[plug] [OT] ish - LCA

[Derek Fountain]

> > I am an avid book purchaser of non-fiction, but the snippets that you get
> > from real people never make it into a book. In the ICT industry you
> > cannot afford to not keep learning.
>
> errrr, riiight... :D not sure I agree, but OK.

I think you're the first person I've ever encountered who thinks you can keep  
a career in the IT industry without constant learning. The whole business is  
about selling knowledge. With IT, and Linux inparticular, you have to keep  
running just to keep your knowledge up to date. I read books and websites all  
the time just to stay abreast of current trends. A conference, where you can  
quickly learn from the real experts, is a great way to get ahead of the game.  
How many of these opportunities do we get in Perth?

> Well, for me it would be a 2 day conference (no time off work) and, as I
> said, I cant see the value.... I guess Im simply not interested in enough
> areas all at once to attend a conference with majorly diverse topics.

It's an investment. But if you can't see that, no one's going to force you to  
go.


> If I were a kernel developer and it was a 6 day 'kernel developers'
> conference then no problem. But Linux is such a large topic now (especially
> when you consider that anything that runs on linux is now defined as
> 'linux' including all the GNU tools :) that I fear that the conferences
> will become more scattered....

Are you a recent graduate or something? It really seems you don't have much 
experience about which you speak. The fact conferences are "scattered" is one 
of the main reasons to go. If you think you're going to maintain a career in  
one narrow aspect of IT, you're in for a shock. Times and technologies 
change, and so do requirements of employers and clients. You have to keep in  
touch with what's going on and where things are heading.

Next time you're at an interview, and the guy asks e.g., "what do you know  
about the benefits of memory efficiency with regard to web application  
performance?", and you have to say "nothing", think about your missed  
opportunities. If I'm next in the chair, and I can recall 30 seconds worth of  
something Alan Cox or Rusty Russell et al said at LCA, I'll get the job you  
want.