I've never been to a tech meetup as good as BrooklynJS. If every meetup in Seattle were like BrooklynJS, I'd go to a lot more meetups https://github.com/jed/building-brooklynjs/blob/master/README.md
Picture this:
- no fluorescent lights
- it's in a pub
- talks are 10 minutes each
- there's a *live band* between talks
- the gender ratio is not embarrassingly one-sided
- the MCs are fun and gregarious
I would talk more about how great the JS meetup scene was in New York, but at that point I'd just be mindlessly gushing.
In my mind, 2015 was a year I was still optimistic about tech, and when it was fun to go to meetups and work on open-source software and chat about all the cool stuff we were working on. I saw Rich Harris unveil Rollup, Jed Schmitt articulate the ideas that would become Svelte, Lin Clark introduce her code cartoons, Mariko Kosaka give the first of her many amazing talks, Paul Ford explain the thought process behind "What Is Code."
I feel that since then I have retreated into tech cynicism.
Maybe there's something to be said for getting a lot of smart people into the room to talk about tech in a fun and accessible and forward-looking way. It helps promote a sense of optimism, that we can pick up these tools and build something grand with them together.
On Mastodon, I think I spend too much time promoting a sense of embattlement, of "aha, here's how to block ads/trackers," or "aha, here's all the awful things <tech company> is doing." I act like we're all under siege.
Mastodon is my protest song against Twitter, but honestly, shouldn't a protest song be fun to sing? Shouldn't it feel more like a foot-stomping gospel song, and less like a funeral march?
I have yet to really come to terms with my extreme disappointment with the tech industry. Not just with the "techlash," but with many more personal things:
- burning out on being an open-source maintainer
- realizing that the browser industry is brutal and uncompetitive
- noticing how many tech influencers are just seeking out social media validation through Twitter or GitHub
- realizing that the frontend JS community is largely fad-driven rather than evidence-driven
I could go on
Mastodon is one of the last things in the tech industry that has given me hope. I got as excited about Mastodon as I did about FirefoxOS (you laugh!), which for me is really saying something.
When I first discovered Mastodon, I experienced what I can only describe as a weeklong manic episode. I could barely sleep, I couldn't pay attention at work. I launched toot.cafe at around 3am in a joyous fit.
More recently, since I started Pinafore, my enthusiasm has shifted a bit. It's less of a passion project now and more like one of my old open-source projects that I diligently maintain. People file issues, I fix the issues, and it gives me some small quantum of satisfaction, especially when it comes to exploring new web APIs and learning more about accessibility and performance. But as BB King might say, the thrill is gone. I do it because my other hobbies are less interesting.
Probably if I had a real community of flesh-and-blood humans that I could commiserate with and swap stories with, I'd feel a lot more enthusiastic about my side projects. But as is, I can see my interest starting to slack. There's no substitute for real human connection.
So that's my pitch for why we need a decent tech meetup in Seattle. Thank you for coming to my TED talk. *drops slides on the floor, awkwardly picks them back up*
@nolan I'm honestly surprised there aren't already loads of such meetups. I'd have thought Seattle would have had a more vibrant tech scene than Birmingham does, but we've got plenty. It's definitely worth having more social meetups -- not "sit, watch a talk in an office, then everyone leaves" but things where the point is the "hallway track". Although the UK's drinking culture helps with that, I admit (and excludes non-drinkers a bit).
@nolan all that aside, I completely understand your point about tech cynicism. Of course, since I'm suffering exactly the same thing, it doesn't look like cynicism; it looks like the tech world has got materially worse, less friendly, more corporate, more money-oriented, more exclusionary, and less fun. I truly cannot tell whether it has or if it just looks that way to me because I'm putting a negative spin on it.