Upcoming Events (and Trisha Freaks Out A Bit)

My next few talks are where I finally start speaking about MongoDB. After 4 months working for 10gen, I still feel completely under-qualified to speak with any authority on the subject. It’s very different joining a company with an established and growing product, to joining a very young company and being in on the development since practically day one. But I’ve been working on designing the Brand New Java Driver, so that’s what I’m going to talk about.

At this stage, the new driver is still very much a prototype, and we have a lot of ideas to explore, so I’ll be talking about things like design considerations, and the process of developing the driver, more than definitive guides on how to use it. I’ve found working on a library very different to working on a platform or internal application.

Looking at that list inspires a number of different emotions:

  1. Fear. OMGIhaven’twrittenanyofthosetalksyetandthey’reallgoingtobeterrible. Also OMGIsignedupforfivetalksinMarchalonewhatiswrongwithme? And OMGhowcanIgiveatalkongivinggreattalkswhatifthattalkisterriblenoonewilleverlistentomeagain. Etc etc.
  2. Pride (in a good way). Last year, QCon London was the first solo presentation I gave at a conference. This year I’ve had to turn down more conferences than I even spoke at last year, and I’m being encouraged to talk on a range of subjects that interest me. I miss the comfort of presenting on the Disruptor, a subject I got to know very well, but the variety is fun.
  3. Astonishment. I’m presenting with Dan North. And it was his idea. He wants to be on stage with me and co-present with me. This is mental, Dan’s pretty much a role model for me (don’t tell him I said that) and it’s crazy to be doing something together.

Now I tell you all this not to share with you my #FirstWorldProblems, some sort of desperate bid for sympathy (although I’m always blown away by the nice things people say to me when they think I need encouragement). But because people keep telling me again and again how they could never do public speaking, how I’m so lucky it doesn’t scare me, how they have nothing to say that anyone will want to hear. And they’re wrong, because I’m not lucky. I’m stubborn. It does scare me, especially new material that people might not like. But it can be fun, and it’s worth pushing through the (very understandable) reluctance in order to get the payoff from the times it does work.

Anyway enough of the moralising.

As well as the speaking gigs, I’ve also got some interesting interviews lined up, and I’ve been asked to write a lot of stuff for various publications. I’d like to say that’s why I’m not blogging, but since I haven’t started writing those yet either….

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