[Chennaipy] Talks for the Next Meet

[James Mortensen]

I think it's interesting that both Shrayas and Vijay agree and see eye to
eye on the social service point.  I've never thought of talks in that
manner, but I can relate and see your points.  On Stack Exchange, the
people answering the questions learn just as much as the people asking
them, if not more.  The times I've written an answer and been down-voted on
Stack Overflow were the times I really learned something extraordinary.  I
can see the same happening with talks as well.  They say teaching is the
best way to master something, so this makes sense to me.

Thank you both for organizing such a great community.  I am honored to be a
part of it.

James


On Thu, Jul 16, 2015 at 11:13 PM, Shrayas rajagopal <shrayasr at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> On Thu, Jul 16, 2015 at 8:16 PM, Gaurav Sehrawat
> <igauravsehrawat at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>> i don't have the time to prepare and give talks and stuff
> >>>> and i like discussing one on one rather than talk without an engaging
> >>>> discussion
> >>>> social service can wait. until i'm ready to serve.
>
> One on one's are really a crucial part of our meets I feel. I've had
> the opportunity to meet some absolutely fantastic people simply during
> the tea sessions and learn so much from them. The popularity of our
> one on one's is indicated by the fact that Vijay has to (almost
> everytime) come and request us to get back into the audi so that we
> can continue ;)
>
> Also talking isn't social service. That ideology is quite flawed IMHO.
> A talk is firstly, meant for oneself. When you _think_ you know
> something, chances are that you don't know it. Only when you are
> talking about it and explaining it to a bunch of people do you really
> start to see the fallacies in it yourself. Such an experience is
> vastly rewarding.
>
> Social service is the act of helping people out and the person that
> you're helping the most here is yourself. I'd probably even go to the
> extent of saying that it is a happy side effect that it helps other
> people more than the true intention.
>
> On Thu, Jul 16, 2015 at 9:14 PM, James Mortensen
> <james.mortensen at synclio.com> wrote:
> > On that note, based on Gaurav's feedback, is another idea:  Can there be
> a
> > 10-20 minute "discussion" on some topic instead of a presentation.
>
> This sounds like an idea that we could give a shot to. I heard from
> quite a few people that there was one such discussion during
> Functional Conf 2014 and it worked out pretty well.
>
> However I'd like to insist on the fact that such a thing really needs
> to be moderated otherwise it might end up being like "The great net
> neutrality debate of April'15". (wink wink)
>
> > Would
> > something more interactive take less preparation?
>
> The thing with preparation is it is required in any case, be it for a
> talk or for a discussion, if you're not thorough about your thoughts
> and your opinions it can be hard to have a fruitful discussion. In
> fact I might argue that it is harder during a discussion since you
> should be able to refute what you don't believe in as much as (if not
> more) what you believe in.
>
> [...]
>
> On Thu, Jul 16, 2015 at 9:36 PM, Vijay Kumar <vijaykumar at zilogic.com>
> wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> > But I would like debunk some myths here:
> >
> >   1. The talks give an opportunity for you to attract like minded
> >      people, to the meetup first, and then for a One on One discussion
> >      after your talk. So if you are interested in One on One
> >      discussions, then you would be better off giving a talk!
> >
> >   2. Giving a talk is not a social service. That's at least not how I
> >      think about it. When I learn something new, and I am excited
> >      about it, I naturally feel like sharing it with someone else.
> >      Unfortunately not many people around me are interested in what I
> >      have got to say. That's why I talk about in a meetup, where there
> >      are like minded people, who are more than willing to listen.
> >
> >   3. I sometimes do a talk for purely selfish reasons. For example,
> >      when I want to improve my knowledge and understanding of a topic,
> >      I do a talk on it. It forces me to learn the topic deeper, think
> >      about it at length. The fact that others benefit from it is a
> >      nice side-effect. So yeah, you don't need a halo above your
> >      head to do a talk :-)
>
> A wonderfully worded set of points. +1 to this.
>
> On Thu, Jul 16, 2015 at 10:04 PM, Vijay Kumar <vijaykumar at bravegnu.org>
> wrote:
> > Having some form of organized discussions, is something I have been
> > thinking about too. Fishbowl conversation [1] is one way of doing it.
> > If somebody is willing to act as a moderator, then we can try it in
> > one of the meetups.
>
> Ah yes, I just remembered the session at FuConf was a Fishbowl as
> well. I'm all +1 for this. We should give it a shot. Probably we'll do
> it post break at one of the upcoming meetups?
>
> ---
>
> Its so great that we have so much of diversity in this group. Makes me
> feel so happy to see open ended discussions like these. Cheers to all
> of us!
>
> Regards,
> Shrayas
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