Personal Partial Evaluation: Clojure/Conj 2025
I thought it was a cold. This happens a few times a year, where I get a tickle in my throat and I know it’s the inkling for a cold. I slow down, I drink some good tea, and the tickle smiles on its way out.
I thought I needed a gentle afternoon nap. And I did. But I didn’t only need a nap. And it wasn’t only a tickle this time.
I had planned to enjoy all three days of Clojure conj 2025, but instead I hit a surprise halfway in.
I returned to my hotel room for this afternoon nap, I laid down, and I felt it — chills, aches, dull sensations in little regions I’m not used to hearing from. Oh dear — it feels like at least a flu.
One afternoon nap later and I found myself ready for a second afternoon nap. These naps were getting long, and it was evening now.
I could feel the impulse to fight it, to imagine situations where I haven’t already walked over to the convention center for the last time. But I could also feel myself beginning to accept it.
Isn’t this what programming is about too? I don’t aim to be surprised while programming, but I have come to appreciate the surprise as the interesting part, the part where I learn something, the part I remember.
And it’s foolish to trudge on with the same working model from before the surprise happened. I must later or sooner accept the surprise just as it is.
After a tender cry over a takeout dinner from a hotel bar, I called a good friend and went to sleep.
Friday morning I woke up and emailed to ask if my in-person ticket could become a virtual ticket — asking for help can be a beautiful practice.
I felt glad to watch some sessions from my hotel room desk, but it feels obvious I did miss out on in-person conversation. The people I met in the first day and a half were lovely.
On the day I left home for the conference, in the morning while bathing, I wondered what I might ask Rich Hickey. I found a question: what muses would he credit for inspiring the work we know now as Clojure? I suspect one such muse would be pain, but I wonder what he would say.
Maybe Rich has already given a talk about this — I haven’t watched all his talks yet. Nobody can watch everything in this age.
Though two tests failed for flu and for COVID, I hope Rich doesn’t catch whatever I had — I stood within five feet of him as I shared a jovial chat for a while with the third presenter of the conference.
I feel like I partially met Rich simply seeing him — his posture was natural and calm, much like his speaking voice and his approach to software design.
So I accepted the surprise I hit at the halfway mark — I find it beautiful now, but it took a moment. I partially evaluated Clojure conj 2025. Nobody knows the future, but I hope to find myself called back.
