CodeMash - Expand your circle of Knowledge

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“As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.”

– Albert Einstein

This is a great quote from a truly remarkable mind.  Even as Einstein most likely knew his intellect far outpaced most of the rest of us, he never assumed he knew everything.  In fact, as this quite indicates, he understood that the more we learn, the amount of questions we have increase. 

A while back I posted a blog entry on what I referred to as the Tsunami of Technology, or the torrent of new technology spilling forth from Redmond.  I mentioned the new technology from Microsoft specifically because I’m a “.Net guy”, but Redmond isn’t the only development company pushing out development tools and materials.  Java, Ruby, PHP & Python are just a few of the other technologies that non-Microsoft developers are using to earn their paycheck just as .Net pays mine. 

As I struggle to keep up with the technology most closely related to my chosen path I need to remember to not overlook the paths I choose not to take.  I think it is a good idea to at least read a few articles or attend a few presentations on technologies and languages not related to Microsoft to see what other options and ideas are out there.  Perhaps exploring these other avenues will answers some of the questions we have about that darkness beyond our circle of knowledge.  We have proof that Microsoft itself is doing this; just take a look at the ASP.Net MVC framework (ala, Ruby on Rails / MonoRails). 

I’ve signed up for CodeMash because I know that while there will be many really good .Net related talks, there will also be several talks on technologies I’m not familiar with.  Talks like Neal Ford’s DSLs in Static & Dynamic Languages is a great example of a topic that will be presented in terms of Java and Ruby, but the concepts will easily span over to what I do for a living.  Just because the code samples will be in a languages I’m not fluent in doesn’t mean I won’t learn from it. 

In my previous post about the Tsunami of Technology I had put a list together of things I do to try to keep my head above water.  I’d like to add a new thing to that list which will be a goal for me from now on:

  • Read at least one article a month about a non-Microsoft technology.
  • Attend CodeMash!

CodeMash is starting in eight days!  Will you be there?  There is still time to sign up.  Thru Jan. 5th the cost is $175 for the conference (not including the hotel).  Jan. 6th - 10th the cost is $250.00, so sign up soon!  If you calculate that some of the speakers at this conference speak at national events that costs several hundred dollars more you can see that you will get your monies worth.

So, sign up and come join the fun; expand your circle of knowledge (and go home with tons of new questions and techniques to research and learn from).

I’ll be there.