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> I think the biggest value, and the reason I personally get really excited to attend local and regional events, is the ability to have casual, non-rushed discu

> I think the biggest value, and the reason I personally get really excited to attend local and regional events, is the ability to have casual, non-rushed discussions outside of the session rooms. As someone who's been to many meetups and conferences but who's generally unable to partake in "the hallway track" because of a potent cocktail of social anxiety, impostor syndrome and whatever else is going on inside my head, this makes me quite wistful. I feel like I've missed out on so much of what these events had to offer and, as the post posits, that's largely/probably a world that I won't even have the chance to go back to and try again. That all combined with the rapid rise of "AI", "agents", etc. -- none of which interest me at all -- puts me squarely in the _just coast until retirement_ camp but ... I'm not in a position to do that. I'm actually quite concerned about what the future holds and I feel like a lot of the folks in tech who've comfortably kept their heads down are going to be in for a rough transition period over the next few years.

dangus 1y ago
I don’t think you’ve missed anything. I think these in-person events are declining because they aren’t as valuable as they purport to be, just like the the way in-office facade was destroyed during Covid. Why is learning stuff in a dingy hotel conference center better than an online community? Face to face time? But tools like Discord can replace that and they cost a whole lot less than plane tickets and hotel rooms.
- BobaFloutist 1y ago
  I can't imagine how you can consider Discord to eliminate the differences between face-to-face time and purely online interactions unless you think the selling point of face-to-face time is literally the faces.
  - dangus 1y ago
    Then what is the difference? Can we quantify it or is it just warm fuzzy feelings? In a discord or other similar technology you can exchange text, video, audio, screen sharing, whiteboarding, collaborative editing, etc, in virtual environment with varying group sizes. Is there something from a tangible and practical level that in person is getting you above and beyond that experience in terms of tangible skill or career growth? I mean, here we are in a world where more newly married couples meet online than offline [1], 20 years after people started getting married on World of Warcraft and we're still acting like socialization online is impossible. In terms of a learning environment, I can think of many reasons why an in-person conference is potentially less than ideal. Sitting jet-lagged in an uncomfortable conference center chairs juggling a laptop with its single 13" screen and dying battery connecting to janky public WiFi on your lap, sitting far away from a projector, with half of the interested people you're hoping to meet not able to attend at all because of cost or distance. [1] https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1908630116 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1908630116
bonoboTP 1y ago
> As someone who's been to many meetups and conferences but who's generally unable to partake in "the hallway track" because of a potent cocktail of social anxiety, impostor syndrome and whatever else is going on inside my head, this makes me quite wistful. As someone to whom this also doesn't come naturally, I came to realize that this is simply how things are. Real life itself happens in the "hallway track", this is not specific to just meetups and conferences. Business, love, friendship, war, peace, everything. In school, at jobs, in hobbies, etc. It's probably biological. Expecting the world to change and revolve instead around one's anxieties is futile.
- kridsdale1 1y ago
  It seems like the education system is making a lot of progress there, though.
  - bonoboTP 1y ago
    I have no idea what you even mean. Education system in what sense? What do you mean by "progress"? What do you mean by "there"? Do you mean teachers somehow making sure that kids socialize in ways that aren't "hallway-track-y"? I genuinely can't decipher this comment.
    - kridsdale1 1y ago
      Sorry. I meant compared to 25 years ago when I was in school, there are now tons of programs and special statuses and institutional accommodations that students can be granted to level the playing field based on things like diagnosed anxiety. In my day, I’d be called a little bitch and to put up with it.
      - bonoboTP 1y ago
        This is a huge topic in itself but I think it is a net negative now. You can't change human nature. Of course bullying is horrible and help on that front is needed. But too much scaffolding and training wheels just make the transition to real life as much more painful. Setting up such expectations either leads to disappointment or a critical mass that also demands and succeeds in schoolifying life, with the shift in HR's role, or the grift of getting dubiously founded diagnoses to get extra exam time at universities etc. But I know this is a big controversy in our time.

dangus 1y ago

I don’t think you’ve missed anything. I think these in-person events are declining because they aren’t as valuable as they purport to be, just like the the way in-office facade was destroyed during Covid. Why is learning stuff in a dingy hotel conference center better than an online community? Face to face time? But tools like Discord can replace that and they cost a whole lot less than plane tickets and hotel rooms.

BobaFloutist 1y ago
I can't imagine how you can consider Discord to eliminate the differences between face-to-face time and purely online interactions unless you think the selling point of face-to-face time is literally the faces.
- dangus 1y ago
  Then what is the difference? Can we quantify it or is it just warm fuzzy feelings? In a discord or other similar technology you can exchange text, video, audio, screen sharing, whiteboarding, collaborative editing, etc, in virtual environment with varying group sizes. Is there something from a tangible and practical level that in person is getting you above and beyond that experience in terms of tangible skill or career growth? I mean, here we are in a world where more newly married couples meet online than offline [1], 20 years after people started getting married on World of Warcraft and we're still acting like socialization online is impossible. In terms of a learning environment, I can think of many reasons why an in-person conference is potentially less than ideal. Sitting jet-lagged in an uncomfortable conference center chairs juggling a laptop with its single 13" screen and dying battery connecting to janky public WiFi on your lap, sitting far away from a projector, with half of the interested people you're hoping to meet not able to attend at all because of cost or distance. [1] https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1908630116 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1908630116

bonoboTP 1y ago

> As someone who's been to many meetups and conferences but who's generally unable to partake in "the hallway track" because of a potent cocktail of social anxiety, impostor syndrome and whatever else is going on inside my head, this makes me quite wistful. As someone to whom this also doesn't come naturally, I came to realize that this is simply how things are. Real life itself happens in the "hallway track", this is not specific to just meetups and conferences. Business, love, friendship, war, peace, everything. In school, at jobs, in hobbies, etc. It's probably biological. Expecting the world to change and revolve instead around one's anxieties is futile.

kridsdale1 1y ago
It seems like the education system is making a lot of progress there, though.
- bonoboTP 1y ago
  I have no idea what you even mean. Education system in what sense? What do you mean by "progress"? What do you mean by "there"? Do you mean teachers somehow making sure that kids socialize in ways that aren't "hallway-track-y"? I genuinely can't decipher this comment.
  - kridsdale1 1y ago
    Sorry. I meant compared to 25 years ago when I was in school, there are now tons of programs and special statuses and institutional accommodations that students can be granted to level the playing field based on things like diagnosed anxiety. In my day, I’d be called a little bitch and to put up with it.
    - bonoboTP 1y ago
      This is a huge topic in itself but I think it is a net negative now. You can't change human nature. Of course bullying is horrible and help on that front is needed. But too much scaffolding and training wheels just make the transition to real life as much more painful. Setting up such expectations either leads to disappointment or a critical mass that also demands and succeeds in schoolifying life, with the shift in HR's role, or the grift of getting dubiously founded diagnoses to get extra exam time at universities etc. But I know this is a big controversy in our time.