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 threadAdam ♿

People. It's about the people. I would have never met so many people including @benno and @daisy and countless others without conferences and communities!

IMO conferences are *more* important now that ever. I don't think you should worry about those who don't value skill and craft, I don't think LCA, EO, PyCon and others have ever attracted those kinds of people.

If we are to re-teach making, craft and community building over the next decades I think that inclusive, accessible conferences are the way to go.

Mar 29 at 8:19amWeb
Show threadAlyssa CoghlanMar 29
@voltagex @benno @daisy That. I wasn't going to submit anything this year, but then I had one of those moments where I realised a few things I took for granted were things a *lot* of people don't know yet, and they're potentially useful to know in all sorts of contexts, as long as understanding things *yourself* is something you value. And plenty of people do still value that, even if they're often drowned out by the plutocrats actively pushing for permanent technocratic dependency.
Show threadDaisy LeighMar 29
@ancoghlan @voltagex @benno That’s the thing though, it’s not just the leadership level. There are so many people at all levels, including talented people I had a lot of respect for, just don’t care about understanding things. And all of us at every level at nearly every employer are being pressured if not outright forced to use the brain rot machines and allow our actual skills and understanding to atrophy.
Show threadDaisy LeighMar 29

@ancoghlan @voltagex @benno It’s not that I don’t think these events are valuable. I do think you’re both right in that there is value in these sorts of events now more than ever.

It’s just that I’m exhausted, drained, dispirited from the devaluing of skill and expertise and quality, and at the breathless credulousness with which genAI gets talked about even _at_ these events at times.

Show threadJPMar 29
@daisy @ancoghlan @voltagex @benno I feel very similarly. Perhaps find the people in the unofficial guillotine futures track and hang out with them instead?