SXSW 2019, Day 2 was phenomenal! Trends started to emerge and the speakers all spoke their wise (and sometimes unfiltered) truths. The overall feelings at this year’s SXSW have been electric, honest, and optimistic. It also felt like history was being made during the featured session with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Without further adieu, continue reading for my lessons learned/lessons remembered.
- Session: Wise Guy – Lessons from Tech, Startups, and Silicon Valley with Guy Kawasaki
- If you’re a mentor or a teacher, you many not realize the impact you are having on your student. Your student(s)/mentee(s) are taking in the information and advice you give.
- Laugh a lot and learn to let go. Ask yourself periodically: what am I not letting go of or what have I not learned to let go of? By not letting go, what opportunities am I missing because I choose to hold onto old baggage or past regrets?
- Laugh at things that would normally make you upset or trigger frustration. People may mistake you for something else or someone else but don’t take it personal (similar to The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz). Laugh about the experience. It makes for a funny story.
- There are infinite opportunities because there are infinite ideas.
- Keep learning. It’s a process that you can do over and over again.
- Session: Prioritizing Play in an Automated Age by John Cohn, session
- “Keep a playful attitude about life.” This theme surrounding play has been an emerging theme at SXSW 2019. We need to develop a sense of humor so we don’t take ourselves so seriously.
- Ask yourself what’s the worst that could happen when you decide to play.
- Play can help us in our careers if we intentionally create room for it.
- “Our minds are built for play.”
- Think of ways to incorporate play into your daily routine.
- IoT will be an essential component of building the mirrorworld as described by Kevin Kelly because it’s “about connecting objects to infinite computing.”
- Reduce the friction between your tool and yourself allows you to perform really well.
- Convergence Keynote: Kathy Griffin with Kara Swisher
- We need to document our stories (even if they may not get read in the near future) because they can help other people learn.
- Session: The Future of Performance Apparel with Dr. Chantelle D. Murnaghan
- When we’re designing products (i.e., clothing), we need to remember the 20+ specialized senses in the body that are constantly providing feedback.
- Think about how sensation from a particular garment affects not only performance but also how it makes a person feel.
- When we re-evaluate a problem, we can develop better solutions.
- Featured Session: Neil Gaiman
- Be generous with others so they can be generous with future generations.
- “You have to learn to finish things…you can’t learn from things that you’ve abandoned.”
- Maintain your composure no matter what. It will help you think clearly and articulate your message with grace.
- The way to generate more ideas is by writing more.
- Featured Session: Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez and the New Left
- A reoccurring theme: seeing people as they are and letting them know: “I see you.” We start this by re-learning the art of conversation and real human connection.
- “We are capable of so much as a country…of much more than what we’re doing…of saving the planet..of universal healthcare.” Yes, we have the tools and technology to create massive change. We must collectively choose this change we wish to live each day. We need to have moonshot dreams for our country.
- “Stop trying to navigate systems of power and start building your own.” We can build new systems built on inclusivity and diversity where we can all rise and lift one another up.