You jest, but conferences are inherently cultural. That’s why people go: To meet people, to be part of a cultural experience. In this century, the technical con

You jest, but conferences are inherently cultural. That’s why people go: To meet people, to be part of a cultural experience. In this century, the technical content can be distributed far more efficiently over the Internet. And tech is already fractured along left and right lines. Some people are hard-line libertarians who believe that businesses should be able to hire and fire whomever they please for whatever reason they please, right down to celebrating the fact that Elon Musk wouldn’t hire someone who used the expression “shoot hoops.” Others deeply believe that tech is an opportunity to right social injustices, to give opportunities to those who were previously shut out, and to bring the world closer together. Whatever you or I believe about this particular decision, it is clearly consistent with the trend towards things like codes of conduct. And the reaction is clearly consistent with the reaction to things like codes of conduct.