Hi! I’m sox ^^
I went to Austin in the first two weeks of May to visit the place where the Stacker News magic happens.
A little backstory
note: I'm not a good writer, at all, take this post as a travel log, hence the territory choice
Some of you that might have read my name in release notes and comments, probably also wondered who the fuck I was (maybe nobody).
SN was my go-to for news and discussions about bitcoin and much more. But now it's my day-to-day life.
All the way back in October I started making some contributions to the SN repo as a way to challenge myself, but it became what I wanted to do every day pretty fast.
I joined Stacker News as a contractor in January; my title is Everything! And I find that to be pretty cool. I focus on your experience with SN and, at the moment, cool stuff for territories.
There’s much more to this story, but this post is about my trip.
I’ll share my story of winning back my dream of coding another day.
So where was I — ah yes, the trip
Going to Austin, TX
I’ve never been in Texas; to an European, it’s like entering an opposite dimension, but I quickly found that to be false.
I packed my stuff and embarked on a 25-hour journey composed of airports, flights and long lines at the customs.
Working at PlebLab
My first day couldn’t start any better: I got a Waymo!
@ek picked me at the entrance, and I just couldn’t stop myself from hugging him as our first real-life interaction.
Ek made me meet lots of great people with great projects; PlebLab is really fucking cool, guys.
@Car gave me a PlebLab shirt, and Ek gave me an original Stacker News hat; you guys don’t know how excited I got!
I sat next to Ek, stealing Car’s spot on Stacker News Live.
I think I never worked this passionately about something; there’s something to PlebLab that I didn’t encounter in any other place.
Also, on the first day, @bitcoinplebdev tried to make me learn hacky sack. I almost don’t have reflexes, so it was hard, and I thank him for trying lol, but I really appreciated that he wanted to play with me. The first impression that I had of him was enough to make me comfortable talking to him whenever I wanted; he’s super cool!
Places
I would talk about all the places in which Ek and I had lunch together, but they’re a lot, aaaand I forgot to take pictures.
I still want to say that the sushi that I had with Car and Ek was so good (and also a lot, we ordered a lot.) that I got sad when I got full.
Also the tacos near PlebLab, man, okay, those changed something in me, I tell ya. I even brought my girlfriend there on the last days lol.
One day, after work, we went to a bar to drink something, and I got to meet our zine lord @plebpoet
She’s as fun as you can tell she is by her comments and posts. Even more!
btc++
I realized that I forgot to take the tickets, so Ek was kind enough to get them in time for me.
Didn’t get pictures of the event, but it was jam-packed with cool talks on Mempools and projects. One of the coolest was FROSTR by @bitcoinplebdev and @cmd — I don’t think I’m being biased
Lunch was a picnic, and they gave us food to eat at the park. Here’s a squirrel that wanted some of that don’t-know-what-was-in-it roll:
I also finally got to meet @k00b here at btc++, with the glorious beard and all. I’m pretty introverted myself, so just meeting him was awesome.
I got to go to a party with Ek!
Texan barbecue
I had dinner in a texan barbecue place with @k00b, @ek, @plebpoet and @bitcoinplebdev and it was amazing!
I got to eat a Chicken Fried Steak and my mouth is watering as I'm writing this. It was that good.
Meeting people that you work with everyday, in an informal setting, is something that I appreciate a lot. You need to trust the people you work with, you need to know their story. Without trust, you cannot possibly have a good relationship, personal or work. So I'm really thankful for this dinner with them ^^
The Range
I never touched a gun, never even thought of that. But when Ek told me that we could theoretically go there and try to shoot, I said yes immediately.
End
As for Stacker News, thank you for being an amazing community. The work to make it better is never over!
sox