GitHub GitHub Presents • Passion Projects LIVE (Full Length Talks), 8 Jan 2014

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From YouTube: Passion Projects (Live) 9: Melissa Severini (Organization Organizing)

Description

The 9th episode of the Passion Projects Live series, featuring Melissa Severini. Melissa was GitHub's first employee and led business operations for its first four years of life. She's an incredible generalist and co-founded Org Org, tech's first community for organization organizers. Along with being its first employee, Melissa held down the fort as GitHub's first ever Lady Hubber. Her strengths lie in her ability to organize and inspire people and being prepared in the event of every emergency, no matter how big or small. You can find Melissa on GitHub and Twitter.

GitHub (https://github.com)
OrgOrg (http://www.organizationorganizers.com)
Melissa on GitHub (https://github.com/luckiestmonkey)
Melissa on Twitter (https://twitter.com/luckiestmonkey)

As always, feel free to leave us a comment below and don't forget to subscribe: http://bit.ly/subgithub

Thanks!

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About GitHub
GitHub is the best place to share code with friends, co-workers, classmates, and complete strangers. Millions of people use GitHub to build amazing things together. For more info, go to http://github.com

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♪ (music) ♪, (julie), hello,, wonderful, people!, welcome to passion, projects..

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My name is julie, and I am the creator and organizer of passion projects.

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Here at github., (audience cheering).

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(Julie), it's christmas. be generous.. It's a super special edition of passion, projects.

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If you have not heard her name before,, it is melissa, severini,,.

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And she was github's first employee, as well as github's, first female employee, and she led business development and operations for her first four years.

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She recently left us to go on an extended vacation,.

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Which she more than deserves.

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but now she's, going to come up and give the best talk. Ever.

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We also have mara hruby here, who will be performing after melissa's talk,, so stick around for that., we'll also have eggnog alley..

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That sounds dangerous because it is dangerous.

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Please join me in welcoming melissa, severini.

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(applause from the audience).

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Hi! hello. hello., hello. hi!.

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Thanks, julie. thanks, julie.

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Eggnog alley does sound dangerous.. Should we just skip right to that?.

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So, full disclosure. julie said that I could just stand up here.

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And stare into the crowd for 20 minutes., what we're going to do is hopefully a little more exciting than that,.

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But bear that in mind., that's the last resort.

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There are a lot of you here.. I see a lot of githubbers here.

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Which is a little bit of a mystery to me., I feel, like you probably can.

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Expect me to say the same set of things that I've been saying for the last five years.

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(Audience laughs) "no,. We can't have a company test lab.".

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"There's a reason we're doing it. This way.".

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No, no one's leaving., okay. alright.

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Thanks again to julie for all her hard work in organizing passion projects., she has some awesome people on the ground with her: github's office, manager,.

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The slides, person, event planner, the president, who probably showed you in and gave you your badge,.

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And our soon-to-be-famous streaming eagles, the guys bringing this to you. Live, everywhere,, wherever you are.

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I really got excited about this series and I'm really excited about being included..

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Thanks, julie! she's already run away. she's already in eggnog alley.

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(Laughter from the audience) for those of you who do not know me,, my name is melissa. Severini.

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Many of the things that julie said were true, as github's. First employee,.

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Luckiest monkey on the internet, with the exception of aim.

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Someone still has it on aim., that's not me..

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That's not me you're talking to., if you could figure out.

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How to get it back from that person,? I will reward you handsomely.

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I've spent most of my life in california, with the exception of eight years in portland,, or. sorry.

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Github's first non-technical employee.: I like going off-script, running op.

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On five years, ago.

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at that time, that brought the grand total of github employees to five.. We added.

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A sixth before the year was out, a few more the following, year, and now.

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We're up over 230., I was also github's first and only female employee.

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For the first two years that I worked, here.

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we've eventually hired a wonderful girl named beth to do the shipping of our t-shirts and mugs and stuff,.

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And it was really nice to finally have another woman, around.

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It was another year at least, before we hired a woman into a technical role,, but awesomely,. We now have over ten technical women.

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At the company and close to 50 total.

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(Cheer from the audience).

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So we hit about 20 percent women,. I think around summer time this year,.

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And the last time that had been the case was when there were five of us- and I was one of them. (everyone laughs), so that was really exciting.. It was a good summer..

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I think we're down a little under that right now, but we're catching up.

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Day-To-Day,, I did something we referred to as "business operations,".

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Which encompassed everything from hr to office, management, and onboarding,.

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And mediation, and procurement, and booking travel, and supporting.

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The founders, and planning drink ups,, you name it. in the early days of the company,, if it wasn't creating github the product,.

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Or providing support for that product,, it usually fell to me to do.

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I got to spearhead a lot of our firsts and one-offs as a company,, which is cool.

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I found our first office space on 2nd and howard,.

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I actually found this one, also..

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You should have seen it before., the first guy made it beautiful!.

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I organized our first conference, codeconf in 2011.

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I purchased the octocat from the original artist, simon oxley.

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As of about a month ago, as julie mentioned,, I am no longer with the company,, although I do manage to show up.

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To free lunch day with alarming regularity.

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(audience laughs), that's not our slide.

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(Audience laughs) something happened. (laughs) (laughs from the audience).

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Fine! (audience laughs).

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A lot of people asked me, how I found github.. They say it in this tone.

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That sort of suggests that I had this prescient awareness of how big the company would become, and how successful we would be,.

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And how fast we would grow. far be it from me to try.

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To convince anyone otherwise., but the way it really went down was this:.

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A dear friend of mine,, andy delcomb,, who could not be here tonight,,.

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Knew about git and github, and was a very early fan of the company,.

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And he knew that the company was small but growing.

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One day he suggested that I reach out to these guys, who may have been in need of the kind of help that I had to offer..

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So I sent chris, tom, and p.j. a very friendly.

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But professional cover letter, and my resume,.

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And mentioned that they might know my former boss, robby.

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The rail's community is pretty small..

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It was like a cover-sized email, decently, long, kind of salesy,.

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It talked about me, and how great I was,. So, of course it was like a small novella.

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(Laughter from the audience) two hours later,, I got a very classically chris email back from chris wanstrath.

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It just said, "how about kilowatt in the mission at 8:00 pm on thursday?".

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(Everyone laughs).

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(Laughs) so meeting up in a bar wasn't weird, but the terseness of this one-liner email,.

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Especially after my novella, was a little weird.

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As I eventually learned,, this is just how chris writes most of his emails,.

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And this knowledge came in great handy because I definitely spent about a third.

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Of the rest of my career at the company assuring people that chris was not in fact mad at them.

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(laughter from the audience) so, chris, tom,, and I met up at a dive bar in the mission,, and we spent a couple of hours shooting the shit about our backgrounds, and life in san fransisco, and people. We knew in common, and things like that.

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And in that time I had to manage to keep up with them in number of drinks.

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Because I wanted to be cool,, which I did but barely. (laughs).

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During the course of the conversation, we determined that chris and I actually lived in the same building,.

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And tom lived in the building directly across the street from that one.. So when it came time to leave,, they went outside to hail a cab,.

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Presumably for all of us,, since we were going to the same place,, but I had ridden my bicycle,.

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And after all of those drinks,, I had to figure out.

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What my bicycle looked like, and whether or not I still owned the key, and then had to get on, said bicycle and manage to ride it off.

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In front of my prospective employers without falling off,, which I did,.

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And they hired me, and the rest, as they say, is history.

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(Laughter from the audience) so a few years ago,, when I moved back to san fransisco,, I did nert training.

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Does anybody know what that is? is anyone here, a nert?.

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Not expected,, I expected a couple of people to be a nert.

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okay. for those of you who have not heard of it,. Nert is short for, neighborhood.

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Emergency response team.

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it's a weekend worth of training put on by the san fransisco fire department,.

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That anyone can anyone can take that teaches the basics of personal preparedness,, hands-on disaster skills, and response team tactics. nert's help in a large-scale disaster by acting.

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As eyes and ears for the san fransisco fire department, feeding detailed information of current conditions, block-by-block, reporting secondary disasters like fires,.

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Stuff, like that. nert's, also go through a large segment of medical triage.

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Medical triage is basically the most depressing thing.

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Basically, you're separating patients based on severity of injury or illness,.

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In light of available resources., so in a normal situation,.

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Where you have plenty of resources and one victim, you can dedicate.

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A lot of those resources to that one person, or that, you know, couple of people.

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in a disaster,. You have a shortage of resources and a ton of victims.

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So basically, you walk through a room of injured people and you go, "well,.

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You've got a scrape. go away. you,. Your arm is clearly broken,.

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And you're probably going to go into shock, but it didn't break the skin, and you're, not bleeding out,. So just wait. we'll get to you. Eventually.

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You,, you have head trauma and are probably going to bleed out and die before we get to you. So you go too.. It's really,.

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It's awful. [laughs], it's completely necessary in a large-scale disaster where there are a lot of injuries, but it's super dark.

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So this didn't quite satisfy my desire to be prepared for everything.

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I wanted to know how to fix people., so I went to emt school.. I got to do.

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A lot of cool things during emt school., I got to do cpr on a dead guy.

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He came back, not because of my crappy cpr,. He came back.

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Because of the shot of adrenaline they put in his leg.

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I also got to deliver a baby in the back of an ambulance., because english is weird,.

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I feel compelled to clarify that it was not my baby that I was delivering, (laughter from the audience). It was another woman's baby. (laughs). I just got to catch.. It was very exciting.

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I probably would have gone on to paramedic school,, which is really who you want: saving your life if you're ever hurt,, not an emt.

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That's like 18 weeks of school. paramedics are two years.: like, ask,, if you're conscious., (audience laughing).

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But I started working at github instead,, which oddly served a lot of the same needs.

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(Laughter from the audience).

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(Everyone laughing), there are a lot of different disasters that can happen; man-made.

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Like a nuclear attack,, that's not outside of the realm of possibility,, especially in a city like san fransisco,. That's a small-scale target,.

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Or a very attractive target; biological warfare;.

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There are a lot of natural disasters like flooding,, fire,, hurricanes,.

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Blizzards, for my colorado, friends, here;.

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Somewhat less likely,, but wildly more popular,, the zombie apocalypse, alien invasion, killer, bees.

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The way disaster preparedness manifests for someone like me, who grew up in california, and us who choose to reside in san fransisco, is earthquakes.

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The us geological survey says that earthquakes pose a real danger to more than 75 million americans in 39 states in this country. Alone.

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So it's not just a californian problem for those of you watching along at home.

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Californians are actually pretty lucky in that we have a relatively recent collective memory of this happening to us, and a better-prepared infrastructure than most places in the country.

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So today, together,, we are going to experience an earthquake.

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I obviously cannot reproduce that physically,, which would be amazing.. I really wish I could.

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But you and I, right now, we're going to experience an earthquake.

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Picture this: we're sitting in our cool start up, office,.

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We are drinking our perfect coffee,, we are discussing our next feature, launch, and suddenly this ground starts shaking.

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A falling beam hits and kills me immediately.

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(Laughter from the audience) I will be the-. It's okay., I'm fine. you're fine., we're fine.

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Everything's fine., I will be the little creature on your shoulder- sorry-, helping you make good decisions.

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Throughout your day., when the ground stops shaking,, you are miraculously unscathed.

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lucky you!. Now what? communication is key.. The first thing you are going to want.

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To do is pull out your phone. you're, going to be like,. "I should call 911,".

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Presumably, to call 911 to see if you can get someone.

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To save me, my--, I'm dead.

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(Audience laughs), you can., but you get side-tracked. you're like,, "oh, twitter!. I wonder if anybody else noticed this earthquake.".

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(Everyone laughing) they did. (laughs) "I, wonder how big it is." big enough. (laughter from the audience), and you want to start tweeting and taking pictures.. At this juncture. I want.

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To encourage you not to instagram anything,, not that you would be able to do that, any way.. In fact, you can't even get.

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Twitter to load for some reason.

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Next you're going to be like,, "well, shit.. I wonder if my boo is okay,. My boyfriend,.

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Girlfriend, husband, wife, dog-walker,", whoever you care about,.

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Whoever that person is, whomever you look forward to seeing., if this is as serious as you're starting to think it might be,, you will want.

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To get in touch with that person,, so you try to call,.

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And it doesn't connect.

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"does, my phone still work?" no. the towers are down.. Service is down.. This happened in katrina.

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This happened, a lot, actually. or maybe they're, not down., maybe by some miracle, they're still up.

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Telecom companies are reporting less damage in recent disasters, now, and just a complete saturation of the network..

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Everyone is doing what you're doing with their phone.. It's like outside lands,.

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Or coachella, you try over and over again.

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And the network is just saturated. texting people uses a lot less bandwidth,.

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So you should try. That, email,, as well. land-lines have a much better chance.

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Of working, but can you even find one of those? (laughs).

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I know there's not one in this building.

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(everyone laughing), so, no,, nothing gets through., how's communication, important.

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In a growing start up?, this might be a no-brainer,.

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But open, honest communication is critical to starting and running a successful business.

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I believe in open,, honest communication., everyone says that,, but I mean it.

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Stop touching the microphone., probably everyone says that too. a lot of people in this room can probably attest to the fact that I will tell you exactly what I think almost all of the time.

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I've definitely made enemies this way, but I have also found some.

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Of my truest friends, and certainly my best colleagues in the same way.

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There is one person I know who is more honest, more into honest communication than I am, and I'm marrying that guy.

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(Everyone laughing), why do I believe in open,, honest communication?.

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First off,, I see everything else as a criminal waste of time.

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Second,, it facilitates teamwork, and the ability to make things happen.

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In a way that nothing else can. can you go without?.

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You can try,, but in most endeavors you are relegated to successfully working.

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With the number of people you can clearly communicate with.

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So,, if you can't communicate well with others,, probably that means you'll be stuck to small-scale change,, small projects,, small creations.. If you can't communicate.

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Your ideas to others,, no one can help. You realize your dream.

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I'm not much of a tv person,, but we started watching west wing recently, and it's amazing.. It's an example of great teamwork,.

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And a group of people who truly trust each other.

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Think about josh lyman on west wing.. He can be blunt, sure,.

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Tactless occasionally, (laughs).

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But was his brand of candid honesty integral to the running.

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Of possibly the best fictional government, our nation will ever see?.

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(Laughter from the audience), I think, so. (laughs).

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Sometimes I get mad because I don't think they have enough interpersonal issues.

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So I'm like, "they're always working together to solve external problems,.

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Instead of getting lost in petty infighting.

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such a suspiciously, ideal set of humans, working.".

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(Everyone laughing).

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Thankfully, github has embraced my love of open lines of communication,.

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And has one zillion ways to communicate.? We have a ton.

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Of topic-specific chat, rooms,, github.com, itself,.

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Pull-Request discussions, issues, internal apps,.

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Including a twitter-style status, posting app called team,.

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As well as a longer form forum called ideas. of course,, we do traditional email,, im,, texts, and emoji.. Never forget the emoji,.

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And the gifs. another way I think strong communication is key, is feedback.

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No one exists in a void., certainly no one exists well in a void. years ago, I spent a lot of time going,.

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"I, clearly, though, out every possible outcome of this.".

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But I learned that as soon as you say, something out loud to other people.

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They kind of go, "oh. what about this?" and you're like, "I thought I thought of everything.. I didn't think of that.".

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Running past your ideas, past people is incredibly refreshing.. The power.

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Of an egoless, genuine exchange from someone who hasn't been locked down in the nitty-gritty of the problem, and can come at it.

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With a new set of eyes is really unparallelled.

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They can see the holes in your process, and speak to those where you've been in it.

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For so long that you can no longer see the forest for the trees, as they say.

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It works best when its a two-way street, and both parties want the other to be better..

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Maybe the feedback you get includes something you don't agree with..

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Then you spend a few minutes. Going, "did, I forget to explain a fundamental,.

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Key piece of this? is there a reason? may that one piece changes everything,.

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And you forgot to mention it.: ask questions., have a conversation.

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And sometimes, you're wrong., it's okay to be wrong.

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There are three sides- in case you're, not reading the slide-. There are three sides to every story: yours, mine, and the truth.

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So okay, back to our disaster scenario;, I am dead.. You are alive, and you're fine.

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You can't get a hold of your person., you can't get to twitter.

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So you head out of the building, and you walk out on to the street.

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You get in your car, but you're, seeing crazier-than-usual potholes in the road,.

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And traffic is already starting to get pretty crazy from everyone else, jumping their cars, and trying to get home.

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So you're like, "well,, maybe I'll, take the bus.", but you see a bus there. and it's been abandoned by the bus, driver.

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He has peaced right: out., that's cool,, you'll, just uber.

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(Laughter from the audience) you decide to walk. you're strolling down town's end here,.

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And you get past the mcdonalds, and as you walk past, you smell a gas,.

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Not like french fry gas,, but gasoline,.

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And you wonder, is that bad?, that's probably bad.

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Something's probably broken, but you don't know how to turn it. Off.

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you're, a smart person,. You know how to turn your gas off at home..

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You have the fancy wrench,. You know how to do it,, but this is mcdonalds.

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Who cares about mcdonalds?? So you walk past mcdonald's at about a block further down,.

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You hear an explosion, and you turn to see that that mcdonald's is now a blazing ball.

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Of fire. luckily,, you missed it.

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People are starting to emerge from office, buildings, dusty, a little bit dazed,, not really knowing what to do.. It's slowing starting.

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To dawn on you that this is the big one. now, let's pause for a second and go.

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Into omniscient mode. the things you don't know, yet:.

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Infrastructure has collapsed beyond what you can imagine.

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Major utility systems have buckled., the water is out., the power is out.

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It's daylight and you're outside, so you haven't really noticed, but at some point you're going to wonder how to charge your cellphone.

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Since water is out,, the sewer is out. we're not going to talk about that. One.

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(Laughter from the audience) natural gas is out,, or it's not out,, which may pose a bigger problem.

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Public transit is gone., the roads are in pieces., the bridges are definitely out.. The bar tunnel has collapsed and flooded.

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If you don't worry about this every time you bart through that tunnel,, now you will. (laughter from the audience) you're welcome. (laughter from the audience). Some buildings have toppled.. There is an estimated six feet of glass piled.

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On the streets of some parts of the fi di from all the shattering glass.

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In the highrises. you can say we have problems.

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To contextualize this, I'm actually going to show you some footage of 1989,.

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Of the '89 earthquake., I think it starts out pretty funny.

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It gets serious, pretty fast. oh!.

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≪I≫(Inaudible)≪/I≫ is there?, I didn't warn- should I?-.

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(Everyone laughing).

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I don't think I warned the video guys that I was going to be playing video.

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How does that get?-.

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I guess that this sound doesn't actually matter at all. <I>(inaudible)</I>.

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≪I≫(Kids yelling)</I>.

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Poor kid. (laughter from the audience) <I>911 emergency!</I> <I>(inaudible) bridges.. What about the (inaudible)</I>.

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≪I≫The deck appears to have collapsed in the (inaudible) bridge, (inaudible)</I>.

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(Groaning from the audience).

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≪I≫The generator's gone,, and so we had partial light. and we had to figure out</I>.

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≪I≫What to do,, where to go, what was happening,</I> <I>how bad was it.. We knew that we had to get out to the air.</I> <I>we know where the pavement is now. once again,, a section of--</I>.

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It's pretty good., I'm sure a lot of you've seen some of the bridge footage before., that's pretty iconic.

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I remember that earthquake., my mother always swore.

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That she had a sixth sense,. She could hear earthquakes coming before they happened.

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And,, I don't know if that's true,, but what I remember is before I realized that earthquake was happening-. I lived in san jose.

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At the time- she had my younger brother, and I by our arms,, and we were like flying.

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Through the air to underneath the dining room table.

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Before I realized there was an earthquake,, so there might be something to that.

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Oh. no,, we don't want to watch that again.

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so, humans are your biggest problem,.

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The next thing start ups and disasters have in common.

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(Everyone laughs).

B

B

So you have to provide for them. luckily,, that's not your job., but you have.

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To take care of yourself., that is your job.

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and no one else is going to do it for you., ostensibly there's a government organization, that's in charge of this., you should do it. Yourself. looting is also a big problem.

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After every major modern disaster there is a period of looting., you could say.

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That human beings are opportunistic jerks,, which sometimes they are, but really,. They probably just need stuff.

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After a day or two of initial chaos,, a disaster becomes a military state.

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This happened in the the 1906 earthquake,. This happened at katrina,.

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This is how you reinstate order.. Martial law is declared,.

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The military rolls in,, if you haven't been hurt by the actual incident,, there's a great likelihood that you get shot for looting, (laughs).

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That's not funny, sorry.

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(laughter from the audience) (laughs) humans are your biggest problem. in a disaster,. You have to take care.

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Of a lot of humans who are unprepared to take care of themselves.

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A few days ago,, I did a dry run on this talk-.

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That's true of start ups, as well, in a role like mine.- a few days ago,. I did a dry run of this talk,.

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And the person I was doing it for asked me, "so. Why are humans, your biggest problem?" and I was like, "how? Are they not? basically,, you name it.

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And it has been mucked up by humans in some shape or form.", but then,.

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What I realized I meant is that humans are your biggest logistical problem.

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They're messy,, literally, and emotionally..

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Never let anyone tell you that nerds don't have feelings.

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They are insanely needy., they need to be fed,, they need to be watered,.

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They need their paychecks consistently, and on time.

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(laughter from the audience). They need health insurance. In case they get sick.. They need a cool office.

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To come to everyday., they need their specifically-flavored soda in a specifically-shaped vessel.

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(Laughter from the audience) true story., github's, first salesman and I went through this year-long battle.

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Over ordering diet, coke in cans versus bottles.

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(laughs), this is all fine of course,.

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Because this is job security for me., (laughs).

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Humans at scale are your biggest problem.. When I was planning codeconf,, I was like,.

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"Wow!, I cannot do all this by myself.. I need a lot of help in the days leading.

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Up to the conference, as well as the day of, and it was going to get prohibitively expensive to hire this out., we needed people to assemble name tags,.

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Swag bags, do preregistration, and day of registration,.

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Do the shop booth, answer questions, direct people where to go,, so I.

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Sold what I thought of at the time as the san francisco bicycle coalition, model,.

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And offered free entry to the conference for anyone who volunteered a four-hour chunk of their time.

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Since it was a pretty sweet, deal, and pretty great hourly rate,, I gave students, interns, and other non-highly- compensated individuals, priority.

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I got a great response and ended up having all the help that I needed without having to tap into existing github employees.

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For their time., the icing on the cake of that experiment was that.

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Almost all my volunteers were awesome, people, and wonderful to work. With, and, in fact,, two of my volunteers now work.

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At github., any growing company gets the eternal question.

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Of, ": what will the company look like in x, month or x, years?".

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In the early day, this question used to make us groan.. We would get it from banks and financial people.. We would get it from real estate. Agents.

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It's a completely valid question,, especially if you need to do capacity planning for things like a office., but we didn't have a cfo until about a year ago.. So there was no one creating budgets,.

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Or modelling on our growth,, we were always just like,.

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"We, don't know how big we're going to be in a year- like, we're busy.

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We're like, doing things. we're making things happen. Like, all we know is.

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Things are going really well, and they are going to keep going really well, and no,. We have no idea how many square feet.

B

Of office space we need. (laughs), no idea." humans are tricky.

B

The problem, of course, with humans, being your biggest problem, is that they are also your greatest asset. in fact, they're. All that really matters,.

B

And, I mean that in the most like esoteric, touchy-feely, like,.

B

"Let's all hug, it out," kumbya way.

B

Next., you have to be prepared for anything both at a start up, and in our disaster,.

B

Which you are wandering around the streets of san francisco right now,, I will remind you.

B

I was a girl scout,, which pobably explains the last 20 minutes of your life. suck it.

B

The girl scout motto is "be prepared.".

B

So, lets zoom back into your physical body from omniscient mode.. Let's say you live.

B

In mission. you're entering the mission, and you're rounding the corner on your meeting, spot. you're, a very smart person.. You have set.

B

Up a predetermined meeting spot with your significant other.

B

You said, "okay. well,. If we can't call each other, if there's no electronic means of communication, we'll meet at x street corner.

B

As soon as we can." you've done this ahead of time. you're going to go home and do this.

B

Make sure its not dolores park, because everyone has beat you to that.

B

(Laughter from the audience), but pick a spot., you have to pick one spot., so you're right on the corner.

B

On the spot that you have predetermined. there waiting for you is.

B

A very relieved lover, roommate,, bff, dog-walker,. I don't care.

B

Together, you walk back to your house,, still absorbing all the damage that you see.. Entire buildings are gone,.

B

Broken fire hydrants are spraying water,, although you notice with some alarm.

B

That the water pressure has been diminishing rapidly on your walk.

B

People are still milling around., some of them pretty obviously hurt.

B

You get to the block that your building is on, nervous about what you'll see., miraculously it's intact.. So what do you have.

B

In your house?, some of you are starting to tune out.. Let me just bring it home.

B

To you. (laughter from the audience).

B

This is seven gallons of water..

B

The american red cross recommends one gallon of water per person per day.

B

For five days., it used to be three days,, but after katrina, they hadn't gotten.

B

To everyone in three days, so now its five.

B

This is two extra gallons,, so you may have a pet, or maybe a shower, or save half of another person.

B

(Laughter from the audience) (laughs), this is-, I think, took a little out of this, actually.-.

B

This is backpacking food.. You need food in your house.. This is 13 servings,.

B

Or 13 meals,, so a little over three days.. These are single servings of the same.

B

You can do cans., it doesn't matter., I don't care.. I do backpacking food because this shit's delicious, like,. I look forward to this.

B

(laughter from the audience) and all you need is water,. You don't even need heat, really,.

B

I don't know, and a radio., ostensibly the-, we'll get there.. It's fine.

B

(Laughter from the audience) in theory, san francisco's, outdoor warning, system,.

B

That thing that goes off every tuesday,, it should work, and it should.

B

Be broadcasting information.? It is solar-powered.

B

But if it doesn't, you should really have a radio., and this is the one, guys.

B

It's the one recommended by the american cross,.

B

So it's hand-cranked, it's solar-powered, and it also has a usb charger,.

B

So you can still charge your useless phone!.

B

Isn't that cool? get that. so, in addition to having.

B

A predetermined meeting spot, you have enough water for everyone in your house,.

B

For five days, again one gallon per person per day for five days., you have food.

B

For as long as you want, at least five days,.

B

And you have a radio. still no-, no one's coming for you.

B

(Laughter from the audience).

B

A lot of earthquake preparedness kits have things like band-aids in them,, which is a huge pet peeve of mine.. If you need a band-aid,.

B

You don't have problems. (audience laughing).

B

You could argue something about infection,, but how often have you gotten an infection.

B

From a tiny cut that you needed a band-aid for?, you haven't., I could probably give another full-length talk on what I actually think should go into a medical kit., we're going.

B

To skip that. most people also have things like flashlights, space blankets,.

B

Ways to entertain the kiddies., those are all pretty secondary.

B

This is almost all you need, sort, of. extreme weather is not usually.

B

A big thing in san francisco.- I know that feels false after the last couple of weeks., but you might have to put on a sweater. (everyone laughs).

B

At this point in my--, (everyone laughs).

B

Oh, you can't! neither can I. it's fine.

B

(Laughter from the audience) at this point,, because I do this song and dance for all my friends, in fact,.

B

I regularly buy these for people as gifts-. It's not a good gift-.

B

(Laughter from the audience) people, usually say, "well, I'll, be fine.. It's fine. I'll just come to your house.".

B

(Everyone laughing) and I'm like, "do not come to my house.. I have enough of this.

B

For me and my family., I will bludgeon you to death with my now useless laptop.

B

(Audience laughing), no matter how much I love you., you can come to my house, but it's byo survival.

B

Bring your water., those are heavy., but come, come over.".

B

The need to be prepared for anything is how org org was born.. Who here is orgorg?.

B

Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. orgorg is short for "organization organizers".

B

Or the people in charge of keeping the lights on at start, ups, tech, companies.. It's a group of non-technical people working.

B

In tech companies and small companies around the world., we leave it fairly broad,.

B

But essentially the focus is internal-facing support people at a company, business, operations, office, managers,, hr, people,, facilities,.

B

Ea, concierge,. Anyone who keeps the wheels turning,.

B

And the human-shaped problems happy., I call it internal-facing support.

B

Because if you think about it,, basically every time you go and ask your office manager or operations, person for a new gadget, or a better chair, or a different kind of lunch,,.

B

You're more or less filing a support request, and they pile up fast. if you've ever worked in support,, take a minute to think about how stressful it can be.

B

When someone wants something from you. and now think about how stressful it would be, when you got regularly conflicting things, (laughs) requested.

B

And think about, for each one of those that you either don't or can't satisfy,.

B

Think of them as someone who is going to glare at you for the next week,.

B

Or worse, hold it against you, forever, or worse, go into anaphylactic shock,.

B

Because you accidentally fed them peanuts., that's never happened to us. Before,.

B

Not on my watch. (laughs), we created orgorg out of a need.

B

Sharon schmidt from heroku- heroku's me,, their first non-technical person-.

B

And I would get together for coffee fairly regularly, and we would often compare growth notes, or ask how the other person was handling.

B

A particular situation.- and we got to talking about how nice it would be to have a group of people who did what we did, that we could talk to.. The idea was to have this group of people.

B

Get together, periodically, and either discuss a problem or have someone who had been in an operations. Role come in and talk.

B

To the group about a specific thing. shortly thereafter,, I met kim rohrer.

B

Of disqus, who at the time was our downstairs neighbor,.

B

She was in a similar role as sharon and I. she was the only person in a non-technical role at a tech, company. and,. She came upstairs to ask a question.

B

About the building. we got to talking about this concept of a group, and kim,.

B

Always the doer, started one. we began as about seven people.

B

We had a lovely picnic lunch in yerba, buena gardens, one sunny day.. That was almost exactly three years: ago, and 480 members ago.

B

That represents over 200 companies.. I like that one! in practice,.

B

The way the group has manifested is more of a brain trust.

B

Someone sends out a message and is like, "hey!. I have this problem.. I need.

B

A good real estate agent,, I need a last minute caterer,, I'm looking.

B

For good hr software,, what do you recommend?.

B

I basically would have killed for this resource six or seven years ago, at the beginning of my career., the group gets really fascinating. Occasionally when the conversation turns to behaviors. "why. Do I have to clean up after them? cleaning dishes was not.

B

On my job description. does anyone ever feel like they are part of a not-so-subtle second class?.

B

We're not here to discuss these issues today., that's a totally different talk.

B

But they are my favorite, and one of the things I enjoy. Most about the group. and yet,, no matter how prepared you think you are,.

B

How many resources you have at your disposal,, monetary or otherwise,? How sure you are that you've thought of everything.

B

At a start, up, or in a disaster, (laughter from the audience), something is always on fire. now, in our earthquake. Scenario,.

B

You have turned to the corner., you are at your home., you have all of your supplies.. Nothing has gone wrong for you,, not so much with me.. You are home.. You are safe.

B

You are fed., you are watered., you have the next couple of days, and you are fine.

B

You're going to be fine., there are a million things that could have gone wrong during your journey..

B

Your day could have been complicated right off the bat by a broken leg, or a mild concussion. At the initial onset of the earthquake., you could have been trapped in the building..

B

You could have walked past the mcdonald's 2 minutes later than you did, and been consumed in a fiery ball of french fry grease..

B

Your partner might have never shown up at your meeting spot..

B

Maybe you get back to your home or apartment and it had been flattened, taking all your wonderful disaster preparedness with it.

B

Maybe your home literally catches on fire moments before you get there.

B

But none of these things, happens. you're, so lucky.. Anyone know.

B

Who this guy is, er, where he is?

B

(audience member) (inaudible) yes! thank you! he's in one of these., so you see these around the city, a lot.

B

It's a cistern., I'm so proud of you!. There are over 100.. I think.

B

There are 116 of these. they're full of water.. They were put in place.

B

In the city in 1908 after the '06 earthquake,.

B

And they are full of water, so that if our water supply gets cut, off,.

B

The firefighters still have water to fight fires, with. yeah,, that's a bad day.

B

(Laughter from the audience) I feel like I've had work days like that.

B

(laughter from the audience).

B

At a start, up everything always sort of feels like that.

B

Something is always on fire. if you're, the only non-technical, ops person.

B

In the room, next thing is both easier and harder;.

B

Easier because you could tell at a glance if it's your fire or not:.

B

"Oh, the site is down?. We can't really do anything about that.".

B

"Oh,, a pile of ravenous code monkeys who have been debugging the site.

B

For hours?, I can fix that one.".

B

Harder because a lot of the time,, you are the only person fighting your fires.

B

I was the only non-technical person at github for two years., it's kind of a lonely place to be. and even when you start growing, the general and administrative branch of a company,.

B

There's often only one bizoff person, office, manager,, executive, assistant,.

B

Whoever it is. and you kind of go, "wow, its really lonely over here, buried.

B

In this pile of due diligence, paperwork,, which she ends up digging out.

B

When something is always on fire,, you have to remember to triage on every level.

B

Everything is always wrong, and to avoid going crazy,, you can't focus on the sheer number of things you have to do.

B

What's the most important? focus on that first., you have to have a person,.

B

Or more likely a group of people, at the top level, doing this for the company., then you need one for products,. You need one for teams,.

B

And, of course,, you need to always be your own.. Nothing gets done.

B

If you're spending all of your time worrying about the fact that nothing is ever getting done., the other key is finding a group of people. You can trust. delegate things to them,.

B

And trust them. if they fail, was that you? did you do that?.

B

Did you fail either in your assessment of their abilities, or,, more likely,.

B

The way in which you communicated your needs to them?.

B

How many people do you think you can manage at once??

B

That number probably varies from person to person.. It is almost assuredly far less.

B

Than you think it is. every person over the number of people.

B

That you can successfully devote the needed amount of time. To, is another person that you are failing, and another weak point in your organization. alright, recap:. This is all- please!, please!, backpacking, food?.

B

All of this you can buy on amazon, by the way.. Okay, so can walk into-.

B

You can walk into your sports basement and buy one of these, any camping goods. Store,. You can buy one of these., they will probably go,.

B

"Going to burning man?" you'll be like, "no,, not going to burning man.".

A

You can also order these on amazon. they're, like $17:00. they're super cheap.

B

Go! one for every person in your house. food? free to go., that's all,.

B

Just start there. I'd like to think that some of the things I said.

B

Have gotten you thinking.? The advice in this talk is very surface,. Novelty.

B

There are a thousand other things you can do to prepare for an earthquake.

B

I encourage you to look into them.. I omitted a ton, glossed over things,.

B

Trivialized., if you are serious about being prepared,.

B

Educate yourself further., I can tweet out like a gist of these links. Later,.

B

Or something. there's a lot of good stuff in there.

B

That's it! thanks guys! (audience, applauding).

B

♪ (music) ♪.

A

Passion projects:, melissa, severini.

A

I've been torturing melissa, all week. she's been texting, me,.

A

"What are the questions? tell me the questions." (audience laughing) I haven't answered.. I just played dead, you know?

A

(laughter from the audience).

B

Now you have to tell me. yeah now,.

A

Unfortunately, but you're in my house, now. okay. so,. Everyone at github has.

A

A melissa story, because she was the first employee, here,.

A

Everyone has one., so my melissa story,, which is good,, don't be-. This is not.

A

What we do in our private time., this is-- (melissa), it wasn't-- (julie) github, sorry. so,, when I was interviewing at github,. I was really concerned with the fact.

A

That there weren't any technical women on the product, teams, and so, a big thing.

A

That I look for in companies I want to work with is I want to make sure that its a good environment for women to be in, and one that they are not afraid, of.

A

so,? I was interviewing at also a bar, if you've noticed a pattern over here,.

A

And I'd walk in, and chris,, the founder, and melissa are sitting there having their one-on-one, and melissa. Just does this thing with me,.

A

Where she just looks me- you know, turns to me square-. Are you going to cry?.

A

Don't cry. don't cry. and she goes, "hi!, I'm melissa., it's so great to meet you,.

A

I can't wait to work with you!".

A

I don't know if that was your exact words,, but that's what I felt like-- (melissa) probably--. You said that with your eyes, maybe. (melissa) yeah! (laughter from the audience), but it was like, one of those moments. For me where I was like,, "wow! okay,.

A

This woman wants to work with more women.. That's such a rare thing in tech.

A

People are very concerned with being the only women in tech, most of the time." (melissa), more women! yeah,, more women., so that was a great sign, and that was actually.

A

One of the reasons that I joined github. and I think a lot of people have.

A

These melissa stories, and I guess what I'm trying to get at is.

A

You have this special skill that you won't admit to, most of the time, for making people-- you weren't going.

B

To tell anyone what me special skill, is. (laughter from the audience).

A

I'm glad this is the last one of the year. I'm getting really tired of all this innuendo. (laughs). So you have this special skill of making people feel.

A

Like they're, a part of the team.

A

and many people here have admitted to it,, it's not just me- admitted to it.

A

Like we were held at gunpoint or something. (laughter from the audience) one other of melissa's special skills., also a skill-- (laughter from the audience). Where do you think that that part of you comes from?? Is it something you inherited.

A

From your parents?, is it life experience?

A

(laughter from the audience)?

A

Is it genetic?.

B

Are you ready, for-, oh god--, (julie), I'm ready. strangers are just friends. You haven't met yet.

B

(Laughter from the audience).

B

(Melissa) no,, but it's true!, (laughs) (laughter from the audience) (melissa) think about the number of people. You know, now, the people.

B

You are actually friends with now, that you are close to, who you would call in an emergency.. How many of those people did. You know.

B

Five years ago, or ten years ago?, I think there are wonderful people, everywhere.

B

There are absolutely people who are exceptions to that case.

B

Make no mistake. (laughter from the audience), but most people are truly genuinely good, well-intentioned, and-. I mean, especially.

B

In a vulnerable situation like an interview.

B

god,, that's terrifying, like,! Why would you not take every opportunity to be like, "come. come here, like just-, it's okay.".

B

We've all been there. that sucks.

A

(Julie) so you're saying this is something that can be learned.. I'm stupid, (laughs) (laughter from the audience) you trust too many people, may be..

A

Is that a skill that you think people can learn, that people can learn to communicate better, and be those types of people? absolutely. yes.

B

Yeah. cool., I was reading something really cheesy recently that I cannot quote properly,.

B

But it was about finding something that you liked in people that you weren't even that fond of, and speaking to that piece in particular,.

B

Because there is something like that in every person-, most people.

A

(Julie and some audience members laughing) asterisk. yeah..

A

How do you hire for that, in a team?.

B

Oh,, that's a-- got to talk.

A

Into the mike., that's a great question., (julie laughing).

B

I mean, some people-. It's immediately obvious.

B

When you're talking about people in technical companies,,.

B

In a technical capacity, who are.

B

An overwhelming majority natural introverts,.

B

That gets significantly harder.. I don't know if I have an answer.

B

For that., that's a great question.

A

(Julie), take them to a bar., make them ride a bike.

B

Don't-, you don't need-, I mean, alcohol is obviously a vehicle for loosening.

B

People up and getting them to talk, or relax, or be more themselves,.

B

But that's not-, don't take them to a bar.

A

(Julie) cool.: are there specific roles at a company that you think people.

A

With that special skill,, like making people feel like their a part of the team,, where do you think those people mostly lie in a company?? Are they mostly in operational, roles,, or?,.

B

I think every team could benefit from someone like that.

B

I think a lot of natural introverts really, you know,, have a chance.

B

To thrive when they have someone they feel comfortable enough with who can.

B

Also kind of translate their awkwardness into something that makes a little more sense.. Most of those roles are operational, yeah.. I think a lot.

B

Of github's onboarding people are very warm people,.

B

Very welcoming,- and I think that's a big piece, in that first week.

B

At a new company,, with this enormous learning, curve,, where you're, terrified, and every face is a new face,. Having someone who looks familiar,.

B

And feels familiar, and kind is really powerful.

A

What do you think was the hardest part of being the first woman at a start, up?.

A

(Julie), if you just want to eye-roll, that's okay. (laughter from the audience) (julie) hard questions,, I know.

A

(man from the audience) throw softballs! (laughter from the audience).

A

(Melissa laughing) (julie). I only do it because I love you--.

B

Do you want a list? (laughs).

A

(Julie) yeah!: let's do it!.

B

The first year that I worked for the company, we didn't have an office at all.. I worked from my pajamas,. I don't know.

B

If anybody else got dressed., there was no office.. I probably saw the other couple.

B

Of employees,, you know, a couple of times at the most. the next year that we had.

B

An office, we had an office with one bathroom.

B

Never share one bathroom with eight men, ever.

A

(Laughter from the audience).

B

So, beth was the first person who came, and joined the company,, and it's so funny,.

B

She just talked, like,. I wasn't used to it.

B

She would like, tell me about her friends, and her family, and what was going on.

B

In her life, and I would always look at her, and be like,, "I am busy.

B

I like you., why are you talking? oh,? This is what girls do! we talk!".

B

I was so used to working with guys, and if we were talking to each other,.

B

We were saying a set of things that I just did not understand at all,.

B

And it was really nice to have a human again.

A

That's great. so for those of you who don't know,, melissa, is--.

A

(Laughter from the audience) humans- men are not human-. No, I just kidding.

A

(laughs) no,, that's not what I mean! (audience clapping and laughing) yeah. (laughs) so, for those of you who don't know,, melissa's responsible.

A

For a big of the-, I don't want to say female but-, ladies of github, culture, here,.

A

And it's something that made me feel really comfortable, and a lot of the other women who work here. and it was definitely a culture of-.

A

Or it is a culture of women who support each other, and don't tear each other down,, and this was the first place.

A

That I have ever been where that's been the case.. How important is it.

A

To build that strong female culture early,, and how do you do it?.

A

The most important? (laughs) is there anything more important?.

A

(Julie) by the way, passion projects came out of this, right?.

A

I felt empowered to do something like that at a company of mostly men,, and I feel.

A

Like that's not normally the case, so.

B

There is a tina fey quote., I don't know if you are familiar with tina fey, julie.

B

(Laughter from the audience) tina fey is julie's favorite. fave!.

B

Something along the lines of "you, not competing-". You know how a lot of women.

B

Feel like you're competing with the other women in the room?.

A

(Julie), you say: it, I'll, correct, you., yeah. okay, thank you. okay.. So I think it's a lot of women feel.

B

Like they're competing with other women for things,, where you're actually competing with everyone, and that's.

B

Absolutely true. and, in fact,. I think other women are actually.

B

Your biggest allies. you have so much more in common., can I say: it? oh, no!, I'm not going to say that,, never mind.,.

A

(Julie) you got it pretty close,, pretty close., I think-- don't tell me-- so, the good part about it. Is,, especially with regard to men, men, will try to trick you,.

A

Or they will try-, I don't know who "they" is.. They will try to trick you into thinking. You are competing with other women.. You know,.

A

If barbara is up for a promotion, it'll, be between me and barbara,. When that's.

A

Not true. you're competing with everyone in the room.

B

That suggests a world where the woman is still a novelty, and she's a one off,.

B

And there aren't going to be any more,, so you aren't in competition with each other,, which kind of did happen in the 1950's when women started.

B

Participating in business, really.

B

And that's just flat out not the case. Anymore.

B

I'm looking around this room, there's more than 50 percent women, and that's awesome!, please more,, especially in tech!.

B

We're in such a minority right now., every single woman that joined.

B

Github, I was like, "please, come here! welcome., I'm so happy to see you!.

B

Don't go! don't go any where!" (julie) "please, don't leave" "let's be friends!" (laughs).

A

(Julie) says the woman who left me last: month.

A

okay. whatever., (everyone, laughing), jerk! so,. What do you think being here so early-, one of our past speaks,.

A

Leslie bradshaw had something really smart to say: about,, you know, the one thing,. If she could go back.

A

When she was starting a company,, the one thing that she would get right, the first time, and it was, "hire a cpa, hire an accountant, immediately,.

A

Because we have debts, and that's an important thing.", what do you think is the one thing that you would have done: differently, or the one thing that you have to do when you start a company?.

B

Those are two different questions.

A

Answer both., (melissa and audience laughing).

B

I agree with leslie bradshaw, wholeheartedly. bookkeeping is.

B

The worse thing. where's [salone]? where's, alison?, (cheering) hi guys!.

B

But github actually outsources that,, so I actually never had to do-.

B

I had to do that for the last company. I worked for, and it's not fun,.

B

And I'm not that good at it., so luckily, when I joined github, the guys.

B

In that first interview, they were like, "hey., so we actually have a bookkeeper.

B

Is that cool?" and I was like, "oh yeah,, that's great!! That's great!"!.

B

(Laughter from the audience), so I never had to do any of that for github,, which is great, so.

B

Full agreement on that., what do I wish? I had done, better?.

B

B

Use more exclamation, points?

B

(laughter from the audience). I went through this long phase, where I was like, "do everything.

B

Like a man,", which included sending emails that weren't-, they were clear,.

B

They were concise,, they had a maximum of one exclamation point,.

B

But basically never had an exclamation point, and certainly no happy faces., and I think that might've- I mean, contrary.

B

To all the kind things that julie has just said about making women at github feel welcome,. I kind of worry.

B

That that alienated a couple of people when I was just sending these emails that were like-- that's it., I don't know.. That sounds really trite.. I'm sorry.

A

(Julie), just like your emails! great! (everyone laughing),.

A

(Julie) we have fun! (audience members and melissa laughing) (julie). This is fun! okay, so,. If could do it all over again, you've already done.

A

A fantastic job of building a strong female culture here,.

A

But what would you do to make sure that this was a great environment.

A

For women to work in, if you were starting your new company?, what would you do? First?.

A

Specifically, to build a good environment for women.

A

Are you implying its not perfect?.

B

(Julie and audience members laughing).

A

(Melissa laughing), do you read my twitter stream?? Of course it's not perfect. nothing's perfect.

B

Nothing's perfect.

A

(Julie) nothing's perfect., no, I mean like,. What can we do in the industry? Though?.

A

I mean, everyone here works at a start: up, right?, who doesn't start at a start, up?.

A

Okay. forget-, you guys can leave now.

A

(audience laughing), I'm just kidding., please stay., don't [inaudible].

A

(Julie), what did you do?? What can we do to make tech a better place for women.

A

To be other than have two bathrooms?

A

(melissa and audience members, laughing) and toilet paper- buy toilet paper, you guys!

A

(melissa laughing), buy toilet paper. (laughter from the audience).

B

It's obvious that we have a problem., I mean,. I think I would prefer to have.

B

More technical women,- and it is just flat out difficult to find them.

A

(Julie) I found them. what are you-- julie found them.. I found them.

B

Found them-- they're, hiding somewhere--. She found them.

A

Bring them here! yeah!. I tried.

B

Where are they hiding?? Is there like a room, full of-, (julie and audience members laughing)? Is that where the internet comes from?.

A

We trapped them.. That's why you're all really here. (melissa laughing) trapped them here. no., I think, also having an early technical, female employee.

A

Will help that.

B

Would be really- that would be amazing. would be really awesome. yes, please-- moving on-- yep.. I mean, right now we're at a point where we need to be more concious.

B

About it, and probably a little more nurturing.

B

You know,, the talk I was going to give- is my laptop still here?.

A

You don't get to give another talk.

B

It was like a one-minute talk,, which is why it was not the talk.. It was explaining.

B

Nerds to nerds. (julie) nerds, to- (laughs), it was an amazing talk.. It was one minute., (laughs), (audience, laughing) (some guy from the audience). Will you give it now??

B

Can I get my slides, back? (laughs).

A

No. don't give them to her., we have 27 seconds left--. I will give it later-- okay, one more question.. I have one more question, then. Maybe we'll try to take some from the audience.

A

What's next for melissa?, what's the next step?.

B

That's a great question.. I have a sweater that I've been knitting for--.

B

(Audience laughing) for possibly longer than github, has existed.

B

(laughter from the audience). I'm going to finish that fucker. (audience, cheering and applauding).

B

I'm reading a lot of good books., (laughs), (julie) and then?. I might plan a couple of conferences. Next year.. I will eventually start.

B

Looking for a next little baby, github to nurture, to deliver in the back.

B

Of an ambulance, and then nurture into a.

A

Full capacity-- she's talking about companies,, not men, by the way.-- two hundred-and-thirty-person company.

B

You can tell I'm tough--, so I am looking- what?.

A

(Julie) I was making jokes to myself.. This is more fun for me than for her,.

A

Let's just put it that way. (melissa laughing).

B

Okay. and then? you know, look for next time. okay., maybe I'll go to paramedic's school, but, but- oh,, maybe business school.

B

Should I go to business school? (audience members), no! (laughter from the audience).

A

(Julie) you're the first employee of github.. You don't have to ever go to school again!. Think about the piece of paper,, like everyone will listen--.

B

I'll make you one.

A

(Melissa and audience laughing).

B

I'll draw you one with crayons!.

A

Come on! okay., done., yes!.

B

I think melissa should be one of your start up. Coo's.

A

So, she's looking. hire her in a year or so--. I'm looking that.

B

Hard., can you call me in three months? three months is good.

A

She sewed that sweater. (laughter from the audience).

B

I have to finish the sweater.

A

Just kidding,, that's generous. so, does the audience have any questions,.

A

Now that I'm done beating melissa, up? (melissa laughing), yeah!, laura,, laura. (laura), what's your background? (julie), what's your background?.

A

(Julie) school would have come in handy now.,.

B

(Melissa), I didn't go to school,, which is why I'm still trying to figure out the business degree thing.. I am from the bay area originally.

B

I spent eight years in portland, or, I've been back in san francisco for five. before github,. I did basically the same thing.

B

At another- it was a ruby on rails, consultancy. up in portland before that,.

B

I did medical admin for the craziest surgeon,.

B

Like, crazy,, crazy, doctor, people., don't do that. what else?.

B

Anything else? anything specific? I like knitting.. I would knit,.

B

If I had time. (laughs).

B

I like going on long bike, rides., (melissa and audience members laughing), I'm actually really boring,, sorry. (laughs) say again?.

B

Do you want to date? Me?- "do, you like long walks on the beach? call me!".

B

(Laughter from the audience) oh, julie's mad now., not in front of kevin!, that's so mean.

B

Sorry, baby. (laughs).

A

Do we have any other questions? yes, yes, rachel.

B

(Rachel), okay, so-- (melissa), hi!, (rachel), hi! (melissa). I love you! (laughter from the audience) (rachel). You talked a little one way, in the case of the natural disaster,.

B

The sewer [inaudible] (melissa), oh no!, don't!, (laughs), (applause and laughter from the audience) (rachel). What do you actually do? (laughter from the audience).

B

Rachel's question is, "in the event of a disaster,.

B

When the sewer system is out, what do you do?" and she's asking this because,? I chose not to go into this during the dry run.

B

Of my talk, a couple of days ago., I will now go into it, rachel.

B

Because everything is out,, your toilet, no longer flushes, like really everything.

B

I could spend a whole other hour talking about how awful everything actually is going to be- shitty.

B

(Laughter from the audience) so,, the sewer system doesn't work,, the water doesn't work,.

B

Your toilet, no longer flushes. bio hazard is a real problem in disasters like this.

B

So you're going to poop in a bag, like, you're, going to poop in a bag.

B

You're going to get an industrial-- (laughs) (laughter from the audience).

B

In a perfect world, again,, while you're ordering.

B

Your water canister on amazon,, you can actually also buy a five-gallon bucket,.

B

(Laughter from the audience) it's serious., what's worse than pooping in a bucket, is the bio hazard.

B

That would ensue if you just decided to poop in the gutters- (laughs).

B

(Laughter from the audience) thanks-, everyone thank rachel., (laughs).

A

(Julie) thanks, rachel!, (cheering and applause from the audience).

A

I think I have time for like one more question--, can we please not end on that question?.

B

Yeah. anybody ask anything.

A

(Melissa) hi! is that justine? (justine) yeah. (melissa) hey! (justine) hey! (melissa) yeah! (justine) so,, I'm interested-. How do you feel specifically about women in tech,.

B

And women in tech who elect to curl their hair, wear, make up, there's.

B

Kind of this difference between certain women in tech, and it's something.

A

That everyone has been interested in lately. like,. What's your advice.

B

To women, who maybe elect to go the curly hair, makeup route.

B

As opposed to the [inaudible] jeans, route?.

B

(Melissa), that's a great question.. I sort of deliberately avoided the women in tech thing in my talk,.

B

Just because I think there are a lot more people who can speak to that much more intelligently than I can.

B

I do have firsthand experience,, but I haven't- it's something.

B

I like to avoid., but that's a great question, and especially that divide is a really great question.. I remember going back to rachel over there,.

B

Poop-Question rachel. (melissa and audience laughing).

B

I remember a time where I- we had a conversation and she was like,.

B

"Wow!, you like- it's funny because you wear skirts,.

B

And dresses, and I feel like that's exactly what I kind of can't or shouldn't do, because that sort of sets apart-".

B

She's a developer and she was like, "I feel like I shouldn't do the set.

B

Of things, because it kind of sets me apart as a person who cares--.

B

(Justine) turned into a [inaudible] status right! like you're. Suddenly like, "oh,, like you, have a different set of priorities, or whatever." and you're just like-.

B

The short answer- is, "rock, whatever it is- that does it for you.".

B

(Julie) absolutely. own it, and just like own.

A

Your otherness completely., like I felt really-- yes!-- similarly to you, justine, coming into tech,, especially when-- (justine), show up in a purple! yeah! like,, guys especially will point out, even early in my career,.

A

When I wore lipstick or anything like that,, I think I tried really hard to play down my femininity for the first couple.

A

Of years I was in tech. now that I payed my dues,. I don't give a fuck who knows I'm a girl.

A

(laughter from the audience) (justine). You got tits. yeah.. I actually think it's more powerful when you can wear lipstick and write.

A

Better code than someone. (melissa and audience members laughing).

A

And on that note, I have a very special surprise.

A

For melissa. she's just mad at me because last time it was her birthday, and I've [inaudible].

B

A

So this is pretty symbolic for github, and for us in general,, but we want.

A

To say, "thank you,", but our very first female intern is here to give you your thank you. Gift.

A

For doing passion projects., so it's pretty symbolic for us,.

A

The first female employee, and the first female intern.

A

(applause from the audience).

A

Melissa has helped pave the way for both [minijar] our first intern,.

A

And myself, and I don't think I can express the right kind of gratitude.

A

Without crying up here,- and I won't do that to you,- because we've got more booze to drink, and more food to eat.. So thank you all.

A

For being here,, and thank you most of all, melissa for everything, you've done.

A

For this company--, I would like to thank.

B

The academy-- (laughter from the audience).

A

My mother- (julie) can we give her a huge round of applause?

A

(applause and cheering from the audience).

A

♪ (music) ♪.

A

Passion projects:, melissa, severini.