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$300 to go see this joker? https://waza.heroku.com/2013/speakers/aaron-patterson https://waza.heroku.com/2013/speakers/aaron-patterson Have these people lost t

$300 to go see this joker? https://waza.heroku.com/2013/speakers/aaron-patterson https://waza.heroku.com/2013/speakers/aaron-patterson Have these people lost touch with the value of money? If Im paying $300 for one day I better learn a shit load not have to listen to some dude bull shit me about his "street dance offs". I mean maybe that guys actually legit and is just trying to be funny. But im honestly frustrated at how expensive all these conferences are, for a free lance/startup person its way too much.

petercooper 14y ago
I mean maybe that guys actually legit He is. He's one smart cookie and was the first person to be in both Ruby and Rails' core teams. He has some great talks up on Confreaks and YouTube, etc. He does like whimsy but that's what makes it fun and there's usually a serious and interesting technical topic behind the talk's facade. That said, for people who aren't aware of certain personalities, I can see why it might be a turnoff, so more work could probably be done to explain why speakers at conferences are worth seeing.
steveklabnik 14y ago
Aaron was the first person to have commit access to both Ruby and Rails. His personality is silly but he has really impressive tech chops.
benschwarz 14y ago
Aaron is a ruby and rails committer, he's not only entertaining, but a great teacher. If you don't think he and the other speakers are worth it, don't go. … If you think $300 for a conference is absurd, then you've clearly never organised anything bigger than a BBQ.
- rdl 14y ago
  $300 is kind of in the valley between "trivial for an individual to pay" (which I think tops out at $150-200) and "still trivial for a business". (under $1k for a single day). Unless they were trying to capacity control, I think having dual types of tickets (some kind of $100-200 ticket with no receipt and thus no expenseability, and a $600-1000 ticket with expense reporting) would make sense, sort of like what HAL and CCC do.
patio11 14y ago
You should raise your freelancing rates. If you're in the Bay Area and can do Rails, market rates are well north of $100 an hour. Raising your rates will let you pay for many things, including inexpensive conferences that you can trivially write off.
emperorcezar 14y ago
Heh. I think it's funny that you think $300 is a lot. I'm in the mid-west and $300 is still not a lot for a one-day conference.
- dagw 14y ago
  $300 is cheap for a conference where great speakers give great talks about about focused topics that are relevant to your career and/or interests. $300 is expensive for a conference where some "cool" hackers spend the day cracking in-jokes and showing silly slides.
  - emperorcezar 14y ago
    Then you obviously think this conference isn't for you. Too bad you can't just accept that, not by a ticket, and leave the judgement at home.

petercooper 14y ago

I mean maybe that guys actually legit He is. He's one smart cookie and was the first person to be in both Ruby and Rails' core teams. He has some great talks up on Confreaks and YouTube, etc. He does like whimsy but that's what makes it fun and there's usually a serious and interesting technical topic behind the talk's facade. That said, for people who aren't aware of certain personalities, I can see why it might be a turnoff, so more work could probably be done to explain why speakers at conferences are worth seeing.

steveklabnik 14y ago

Aaron was the first person to have commit access to both Ruby and Rails. His personality is silly but he has really impressive tech chops.

benschwarz 14y ago

Aaron is a ruby and rails committer, he's not only entertaining, but a great teacher. If you don't think he and the other speakers are worth it, don't go. … If you think $300 for a conference is absurd, then you've clearly never organised anything bigger than a BBQ.

rdl 14y ago
$300 is kind of in the valley between "trivial for an individual to pay" (which I think tops out at $150-200) and "still trivial for a business". (under $1k for a single day). Unless they were trying to capacity control, I think having dual types of tickets (some kind of $100-200 ticket with no receipt and thus no expenseability, and a $600-1000 ticket with expense reporting) would make sense, sort of like what HAL and CCC do.

patio11 14y ago

You should raise your freelancing rates. If you're in the Bay Area and can do Rails, market rates are well north of $100 an hour. Raising your rates will let you pay for many things, including inexpensive conferences that you can trivially write off.

emperorcezar 14y ago

Heh. I think it's funny that you think $300 is a lot. I'm in the mid-west and $300 is still not a lot for a one-day conference.

dagw 14y ago
$300 is cheap for a conference where great speakers give great talks about about focused topics that are relevant to your career and/or interests. $300 is expensive for a conference where some "cool" hackers spend the day cracking in-jokes and showing silly slides.
- emperorcezar 14y ago
  Then you obviously think this conference isn't for you. Too bad you can't just accept that, not by a ticket, and leave the judgement at home.