My Experience with Twitter Spaces
One piece of advice I’ve taken to heart is: ‘It matters what you think”. There’s a lot of nuance to that but to me, it means that my opinion, questions I’ve pondered upon and insights I’ve arrived at are worth sharing. They are worth communicating with the broader world. It might not resonate with everybody or anyone at all — which is unlikely — but, it would help them stop and think, “Oh! this is interesting”.
With that mindset, I decided to follow a bunch of Devs on Twitter. I don’t follow tech stuff alone because I know these are real people, with real lives and real experiences. I want to learn about them but well, I also care about the tech stuff as well. The approach of following veterans in the industry, in turn, inspired me. One way is in writing and also building/learning in Public. I am building my persona on the shoulder of these Giants who have motivated me. I can move forward because they’ve answered my questions, encouraged me and shared useful resources. It’s one reason the Twitter tech community is amazing and, everyone should endeavour to take part in it. It’s a wonderful place to be.
This positivity led to my joining my first tech twitter space. It was hosted by Stefan. One memorable experience was especially the opportunity Stefan gave. He encouraged the audience to ask questions, and because the earlier maxim was something I had deeply pondered on, I wanted to share what I thought. How was I gonna do this? Of course, the action to take was to press the Request to Speak button. I did that and a torrent of anxiety came rushing in. It was exactly something you’d see on the beach — the torrent of waves crashing down. This was very unusual for me. I am quite introverted, true, but I should have no problem sharing my thoughts. All I even wanted to do was ask questions about the currently discussed topic. I wasn’t able to dismiss the feeling but still went ahead.
Then it happened. My words were all jumbled up. I slurred a couple of words and it felt like something was stuck at the back of my throat. Well, I still got my point across so that was great. It’s a feeling I don’t especially enjoy. I am definitely gonna do something about it. Away from that, to space. Stefan’s spaces were very relaxed and that’s one thing I enjoyed about it. There’s a topic to discuss but the interactions between the speakers, which showed that these are people was something I relished. It made me more at ease. So many types of people with different backgrounds and different accents. They are interested in this topic, and are right here, right now. It was pretty informative.
I can write this article because of Stefan’s Technical content space he hosted with Sunhil. I got a ton of advice from Shruti, Sunhil, Stefan, and a lot of other amazing contributors. I still haven’t got around writing a lot of technical content for the web, but any start is a great start. I do enjoy writing nowadays so that is definitely a plus. It wouldn’t be a stretch then to emphasize that this particular Stefan’s space has been career-changing. Yes, that’s exactly how much impact it has had on me.
I’d also like to express my appreciation once again for Stefan and Rebekah. Hehe, the next space on Mental health was a blast. It was a blast because I got to hear about the struggles of other developers. Mental health is something very important to me because I have my struggles. That’s why this space resonated with me. At some point, the conversation went off a tangent which someone called out. I apologize for using someone, I can’t exactly remember who it was. But, THIS is exactly why I love Stefan’s spaces so much. When the concern was voiced, he kindly urged everyone to not lose track of the subject matter. That was something I was super grateful for. I left there with a renewed confidence that I’ve got this. I don’t know everything and don’t think I ever will but the little work I put in every day, would definitely count. I also need people and intimate relationships in my life. I treasure human communications and that’s something I am putting in a lot of effort lately to develop. Thank you Stefan and Rebekah for your amazing Contributions.
The last space I’m gonna talk about today is Rebekah’s. It happened today and was about all thing Open Source. Open source is daunting, well that’s the assumption I’ve always had. Everyone says it’s important and would help in one’s tech career. I didn’t know where to start. It’s the reason today’s space with contributions from Eddie and Elle and a lot of amazing devs was especially insightful. Insightful because I can take the necessary first steps. Almost the same as me starting writing, it doesn’t have to be a massive project. Contributing to a Readme File also counts as moderate first steps. It is a little less daunting now. I can put in the work, the good kind of work that is.
Rebekah’s encouragement of the audience to speak also was relaxing. It is always encouraging when the audience is nudged to ask questions. I was able to ask my question and also do a mini-plug — which I think failed horribly. I was super nervous doing that, sheesh. Self-promotion is a lot of work 😣 but that’s something I am also gonna work on.
The tech Twitter spaces I have attended have been amazing. Stefan and Rebekah are wonderful hosts. I’m definitely gonna be attending more of them whenever it’s out.
I also encourage you to check out the amazing folks I’ve mentioned. They are amazing people.
Check out Stefan’s Twitter, Check out Rebekah’s Twitter, Check out Sunil Twitter, Check out Shruti’s Twitter, Check out Eddie’s Twitter
Thanks for Reading.
I’m gonna be writing about my Experience with Dan Abramov’s Just Javascript course so look out for that.
