Wednesday, June 24, 2009

YAPC::NA

So YAPC::NA is over, or at least the conference proper is (there are still a few days of hacking to look forward to). It was a pretty bad YAPC for me, I was sick the whole time and didn't really see any talks and barely socialized. I do feel better now so hopefully I can still salvage some fun.

I am also a little disappointed in my own talk as well. I was hoping to be a bit more practical, but every time I tried to write slides with that in mind I got lost in endless digressions. In the end I think it was a little too shallow and ranty, not exactly what I had hoped for. It did seem to be rather well received so at least I'm happy about that.

I also don't think I presented well, but given that I feeling very bad I guess I can't complain. By the end I was having tunnel vision and my ears felt really pressurized. Someone said I sounded like I was bored with my talk, so I guess it didn't go as bad as I felt ;-)

Anyway, here's hoping for a productive hackathon, and a quick recovery.

5 comments:

jrockway said...

Don't worry, we love you anyway ;)

Anonymous said...

I'm a strong believer in 2.0 versions of talks. No amount of thinking about a talk or bouncing it off of individuals can give you the insight into it that actually delivering it does. That insight might partially come from a-holes like me on IRC griping about everything. If you feel like your talk is half baked, please consider that I think my criticism is half baked as well. Hmm, sounds like a simulated annealing problem =) Sorry you weren't feeling well. I'm kicking myself for burning off the good vibes from my first talk with that half-assed lightning talk.

nothingmuch said...

Repeating talks really helps to improve them, but I don't really enjoy doing it for some reason.

I like doing the "first" version at workshops because the feedback is different, and then once it's presented at a big conf it feels spent in a sense, and I always want to move on to something else, regardless of whether or not it went well.

nathanielK said...

I was grumpily 24 minutes late to your talk, but eagerly soaked up what remained--I think you did a great job, considering. No idea you were sick.

Have you posted your slides anywhere?

nothingmuch said...

http://nothingmuch.woobling.org/talks/takahashi.xul?data=yapc_na_2009/haskell_brain.txt