Went to the Women 2.0 Startup weekend. It was incredible. Over 150 people showed up to work on a startup idea in a compressed time frame: Friday 6pm to Sunday 6pm.
The skill sets were from programmer out to marketing and design. Ideas were pitched, teams formed, and prototypes designed and built.
The main thing I got out of it was a wonderful sense of the types of ideas that people are experimenting with. Truly talented people in product design, programming, and marketing showed me how to step up my game. I met some people that will I will continue to work and hang out with in the future.
The biggest personal change to my learning roadmap is that I am dedicating the next 2 days to learning JQuery. The projects that were using produced user interfaces made me feel like I am dating the ugly duckling by using Dojo. However, Dojo solves some problems that JQuery doesn't address in terms of plumbing, so I will continue to use it. Where the interface meets the user, JQuery crushes the alternatives that I have been using.
So, instead of whining or making excuses, it is time to add it to my toolset. It could also have a major impact in my work based on what I have learned in the last 6 months about using graphics tools and design. I was able to interact with the designers on the team, understand what they were driving at and have intelligent conversations about choices.
Before I would have resented the work being generated due to my lack of understanding of why it is necessary. I didn't need this skill set when doing personals, because the product was so strong that design was never a factor while I was there. This has changed now, so I have had to change.
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