I always love a trip. Getting anywhere from Whitby always feels like a bit of a mission. But connecting with thousands of other developers (including Tom) IRL at #WeAreDevs and having another opportunity to explore the wonderful city of Berlin definitely made it worth the effort.
Some thoughts:
🤯 The pace of change in tech is relentless. I stopped worrying about ‘keeping up’ a long time ago. Just keep in touch is hard enough, especially for us generalists. WeAreDevelopers is a great opportunity to get a sense of where things are headed as an industry, but don’t be swept along by the hype.
🤖 The bots are coming. Get ready for AI everywhere. A small amount of it will be good and helpful, much of it won’t be. Developers love a new thing, the general public not so much. And very few technologists seem to be asking the most important questions…
🌲 Talks on the subject of ethics were poorly attended. I get it, developers want to know how to build stuff. Stopping to ask ‘why’ something should exist gets in the way of progress. But it seems like ‘ethical AI’ will soon become the ‘website accessibility’ of the 2010s – something everyone knows they should pay attention to, but few do.
🤝 Human connection is more important than ever. I heard Christian Heilmann and others saying, in a world of AI bots we need to ‘be more human’. Conferences facilitate those connections, as do local meet-ups, co-working spaces and just catching up with friends. In the busyness, let’s not lose sight of that. And let’s make sure we consider the humans who will use the tools we build, not just as data points in a system.
🔧 Complicated systems, stuff built with loads of dependencies and whatnot are prone to failure and more difficult to maintain. I always love hearing about the new features in HTML & CSS, which facilitate better tools whilst being a fundamental part of the technology we build with, not an add-on. Keep things simple, maintainable, useful.
🪴 Finding ways to grow throughout a long career is vital, particularly in an industry which is constantly moving. I loved being part of this year’s #CODE100 – a little thing in the grand scheme, but something which helped me get myself back in ‘developer mode’ over this past year.
🇩🇪 Berlin is a great city. I’d recommend you visit it. Friendly atmosphere, easy to get around, lovely people, great food (and beer). This time I visited the Topography of Terror museum, on the site of the SS headquarters. An honest and comprehensive account of systematic terror and persecution. Sadly, so relevant today.
