On Jaoo, Conferences and People

Just returning from Aarhus contemplating on conferences and the people one meets there. As always it has been a pleasure being there and meeting all these interested and thoughtful people. Returning home always leaves a kind of sad feeling like leaving a family reunion. At no other time one has the possibility to talk to such a like-minded lot. Discussing, questioning, telling and joking all the time. One shares similar stories and experiences, different thoughts and insights.

But you always meet the same guys there, leaving one question: What about the other 99 percent of developers in the world? Aside from these who live to far off or who can’t afford the conferences. Talks with other attendees confirmed that you mostly work with teams not interested in the things that are cited as the base for software engineering becoming a real profession. So where are the people that are to become professional software developers? I actually don’t know.

The only thing I know is how difficult it is to change the attitude and working style of people not interested to do so. In psychology is stated that attitude change need at least an urgent need to change besides all the other stuff. Role models, group feedback, constant reminders, reflection and the like help but if you don’t want to, it’s almost impossible to achieve. And getting rid of the people that don’t change (as Dave Thomas said) would mean to have a large percentage of the IT people finding a new job.

But Jaoo was enlightening again. Having the possibility to question (as I mostly do) and discuss on the whole range of topics that are touched by our “profession” is certainly as important as the quality sessions that are given. Deciding on the sessions to take is always a tough game but most of the time I was satisfied with my choice.

A special pleasure has been meeting Irene again. After loosing touch in the post-Qcon time I often wondered how she was doing. But you just have to return to the next conference to meet again.