“I don’t know”. These might just be the hardest words to say in any language. We avoid saying them, scared of coming across as doubtful and uncertain. This fear is understandable as we admire those who are knowledgeable and confident, even more so in a professional context.
When you think of a software developer what comes to mind? A programmer living in San Francisco working 23 hours a day on the next Facebook? If so, you wouldn’t be alone. Like so many industries, software development is rife with stereotypes. And one that is particularly pervasive is the …
What makes software development complex isn’t the code, it’s the humans. The most effective way to improve our capabilities in software development is to better understand ourselves. This talk introduces a conceptual model for human interaction, identity, culture, communication, relationships, and learning based on the foundational model of Idea Flow. …
I’m willing to bet that you want to become a better software engineer and problem-solver. You have probably already seen the benefits of exploring unfamiliar technologies, patterns, algorithms and approaches that make you better at your job, leading to efficiency gains and innovations at your company.
This talk traces back the steps of the programmer profession to its beginnings over 70 years ago, and reflects on how those beginnings might have shaped our image of programmers. The “programmer brand” in society today is still the omnipresent stereotype of a socially-awkward, white man.
The history of software development is rich with extraordinary individuals whose knowledge of their systems was unrivalled. But in 2016, where distributed systems and machine learning are ubiquitous and the average web app uses two frameworks, four languages and six caching layers, does it make any sense to talk about …
