Comments on: On Philosophical Talks at Technical Conferences http://djwonk.com/blog/2009/06/14/on-philosophical-talks-at-technical-conferences/ software development + public policy Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:44:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Evan Light http://djwonk.com/blog/2009/06/14/on-philosophical-talks-at-technical-conferences/comment-page-1/#comment-182 Evan Light Mon, 15 Jun 2009 04:57:40 +0000 http://djwonk.com/blog/?p=165#comment-182 The issue, if there is an issue, lies with the conference organizers for choosing to have token presentations on philosophical content. I tend to find these presentations very hit-and-miss, appreciating some (particularly Damien Katz's at RubyFringe) and not others (DHH at RailsConf 2008). Tangential to your post, instead of polarizing philosophical talks, I'd far prefer to see polarizing technical talks. However, the lack of those may itself be due to navel-gazing in our community. Where are the talks on people pushing the boundaries on Ruby and Rails? Luc's talk at RubyNation (I missed it but we discussed it before hand) sounded like it may have been befitting of that. However, the lack of conferences where most of the talks are leading/bleeding-edge content is almost certainly due to the (over) abundance of Ruby conferences. The issue, if there is an issue, lies with the conference organizers for choosing to have token presentations on philosophical content. I tend to find these presentations very hit-and-miss, appreciating some (particularly Damien Katz’s at RubyFringe) and not others (DHH at RailsConf 2008).

Tangential to your post, instead of polarizing philosophical talks, I’d far prefer to see polarizing technical talks. However, the lack of those may itself be due to navel-gazing in our community. Where are the talks on people pushing the boundaries on Ruby and Rails? Luc’s talk at RubyNation (I missed it but we discussed it before hand) sounded like it may have been befitting of that. However, the lack of conferences where most of the talks are leading/bleeding-edge content is almost certainly due to the (over) abundance of Ruby conferences.

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