Debug your thinking - Laila Bougria - NDC Sydney 2024

This talk was recorded at NDC Sydney in Sydney, Australia. #ndcsydney #ndcconferences #developer #softwaredeveloper
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#methodology #engineering
There’s a myriad of complexity involved in building systems. However, two decades in software engineering taught me what truly makes or breaks a system: decisions. It’s not the programming language, the data store, the deployment model, or [insert your favorite tech here]. It’s about the decisions made and the ripple effects they cause. We spend endless hours trying to keep up with the latest and greatest in an industry that sprints faster than a caffeinated cheetah... But how much time was invested in questioning, improving, or, essentially, debugging our thinking process?
How do you structure your decisions, and how do they affect the software you build? When suboptimal decisions occur, do you reflect on the decision-making process itself? I've spent the last few years debugging my decision-making thought process, placing breakpoints to inspect which assumptions got me here and what alternatives I may have missed. As a result, my thought process became much more structured and streamlined, leading to better-balanced decisions. Join me in this session to explore how critical thinking can transform our decision-making process and elevate the quality of the solutions we build for our users.

[@Flavelius]

A good presentation, and a lot of useful ideas. Thanks

[@user-dq7vo6dy7g]

Good talk.
Assumption is my big thinking point of the last months.
Wrong assumptions is the source of every mistake, bug or whatever.
- I assumed the library would handle it
- I assumed that was how the field is called
- I assumed the server could handle the new load
- I assumed users would use it this way
- I assumed that was what I should do
So elementary, questioning our assumptions is the number one way of increasing the quality and correctness of our outputs. And I believe building a system or habits to better check assumption will grow us as developers greatly.
In the end, there are always assumptions too expensive to check - but being aware of those problems already helps a lot. Also interesting to talk of kevlin, with un/knows un/knowables.

[@NevadaWilliford]

Hi Laila. This was a very useful talk. I've listened to a lot of presentations from a lot of conferences. This one is toward the top of my list.
We get so caught up in the technologies and solutions we surround ourselves with that we don't work on improving our number one asset, our mind. Making better decisions is the number one thing we can do to improve our lives and the lives of everyone around us.
Starting with the small ones we make everyday. For me, that includes watching this talk while having my Saturday morning coffee!

[@panosdotnet]

I am asynchronous, you can't easily debug me.

[@BryonLape]

50 years of stupidity from business and they still completely mismanage software projects.