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Guide to speaking at tech conferences

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Re: Guide to speaking at tech conferences

#31

Post by hotasice »

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 obstinate lurker of HN, but I felt moved to create an account to address your post -- and another's.

It was a breath of fresh air to read your experiences, and the way you decided to put into writing what your intuition had surmised from said experiences. I read forums religiously to keep my own worldview fresh and to stave off the natural human inclination to bring myself into a homeostatic perception bubble.

Uncannily, one of the most common things I've found is the exact type of person you've described: one that doesn't think about what value their post will bring to others, but only to post for posting's sake. You and your post are an exceptional delight, and I thank you for sharing.

The world -- and by extension the internet, a microcosm of said world -- is overrun with wishy-washy expression that only appears to express a lot, but when stripped of all it's fat, manages to express nothing at all (f.e speaking a lot, but saying little).

As an addendum, my apologies for coming off in the same manner as the subject of your ire. Appearances are important, after all.

Re: Guide to speaking at tech conferences

#32

Post by hotasice »

tititi wrote: post #28
hotasice wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I thank you for expressing self-awareness and civility in your reply.

Emotions are what make us human. Complex expressions of neural impulses that manifest as many different feelings which move us to action. However, like any other impulse, the understanding of and their proper utilization, always brings greater utility to one's life.

We can all agree that unbridled emotional expression -- that is the actions those emotions move us to do -- can become harmful by their unchecked nature. We can also all agree that emotions have a purpose, and to repress them is not the best of decisions.

Then perhaps there is a useful middle ground. Call it, "emotion, but in moderation." That by stepping back and analyzing our emotions, what caused them to appear, and why we feel the way we feel, we can in-turn make better, more productice decisions.

What flowers from this post, is of no concern of mine, but I felt moved to plant these seeds.

Re: Guide to speaking at tech conferences

#34

Post by nsxwolf »

chestermacwerth wrote: post #6
ilikehurdles wrote: post #2

Wonderful work. Hopefully this will go a long way toward accomplishing my related new years resolution to speak at tech conferences :)!

Eventually ideas like this always eat theirselves. The "speaking at conference" meme is now thoroughly eaten; there's a cottage industry of bullshit around the whole thing. People do it now to advance their careers and achieve an extremely modest amount of e-fame. Most talks are pointless. It's people giving talks to give talks about helping other people give takls about giving talks for their boss's arbitrary stipul…

It’s a goal of mine to speak at a conference so that I can have a photograph of myself speaking at a conference for my LinkedIn profile.

Re: Guide to speaking at tech conferences

#35

Post by ghaff »

nsxwolf wrote: post #34
chestermacwerth wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eventually ideas like this always eat theirselves. The "speaking at conference" meme is now thoroughly eaten; there's a cottage industry of bullshit around the whole thing. People do it now to advance their careers and achieve an extremely modest amount of e-fame. Most talks are pointless. It's people giving talks to give talks about helping other people give takls about giving talks for their boss's arbitrary stipul…

It’s a goal of mine to speak at a conference so that I can have a photograph of myself speaking at a conference for my LinkedIn profile.

I assume you're being sarcastic. But, if not, that's a pretty bad reason.

I've been pretty critical with some other comments on this thread but I actually agree that naked self-promotion is not a good reason to give a conference talk.

Re: Guide to speaking at tech conferences

#36

Post by prepend »

ghaff wrote: post #8
chestermacwerth wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eventually ideas like this always eat theirselves. The "speaking at conference" meme is now thoroughly eaten; there's a cottage industry of bullshit around the whole thing. People do it now to advance their careers and achieve an extremely modest amount of e-fame. Most talks are pointless. It's people giving talks to give talks about helping other people give takls about giving talks for their boss's arbitrary stipul…

What's with the anger? If it's something you don't want to do, don't. There are plenty of people who get a lot of value out of the interactions and maybe part of the "boss's arbitrary stipulation" is that there is value to the company through promoting technologies/etc. at events. I get that a lot of people are cynical about conferences. And I sometimes am one of them. But a lot of people and organizations find them…

I see the glut of bad talks (GP mentioned talks about talking about talking) as crowding out other, more valuable talks.

I’m not angry and don’t know if GP is, but it’s certainly worth pointing out and discouraging, if possible.

For me, it’s not that the talks aren’t valuable to some people. That’s neat. And the talk certainly helps the talker and their boss. I think it’s that the marginal value is low.

Re: Guide to speaking at tech conferences

#37

Post by ghaff »

prepend wrote: post #36
ghaff wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's with the anger? If it's something you don't want to do, don't. There are plenty of people who get a lot of value out of the interactions and maybe part of the "boss's arbitrary stipulation" is that there is value to the company through promoting technologies/etc. at events. I get that a lot of people are cynical about conferences. And I sometimes am one of them. But a lot of people and organizations find them…

I see the glut of bad talks (GP mentioned talks about talking about talking) as crowding out other, more valuable talks. I’m not angry and don’t know if GP is, but it’s certainly worth pointing out and discouraging, if possible. For me, it’s not that the talks aren’t valuable to some people. That’s neat. And the talk certainly helps the talker and their boss. I think it’s that the marginal value is low.

I'm not sure I've ever seen a talk about giving talks at any tech conference I've ever attended. Personally, that sort of meta-topic doesn't sound like something I'd be inclined to pick as a conference organizer.

Certainly individuals will disagree about conference content. I know I've gotten evaluations that were simultaneously "too in-depth" and "too high-level" for the same talk!

Conference organizers are usually trying to choose talks that appeal to a range of people--both in depth and in topic area. Furthermore, they're usually not familiar with every speaker so some sessions that sound interesting--but aren't or are just poorly delivered--slip in.

And conference organizers just screw up too. Maybe they give undue weight to choosing something a bit random from someone they know. At the same time, many conferences these days are trying to encourage first-time speakers so it's not always the usual suspects. And, at some level, that means taking the good with the bad.

Re: Guide to speaking at tech conferences

#40

Post by superflit »

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…

Are you ok?

Seriously are you ok and fulfilled in your life?

I know some "normies" get on our nerves Like "Jared" but the thing is: Jared is nice, has some friends and more people want to be around him so his chances of happiness are greater.

I really wish you expose your work on Hackernews you seem a very good and intelligent (did not mean wise).

Please show your skills and work it may improve your market rate or even maybe people can contact you and exchange information.

I am looking forward to your contributions.

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