#conference talks

[tangledupinmist]

Here’s the next chapter, have a good week everyone!

[acr-archvived]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWWpqdz5aug)

“We soon discovered it was the consensus of this small group of religious leaders that any declaration referring to the Lord our God would not be acceptable. They reasoned that such declaration would be offensive to the atheist. ’After all,’ they stated, ‘the atheist has a right to his beliefs also.’

“Of course I completely agree that all man have a right to free agency but I vigorously argued against locking up our own convictions because they don’t agree with everyone!” - Elder L. Tom Perry, LDS General Conference, October 1975

A message even more relevant considering our times today

Look at our nation - a nation of button mouths who refuse to proudly declare, share, or even practice their own beliefs because they are afraid of offending someone who doesn’t share their views. Look at us who sacrifice our health and wellbeing to cater to those who “might be offended” instead of holding fast to our rights and beliefs, and suffer for it. But why? Why do we do this and let our rights, values, and personal wellbeing be disregarded and dismantled?

Looking back at our recent our past, I now see that our values, health and rights are now completely disregarded by us and those around us because for over 30 years we have dismissed them ourselves. As a nation, we’ve come to believe that someone else’s views and preferences take priority over our own. We fail to tell people when something discomforts, disturbs and upsets us. We refuse to defend our own beliefs and values and instead comply and uphold those of they who we believe to be or know better than us - even at the expense of our own health.

We then wonder “ Why am I not being respected? Why are my rights being disregarded and are my freedoms being eroded? Why is my view demonized but their view treated with more reverence than even God? Why is maintaining my health and needs seen as selfish but others maintaining their health and needs not? Aren’t I just as important as them? Aren’t my rights and views just as important as theirs? Don’t I matter too?”

With these thoughts in mind, many of us naturally conclude that no, we don’t matter as much. Somehow, we are less important than those around us and must submit and repress our own needs, wants and desires because we’re “worthless and don’t deserve happiness”. We refuse to bring up that things disturb, irritate, sadden or upset us and in doing so, we’ve allowed ourselves to become angry, cynical, venomous, disrespectful, back biting, backstabbing, resentful, passive aggressive, openly aggressive, and even violent to those we see as responsible for our problems.

In response to this and the grooming of putting others before ourselves in all things by suppressing our own needs, wants, views, concerns, discomforts; a new, dangerous mindset has arisen.

“If they won’t respect me, I’ll make them respect me! I’ll make them respect my rights (even if it means taking theirs away because they deserve to be as miserable as I was!)! I’ll make sure they can never oppress or upset me again!”

Now we see and have a country of people who are in pain both physically, emotionally, and mentally, and who are hurting and causing pain for anyone that even remotely discomforts or disagrees with them. People of faith, business, politics, etc. aren’t allowed to live and uphold their faith, views and values because they aren’t inline with everyone else’s views. They are attacked through their reputation, their jobs, workplaces, businesses, even their personal lives.

Anything publicly or privately religious is attacked, demeaned and demonized. Anything regarding traditional morals, ethics, common sense, even the source and basics of gender is rebelled against and sought out to be destroyed.

We live in a dangerous generation and if we want our rights, our health and ourselves to be respected, we must first do a few things.

1. Respect others and accept that they have different views than we do.

2. Recognize that other people’s display of their beliefs does not inhibit you displaying your beliefs and are thus not infringing on yours or anyone else’s rights. Everyone has the right to practice their beliefs according to the dictates of their own conscience.

3. Stop yourself from demonizing and being offended by people who have views, beliefs and/or circumstances different from your own.

4. Recognize the fears, concerns, and anxieties of those who do not share your views. Address the sources of those fears and concerns, and work together to peaceably rectify the situation(s).

5. STAND UP FOR YOUR BELIEFS AND VALUES - not in violent animosity, but in peace and respect for yourself and those around you. If you don’t stand up and bring attention to an issue, then no one will realize that it is an issue. - “... Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” Joshua 1:9

Should we be brave enough to work and gain an understanding of each other, and become unified as Americans once again, we may see peace and better progress to becoming a more strong and loving nation - a nation in which we all can be free and united in the United States of America.

[skorfmann-blog]

A fantastic talk about “Rapid Prototyping” by Tom Chi (i.a. known for Google Glass)

[skorfmann-blog]

Rich Mironov explores “Great Product Management” from the “Minimal Viable Product Manager” up to the “Product Strategist”. A super interesting talk, go and watch it.

[skorfmann-blog]

“If you're just using your developers to code, you're only getting about half their value" - Marty Cagan rants about the agile waterfall most software product companies have implemented and some ideas how to fix it. 

[kenyatta]

stack of reference material for an everybodyatonce talk I'm preparing for the Canadian Media Production Association at the end of the month. #🇨🇦🎥

[stevekinney]

I gave a talk at RailsConf last week all about the latest and greatest version of JavaScript (ES6), why its pretty great, and how incredibly easy it is to use in your Rails—and other—applications today. You can check them out here.

[kenyatta]

That was my title slide. Because why not.

(via 2015.04.7 What You Get is What You See: Two Turntables, an Image Macro, and a Bear Named Mr.Truffles)