Dutch PHP Conference 2018
7 - 9 Jun 2018
at RAI amsterdam
Talk comments
Brilliant talk, speaker and amazing stage presence.
IMHO a must see talk for all devs
Interesting talk, speaker was really good.
To get 5*:
- bit more engagement, I know it's a hard subject but show some passion!
Rating this talk is extremely hard. If I had the opportunity to split up my rating into several different aspects, I would. As it stands though, I'm afraid I have to stick with "had potential".
In a technical manner, this keynote as outstanding. The usage of not just static slides but moving image (whether or not with sound) made it very dynamic. Timing was excellent, and while I have high expectations of Thijs (since I know him to be an excellent speaker) this definitely went beyond all my expectations. Fantastic!
In terms of content, I am afraid that I do not agree and even think some of the things you said may be hurtful. I certainly related to several parts of the talk and liked what you were trying to say, however messages like "people do not care about your problems" or even "if you don't succeed, work harder" are dangerous to say. The former message could lead people with mental health issues deeper into their problems, the latter might drive people to burn out.
Just to be clear, there were many parts that were great. I absolutely loved your story about the vlogging with Brugge. That was inspiring. This keynote has great potential, but in its current form, I'm sorry, it is not a good closing keynote.
Not really much too say, talk was great, speaker as well, really good amount of theory & practice, sprinkled with 1st hand experience.
Learned things about the history of tech, and had a lot of laughs.
Had a lot of fun during this talk, and learned new things as well.
Talk was decent, but tried to cover too much at the same time, which made it unable to go in depth on anything, instead only giving a really high-level view
Good talk about exceptions/ edge cases.
A few slides were meant to be funny/ a joke, but they weren't 'presented' as a joke. T-shirts gag was fun though
I like you Thijs, your enthusiasm, your hard work, your evangelism, and I like everything you do for the community. Which makes it hard to give you negative feedback, but I have to do it. I saw that I'm not the only one who thought that the message you delivered isn't a good one. At least, not for everyone. Though as a fellow speaker and writer I can relate to several key moments in your career, I think almost any developer doesn't need any of this career advice. If anything, they may feel bad if they don't speak at meetups, write blogs, etc. (I've talked to many devs who show signs that they feel bad about themselves for this). The famous-developer career is not everyone's dream.
The issue of inclusiveness is a big one to me personally too. It's not just about how many women or people of color you have in the room, it's about the mindset or the world perspective the representatives, e.g. the speakers have. Yours, and mine, are the perspective of white heterosexual wealthy healthy male person. That means that to be inclusive, we need to do a lot of work. We can't just say that we have to work hard and be passionate, and that we can thereby tweak the variables and be successful, reach goals etc. (or else we're lazy maybe). We have a lot of things that help us without us noticing it, and there are many other people who are limited in that respect, which is why we attribute success to our own actions.
Anyway, this is about the message, not the delivery, which was awesome and inspiring itself. I liked the way you told your stories, and how engaging they were, with a lively voice and movement on stage. Best of luck reaching that 200th talk!
Great presentation, amazing speaker but I disagree with the content.
At the end of the talk, I was really really amazed, clear 5* but started thinking how privilege wasnt included in that whole talk.
Thijs, I'm not sure if you are aware of the amount of privilege you have, something that you were given by your family and community, something lots of people do not have. I know, you wanted to say: 'grab chances, no one will do the work instead of you' but you have to understand that without the privelege of being born/raised in Belgium, most of those opportunities would not be even offered to you.
As you used Gary for some videos, do you think he would be here if he wasnt raised in Brooklyn? If his father didnt have a discount store that he built into a big bussiness?
Having and grabbing opportunities are completely different things. I would love to have a chat with you if you want to disccuss this subject further (but please do take into consideration that I do consider myself a priviledged person as well).