Talk

Sarah Withee

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Sarah Withee is a polyglot software engineer, public speaker, teacher and mentor, and hardware and robot tinkerer located in Kansas City, MO. She has a passion for technology, and has ever since she wrote her first computer programs in elementary school. She captivates audiences with both popular and powerful technical and anecdotal talks. She gives workshops to teach programming and hardware building to women in tech, as well as to students of all ages. She's mentored middle and high school robotics teams to world championships. She's even helped organize four conferences, been on a Google Year in Search video, and started the viral hashtag #SpeakerConfessions.

She passionately tries to connect with people and communities, both online and offline, and encourage and support new people going in tech. She even started a podcast to try to help boost underrepresented groups in tech.

Portland, OR October 1, 2016
The Power of Secrets
Brief mentions of depression and suicide.

Secrets can be scary if they get out. That's the very feeling I had when I wrote a Medium post revealing my biggest secret, which was read by thousands.

In this talk, I will share the story of how and why I came to share this secret with the world. I'll also talk about how sharing this ultimately made me a better teammate, developer, and person, and how it had the complete opposite reaction than I expected. Through these experiences, I’ll share my insights on why being more open benefits you and your team.