ExperienceCon 2024
Here’s the transcript organized with breaks at each timestamp for easier readability:
(0:02) I'm gonna, I know that we're usually a minute or two after, but I'm just gonna go ahead and dive
(0:06) and get started. So when I was thinking about, I'm gonna go off camera just in case there's any
(0:13) funkiness with the bandwidth, but when I was thinking about what I wanted to talk about this
(0:17) year, like I was thinking about, you know, the things that I normally talk about, process,
(0:22) tools, tooling, efficiency, workflow, etc. And I was like, I don't, I don't want to have that
(0:30) conversation this year.
(0:35) I've had that conversation with y'all many times, and anybody who's new, there's a whole treasure trove of video footage of me talking about those topics.
(0:41) So I wanted to talk about something different this year. And so this year I thought I would,
(0:47) I would do things more kind of in a philosophical lens versus straight on hard tactics.
(0:55) So before I get into that, it is story time. So there was a college senior, and he and some of
(1:04) his boys decided to go hang out on campus near the registration office, so they can catch the
(1:09) eye of some of the new freshman girls that are coming in. He saw one particular girl,
(1:15) and he thought she was fine as hell.
(1:21) He announced to his boys that that one was his.
(1:26) In another reality, that girl had some trouble registering for the math class that she wanted,
(1:30) and she took a few more minutes finding a different class to fill her schedule.
(1:34) In that few minutes, they are both living a completely different story.
(1:39) They did not create the little girl that is the combination of his love of English
(1:44) and her love of mathematics. They do not raise her in a household filled with fine arts and
(1:49) technology.
(1:54) They don't make the million and one little decisions that led her on a path that eventually had her here before you giving this talk. She does not exist. And because she
(2:00) doesn't exist, she would not have hired many of you.
(2:06) So ultimately we are here at ICF because two college kids falling in love and a gazillion other tiny little events along the way. This is
(2:13) also known as chaos theory, where a bunch of small events or decisions lead to big impacts in the future.
(2:21) So as human beings, we are designed to see patterns.
(2:30) We crave control and organization. And the more crazy things to get, the more we struggle for control,
(2:36) the more we work to create a structure of normalcy. And we go to work.
(2:42) We check our task lists. We complete our JIRA tickets. We get Starbucks because even though it's terrible coffee,
(2:47) we know that it will be the same regardless of where we get it.
(2:53) We do all these things to help us forget that we're just living on a rock chasing after the sun as it is hurled in a loop around the
(2:59) gravity of the galaxy. A galaxy which in itself creates, craves order and pattern. But just when
(3:09) everything is going along in a particular way, chaos comes in and changes things.
(3:16) This primordial force of chaos and creation is the embodiment of a vast and unpredictability of the nature of the cosmos.
(3:22) She breaks the patterns. She disrupts.
(3:29) She destroys so that we can rebuild anew. Chaos goddesses are frightening because they deal with unpredictability. They disrupt our
(3:35) need for control, structure, and patterns.
(3:44) In most cultures in the world we have a chaos goddess and more often than not her description includes both destruction and creation
(3:49) because through this chaos and inspiration that rebuilding and innovation occurs.
(3:55) And lately I've been finding myself working with my own chaos goddess. This is Oya and she is the
(4:02) goddess of wind.
(4:08) She can be sweet like the breeze that carries a seedling from a tree or she can cause complete devastation like those hurricanes that just laid race to Asheville, North Carolina.
(4:15) Someone going through an Oya transition is going through something traumatic and is not the same on the other end. As the goddess of air she is like that Gemini mind
(4:25) inspiring constant ideation but also overthinking.
(4:31) In the body she is responsible for the nervous and respiratory systems and COVID which is a respiratory disease was an Oya correction for the earth.
(4:38) And so as I've been going through my own Oya transition and still going through it
(4:44) and these you may not know this because I try really hard to keep tight control when I get
(4:49) work to work but chaos has been surrounding me for years and this particular year in fact when
(4:55) my appendix burst and I had surgery and physically I had to shut down my life for months.
(5:02) So I've been trying to do something different with my life lately and embrace the chaos
(5:07) because what if I just let it all go let go of the anxiety let go of the sleepless nights where
(5:13) I replay conversations over and over in my head or try to play out plan out the moment of the
(5:20) coming day.
(5:25) What if I can let go of the fear that I would make the wrong decision that I would disappoint that I would find be found lacking in excellence.
(5:31) What if I could just let go of control what if I could be free.
(5:40) So many of you may not know this but I am a digital native you'll hear that term referred these days to people who are young
(5:46) adults and children who grew up from the 2000s who grew up in a world where computers and digital
(5:51) devices were always in their home but that was me too.
(5:57) My mother was a developer and as far back as I can remember I had computers in my home and they were like magnets calling me to them.