Blog

On 11.05.2026 I held my talk „Thoughts on (Modern?) Software Development – Observations From a 21-Year Journey” at the Domain-driven Design (DDD) Hungary Meetup (remote and in English).

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

https://virtualddd.com/sessions/rethinking-software-development-insights-from-20-years-in-the-field/

During the talk and in the ensuing discussion some additional sources were mentioned:

• Margaret-Anne Storey: „From Technical Debt to Cognitive and Intent Debt: Rethinking Software Health in the Age of AI“
• Andrew Murphy: „If you thought the speed of writing code was your problem – you have bigger problems“
• Uwe Friedrichsen’s latest blog post: „We Are Our Own Worst Enemies”
• Uwe Friedrichsen’s JAX 2026 slides: „The 7 Pitfalls of AI“
• Uwe Friedrichsen AI-related posts:
  • „Thoughts on AI and Software Development“
  • „It has never been about code”
  • „AI and the Ironies of Automation – Part 1“
  • „Solving the Wrong Problem“
• Faisal Hoque: „There isn’t an AI bubble—there are three“
• Donella Meadows: „Thinking in Systems”
• Peter Senge: „The Fifth Discipline“
• Frederic Laloux:
  • Reinventing Organizations
  • Reinventing Organizations visuell
• Guide to my Mastodon hashtags
  • Classics
  • Reader

• Last but not least:
  • The link to all other sources I did mention in the „Thoughts“-related discussions since 2024

On 18.03.2026 I held my talk „Thoughts on (Modern?) Software Development – Observations From a 21-Year Journey” at the JUG Bonn (in person and in German).

The talk’s sources and slides can be found here, the registration page can be found here:

https://www.meetup.com/de-de/jug-bonn/events/312718591

The event location was:

cronn GmbH
Portlandweg 4
Bonn

Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=50.71844%2C%207.150359

During the talk and in the ensuing discussion some additional sources were mentioned:

• „Thoughts“-Sources & Slides
• „Thoughts“-Recordings
• Mastodon hashtag overview
• Richard Sheridan „Joy, Inc.“
• Yuval Noah Harari
• Harari’s latest book „Nexus“ about the topic of AI
• Harari’s TED interview

On 23.01.2026 (08:30 – 10:30 PM Berlin time) I held my talk „Thoughts on (Modern?) Software Development – Observations From a 21-Year Journey” at the Calgary Software Crafters and JUG Seattle Meetups (remote and in English).

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

https://www.meetup.com/calgary-software-crafters/events/312385143

UPDATE: JUG Seattle was so kind to cross-post the talk to its members, see here.

The talk has been recorded and is available on YouTube.

During the talk and in the ensuing discussion some additional sources were mentioned:

• Alex’s featured hashtags (books)
• Alex’s guide to his Mastodon hashtags
• Alex’s reader
• Richard Sheridan “Joy, Inc.“
  —> How does a company look like, that has Kent Beck’s XP in its DNA and where „joy at work“ is a central idea?
• Robert C. Martin in “Clean Agile”: The XP “Circle Of Life”
• John Allspaw: „How Your Systems Keep Running Day After Day”
• Carl Sagan: Cosmos (start here, then watch this)
• Peter Block: „The Answer to How Is Yes”
• Susan Goldsworthy at the Inner Development Goals Summit 2025
• Ian McGilchrist: „The Master and his Emmisary”
• Vox.com: „Flood the zone with s***: How misinformation overwhelmed our democracy“
• The Anatomy of AI: https://anatomyof.ai
  —> How is AI „created“ before it is delivered to the „customer”?
• Last but not least:
  • The link to all other sources I did mention in the „Thoughts“-related discussions since 2024

In case I did forget anything that you miss here, please get in touch.

Thank you very much for that extended and great discussion!