[Chennaipy] Why newbies should do talks at Chennaipy

[Shrayas rajagopal]

On Thu, Jan 15, 2015 at 10:15 AM, Vijay Kumar <vijaykumar at bravegnu.org> wrote:
> f you are serious
> about learning Python, then the best way to learn it is by teaching
> others.

I totally agree with this.

I've observed that people often shy away from talking because of:

1. The "newbie" feeling
2. Stage fear
3. The fear that they may be wrong

I would like to address these individually.

1. The "newbie" feeling
If anyone is having the feeling that they need to be at a certain
"stage" before they can give a talk, I think that it is a mistaken
thought. Giving a talk isn't about _showing off_ your skills. It is
about sharing something that you have learnt. Sure, there might be
people in the audience that already know what you're talking about but
there will _also_ be other people in the audience for whom that will
be a completely new thing.

2. Stage Fear:
My personal thought on this is that every speaker whom you admire as
of this point in time was also afraid of going on stage once in his
life. I think they key thing here is to transform this fear (which is
negative) into something very positive. To this date, before I give a
talk, I am always nervous and keep thinking that i'll screw up. But
when I get on stage and start talking, that feeling settles down
because I know that i'm talking about something that I love and
believe in that makes all the difference. This leads me to point
number 2

3. The fear that they may be wrong
Sure. You wont know a lot of things when you speak for the first time.
You will not have a track of the time that you're taking to explain
something simple, you will attribute a concept to something which
might actually be wrong and things like that. You will *definitely*
make a lot of mistakes. But let me tell you that it doesn't matter if
you do. That is what a meetup is all about. We are all like minded
people who are there not for money or not for fame but simply because
we love the concept that the ideas being the Python language. So it
doesn't matter if you're wrong, I am sure that someone who knows that
concept will correct you when they meet you after the session and if
nothing, you've probably inspired one person to go back and look
something up about that topic. That in my opinion has way more value
than anything else.

---

Here are some reasons as to why I always try to attend and give a talk

1. Preparing for the talk
When you submit a proposal to talk, you should try to know as much
about the topic as possible. If the topic is even something as basic
as "How does object instantiation work in Python", you should go that
extra mile to learn what is happening. This excites me a lot. When I
submit a proposal, I start to read a lot of things around the topic.
Partially because i need to prepare for the questions that I might get
asked but partially because I take the talk proposal as an opportunity
to learn that topic as much as possible.

2. A break from usual life and the community
Talking at meetups are a great way to unwind and not think about work
or studies. Talking at meetups, for me, is just a way to meet really
interesting people and to understand their points of view on the
different things in life. It really doesn't have to all be about the
Python language but that helps to break the ice a little bit and that
is nice.

3. Have someone you look up to
I've always looked up to Zach Holman[1] of GitHub. I love the way he
makes his presentations and the way he talks. That is where I
initially drew my inspiration from. It really helps if you have
someone that you can look up to and try to be like. It gives you that
inner fuel that you need to push that extra mile to get some great
results. Also recently Zach made a website[2] where he lists out some
tips for public speaking. It is a really nice place to get inspiration
and tips on how to do be better at it and where to start.

---

To conclude: Propose a talk, Have fun speaking and lets catch up
during the event!

Also, Happy Pongal to one and all :)

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Footnotes:
[1]: http://zachholman.com/
[2]: http://speaking.io/