Awkward and awesome

Today was the last day of SXSW Interactive in Austin. My first session of the day was called, 'Introvert Uprising: When the Silent Strike Back.'

I knew it would be awkward. I knew if you stuck a bunch of introverts in a room, we'd all not sit by each other, look at our phones and computers the whole time, and not say a single word to each other.

That's exactly what happened. It was as awkward and awesome as I imagined it would be.

Picture this: The room is pretty large. There are about 300 chairs. There were around 50 people who attended the session, and we all sat at the end of each row of chairs.

No one sat remotely close to each other.

I had a hard time not laughing and giggling throughout the session. I covered my mouth with my hand several times to try to not laugh (I was the only one doing this, so maybe I was the weirdest introvert in the room).

Some of the tweets were pretty funny:

• "What happens when you put 50 introverts in a room together?"

• "Panel on introversion at 9:30 a.m. = no one in the room talking to anybody else."

I had a huge smile on my face that whole hour. Jesus, the world would be a boring place if it was full of people like me.

Part of me was hoping there would be extroverted co-workers and managers in that session, wanting to learn about how to work with and care for introverts. Of course, that wasn't the case. The panel of introverts were really just preaching to an introverted choir...which is okay, I suppose.

I think we all just wanted an hour of quiet, away from the noise of the more than 30,000 people who attend this event. Busy! Noise! Business! People!

I just wanted some quiet time. I got that today, and I'm thankful for that.

I had a session yesterday in the same hotel, and I was brave enough to get a cab ride back to the convention center with a perfectly decent Austin man. We had a nice conversation with the driver, we joked about Kansas weather and talked about where we worked.

The introvert session was in that same hotel. The introverts did not get into a cab with each other afterward. We all walked in a single file line, quietly and without talking to each other, for the handful of blocks back to civilization.

I'm still laughing about this. I've never experienced something so awkward and awesome at the same time.

There are a few points that I liked in the talk. Among them:

It's not something that can be cured.

Yep.

We're not broken extroverts.

I've been meaning to write a blog about introversion for a while now. I'm sure within the bowels of my computer there's a post started somewhere. I'm too lazy to look for it right now.

In the meantime, there's this TED talk from Susan Cain that's all sorts of wonderful. It was mentioned in today's session. She also has a book, which I told myself I'd read soon. As the speakers said today at SXSW, Susan Cain somehow became the authority on all things related to introverts. I listen to her TED talk once a month or so.

My favorite part of it:

But introverts, you being you, you probably have the impulse to guard very carefully what’s inside your own suitcase. And that’s okay. But occasionally, just occasionally, I hope you will open up your suitcases for other people to see, because the world needs you and it needs the things you carry. 

I'm sure I have more to say on the subject, but I have a meeting to go to.

Until later!

Geek Central.

I love writing. I love things that make me laugh. When those two things combine, my little mind explodes of The Awesome and I just can't handle it anymore.

That happened to me today.

I got to hear Seth Meyers speak today at SXSW. For a little more than an hour, I basked in the happiness of the conversation that included comedy, writing, failure, the collaborative process, and random other things.

I didn't know what to expect, but I was hoping to hear about his transition from SNL to Late Night. I wasn't disappointed. He did talk about that. But what I wasn't expecting was hearing him speak for an hour on how much he loved writing and how many times he has failed in life.

Background, for those who don't know: Seth was on Saturday Night Live for 12 years before taking over Jimmy Fallon's Late Night (Jimmy Fallon now hosts The Tonight Show. For the record, I'll always like Jimmy Fallon, too, because of his thank-you notes).

I remember watching the last episode of SNL that Seth Meyers was on earlier this year. I remember thinking, "God, it's the end of an era."

I had to wait in line/in the room for a couple of hours to hear him speak. I'm not sorry I did.

Lovingly stolen from the Interwebs.

I didn't write down all of the wonderful quotes he said, I didn't Tweet much, and I didn't even Facebook that much. I sat on the edge of my seat, laughed harder than I've laughed in a long time, and smiled more than I've smiled this year.

Weekend Update has always been my favorite part of SNL. I've always liked Seth Meyers and I always will after hearing him speak.

Some quotes he said:

"When you're young, that's the perfect time to fail."

"This is not a thing I will ever figure out. Perfection is crazy. Improvement is what you want."

"People are like, 'What do you want to do when it's over?' And I'm like, 'Does it ever have to be over?'"

"It's never easy coming up with ideas."

"Giving yourself a deadline is really important."

"My survival will always be as a writer."

Not stolen. I took this photo!

Other things he said:

- An NPR employee asked him what news sources he reads to get material for his show. I was expecting The New York Times and morning talk shows to be his answer. His real answer? Twitter.

- He was hired on SNL as an actor originally, but transitioned into writing. He said he didn't like doing skits, but loved writing skits.

- The last skit he wrote for SNL bombed. He talked about failure quite a bit, which is something I wasn't expecting. I guess everyone fails.

- I can't even explain how funny he is. You can tell he doesn't even have to try. It's just something that's in his personality. He said that even after spending 12 years on the show, there was never one recipe for success. Some things work and some things don't. When they don't, you move on to the next thing that might work and forget about the thing that didn't work.

While waiting in line to hear him speak, we got to see a video of Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson speak to an audience a floor below us.

Um, that was also mind-blowingly amazing.

Background: He's the astrophysicist who demoted Pluto as a planet.

Also stolen from the Interwebs.

What I didn't know: He's so freaking normal it hurts. He doesn't talk down to people who don't understand science and he's willing to explain things in really simple terms.

My Twitter feed exploded with his quotes.

"A scientist is a kid who never grew up."

"If you think the price of college is expensive, try the cost of ignorance."

"This is SXSW Interactive. This is geek central right here."

"You don't want to do an experiment that's longer than your life expectancy..."

"Some lessons need to be learned first-hand."

"There is so much to be impressed with in the universe. Don't be distracted by things that are not impressive."

"One reason we should go into space because you know the dinosaurs would have if they could have."

"Carbon is Jon Stewart's favorite element. It's the slut of the periodic table."

"I wonder if we're smart enough to figure out the universe. We define ourselves as intelligent. But we came up with that test."

"It's the darkest before dawn. No, it's not. It's darkest when the sun is farthest from the horizon."

"Good teachers are first in line for the cloning machine."

"I always tell teachers, be the kind of teacher that teacher was to you."

"Keep letting your kids break stuff. It is a source of curiosity."

"To remain curious is to remain young."

Life is pretty fantastic.

Greetings!

I'm in Austin, Texas right now attending South by Southwest. True story: I've always, always, always wanted to visit Austin and attend SXSW. And now I finally get to do it!

Today was the first day of the interactive portion of the conference...if you can call SXSW a conference. It was a fairly light day. Tomorrow will be busy.

Here's what I've been up to in photos. I played a level of Angry Birds on a coffee table (literally, the screen was the table top), I've eaten some pretty delicious food, and I didn't have to wear a coat today.

I can't complain. Life is pretty fantastic.