Rustconf 2023 recap

[utterances-bot]

Rustconf 2023 recap

What it's like in-person

https://blog.adamchalmers.com/rustconf-2023-recap/

[yaahc]

Great post. I'm really glad you enjoyed the unconference so much ^_^

For what it's worth, I'm a thirty year old, six foot tall gender-conforming man. I'd be curious how shorter people/women/visibly-queer conference guests felt.

I'm not sure if I count as short or visibly queer but I'm happy to weigh in. I wouldn't say I necessarily felt safe, but I definitely did not feel significantly less safe in Albuquerque than I do an impoverished areas of any large city. The feeling I experienced the most was anger at, you know, the conditions of the world and shit and all these people forced to live in the streets. I did not have anyone yell at me, I did have a couple of people ask me for help and I did what I could but no one was disrespectful or aggressive, just a bunch of people clearly hurting.

If anything the part that I'm most mad about was just how much more often the drivers in Albuquerque would honk at me as they drove by. It was definitely significantly worse than in SF or the east bay area.

[azzamsa]

Time flies, I can't believe how much I enjoyed the article. Thanks for posting this.

[jannes]

Thanks for this article Adam! Really nice to read a personal experience on attending the conference, it gives me some real impression on what it’s like, which is something not possible by just watching some of the talks on Youtube. I wish I can make it some day, still a bit upset I didn’t work out last year when you were also still at Cloudflare.

[adamchalmers]

@yaahc Thanks for sharing how you felt! I guess it all depends what you're comparing it to. For context I live in a part of Austin that has a fair amount of homeless people around, but also plenty of pedestrian foot traffic, so it feels a lot safer. I'm probably a bit sensitive after a pretty bad incident last year plus being in a new, unfamiliar city. But I agree, mostly just felt sad about how many people were forced to live in those circumstances.

@azzamsa I'm glad you liked it!

@jannes Hey man! Good to hear from you. I strongly suggest you visit EuroRust if you can still get a ticket for this year. They're sold out but there is a waitlist, so you've still got a chance! Otherwise go next year -- I'm going to try to do both next year. EuroRust seems great and a lot of people whose work I admire are speaking this year.

[Carter12s]

Yo Carter Schultz thanks for the shoutout and this is a fantastic article. Very similar to my own experience! I'm definitely struggling being a Rust user who is excited about the language and wants to help it, but doesn't know how to from the outside... Really wish the folks building Rust / Maintaining / Organizing Rust all the best, and want to find ways to support them and contribute.

[adamchalmers]

@Carter12s Yeah! When I went to my first Rustconf in 2019 I asked Steve (Klabnik, who was my coworker at Cloudflare that year) how I could start helping out. His suggestion was that the project is always looking for more writing and educating. Which, obviously you're interested in because you gave a talk! I don't contribute to the Rust source code repos or anything, but I like contributing to the broader ecosystem by writing blog posts about confusing topics and improving docs on crates I like. It's a small thing, but it's often overlooked and helpful.

[nsengupta]

I am a newbie, just trying things that are conceptually easier for me to grasp. The mood in your write-up is seeping in. The part that stays with me is the last bunch of 'Thanks'!

Great article.

[sourcefrog]

That was so great to see you again too. Thanks for the post, for the great idea of organizing breakfasts, and for your encouragement on cargo-mutants.