Berlin. Code BEAM 2024. Very soon. Rehearsals are in full swing. Still doing Öredev in November.

I don't remember if I've mentioned the podcast episode where we try to define functional programming. I've listened to two podcasts that got to me recently and both were about AI a topic which I'm dreadfully tired of at the moment. So that they were interesting was surprising.

• Embedded.fm 485: Conversation is a kind of Music
  This is the more skeptical take. But overall it was just a lovely conversation and it got intensely good in the last few bits where we get a reference to Hayao Miyazaki calling AI generation "An insult to life itself" and thoughts on communicating via Doom Metal. Just fantastic.
• Software Misadventures, episode with Simon Willison
  Simon is an LLM enthusiast but he doesn't seem to have bought into them as the future of everything. He is certainly very successful at riding this wave due to his experimentation and sharing. But they talk a lot about his workflow, notes, automation and publishing cadence. Love this type of insight in how prolific people that put out quality thought do it.

First there was Underjord.pre_hack/1

This Nerves workshop in Berlin that is currently wait-listing people for attendance (very cool, also, unfortunate), was not my first. I did an event before a Code BEAM in Stockholm where I checked in with Frank Hunleth who was coming to the event if he wanted to meet with some people and hack on things before the conference. I booked a conference-room for our use, planned a simple workshop, Frank brought hardware from a previous workshop that we could use. So the plan was hack on Nerves stuff, have lunch, hack some more, go off to have fancy dinner.

That was a lovely event. Not large I think I had 11 or so signups and we ended up being 8 people in the conference room. My colleagues Elin, Tomie, Elliot and I. Then my friend Ekeroot. Our budding buddy Frank, first time I met him. A friend of Tomie's that does Elixir. A swedish Elixir person who I've at least spoken to prior. We were going to hit 10 but the two coming from up north had flight delays or something and got rescheduled to arrive in the evening.

It was a lovely time. WiFi-troubles, challenges getting everyone started, all the usual parts of a workshop like that. Which I'm in denial about this time. At least there will be four of us that know how to help at the coming workshop. Then we ate pho I think. It was good, chatting was good.

Dinner in the evening was very nice. I did say fancy and I had taken Tomie's recommendation on a place since I don't know Stockholm that well. Wood Stockholm' private seating was really good, fun and wholesome. I think a good time was had throughout. The late-comers did show and have a good meal, drinks and chats and contributed to the fun of the evening really well.

And the point of the whole thing was to make connections before the conference. Let us have some people to go into the conference with. I have more connections at this conference, this year, than I know what to do with. I will be drowning in social responsibilities which feels absolutely amazing.

This luxury makes it even more fun to help make connections for others. I don't need anything from this event aside from people getting hands-on with Nerves and hopefully going into the conference with a bit of a crew they feel they've connected with.

And if pre_hack/2 in Berlin goes well, no reason we can't pull a pre_hack/3 at some other event.

What have been your best small events in tech? You can reach me on the Fediverse where I'm @lawik@fosstodon.org or by responding to this email to lars@underjord.io.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate it.