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by Daniel Berger.
Original Post: On presentations, laptops and manners
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When I was attending college as an undergraduate one of the classes I took was an English class. This particular English professor (like most) absolutely forbid reading newspapers during class. He took it as a sign of disrespect and a distraction to other students. After all, if you were going to read a newspaper during class, why show up to class at all? Attendance was optional. It's your (parent's) money after all.
I agree.
So, if you're going to pay for a conference (plus travel, plus hotel) and you're going to sit in on the presentations, why not just listen to the presentation instead of screwing around on your laptop, wasting time on IRC? Too me, it's the equivalent of reading a newspaper during class.
Instead of working on your code (it can wait), or maligning the presenter on IRC in real-time (horribly rude), how about you just take notes instead? Even if you don't particularly enjoy the presentation you can take notes on what you don't like about the presentation and offer friendly suggestions to the presenter to help him/her next time. People like feedback. It's how they get better at doing presentations.
I can't force you, and maybe I'm just an old-fashioned fuddy duddy, but I can ask. Please, show some respect to the presenters.*
* Yes, I realize sometimes you want to follow along with the code examples in irb, and that's fine. That's not what I'm talking about, though.
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