OpenHack Pittsburgh: studying Scala

Feb 25, 2013 · 2 minute read · Comments
OpenHackPittsburghprogrammingScala

Last month was the very first meeting of OpenHack Pittsburgh, so I eagerlly looked forward to attending the second one, which was held at The Beauty Shoppe, a new coworking space in East Liberty.

The space was still under construction and so it was kind of surreal being in there with a half-finished bathroom, walls and rooms that were not completely done yet, missing light fixtures, etc. It was cool that we were allowed to use the space though.

Ashamed of leaving early

Unfortunately, there was something of a schedule conflict, because I was also looking forward to attending, in the same evening, another edition of the French and blues music jam I’ve been participating in. I ended up decided to attend OpenHack Pittsburgh for a while before leaving early and going to the music jam. I did make it to the music jam, but in retrospect, I should have simply chosen not to attend OpenHack Pittsburgh at all.

I felt bad about leaving early, when everyone was so excited about the projects they were working on for the evening. There was even a 3d printer in action!

Because I knew I was leaving early, I spent the time there just continuing to learn more Scala on my own.

I felt it was impolite for me to attend an event when I knew I had to leave early. I will remember this in the future.

Conclusion

Fear of missing out is insidious. It is better to be fully present and engaged in fewer activities rather than try to do too much. I felt deeply ashamed of leaving early, and vowed that if I attend OpenHack Pittsburgh meetings in the future, I will never leave early again. Something like this should be all or none.