sage whose name was Rabbi Akiva.
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He was once talking to a Roman minister.
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The Roman minister told him, you Jews are always advocating charity and helping the poor.
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If God made them poor, shouldn’t we just leave them at that?
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Isn’t this how God intended the world to be? There are poor people, leave them there!
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But this rabbi replied, 'No, God created poor people, but it's our job to perfect the world, to make the world a better place, and to help these people out.'
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What this Roman minister was committing was a famous fallacy known as the just world hypothesis, where people believe that people are poor because they deserve to be.
00:06:04
But of course, we know that that's not the way the world runs.
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When we see suffering, we should try to help.
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That's good for a political speech.
00:06:22
However, I have news: programming.
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I like to share a quote from Steve Cloud: 'Programming is a movement from a broken state to a working state.'
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That means you spend the majority of your time with things being broken.
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Hell, if it worked, you’d be done.
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As programmers, you know that we see all of our work is with broken code.
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Code that works doesn't need programmers to work on it.
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I've spent some time coaching at Flatiron, and one of the biggest shifts I've seen in students' mindset is the switch where they are no longer scared of error messages.
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When they realize that error messages help them.
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There were a lot of talks over the past two days about errors and failure.
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This switch, where when you see something broken and you don't think, 'Oh my God, I just failed! What do I do?' You see it as an opportunity to learn and grow.
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I think that's what makes us programmers, and we can take that into the world and just make the world a much better place.
00:08:07
Thank you! So, show of hands, how many people here have a dog or a cat?
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Or know someone who has a dog or a cat? Or are vaguely interested in dogs, cats, or animals?
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What about dog or cat medicine?
00:08:30
Well, my first career was as a veterinarian.
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This talk is going to have nothing to do with computers whatsoever; it's all about things your dog or cat might eat and how bad it can be.
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This is my dog up here; he is very sophisticated, as you can see.
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So, cats, things that cats might eat or get into: One of them is topical spot-on insecticides.
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Like flea and tick treatments, if you can buy it at a grocery store, or if it's made for a dog and specifically says don't put it on a cat, don't put it on your cat.
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Because it can cause seizures. Ideally, if your cat has a problem with fleas, go to your veterinarian and get something prescribed.
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Because the over-the-counter stuff can be bad.
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If you're into Halloween decorations or raves, glow sticks can cause your cat to foam at the mouth, and it looks really bad.
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It might make them vomit, so don't let them have glow sticks.
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Lilies are one of the things a lot of people don't know about: Not all lilies are toxic.
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But the ones that are can cause acute kidney failure and can kill your cat.
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That includes any part of the plant: the leaves, the flowers.
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If you have cats, maybe avoid having lilies.
00:10:04
Antifreeze is also another really bad one; it can cause kidney failure in cats.
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The bad thing is it tastes good, and they've done petitions to put something in there that makes it taste bad.
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All those petitions failed, and even the tiniest amount can be toxic.
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So, if you have some in your garage, and your cat has access to that or your car is leaking, whatever, don't let your cat drink it.
00:10:31
Mousetrap and rat poison works because it's tasty, and if the mouse or rat is willing to eat it, the cat might be willing to eat it too.
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Or the cat might eat the mouse or the rat that ate the poison, and depending on the type, it can cause blood clotting problems or neurological issues.
00:10:46
So again, if you have poison in your house, maybe don't let your cats have access to it.
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The last one is medication with Tylenol in it.
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Cats actually can ingest Tylenol, and that's why its face is all poofy and its lips are kind of blue.
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Cats lack the enzyme to metabolize Tylenol.
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So, if your cat is ever hurt or injured or seems sore, don't give it Tylenol.
00:11:20
This next slide has a kind of gross picture, but I am a vet, so I think it's funny.
00:11:31
Again, mouse or rat poison: same reason.
00:11:39
It's bad for dogs, same with antifreeze.
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Dogs can tolerate a larger dose of antifreeze without dying, but it’s still bad.
00:11:54
Raisinets: when I put this up here, who thinks that I'm talking about the chocolate?
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Who thinks I'm talking about the raisins?
00:12:06
The raisin people are kind of more right.
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Chocolate is toxic to dogs but not nearly as bad as we think it is.
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If you're a half-pound teacup, and a little kick-me dog eats a giant bar of 80% chocolate, that might be a problem.
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But if you're an 85-pound Mastiff and you eat a Hershey's kiss, he's gonna live.
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Grapes and raisins, on the other hand: one or two grapes or raisins can cause kidney failure and death in dogs.
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We don’t know why it doesn’t affect all dogs, but grapes and raisins are very toxic.
00:12:47
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories: if you prescribe something like chewable rimadyl, dogs eat it because it tastes good.
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There's a chance that they might tear into the bottle and eat the whole bottle's worth. Don't let them do it.
00:13:00
Put it where they can’t get it.
00:13:07
Xylitol is not really new anymore; it's a sugar substitute that people find in sugar-free gums and products.
00:13:14
The catch is, they’re putting it in some peanut butters now, which I think is just hateful.
00:13:20
So if you give your dog peanut butter in a Kong, make sure that it doesn’t have xylitol in it.
00:13:27
So if your animal gets into something, what should you do?
00:13:35
Well, first of all, make sure that pets and kids aren't in that area anymore.
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Is your pet safe? Breathing? Acting normally? If so, don’t give them any home antidotes.
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People give like weird things like they'll give salt to make the dog vomit.
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But too much salt is toxic, so don't do that.
00:14:00
Don't induce vomiting yet; call the pet poison helpline.
00:14:08
These folks are awesome; I know a lot of people who work there, and they are very, very helpful.
00:14:15
If your animal is crashing, so they aren't breathing, and they're not acting normally, call your veterinarian clinic immediately.
00:14:22
You probably have hydrogen peroxide at home because a tablespoon of that will make most dogs vomit.
00:14:30
Do not give it to a cat, because it just causes really bad stomach inflammation.
00:14:36
I want to thank, like I said, the pet poison help line. Take a picture of this slide; if you ever need them, you can call that number.
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They will charge you a whopping fifty-nine dollars, but it’s for the duration of the poison.
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So if there are complications, they will continue to help you.
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All of these little fur demons are my pets, and I thank them too because they make my life good.
00:15:03
Thank you!
00:15:10
Next up is Brian Underwood! Like the rare rabbit, I assume?
00:15:19
Oh, by the way, for speakers, your time is in the middle here.
00:15:28
If you go over time, you'll hear an annoying beep that I will send through my phone.
00:15:39
Avoid that! Don’t go over time.
00:15:48
Good evening, everyone! How’s your ruby conf going? Mine has also been amazing.
00:15:54
My name is Jen Pengelly. I am a web developer, and I hail from Washington, DC.
00:15:59
I work at a great company called Excella Consulting. You can find me on Twitter at Jen Pengelly.
00:16:06
So I have a few questions to start us off.
00:16:12
First, who likes Ruby?
00:16:16
Who likes hanging out with other Rubyists?
00:16:22
Who likes helping people and making the world a better place?
00:16:28
Yes, I got a few naysayers! That's fine.
00:16:35
For the rest of you, I'm here to invite you to Ruby for Good.
00:16:41
Ruby for Good is an event held in the spring near Washington, DC.
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We help organizations that really need people with our skill set but can't necessarily afford them.
00:16:54
Some of the organizations we've helped in the past include animal shelters, diaper banks, food banks, red pandas, and many more, including the New Orleans Habitat for Humanity.
00:17:01
Our mission is to help nonprofits and civic organizations grow.
00:17:10
There’s a big emphasis on learning at Ruby for Good.
00:17:18
We engage in pair programming, mentorship, experimentation, and continue to work on the projects that we launch.
00:17:24
We maintain a community throughout the year with code reviews and pull requests.
00:17:32
It's an inclusive event. Registration covers your meals, lodging, and everything else.
00:17:38
It's also a very friendly environment, and we're proud of that.
00:17:45
While there's a lot of work to be done launching these projects,
00:17:51
we have a hard stop every day at dinnertime. Then we really nerd out.
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We play board games, we play Werewolf, we sing karaoke...
00:18:05
and have lots of other fun in the evening.
00:18:12
Here are some of my best friends from last year's Ruby for Good.
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And here are some more friends from this year's Ruby for Good.
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If you've been to Ruby for Good, please raise your hands!
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If you saw a hand go up near you, make friends and then come hang out with us.
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This is the Ruby for Good logo - it's a world full of love as it embraces Ruby.
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I encourage you to check out our website, rubyforgood.org.
00:19:06
Follow us on Twitter at Ruby for Good or check us out on GitHub.
00:19:12
We have active open issues right now, so you can get right into it!
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We would love for you to come! If you work for an organization that would like to sponsor an event like this, let us know!
00:19:26
Craig, raise your hand! He has stickers! I have stickers! Come get stickers!
00:19:36
Come talk to us about Ruby for Good, and we hope you join us. Thank you!
00:19:42
Next up is Brian Underwood! Like the rare rabbit, I assume? Something like that, you're on deck.
00:19:51
Oh, by the way, for speakers, your time is in the middle here.
00:19:56
If you go over time, you'll hear an annoying beep that I will send through my phone. Avoid that! Don't go over time.
00:20:03
Good evening, everyone! How's your RubyConf going?
00:20:10
Mine has also been amazing! My name is Jen Pengelly.
00:20:17
I am a web developer and hail from Washington, DC.
00:20:24
I work at a great company called Excella Consulting. You can find me on Twitter at Jen Pengelly.
00:20:30
So I have a few questions to start us off.
00:20:37
First, who likes Ruby?
00:20:41
Who likes hanging out with other Rubyists?
00:20:47
Who likes helping people and making the world a better place?
00:20:53
Yes, I got a few naysayers! That's fine.
00:20:59
For the rest of you, I'm here to invite you to Ruby for Good.
00:21:06
Ruby for Good is an event held in the spring near Washington, DC.
00:21:12
We help organizations that really need people with our skill set but can't necessarily afford them.
00:21:20
Some of the organizations we've helped in the past include animal shelters, diaper banks, food banks, red pandas, and more.
00:21:29
Our mission is to help nonprofits and civic organizations grow.
00:21:39
There's a big emphasis on learning at Ruby for Good.
00:21:45
We engage in pair programming, mentorship, experimentation, and continuing to work on our projects.
00:21:53
We maintain a community throughout the year with code reviews and pull requests.
00:22:01
It's an inclusive event. Registration covers your meals, lodging, and everything else.
00:22:10
It's also a very friendly environment, and we’re proud of that.
00:22:15
So, when you see those error messages, don't just get upset; it's part of our journey to become better.
00:22:23
Having a growth mindset encourages us to approach errors in a much healthier light.
00:22:30
That's all I have for you, except if you want to talk Ruby again, I'm around.
00:22:37
There's also more to learn from error messages than you might think!
00:22:45
Thank you!
