By writing this review about Build Stuff 2014, I promise to be totally subjective based on my rich career of attending software development conferences - reaching a total of 2 if you count a local Agile conference. And yes, I was skeptical about them before - doubting what one can learn in such a short period of time.
Everyone knows that it's best to learn from mistakes. The ones of your own - well, you grasp them easier (if ever), but to learn from mistakes of others - is cheaper. So, that's the first "why" you should go to the software development conference.
And I prefer listening to the stories of others, shedding few tears... from laugh. No, there are no clowns there. Just good speakers with a good sense of humor talking about serious stuff. And if you say, it is not professional and that's not how we should talk about it - I dare to challenge you. Unsuccessful projects, big mistakes leave scars in our hearts and egos, but finding a strength to step back and look at them in a different light and angle, finding comic moments in them and sharing with others - is one step forward towards healing. I admit, that last sentence sounded like from a meeting of anonymous developers: hello, my name is John and I'm a developer. It's almost a year I can't find that bug... But that's not only it. Laugh is an emotion, and everything we experience with emotion (that applies for both positive and negative ones) tends to stay longer in our memory. You may believe me or not - I have no degree in psychology, but if I had to choose from laugh or sadness, I'd choose the first one.
Many brilliant speakers at this conference know this fact and try to spice up their speaks with funny perspectives at their miserable situations or just inside jokes from programmer's context. And they don't have to make us "rofling" like Mathias Brandewinder, Kevlin Henney or Mark Rendle did. It's perfectly enough to make us smile and inspire with talks like Luc de Brabandere, Mark Seemann or Garrett Smith (and if I didn't mention you there, it doesn't mean you weren't funny, it just means, I couldn't attend your speak).
Third reason to be there next year - party. If you attended only the daily part, then you attended only the half of the conference. And who says that programmer's don't know how to party? More humor from Mark Rendle and energetic music from Jurgis Didžiulis, but the party didn't stop when they stepped off the stage.
Finally, there is no sarcasm in a title of this blog post. My question is why can't it be both?
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