Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
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Communication: it's the oldest problem we have. It's already hard enough to talk to people, but as software engineers we have to talk to computers as well - often at the same time. Getting communication wrong leads to problems anywhere between 'my code is buggy' to 'this project is 6 months overdue and doesn't meet any of the requirements'. There are thousands of books, webinars and conference talks out there about how to communicate more effectively, and we still haven't figured it out.
In this talk, I'll take you through some rigorous frameworks for thinking about communication, and explain how they can help you talk both to people and to computers. I'll argue that it's actually much easier to communicate with computers than other human beings, and that the inability to communicate perfectly isn't a failure - it's normal. Finally, I'll talk about what all of this means for us as engineers, designers and producers of software, and what we can do to make all our lives a little easier.
Please subscribe to our YouTube channel @ youtube.com/@DevoxxForever
Subscribe to LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/company/voxxed-days-amsterdam
Follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/voxxedamsterdam
Communication: it's the oldest problem we have. It's already hard enough to talk to people, but as software engineers we have to talk to computers as well - often at the same time. Getting communication wrong leads to problems anywhere between 'my code is buggy' to 'this project is 6 months overdue and doesn't meet any of the requirements'. There are thousands of books, webinars and conference talks out there about how to communicate more effectively, and we still haven't figured it out.
In this talk, I'll take you through some rigorous frameworks for thinking about communication, and explain how they can help you talk both to people and to computers. I'll argue that it's actually much easier to communicate with computers than other human beings, and that the inability to communicate perfectly isn't a failure - it's normal. Finally, I'll talk about what all of this means for us as engineers, designers and producers of software, and what we can do to make all our lives a little easier.
![[VDBUH2026] Alexander Chatzizacharias: How to build your own fun and absurd pair programmer](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jnPtYh-n0LM/mqdefault.jpg "[VDBUH2026] Alexander Chatzizacharias: How to build your own fun and absurd pair programmer
Tired of AI assistants that are always so boring and soulless? Alexander was. So, he decided to build his own. An AI assistant with personality, flair, and a healthy dose of sarcasm. Imagine a pair programmer that offers sarcastic feedback, makes absurd suggestions, and threatens to blow up your code when it disagrees with your changes. And when things get too quiet, it might even challenge you to a game of tic-tac-toe.
This session is for anyone who believes the best way to learn new technologies is by playfully breaking them. If you’re curious about LLMs and agents beyond the typical use cases, this talk is for you. You’ll leave with practical insights into building your own agentic LLM workflows using Spring Boot, vector databases, and locally running models. Alexander will talk about Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) flows that feed LLMs the right context, multi-vector search for fast context retrieval, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations that let the assistant directly meddle with your file system.
Come to learn, chuckle, and get inspired to create your own dysfunctional digital sidekick.")
