I went to the opening day of "Collision Conference 2022"; I had a free ticket and it was labelled as a tech conference so I was excited to meet some fellow nerds.
Things I learned:
- It doesn't matter if crypto crashes, so long as the applications of crypto continue to be useful
- No aforementioned useful applications were brought forward
- "Leaders" in tech seem to think they have important ideas to share, yet not a whole lot of value was said in any talk I attended
- There's a lot of problems with ethics in tech, and people seem more eager to complain about them than offer actionable ideas on how to solve them
- Jimmy Wales is capable of making a public appearance without asking the audience for a small contribution to Wikipedia
- The goal for a tech startup is to become a viral unicorn, (and here's some vague tips for getting there based on the one time it happened to us!)
It felt like browsing twitter but everyone was in-person; I left more jaded than I went in.
The floor was fun, however! For every 4 new registered crypto market apps there was someone there to legitimately just sell their product or make their pitch. A whole lot of excited young people that were super friendly and seemed to be having a great time. I also managed to have some interesting conversations with a few older developers working on philanthropic or passion projects which was super refreshing after the soulless talks.
If I were someone with a startup or marketable idea, I'm sure this conference would have held a lot of value with so many big names were there and chance to interface with them. As a critical observer without much skin in the game it was just a confirmation of the vapidity of the industry. (Not the geniuses powering the industry, but the companies themselves).
Takeaway: Tech really feels quite rotten and scummy, where it used to feel shiny and bold and empowering. (Not exactly a revelation).
I know that a lot of it is me turning into an old cynical greybeard, but I feel that as tech has grown to power it's become just as evil and self-satisfied as the non-tech giants before it. I'm not surprised, but disappointed; as dour as I seem I really was hoping for a hopeful message or two in all of this.
That said, there's still clearly very passionate developers and designers and product companies out there shining in the dark, like an ecosystem of happy wildlife co-existing in a massive landfill. They deserve to live in a forest instead of a dump, but perhaps with food and shelter so plentiful in the trash there's no incentive to change the way things are.