Uploaded December 2018 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Every few years, some prominent programmer writes a book containing all their best ideas: the ones that they believe helped them become the successful people that they believe that they have become. Allow me to continue this tradition by sharing a handful of ideas, techniques, or books that, it seems, have helped me get where I am today. This could be useful to you if, for some reason, you think you'd like to be where I am. (And perhaps even if you have the good sense not to want that.)
Since a talk like this could last several hours and a book like this could run for hundreds of pages (have you seen my first book?), I will try to talk only about things that have had the greatest impact on me and I will do my best to distill them down to the essential parts. I welcome questions, objections, and suggestions for alternatives! (I don't have all the answers, even though one might expect someone on stage to fool themselves into believing that they do.)
Also, let's remember that programmers live most of their life outside their code. I will include not only some ideas about programming and software design, but also a few key ideas that have helped me reduce or avoid stress at work. We probably won't see actual code, but we'll draw some lines and boxes, and as any modern software architect will tell you, the lines and boxes are the only important parts, anyway.
Every few years, some prominent programmer writes a book containing all their best ideas: the ones that they believe helped them become the successful people that they believe that they have become. Allow me to continue this tradition by sharing a handful of ideas, techniques, or books that, it seems, have helped me get where I am today. This could be useful to you if, for some reason, you think you'd like to be where I am. (And perhaps even if you have the good sense not to want that.)
Since a talk like this could last several hours and a book like this could run for hundreds of pages (have you seen my first book?), I will try to talk only about things that have had the greatest impact on me and I will do my best to distill them down to the essential parts. I welcome questions, objections, and suggestions for alternatives! (I don't have all the answers, even though one might expect someone on stage to fool themselves into believing that they do.)
Also, let's remember that programmers live most of their life outside their code. I will include not only some ideas about programming and software design, but also a few key ideas that have helped me reduce or avoid stress at work. We probably won't see actual code, but we'll draw some lines and boxes, and as any modern software architect will tell you, the lines and boxes are the only important parts, anyway.
