Eckel at CodeMash

 Bruce Eckel  visited CodeMash and presented at one of the Keynotes. His topic was “The World is Dynamic” and I was excited to hear him speak. As Bruce spoke I realized this wasn’t going to be what I expected.

Bruce’s presentation centered around his trip to Burning Man, and while I found the slides fascinating I was struggling with how it connected to Technology. Just as we would start to get some good insight on a topic it was back to vacation pictures.

It took me awhile to see any connection in the presentation. Eventually I saw the pattern, this was much like Aesop fables with no moral at the end, you actually had to use your brain to get figure it out. Wow what a concept using your brain. Ok so I’m  a a bit slow blame it on the crazy photos of things burning in the Arizona desert that distracted me.

Ultimately I did understand the point of the Keynote. The clearest and best point I got from the presentation developed through the course of the keynote as Bruce demonstrated various attempts he and friends made to do various things, from art to home improvement. Some were successful and some were not. They kept working at things improving their skills and results each time.

I was impressed that Bruce would share some of these with us and in doing so It reminded me we don’t need to be perfect in what we do. The old adage It is better to try and fail then to never try at all still holds true. In essence that’s what the whole conference was about, having an idea, trying something, seeing what happens, make some course corrections, rinse and repeat.