Annie Sexton

00:00 Hi everybody! How are you doing Annie? I'm doing great, thanks Kent. It's so good to have you here. Annie and I go back, I don't know, I think we probably met each other through fly. I'm pretty sure. So it's been at least a year and a half,

00:18 maybe two, that we've known each other and just such a pleasure to know you and follow you on the internet. And I actually, I really, really like the videos that you make for fly, kind of explaining the infrastructure of how fly works and different things, like you're getting it into even Kubernetes and

00:37 stuff that I'm like terrified about and I kind of understand a little bit better or at least can be conversational about what it's for. Anyway, Annie, you do a fabulous job and I want people to get to know you. So can you give us an intro to yourself so people can get an idea of who you are and what you do? Sure, I

00:56 suppose you could say I'm a developer advocate of fly.io, but that's a fancy word for YouTuber. Really, that's my job is I make technical videos about fly and sometimes more broader conversations about infrastructure. I joke that like

01:13 basically I get paid to learn about some specific technical thing and then make a video about it. And that's my job. It's, it's pretty great. But I've been an engineer for over a decade now. And I love doing this. And I especially love being an educator. So I'm, I feel like I have the best job in the world doing

01:31 educational videos about tech that I love. Oh, that's, that's so great. And I, the the bonus is that you're actually quite good at it. So it's, it's good for fly. It's good for us. I always went, honestly, whenever I see one of your

01:50 videos has been posted, I stop what I'm doing and I go watch it. I really do. I think I should, I'm pretty sure I'm one of the first to comment on your YouTube videos. I appreciate it. Yeah. So yeah, people should definitely go check out the fly YouTube channel and

02:07 subscribe and, and keep up with the stuff that you're doing Annie. So you're going to be coming to Epic Web Conf for year two. You came last year as a sponsor, a platinum sponsor. Fly has actually been a wonderful partner for me with RemixConf before now Epic Web Conf and Epic Web Camp as well. So I'm just

02:27 really grateful to fly for all that you all have done to enable these events and things. So yeah, Annie, can you tell us a little bit about the talk that you have prepared and it's titled JavaScript, the origin story. What is this all about?

02:44 So I, um, I don't know if I would go as far as to say I'm a history buff, because that makes me sound like I know a lot of things. But I love, I love a good story. And so as a result, I love history. And I think we can learn a lot about the technology that we use day to day by learning where it actually came from. And

03:01 I, I particularly think that the realm of computer and internet history is rather, I wouldn't say lackluster, but like, it doesn't get as much attention as it deserves. And I think now is the time to be collecting this and documenting this

03:16 history, because soon it will start to feel like ancient history. And we need to remember these things and understand, you know, know where these like source materials are, so we can remember how we got to where we are. So this is going to

03:30 be the story of JavaScript, which started way back in the 90s. When, you know, in 1991, we had the first web page, and I'm not going to give you the whole talk, but like, it's started out as this tiny little project that happened like in a little over a week. And I want to tell the story of how that evolved and how,

03:50 you know, what were the competing languages and how did we get to this all encompassing language that has changed the internet completely, right, changed the world. I think it's really important to, to tell that story. And I think people are going to be pretty entertained by it. I'm very excited about it. I, I, of course, like, I think a lot of people

04:10 have heard some like bits and pieces of this story over the years. I had Brennan Eich on my podcast years ago, and he kind of told his, his story. But every time I hear the story, I hear a piece that I'd never heard before, or I like make a connection that I didn't make before, because I have more experience

04:29 now and all that. So I'm very much looking forward to hearing you tell the story. And for again, for those who have heard this story before, like, Annie is going to have a unique way to tell the story and probably will share things that you haven't heard before. So I'm very much looking forward to this. And I

04:47 agree with you, I think that it is important for people to understand where we come from, to like contextualize the way that the language is. And so I think it's really valuable stuff. So thank you for preparing that and putting all that effort and energy into preparing this talk.

05:06 Thank you. I'm really excited. So you are preparing a lot of time and effort. And I'm curious, from your perspective, since you do a lot of education online already, why don't you just record this and put it up on YouTube and call it a day and then move

05:22 on to your next thing? Why do you have to leave the house and be in person with people and present this at a conference? What drives you to go out and meet people? Well, for one, I mean, I'm definitely an extra and I just love meeting other developers. That's one thing. But I do believe I'll give I'll give a spoiler, I

05:42 probably will eventually chop up this talk and make it into their own video. Yeah, you should get a recycle that content. But no, I really do think that like, but see any videos that I make of this same content is going to be a different, it's a different medium, it's a different tool, you don't get that

06:00 audience feedback, like, you know, when you're a speaker, and you're out there in front of a crowd, right, like, there's more opportunity to have a conversation, or at least some kind of interaction with the crowd, you know, you can you can sing, you can dance, you can you're on stage, and I think it's a

06:17 different experience. And so like, if I were to change this into other video content, it would be written differently, because I can't just deliver my talk in front of a camera, it doesn't work that way. And so I think that there's really something special about being able to tell this kind of story in person, get

06:35 people to laugh, get people hooked, that it's just different, it's not going to be the same thing as just watching it on a video. Yeah, that totally makes sense. And especially that tracks very well with our experience last year singing Journey

06:49 on stage with karaoke. Yes. Yeah, I think at least we'll enjoy it. Yeah, I actually really am looking forward to that. The karaoke piece is always a lot of fun. And

07:07 what other things are you looking forward to? Like the conversations that we're going to be having during those extended breaks, and the extended lunch period, and everything. What are the types of things that you're looking forward to talking with people about? I really like to hear what new frameworks, new

07:25 practices, things that people are interested in, or getting tripped up by. Because I think, you know, even as somebody who's like chronically online, you have this perception of like, well, this is what developers focus on, or this is what people... And the reality is, until you actually meet a bunch of

07:40 people in person, you know, the internet kind of warps your perspective of like, oh my god, there's so many people into model trains. And it's like, no, no, no, you're just in the model train section of the internet, or something, you know. And so I think it's the same thing with development. And so being able to connect

07:56 with people in real life to see what's actually lighting them up. Because it may very well be different than, you know, the conversations people are having on Blue Sky, or whatever. Mm-hmm, absolutely. And I think that you're such an approachable person that anybody who is into anything, come and talk to Annie, and

08:14 just share what you're into. Yeah, I don't know anything about model trains, but we can talk about it. It's fine. Sounds great. Yeah. Well, Annie, thank you so much. Again, the support of Fly has been phenomenal. And you being at these

08:31 events has just been such a pleasure and a treat. I'm very excited that you at least enjoy it enough to come again. Like, that's always the greatest compliment that I can receive, is that, like, it wasn't so bad, you'll do it again. That's my review. It wasn't so bad. That's great. Yes.

08:51 I guess I'll do it again. Yeah, well, and thanks also for giving us some time today to give us a little bit of a peek into who you are. And for anybody who wants to learn more about you, come over to the conference, meet Annie. She's wonderful. And I'm looking forward to seeing you all in March. Me too. I'm

09:10 excited. All right. Bye, everybody. Bye.