NYT Techie Night Life Reprogrammed

securitas writes "Almost a decade after the Internet bubble collapsed, the New York Times reports on the revival of the Silicon Alley technology social scene — with a twist. It's now about substance. Gone are the "glitzy club ... minor celebrities, go-go dancers, an open bar and pricey giveaways" in favor of unconferences, Ignite, Pecha Kucha, ideas and 'a night life that involves actually talking to creative people doing exciting things.' Most major cities have a geek social scene like the NYC Soldering Championship [video link] featured in the article." Not surprisingly (for anyone who reads O'Reilly's Make magazine), Bre Pettis is one of the event organizers mentioned.

The Boston Social Scene

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there any Boston social scene around? I can't really find anything that doesn't require me to go to one of the local universities.

Re:Yeah, that's nice.

[that IT girl]

I don't know. I'd much rather chat with intelligent people than the usual idiots I meet. Then again, I find myself attracted to intelligence and wit above anything else, in both types of relationships, platonic and otherwise. At the risk of sounding elitist, I honestly find most people dull. So this type of gathering might be fun.

Techie Night Life?

[Anonymous Coward]

Here in South Florida we have Night Life, but no Techies. Seriously, there is no social interaction for geeks down here. You find 2 or 3 smart people and hold on to them for dear life. Nobody seems to socialize in a group larger than 5. Part of that may be how freakin huge our state is and how spread out we all are, but there are just no technology meet-ups in south florida of any decent size or regularity.

Sorry guys, but...

[Guppy06]

"a night life that involves actually talking to creative people doing exciting things."

Pretension still doesn't count as "substance."

Re:Sausage Fest

[encoderer]

I think you're a little too tough on our fairer-sex cohorts.

In my estimation, it's probably far more about the risk-taking, high stakes, self-confidence that is required to be successful at most things, but business in particular.

This is not really a newsflash: Women are attracted to men who act like, yes, men. A guy who doesn't need his hand held and who doesn't need constant stroking of their sensitive ego.

You don't have to be rich, gorgeous, or muscle-bound and tattooed. You just need to possess the same kind of self assurance that guys that DO have those things regularly display.

In geek speak: The default position here is you not going out and not getting laid. So anything you do has no downside. You act self-assured and self-confident and it turns out she's not receptive to it, worst case scenario you're back where you started, home, alone, with a bitchin macbook and BSG on your new 48" LCD.

And yes, I'm a software developer. A pretty good one, actually. And I totally think like this:

me = new Person('shane', 'male');
her = new Person('april', 'female');

me.desireQueue.push(her);

Clearly, if my brain works like this, and I can find compelling women to share an evening (or even a cup of coffee with) you can too.