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Guide to speaking at tech conferences

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Re: Guide to speaking at tech conferences

#21

Post by ghaff »

1337biz wrote: post #18
hnbreak wrote: post #10

Speaking at conferences is a strong urge in the dev community. Some do it because they want to improve their public speaking skills or to prove something to themselves ('I can be as outgoing as the marketing guy next door, har har'). Or to improve their market value. In my early days, I had also this urge but it's wrong. The whole post is wrong. Ask yourself WHY you want to speak at tech conferences. What's the aim o…

This is incredibly negative. You could make the same comment about any public form of communication. Speeches, articles, heck even a Twitter post. This is an absolutely destructive viewpoint in particular for all those brilliant people who do interesting stuff but never think they are ready to share their story just because they are no Jimmy Fallon. Being bad at things in the beginning is part of every journey.

That was my initial reaction as well. Basically, never be a first-time speaker because you might not be perfect, at which point you might as well get out of the field.

I'm sure I'd cringe to see early talks I gave at events. (To say nothing of more recent ones that just didn't come together as I intended. Or, heck, even IMO good ones that aren't as good as awesome speakers give.)

Re: Guide to speaking at tech conferences

#22

Post by hnbreak »

ghaff wrote: post #20
hnbreak wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My tone is harsh because bad public speaking significantly damages your profile => your career => salary => $$/year. ps: I just read your reply, in the meantime I edited/extended my initial post

Honestly, that seems like an overstatement. The same could be said for anything finding its way onto the internet that doesn't represent you at your current best. Maybe if you're a really bad speaker/writer/etc. and, for whatever reason, think you will never get better you should be cautious about doing anything that will expose you online. But I'd suggest simply improving might be a better approach. In the case of s…

Why are you aggressive? I am just saying public speaking is a core asset of a slightly different career path. You can follow this and there're many career opportunities, especially in tech marketing/dev evangelizing but it's a different path than being an engineer, coding all day or a managing engineer heading devs in the right direction.

Holding good speeches is hard work and takes time. Writing good code, sketching solid abstractions is hard work and takes time as well. Focus on one. And if your code/repo/whatever got 100K stars on Github, then of course hold a speech, it will be easy because everybody want just to see THAT guy. It's complex and this notion, everybody should hold speeches yes, but a guide to speaking at tech conferences? IDK.

If people like public speaking and want to center the career around it, great. But then they need to commit, to do it frequently and of course they start small. But it doesn't make sense to do a recorded talk at a conference if you don't have any experience and do it only once. Like the speaker who writes a 10-liner C++, for what?? Who shall hire that C++ coding speaker? Oh wait, he could moderate a tech conference, because he wrote 10 lines C++... or maybe not.

Re: Guide to speaking at tech conferences

#23

Post by hnbreak »

ghaff wrote: post #21
1337biz wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is incredibly negative. You could make the same comment about any public form of communication. Speeches, articles, heck even a Twitter post. This is an absolutely destructive viewpoint in particular for all those brilliant people who do interesting stuff but never think they are ready to share their story just because they are no Jimmy Fallon. Being bad at things in the beginning is part of every journey.

That was my initial reaction as well. Basically, never be a first-time speaker because you might not be perfect, at which point you might as well get out of the field. I'm sure I'd cringe to see early talks I gave at events. (To say nothing of more recent ones that just didn't come together as I intended. Or, heck, even IMO good ones that aren't as good as awesome speakers give.)

> I'm sure I'd cringe to see early talks I gave at events.

Maybe that's the reason you are not making 500k/yr because those videos are still out.

Re: Guide to speaking at tech conferences

#24

Post by tititi »

hnbreak wrote: post #23
ghaff wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was my initial reaction as well. Basically, never be a first-time speaker because you might not be perfect, at which point you might as well get out of the field. I'm sure I'd cringe to see early talks I gave at events. (To say nothing of more recent ones that just didn't come together as I intended. Or, heck, even IMO good ones that aren't as good as awesome speakers give.)

> I'm sure I'd cringe to see early talks I gave at events. Maybe that's the reason you are not making 500k/yr because those videos are still out.

The gall of you to say someone was being aggressive in a response to you when you're writing a comment like this.

Re: Guide to speaking at tech conferences

#25

Post by ghaff »

hnbreak wrote: post #22
ghaff wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, that seems like an overstatement. The same could be said for anything finding its way onto the internet that doesn't represent you at your current best. Maybe if you're a really bad speaker/writer/etc. and, for whatever reason, think you will never get better you should be cautious about doing anything that will expose you online. But I'd suggest simply improving might be a better approach. In the case of s…

Why are you aggressive? I am just saying public speaking is a core asset of a slightly different career path. You can follow this and there're many career opportunities, especially in tech marketing/dev evangelizing but it's a different path than being an engineer, coding all day or a managing engineer heading devs in the right direction. Holding good speeches is hard work and takes time. Writing good code, sketching…

I don't think I was being aggressive. To the degree I was, it's because I do think--as an industry--we should encourage people who don't consider themselves part of the established elite to put themselves out in public.

And I know tons of people who do public speaking where it isn't a career path or even (really) their primary day job--a number of whom are quite good about it.

Of course, if you have nothing to talk about you shouldn't give a talk. But I wouldn't discourage anyone who has something they want to share--even if it's unrelated to their day-to-day work or it's potentially trivial. It's frankly the job of the conference organizers to decide whether it's potentially relevant and interesting to attendees.

Re: Guide to speaking at tech conferences

#26

Post by hnbreak »

ghaff wrote: post #25
hnbreak wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you aggressive? I am just saying public speaking is a core asset of a slightly different career path. You can follow this and there're many career opportunities, especially in tech marketing/dev evangelizing but it's a different path than being an engineer, coding all day or a managing engineer heading devs in the right direction. Holding good speeches is hard work and takes time. Writing good code, sketching…

I don't think I was being aggressive. To the degree I was, it's because I do think--as an industry--we should encourage people who don't consider themselves part of the established elite to put themselves out in public. And I know tons of people who do public speaking where it isn't a career path or even (really) their primary day job--a number of whom are quite good about it. Of course, if you have nothing to talk a…

anyone who has something they want to share != speaking at tech conferences

Re: Guide to speaking at tech conferences

#27

Post by hotasice »

tititi wrote: post #12
hnbreak wrote: post #10

Speaking at conferences is a strong urge in the dev community. Some do it because they want to improve their public speaking skills or to prove something to themselves ('I can be as outgoing as the marketing guy next door, har har'). Or to improve their market value. In my early days, I had also this urge but it's wrong. The whole post is wrong. Ask yourself WHY you want to speak at tech conferences. What's the aim o…

I'm an occasional lurker here but I created this account because of this comment as it represents what is so annoying about this community sometimes. What exactly are you aiming to achieve with this comment? Sometimes the best thing to say is nothing at all. > In my early days, I had also this urge but it's wrong. The whole post is wrong. Ask yourself WHY you want to speak at tech conferences. What's the aim of your…

Long term lurker as well, but your comment comes off in bad faith. When you decide to try and break apart each point piece by piece to address, instead of his whole argument as a whole, it signals that you're only trying to argue for arguement's sake. Please don't do this, because it ruins the vibe.[0]

In one enormous post, you have managed to tip-toe the line of civility with passive aggression, but also outright hostility "so arrogant," that it comes into question whether or not the GP's comment was directed at your specific demogrpahic: people that do things because they feel they want to, and not because they have thought it through.

Perhaps you should ask yourself the same question: "What exactly are you aiming to achieve with this comment?"

From an onlooker's perspective, it comes off as needlessly aggressive, but without clear motive. One could say the only purpose of your comment was to express that aggression, and not to spur interesting or novel dicussion.

In that likely case, you are posting in bad faith, and as you said "sometimes the best thing to say is nothing at all."

[0] I've been around message boards since usenet. This behavior isn't new, and neither is it appreciated.

Re: Guide to speaking at tech conferences

#28

Post by tititi »

hotasice wrote: post #27
tititi wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an occasional lurker here but I created this account because of this comment as it represents what is so annoying about this community sometimes. What exactly are you aiming to achieve with this comment? Sometimes the best thing to say is nothing at all. > In my early days, I had also this urge but it's wrong. The whole post is wrong. Ask yourself WHY you want to speak at tech conferences. What's the aim of your…

Long term lurker as well, but your comment comes off in bad faith. When you decide to try and break apart each point piece by piece to address, instead of his whole argument as a whole, it signals that you're only trying to argue for arguement's sake. Please don't do this, because it ruins the vibe.[0] In one enormous post, you have managed to tip-toe the line of civility with passive aggression, but also outright ho…

If your assessment is that my comment was to express aggression, that would be correct. I thought about what I was trying to achieve and I felt that I didn't owe the OP any grace, since he failed to extend grace to the author of the post. My goal was to express how I felt about the OP's comment as directly as I could, so they could perhaps consider it the next time they want to make another comment like that. Whether or not being less aggressive would make my point more useful is a separate discussion, but at the time of writing the comment, I opted for a bit of aggression.

And FYI, I've not spoken at any conference and I have no interest in speaking at one, so I don't think the comment was directed at my demographic, I just found it to be distasteful.

Re: Guide to speaking at tech conferences

#29

Post by geofft »

hnbreak wrote: post #10

Speaking at conferences is a strong urge in the dev community. Some do it because they want to improve their public speaking skills or to prove something to themselves ('I can be as outgoing as the marketing guy next door, har har'). Or to improve their market value. In my early days, I had also this urge but it's wrong. The whole post is wrong. Ask yourself WHY you want to speak at tech conferences. What's the aim o…

> Otherwise just don't. Public speaking is a profession and imagine a public speaker who wants to pair-program with you in C++. I mean why not? If you can hold a speech he should be able to write some kernel code.

I hereby make a standing offer to work with any professional public speaker to pair with them to write kernel code. Like public speaking, it's a learnable (and teachable) skill, and if you're interested in it, nobody should stand in your way and say it's not worth your time or that it's pointless.

(You, meanwhile, should put a name to your comment so that we can swear never to hire you. You're a 0.1x engineer: your presence on a team will demotivate other people in the organization.)

Re: Guide to speaking at tech conferences

#30

Post by dang »

hnbreak wrote: post #23
ghaff wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was my initial reaction as well. Basically, never be a first-time speaker because you might not be perfect, at which point you might as well get out of the field. I'm sure I'd cringe to see early talks I gave at events. (To say nothing of more recent ones that just didn't come together as I intended. Or, heck, even IMO good ones that aren't as good as awesome speakers give.)

> I'm sure I'd cringe to see early talks I gave at events. Maybe that's the reason you are not making 500k/yr because those videos are still out.

Would you please stop taking this or any other HN thread further into flamewar? That's not what we're after here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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