Of Booze and Brogrammers

I think the core reason for this is that conferences are essentially all expenses paid mini vacations for corporate workers.<p>It's a seemingly legitimate way for companies to give their employees a perk. Sure, some people are actually there to learn things for work purposes, but the vast majority are simply happy to have a few days off work to relax (and <i>maybe</i> learn a bit) on the company dime. It's America's (crappy) solution to our relatively low number of vacation days.<p>It shouldn't be any surprise that people drink and party a lot at conferences. People tend to do those things while on vacation.

I agree with this guy to an extent. <i>Drinking</i> doesn't bother me, but I don't like "parties." High density socializing and musical/similar entertainment isn't for me (introvert), so it's great when events have something more focused and event related to attend (as well as the party, of course) rather than go watch TV in the hotel room (which, admittedly, I enjoy ;-))<p>At some events (especially smaller ones), "parties" can <i>seem</i> to be at the expense of things like BoFs (as he mentions), lightning talks, hackathons, etc, and when you have so much talent all in one place, it seems a shame to waste opportunities for it to come together productively.<p>Some of my best conference moments have been sitting around with 10-20 people in hotel lobbies talking or in empty conference rooms coding. The worst have been crammed into a bar and having to shout at strangers. As the author suggests, let the partiers party, but give some space to the squares too ;-)

As far as I can tell, there are no more of these kinds of parties at conferences than there were 10 years ago.<p>Excluding academic conferences, I don't think programmers drink and more or less than other professionals at conferences.

It sounds like the biggest complaint here is more or less sound volume (i.e., loud ass music --&#62; I can't talk to people). I share this sentiment with bars. Quiet to moderate volume bars &#62; loud "hip" bars any day.

I don't usually have a very good time at the conference after parties but there have been a few exceptions.<p>The best time I've ever had at a conference was at TechEd New Orleans. It was fantastic just to buddy around with the same people making the programming languages and tools that I love. I made a ton of connections and some conversations even turned into opportunities down the road.<p>I'm an introvert by nature, but exhausting as it is, it really pays to put yourself out there.<p>Another example was at PDC. They had a big party with arcade games and VR simulators. Sure, there was beer, but tons of folks were throwing down on some Street Fighter as well. If you don't like partying, and you don't like video games are there any social activities that you enjoy at all?

I'm one of those programmers who likes drinking and yelling about JavaScript in noisy bars after a conference. I'm friends with both types of programmers as well, and enjoy sober conversations about JavaScript (again, usually yelling).<p>There's opportunity here to start another movement at conferences like how the unconf stuff popped up at the larger ones. Why not start a 'ModerateConf' unafterparty at these things? Have hacking spaces, name tags, light music and a small bar. All the 'brogrammers' (how I hate that term!) will go to the other places and do their shots of absinthe.<p>If you don't like 'parties' that's fine, but there's nothing fundamentally wrong with them.

"The Brogrammers are desperately trying to prove to themselves that, while they may be programmers, they're not geeks."<p>Nope, we're trying to show people that being geek, doesn't mean being socially awkward.

"...while they may be programmers, they're not geeks. Drunken parties are part of this self-deception."<p>So, all programmers are geeks?

I don't get it, I went to every Microsoft Professional Developers Conference from 1995-2005 and I never saw any partying (well, there was that one visit to Universal Studios that was pretty cool). I missed out!

Can anyone explain what BOF stands for?

<i>Binge drinking</i> is an unhealthy pattern of behavior. It causes damage to those who partake.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binge_drinking#Cause" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binge_drinking#Cause</a><p><i>"I forget my problems (41%)"</i><p>41% only tracks the number of people who admit this to themselves. If there is a systematic problem of alcohol abuse and uncontrolled excess, we have to ask what is so horrible in the life of a programmer that so many of them would prefer to forget themselves entirely?<p>Of course I don't really know if there is a legitimate <i>binge drinking</i> problem, or if people are just loud and drunk. I'm not usually at these conferences.

"Don't invite Yehuda Katz to your user group! He takes everything too seriously!"<p>"Don't have parties at your confs! You're not being serious enough!"<p>I sometimes skip the parties at confs, but I sometimes go, and I've been to a few which were great. I think attempting to come up with some kind of Canonical Seriousness Level for all developer gatherings is doomed anyway. This is a matter of personal taste.<p>All you can do as a conf organizer is decide what kind of conf you want to run, and make sure people know before they buy their tickets. Or, if you're running a very large conf, set up loud options and quiet options.<p>There's also a flaw in his argument here, one which I hope is not significant:<p>"It's easier for overworked conference organizers to arrange a party than other evening activities which actually require planning."<p>On its own, this sentence is so dementedly off-target that it initially made me wonder what other wildly inaccurate assumptions he might be making. However, later in the blog post, it turns out that he might mean it's easier because all you do is hand it off to some company who wants to organize the party for you.<p>Of course, not doing anything is easier than doing something. Can't argue with that. However, if he really thinks parties require no planning, he either has no experience throwing parties, or the parties he throws are not good.