The other day I saw that Rollie had tagged http://www.kottke.org/08/09/tech-conference-panels-suck for inclusion in the PlanetDev feed.
I found that seeing it there and reading it really upset me. Jackie saw me get upset and helped me realize that there were actually some broadly useful points to share about why it did and what this means in a greater context, so at her suggestion I’m going to try to unpack them here.
The referenced post — and the post that *it* references — is basically contentless. Some popular blogger is linking to someone’s writeup of their personal impressions of a single panel at a tech conference. He’s not adding any particular commentary of his own so presumably it’s an approving reference. So for the essential content we go to the original reference itself. That post is equally contentless: as Kottke correctly observes with his summary headline, the post is meant to put forth a general theory about technical conferences and the “geeks” who organize and attend them via a proof by anecdote. It says: “I attended this one event, I felt this way about it, therefore I can offer general observations on a whole class of events and people.” Well, we all know how rigorous that line of argument is.
Just for fun, though, let’s take it to its logical conclusion. What, actually, is being put forth here? That panels at tech conferences suck — because some guy on the internet went to one conference panel with an absurdly broad topic and didn’t get anything out of it except a lousy blog post — and so, I suppose, we should conclude that we shouldn’t be spending our time, energy and money on tech conferences? Is this really a conversation worth having? Of course there are good conferences and less valuable conferences in every field and discipline, from geology to nursing to quilting. And at each conference, the individual sessions and panels will have a whole range of quality and outcomes. To draw any conclusions about the broad category of tech conferences from a single failed panel at a single event is ignoring this reality and generalizing to what should be an obvious point of absurdity. Come on.
So, essentially, it feels like this tagged item simply doesn’t contribute anything to a conversation; it’s a dead-end post with no information to impart and no worthwhile lessons to be drawn. Its appearance on PlanetDev is an invasion of our communal space, and we all individually waste our time discovering its lack of value.
The world is full of those little distractions, though, and while I don’t like them, I don’t usually get too emotional when I see a Google Sponsored Link. But of course this post’s content is not just unproductive; it’s unabashedly, gleefully insulting, playing to offensive stereotypes. Har, har, tech “geeks” have no social skills, have no grounding in reality, get excited about techno-fantastical topics, aren’t good at explaining themselves. Oh, and let’s mock their various supposed developmental disorders and drug indulgences!
This type of content sort of bothers me personally, but it points to something broader than just that. While I’m sure this was totally unintentional, by putting this on PlanetDev Rollie effectively just pushed this type of stereotyping and mockery out into our group. And, honestly, I really hope that we’re better than that, that we can create a culture of respect and collaboration here at TOPP, a safe space where no one will be mocked by a coworker for his interests or through implied association with a stereotype. I can’t imagine anyone here is interested in descending into petty warring tribes based on our job descriptions. So, please, let’s not get into the business of trading insults between designers and engineers, or any other “subgroups” at TOPP; let’s be respectful of each other and of everyone’s individual skills and interests, let’s work together without rivalry, and let’s respect our public spaces.
I think something you may have missed is that the link Rollie put into the channel is, in fact, mocking Dave Lyons original point, saying that Lyons’ writings are, to use his own words, like “five college kids with ADHD and an eight-ball of coke trying to hold a conversation”.
Comment by douglas on September 30, 2008 at 10:56 pm
I think it should be noted that my linking to the post does not mean that I endorse or agree with the position of Dan Lyons and furthermore that my intention is not to insult or offend. To say that by posting it I am questioning TOPP’s commitment to attending or supporting tech conferences is certainly a stretch of the imagination.
I certainly hope that no one in the office thinks that I am “interested in descending into petty warring tribes based on our job descriptions” or “into the business of trading insults between designers and engineers”. I think Doug understood my intentions and I thank him for explaining them (and for giving me the benefit of the doubt).
My apologies to you, Ethan, if you misinterpreted my intentions and were offended.
Comment by rpenate on October 1, 2008 at 10:56 am
@douglas: I don’t see it as mocking Lyons’ point; his commentary is that “many of the blogs in Lyons’ list of ‘Things I Read’ in the sidebar are like that panel, only in blog form.” That sounds to me like a broad endorsement of Lyons’ offensive observations; the only criticism I read in that is a claim that Lyons doesn’t go far *enough* in mocking “tech geeks” and that the blogs he reads are as bad as the panel. Maybe there’s a meta-level of implied mockery in there, but if so it’s certainly subtle compared to the rest of the message in both posts.
I do apologize, though, if I made it out to be about anyone’s intentions, Rollie’s *or* Kottke’s — it’s not intention that I’m questioning. Even if Kottke’s post is meant to be humorous and disapproving, it’s still a contentless link, and even getting to any humor in it requires that the reader slog through the insults. That — the offensive stereotyping in a post that doesn’t contribute to any conversation among us at TOPP — is why I object to its reposting on PlanetDev: I hope we can all be considerate enough of our (virtual) public spaces at TOPP to keep them free of this sort of stuff.
Comment by Ethan Jucovy on October 1, 2008 at 2:25 pm
I dunno… I usually enjoy a good rant, and while I don’t really want ranting to become a part of the communities I’m in I get a certain pleasure from viewing it from the outside. Something like BileBlog or the Ruby Is A Ghetto rant are signs of some pretty fucked up communities… but so long as I’m not part of those communities they are amusing.
And the link Rollie posted did get me thinking some, which is all I expect from any links posted to Planetdev. Panels can be a bit dry, and it got me to thinking about more novel ways of bringing a discussion to a stage. Admittedly this thought was more inspired by the title of the link than the content, though the content is not that unreasonable to me either.
Comment by ianb on October 1, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Just came across your post ( I was grimly searching for a ‘list all installed packages’ option for easy install, then with a ray of hope noticing pyinstall, coming to the website, read your post).
Why so upset? I don’t understand, why would you care what this guy says?
I’d like to agree with your online conduct recommendations, but I’m flameproof by now, so I don’t really care. Also, I’ve seen geek conversations just like that one he described often enough that I can picture it quite well.
Seems a bit odd though, why should a ‘geek’ be expected to excel at rhetoric also? This is not in my definition of ‘geek’
Geek: One who excels at mathematics, applied computing, public speaking and rhetoric.
Sound right to you? Is that not why ‘geeks’ don’t often become ‘CEO’s ?
I’d say relax man, we’ve all got bigger problems, such as how to practically defeat the surveillance state. Or, hell, don’t relax, stay angry, get vicious and start a flamewar. Strong opinions will not cause the world to end.
Our seeking of palatable solutions is in some ill-defined way, diluting us somehow I feel. Consensus is not strength. Dissent is.
Comment by Kevin on October 8, 2008 at 4:36 pm