Tag: Talks

On 06.11.2025 I held my talk „Thoughts on (Modern?) Software Development – Observations From a 20-Year Journey” at codecentric AG’s Berlin office (in person and in German).

The talk’s sources can be found here, the Meetup event page here:

https://www.meetup.com/codecentric-berlin/events/311505419

The event location was:

codecentric AG
Köpenicker Str 31 · Berlin

Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=52.50805%2C%2013.427258

In the ensuing discussion after the talk some additional sources were mentioned:

• Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister in „Peopleware (re-visited)“: „The High-Tech Illusion“
• Talk by „Richard Sheridan“ related to „Joy, Inc.“ + thread about the book
• Robert C. Martin in „Clean Agile“: The XP „Circle Of Life“
• Uwe Friedrichsen: „Thoughts on AI and Software Development“ (very good analysis about the state of things in AI in the year of 2025)
• Uwe Friedrichsen: „Solving the Wrong Problem”
• Uwe Friedrichsen: “Simplify” + “The Continuous Amnesia Issue” + more
• Michael Lewis: „The Undoing Project“
• Michael Lewis: „The Fifth Risk“
• Baldur Bjarnason: „The Intelligence Illusion“
• Baldur Bjarnason: „Out of the Software Crisis“
• Joseph Weizenbaum: „Plug & Pray“ (documentary)
• Gunter Dueck’s re:publica 2015 talk about „Swarm Stupidity“
• Charles Duhigg: „The Power Of Habit“
• Yuval Noah Harari: „Nexus“ und sein TED interview
• The Anatomy of AI: https://anatomyof.ai/
• Frédéric Laloux: Reinventing Organizations
• Frédéric Laloux: „Reinventing Organizations visuell“
• Joana Breidenbach & Bettina Rollow: „New Work Needs Inner Work”

On 29.10.2025 I held my talk „Thoughts on (Modern?) Software Development – Observations From a 20-Year Journey” at the Agile Munich Meetup in codecentric AG’s Munich office facilities (in person and in English).

The talk’s sources can be found here, the Meetup event page can be found here:

https://www.meetup.com/agilemunich/events/311522109

The event location was:

codecentric Plaza
August-Everding-Straße 20
81671 Munich

Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/8vcX59tiHLkZaZLY7

In the ensuing discussion after the talk some additional sources were mentioned:

• Talk by „Richard Sheridan“ related to „Joy, Inc.“ + thread about the book
• Frédéric Laloux: Reinventing Organizations
• Uwe Friedrichsen: „Thoughts on AI and Software Development“ (very good analysis about the state of things in AI in the year of 2025)
• Uwe Friedrichsen: „Solving the Wrong Problem”
• Uwe Friedrichsen: “Simplify” + “The Continuous Amnesia Issue” + more
• Maja Storch: „Das Geheimnis guter Entscheidungen“
• Michael Lewis: „The Undoing Project“
• Susan Goldsworthy: „Confronting and Navigating Inner Polarities in Leadership”
• Otto Scharmer: „u-lab: Leading From the Emerging Future“

On 17.09.2025 I held my talk „Thoughts on (Modern?) Software Development – Observations From a 20-Year Journey” at the Scrum Event London Meetup (remote and in English).

The talk’s sources can be found here, the Meetup event page here:

https://www.meetup.com/scrumevent/events/310507943

In the ensuing Q&A session (and in the talk) some additional sources were mentioned:

• Simon Wardley-recommended „You Vibe It – You Run It?“ post about AI as a “non-learning supporting“ technology
• Talk by „Richard Sheridan“ related to „Joy, Inc.“ + thread about the book
• Timothy Clark: „The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety“
• Patrick Lencioni: „The Five Dysfunctions of a Team“
• Frédéric Laloux: „Reinventing Organizations“
• Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister in „Peopleware“ (re-visited): „The High-Tech Illusion“
• Robert C. Martin in „Clean Agile“: The XP „Circle Of Life“ (possibly the „better“ Scrum by Kent Beck)
• Uwe Friedrichsen: „Thoughts on AI and Software Development“ (very good analysis about the state of things in AI in the year of 2025)
• Baldur Bjarnason: „The Intelligence Illusion“
• Baldur Bjarnason: „Out of the Software Crisis“
• Alex’s „featured hashtags“

On 28.08.2025 I held my talk „Thoughts on (Modern?) Software Development – Observations From a 20-Year Journey” at the Scrum Masters HH Meetup (remote and in German).

The talk’s sources can be found here, the Meetup event page here:

https://www.meetup.com/scrum-master-meetup-hamburg/events/310385905

In the ensuing Q&A session some additional sources were mentioned:

• Talk by „Richard Sheridan“ related to „Joy, Inc.“ + thread about the book
• Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister in „Peopleware“ (re-visited): „The High-Tech Illusion“
• Robert C. Martin in „Clean Agile“: The XP „Circle Of Life“ (possibly the „better“ Scrum by Kent Beck)
• Uwe Friedrichsen: „Thoughts on AI and Software Development“ (very good analysis about the state of things in AI in the year of 2025)
• Baldur Bjarnason: „The Intelligence Illusion“
• Baldur Bjarnason: „Out of the Software Crisis“
• Yuval Noah Harari: „Nexus“ and his TED interview
• Joseph Weizenbaum documentation: „Plug & Pray“
• Alex’s „featured hashtags“

On 18.08.2025 I held my talk „Thoughts on (Modern?) Software Development – Observations From a 20-Year Journey” at the joint event of Softwerkskammer Cologne and REWE digital Events Cologne (in person and in German).

The talk’s sources can be found here, the Meetup event pages can be found here:

https://www.meetup.com/softwerkskammer-koln/events/309359339

https://www.meetup.com/rewe-digital-events-cologne/events/309583766

The event location was:

REWE Digital
Schanzenstraße 6-20
Gebäude Kupferwerk 2.20, 1 OG
Köln

Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=50.964565%2C%207.014446

In the ensuing discussion some additional sources were mentioned:

• Talk by „Richard Sheridan“ about „Joy, Inc.“ + thread related to the book
• Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister in „Peopleware“ (re-visited): „The High-Tech Illusion“
• Baldur Bjarnason: „The Intelligence Illusion”
• Baldur Bjarnason: „Out of the Software Crisis“
• Joseph Weizenbaum documentary: „Plug & Pray”
• Toot about the XP „Circle Of Life“
• Uwe Friedrichsen: Thoughts on AI and Software Development
• Dave Thomas: „Simplicity”
• Matt Beane: „The Skill Code”
• Gunter Dueck’s re:publica 2015 talk about „swarm stupidity“
• John Allspaw: “How Your Systems Keep Running Day After Day“ (very good talk, e.g.: „What happens when your senior developers start to communicate their mental model?”)
• James Somers: “The Coming Software Apocalypse“ (bad title, great content)
• James Somers: „The Friendship That Made Google Huge“ (about THE central senior pair programming team at Google)
• Arlo Belshee: „Promiscuous Pairing – What Really Makes Pairing (and Mobbing) Work”
• Neil Postman: Technopoly
• Alex’s “featured hashtags“

On 09.07.2025 I held my talk „Thoughts on (Modern?) Software Development – Observations From a 20-Year Journey” at JUG Paderborn (remote and in German).

The talk’s sources can be found here, more details can be found here:

http://jug-pb.gitlab.io/blog/2025/modern-software-and-elixir.html

The event location was:

adesso SE Paderborn
Lise-Meitner Str. 1c
33104 Paderborn

Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/F9ackQLkcrR3W42y8

In the ensuing discussion some additional sources were mentioned:

• Dan McKinley „Choose Boring Technology“: https://mcfunley.com/choose-boring-technology
• Talk by „Richard Sheridan“ about „Joy, Inc.“ + thread related to the book
• Baldur Bjarnason: “The Intelligence Illusion“
• Baldur Bjarnason: “Out of the Software Crisis“
• Laloux, Frederic: Reinventing Organizations visuell
• Toot zum XP „Circle Of Life“
• Alex’s reading list

On 15.05.2025 I held my talk „Thoughts on (Modern?) Software Development – Observations From a 20-Year Journey” at JUG Darmstadt (in person and in German).

The talk’s sources can be found here, the registration page is located at:

https://www.jug-da.de/2025/05/Thoughts-on-Software-Development-Teil2

In the ensuing discussion some additional sources were mentioned:

• Tom DeMarco’s & Timothy Lister’s „The High-Tech Illusion“ in „Peopleware“
• Talk by Richard Sheridan about „Joy, Inc.“ + thread related to the book
• Gunter Dueck’s re:publica 2015 talk about „scwarm stupidity“
• Neil Postman: Technopoly
• Dan McKinley’s „Choose Boring Technology“: https://mcfunley.com/choose-boring-technology
• Toot about XP’s „Circle Of Life“
• Charles Duhigg: The Power Of Habit
• Yuval Noah Harari: Nexus and his TED interview
• Laloux, Frederic: Reinventing Organizations visuell
• Uncle Bob about „The Future of Programming“
• Talk by Arlo Belshee about „Promiscuous Pairing“
• Baldur Bjarnason: „Out of the Software Crisis”
• Donella H. Meadows: „Thinking in Systems – A Primer”
• Timothy R. Clark: „The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety”
• Adam Greenfield: Radical Technologies (archive.org)
• E. M. Forster: The Machine Stops
• Third Wave: „Wohin steuert die Tech-Branche?”
• Visualization about „Communication of ideas”
• Michael Feathers: “Working Effectively with Legacy Code“ (CHOOSE 2014 in Switzerland :-))
• Evan Osnos: „Age of Ambition”
• Ryan Holiday: „Ego is the Enemy”

On 14.05.2025 I held my talk „Thoughts on (Modern?) Software Development – Observations From a 20-Year Journey” at codecentric AG’s tech&talk Meetup in Frankfurt/Main (in person and in German).

The talk’s sources can be found here, the related Meetup post is located at:

https://www.meetup.com/tech-n-talk-frankfurt/events/306824227

During the talk „some” additional sources were mentioned:

• Tom DeMarco’s & Timothy Lister’s „The High-Tech Illusion“ in „Peopleware“: https://mstdn.social/@alexthurow/109711257008472448
• Gunter Duecks re:publica 2015 talk about the topic of „swarm stupidity“: https://youtu.be/rc37ov1iVFQ?feature=shared
• Neil Postman: Technopoly
• Dan McKinley’s „Choose Boring Technology“: https://mcfunley.com/choose-boring-technology
• Toot related to XP’s „Circle Of Life“
• Charles Duhigg: The Power Of Habit
• Yuval Noah Harari: Nexus and his TED interview
• Talk by Richard Sheridan about „Joy, Inc.“ + thread related to the book
• Laloux, Frederic: Reinventing Organizations