Quote from: MPOE-PR on June 10, 2013, 01:23:08 PM

Quote from: crazy_rabbit on June 10, 2013, 06:09:12 AM

People are a valuable resource- the most valuable in terms of something like bitcoin.

I think that's a common misconception. Selected people are the most valuable resource, much like selected earths are the most valuable resource. People generally are about as valuable as dirt generally.

Quote from: crazy_rabbit on June 10, 2013, 06:09:12 AM

conferences means educating larger number of people about bitcoin, proselytizing the bitcoin philosophy, building local bitcoin communities and creating new networks of individuals with a common goal.

I'll be a darling and not bitch about extraneous s's (this, incidentally, is a figure of speech, goes by the name apophasis) but I can't pass the remarkable "proselytizing the philosophy". This is also a figure of speech, you name it.

So here's the thing: unless the "Bitcoin philosophy" is rampant Icandoeverything mixed with Thisisthesecretbankershate-howaretardmadebazillions, with the obvious heap of Imascammerhearmeroar piled on top (look here, and here) I have no idea what exactly you imagine these conferences are proselytizing.

A nice place for Jared Kenna to go pretend he didn't scam the users of the (at the time) second largest exchange (seriously, what happened to the Dwolla lawsuit?), as if that does anything. A nice place for Vehehes to pretend like the "Bitcoin Foundation" has anything to do with Bitcoin, and that it's ok for the unelected president to be the unelected secretary, and that it's okay to use donation funds to prop his own private ventures, and so on and so forth. A nice place for retards that can't read code but love to write (bad, useless, buggy code) to go and snort together over lifesize anorexic 16yos drawn on posters and pillows. Seriously man, snap out of it. Conferences measure nothing and never have.

Quote from: crazy_rabbit on June 10, 2013, 06:09:12 AM

It's difficult to measure infrastructure directly

No, actually, it's not. Looky here. Do the math of what exactly those numbers mean and you might suddenly realize why your agreeing with what MP says is moot, and why your considerations of "magic numbers" are wholly out of place.

This isn't a magic numbers game, we're not all fuzzy inside and magically equally entitled and equally important. The whole "every man's a vote" or "everyone has a soul" and gathering together to wait for catered meals doesn't change the world.

Infrastructure is extremely easy to measure, and accurately. The problem is that most nobody wants to either do it or see it done, and this is because of the dirt generally issue above. It's unflattering to the cherished delusions of the crowd.

Sometimes otherwise smart people say profoundly stupid things.