Developing Perspective

00:00:00 ◼   ► Hello and welcome to Developing Perspective.

00:00:05 ◼   ► Developing Perspective is a podcast discussing news of note in iOS development, Apple, and the like.

00:00:06 ◼   ► I'm your host, David Smith.

00:00:11 ◼   ► I'm an independent iOS and Mac developer based in Herndon, Virginia.

00:00:12 ◼   ► This is show number 128.

00:00:14 ◼   ► Today is Thursday, June 6th, 2013.

00:00:16 ◼   ► Developing Perspective is never longer than 15 minutes, so let's get going.

00:00:19 ◼   ► All right, so this is the pre-WWDC episode.

00:00:22 ◼   ► Next Monday, WWDC, the Worldwide Developer Conference kicks off in the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

00:00:27 ◼   ► I'll be one of the lucky few who got a ticket and will be in actual attendance joining the

00:00:32 ◼   ► seemingly thousands of other people who will be in town just to generally talk to each

00:00:37 ◼   ► other, have conversations, and improve our craft, and to talk about all the cool stuff

00:00:42 ◼   ► that's hopefully going to be announced on Monday, and to just really connect with the

00:00:46 ◼   ► community, which is a great part about WWDC.

00:00:49 ◼   ► There's two things I was going to talk about in today's episode.

00:00:51 ◼   ► The first is to discuss just some of the hits and tips, things that I've discovered about

00:00:56 ◼   ► being at WWDC, having gone, I think this is my fourth or fifth.

00:01:00 ◼   ► It's been basically the iPhone era.

00:01:02 ◼   ► I've been there since-- except for the first one

00:01:05 ◼   ► since the iPhone was announced.

00:01:07 ◼   ► And then after that, I just kind of get

00:01:09 ◼   ► into a little bit of some etiquette stuff, some things

00:01:12 ◼   ► that kind of are my pet peeves that once a year I get up

00:01:14 ◼   ► on my soapbox and talk about.

00:01:16 ◼   ► But anyway, so to start off with, if you're going to WWDC

00:01:19 ◼   ► and you're getting-- sort of heading to San Francisco,

00:01:21 ◼   ► there's a lot of great guides.

00:01:22 ◼   ► I think Jeff LaMarsh is a good one.

00:01:24 ◼   ► Casey Ellis is a good one.

00:01:25 ◼   ► The little guides and things are good to read through if it's the first time there.

00:01:28 ◼   ► Just kind of get a sense and a flavor of what it's like, what are the experiences you should

00:01:33 ◼   ► be looking for, what kind of...

00:01:36 ◼   ► Maybe getting a roadmap is a good word for it, and I'll have those in the show notes.

00:01:38 ◼   ► Definitely want to read through those.

00:01:40 ◼   ► Generally, some of the high-level things and the things that I made mistakes the first

00:01:43 ◼   ► year.

00:01:44 ◼   ► Make sure you get your badge on Sunday.

00:01:46 ◼   ► Hopefully you're flying in the day before the conference starts, so hopefully this Sunday.

00:01:50 ◼   ► And you definitely want to go...

00:01:51 ◼   ► I think registration is typically open all day on Sunday.

00:01:54 ◼   ► And so you want to go immediately to there, check in your hotel, do all that kind of stuff.

00:02:00 ◼   ► Make sure at some point during registration when it's open on Sunday you go get your badge,

00:02:04 ◼   ► because it'll be a little bit more complicated in the morning when you're probably waiting

00:02:07 ◼   ► in line for the keynote, and then you need a badge to get in, so then you have to leave

00:02:11 ◼   ► the line and go get your badge.

00:02:12 ◼   ► And it can be a bit complicated.

00:02:14 ◼   ► It's definitely just recommended to go get your badge.

00:02:16 ◼   ► Make sure everything's set up and good in terms of if something's funny with your ticket.

00:02:20 ◼   ► You want to know that as soon as possible.

00:02:21 ◼   ► So stop by the conference center Sunday.

00:02:23 ◼   ► It's also a nice place, there's a lot of people just hanging out as they get in the lobby,

00:02:28 ◼   ► and it's kind of a nice place to do that initial meetup and say hi to people.

00:02:32 ◼   ► I mentioned this before. It's a good thing to make sure that if you are going to the

00:02:37 ◼   ► conference that you have, if you have any questions or things that you want to talk to with an Apple engineer,

00:02:41 ◼   ► specifically in the labs, when you want to sit down and talk, make sure you have that written down.

00:02:45 ◼   ► Make sure you have that planned out, and you can look at the schedule for the labs and make sure you take advantage of that time.

00:02:49 ◼   ► time. It's just something that I wish I'd done for a couple of times, where I had questions,

00:02:55 ◼   ► but I didn't quite have them organized, and then I kind of missed the opportunity or missed

00:02:58 ◼   ► the right lab. And so being prepared for that is good.

00:03:02 ◼   ► Another kind of thing that's important to think about is just make sure you don't feel

00:03:06 ◼   ► like you have to go crazy and overdo it at the conference. This is one of those things

00:03:11 ◼   ► that for me, especially the first couple of years, I felt like I had to go to-- I've paid

00:03:16 ◼   ► all this money, I flew all the way here, I need to deseeze something absolutely every

00:03:20 ◼   ► session. I have to go to every event. I have to do everything." And the reality was what

00:03:24 ◼   ► ended up happening is that worked well for Monday and Tuesday, but then by Wednesday,

00:03:28 ◼   ► Thursday, and a little Friday, I was totally destroyed. I was drinking from a fire hose

00:03:33 ◼   ► far too much. And so that was a little bit overwhelming. And so what I typically found

00:03:39 ◼   ► moreover is periodically I'll take breaks, I'll space him out a little bit, make sure

00:03:44 ◼   ► that I'm taking care of myself in order to take full advantage of the conference. It

00:03:47 ◼   ► sounds like this year especially they're going to be putting out videos almost immediately,

00:03:50 ◼   ► so you don't have to worry about that side of it as much. But it's something that I want

00:03:55 ◼   ► to encourage you that you're there to learn, and you're best able to learn the better you

00:03:59 ◼   ► take care of yourself.

00:04:01 ◼   ► And similarly along those lines, make sure you're not overdoing it in terms of going

00:04:05 ◼   ► out and partying too late. Make sure you're hydrated, all the usual self-care things that

00:04:10 ◼   ► you're going to want to do if you want to have a really rich experience there. I know

00:04:16 ◼   ► people who go out and get a little too caught up on Monday night, and then it kind of ruins

00:04:21 ◼   ► the rest of the weekend, like they're all hungover on Tuesday. And that kind of stuff.

00:04:24 ◼   ► I feel like you just want to take care of yourself, and you want to make sure that you're

00:04:28 ◼   ► able to enjoy the experience as much as possible. So that's just some high-level things.

00:04:32 ◼   ► And lastly, I want to talk a little bit about the keynote itself. Every year's a little

00:04:36 ◼   ► bit different. But just to give you a sense, if you want to get into the main room, if

00:04:40 ◼   ► you want to be in the actual big room for the keynote, you probably need to be there.

00:04:46 ◼   ► My gut would say before, I don't even know, it varies every year, but probably before

00:04:51 ◼   ► seven, before six or seven in the morning probably. After that, the line will go all

00:04:58 ◼   ► the way around the building, and it's a pretty crazy thing. And they just kind of stage the

00:05:02 ◼   ► line, they'll let a first group of people in, then the next group of people in, and

00:05:05 ◼   ► the line will snake all the way through the convention center and so on.

00:05:09 ◼   ► And then, it varies every year, but typically I've never found it to be a problem because

00:05:13 ◼   ► usually I'm coming from the East Coast, which is a three hour time difference, and I have

00:05:17 ◼   ► a son who wakes up very early in the morning.

00:05:19 ◼   ► Pretty much I'm up by no later than 6 a.m. every day.

00:05:23 ◼   ► So for me, I often just wake up at three or four in the morning, San Francisco time on

00:05:27 ◼   ► my own, can't go back to sleep, and so often I'll just go and get in line.

00:05:30 ◼   ► But if you want to be in the line, if you want to get in there early, definitely something

00:05:35 ◼   ► you have to plan for.

00:05:40 ◼   ► Typically otherwise, you'll be able to get in.

00:05:41 ◼   ► You'll just go into one of the many overflow rooms.

00:05:44 ◼   ► I think they pipe the keynote into a couple of different rooms

00:05:45 ◼   ► in the convention center just to make sure that anybody

00:05:48 ◼   ► who wants to watch it can.

00:05:51 ◼   ► But if it's important for you to be in person,

00:05:53 ◼   ► it's something to keep in mind.

00:05:54 ◼   ► When you actually get into the main presidio,

00:05:55 ◼   ► the big room that the keynote's in,

00:05:58 ◼   ► the kind of funny thing is you actually,

00:06:01 ◼   ► if you think about it as if you're in first in line,

00:06:00 ◼   ► and you're going to be in the front row,

00:06:05 ◼   ► you're going to be sorely disappointed

00:06:06 ◼   ► because the first, probably third of the section

00:06:08 ◼   ► is roped off for press and VIPs.

00:06:13 ◼   ► And so in my experience, you actually don't want to be

00:06:15 ◼   ► in the front of the developer section

00:06:18 ◼   ► because you're close enough to the front

00:06:20 ◼   ► that they don't have the big screens on the side

00:06:24 ◼   ► to show you what's going on,

00:06:28 ◼   ► but you're not close enough to actually see the stage.

00:06:30 ◼   ► And so what I tend to do is actually be about maybe halfway

00:06:33 ◼   ► in the developer section.

00:06:34 ◼   ► Even if I could have gone closer,

00:06:36 ◼   ► I'll go there, position myself next to one

00:06:38 ◼   ► of the nice big screens so I can just comfortably look up

00:06:40 ◼   ► and watch.

00:06:41 ◼   ► But I can still see the stage if I need to.

00:06:43 ◼   ► That's kind of what I do.

00:06:45 ◼   ► Now I'm going to dive into a little bit of some of the

00:06:47 ◼   ► etiquette things.

00:06:48 ◼   ► And this is something that I last year-- I think it was

00:06:51 ◼   ► episode 53 of Developing Perspective.

00:06:53 ◼   ► I talked about this again.

00:06:55 ◼   ► There's a lot of things that I-- it's one of these things

00:06:56 ◼   ► that I wish I didn't have to do every year,

00:06:59 ◼   ► or feel like I should do every year,

00:07:02 ◼   ► is there's a lot of people who,

00:07:04 ◼   ► it's like you just kind of wish people would,

00:07:06 ◼   ► some things wouldn't need to be said,

00:07:07 ◼   ► people would act like adults, people would be responsible,

00:07:09 ◼   ► people would take care of things.

00:07:11 ◼   ► But this is just one of those things,

00:07:12 ◼   ► maybe it's just my personality, my temperament,

00:07:13 ◼   ► that kind of really bugs me when I see people

00:07:15 ◼   ► being disrespectful of others and so on.

00:07:17 ◼   ► And it's just something that I wanted to then put out,

00:07:19 ◼   ► to kind of have, these are Dave's 10 rules of

00:07:23 ◼   ► how to not be a jerk at WWDC.

00:07:24 ◼   ► And these are things that generally--

00:07:26 ◼   ► 99% of people are good, but that 1%

00:07:28 ◼   ► can really spoil the experience for a lot of others.

00:07:32 ◼   ► So the first thing I wanted to talk about

00:07:33 ◼   ► is make sure that you're appreciative and thankful

00:07:35 ◼   ► of the Apple engineers and employees who

00:07:37 ◼   ► are putting this on.

00:07:38 ◼   ► And definitely sometimes you see people

00:07:40 ◼   ► who have this sense of entitlement

00:07:43 ◼   ► that because they paid to be there

00:07:44 ◼   ► and they flew all this way, that they

00:07:46 ◼   ► own the engineer and the engineer owes them

00:07:49 ◼   ► lots of time and attention and whatever it is.

00:07:51 ◼   ► They're there, they're doing their job,

00:07:53 ◼   ► And you want to be respectful of that.

00:07:58 ◼   ► And in general, the more polite, the more friendly,

00:07:59 ◼   ► the kinder you are to them, the better your experience will be,

00:08:03 ◼   ► the farther they'll go to go above and beyond

00:08:05 ◼   ► to make sure that you're well taken care of.

00:08:07 ◼   ► So say thank you to everybody you can.

00:08:09 ◼   ► Make sure you're polite, respectful,

00:08:13 ◼   ► you're not butting into people's conversations, etc.

00:08:15 ◼   ► So just be respectful, especially of the Apple engineers,

00:08:17 ◼   ► because they're engineers just like you.

00:08:19 ◼   ► These aren't professional conference putter honors.

00:08:20 ◼   ► These are engineers just like you who are taking a break

00:08:25 ◼   ► from their regular job to try and help you.

00:08:28 ◼   ► So be respectful and considerate of that.

00:08:30 ◼   ► Also make sure that you're respectful of your fellow attendees,

00:08:34 ◼   ► and especially this is something that always bugs me during the actual sessions.

00:08:37 ◼   ► Make sure that if you're going to attend a session

00:08:41 ◼   ► and you don't expect to necessarily pay attention,

00:08:45 ◼   ► and this is something you'll see more often than,

00:08:47 ◼   ► it kind of surprised me initially, but you'll see a lot.

00:08:47 ◼   ► people who go into a session, sit down, immediately pull out

00:08:49 ◼   ► their laptop and just start typing away,

00:08:52 ◼   ► hacking on whatever.

00:08:53 ◼   ► And they're just vaguely listening.

00:08:54 ◼   ► If you're going to do that, that's cool.

00:08:56 ◼   ► That's your choice.

00:08:57 ◼   ► But please sit and sit towards the back of the room.

00:08:59 ◼   ► Maybe sit all the way in the back row.

00:09:01 ◼   ► So you're not just distracting everyone else in front of you

00:09:04 ◼   ► with your glowing screen sitting in the front row,

00:09:07 ◼   ► sort of not paying attention.

00:09:08 ◼   ► It's just not really kind and respectful to everybody.

00:09:11 ◼   ► Make sure if you're taking notes on an iPad

00:09:13 ◼   ► that the keyboard noises are turned off,

00:09:15 ◼   ► because that is probably the most annoying sound you'll ever hear.

00:09:18 ◼   ► And related to that, make sure obviously all your technology is on silent.

00:09:21 ◼   ► And this is one of those things that I think a lot of people get right

00:09:24 ◼   ► for their phone.

00:09:25 ◼   ► But especially as the proliferation of devices--

00:09:27 ◼   ► iPads, laptops, all kinds of things that people have with them--

00:09:30 ◼   ► a number of times you'll be sitting into a session, and halfway through you'll

00:09:34 ◼   ► hear like the Twitter-rific refresh sound, or that kind of thing,

00:09:38 ◼   ► or the mail bing, or whatever.

00:09:42 ◼   ► Just make sure all your devices are powered off and turned

00:09:45 ◼   ► quiet.

00:09:45 ◼   ► And a little tip on that, if you are booting up

00:09:48 ◼   ► your MacBook Pro or your MacBook Air during a session,

00:09:52 ◼   ► is you're turning it on, and you want

00:09:53 ◼   ► to avoid that like dong sound when it first comes on.

00:09:56 ◼   ► If you hold down the mute key, it won't make it, I believe.

00:09:59 ◼   ► So just a little tip there to try and be

00:10:02 ◼   ► quiet and respectful of people around you.

00:10:04 ◼   ► And then related to that, and building on that,

00:10:07 ◼   ► this is my number one pet peeve.

00:10:09 ◼   ► And this is, if you do nothing else about my little etiquette

00:10:12 ◼   ► soap boxes, I'm up here railing and trying to improve everybody's experience by talking

00:10:16 ◼   ► about these things. What will often happen is a presenter will go through their talk,

00:10:23 ◼   ► they'll give their talking away, their talking away, their talking, and then they'll put

00:10:27 ◼   ► up their, essentially, in conclusion slide, and they'll have a quick summary or talk a

00:10:30 ◼   ► little bit about what you just learned slide. The thing that drives me more crazy than anything

00:10:37 ◼   ► is people who, as soon as that slide pops up,

00:10:42 ◼   ► will noisily pack up their stuff and leave.

00:10:45 ◼   ► So the presenter has about 30 seconds more

00:10:47 ◼   ► of their talk that they're going to do.

00:10:50 ◼   ► It's not long, they're basically said, "I'm done,"

00:10:52 ◼   ► but at that point you're just like,

00:10:53 ◼   ► "Oh, whatever, I'm going to get up and leave."

00:10:56 ◼   ► And do it in a disruptive, noisy way.

00:10:57 ◼   ► No matter how quiet you're trying to be,

00:10:59 ◼   ► you're always going to make noise.

00:11:01 ◼   ► And it always just makes me sad when I see presenters

00:11:02 ◼   ► who really were doing a great job,

00:11:06 ◼   ► who were really excited, who were really into their topic,

00:11:04 ◼   ► really knocking it out of the park.

00:11:06 ◼   ► And all of a sudden, they put up their concluding slide, and before they have actually ended,

00:11:10 ◼   ► before they've had their last word, half the people get up and leave.

00:11:13 ◼   ► In a way, they'll often just cut their talk short in a way that it just feels sad and

00:11:19 ◼   ► is very disrespectful of the presenter.

00:11:21 ◼   ► That's one thing.

00:11:22 ◼   ► If you go into a session, in the first five minutes you realize you're totally in the

00:11:25 ◼   ► wrong place, it isn't what you thought it was going to be, and you want to go catch

00:11:28 ◼   ► another session in those first couple of minutes, you want to get up and go, that seems totally

00:11:32 ◼   ► appropriate and reasonable to me.

00:11:33 ◼   ► But if you've sat there and you've gotten all the value for the first 55 minutes, and

00:11:38 ◼   ► you feel like you need to leave before 55 minutes and 30 seconds later, then that doesn't

00:11:43 ◼   ► sit right with me.

00:11:44 ◼   ► So definitely just sit there.

00:11:45 ◼   ► Just be patient.

00:11:46 ◼   ► It'll finish.

00:11:47 ◼   ► No matter what, you're going to be waiting in line for the next session.

00:11:50 ◼   ► Sessions rarely are totally overbooked.

00:11:51 ◼   ► And if they are, Apple is good at making sure they're rescheduled.

00:11:54 ◼   ► And I think even the videos this year will be up the next day or that day.

00:11:57 ◼   ► So it shouldn't be a problem.

00:11:59 ◼   ► So just please be respectful of your presenters.

00:12:01 ◼   ► That's just my little pet peeve.

00:12:02 ◼   ► that I'm always going to get on my soapbox and talk about.

00:12:05 ◼   ► The other thing is make sure you pick up your trash.

00:12:07 ◼   ► We're all adults here.

00:12:08 ◼   ► We're all hopefully respectful kind of people

00:12:10 ◼   ► who understand that leaving trash on the floor just isn't cool.

00:12:14 ◼   ► It's just not something you do.

00:12:15 ◼   ► So pick up your trash, put it in a receptacle,

00:12:17 ◼   ► or put it next to a receptacle.

00:12:18 ◼   ► If the receptacle is full, be an adult about it.

00:12:21 ◼   ► Be respectful about people in terms of waiting in line,

00:12:23 ◼   ► or waiting online if you're from New York,

00:12:25 ◼   ► or queuing if you're from Europe.

00:12:27 ◼   ► You are going to spend a lot of time waiting for other things

00:12:30 ◼   ► in line with people.

00:12:31 ◼   ► And so being kind and having good etiquette about that,

00:12:36 ◼   ► I think is an important part of having a good experience.

00:12:38 ◼   ► And it's just one of those things that being respectful

00:12:40 ◼   ► of how you'd want other people to do it for you.

00:12:43 ◼   ► And the biggest part of that, I think,

00:12:44 ◼   ► is making sure that when you're in line,

00:12:46 ◼   ► A, that you're not doing silly things

00:12:48 ◼   ► in terms of line-holding and things.

00:12:50 ◼   ► Like there's nothing more sort of annoying

00:12:52 ◼   ► when you're waiting in line, you're waiting in line,

00:12:54 ◼   ► and then I'll walk 10 of someone's friends

00:12:57 ◼   ► and get in line in front of you

00:12:58 ◼   ► as though they were holding that line for someone.

00:12:59 ◼   ► But be reasonable about that.

00:13:01 ◼   ► My general rule of thumb is you can have a two to one ratio.

00:13:03 ◼   ► So one person can hold space for maybe up to two people,

00:13:06 ◼   ► but otherwise, that just gets silly

00:13:08 ◼   ► and gets a bit overwhelmed.

00:13:10 ◼   ► So generally be respectful of people's time

00:13:12 ◼   ► and their attention.

00:13:13 ◼   ► You're going to spend a lot of time waiting in line

00:13:14 ◼   ► and just generally bumping into people.

00:13:16 ◼   ► Sometimes people want to talk.

00:13:17 ◼   ► Sometimes people want to chill out.

00:13:20 ◼   ► And be respectful and aware of that.

00:13:22 ◼   ► That when someone-- if you try to engage with somebody

00:13:25 ◼   ► and they say, oh, hey, how you doing?

00:13:26 ◼   ► It's like, hi, I'm Dave.

00:13:27 ◼   ► And they say, oh, hi, I'm Bill.

00:13:28 ◼   ► And they pick up their phone and start

00:13:29 ◼   ► chatting their email or whatever.

00:13:30 ◼   ► They're sending you a message, "Hey, maybe I don't want to talk."

00:13:35 ◼   ► And just be respectful of that.

00:13:37 ◼   ► A lot of people are doing different things,

00:13:38 ◼   ► are kind of exhausted and just want some time to themselves.

00:13:40 ◼   ► So be respectful of that.

00:13:43 ◼   ► And similarly, be careful when you're getting too salesy.

00:13:44 ◼   ► A lot of people are going to be interested in what you're doing,

00:13:48 ◼   ► but there's a time and a place for doing that

00:13:50 ◼   ► that's natural in the conversation.

00:13:52 ◼   ► Don't feel like, it's like walk up and say, "Hi, I'm Bill

00:13:54 ◼   ► and I make this product and I think you should check it out."

00:13:56 ◼   ► I'm not at a sales conference.

00:13:55 ◼   ► I'm not walking up to your booth at a convention.

00:14:00 ◼   ► I'm here to enjoy a conference."

00:14:02 ◼   ► So just be careful about that.

00:14:04 ◼   ► If someone wants to talk and you're going to engage them in conversation,

00:14:06 ◼   ► they're always going to ask you, "Hey, what do you do?"

00:14:09 ◼   ► And that's the right time to do it.

00:14:11 ◼   ► And similarly, you can also run into a bunch of people.

00:14:13 ◼   ► I guess you call them internet famous or whatever.

00:14:15 ◼   ► There's a lot of people I look up to that I have always looked forward to,

00:14:17 ◼   ► maybe the opportunity that I might meet them at something like this.

00:14:19 ◼   ► Maybe be extra respectful of that.

00:14:23 ◼   ► And the way I tend to do that is just make sure that it's great.

00:14:23 ◼   ► It's one thing to go up and say, hey, I love your work.

00:14:26 ◼   ► I really appreciate what you do.

00:14:28 ◼   ► And at that point, you've given them an opportunity to say.

00:14:29 ◼   ► If they'll say, oh, great, thanks.

00:14:31 ◼   ► At that point, it's be like, yeah,

00:14:32 ◼   ► it was great to meet you, thanks.

00:14:34 ◼   ► But if they dive into conversation, great.

00:14:36 ◼   ► But give them the opportunity to do that.

00:14:38 ◼   ► All right, that's it, basically.

00:14:40 ◼   ► Otherwise, I look forward to seeing you all next week

00:14:41 ◼   ► in San Francisco.

00:14:42 ◼   ► I just think it should be a great week.

00:14:43 ◼   ► Hopefully, you're out there, even if you don't have a ticket.

00:14:45 ◼   ► And if not, and if you are, make sure you just sort of ping me,

00:14:48 ◼   ► look out for me.

00:14:48 ◼   ► I'll be around.

00:14:49 ◼   ► It'd be great to meet listeners to the show.

00:14:51 ◼   ► And until then, I'm on _DavidSmith on Twitter,

00:14:54 ◼   ► and I hope you have a great week.

00:14:56 ◼   ► Safe travels for everyone traveling,

00:14:57 ◼   ► and I'll see you next week in San Francisco.