Conclusion: Doing it with style

If you work too hard, you are not working smart. The practices I've described are intended to help you work smart.

One thing many hackers have in common with many SF fans is the combination of poor socialization with intelligence and a problem-solving attitude. While the poor socialization can make both kinds of attendees irritating to deal with, the intelligence and problem-solving attitude means they also tend to be very productive if you know how to manage them.

Accordingly, work on your communication and persuasion skills -- and use them to offload as much of the work as possible onto gofers and random volunteers recruited on the spot. Don't think of this as laziness, think of it as self-preservation.