[LispSea] instruction then presentation

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Daniel J Pezely wrote:
> 	Anyone interested in teaching Lisp?
>   

Not for $0.  I just went down to Portland and made $0 on signatures, 
after my motel bills.  It's not fun.  Overdrafting one's bank account 
sucks. 

> What's needed is a demonstration of code maturing from blank
> canvas to just-get-something-working to various directions
> of "what if?" before settling on what's right for the task
> at hand.
>   

I think it needs domain-specific grounding.  People aren't interested in 
Lisp or Scheme.  People are interested in what Language X can do for 
game development, webhosting, system administration, scientific 
visualization, etc.

>
> 	We could structure our sessions with the first 30
> minutes for instruction and the next hour or so as deeper
> presentation, show & tell, etc.
>   

Nobody learns anything in 30 minutes.

Nor does anyone learn anything in 2 days.  I am completely cynical about 
conferences.

I don't think "being a free instructor" can possibly work as Grand 
Strategy.  I think we have to motivate people to learn on their own, and 
provide them resources that help them do that.  The reality is you have 
to be pretty smart and self-motivated to bother to swallow a new 
language or technology when you're already innundated with many other 
mundane life concerns.  People like that do exist; SeaFunc has a 
disproportionate number of them.  The vanguard that is competent to do 
things on their own is what needs to be cultivated.  The masses have to 
wait until the vanguard has proven they can get some results.


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every