>You see people on Tinder dates sitting at a restaurant table each still scrolling

Do you actually? That's appalling.

Some time ago I was on a second date with someone (met through a friend, not Tinder) whose phone was frequently pinging the Tinder notification sound. She was very pretty, I was under no illusions about the level of competition, but I was so insulted by the disrespect. Imagine not even putting your phone on silent! Had no idea it could've been worse, god help me if she got it out and started swiping.

This describes me at FOSDEM: too many parellel tracks, a headache coming up from keeping attention to talks and schedule, running around feeling FOMO wherever I go.

But then I let go, had a coffee, had some beers with peers. No more headache + increased happiness.

Life lesson learned.

Breakouts at a conference mostly don't matter unless it's something you're especially interested in or know the speaker. At FOSDEM they're recorded anyway--not that you'll get around to watching the recordings.

Speaking of conferences, this is one thing I loved about the Monitorama conference in Portland. It has a single track, so everyone attending the conference goes to all the same talks, which means you now have something in common with everybody in the hallway track and post-conference events to talk about.

("Loved" because I haven't been in years -- the conference is, AFAIK, still going strong.)

This kind of comment always blows my mind. How can you come in and say 'well, actually, i think what you say you experience is not true. And disregard all the literature on the subject too!'

> This kind of comment always blows my mind.

In a good way or a bad way?

> How can you come in and say 'well, actually...

It's a mixture of qualities; education, scepticism, and original thinking are the key ones. Some cultures discourage this sort of thinking and promote an unquestioning attitude that takes whatever is presented on face value. For me as a scientist my own upbringing placed a lot of value on the opposite life-stance.

> i think what you say you experience is not true.

That is an unfair characterisation of what I said. Truth or falsehood hardly applies to experience. I am suggesting there's an alternative way of looking at what people report than "overwhelming" choice. That may apply to you. It may not. Make your own path.

I think maybe you took what was intended as a general observation about this phenomenon as a rebuke of your personal experience.

> disregard all the literature on the subject too!

One TED talk and a book (albeit a good one) does not really count as "all the literature".

I wish I could understand you better. Does encountering other points of view feel "offensive" because you disagree? Does it feel like invalidates something you believe in, in a "personal" way (like an attack)? Or do you really feel uncomfortable with sceptical thinking?