Recently, there has been a spate of tweets about developers admitting their weaknesses. A bunch of people I know even made into the Moment created by @ThePracticalDev. And then there’s this tweet:
Hi, I’m aurynn, and even though I’ve been coding for 15 years, as a woman in tech anything less than a display of perfection > is a risk https://t.co/DMYMPTQh1R
— your pocket friend (@aurynn) February 26, 2017
Go ahead and read that whole thread. It’s important.
Over the last months I have talked to a lot of women in tech, and one thing I realised is that I am not alone.
I’m not the only one worried about making a mistake. I’m not the only one who preface everything she says with “You all know this already, but…”. I’m not the only one who double-, triple-, quadruple-checks every. single. thing before saying anything. I’m not the only one who constantly worries about being seen as stupid when she asks a question. I’m not the only one afraid to write something for fear of being called a know-it-all.
I am not alone.
There are people who will feed on your fears. I made a post about a new discovery three days ago. And true enough, I got replies like this:
Uhmmm… Okay… I’m sorry for making you see something you already know. I’ll be more careful next time.
But then a few hours ago, someone left this comment in one of my posts:
And this, my friends, is why despite all our fears, we should never stop sharing.