Good or bad - a key skill for developers - Dutch PHP Conference 2019

A large part of being a programmer is making choices, whether it's what framework to use, what libraries to use or just how to structure code. Every day when we're programming we try to take choices that are good, and avoid choices that are bad.

But what if actually we're all terrible at telling the difference between good and bad? What if we're all just not very good at a fundamental skill needed to do our jobs?

This talk demonstrates how people fail at recognising what is good and what is bad, and how to make better decisions.

Comments

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Giso at 11:33 on 7 Jun 2019 (via Web2 LIVE)

The speaker had a rather nervous voice during the whole talk

Michelle Sanver at 12:26 on 7 Jun 2019 (via Web2 LIVE)

You could tell that Dan was nervous but it didn’t matter at all for the content of the talk. Was it good or bad? Definitely good! Made us think about the fact that... We are always so biased in our opinions and make choices that are not as informed as they always should be. There was some fun moments that lightened up the talk, such as the English language comparison and the hard to pronounce words.

Thanks for this insight. If there’s some tips I can give you: Your nervously might have limited your humor and your very expressive way of talking, it got better towards the middle/end of the talk.

I once went to an acting class and it helped me a lot to manage the symptoms of being nervous (not the nervosity itself). It’s somethong I can fully recommend let me know if you want more details about it!

Koen Cornelis at 12:58 on 7 Jun 2019 (via Web2 LIVE)

Nice talk with some very valuable insights and a couple of really fun examples. However, the statement that if you find something bad when it's widely used ... you are wrong; is one i don't agree with. It detracted from the other points made.

Wouter Kamphuis at 16:28 on 7 Jun 2019 (via Web2 LIVE)

Loved it

Tom de Wit at 00:00 on 8 Jun 2019 (via Web2 LIVE)

The message in the talk is very important and the examples given were very challenging. Even though Dan seemed a tad nervous, the message was still clear and will help future decision making.

Dennis C. at 10:10 on 8 Jun 2019 (via Web2 LIVE)

I didn’t understand the message that was trying to be conveyed. If it was that we as engineers can’t make a judgement on what things add value and what doesn’t, I felt that it was odd that the talk ended with such a judgement

Szymon Skórczyński at 20:03 on 8 Jun 2019 (via Web2 LIVE)

I was surprised by this talk. I was expecting something different from the abstract, but anyway... it's was interesting. I just had a doubt if I was in the right room in the first part, but after a while everything became clear. I think it'd be better if the talk had a different structure. Part about differences between English and PHP was very interesting, but I think it should be just the addition and it seemed to me it was the main part of the talk... Anyway, it was delivered well and I enjoyed it.