Dear developers, you are awesome! - Lily Chan - Copenhagen DevFest 2023

This talk was recorded at NDC's Copenhagen Developer's Festival. #cphdevfest #ndcconferences #lego #developer #softwaredeveloper Attend the next NDC conference near you: https://ndcconferences.com https://cphdevfest.com/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel and learn every day: /@NDC You may think, "Yeah, 'Everything is awesome', of course." Indeed, I would be the last person to call myself "awesome" whenever I was stuck. Things should go smoothly if I am "awesome", right? So, to speed things up, I would skip lunches and go to bed slightly later... Does it ring a bell to you? Here’s the twist — Simply finishing things sooner does not make us more efficient. It is a funny thing in life that whatever we try to be, it will not work. Mark, the author of a famous self-help book called The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, also stated the same belief in a blog called Stop Trying to Be Happy, “If you have to try to be cool, you will never be cool. If you have to try to be happy, then you will never be happy”. Just like that, If you have to try to be quick, you will never be quick. They are always a product of something else. I did not understand this and tried too hard. I got temporary success, muscle pain and too much stress. Everyone around me was concerned, but I thought they were just being dramatic. Until one of my past managers said, "I know someone just like you. She is so talented, but burnt out and quit the industry. This is such a great loss to the industry, and I don't want that for you." I realised how unsustainable my approaches were, and I don't want it for anyone else! Thanks to all my amazing colleagues, I started to understand the true meaning of being a good developer. Despite the technical know-how, personal and interpersonal skills are keys to grow sustainably, which fall beyond the developer stereotypes. Hear me out. Hopefully I can help you understand that you are awesome by just being good and responsible to yourself.