It's Far From New, But It's Still Yours - How to Devrel

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Lately, I’ve had several conversations about “how to DevRel.” Some of that is absolutely related to my current job search. But it’s also been a topic that comes regularly even when I’m settled into a company: When meeting folks at a conference who want to understand what my title (which has fluctuated between “DevRel Advocate”, “Technical Evangelist”, and even “Head Geek”) means, or discussing specific techniques with other DevRels on our super secret slack channel, or justifying my existence internally because, even though the role has existed since 1980 half the company still doesn’t know what the frak it is, nor what it involves.

Although that last part is more due to the fact that “Developer Relations” is one of those five-jobs-in-a-trench-coat types of roles, so it’s understandable.

In any case, I’ve been mulling over not just what DevRel IS but also the ways I approach the work of DevRel, from writing to video to community to speaking to demos and onward. And I thought I’d blog about it for a bit.

DISCLAIMER: I do not believe, for a moment, that I am the universe’s gift to DevRel. I don’t have all the answers, all the experiences, all the skills, or even all the Pokemon. What I do have is MY experiences, and while they aren’t the last word in DevRel, they are uniquely MY word about DevRel, collected over 11 years of doing this work. That’s what I plan to share.

We’ll call this my “How To DevRel” series and see where it takes us. Today, I want to address a common concern among content creators of all stripes, which is the fear that the thing you’re creating has already been created in some form by someone else, and who am I to take another swing at that topic now?

Nothing New Under the Sun

I’ll start by selectively cut-quoting Marianne Williamson (you can read the full quote here).

We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? […] Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.

You’re afraid you’ll say something that has been said before? That you’ll demonstrate a tool or technique that’s been covered a dozen (or a hundred, or a thousand) times by the original inventor, and by someone from the inventor’s company, and by 6 different IT luminaries, (and so on, all the way down to the inventor’s dog)?

Let me put that worry into a different context to see if it still holds water:

Do you remember when you heard the song “White Christmas” that one time, and of course you never had to listen to it again, because you heard it already? How about the fact that Bing Crosby sang it just once because he didn’t want to “be derivative”? And of course, nobody has ever sung “White Christmas” ever since, because of course Bing sang it and so it’s been sung and that’s all there is to it.

Of course not. The premise that we experience art once, that the first rendition is the only authentic one, is ridiculous.

Not only do we listen to the same recording over and over, but many folks go out of their way to see the same performer sing the exact same song (or set of songs) multiple times. We go to hear cover bands play the exact same set but, of course, with their own personal twist on things. We go to multiple renditions of a play or musical when they show up in our town.

In short, a story (whether it’s written or spoken or sung or danced or painted) becomes more powerful, not less, when we hear it through the lens of a different person’s experience and style.

Imitation is…

Yeah, yeah, we all know that quote. And also the one Picasso said about stealing.

But here’s something important to understand: Imitation is when you do something that someone else has already done in the same way they did, without adding anything of your own, with the expressed intent of doing it that way BECAUSE the other person did it that way.

For creative folks, pure imitation is actually really, REALLY difficult. It’s nearly impossible NOT to add our own spin on something. Even comedians who do impressions of other people understand that the real humor lies in “doing” the other person with just enough of a twist that it’s not just different for the sake of being different, it’s different in a small, subtle, and unexpected way. That’s what makes it funny.

On the other hand, even creations that were themselves inspired by other creations bring something new. “It Ain’t Me Babe” by Bob Dylan was inspired by The Beatles’ “She Loves You“. Sheryl Crow’s “All I Wanna Do” was inspired by Wyn Cooper’s poem “Fun“. Claude Monet’s “Déjeuner sur L’Herbe” was inspired by Edouard Manet’s painting of the same name. To go a little further afield, the Broadway musical “Sunday in the Park with George” was, of course, inspired by the Seurat painting “Un dimanche après-midi à l’Île de la Grande Jatte” (A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte) .

It’s OK to find inspiration and insight in the work of others, to build your story out of something you saw, read, or heard. Of course, give credit where it’s due, but also trust that your creation is going to have its own new elements that make it fresh, valuable, and uniquely yours.

Saying it With Your Voice Adds Power

When you write (or make a video, or talk at a conference) about a new technique, technology, or experience – one that’s not NEW-new, but rather new-to-you – you open the door not only to folks who, like you, haven’t known about it but also you allow people who were already familiar with it the chance to see it through your eyes. Your excitement, curiosity, and enthusiasm cast the well-known into a new light. You also create the opportunity to review and re-think that topic, to reconsider it’s value or application today.

I believe in this idea so strongly, I took one of my conference talks, “Looking Back at a Lifetime of Poor Technical Choices“, and made it open source. I realized that even using the exact same format and structure, everyone’s journey and choices would come out so differently and resonate so powerfully that you could do 5 of the same talk in a row, and they would all be interesting, compelling, entertaining, and informative. You can find it (and download it and make it your own) here on my github repo.

So, if you find yourself asking, “Who am I to give this demo? To write about this topic? To host this podcast? To be on this panel?” then, to paraphrase Ms. Williamson, “…Who are you NOT to?”

She continues, powerfully,

“As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”