Reading Corner: Bossypants - Tina Fey

I've been meaning to get back into reading since I stopped reading pretty much the first day of college. Or maybe the day I got a smartphone. Though I guess you need to clarify in this day and age... I READ all the time. But they are all just online articles: some click-bait, some news sources, some a combo of the two (looking at you, Cracked and Buzzfeed). But I need to take more breaks from the screen (sometimes I feel like my eyes are burning!). I need something printed, in my hand, that I can read on car trips without worrying about the battery dying, or to read at night when my eyes declare no more screens.

So I got a library card! Ooooo. I went to the local library, marveled at the people doing research on the library computers, gasped at people doing research WITH BOOKS, and picked up Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg.

But that seems like it could be a bit heavy for my first foray back into reading, so I also grabbed Bossypants by Tina Fey.

Overall, Bossypants was fine. I'm personally not able to connect to Tina Fey as much as I am to, say, Mindy Kaling in "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?" But Mindy is more my generation (sorry, Tina, if that's offensive!) and her voice is more similar to my voice. Tina Fey has a drive that I admire, if unable to emulate. I learned a lot about the life and career of a woman that I just take for granted at this point. But she broke more barriers than I realized!

(Also, Tina Fey grew up about 7 miles from where I grew up in eastern PA, so there were some references that I appreciated, which made me feel cool!!)

Throughout her narrative, there were definitely a few sections that stood out, with some hidden nuggets of wisdom that I feel could be applied to women in the workforce. I'd like to highlight them here:

The first was preceded by a short SNL story, when Lorne Michaels was considering adding another woman to the cast and one of the actresses worried that this girl was too similar to her, and there wouldn't be enough to go around. But as Tina pointed out, if they were literally making up the show, how could there not be enough roles to go around? As Fey writes:

"This is what I tell young women who ask me for career advice. People are going to trick you. To make you feel that you are in competition with one another. 'You're up for a promotion. If they go with a woman, it'll be between you and Barbara.' Don't be fooled. You're not in competition with other women. You're in competition with everyone." (88)

This is a good thing to remember. Logically, of COURSE you are in competition with everyone for every promotion. But there does seem to be this underlying understanding that if, for instance, the boss needs three people to lead this team, gender is going to come into play. If they pick three women, people might scrutinize their work a little more and have less faith in the team. If they pick three men, well, people will cry "sexism!" (or, at least, the boss will fear that they will). So instead of everyone being evaluated equally, there's this feeling that maybe only one woman will be on the team to "round it out", so all the women are only competing with each other, rather than with everyone. And because of that, they will be less likely to help other women succeed because they view someone else's success as a threat.

That's based on no facts or anything, so don't hold me to it. Just a feeling that I can see some people having! Personally I want all my coworkers to succeed. I was on an all-female team at one point and I don't think anyone thought of us differently. Although it was pointed out that it was an all-female team, which I don't believe happens on any of the all-male teams!

Another nugget of wisdom was on pages 84 and 85, under the fancy heading "Rules of Improvisation".  These rules helped me understand how Tina Fey has been able to accomplish so much. So much of the "Rules of Improvisation", which Tina would have needed to follow when she started out as a member of The Second City, the famous Chicago-based improvisation group, can be applied to interacting with others in the workforce. I would almost go so far as to say that everyone should take an improv class to learn to just not be afraid to speak up! An excerpt reads:

"The first rule of improvisation is AGREE. Always agree and SAY YES... The second rule of improvisation is not only to say yes, but YES, AND... to me YES, AND means don't be afraid to contribute. Always make sure you're adding something to the discussion. Your initiations are worthwhile. The next rule is MAKE STATEMENTS. This is a positive way of saying "Don't ask questions all the time"... In other words: Whatever the problem, be part of the solution. Don't just sit around raising questions and pointing out obstacles... MAKE STATEMENTS also applies to us women. Speak in statements instead of apologetic questions... Make statements, with your actions and your voice... THERE ARE NO MISTAKES, only opportunities... In improv there are no mistakes, only beautiful happy accidents."

See what I mean? That's some golden life advice there!

(If interested, the whole excerpt can be found here).

For some more direct advice (albeit unsolicited) to women in the workplace, Tina recalled an interaction between Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers. I apologize in advance for the language:

"Amy made it clear that she wasn't there to be cute. She wasn't there to play wives and girlfriends in the boy's scenes. She was there to do what she wanted to do and she did not fucking care if you like it." (144)

Which lead to the aforementioned advice:

"So my unsolicited advice to women in the workplace is this. When faced with sexism or ageism or lookism or even really aggressive Buddhism, ask yourself the following question: 'Is this person in between me and what I want to do?' If the answer is no, ignore it and move on. Your energy is better used doing your work and outpacing people that way. Then, when you're in charge, don't hire the people who were jerky to you... If the answer is yes, you have a more difficult road ahead of you. I suggest you model your strategy after the old Sesame Street film piece 'Over! Under! Through!'... If your boss is a jerk, try to find someone above or around your boss who is not a jerk.

"Again, don't waste your energy trying to educate or change opinions. Go 'Over! Under! Through!' and opinions will change organically when you're the boss. Or they won't. Who cares? Do your thing and don't care if they like it." (145)

This was advice that I needed, both personally and professionally. If we are doing something that others perceive as abnormal, whether that be our political opinions, our love lives, or our career paths, as long as what we are doing is legal, who cares what others think? Obviously there will continue to be people who see certain careers as a man's job, but unless these people are physically blocking you from advancing in that career, who cares? It's no use wasting time and energy convincing them that you can do it. Just DO IT, and they'll come to the correct conclusion on their own. Or they won't, and they'll live a sad life.

So thank you Tina Fey, for your small nuggets of wisdom!

If you'd like to read it for yourself, the book can be found here, or in your local bookstore or library! I even returned it on time.

If you have any book suggestions for me with my brand-spanking-new library card, let me know!

Thanks for reading :)

Fierce Friday: Sit Still, Look Pretty

I actually had a different song in mind for today's Fierce Friday, but in honor of Women's Equality Day, I gotta rock out to some Daya! True story, I sing this song loudly when frustrated. I cry throughout but by the end, I'm PUMPED.



Lyrics:

Could dress up
To get love
But guess what?
I'm never gonna be that girl
Who's living in a Barbie world

Could wake up
In make up,
And play dumb
Pretending that I need a boy
Who's gonna treat me like a toy

I know the other girlies wanna wear expensive things
Like diamond rings
But I don't wanna be the puppet that you're playing on a string
This queen don't need a king

Oh, I don't know what you've been told
But this gal right here's gonna rule the world
Yeah, that is where I'm gonna be because I wanna be
No, I don't wanna sit still, look pretty
You get off on your 9 to 5
Dream of picket fences and trophy wives
But no, I'm never gonna be 'cause I don't wanna be
No, I don't wanna sit still look pretty

Mr. Right could be nice for one night
But then he wanna take control
And I would rather fly solo

That Snow White
She did right
In her life
Had 7 men to do the chores
'Cause that's not what a lady's for

The only thing a boy's gonna give a girl for free's captivity
And I might love me some vanilla but I'm not that sugar sweet
Call me HBIC

Oh, I don't know what you've been told
But this gal right here's gonna rule the world
Yeah, that is where I'm gonna be, because I wanna be
No, I don't wanna sit still, look pretty
You get off on your 9 to 5
Dream of picket fences and trophy wives
But no, I'm never gonna be, 'cause I don't wanna be
No, I don't wanna sit still look pretty

[2x]
Sure, I'm a pretty girl
Up in a pretty world
But they say pretty hurts
And I don't wanna sit still
I'm a pretty girl
Up in a pretty world
But no, I won't sit still, look pretty

Oh, I don't know what you've been told
But this gal right here's gonna rule the world
Yeah, that is where I'm gonna be because I wanna be
No, I don't wanna sit still, look pretty
You get off on your 9 to 5
Dream of picket fences and trophy wives
But no, I'm never gonna be 'cause I don't wanna be
No, I don't wanna sit still look pretty

Oh, I don't know what you've been told
But this gal right here's gonna rule the world
Yeah, that is where I'm gonna be because I wanna be
No, I don't wanna sit still, look pretty
You get off on your 9 to 5
Dream of picket fences and trophy wives
But no, I'm never gonna be 'cause I don't wanna be
No, I don't wanna sit still, look pretty

Sit still, look pretty [4x]
- http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/daya/sitstilllookpretty.html

Throwback Thursday: Margaret Hamilton

Today's #ThrowbackThursday brought to you by Margaret Hamilton, the director of the team responsible for implementing the on-board guidance software required to navigate and land on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission (the first spaceflight that landed humans on the Moon, aka Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin).

The picture below shows her standing besides the Apollo Guidance Computer code listing, contained in code sheet binders.

I've always liked this picture, mostly due to the expression on her face. A combination of relief, confidence, and pride in a job well done!

Margaret Hamilton was born August 17, 1936, and is still alive today. She was the Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed the Apollo Guidance Computer, the on-board flight software for the Apollo space program. Since 1986, she has been the founder and CEO of Hamilton Technologies, Inc.

With a B.A. in mathematics from Earlham College, Hamilton took an interim position at MIT to work on the SAGE Project. The goal of SAGE was to create a computer system that could predict weather systems and track their movements through simulators. She eventually joined the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory at MIT and became the director and supervisor of software programming for the Apollo space mission. At that time, Hamilton noted, computer science courses were uncommon and software engineering courses did not exist, so the programmers had to learn on the job.

A topic of interest to Hamilton is error detection and recovery. The Apollo team learned first-hand that, just because you have a note saying "Do not select PO1 (pre-launch) mid course", does not prevent human error from selecting PO1 mid course. So she became very interested in why errors took place, whether they could be avoided, and how to recover from them. She credits her work on the Apollo Guidance Computer and its asynchronous executive as a foundation that provided the means for her to design systems software that include error detection and recovery mechanisms.

Hamilton described for MIT News in 2009 her contributions to the Apollo software:

"From my own perspective, the software experience itself (designing it, developing it, evolving it, watching it perform and learning from it for future systems) was at least as exciting as the events surrounding the mission. ... There was no second chance. We knew that. We took our work seriously, many of us beginning this journey while still in our 20s. Coming up with solutions and new ideas was an adventure. Dedication and commitment were a given. Mutual respect was across the board. Because software was a mystery, a black box, upper management gave us total freedom and trust. We had to find a way and we did. Looking back, we were the luckiest people in the world; there was no choice but to be pioneers."

Sounds exciting! I personally like nothing better than a project where the desired result is known, but the method of doing so is entirely up to me to figure out. There's no better feeling than when it eventually works!

Finally, Margaret Hamilton is actually credited with coining the term "software engineering", as she describes:

"I began to use the term 'software engineering' to distinguish it from hardware and other kinds of engineering. When I first started using this phrase, it was considered to be quite amusing. It was an ongoing joke for a long time. They liked to kid me about my radical ideas. Software eventually and necessarily gained the same respect as any other discipline."

References / Further Reading:

http://www.vox.com/2015/5/30/8689481/margaret-hamilton-apollo-software

http://news.mit.edu/2016/scene-at-mit-margaret-hamilton-apollo-code-0817

http://authors.library.caltech.edu/5456/1/hrst.mit.edu/hrs/apollo/public/conference1/hamilton-intro.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Hamilton_%28scientist%29#Apollo_11

Throwback Thursday: Grace Hopper

#‎ThrowbackThursday‬ to the Queen of Code: Rear Admiral Grace M. Hopper, 1906 - 1992.

"Hopper worked on the first computer, the Harvard Mark 1. And she headed the team that created the first compiler, which led to the creation of COBOL, a programming language that by the year 2000 accounted for 70 percent of all actively used code. Passing away in 1992, she left behind an inimitable legacy as a brilliant programmer and pioneering woman in male-dominated fields." (http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-queen-of-code/)

"The oldest of three children, she was intensely curious at an early age. Even at age seven, she showed a particular love for gadgets, disassembling seven alarm clocks in the attempt to determine how they worked. Hopper's parents provided a strong foundation for her inquisitiveness. She shared her love of math with her mother, who studied geometry by special arrangement when serious study of math was still thought improper for a woman. Her father, a successful insurance broker despite the double amputation of his legs, encouraged all his children, through his speech and example, that they could do anything if they put their minds to it. He inspired Hopper to pursue higher education and to avoid being limited to typical feminine roles.... Never forgetting her father's example, she took on the established system and won. A true pioneer, she helped to pave the way for modern computing, as well as professional women everywhere. Hopper truly lived up to her motto 'Dare and Do.'" (https://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/hopper.htm)

In honor of Grace Hopper, in 1994, Anita Borg and Telle Whitney founded the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, with the idea of creating a conference by and for women computer scientists. (http://ghc.anitaborg.org/)

For further information, you can watch the short video “The Queen of Code,” directed by actress Gillian Jacobs, and part of FiveThirtyEight’s “Signals” series. It's very interesting! Not just about Grace Hopper, but also about the early days of computing.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-queen-of-code/

Welcome to a Women in Tech Adventure

Soft launch is now complete!

Official Launch coming August 17.

Look forward to Throwback Thursdays highlighting women of the past (if there's a lot to say about them, a blog entry may be written, otherwise follow on Facebook/Instagram), Fierce Fridays with some female empowerment songs to kick off the weekend (on the Facebook page), and then as-often-as-possible blog entries pertaining to thoughts on interesting, inspirational, and relevant books and articles.

Suggestions always welcome!