Not knowing an answer

Geertjan Wielenga: For anyone wanting to do this job, do you need to know everything to be up on stage?

Scott Hanselman: I was in Switzerland a couple of weeks ago. I was teasing people about the Swiss Army knife. I asked, "We live in fear of the Swiss Army because of this knife? What's so great about the Swiss Army knife?"

It's not a great knife, scissors, or pair of tweezers, but it does all those things pretty well together. You have to be a Swiss Army knife. You have to know lots of stuff 85%—you don't have to be an expert.

I'm speaking from a place of privilege because I recognize that I'm privileged in being able to receive a question on stage and reply, "I don't know." If I was a woman or a person of color early in their career, it would be difficult to go on stage and say, "I don't know the answer to that, but I'll go and ask." Because everyone knows me in the community and I've been around for 20 years, I can say, "I don't know."

The older I get, the more I have a network on which I can rely to answer these questions. Recently, I was talking to this group of architects; it was me and 50 of them. It was very stressful because I didn't want to embarrass myself. However, I was able to use a chat application to talk to people at work in real time when I said that I needed to ask someone else about an answer. I was only able to do this because of my network.

Geertjan Wielenga: What would you say are some of the disadvantages of developer advocacy?

Scott Hanselman: My wife doesn't always appreciate that I'm plugged in a lot. She has begun to say, "Get off Twitter. You're on Twitter all the time." I'm not actually only on Twitter; I'm doing my job in many communities, but it can be challenging. Not everyone shares my excitement about using social media as a way to connect with the community.

Geertjan Wielenga: What would the 20-year-old you think about the you of today?

Scott Hanselman: I thought that I would be an actor when I grew up. I kind of am; I go on stage. I'm doing theater but with computers. I think I'm an enthusiastic professor; I'm a teacher with showmanship.

Geertjan Wielenga: Thank you, Scott Hanselman.