Earlier this summer I attended the Lead Developer Conference in London run by my employer's sister company, White October Events. As usual when attending any technical conference, I've been been thinking more about my personal development and my career. Here are a few of my favorite talks from this year's Lead Developer Conference that have influenced how I've approached this period of reflection.
Katherine Wu - Ask vs Guess Cultures
This is a fantastic talk that explores the differences in the way that we communicate with each other. I've forwarded this talk to several of my colleagues and after discussing these differences together we're already finding it easier together.
Lara Hogan - Leading by Speaking
I am not a natural speaker. I know I need to work on my public speaking, and I want to. I've bookmarked this to help encourage me to work on this more. So should you.
Sally Jenkinson - Making the Leap from Execution to Strategy
I has been a focus of mine recently to think about strategy, what's next, and what direction I want my career path to take. This talk has helped me to reflect on these things.
Nickolas Means - The Original Skunk Works
This gentleman knows how to tell a good tale. He uses different types of engineering examples to help us better understand how we should approach problems when building software.
I'll not go into the learning outcomes of this, because it'll spoil the story for you, just watch it. Also, here's the 2016 one about how to crash and airplane and the building built on stilts.
Randall Koutnik - Rethinking the Developer Career Path
An interesting take on developer job titles and roles. Covers the roles of:
- Solution Implementer
- Problem Solver
- Problem Finder