Presentation: TweetProfessional Productivity - Part 1

Small talks of 15 minutes each.

Prioritization and how to make sure that you work on the most important thing each day

Bjorn Freeman-Benson

You have too much to do each day. In fact, you have too much to do even if you worked 24x7. The solution is both very simple to describe and very hard to implement in practice: Prioritize. The problem is that the easy stuff keeps taking precedence over the hard stuff. My advice is the same as many others' advice: Make Lists. The key to my advice is how to make those lists and how to establish the habit of using them.

Profiling applications with New Relic

Patrick Linskey

Once your product is up and running, how do you make sure it stays that way? How do you measure the experiences of your customers? How do you find bottlenecks in the system?

On our team, New Relic is a key part of the answer to all those questions. We'll take a look at the New Relic console for a running app to see how this all works.

Changing your habits and environment to get more professional productivity

Linda Rising

Those of us who struggle with complex problems for a living, unfortunately, don't have time to keep up with the enormous amount of research in cognitive science that would help us be better thinkers. Linda Rising will share one small but important bit of advice that she has uncovered--the power of movement. Some of what she will say will be surprising, even counterintuitive. Linda will report on the research and provide some tips for better thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making.

Presentation: TweetHard things made easy - Part 2

How to make your first (£€$) million

John T Davies

"Un-employable" John will cover some of the basics of being an entrepreneur in the IT world, creating a business from nothing and selling it for millions, do you have it in you?

From zero to a hello world app on the iPhone

John T Davies

RaspberryPi, Android, Mac, PC, you could probably write software for any of them but getting started on the iPhone has got to be one of the easiest and most rewarding. With several successful apps in the app store John is now trying to teach programming to his 3 young boys, if his 9 year old can do it so can you!

Mysteries of floating point computation

John Cook

Why do floating point calculations work just fine sometimes and mysteriously fail at other times? Can you predict how much error to expect in floating point?

This talk will review the anatomy of floating point numbers, explain common problems with floating point calculations, and explain how to avoid these problems.

How to design

Linda Rising

Presentation: TweetThe Agile Mindset -- and beyond

Researchers have identified that we hold one of two mindsets toward ability: (1) that we have a fixed amount of talent or intelligence, what we are born with and there’s nothing we can do about it; (2) that we are born with a certain amount of talent or intelligence, but we can all improve by working hard. These two mindsets: “fixed” and “agile” not only determine how we feel about our own success or failure but also how we feel about others. Researchers tell us that we are hardwired to stereotype others based on a very small amount of information. Now they say there is a connection between our mindset and how quickly we judge others and how open we are to seeing how others can improve. If we can do a better job of holding an agile mindset, just imagine how much more creative, innovative, and cooperative our workplaces and homes can be.

Workshop: Influence Strategies for Practitioners Tweet

You’ve tried and tried to convince people of your position. You’ve laid out your logical arguments on impressive PowerPoint slides—but you are still not able to sway them. Cognitive scientists understand that the approach you are taking is rarely successful. Often you must speak to others’ subconscious motivators rather than their rational, analytic side. Linda Rising shares influence strategies that you can use to more effectively convince others to see things your way. These strategies take advantage of a number of hardwired traits: “liking”—we like people who are like us; “reciprocity”—we repay in kind; “social proof”—we follow the lead of others similar to us; “consistency”—we align ourselves with our previous commitments; “authority”—we defer to authority figures; and “scarcity”—we want more of something when there is less to be had. Learn how to build on these traits as a way of bringing others to your side. Use this valuable toolkit in addition to the logical left-brain techniques on which we depend.

Workshop: Problem-solving and Decision-making in Software Development Tweet

For those of us who struggle with complex problems for a living, unfortunately, don't have time to keep up with the enormous amount of research in cognitive science that would help us be better thinkers.
Linda Rising will share what she has been able to uncover. Some of it is surprising, even counterintuitive. Linda will report on the research and provide some tips for better thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making.