Earlier this year I boarded a large Qantas plane and headed to Melbourne, Australia to give a talk at a conference I have never heard of being put on by someone I have never heard of.
He said he was a big fan of Elements and was inviting the creators of his favorite products to speak at a conference he was putting on in his country and wanted to fly me over to present. When I saw the email in my inbox, I rolled my eyes thinking nothing would come of it. Someone wants to fly me across the earth to give a 20-minute talk? That’s rich.
That’s exactly what happened though. One More Thing 2012 was without a doubt the best conference I have had the pleasure of speaking at. The talks were fantastic. The attendees were fantastic. And the hosts treated us like royalty.
More than anything, however, the talk I gave was the best I have given.
The talk was called “Why I Sold Out” and covered why I packed up my life, moved across the country and took at job at Hipstamatic instead of continuing along my path of being an independent developer.1
The video of that talk as well as the other talks are now available for $50 and they’re a steal. The talks are short and completely non-technical. Instead, each speaker tells an individual story about their successes, failures and lessons learned. If you’re starting out in the app business or a long-time developer looking for a bit of inspiration, I can’t think of a better jolt to the system.
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The irony of that talk given recent situations is not lost on me.↩