DjangoCon and me
The program for the very first DjangoCon is up and my name is on it. And it's not a typo. I'm speaking at the very first DjangoCon.
My three reactions, in rough order:
1. I am so excited I can't even tell you.
2. I am so honored it's ridiculous.
3. I am so scared out of my freaking gourd it's not even funny.
You see, I still and probably always will think of myself as a reporter playing web developer. There's programmer journalists and journalist programmers. I feel like a third group: Journalist making it up as he goes, learning by failing a lot, hoping no one notices. I only started doing Django development a little over a year ago. And now I'm going to be speaking on Django in the newsroom to a group of developers waaaaay smarter than I am?
Am I nuts?
Then I got to thinking about it a bit. I am living proof of why Django is so efffing brilliant.
The framework is a work of genius because crazy smart people can do crazy smart things with it. If you know what you are doing, you can bend light with it (I don't think "import blackhole" is documented yet though).
But what makes Django an even greater work of art is that knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing, not-very-good journalism graduates from small midwestern states (ahem) can learn just enough to build something they can be proud of.
So I'm going to DjangoCon, and I'm going to be surrounded by people who have, just this week, forgotten more about programming than I have ever known. The Crazy Smart People Doing Crazy Smart Things faction will be well represented. I'm going to fly the flag for users like me, the ones who are impressed with Django because it lets people like me get into the web development game.
1
Benj. commented, on July 20, 2008 at 3:54 p.m.
Hell yes.
2
Craig commented, on July 20, 2008 at 5:49 p.m.
Shouldn't your Djangocon panel be titled "Django in Djournalism"? I'm djust saying.
3
Maura commented, on July 20, 2008 at 6:14 p.m.
I feel exactly the same way. Mostly #3.
4
Maura commented, on July 20, 2008 at 6:26 p.m.
Also, I think we could easily petition to get it changed to Django in Djournalism.
5
James Bennett commented, on July 21, 2008 at 4:38 a.m.
I just realized I agreed to rehash my PyCon talk -- which was a thirty-minute slot -- into an hour-long session. This should be fun.
6
Robert Lofthouse commented, on July 21, 2008 at 2:45 p.m.
Ha! So many people seem to be scared :) Try not to worry too much. I'm sure the panel will rock!