[wonder_er]

This was a great read! I had a planned sabbaticle from work, scheduled to start in April, 2020, and I planned on studying/practicing standup at a local comedy place in Denver. Covid blew a hole in that, obviously, and I've not done it.

This all reminds me of a paper I've read, and think about regularly. The author, or others, might be interested. I've posted notes and a link to the paper here:

https://josh.works/driven-by-compression-progress-novelty-hu...

The argument is something like "when our expectations are subverted, and new visible order snaps into view, we feel satisfied and interested". Curiosity and expectation seems to play a large role in humor and standup.

Thanks for this article, Michael! I've subscribed via RSS! I am thankful to have found your website.

[corytheboyd]

Was it Rise Comedy? I did the standup 101 class, it was a good time! I had fun with my showcase but definitely decided it wasn't for me. Totally recommend doing it, performing on an open mic for the first time(s) is such a wild experience that you won't get anywhere else :)

[NesquikMike]

Thanks! :D

Really like the quote and your website. I've had a good play around with your "find a random blogger from Hacker News" project.

[wonder_er]

hey thanks! Since reading this post, I remembered that hands-down the best talk I ever gave had _quite a lot_ of humor in it, lots of it technical.

I'm quite proud of it, and as I've told other people about it, I specifically mention a "laughs per minute" rate of, for the first few minutes, an impressive rate! (It wasn't just my humor, definitely a group experience) I think it went great, in large part because it was a quite improvisational, reactive experience.

It feels _so_ strange to plug oneself's talk, but here we are:

https://josh.works/boulder_ruby_group

"Move Slow and Improve Things: Performance Improvement in a Rails App"

To the degree that it was successful, it was ENTIRELY due to a highly supportive group of people eagerly invested in my success. What a powerful phenomena to have at your back.

update: It was sorta hastily prepared, and my gosh, rewatching some if now years later there's a lot I wish I'd done better in the organization and clarity of some how how I presented. It just totally had elements of a standup routine, as many entertaining talks do. This is independent of the value, correctness, necessary truthfulness of the content, of course.

[scsilver]

Does that Boulder group still meet? I used to go to the ones at Pivotal Labs years ago.

[wonder_er]

I believe it does! It was remote during covid, and I sorta dropped off, but I bet it's back in person! It's got really strong leaders and community around it.

[...]

I just used The Internet to answer this question - they're active, in person: https://www.meetup.com/boulder_ruby_group/?_cookie-check=0N7...

If you're still in town, check it out! I'm not in Denver at the moment, but hope to go again someday!