On People being Incredible

Content warning: massive kudos.

Also, this post is in no way a complete list of amazing people, and will probably be updated in the future.

Speaker tip: if you follow the right people on Twitter, they point you to interesting things that you can turn into bits for a talk.
— Katie McLaughlin (@glasnt) February 26, 2016

Like all good tweet storms, I need to use a free-form blog with less character restrictions to explain myself better.

I follow some amazing people on Twitter; people I’ve met in person, or accounts that are of interest to me.

But recently, I’ve found that I’ve been in the middle of writing talks (currently: Unicode/Emoji, JavaScript, and Hat Rack Redux) and I see people I follow retweeting things of relevance to what I’m writing that send me off on a research-tangent[0].

As with not directly referencing wikipedia, the resources I’m linked to via Twitter are the stem of, or the direct source, of information I use in presentations[1]. But during presentations I don’t often acknowledge the people who send me off on these tangents, so here’s that blog post.

JavaScript

Rob has been doing some interesting work with PureScript and other things lately, and so has been ranting about JavaScript a lot, and some of his ‘wats’ have been incredible enough to make it into my ‘JavaScript is Awe-ful’ talk (coming soon to php[tek]).

Also in this category, Domenic, Alex, and Alex, whose collective work around fixing JavaScript is incredible to read about.

Unicode

FakeUnicode is a highly recommended parody/information account. I often have to put this account on mute just based on the sheer amount of distraction it produces, but there’s so many little bits for my Emoji talk that has come from references stemmed from tweets from this account, it deserves a mention.

Also, Tom Scott has done a heap of work relating to emoji, including making an emoji-only network. Highly recommended viewing is his talk with Matt Gray from Electromagnetic Field about the technical challenges of a cross-mobile-platform emoji-based application.

Security

So many in this category. It’s amazing to see ‘regular’ developers proactively discussing security, and sharing quips about the latest OpenSSL patch (March 1 2016, yo) that help share the information and bring humour to the situation.

These include, but aren’t limited to: Tom, Jack, Alice, OJ, Fraser, and many more.

Community

Can’t miss this one! There are so many incredible community leaders that I follow, who I’ve learnt from, and who’ve apparently learnt from me (which is fantastic and humbling to hear) that they need more than just a blogpost shoutout.

Emily, Leslie, Chris, Deb[2], Jono - You’re all incredible <3

The horrible enablers

I follow some amazing people who make conferences happen. They are also awful people who will encourage and enable anyone who has even an inkling of presenting and turning them into a speaker.

And I absolutely love all of them for it. Carina, Vicky, Josh, Russell, Chris, Jack, Ben, Paul - I hate you all <3

I follow too many people, and so the flag at the top of this page is a note to say that I probably have forgotten someone, so this page will be updated to add more. If you’re not listed on here, I still think you’re incredible.

If you’re been listed in here and you feel that it’s in error, please let me know, and I can reaffirm to you how awesome you are, if required :)

[0] It’s really annoying when I’m looking for cat pictures or a break from writing to find yet more to write about, but it’s a helpful reminder not to skive off :P

[1] Apart from when I use quotes via tweets directly as material.

[2] She has a twitter account now! No more #debnicholson!