3 ms·

Be Professional or Be Edgy: How Context Can Keep Everyone Happy

3 points by _pius 18y ago

bitwize 18y ago
I think powerful ideas should speak for themselves, and not rely on the "edginess" (read: trendiness) of the presenter to come across crystal-clear. If the Rails community were full of powerful ideas they wouldn't have problems attracting and maintaining an audience of like-minded folk (including women). I think, rather, for the most part they are trendoids with MacBooks, seeking ego gratification by demonstrating "projector code" (i.e., code that looks great on a projector and works great when you demo it to your prezo audience but which may have serious issues (maintainability, scalability, composability with other people's code, etc.) in the real world). The result is the current situation: de-evolution into MTV presentation, where the goal is to be as shocking as possible in order to keep the audience's attention.
- _pius 18y ago
  If the Rails community were full of powerful ideas they wouldn't have problems attracting and maintaining an audience of like-minded folk (including women). So I guess the math, computer science, and physics communities are also full of Macbook-toting "trendoids" who lack "powerful ideas." I don't get why you'd cheapen the point you were making with gratuitous Rails bashing.
  - bitwize 18y ago
    I don't see math, CS, or physics scholars giving presentations with the kind of obnoxious 'tude that seems endemic to the rails community. For the most part -- if they're any good -- they let the concepts they're presenting speak for themselves.
    - _pius 18y ago
      The comment I was responding to implied that the reason why Rails doesn't have a lot of women in its community is because it isn't "full of powerful ideas." That is, of course, nonsense.
      - bitwize 18y ago
        I see more women involved in academic math and CS than I do in Rails (and many other industrial computing communities for that regard). And Rails conferences used to be a lot more female-friendly than now. Women are turned off when your ego exceeds your actual capability, and somewhere along the way the Rails community took the ego path.

3 points by _pius 18y ago

I think powerful ideas should speak for themselves, and not rely on the "edginess" (read: trendiness) of the presenter to come across crystal-clear. If the Rails community were full of powerful ideas they wouldn't have problems attracting and maintaining an audience of like-minded folk (including women). I think, rather, for the most part they are trendoids with MacBooks, seeking ego gratification by demonstrating "projector code" (i.e., code that looks great on a projector and works great when you demo it to your prezo audience but which may have serious issues (maintainability, scalability, composability with other people's code, etc.) in the real world). The result is the current situation: de-evolution into MTV presentation, where the goal is to be as shocking as possible in order to keep the audience's attention.

_pius 18y ago
If the Rails community were full of powerful ideas they wouldn't have problems attracting and maintaining an audience of like-minded folk (including women). So I guess the math, computer science, and physics communities are also full of Macbook-toting "trendoids" who lack "powerful ideas." I don't get why you'd cheapen the point you were making with gratuitous Rails bashing.
- bitwize 18y ago
  I don't see math, CS, or physics scholars giving presentations with the kind of obnoxious 'tude that seems endemic to the rails community. For the most part -- if they're any good -- they let the concepts they're presenting speak for themselves.
  - _pius 18y ago
    The comment I was responding to implied that the reason why Rails doesn't have a lot of women in its community is because it isn't "full of powerful ideas." That is, of course, nonsense.
    - bitwize 18y ago
      I see more women involved in academic math and CS than I do in Rails (and many other industrial computing communities for that regard). And Rails conferences used to be a lot more female-friendly than now. Women are turned off when your ego exceeds your actual capability, and somewhere along the way the Rails community took the ego path.