The Unbearable Lightness of Being Matz

Yukihiro Matsumoto goes by the name "Matz". He's been going by it so long that I'm sure few people know his full name, being typically polysyllabic as Japanese names are wont to be.

Asian society tends to favor modesty, and so I had come to the talk a little late, but then it was running late anyway. "Matz" had been sitting up in the front row (I was in the front row, but off to the side) with his mini laptop clicking away on previous days. At least, they had a spot for him. But today, he stood near the back for some of the talks, standing, because, he wasn't going to be so presumptuous as to take someone's seat. After all, he's a nice guy.

But it's still interesting to see, that a society that emphasize modesty and circumspection affects its people so profoundly. You never know. Maybe Matz is really proud of what he's done, and perhaps that has gone to his head, but no one much could tell if that were the case.

It's a bit of a contrast to DHH who kinda revels in his rock star status, wearing his slightly modern indie dragon clothing. To be fair, Matz wears a leather jacket, jeans and nice shoes, creating the aura of Western cool, combined with typical Japanese reserve (mostly the language).

I had bumped into some woman getting an omelette this morning. She was asking what was going on in the conference, and the guy making omelettes said there was a Ruby conference (in addition to weddings and such). So I explained a bit about Ruby to her, which is to say that I told her it was a programming language (had no idea if this even rung a bell) and that the inventor of the language had come from Japan, and people were there to see him.

That wasn't entirely true, but neither was it entirely false. She seemed amused at the idea, but I'm sure had, say, the President been there, a guy who had invented nothing (or at least half-truths), she would have found that desperately profound. Things only seem silly in their context, but we all do sillier things, find things profound where others chuckle at the seriousness of it all.

I suppose I have a sense that being in the back of the room resembles some feeble analogy to Rosa Parks, but I guess it's all good. I'm sure Matz was compensated for his trip, and even if there wasn't some stately throne for him to sit, eventually, he found some place to sit.