Lean In and Watch Your Mouth
A while ago, I posted about Women in Tech, the double standard where women have to be twice as outstanding to be a keynote speaker, for example. The past year, I’ve been really cutting down on travel, for example, I didn’t go to either SAS Global Forum or the Joint Statistical Meetings, because I’m focusing on 7 Generation Games, which is growing fast.
Then, Frank and Ethan contacted me and said,
Hey, we need a keynote speaker for the Western Users of SAS Software conference. Are you busy?
Some discussion ensued during which they elicited a binding oath not to swear, threaten or otherwise defame any individual or company during the presentation and they promised me travel expenses, an unreasonable quantity of the adult beverage of my choice and a box of cookies.
This was definitely an offer I could refuse. I do have an MBA, after all, and the compensation does not exactly rival my normal hourly rate, in fact, it doesn’t beat the hourly rate of the young person who made this coffee I’m drinking.
Still, after ranting (more than once) about how women are not visible in Silicon Valley, I felt too much of a hypocrite to turn down the opportunity to be the keynote speaker at a software conference in Silicon Valley -adjacent San Jose (cue all my friends who graduated from San Jose State insisting it is indeed Silicon Valley, to which I reply, “Ha!”)
The presentation is
“LEAN IN” WITH SAS
A major reason for learning SAS (and why I teach it to students) is that it can prepare one to do something else. SAS can be a great gateway drug for other programming languages and a career as a developer. Too many people are hesitant to take that next step. Why?
See, you always thought I just made stuff up as I went along, but no I have actually an entire title and four sentences six months in advance. (Why? is a complete sentence as decided by me, the grammar supreme court of this blog).
Now, I have to go read that book, Lean In, for two reasons:
- If I’m going to reference it in the title, I probably should have read it.
- My initial reaction to having to read it was, “Oh great, another book on success by some privileged idiot who was born on third-base, thinks she hit a triple and now is lecturing the rest of us on how to get home runs. ” It occurred to me that my reaction was solely based on what I knew about the author. However, I was raised with the belief that all prejudice is wrong and that includes bias against rich, white people as well as against poor, black people. As penance, I am now going to go read the book. If it truly does suck, I will let you know. I hope you all appreciate this.
Frank and Ethan, I also want you to note that I did not swear in this post, not even once.
You’re fucking welcome.