The insight-industrial complex

I read much faster than people talk, so they’re not a good way for me to learn things... the actual goal... is to reify the importance and social status of the conference organizers and speakers... There seems to be a widespread mindset that all you really need to succeed is insight... what separates success from failure is a sufficiency of sage advice...
if you’re doing something genuinely interesting, then nobody really knows what the hell is going to work or not yet; and if you aren’t, then ... execution... will make the difference. Either way, pearls of wisdom seem pretty extraneous... What does help is learning from others’ mistakes... hearing people being challenged professionally... All too many formal, paid conferences, though, are part of what I call the “insight-industrial complex”: people flock to them to hear quasi-famous people rattle off pseudo-wise sound bites devoid of any actual value.