Remco Wendt
2014-07-26 16:51:17 UTC
Dag Pythoneers,
Gisteren heb ik op Europython een korte speech gegeven. Bij deze deel ik die graag met de Nederlandse python community:
Your beautiful minds
Europython 2014 - Berlin
Can I humble ask you all to close your laptops and put your phones away for just five minutes? Be in the here and now with me and please grant me this time to put some interesting thoughts and connections into your beautiful minds. And what I can only hope is that maybe today or tomorrow you?ll think about this a little more.
For a few months now I?ve been thinking about new ideas of what to do next. Two weeks ago I was roaming the Spanish desert plains near Zaragoza, with simple thoughts like: what is going to be my life?s goal? And it came to me that maybe the nicest thing I could possible do is leave the world in a little better state then I found it in.
How to do that? We have learned from peer-to-peer networks, you can have enormous impact by combining many small decentralised elements in a large volume.
And then Europython happens, and it all made sense.?
You see, the thing is we are not mere developers, but engineers building and thus defining our future society. By doing so we have great power and with that great responsibility. Do we want a world of control? Or of freedom?
On top of that we have quite a unique position. And we should better realise this, I believe.
I?ve hired people in my previous companies, and most engineers don?t _really_ care about their income anymore. They have that covered. Instead they ask questions like: how much will I be able to develop myself and will I be allowed to contribute to open source.
In the Maslow pyramid, we have made the step up. Anybody here has income security, unless the world collapses. That may not be in your minds, but I believe it is the case. And this grants us freedom.
And what happens then? Magic. Our genetic code defines: take care of the self, when done take care of the other. That is why societies can exist. Taking care of the other is the next step in our own happiness and we are lucky enough to have the possibility to do that.
And the change in mindset required to make that next step is really so simple. An example from my personal life today: I?ve just moved to a new apartment in Berlin. The apartment complex has its own alley. It was a mess. So today I decided I didn?t like to come home to that mess. I just went outside with a garbage bag and started cleaning the place. The neighbour that lives above me opens his window and says to me: ?what are you doing? are you cleaning the place???. And I reply: ?yes I am, by the way I?m your new neighbour from downstairs, this is my home and I like it clean. The easiest way to get there is just invest a little time in our place.?. He replies: ?that is so nice. I?m thinking also maybe what we can do is put some nice tables and chairs outside and then when we have nice weather some of us can have breakfast together?. Two more neighbours open their windows to see what the fuzz is about. And magic happens.
My friends you are where change starts. The future is about together, inclusive. About community. Changing our mindset. The world really is what each and everyone makes of it. Take responsibility. Thank you for being you, and for being this fine community.
?
Remco Wendt
about.me/remco.wendt
?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-nl/attachments/20140726/b7f2330f/attachment.html>
Gisteren heb ik op Europython een korte speech gegeven. Bij deze deel ik die graag met de Nederlandse python community:
Your beautiful minds
Europython 2014 - Berlin
Can I humble ask you all to close your laptops and put your phones away for just five minutes? Be in the here and now with me and please grant me this time to put some interesting thoughts and connections into your beautiful minds. And what I can only hope is that maybe today or tomorrow you?ll think about this a little more.
For a few months now I?ve been thinking about new ideas of what to do next. Two weeks ago I was roaming the Spanish desert plains near Zaragoza, with simple thoughts like: what is going to be my life?s goal? And it came to me that maybe the nicest thing I could possible do is leave the world in a little better state then I found it in.
How to do that? We have learned from peer-to-peer networks, you can have enormous impact by combining many small decentralised elements in a large volume.
And then Europython happens, and it all made sense.?
You see, the thing is we are not mere developers, but engineers building and thus defining our future society. By doing so we have great power and with that great responsibility. Do we want a world of control? Or of freedom?
On top of that we have quite a unique position. And we should better realise this, I believe.
I?ve hired people in my previous companies, and most engineers don?t _really_ care about their income anymore. They have that covered. Instead they ask questions like: how much will I be able to develop myself and will I be allowed to contribute to open source.
In the Maslow pyramid, we have made the step up. Anybody here has income security, unless the world collapses. That may not be in your minds, but I believe it is the case. And this grants us freedom.
And what happens then? Magic. Our genetic code defines: take care of the self, when done take care of the other. That is why societies can exist. Taking care of the other is the next step in our own happiness and we are lucky enough to have the possibility to do that.
And the change in mindset required to make that next step is really so simple. An example from my personal life today: I?ve just moved to a new apartment in Berlin. The apartment complex has its own alley. It was a mess. So today I decided I didn?t like to come home to that mess. I just went outside with a garbage bag and started cleaning the place. The neighbour that lives above me opens his window and says to me: ?what are you doing? are you cleaning the place???. And I reply: ?yes I am, by the way I?m your new neighbour from downstairs, this is my home and I like it clean. The easiest way to get there is just invest a little time in our place.?. He replies: ?that is so nice. I?m thinking also maybe what we can do is put some nice tables and chairs outside and then when we have nice weather some of us can have breakfast together?. Two more neighbours open their windows to see what the fuzz is about. And magic happens.
My friends you are where change starts. The future is about together, inclusive. About community. Changing our mindset. The world really is what each and everyone makes of it. Take responsibility. Thank you for being you, and for being this fine community.
?
Remco Wendt
about.me/remco.wendt
?
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-nl/attachments/20140726/b7f2330f/attachment.html>