Comments on: PyCon: A followup to my critique. http://jessenoller.com/2006/02/27/pycon-a-followup-to-my-critique/ python, programming and other things Sun, 27 Jul 2008 01:43:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Jesse http://jessenoller.com/2006/02/27/pycon-a-followup-to-my-critique/#comment-17 Jesse Tue, 28 Feb 2006 14:48:34 +0000 http://jessenoller.com/2006/02/27/pycon-a-followup-to-my-critique/#comment-17 Also steve, I would actually like to talk this over with you more, if you're open to it, email me at jnoller at gmail.com Also steve, I would actually like to talk this over with you more, if you’re open to it, email me at jnoller at gmail.com

]]> By: Jesse http://jessenoller.com/2006/02/27/pycon-a-followup-to-my-critique/#comment-16 Jesse Tue, 28 Feb 2006 14:41:40 +0000 http://jessenoller.com/2006/02/27/pycon-a-followup-to-my-critique/#comment-16 Ouch. I'll take that hit, it's not entirely underserved given the lightness of my posts. <br/><br/>As for the two tutorials - I'm not going to completely throw out the value of what I did learn. And maybe I have been overly critical of what I *did* learn, and maybe I was not receptive to things outside of my domain.<br/><br/>And yes, the twisted thing did "make my brain shut down" - Now, going into more detail, twisted is an extremely dense framework, and to be honest, I think the presenter was trapped between a rock and a hard place (and we discussed this offline, later). He did not have enough time, or some other resources to really cover some of the material, and he admitted this. This goes back to my comments about the stucture of things.<br/><br/>Looking at this from a cost/value perspective, if I paid 20$ per thing learned, I would gladly pay more to have more time to cover more information. (Which I did state in my feedback to the con).<br/><br/>(Speaking of which, I heard wonderful things about your tutorials, which makes me which I had been able to go to them).<br/><br/>Admittedly, I do need a bigger brain. And as I think I pointed out, I frequently felt as if I were in the company of Giants.<br/><br/>I'll take the hit I rightly deserve based on my comments, but I think I do know the "true value of things" as it pertains to me. <br/><br/>Other people got a lot more out of it than I did, and I said, very up front, that this was my first conference of this type, so caveats apply.<br/><br/>However, I don't think either my admittedly small brain doesn't discount my feeling that I did not learn as much as I wanted to. Perhaps this is because I did not pay close attention to things outside of my own domain, but perhaps it is also because the material was not supplied.<br/><br/>As I have noted, I would gladly pay money for hours of talks about the standard library, applicationd design, etc.<br/><br/>This is why I want to take a proactive role in next years conference, in hopes that I can help those who are maybe like me in some respects, but largely, to help myself learn more and the community. Ouch. I’ll take that hit, it’s not entirely underserved given the lightness of my posts.

As for the two tutorials - I’m not going to completely throw out the value of what I did learn. And maybe I have been overly critical of what I *did* learn, and maybe I was not receptive to things outside of my domain.

And yes, the twisted thing did “make my brain shut down” - Now, going into more detail, twisted is an extremely dense framework, and to be honest, I think the presenter was trapped between a rock and a hard place (and we discussed this offline, later). He did not have enough time, or some other resources to really cover some of the material, and he admitted this. This goes back to my comments about the stucture of things.

Looking at this from a cost/value perspective, if I paid 20$ per thing learned, I would gladly pay more to have more time to cover more information. (Which I did state in my feedback to the con).

(Speaking of which, I heard wonderful things about your tutorials, which makes me which I had been able to go to them).

Admittedly, I do need a bigger brain. And as I think I pointed out, I frequently felt as if I were in the company of Giants.

I’ll take the hit I rightly deserve based on my comments, but I think I do know the “true value of things” as it pertains to me.

Other people got a lot more out of it than I did, and I said, very up front, that this was my first conference of this type, so caveats apply.

However, I don’t think either my admittedly small brain doesn’t discount my feeling that I did not learn as much as I wanted to. Perhaps this is because I did not pay close attention to things outside of my own domain, but perhaps it is also because the material was not supplied.

As I have noted, I would gladly pay money for hours of talks about the standard library, applicationd design, etc.

This is why I want to take a proactive role in next years conference, in hopes that I can help those who are maybe like me in some respects, but largely, to help myself learn more and the community.

]]> By: Steve http://jessenoller.com/2006/02/27/pycon-a-followup-to-my-critique/#comment-15 Steve Tue, 28 Feb 2006 04:18:15 +0000 http://jessenoller.com/2006/02/27/pycon-a-followup-to-my-critique/#comment-15 OK, so you went to a tutorial, which caused you to say, daming the instructor with faint praise, that you "ended up learning a few things". If you learned five things then the tutorial cost you a maximun of twenty bucks a thing. Which I happen to think (disclaimer: I taught two tutorials) is exceptionally good value for money. Except that you also "learned a lot" from the Twisted presentation despite the fact that "my brain began to shut down".<br/><br/>Since you admit in your blog title that you aren't good with computers, maybe what you need is a bigger brain.<br/><br/>Looking at the whole of your 3.5 days as reported in your blog my primary impression is of someone who doesn't know the true value of things. I'm glad you are planning to help make it better next year: that one response saved you form a flaming :-) OK, so you went to a tutorial, which caused you to say, daming the instructor with faint praise, that you “ended up learning a few things”. If you learned five things then the tutorial cost you a maximun of twenty bucks a thing. Which I happen to think (disclaimer: I taught two tutorials) is exceptionally good value for money. Except that you also “learned a lot” from the Twisted presentation despite the fact that “my brain began to shut down”.

Since you admit in your blog title that you aren’t good with computers, maybe what you need is a bigger brain.

Looking at the whole of your 3.5 days as reported in your blog my primary impression is of someone who doesn’t know the true value of things. I’m glad you are planning to help make it better next year: that one response saved you form a flaming :-)

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