Saturday, July 23, 2022: 9:00 pm (DAC 206): Everyone loves a good hero story, except when it provides a foundation for burnout, gatekeeping, intolerance, and creating a toxic culture. This talk explores the origins of no sleep, no downtime, chaos-driven response, and reward systems alongside "superpower" skillsets that act as barriers to entry for many early in career individuals. It examines conditions that value and foster isolation and burnout, and often portray mental health issues as weakness. It provides real-world examples of the impact of "hero culture" as a negative element in the infosec community, including social media communications, adversarial interview processes, and corporate messaging. Lastly, it presents strategies for addressing these concerns and resources for those struggling or wishing to grow beyond the current state of affairs.

George Sandford