06-29, 13:00–13:20 (America/Los_Angeles), Prime Dome
Three years ago, I had never ridden a motorcycle, then I covered more than 10,000 miles in 2022!!! WTF Happened? Oh, right, I hyperfixated!
In this talk, I'll share stories from my moto adventures and weave in a tale of how modulating my hyperfixations has been a superpower that led me to build unusual skills -- like playing a medieval japanese flute and transcribing sanskrit manuscripts at 25 wpm -- and has also helped me land amazing jobs.
But like all superpowers, hyperfixation has a dark side ... it can be isolating, can lead to spiraling self-doubt or self-harming behaviors, and is often misunderstood by others. So I'll talk about the hard stuff, too.
The audience might learn a little about themselves and/or about friends who hyperfixate, and might come away with a new desire to ride motorcycles.
aeva started riding motorcycles at the age of 40, but they started having hyperfixations at a much, much younger age. this fact does not make them an expert on the topic, nor does it even make them qualified to talk to large audiences of very smart nerds.... but, at least, their career in open source software development and community management has helped prepare them to entertain such an esteemed forestcore gathering. maybe. we'll see. either way, they promise an entertaining presentation for those who like motorcycles and road trips.
while hyperfixations have supercharged aeva's career, their current job is entirely unrelated to this presentation and so is not mentioned here.