Clojure Conj is THE conference for Clojure developers, which is promoted and sponsored by Relevance.

Today was one of the more interesting days I have had, in the tech world, in a long time.  As many of you know I am a front-end developer, so finding myself at Clojure Conj was quite an experience.  I was sure that I would feel like a duck out of water, and be reminded of that fact with every interview.  Boy was I wrong.  Instead, my co-host Ben Farrell (Runtime Expectations) and our CodeBass Radio Producer, Vicky Ryder, were welcomed with open arms.  Now with that being said let me explain the title of this post.

I have attended and spoken at various conferences, and there is always an underlying theme of superiority over one technology or another, or even flat out complaining about the conferences tech de jour and a community.  Not at Clojure Conj.  Instead we witnessed many people having passionate discussions about the future of Clojure as well as the other technologies that they use day to day.  In our interviews we would ask “what is Clojure’s arch-nemisis?”  Surely this would bring up some animosity or superiority comments… Nope, not one bit.  The answers to the question ranged from “complexity,” to “apathy.”  But never another technology or community.  WOW! That was so refreshing.

Instead of negativity, or discussing what framework is better, the conversations all centered around “what things can we build to make our lives better.”  It was an attitude of wild eyed imagination, and a feeling of everyone learning their way together.  No “it must be done this way,” but rather “think about what you are trying to accomplish.”  This again was refreshing.  But there’s more..

Ben and I had the opportunity to interview quite a few people today, but there were two very distinctly different interviews that stick in our minds.

One interview was with a fellow who claimed to be a “noob” and would not call himself a Clojure developer.  Instead he explained that he came to the conference to learn more about a language that reached out to him.  He was always a fan of Lisp (a common theme), and being a Java developer, Clojure just made sense.  He went on to explain his excitement and facination with the Clojure language with the enthusiasm of a kid learning to ride a bicycle for the first time.  You could sense the freedom and joy that he had found in the language.  It’s been a very long time since I have witnessed that attitude, and it too was refreshing.

The second interview was with Stuart Halloway, CTO of Relevance, and Neal Ford, Software Architect and Meme Wrangler at ThoughtWorks (listen to the interview to hear the title explanation.. its deep), both of whom are very well known in the Clojure and Ruby communities.  In common parlance, these guys are the heavy hitters.  So I was pretty nervous interviewing them. After all, I have read their books and seen their presentations over the years.  But in reality, they are just a couple of really smart guys who are laid back and enjoy what they do.  The really seem to love it and enjoy sharing their knowledge.  Again, very refreshing (take note, other communities).

When I asked them, and I am paraphrasing (message: listen to the interview on CodeBass), “when do you see a problem and say ‘this is perfect for Clojure’?”  Their response took me off guard.  They both agreed that it’s not a problem to be solved by Clojure, but rather “let’s build the tool to solve the problem with Clojure,” again this is a rough paraphrase.  So my interpretation was that Clojure wasn’t looked at as a solution to a problem, but a means to build tools to solve a problem.  I likened it to the Hoover Damn construction, where engineers did something tremendous, but along the way they created the tools they would need to accomplish the end goal.  This too was refreshing.  It wasn’t a “well our technology fixes these problems” it was a “this technology will allow us to create tools to solve our problems” attitude.  You don’t find that attitude in many communities. Refreshing.

Overall I am blown away.  We interviewed other folks as well, and they all had similar attitudes.  The Clojure Community really is a community that doesn’t seem to be forcing their technology, but rather sharing their knowledge on how to solve problems.

So to make a long story short, we are heading over to Clojure Conj tomorrow to interview more people in their community.  So swing on by and sit down and talk.  For some reason I have a feeling we will find more of the same, community that is. Clojure, a community dedicated to solving problems.  And if you have read this whole post and are not a part of the Clojure Community, go check it out!  They even have ClojureScript, so I’m in.

We would like to take the time to give a special thanks to Muness Alrubaie, Chris Redinger, and Lynn Grogan of Relevance, for their hospitality and generosity in allowing us to be a part of Clojure Conj.  We also want to thank Charlie Griefer, Sean Corfield, and Roger Austin for being familiar faces and giving us guidance on how to behave at these public events.