From Political Failure to Teaching Millions: Girls Who Code Founder's Secret

What if everything you know about learning to code is backwards? In this episode, Adrian Wells sits down with Reshma Saujani, the founder who built Girls Who Code into a movement that's taught 450,000 girls worldwide. But here's the twist: her biggest breakthrough wasn't about technology at all. Saujani discovered something shocking in classrooms. Girls would delete entire lines of code rather than show imperfect work to their teachers. Meanwhile, boys would confidently show broken code and ask for help. This single observation changed how she thinks about failure, and it might change how you approach learning too. 🎯 What You'll Learn: • Why women held 37% of computer science jobs in 1995 but only 25% today (and what that means for every industry) • The "perfectionism trap" that stops people from learning new skills, even outside of coding • How immigrant parents' expectations shaped a political failure into a tech revolution • The classroom technique that gets students comfortable with being wrong 👤 Perfect for: lifelong learners and anyone passionate about personal growth, especially if you've ever been paralyzed by the fear of not being good enough right away. 📍 Chapters: [00:00] Adrian Wells introduces the perfectionism problem [01:45] From political failure to finding purpose [03:30] The $5 suitcase story that started everything [05:15] Why girls delete their code (and what it teaches us) [07:45] Breaking through immigrant family expectations [09:30] The confidence gap that affects every skill [11:00] How to teach yourself to fail better 🔔 Never miss an episode: Follow First Principles on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and turn on notifications. New episodes drop daily, your next favorite insight is one tap away. 🔍 Topics: Girls Who Code, Reshma Saujani, learning from failure, perfectionism, coding education Find all episodes at First Principles -------- Keywords: first principles, depression stories, anxiety management, health myths, social media addiction, billionaire mindset Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices