A growing number of tech educational programs don’t center our lived experiences or the things that motivate us as learners.

"We run Mvslim like a startup. This means we are always experimenting and figuring out how to make the whole project more efficient. It’s a learning process that never stops for both of us."

While side projects can be a great indicator of personality, ability, and work-ethic, they should not have as much ability to make or break someone’s career.

The system won’t work if there are no developers. It also won’t work if we fire the sales team or get rid of the marketing staff or can the designers. Tech is an ecosystem, and it’s much healthier when we are working cohesively within that system.

Makeathons and other similar events want to “do good” and “make the world a better place.” The people behind these events need to realize *how* they do them is as important as *why* they are doing them.

Very often, specialized companies create assistive technology with little input from actual users with disabilities. These products are usually institutional in look and feel, overpriced, and only reimbursable by insurance.

Social media jobs may not involve coding. They may not involve debugging. They may not involve writing a novel or reporting. But they’re still analytical as fuck, with a measure of art in there.