When a speaker gives a technical talk at a technical conference, is it relevant whether or not they are a horrible person?
No easy answer here. If it does matter, then we need some kind of criteria that fairly identify the horrible persons who shouldn't be allowed to give technical talks. If it doesn't matter, then we have to worry about whether we've somehow legitimatized or supported the horrible person.
I think it's somewhat similar to your workplace. No one I know hires people based on purely technical criteria. If your new hire goes around being racist your coworkers, that's a problem. (A conf is not just about talks.)
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[ 4.6 ms ] story [ 7.4 ms ] threadNo easy answer here. If it does matter, then we need some kind of criteria that fairly identify the horrible persons who shouldn't be allowed to give technical talks. If it doesn't matter, then we have to worry about whether we've somehow legitimatized or supported the horrible person.
In addition, software is intensely political. Moldbug would agree: https://medium.com/@urbit/design-of-a-digital-republic-f2b6b...