a. fish

Just shut up and code

Years back came the conclusion that I wanted needed to break out of the programmer's pigeonhole. The pivot was long and bumpy, but a few writing classes and several paycuts later, here I am. Cruising the Craigslist classifieds today evoked an epiphany: "create innovative deliverables (info portals, cue cards, viewlets, dynamic links, developer guides)" - you mean you want to hear my suggestions? Gone are the days of the manager gritting her teeth while I quickly mention a marketing angle, or arbitrary innovation, she could pass onto her boss, or whomever, only to respond with a directive to basically keep my ideas to myself, shut up, and get back to coding.

How do other engineers break out of that pigeonhole role? Maybe the career trajectory is coder->manager/team leader->[entrepreneurial position/marketing contributor]. For me, freelance writing was the only escape hatch I could find. With my newly found freedom, now a coding gig, and coding itself, looks viable again, even fun.

How to become a Conference Speaker

UPDATE: From the comments: Elisa Camahort answers! (See below.)

One of the best ideas to emerge from the smash hit conference Blogher was Mary Hodder's suggestion that we keep a list of women willing to speak at conferences. So often a male-dominated blog confab will be followed up with a blogosphere conversation asking "where were all the women speakers?" And so often the response is "we couldn't find any."

There are many books for freelance writers on how to write winning query letters, for job seekers on how to write great cover letters, for aspiring authors on writing winning book proposals.

Anyone out there have tips on how to write a winning conference speaking proposal? All you panelists out there - were you recruited to speak at a conference, or did you apply and persist until you were finally approved? Any tips for first-time conference speakers, how to perform well and be asked to speak in the future?

UPDATE: In the comments, Elisa Camahort shares the surprising variety of avenues the blogHer speakers came to speak last Saturday:

Happy SysAdmin Day

Thanks to Paul Boutin, who reminds us to hug our sysadmin today:

6th Annual System Administrator Appreciation Day.  Because if one word describes how most sysadmins feel, it's "unappreciated."

Ain't that the truth? I sent an email to Mike Papio, the SysAdmin from a job I left a year ago. He wrote back write away to say "thanks for the greetings."