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> The talks remind me somewhat of TEDx events, but primarily focused on technology. All tech meet-ups in my corner of the world seem to have devolved into thes

by avian 10y ago

> The talks remind me somewhat of TEDx events, but primarily focused on technology. All tech meet-ups in my corner of the world seem to have devolved into these TED style talks. These days everyone wants to be a visionary discussing big ideas. Everyone talks how awesome it is to work for their startup that is changing the world or be a freelancer that earns tons of cash by writing Ruby while surfing on Tahiti. Share various personal stories of enlightenment. This style was exciting when TED got popular a few years ago, but now I find it increasingly annoying. I really miss old meetups where people would just present their open source projects and discuss technical topics. If I go to a Python meetup, I want to perhaps hear about some new cool library you made, not how you learned to play the trumpet. (I don't mean this as a criticism of this Hacker News meetup - I haven't been to it and perhaps this style fits there. Just a general observation.)

wuschel 10y ago
Seconded. More and more noise, less signal. Unfortunately, this trend does not seem to stop at the IT sector.
Peroni 10y ago
>I really miss old meetups where people would just present their open source projects and discuss technical topics. That's pretty much what HN London is. We like to keep the talks as diverse as possible. Everything from local developers building 3D worlds in CSS3D[1] to the creator of Haskell talking about shaping the future of how children learn computing[2]. [1] - https://vimeo.com/75454802 https://vimeo.com/75454802 [2] - https://vimeo.com/137420684 https://vimeo.com/137420684
crypt1d 10y ago
While I understand your frustration, I think it is not necessarily a bad thing to support this. I think we live in a pretty unique time where being a visionary is encouraged and more economically feasible than ever. This will result in many novel products, some of which will greatly impact the mankind. Granted, most of them will just be noise with little or no global benefit, but I'm willing to take that risk.
dkersten 10y ago
I really miss old meetups where people would just present their open source projects and discuss technical topics. To add a counterpoint, I, on the other hand, am burnt out on these kinds of meetups. For short 5-10min lightning talks, I think presenting projects or libraries is fantastic for discovery, but longer talks about specific projects bore the hell out of me 9 out of 10 times. I can learn faster in my own time and its difficult to match the topic (and level: beginner? expert?) with the audience. Visionary talks are harder to miss with and therefore safer bets to not bore me.
sotojuan 10y ago
I haven't seen those kind meetups that much aside from a few of the more popular meetups where I live (NYC) and even then it's only rarely. Where do you live that you get a lot of TED talks?

by avian 10y ago

wuschel 10y ago

Seconded. More and more noise, less signal. Unfortunately, this trend does not seem to stop at the IT sector.

Peroni 10y ago

>I really miss old meetups where people would just present their open source projects and discuss technical topics. That's pretty much what HN London is. We like to keep the talks as diverse as possible. Everything from local developers building 3D worlds in CSS3D[1] to the creator of Haskell talking about shaping the future of how children learn computing[2]. [1] - https://vimeo.com/75454802 https://vimeo.com/75454802 [2] - https://vimeo.com/137420684 https://vimeo.com/137420684

crypt1d 10y ago

While I understand your frustration, I think it is not necessarily a bad thing to support this. I think we live in a pretty unique time where being a visionary is encouraged and more economically feasible than ever. This will result in many novel products, some of which will greatly impact the mankind. Granted, most of them will just be noise with little or no global benefit, but I'm willing to take that risk.

dkersten 10y ago

I really miss old meetups where people would just present their open source projects and discuss technical topics. To add a counterpoint, I, on the other hand, am burnt out on these kinds of meetups. For short 5-10min lightning talks, I think presenting projects or libraries is fantastic for discovery, but longer talks about specific projects bore the hell out of me 9 out of 10 times. I can learn faster in my own time and its difficult to match the topic (and level: beginner? expert?) with the audience. Visionary talks are harder to miss with and therefore safer bets to not bore me.

sotojuan 10y ago

I haven't seen those kind meetups that much aside from a few of the more popular meetups where I live (NYC) and even then it's only rarely. Where do you live that you get a lot of TED talks?