[BoredAstronaut]

There is this old-fashioned idea called "professionalism", which seems to have been inadvertently discarded along with dress codes, and of which they were once emblematic. Work is not home, is not friends (wholly), and is most certainly not college (unless it is).

I kid myself that if there was a better age, sex and cultural mix in software companies, these kinds of extremes would be tempered. It would be a start. Is programming the new advertising? Or is it just a side-effect of success?

[tillk]

People are enjoying themselves. It's a matter of personal opinion if this is the kind of environment you want to be in. Maybe sometimes it's out of control and more a frat party than a conference.

For the record, the opposite is probably not what most people want either. And I wouldn't want to work in the opposite environment either.

In the end it's up to the people attending and of course up to the people organizing what they make of it.