Our Culture of Exclusion (or, why I'm not going to *conf)
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Our Culture of Exclusion (or, why I'm not going to *conf)
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Re: Our Culture of Exclusion (or, why I'm not going to *conf)
#2>It's the booze. You can't go anywhere, do anything or talk to anyone in the tech industry these days without a drink in your hand. If you try to fake it with a soda water you may as well give up trying to have insightful conversations after the first hour, because everyone else is wasted.
If "everyone else is wasted" then why should they catter to the non-wasted demographic? Should they spoil everyone's fun to make a minority feel "included"?
I understand that the STATED purpose of the event is not "getting wasted". But an unstated and real consideration for people attending is the opportunity of having one or several drinks with friends. Not everything operates on the "stated" level.
A better way would be to have several types of such events, cattered to the different demographics. And if some demographic is not big enough to organize one, well, sometimes in life your tastes are different than most people's and you have to accept that.
Re: Our Culture of Exclusion (or, why I'm not going to *conf)
#3Is this a SV thing? Anyone in other cities care to chime in? I've been to a few "camps" and "confs" and tech meetup groups in Philadelphia, and none of them were at bars nor catered with free beer. "We're meeting up at X bar after if anyone wants to come" is a common thing to hear or even see on a schedule, but the actual events are about the panels/speakers/networking... usually with ample time to socialize.
Re: Our Culture of Exclusion (or, why I'm not going to *conf)
#4Christ, I am too old to binge drink, it slays me the next day, so I avoid partying like I used to. I don't moan about other people's lifestyle though. Conferences are one of the few places I have a low amount of beverages though, it does speed up the networking.
If people want to go over the top, embarrass themselves, then fair enough, that's their prerogative. People want different things in a conference.
Re: Our Culture of Exclusion (or, why I'm not going to *conf)
#5Interesting, I didn't realize this kind of thing happened. Most of the conferences I go to do have social events in bars or restaurants, sometimes with open bars, but they don't really have an "epic party, man!" kind of feel, or sloppy-drunk people. Culturally dependent, maybe? In much of Europe it's normal to socialize in a bar or restaurant at lunch or dinner or afterwards. But you'd be having some wine or beer and/or food in some kind of reasonable establishment and chatting, not slamming back vodka shots while a DJ plays through huge speakers, at least if the attendees are mostly post-university-age.
Re: Our Culture of Exclusion (or, why I'm not going to *conf)
#6> It's the booze. You can't go anywhere, do anything or talk to anyone in the tech industry these days without a drink in your hand. If you try to fake it with a soda water you may as well give up trying to have insightful conversations after the first hour, because everyone else is wasted. If "everyone else is wasted" then why should they catter to the non-wasted demographic? Should they spoil everyone's fun to make…
Perhaps not everyone who is wasted actually wants to be wasted but they do it anyway to fit in and because there is nothing else to do?
Perhaps some of the people who don't want to get wasted just stay away from the conference because there is nothing else to do?
Re: Our Culture of Exclusion (or, why I'm not going to *conf)
#7> It's the booze. You can't go anywhere, do anything or talk to anyone in the tech industry these days without a drink in your hand. If you try to fake it with a soda water you may as well give up trying to have insightful conversations after the first hour, because everyone else is wasted. If "everyone else is wasted" then why should they catter to the non-wasted demographic? Should they spoil everyone's fun to make…
If "everyone else is white" then why should they catter to the non-white demographic? Should they spoil everyone's fun to make a minority feel "included"?
I understand that the STATED purpose of the event is not "being white". But an unstated and real consideration for people attending is the opportunity of being with one or several white friends. Not everything operates on the "stated" level.
A better way would be to have several types of such events, cattered to the different demographics. And if some demographic is not big enough to organize one, well, sometimes in life your tastes are different than most people's and you have to accept that.
caveat: to cater
Re: Our Culture of Exclusion (or, why I'm not going to *conf)
#8Is this a SV thing? Anyone in other cities care to chime in? I've been to a few "camps" and "confs" and tech meetup groups in Philadelphia, and none of them were at bars nor catered with free beer. "We're meeting up at X bar after if anyone wants to come" is a common thing to hear or even see on a schedule, but the actual events are about the panels/speakers/networking... usually with ample time to socialize.
I can't remember the last time I went to a conference in Atlanta and saw drinking events scheduled.
Re: Our Culture of Exclusion (or, why I'm not going to *conf)
#9On the whole, I agree with this. Unfortunately, as programming has gone mainstream, so too has its culture. In London at least, offices and coworking spaces seem to take more inspiration from Mad Magazine than Xerox PARC, like somehow we'd write better software if we were just a bit more wacky.
I for one would love programming environments to look a bit more grown up and less like a frat party.
edit: changed 'creative' to 'wacky'
Re: Our Culture of Exclusion (or, why I'm not going to *conf)
#10[deleted]