Depending on where you live/work, there may be conferences you can attend that are local to you. Then you won't need lodging, and transportation is less, and ma

Depending on where you live/work, there may be conferences you can attend that are local to you. Then you won't need lodging, and transportation is less, and maybe meals, depending on how far away. But, if you're not getting anything from the social aspect, and interactions before and after the talks or in the hallways; then conferences aren't a good use of your time. Mostly the talks get recorded and uploaded and are freely available. Sounds like, for you, spending a day reviewing those later is probably better than spending two or three days attending. But I think you get different presenters for an in-person conference vs a virtual conference vs a periodic video creator. So there's a point to these things even if they don't work for everyone.