So, the Podlodka season about Compose has ended (almost). It was optimistic of me to plan so many things outside of work for such a short week after the holidays. Especially considering I was a speaker. Before our talk, we prepared intensively, and after, we tried hard to recover from the stress.
But today is Saturday, and this morning I managed to catch up on everything I missed during the week. I'd say the season started really hardcore with the guts of modifiers and tests. So much so that it wasn't easy for me to digest in the background. Unlike the previous season about automation, I can't associate myself as closely with the content, and most of it doesn't fit into my Pareto 20%. I just don't dig that deep and wide into Compose. The main benefit of this season for me is that when I need to dive into the remaining 80%, I now know where to go and rewatch.
I was a bit disappointed by the round table/interview formats with several people at once. This isn't something specific to Podlodka; at offline conferences, it's also pretty boring on average. I don't like that in this format, guests seem to hear the hosts' topics for the first time and reluctantly respond to them because they're not very experienced speakers (like all of us), and they haven't really prepared. You can pick up some insights bit by bit and think them through, but you understand that in a talk that's been rehearsed several times, speakers worry much more about wording and narrative. And the value in the output turns out to be much more concentrated. I lack structure; there's too much freedom.
Over time, the level dropped a bit, and in the end, all sessions were cool in their own way. For myself, I would especially note the talks about Compose Multiplatform by Timur Chikishev, and (surprisingly) about Android TV by Maxim Romanov. Although where am I, and where are TVs or CMP? Probably, they were how I like them - quite general, not very complex, and they got some thoughts moving in my head. I'll also note Nikita Soznik's talk about custom components for the design system, since I see myself in this topic and therefore understand the pain.
The mock interview by Evgeny Meltsaikin was also unexpectedly good, although you may know how I usually cringe at this format. An awesome task, a great "candidate". This can quite well be considered a full-fledged talk because a lot of things were discussed, and you could organize some moments in your head.
In short, it was great, as always. Random coffee and the Friday bar (even though we couldn't stay longer) are exactly what makes it worth going to such events.