What Does ‘Human Circuitry’ Mean to You?

I was fortunate to attend Gnomedex 8.0 last week. I was there as both an attendee, and Chris/Ponzi’s right hand girl. Every year, the conference has a theme. This year, it was “Human Circuitry”. Now that I’m home and well-rested (yeah, right. me? rest?) again, I’ve been thinking about what exactly Human Circuitry means.

When you hear the word ‘circuitry’, you probably immediately think of the inside of your phone, your MP3 player or even your computer. The circuitry is what makes it work, right? Those of us who are Geeks get so wrapped up in the hardware, how things work and why… that we tend to forget the human side of things.

Take blogging for example. How many of you blog strictly for the fun of it? Do you worry about “creating content”, pulling in followers, and monetizing your blog to its maximum potential? When your focus turns to these things, aren’t you then concentrating on the ‘circuitry’ of it all? It forces us to become almost automated in our thinking and actions. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with producing great content and being able to make money off of that. If you can, that’s wonderful.

What I’m talking about is the fact that we are so focused on what we’re doing, that we forget our human side. Humanity is a beautiful thing. It’s about passion, and love. It’s friendship and caring more about others than ourselves. Humanity is raising nearly $3000 in 90 minutes to send a young Cambodian woman to college. It’s about lighting a fire in others, to affect positive change. It’s remembering that together, we have the power to make a difference.

To me, circuitry is the inner workings of something… in this case, our minds. Humanity is what makes us reach out to help others. It stands to reason, then, that Human Circuitry is the use of our collective minds to make this world a better place.

Gnomedex 8.0 embodied the term “Human Circuitry”. We were empowered, impassioned, and energized. Each of us who were there is a strong person in our own rights. Together… we can accomplish amazing things.

My challenge to all of this year’s attendees is simple: take what you learned at Gnomedex this year, and keep it close to your heart. Remember the feeling you had when Chris read the total we had raised, or the one when you stood (possibly with tears in your eyes) and applauded Scott Maxwell… or even the euphoria we all had while spontaneously jumping up on stage to dance with Matt.

Keep that with you, and use it to create change in yourselves, your work, and those around you.

Chris, Ponzi, Stuart and Maryam: thank you so much for making Gnomedex such an amazing experience for us all this year. You brought out the humanity in us all, the passion to make changes in our own lives and others’, and reminded us we have the power to do so in a very big way.