Scott Moe Info

I was not at GoGaRuCo, I really don’t know what it was like to sit through Matt Aimonetti’s presentation, and I surely don’t know what it would have been like to be a woman in that room. So I feel quite confident in stating that I think everybody is wrong. As humans our natural condition is be incorrect while we puff up, posture, and strut about indignantly. Follow along while I demonstrate.

Matt gave a presentation to our local users group, ORUG, last year after RubyConf. It was an interesting talk on framework performance and I took away some useful information. He followed a talk by Thomas Meeks on Nanite, which was a lot more interesting and memorable. I don’t blame Matt for looking for a way to make his talk edgy and provocative. I have seen the slides from Matt’s talk at GoGaRuCo, apparently with the most salacious three images removed, and it didn’t do anything for me. I’ve seen episodes of South Park that made me way more uncomfortable than any of those pictures. I suspect the real problem was reaction of the audience. A gang of aroused juveniles is more intimidating than any image.

If you felt the images were worth an NC-17 rating while the next guy says R or PG-13 is not the point. There is certainly room for edgy humor in a technical talk, it can even be helpful, but there is no need for distracting puerile imagery. That said, if you are offended by a person, it’s your problem, not theirs. Get up and walk out, turn off the television, block the twitter account, blacklist the email address, just don’t whine that others need to accommodate your sensitivities. Personally I am offended when someone claims their state of being offended requires others to change their ideas, language, or culture. It makes for a vicious cycle of intolerance for the intolerant. If we are going to get along we need to accept that everyone has the right to be as wrong and offensive as you.