Built to Program - James Edward Gray II @JEG2

- I wanted talk about what you're seeing right now. It might not be what you think it is.
- "You don't know what I'm going to do"
- Speaker can't type without special assistance and gets tired the longer the talk goes.
- Hello I'm James. I'm a programmer. Just like you. [ post it notes with question marks]
- People ask speaker a lot of questions.
  - "I used require 'csv' somewhere in my code, therefore complicated non-csv related question. Please help." -- Speaker answers pretty much all e-mail ... "If you love me don't e-mail me."
- James' Disability
  - "I bet a lot of you think this is personal" -- he thinks that his disability is okay to talk about publicly. If you don't want to know about his sex life don't ask.
  - The wait staff often asks his wife what he wants for dinner
  - Some of the things you're about to see might be unusual but their his normal. It's hard to measure those things unless he actively considers it.
- "Why are you in a wheelchair?"
  - Muscular Dystrophy.. a family of 41 neuromuscular diseases.. Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Type 1/Werdnig-Hoffman Disease
    - just a few years ago you might find:
      - cannot sit unassisted
      - has difficulty swallowing
      - expected lifespan: approximately age 6
    - missing a key protein SMN (survival of muscular neuron ... James has a variant w/ compensating genes coding for SMN2 which lessen his symptomatology
- "What does this disease do to you?"
  - "If you hit me in the knee... it still hurts" .. however, no reflex response (he does have reflexes, but the diminished muscles in his legs are unresponsive)
  - the short story is one gets weaker over time
- "Are you dying faster than normal?"
  - "I don't know and I'll give you the painful truth... you don't know either"
  - attacks primarily skeletal muscles, heart is fine... biggest problem is his diaphragm (takes longer to get over bronchitis)
- "Why did you say that you can't move"
  - mobility comparison to plant
  - usually uses electric wheelchair but switches to manual wheelchair when travelling long distances
  - the main reason is gravity... *arch-enemy*
- "Do you get cold easily?"
  - yes, diminished muscle layers increase heat loss
  - lives in warm climate
  - as time goes on, it gets more difficult
    - on confreaks James has a talk which illustrates this
- "Why not just put on a sweater?"
  - they are restrictive and heavy
- "Wait.. You said we are the same.. but showed how we differ."
  - [picture of legos]
  - been talking about building blocks, you have different building blocks... but the end result is the same
- "What does M.D. mean to me?"
  - slowing down quite a bit, speaker's typing speed is in half.
  - know and sharpen your tools
    - forced to automate workflows so I can keep up
    - helps speaker intimately understanding what he's working on
    - projects can and should benefit from this
  - "make your changes easier to make and then make your change"
- Understand the economy of action
  - Listen, then think, and finally act
  - Less is often more
  - This applies to your work and your code
  - Remember that upkeep matters, soon and a lot
    - it applies sooner than you think
- [Picture of Wife]
  - Dana (his wife) makes visiting GoGaRuCo possible.. it's a trade-off (mobility, warmth) but working with you (conference members)
- Ask for help
  - Illustration of Dr. Hawking in microgravity
    - took a /lot/ of help to accomplish, but with a lot of help
- Programming is about people
  - Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole beneath every program
  - [Work plug] A2B (not sure of spelling) needs more devs.
- Advice
  - Get Social
    - Parallel to Memory Optimisation talk earlier this morning... Sam Saffron's talk was primarily about people
- Thank you