#mental health

“Maybe I’m fooling everyone… I’m not good enough for this, and at this point, it is a question of time until everyone figures it out” these might be the words that cross your mind as your coworker compliments you for doing another fantastic job at delivering a new feature. As you grow in your career, so does your uncertainty. You put in the extra hours, learn all the new technologies, and join all the initiatives you can, but at the end of the day, it never feels enough. At this point, that feeling is leading your actions and decisions. It is the thing that is driving your career. Only one question persists: Are you really an imposter?

If you’re a human being, chances are you’ve felt like an impostor at some point in your life. One of the biggest issues with this syndrome is that is easy to get stuck with this feeling. One does not simply overcome Impostor Syndrome. It requires offering yourself compassion and vulnerability instead of judgment and self-doubt. But... how exactly do you achieve that? We'll look at techniques for achieving this and overcoming the syndrome.

"Hi, my name is Lenz and two years ago I was diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)." Well, this is not going to be a self-help-group, but I think it is important to talk about this wildly underrepresented topic. Since my diagnosis, I have spent a lot of time talking to other developers about it - and many of them also have ADHD, often a late diagnosis. It seems that we are quite the vulnerable population - or rather, it seems like a lot of ADHD people are drawn towards a developer job. In this talk, I want to tell you about myself, how ADHD affected me and how the late diagnosis changed my life. But it didn't only change my life - it also affected everyone around me. As colleagues, we have found a new level of understanding with each other that helped us more than any team-building event. And in the end, made us more productive since we now know how to better use our individual strengths, instead of trying to meet social expectations. I will also talk about general ADHD symptoms and try to give you a rough overview on the topic - what kinds of treatments exist, what kind of coping strategies there are and where the line between "everybody is a bit forgetful" and "ADHD is an illness" lies. You might recognize yourself in this. Or just a close friend or colleague. Either way, this talk will give you awareness & insights how the mind of a neurodivergent person can work differently - or it may even be an important wake-up-call. Disclaimer: while I have an interest in the topic and am personally affected, I am not a trained professional on the topic and everything you hear here can only be an inspiration, but never medical advice.

You know what impostor syndrome is, right!? Most all of us have felt that nagging feeling that we're faking it and that we're sure to be found out by all the experts around us at any moment.But before you go assuming this talk is the same ol' song and dance full of platitudes that encourage you to ignore that syndrome, let me clue you in on a little secret: there's no experts around you. Impostorism is not a syndrome at all, it's a pragmatic mindset and perspective, one we should all embrace and be proud of. In fact, it's vital to us getting our jobs done.