Episode 154: Are You Techie Enough?

What does it really mean to be "techie"? Sean, Kelly, and guest Amelia Hough-Ross dig into the labels we put on ourselves and others — and why curiosity and persistence matter more than credentials. From imposter syndrome to productive struggle, this episode redefines what it means to be technical in a rapidly changing world.

Show Notes Wins of the Week

• Amelia: Getting both kids to all their activities this week — taekwondo, Chinese language classes, and a piano competition where her oldest did very well
• Kelly: Running a series of well-attended trainings at school, including a Canva AI session that drew 60 attendees across two campuses, with new audiences (kindergarten and first grade teachers) showing up for the first time
• Sean: Finally getting fiber internet installed at his house after over a decade of waiting — a major upgrade from cable with latency dropping from 20-30ms to 3ms, at half the cost

Links & Resources Mentioned

• vBrownBag — Tech community show that Amelia is preparing to present at and Sean is scheduled for later in the year
• PyCon US 2025 — Pittsburgh, May 2025; Education Summit on Thursday, May 14
• LEGO Mindstorms — Referenced in Amelia's story about building a vending machine in 4th grade
• Architects of Intelligence — Book Kelly is currently reading (dense but informative, structured as short stories/interviews)
• How to Winter by Kari Leibowitz — Book Amelia is reading about mindset and how people approach difficult things
• Lars von Trier / Bjork / Catherine Deneuve film — Referenced in Amelia's story about visiting a film set in Denmark at age 18 (the film Dancer in the Dark, 2000)
• Chris Williams / vBrownBag — Mutual connection who introduced Sean and Amelia at AWS re:Invent

Announcements

• PyCon US 2025 — Pittsburgh, PA. Education Summit is Thursday, May 14. Proposals still open at time of recording.
• Kelly will be attending PyCon with her youngest son, who will spend the weekend with family at Disneyland
• Sean will be supporting from home this year as his wife has a conflicting travel commitment

Key Quotes

"It's hard to think outside of the box when you don't know what's inside of the box." — Kelly, quoting a conference in Tampa

"The difference between viewing yourself as technical and not technical is getting those successes... even just once, where something really cool happens that you weren't expecting to work." — Sean

"It's much harder to believe that someone has that greatness in them and help them achieve it... It's easy to say someone's hopeless. The harder part is figuring out how to support them to get to that next level." — Amelia

Special Guest: Amelia Hough-Ross.