I’ve heard repeatedly from many people that the highest-value part of conferences is not the talks or structured events, but rather the casual spontaneous conversations. Yet my own experience does not match this at all; the casual spontaneous conversations are consistently low-value.
My current best model is that the casual spontaneous conversations mostly don’t have much instrumental value, most people just really enjoy them and want more casual conversation in their life.
… but I’m pretty highly uncertain about that model, and want more data. So, questions for you:
What have been your highest-value casual conversations, especially at conferences or conference-like events?
Is most of the value terminal (i.e. you enjoy casual conversation) or instrumental (i.e. advances other goals)? And if instrumental, what goals have some of your high-value conversations advanced and how?
Note that “it feels like there was something high value in <example conversation> but it’s not legible” is a useful answer!
[Question] What Have Been Your Most Valuable Casual Conversations At Conferences?
I’ve heard repeatedly from many people that the highest-value part of conferences is not the talks or structured events, but rather the casual spontaneous conversations. Yet my own experience does not match this at all; the casual spontaneous conversations are consistently low-value.
My current best model is that the casual spontaneous conversations mostly don’t have much instrumental value, most people just really enjoy them and want more casual conversation in their life.
… but I’m pretty highly uncertain about that model, and want more data. So, questions for you:
What have been your highest-value casual conversations, especially at conferences or conference-like events?
Is most of the value terminal (i.e. you enjoy casual conversation) or instrumental (i.e. advances other goals)? And if instrumental, what goals have some of your high-value conversations advanced and how?
Note that “it feels like there was something high value in <example conversation> but it’s not legible” is a useful answer!