Daisy LeighMar 29

A CFP for a tech conference I love is about to close, and… I don’t know whether skill, expertise, and craftspersonship is dead. But I do know that leadership in our industry is trying really hard to kill it across both our own and others, and that makes it really challenging to figure out how to find something I want to say about the craft of writing software in the current environment.

Like there are things I could talk about, but I just don’t have the enthusiasm to pour a conference talk’s worth of effort (which is a lot!) into sharing expertise, in the context of an industry that is actively trying to kill the very concept of expertise.

Show threadDaisy LeighMar 29

Like I don’t think I have much that is useful to say about that dynamic itself, and writing a talk about anything else while that is going on feels pointless.

And in @benno’s more recent talks, I recall him talking about makerspaces as an outlet for the desire to be creative and hone skills and practice craft. And I’ve seen a lot of similar sentiments, of tech people seeking the practice of craft elsewhere because our industry has decided that craft and skill and quality no longer matter. And increasingly I’ve been finding myself feeling the same way.

And if that’s the point that we’re at, why bother presenting at a conference and trying to share skills when those skills are no longer valued?

Show threadDaisy LeighMar 29
@benno Conferences are run by and for people who care deeply about developing skills and expertise and making things that are _good_. And if we are deciding as an industry that those things don’t matter anymore, what role do conferences play then? What is the point?
Show threadnick
@daisy @benno I guess those of us who still care just like to get our synapses rattled every now and then.
Mar 29 at 7:25amWeb