Refactor Camp 2012

Thanks to all participants for making it a fantastic event! Sponsors

  • Jesse Dhillon
  • Kartik Agaram
  • Adrian Perez
  • Kevin Simler
  • Kyle Matthews

 

Theme: Generativity and Captivity.

The idea behind this barcamp (partly scheduled, partly improv event) is to understand, think about, and experiment with the process by which little itches, which demand to be scratched, turn into larger obsessive-compulsive passion projects that disrupt your life.

Speakers and Topics for Scheduled Part of Agenda

  • “A Life’s Compulsion – a nihilist’s search for meaning.” — Nick Pinkston: Nick founded Cloudfab, a manufacturing startup, and is now trying to do weirder things to make the Maker revolution and post-scarcity happen.
  • Design Must Symbolize or be Bad-ass.” — Adam Hogan: Adam is a quant and design guy (he did the cover for Tempo) who once worked for the Fed and has been lifestyle-designing in Budapest for a year.
  • “A Crude Equation Describing Your Design Process” —  Sam Penrose: Sam is a guy who lives in a houseboat, works at Industrial Light and Magic by day, and prowls the counter-cultural world of San Francisco by night.
  • “Learning to Learn”  —  Jane Huang (co-organizer): Jane biked across America on a whim, and is now idly toying with the idea of starting a finishing school for socially incompetent Startup types. She works at Twitter.
  • “Evil twins, personality types and avoiding the tragic life script” — Greg Rader: Guy who quit a finance job to divide his time between CrossFit (where he deadlifts over 500 lbs) and inventing a Grand Unified Theory of socio-economic order.
  • “Motifs, Mascots and Muses” — Venkatesh Rao: Well, it’s my event. I’ll be talking mainly about a pet new theme of mine: motifs, mascots and muses and a couple of new projects.

Format

We will have a few scheduled speakers to get things going (see above), and the rest of the time will be open mic/barcamp style. You can propose quick whiteboard talks or discussion sessions. The backstory of this event is here.

Bring laptops to work on if you like, (there will be limited WiFi) or just pen/paper. Also bring an itch to scratch and a general expectation that perceptions will be refactored, live.

The goal is to mix up quick 10-15 minute lightning talks with workshop-type elements that will allow you to work on your own ideas. Somewhere in there, we’ll build in time to visit the zoo itself, and ponder.