Thursday
Room 4
10:20 - 11:20
Session (60 min)
Language Games
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.
Eli Holderness
Eli has been in tech since being released back into the wild from studying maths at university 7 years ago. They've spent their time working in industries ranging from telecoms to biotech to analog circuit design, continually getting nerd-sniped along the way. These days, they're a freelancer who speaks at conferences, runs workshops, and learns whatever they want. In their spare time, they like to play video games, knit and sew, and hang out with their cat.