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Comment by polartx | Hacker News Reader

A couple years ago I found myself at a user conference party for the funded SaaS company I worked for. The concert was complete with open cocktail bar, Cirque du Soleil aerial performers, and (you guessed it), Flo-Rida.

For a while I couldn't decide if it was life imitating art, or a tongue-in-cheek nod to the stereotype we were seen as. But it wasn't the latter, the founder/president wasn't that self-aware.

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Flo-Rida performed at NIPS. The top academic ML conference.

I can't imagine who thought that the community of some of the world's biggest nerds wanted to listen to Flo-Rida !?

I was at NeurIPS last year, and I can actually confirm that the line to see Flo-Rida went around the block. It's unclear to me whether or not there was genuine interest in the performance, but there was certainly interest in the event.

Say what you will about the world's biggest nerds, but irony, whether purposeful or inexplicably accidental, is not lost on them.

Ninja Edit: New conference name :)

> NeurIPS

That was fast.

I was all for a name change from a juvenile pun, but "NeurIPS" is hilariously bad. It confirms, that everyone but the press, continues calling it NIPS.

> line to see Flo-Rida went around the block

I mean, if it was a free (already paid for) concert, then I would go for it too.

Not just free concert but free food and booze.

BTW the whole renaming of NIPS to NeurIPS could be an episode of SV, where a board of directors are all offended by names of body parts!

Let's just ignore the racial epithet part shall we?

"Nip" used to be a somewhat common perjorative term for Japanese (i.e. Nipponese; the Japanese word for Japan is Nippon). In case anyone else was confused by this comment.

I've never heard it used in this context, but I guess people can get offended by pretty much anything these days.

It’s real but old timey. Unless you’re quite a bit older than the HN average, you probably wouldn’t have heard it. That, of course, doesn’t mean it’s ok.

Or you read Cryptonomicon.

"So tell me, what's wrong with the Proceedings of Neural Information Systems again?"

I think a lot of those nerds maybe skipped the dance parties in college, and skipped going to the club as an adult. The experience of being at this kind of event, but where you're the guest of honor instead of an out-of-place spectator, is enticing.

Of course I'm not trying to say all ML researchers are dweebs, but if that description applies to 10% of attendees, you've got a line.

Flo-rida has just been smart about capitalizing on that easy valley money. I’ve been to several parties where he performs and gotten on stage with him during Dreamforce.

maybe easy money but I'm sure he's all about the networking and trying to get into oppertunities to invest in.

He’s probably receiving equity in lieu of cash payment for his services.

Mr. Florida.

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