Ben Ramsey has posted "live" from the PHP Appalachia (un)conference on his blog today, and talks about the "community of diverse backgrounds" that's come up there at the conference.

To me, it's always very interesting to hear to the pre-PHP stories of other PHP programmers—the days before they programmed in PHP, what they did and how they came to call themselves PHP programmers. The stories vary greatly from programmer to programmer, and almost none begin with: "I was working toward a degree in computer science …."

In fact, the more people I talk with, the more I'm convinced that the typical PHP programmer, in fact, sort of got to where they are by an odd arrangement of life circumstances we call coincidences. Almost none elected to be where they are, but nearly all enjoy the work they do, many to a great degree of passion.

He talks about the conversation serveral attendees had, mentioning some of their backgrounds (anything from marine biology to organizational behavior).