Abstract
Congratulations—you've made it through three inspiring days of learning, innovation, and connection! Your mind is buzzing with fresh ideas and new technologies. But as the conference wraps up, one question remains: What's next?
When you return to work, will you fall back into old habits? Or will you use what you've learned to evolve—both as a developer and as a teammate?
In this closing keynote, we'll explore how play can unlock your potential. Play isn't just fun—it's a proven way to learn, innovate, and solve problems. By experimenting with new tools, revisiting pet projects, or trying fresh approaches, you can turn inspiration into impact.
Let's turn the excitement of this conference into your launchpad. Together, we'll uncover how playful exploration can supercharge your skills and make your day-to-day work more engaging and impactful.
Video
Slides
Further Reading
Change Is Hard
Forest & Desert - Kent Beck and Beth Andres-Beck (article)
Attracted to the Desert or the Forest - Kent Beck (article)
The Trough of Despair - Kent Beck (article)
Productivity
Beware a Culture of Busyness (article)
Measuring Developer Productivity (Part 1) - Gergely Orosz and Kent Beck (article)
A problem with measurements focused on effort and output is that they transform the engineering culture to one where ‘slack time’ – free time between two pieces of work – is frowned upon.
Measuring Developer Productivity (Part 2) - Gergely Orosz and Kent Beck (article)
It is a pragmatic approach for engineering leaders – and executives – to approach investing in software engineering, as a research and development activity
Productivity is Messing Around and Having Fun - Holly Cummins and Trisha Gee (video)
Productivity is Messing Around and Having Fun - Holly Cummins and Trisha Gee (links and more info)
The Secret To Improve Developer Productivity Is... Being Happy? - Trisha Gee (video)
SPACE Framework (publication)
Why people get their best ideas in the shower (article)
Does Employee Happiness have an Impact on Productivity? - Saïd Business School (publication)
Happiness and productivity - Warwick University (publication)
Learning
Learning to Survive the Tech Industry - Trisha Gee (video)
Staying Ahead of the Curve - Trisha Gee (blog post)
Becoming a Buzzword Compliant Developer - Trisha Gee (video and links to more info)
Other
The Second Law of Thermodynamics (wikipedia)
Books
Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout - Cal Newport
The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change - Camille Fournier
Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change - Kent Beck, Cynthia Andres
Tidy First?: A Personal Exercise in Empirical Software Design - Kent Beck
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering - Frederick Brooks Jr.
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing Paperback - Daniel H. Pink
Organizational Physics: The Science of Growing a Business - Lex Sisney
Help Your Boss Help You - Ken Kousen
Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter - Steven Johnson
Badass: Making Users Awesome - Kathy Sierra
And if you want to learn something new... get 20% off my IntelliJ IDEA book.