Category: Essays
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From Doubt to Growth: Can we think differently about Imposter Syndrome?
I originally wrote about the bright side of imposter syndrome a few years ago which has repeated helped me, and after receiving yet another wonderful email from a young woman thanking me for sharing, I revisit and expand on this mindset and perspective some more: Feeling like a fraud, or imposter syndrome, is something a…
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Leo Gopal on Speaking at #WordFest 2021 on Remote Happiness in tech.
I am extremely honoured to be amongst a plethora of amazing speakers scheduled for WordFest Live 2021 by A Big Orange Heart (formerly WP&UP). My talk topic is titled: → Remote Happiness: How to build and keep mental wellness in work and life. Update(02 September 2021): Here is the recording of the WordFest Live Session…
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The happy dev community: A value-driven manifesto.
In the collaborative world, we are in, dev-communities can easily thrive, fail, or merely survive. The best developer and coder communities and projects often create a culture where everyone feels valued and safe both as a newcomer or veteran. Here are some core values I believe in creating and sustaining happy developer communities in the…
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The WordPress Community, Mental Wellness, and You (WordCamp CT Talk)
Chat with Us This is something I have rewatched of myself speaking at WordCamp 2016 in Cape Town – mostly because I needed to listen to my own advice and reposting because I feel many should listen to this as well. This is for everyone. Transcript (auto-generated) Goodmorning, everyone. So one of the things about…
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On Kindness
Contemplation of ‘Why?’ we learn, adhere to, and behave in certain ways has always intrigued me – one such question is: “Why do we find it necessary to be kind?” One of the many tediously bland, and reasonless, lessons we are taught by adults when we are kids is the importance of having manners, using…
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In Praise of short-term love
Nothing lasts forever, and never has forever had such a short life span as in love and relationships. It was probably the French-Swiss film director, Jean-Luc Godard, who said it best: “A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order.”
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In Praise of Melancholy
As a species and a society, we have grown to over romanticize and popularize happiness and have exiled all feelings of the contrary to the unpopular and unwanted crevices of human emotion. We strive only to increase those things that make us happy or that bring happiness to us, and at the slightest surfacing of…
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My Talk on Mental Wellness at WordCamp Cape Town 2016
At WordCamp Cape Town this year, I gave talk on Mental Wellness, the WordPress Community, and You. An unusual talk for a tech conference, but one which needed to be spoken about – and I had no idea how it would go down. Watch on WordPress.tv https://twitter.com/maxbarners/status/774164897810657280 Summary: The main point of this talk was…
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Surviving Suicide: Replying to my own suicide note.
A few years ago, I tried to kill myself (Don’t worry, that is far behind me now).
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2015 Year in Review
This has been quite the year: I moved cities, spoke at some major events, started out in a fairly new industry, survived, had many ‘firsts’ and successes, as well as a lot of failures too.
