Closing Keynote for EmberConf 2015

1. EMBERCONF
2015
The conference for ambitious web developers

2. COMING SOON!
THE TITLE OF THIS TALK. EVIDENTLY.
Apropos. Tom & Yehuda aren’t the only ones who can announce things that haven’t shipped yet. More on that later.

3. THANK YOU
LEAH, KAIT, & VOLUNTEERS

4. STORY TIME
ONCE UPON A TIME…
June 2008: 1st conf: Railsconf. 2 OSS patches to Sass.
September 2009: Yehuda helped me with a compass/rubygems issue for an hour.
September 2010: Yehuda asks me if I think he should make js frameworks for a living.

5. WHY ME?
I’M NOT AN AVID EMBER USER
My first job was writing a very ambitious JS app. it only worked in IE5.
But I helped make a thing called Sass.
Show of hands?

6. LINKEDIN
WE ❤️ OSS.
!
WE’RE HIRING!
Photo Credit: @apotts15

7. RUBY SASS IN THE JS WORLD
👎👎👎
Slow
Hard to manage dependencies
Hard to manage dev & build deployments

8. ANNOUNCING: EYEGLASS
DISTRIBUTE SASS EXTENSIONS AS
NPM MODULES FOR LIBSASS

9. ANNOUNCING: EYEGLASS
THE BEST PARTS OF SASS & COMPASS
WORKING WITH THE BEST TOOLS JS HAS TO OFFER
What it isn’t:
* CSS prefixer (Use autoprefixer for that)
* A bunch of Sass Mixins (That’s the community’s job)

10. ANNOUNCING: EYEGLASS
SASS COMMUNITY FOR JAVASCRIPT
What it is:
* Just enough to get Sass extensions for node-sass to play nicely with each other
* Other modules that give you access to the good parts of compass (URL configuration, asset inlining, sprite
generation, math, etc.)

11. ANNOUNCING: DEVELOPER PREVIEW
HTTPS://GITHUB.COM/SASS-EYEGLASS/EYEGLASS
Blocked on node-sass 3.0 release (~2-3 weeks)
If you’re interested in helping develop or building extensions ready for launch.

12. COME FOR THE TECHNOLOGY
STAY FOR THE ❤️ 💛 💚💙💜

13. COMMUNITY IS
INTENTIONAL
Cannot be an after thought.

14. COMMUNITY IS
INTEGRAL TO FRAMEWORKS

15. COMMUNITY IS
HOW IT’S BUILT

16. COMMUNITY IS
HOW IT’S EXTENDED

17. COMMUNITY IS
HOW IT’S MAINTAINED

18. COMMUNITY IS
HOW IT SUCCEEDS

19. COMMUNITY IS
YOU
Ember core team knows this and have focused on community from day one. Ember wasn’t dropped fully formed
from MegaCorp, Inc.

20. I’m going to let you in on the secret to a vibrant community

21. –Bill S. Preston, Esq.
“Be excellent to each
other.”
Seriously. How fucking hard is it to be nice to each other?

22. –Jesus H. Christ
“Turn the other cheek.”
actually pretty hard.
easy: nice people.
hard: naysayers, entitled jerks, had a bad day,

23. –Mom
“If you can’t say something nice,
don’t say anything at all.”

24. –Chris Eppstein
“Don’t be a Sasshole.”
I was the first Sasshole.

25. JAVASCRIPT COMMUNITY
YOU’RE KINDA JERKS TO EACH OTHER

26. JAVASCRIPT COMMUNITY
YOU’RE KINDA JERKS TO EACH OTHER
OPEN SOURCE

27. EVERY CONFERENCE HAS AT
LEAST ONE OF THESE:

29. UNSURPRISINGLY
THERE WERE SOME
REPLIES.

30. I GET IT
I’M GUILTY OF THIS TOO.
Marsellus Wallace said it best

32. –Tyler Durden, probably
“You are not your OSS contributions.”
You worked hard, maybe it was even your personal idea. But the people attacking it are not attacking *you*.

33. IF YOU HAVE FEELS
STEP AWAY FROM THE KEYBOARD
Tom, Yehuda, I’m looking at you buddies.

37. CONUNDRUM
HOW TO COMPETE WITHOUT NEGATIVITY?
Respect your competitor

38. COMPARISONS
NATURAL AND NECESSARY
!
BUT CAN EASILY BE HARMFUL.

39. ATTACK THEIR
WEAKNESSES
IGNORE THEIR
STRENGTHS
Every piece of software makes tradeoffs.
If you do this you’re not being fair.
You’re also not going to be respected.

40. –Bernard Meltzer
“If you have learned how to disagree without
being disagreeable, then you have discovered
the secret of getting along — whether it be
business, family relations, or life itself.”

41. WHAT IF?
THIS COMPLETELY CHANGES THE TONE OF
THE CONVERSATION.
Not
Respect people enough to let them draw their own conclusions.

42. CONFIDENCE
IS KNOWING YOU
DON’T NEED TO
ENGAGE.
At one point, when I was younger, I had a sports car…
Jeff croft: stop defending what you make, it’s good and your work speaks for itself.
EMBER IS GOOD. LET IT GO. Sass didn’t lose because I started ignoring negative people.

43. –Tom Dale
“I feel like Ember is ‘beleaguered’
similar to Apple in its early years.”
Tom, I want to challenge this perception.
Even though, this has probably served you well. I know how motivating it can be.

44. WHY IS EMBER GOING TO WIN?
There’s 625 of you here who are betting on ember. Why?
(answers from audience)

45. WHAT DOES “WIN” EVEN MEAN?
Most users?
Fastest?
Most big brands?
Easiest?

46. –Dad
“Find a job you love and
you’ll never work a day in your life.”

47. –Me
“Use a framework you love and
you’ll never work a day in your life.”

48. DO YOU LOVE EMBER?
Photo Credit: http://images.elephantjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/raised-hands.jpg

49. CONGRATULATIONS
YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY WON.

50. IF “WIN” MEANS BEING #1
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR
YOU JUST MAY GET IT.

51. BEING #1 MEANS:
• Being the default choice.
• Support is WAY HARDER
• Community? Good luck.
• Enter a lottery to attend
EmberConf 2020?
50% of programmers are of below average ability.

52. BEING #2 IS THE SWEET SPOT.
• People pick you because
they know it’s a good fit.
• Less support ➔ more time
to focus on quality.
• Better fit of users ➔ better
community.
Apple hasn’t won in spite of being “beleaguered” I would argue it does so well because of it.
Many of you here may not realize it, but Sass has actually been #2 for most of it’s life. Less, was easier to install and
use and it became the default choice for many years. It grew too fast and collapsed under the weight of the user
base.

53. DON’T STOP LEARNING FROM
OTHERS
• But maybe stop
competing with them.
• Do what you do because
you love it.
• Use what you use because
you love it.

54. YOU MAY END UP #1 ANYWAY
HOPEFULLY YOU’LL BE READY BY THEN

55. THANK YOU!
I’ve loved hanging out with
you.
Please keep in touch!
@chriseppstein
I’m excited to be making Sass better for folks like yourselves and I’m excited to see how Ember & Sass in
combination can accomplish more than either of them in isolation.