Just One Thing! (30 May 2016)

[syntaxofthings]

It's challenge time!

Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.

Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished!

Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!

Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.

Go!

A conversation starter - I hope!

[randomling]

Hi all!

I am hugely grateful for everyone who's been involved in keeping this community running over the past… however long it's been. Some years? You guys rock – really you do. I sort of ran horribly out of cope and ran away, and people took over in my absence and looked after the community. I'm really glad it's in your hands.

I've been thinking about this group recently, though. "Just one thing" is a great challenge and it seems like it really works for some people – but everyone's brain is different and not everyone finds it easy to participate in that. So (at the suggestion of syntaxofthings) I wanted to ask the community what you guys think. What kinds of things would you like to see or do here apart from "Just one thing"?

I'm not sure it makes sense for me to jump back in and take things over again; everything seems to be running beautifully, and the chance I'll burn out and disappear again is a bit too high. But I thought it might be a start to open up a conversation about how we can all work together to cheer each other on – I'd love to see this become a collaborative community rather than one that's led by a handful of people. And I'd love to see some different modes for people to contribute. Acknowledging our own and each other's accomplishments is fantastic, but I feel like the other side of dealing with things like impostor syndrome is also acknowledging the hard stuff and the imperfections.

The one example I can think of is this page on the DW Wiki called Things Real Dreamwidth Programmers Do - which is explicitly designed to show new contributors that even the most experienced professionals make mistakes. Would something like that be helpful? Not just real programmers – but real writers, real artists, professionals, jobseekers, students, parents, or whatever else we are? A place to talk about the mistakes and the difficult parts and the parts that made us cry or pull our hair out with frustration?

Those are my first thoughts. What about you? What would you like to see happening here? What might help in your personal battle with impostor syndrome – or whatever else it is that makes it harder to accept yourself as you are?

Thanks again for keeping this place going! It's so awesome to see it thriving.