I’ve been to quite a few Python conferences; typically I find the unstructured time in hallways, over dinner, and in “sprints” both fun and valuable. I’ve made great friends and recruited new colleagues, conceived and created new libraries, built professional relationships, hashed out how to fix years-old infelicities in various well-known things, etc.
Conversations at afterparties led me to write concrete reasons for hope about AI, and at another event met a friend working on important-to-me biotechnology (I later invested in their startup). I’ve also occasionally taken something useful away from AI safety conversations, or in one memorable late-night at LessOnline hopefully conveyed something important about my work.
There are many more examples, but it also feels telling that I can’t give you examples of conference talks that amazed me in person (there are some great ones recorded but your odds are low, and most I’d prefer to read a good written version instead), and structured events I’ve enjoyed are things like “the Python language summit” or “conference dinners which are mostly socializing”—so arguably the bar is low
I’ve been to quite a few Python conferences; typically I find the unstructured time in hallways, over dinner, and in “sprints” both fun and valuable. I’ve made great friends and recruited new colleagues, conceived and created new libraries, built professional relationships, hashed out how to fix years-old infelicities in various well-known things, etc.
Conversations at afterparties led me to write concrete reasons for hope about AI, and at another event met a friend working on important-to-me biotechnology (I later invested in their startup). I’ve also occasionally taken something useful away from AI safety conversations, or in one memorable late-night at LessOnline hopefully conveyed something important about my work.
There are many more examples, but it also feels telling that I can’t give you examples of conference talks that amazed me in person (there are some great ones recorded but your odds are low, and most I’d prefer to read a good written version instead), and structured events I’ve enjoyed are things like “the Python language summit” or “conference dinners which are mostly socializing”—so arguably the bar is low