[ghaff]

I don't think I was being aggressive. To the degree I was, it's because I do think--as an industry--we should encourage people who don't consider themselves part of the established elite to put themselves out in public.

And I know tons of people who do public speaking where it isn't a career path or even (really) their primary day job--a number of whom are quite good about it.

Of course, if you have nothing to talk about you shouldn't give a talk. But I wouldn't discourage anyone who has something they want to share--even if it's unrelated to their day-to-day work or it's potentially trivial. It's frankly the job of the conference organizers to decide whether it's potentially relevant and interesting to attendees.

[hnbreak]

anyone who has something they want to share != speaking at tech conferences