Since Jeff and I are looking for something to do on Monday (March 20) in San Jose for dinner, and Joel Spolsky’s going to be speaking at EclipseCon in Santa Clara that week, I thought I’d check the JoS discussion forums and see if there was going to be a meetup.
I met Joel at a lunch he organized in Toronto last winter. It was a pretty cool experience, having read so many of his essays. The first one I read from him was on starting an ISV (Microsoft term for any software vendor besides Microsoft). It really stuck with me and started me thinking a little differently about business. That was years ago and I don’t think I could find the particular essay let alone cite the bits that got to me, but at the time I spread it around because I found that Joel looked at things differently and expressed his ideas so clearly.
I didn’t see anything about a lunch or dinner going on the first time I looked. I emailed Joel and haven’t heard back yet (no worries, it’s only been a few days and he must get bags of mail). It looks like he has a crazy speaking schedule, so maybe he can’t do the informal get-togethers anymore. My next search on the discussion forums did turn up a question about a Santa Clara meetup - don’t know how I missed it the first time. Unfortunately comments are closed because of the age of the thread, so I’m resurrecting the idea here.
I got so charged up by hanging out and chatting with other software developers at the last get-together that I thought it’d be a good idea to go ahead and get in touch with some people so we can get a few people togather, have some dinner and have some talk about software, business, games and internet stuff.
My initial suggestion here is for the House of Siam at 55 South Market Street in San Jose 151 South Second Street, San Jose(updated, see below) at 5:006:30 on Monday, March 20. I suggest this restaurant because both Jeff and I have been there a couple times and liked it and they’ve got good vegetarian options. It’s not nearly as formal as their web site lets on. I’m sure they could handle the crowd of five or ten people that I expect will turn up.
If you plan to show then add your comment to this post (they’re moderated, so don’t sweat it if it doesn’t show up immediately). Also check back here before you head out there since plans change.
Update: Of course plans do change, but only slightly. There’s no more House of Siam at 55 South Market, it’s in a new location just a couple blocks away at 151 South Second Street between a Starbuck’s and a Quiznos.
It sounds like there should be about seven of us there so far, I’ve made a reservation with room for some more people to join us, so if you’re interested then the invite is still open.