I’m always astounded when I read about a lot of the Drupallers talking about the various cons, be they Drupal cons or something in the same vein for some other product. A lot of people — I hesitate to say most because I don’t really have that much observational data, but certainly many — have the opinion that these get togethers are a place to be productive and actually accomplish work.

It’s weird, because I usually feel exactly the opposite. I’m there to be social; to interact with others, to learn from them, and to get the most out of time spent with other people.

I can think of perhaps two reasons why I deviate from the others I’ve talked to.

1) I have two brains. I can walk both sides of the fence between artistic (I write) and the logical (I program. Probably better than I write). But I simply cannot do both at the same time. When I’m in a heavy programming mindset, I can’t switch over and just write for awhile; and likewise, when I was heavily writing, I didn’t get anything like programming work done most of the time. When I’m being social, one brain is active; when I’m working, another is.

2) Probably really just an extension of number one. When I program, I prefer to be alone or basically alone. I don’t shift focus well; so when I shift between working and talking about working a lot, I get a lot less work done. Of course, most work environments are like that, and I cope. But the thing is, when I’m in a work environment, I’m there to work. I just have trouble feeling that way about something like DrupalCon. If I were going to DrupalCon to work…I’d probably stay home and save myself the couple thousand bucks it takes to fly.

Except, of course, for the social, interactive aspect. Which isn’t work. But it is extremely valuable.