Berzerkley

Had a good time at the Berkeley gathering ... even though the Au Coquelet folks have a different interpretation of the words, "we'll set aside the back room" than I do.  :)

Maybe we can do it again, even if Joel can't fly across the country to join us!

Zahid
Saturday, January 31, 2004

You guys might consider having someone give a lecture at your meetings.  A group I meet did this after we felt it was devolving into a coffee klatsch kinda thing and it seems to work for us.

Tayssir John Gabbour
Saturday, January 31, 2004

I had a very pleasant and informative evening.

Thank you Joel for organizing it, and being at its center. You were a gracious host.

Tim

P.S. I put a couple of pics and a writeup about the evening at    http://www.thebishop.net/geodog/archives/2004/01/31/berkeley_on_joel_spolsky.html 
  Enjoy.

Tim Bishop
Saturday, January 31, 2004

----"It was a curious scene. Joel was ensconced at the first table, attempting to swallow bites of foot between responding to questions"----

Yes, Tim, many would agree he has been putting it in his mouth a lot recently.

Stephen Jones
Saturday, January 31, 2004

Good article Tim. Cheers.

Eric DeBois
Saturday, January 31, 2004

Another case of the spurious non-printing trailing character in the URL.

mackinac
Saturday, January 31, 2004

I was surprised that 20 developers were far more punctual than imagined.  I was all proud to be there right at 7:30 after driving through rush hour traffic twice en route from Tahoe.  That was until I realized everyone was already there and already eating.

christopher baus (www.baus.net)
Saturday, January 31, 2004

I very much liked the "coffee klatsch" atmosphere. A lecture means we only touch on one subject, whereas I sat with a group that hit probably 10 subjects, 3 or 4 in depth.

Why did your group not like that interaction?

Zahid
Saturday, January 31, 2004

Oh, we do that too.  We used to meet at a restaurant; when we decided to do lectures, we found a place right next door to the restaurant for a quieter atmosphere.  We tend to yakk a bit about whatever for a while, then the groupmind somehow consenses it's time to begin the lecture, then we hit the restaurant afterwards.  So the lecture's pretty much in the middle.

I like it because it's kind of asymmetrical.  But the group was around long before the lectures, and the lectures began partly because new people changed the dynamic a bit.  So it's not really a big deal, and maybe it's kind of silly if you don't perceive a need.

Here's a writeup of our last meeting (Lispniks Cologne), with the lecture taken out of order and put in front:
http://alu.cliki.net/14-Dec-2003%20Cologne%20Meeting
The wiki's sometimes slow, so I can mirror it if anyone cares.

Incidentally, if anyone finds themselves in Cologne, our next meeting is today at 17:00pm, and they should feel warmly invited.  The lecture today is not as esoteric as the previous two.  Info here:
http://alu.cliki.net/Cologne

Tayssir John Gabbour
Sunday, February 1, 2004

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