Conferences, Friends, and Stuff That Really Matters

Sometimes Merlin gets it _so_ right, it not only makes me jealous, but inspires me to try to be better.

merlin:

Bullshit or no, good conferences attract good people for one reason; they know other good people will be there. You don’t go to act like a hero; you go to meet the people who are heroes to you. And, to me, there are 100-year opportunities for awesome in the hallways and bars and hotel rooms and even at the horseshit parties where loud music and free liquor turn a lot of people who should know better into retards and mooks.

But the point is that there are also crazy-rare chances to meet and hang out with people you’d never in a million years get to have all in one place. And, for three hazy days last week, I wandered from one Algonquin Round Table to another, and I must tell you it was pure, unironic joy.

*snip*

Not a list of peoples’ jokey internet names, not a moldy hillock of kinda-funny-once “memes,” not a series of asynchronous “@” responses, and not a goddamned drama about who follows whom today and what it all means. Talking about meeting people who speak in sentences and have complicated lives and make great things and care about a lot of the same stuff you do. That’s the thing.

Online, offline, or whatever: as far as I’m concerned, it’s only a community when it’s made out of people.

11 months ago
  1. inkyeagle reblogged this from dstrelau
  2. genius reblogged this from merlin and added:
    only makes me jealous,...be better. merlin:
  3. notdickless reblogged this from merlin and added:
    My crazy rare chance
  4. benkraal reblogged this from merlin and added:
    kung fu grippe: Conferences, Friends,...Stuff That Really Matters
  5. deepandtruthful reblogged this from merlin
  6. gurupanguji reblogged this from marco and added:
    This is strange, but just yesterday, my marketing professor was telling me about “rubber lunches” and its importance....
  7. dstrelau reblogged this from merlin and added:
    Merlin’s Conferences, Friends,...Stuff That Really Matters
  8. angularmomentum reblogged this from merlin
  9. turkeydinner reblogged this from merlin and added:
    kung fu grippe: Conferences, Friends,...Stuff That Really Matters I love how cynical...
  10. hellofriend reblogged this from merlin
  11. langer reblogged this from merlin and added:
    wish Tumblr’s “like” feature came with an optional exponent field, so as
  12. brianoberkirch reblogged this from merlin
  13. tumblbob reblogged this from merlin
  14. hena reblogged this from inky
  15. marco reblogged this from merlin and added:
    clarifies why we should...mostly bullshit.
  16. guillee reblogged this from merlin
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  19. merlin posted this