I’m at home, experiencing both FOMO and vicarious joy as I see pictures of Django friends reuniting at DjangoCon US this week.

And I just read that Dolly Parton passed away. I immediately listened to Early Morning Breeze and got misty-eyed.

I love Dolly Parton and I love the Django community and right now I’m feeling sad and happy about both.

A Willie Nelson developer

My first DjangoCon US was in 2015. I flew from San Diego to Austin with my friend Jesus and I got to witness him experience flying for the first time. It was joyful.

I tried out Airbnb for the first time for my DjangoCon stay. I coordinated with 4 other DjangoCon attendees and got a place for us that said it slept 5. There were only 2 beds for 5 of us. I ended up sleeping in a walk-in closet.

During DjangoCon Rikki Endsley gave a keynote to encourage us all to be a Willie Nelson developer. She also wrote an article about the same idea.

According to Rikki, unlike a rockstar developer, a Willie Nelson developer strives to:

1. Help others succeed
2. Pick up new skills
3. Be accessible
4. Recognize and acknowledge influences
5. Use the best tool for the job
6. Surround yourself with a diverse mix of people
7. Collaborate
8. Go ahead and be average, or even “not that bad”

A Dolly Parton developer

I thought of Rikki’s talk because Dolly and Willie are two of my favorite country musicians, both as artists and as people.

Like Willie, Dolly did help others succeed (both a lot of collaboration and a lot of charitable work) and pick up new skills (she made her first and only rock and roll album 3 years ago).

But Dolly’s not Willie. Dolly had her own traits to admire.

I’m not going to think up 8 of them the way that Rikki did for Willie Nelson.

But I did think of 3 more:

1. Know your rights. Elvis Presley planned to cover “I Will Always Love You” and his manager wanted Dolly to give up half the publishing rights to the song. Dolly declined. He didn’t record the cover. Whitney Houston recorded a phenomenal cover many years later that became one of the best-selling singles ever recorded. Dolly still owns the rights to her song.
2. Exit with grace. Dolly was struggling working on the Porter Wagoner Show toward the end and when she eventually quit she wrote “I Will Always Love You” for Porter. Porter sued her for a cut of her career and she ended up paying him about $1 million. Dolly said “I made up my mind that if he could live with it, I could live without it.” Porter considered her one of his best friends decades later.
3. Write the next one. Dolly Parton recorded nearly 1,000 songs but composed thousands. Not everything gets published. Not every published project is a success.

I’m thinking about Rikki Endsley’s keynote 11 years later, listening to a Dolly Parton song 55 years after its release, and thinking about my friends enjoying their time at DjangoCon.

Be a Dolly Parton developer. Write the next one.