You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read. I can’t remember who said that, but you could describe that sentence as the late 2008 rails community theme (aside from the other ‘will I have a job in 2009′ theme.)
I’ll go back and cover the Chris Wanstrath talk in a bit. Generally I’ve noticed that the topic of the season is brand building. Jay Fields has talked extensively about his efforts and how it lead to a better job with a bigger salary. Chad Fowler talked eloquently about being notable. And ‘Dr Nic’ – Nic Williams – talked about ‘the future you’. The future you who will be thankful that you blogged at work about your code, and invested in an open source library or two, and got feedback on your code. Hyperbolically, Dr. Nic says that it’s worth it, even if you get fired – the future you will be grateful.