I attended the first day of Code BEAM V America .. Reloaded 3 - A New Beginning Edition. And it was the best virtual conference for me so far. And that goes into what this newsletter will be about.

To the people who spoke to me about the blog or the newsletter at the conference socials, thank you for your kind words. I appreciate it a ton.

I've continued my work on lawik/noted when I've had spare moments during the week and it is taking shape. I have at least one more view I absolutely must design before I want to start using it. If you want an example of PETAL stack it might be helpful.

Client work is solid, all Elixir work and at capacity. I still accept mentorship appointments and technical consultation sessions. And if your company want to talk through potential future plans that's also achievable. Feel free to reach out.

Mindset really helps

So the first remote virtual conference I attended during this pandemic was either a Code BEAM or an ElixirConf EU, I think it was Code BEAM. And it was pretty good, I listened to some talks. Thing was, I had a newborn, listening to talks was all I could feasibly do and it was a welcome distraction from the miracle of life/panic of parenthood.  There was also a pandemic. But as a conference experience for me it wasn't much.

Then I've sort of half-attended ElixirConfs and Lambda Days and half-enjoyed them. But I attended them while working, one eye on the conference video. Most of my attention on work. That really sucked. That's not a slam on the organizers, they can't make me plan my day.

What is a conference to me? Intentional immersion in the topics, the field, the community. A break from the every day experience and some stimulating novelty. People, travel and excitement. Weird beers, good conversations, silly humor and ideally karaoke.

A video while working is none of that. I might catch 20% of an idea, see a person I like and be unable to talk to them.

This time I wanted to give it my best. I made a deal with my wife to trade off an extra bedtime-wrangling-slot and get the wednesday evening to go actively attend the conference. I reached out to the people I know that might be attending, making sure I had people to talk to and co-conspirators in being social. I prepared to go into any weird social app or communal Zoom call with the aspiration of talking to people.

I packed a picnic basket after dinner, took it across  the driveway to my office and settled in. I attended talks while side-channel chatting with a new Elixir buddy on a private Discord server. Close to sitting next to each other, not the same but not alone either. We hacked on some stuff, noted in my case, while paying some attention to the talk, some attention to each other, much like what happens at conferences. The talks were good I thought.

Then it was social time and I leapt into the web app Toucan they were using. It was some kind of floating-faces-gather-and-talk and it worked pretty well. You could gather around topics or reach out to a specific person. I grabbed a table around the Elixir topic and soon had company. It was a genuinely delightful time. Every break was more engaging for me than the talks, which is usually true of conferences for me. This is not a slam on the talks. They were good as I've said.

Any time a group became so big I didn't find it good for conversation I'd split and eventually find some constellation to chat with. I was there, I was switched on and I enjoyed my time. I ended up heading out only because the social event closed and that was an hour past midnight here. I don't even regret it and I usually sleep at ten.

If you are going to attend a virtual conf, do try reserve the time, it is a much better experience. I wouldn't go to a conference to mostly do my at-the-computer job in normal times. Why do that now? If you want the perks of the change in pace that a conference brings to reach you at a remote event. It helps to treat it as a change in pace. As something different. There's no travel to reset you and make you pay attention. You have to establish that intent yourself.

This event could have sucked for me if I'd spent it working. The talks would have been less fun, the socials I would likely have skipped. It would have been quite "meh".

This applies to a lot of things. If you can do something with intent, apply yourself, invest yourself, be active and present in what you are doing, that generally makes the doing much more satisfying.

When am I at my worst as a programmer? When I'm stressing to push something out the door that should be built carefully and mindfully. When I deal with heavy and strict requirements on something that I believe could and should be light and fun. When there is a significant mismatch between how the task should be done in my mind and what I'm doing. Or when I'm not paying it any mind at all. It is not a single way of doing something, it is about how I consider what is in front of me.

Being intentional in what I do brings out the best in me as a friend, husband, parent, gardener, mentor or programmer. And it is hard to find, difficult to maintain and it tends to keep slipping out of my grasp. The constant attempts are hopefully enough. I think that's the general gist of modern mindfulness.

This event was a good reminder of how much better something can be when I approach it the right way and apply myself. I wish my current schedule would allow me to do two more days of it. It is painfully obvious that I miss meeting and talking to people.

Do you have any experiences to share around intentionality or attending virtual/remote/fictional/astral events? You can let me know via lars@underjord.io or start a  conversation on Twitter where I'm @lawik.

Thank you for your attention, I appreciate it.

- Lars Wikman