Software Is Details • Kevlin Henney • GOTO 2020

This presentation was recorded at GOTOpia Europe 2020. #GOTOcon #GOTOpia

Kevlin Henney - Editor of two books both including '97' in the title; excellent and entertaining on stage. One of our favorite quotes by Kevlin: "Less code = less bugs" @KevlinHenney

ABSTRACT
Whether it's about implementation or requirements, Kevlin suggests that the word detail is often used to indicate something is not important enough to worry about.
The problem is that in software, the details matter because that's what software is: lots of details brought together in combination. If we don't focus on the details, we get debt, defects and delays [...]

TIMECODES
00:00 Intro
01:24 Quote Meir M Lehman
03:48 Quote Edsger W Dijkstra
05:40 Quote Peter Weinberger
05:51 Quote Marissa Mayer
06:51 Quote Will Gompertz
08:18 Software Architecture
10:42 Quote Grady Booch
14:29 Example: Google Maps Paris
16:40 Execution software architecture
17:58 Cloneable
22:21 Quote Tom Gilb
25:00 WordFriday
27:10 Quote Jack W Reeves
27:33 Quote Donald Knuth
28:15 Sort
34:06 Left-pad incident
37:17 Quote David Parnas
38:05 The world of code
40:06 Schiaparelli anomaly
42:26 Assumptions
45:35 Quote Neal Ford
48:24 Quote Robert M Pirsig

Download slides and read the full abstract here:

Check out our upcoming masterclasses with Kevlin Henney here:

RECOMMENDED BOOKS

#SoftwareEngineering #SoftwareDevelopment #Details #Programming #KevlinHenney

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[HeilTec]

Kevlin Henney's ability to continuously improve on previously given talks makes them worthwhile hearing again and again.

[Tubingonline]

This is a gem! Have been listening to a lot of software architecture talks lately, this talk is on another level and even then so practical and real.

[FalkorX]

This dude is my hero when it comes to software development in so many ways and it always blows my mind when I see his talks. Then 8:52 comes around and it turns out he even has the same Cern mug that I have on my desk. Legend.

[sril]

I Just started learning programming, and this already changed my mind. I tend to sacrifice details for the sake of the big picture. Thank you very much!

[th_CAV_Trooper]

One day I'm just going to rename my "computer science" youtube watchlist to "great talks by computing legend Kevlin Henny"

[christophjahn]

Wonderful talk! In particular I like the many examples how to convey to non-developers what a nuanced and complex activity software development is. Thanks a lot.

[ismailm]

I recently started new role where I am working at scale and so much of this talk resonates with me. Some really thought provoking observations.

[martinkunev]

32:40 The time is linear in the biggest number stored in the array, not in the number of elements.

[elidc]

great video! I learned that abstraction is not being vague but being precise and assumption can only be resolved by time / process.

[JohnDoe-buqp]

43:22 that Twitter profile pic reminds me of the Borg for some reason, not sure if it was the idea but I thought it was funny.
Oh also great talk :D

[Julianobuzz]

For a begginer it was priceless ! Thank's

[SmileyEmoji]

Nice one Kevlin. I doubt you'll convince many though :-(
As a sub-topic, my pet peeve at the moment is people telling me "you don't need to worry about that because it almost never happens." as if there were a programming construct :
if( x ) {
// tunnel vision code
} else almost never {
// somehow magically shorter and simpler.
}

[general]

It's about the arrows and not about the boxes, sounds like category theory lol

[jpalmz]

I love the Marissa Mayer ‘what is a geek’ quote - I am replacing / scribbling out the one in the classic Viz profanisaurus manuscript that states “someone that knows too much about something that isn’t worth knowing”

[admir]

My God, Kevlin come up with some new material. Still watching it, waiting for that joke about parents giving their kids unique names, lets see if it comes too.

[severemaisjuste]

The "Bladder Balloon"/Bois de Boulogne, haha love the generated captions

[jpalmz]

Brilliant talk - learn't a lot here - and I am sure even some outside the I.T. management side (e.g. project managers) of many large and medium sized businesses could learn from it