3 ms·

All of the "social" aspects of programming are full of drama. There isn't a conference where I don't hear about a LGBTQ person not being offended by so and so.

All of the "social" aspects of programming are full of drama. There isn't a conference where I don't hear about a LGBTQ person not being offended by so and so. Then you have the politics of who gets to set out the true vision or be a chair at this or that committee. If you're serious about programming, you just stay away from both of these. Being a language expert is pretty irrelevant anyway, it's just some ego-boosting in case you can't be successful at your business domain.

throwaway5959 3y ago
I’m beginning to wonder whether conferences themselves are worth it in general. There’s so much content on YouTube that if your objective is learning new things, hitting that up or reading a book may be simpler (and much less expensive).
- mgaunard 3y ago
  Also the content is usually either derivative or quite basic. Most speakers are just professional evangelists so they just speak without actual practical experience. They also just tour the world doing the same talk over and over again. I tried to use it myself as an opportunity to advertise my company, myself or the problem domain I work in, and found that it's most efficient to go to recorded ones only and only attend for the smallest duration you need to.
- overgard 3y ago
  I used to love going to the Game Developers Conference (and I probably still would if not for costs), but I have found that I can get just as much out of youtube outside of networking.
usrbinbash 3y ago
> All of the "social" aspects of programming are full of drama. Really? Which golang conference canceled an already invited keynote speaker because someone was feeling "uncomfortable"? How many Python, C, C++, C# related conferences did so? Genuinely curious, just to establish a baseline.
- mgaunard 3y ago
  I know for a fact there has been 4 or 5 occurrences at C++ conferences within the past two years.
fsociety 3y ago
The original event this post was referring to, was someone dropping out of a conference because they were asked to give a keynote talk and then pulled from it last moment. They decided to opt out of the lack of professionalism and not go. Nothing to do with LGBTQ. Internet nerd drama has existed since the dawn of Usenet and IRC.

throwaway5959 3y ago

I’m beginning to wonder whether conferences themselves are worth it in general. There’s so much content on YouTube that if your objective is learning new things, hitting that up or reading a book may be simpler (and much less expensive).

mgaunard 3y ago
Also the content is usually either derivative or quite basic. Most speakers are just professional evangelists so they just speak without actual practical experience. They also just tour the world doing the same talk over and over again. I tried to use it myself as an opportunity to advertise my company, myself or the problem domain I work in, and found that it's most efficient to go to recorded ones only and only attend for the smallest duration you need to.
overgard 3y ago
I used to love going to the Game Developers Conference (and I probably still would if not for costs), but I have found that I can get just as much out of youtube outside of networking.

usrbinbash 3y ago

> All of the "social" aspects of programming are full of drama. Really? Which golang conference canceled an already invited keynote speaker because someone was feeling "uncomfortable"? How many Python, C, C++, C# related conferences did so? Genuinely curious, just to establish a baseline.

mgaunard 3y ago
I know for a fact there has been 4 or 5 occurrences at C++ conferences within the past two years.

fsociety 3y ago

The original event this post was referring to, was someone dropping out of a conference because they were asked to give a keynote talk and then pulled from it last moment. They decided to opt out of the lack of professionalism and not go. Nothing to do with LGBTQ. Internet nerd drama has existed since the dawn of Usenet and IRC.