Gadgetory

it's just a great time to be a woman in technology via the founder being an executive you think it's incredibly exciting time and technology in general especially with the rise of mobile and I just think that it's a really fast moving industry but I think that's something that makes it possible for women to move fast catch up now you can actually come into computer science late like I didn't really get into computers and technology until I was in college but you know because it is a fast moving industry it's an easy place for you to pick things up a lot of the studies show that women hesitate to get in technology or computer science because they think there's a certain culture right you know that you know you you know can't dress tonight you stay up all night you you know eat espresso you know beans covered you where's on whenever I know and I think it's more about seeing there's all kinds of different women who can do this you can wear ruffles right you can be a jock and you can still be a great computer scientist or a great technologist or a great product designer and by seeing many different people who can all do it on their own terms you realize that you can do it on your own terms that you don't need to conform to that stereotype and to that culture that you can bring with what you have to offer the table right now is a great time do you women in tech but there's not enough women in tech right but I worry that a lot of times the conversation gets really focused on what percentage of the pie is women right and the truth is the pie isn't big enough right we're not producing enough computer scientists we're not producing enough product designers we need a lot more people to keep up with all of these gadgets all this technology all these possibilities the jobs of the future we really need a lot more people interested in mobile technology in computers right we need a lot more people and if we grow that number the number of women will by its very nature go up right the statistics are things like for the advanced placement exam 200,000 students a year take cut the calculus exam only 14,000 take the computer science exam so 7% of the kids who think they're good at math go take both the math exam and the computer science exam but if you talk to Google engineers they'd actually done studies only 2% of Google engineers weren't exposed to computer science in high school which means if you graduate from high school and you haven't been exposed to computer science the odds that you're going to end up being an engineer somewhere are incredibly low so we really just need to get that number up right imagine if we had 200,000 or 500,000 students graduating from high school every year that we're taking computer science as well as calculus as opposed to just having personnel when you look at really successful people you often hear stories of people who just worked 80 100 hour weeks for decades on end like look at people like Winston Churchill or Einstein right like they and you're like how did they do that but I really think that you know a lot of you think about burnout being related to not getting 8 hours of sleep a night or not having time with the family or not getting three meals a day and I don't think eyes anything to do with those things does for some people but it really is is what causes resent and what causes burnout is resentment is that feeling of I worked 80 hours last week and I had an eye but had to blow off my friends or you know I worked 100 hours last week and I missed the soccer game right and then that feeling of resentment kind of builds on you and makes you feel like well I won't I won't do that this week and so I think that one of the exercises I've done with my team and for myself is what is it that you need in order to not be resentful and I've done this exercise a few times there was a young guy in my team where I was worried he was working really hard and I said you know take a month really think about while you're working what is it that you need in order to not be resentful and it came back to me a month later and he said Tuesday night dinners tourney he had just graduated in school and the whole friendship group would kind of do this potluck on Tuesday nights and he said like how much is a nativity said well know too late dinner as we'd all do this potluck and if I have to if I have to you know skip it when it says someone else's house and not see them or even worse buy it to cancel it when it's at my house because something comes up on Tuesday night I'm just resentful the whole rest of week I just feel like no I did all this work and I couldn't even get to Tuesday night dinner I said okay then let's just never miss another Tuesday night dinner now is my job to help make sure that doesn't happen I had Katie a soccer mom who was really worried about her her team on Google Finance was in Bangalore she kept doing video conference calls at 1:00 in the morning and I was like Kati you've got three kids 222 and more twins like you know I'm really worried all these 1 a.m. conference calls she's gone but she managed said don't worry about the damn conference calls they really don't bother me she's like what does bother me is missing the soccer game or being 10 minutes late for the recital and walking in in the middle and I said okay well then my job is to make sure that you never missed something for your kids and it was actually really interesting to go through that process because there be days when we be sitting there in that meeting at like 335 and I know that Katie had to be out of there for that 4 o'clock game and he would be like well okay we get up to go me we'll be like oh just just five more minutes just fine we're almost there like you know even let's just let's just finish this with power through and I'd have to say no Katie's got to go like we can't we can get this back together again tomorrow and I think that really matters and you know I think it also changes for people throughout their life I don't have kids right now for me it's travel right once every say four months six months I like to go somewhere I've never been and also have the benefit of being out of the office for an entire week missing every standing meeting once you know my team understands I'd like you know the world doesn't end when I'm not there I understand the world doesn't end when I'm out there and it's just really very it doesn't provide a lot of sanity and I think that that will change over time but it's really about thinking about what is it that you need so you don't hit that resentful point for a lot of people that is a good night's sleep no time with the family a few good meals a day but you know sometimes it's something that's just really personal and really basic and it's about really tapping into you