Feeling inept… HORRAY!

We’re just over 1 full week into TechStars.

I have a very, very difficult time believing that sentence. At the end of last week I tweeted out that this is gonna be the longest, shortest summer of my life. Long days passing incredibly quickly.

After a week in I’ve gotten to know some of the teams, get the gist of some of the technology they’re using, and see how this whole startup thing works. It’s all made me feel pretty behind.

I came from an industry that doesn’t know what Twitter is. Foursquare? That sounds stupid. You went to South by Southwest? Is that a cowboy festival? As far as what was happening in new technology I was WAYYYYYY ahead of the curve in comparison to my coworkers. Now I’m in a room everyday where these things are not only the norm, they were the norm several years ago. The pace for keeping up has greatly accelerated.

I’m in the TechStars program as a HackStar, I’m suppose to help the other teams do more, faster. In alot (maybe most) cases they’re using products and technology that I’m not familiar with. Initially I felt kind ashamed of this – I should be better at helping out than I am right now – but after some thinking I realize it’s a tremendous opportunity. Where else will I get to spend 3 months in a room and learn cool stuff for 12 hours a day from some really smart group of people. After viewing this as a new approach to my technological deficiencies the HackStar problem has completely morphed for me in terms of what I’ll get out if it.

If this is a week in, I can’t wait for this time next week. Much less the end of the program.