Sometimes we feel like we are trying to solve a problem that feels out of reach, and it's super easy to start feeling overwhelmed when things don’t go perfectly (spoiler: they rarely do).

In this talk, I’ll take you through my own journey as a student on placement as a software engineer, breaking down how I turned “I don’t know what I’m doing” into a structured approach to tackling the unknown.

I'll introduce you to first principles thinking, what it is, how it works, and how breaking problems down to their basics helped me work through tasks for BeaconiQ, an IoT project I'm currently working on.

We’ll chat about why it’s 100% okay to suck at something when you start out (you were literally born knowing nothing, and look at you now). I’ll also share tips on how I changed my mindset and built my confidence with my technical skills.

My overall goal is that you will leave with the confidence to remind yourself: it's okay if you don't know something, you’ll figure it out.

Can be delivered as a 15-30 minute session, or extended to a 30-60 minute session.