Polymoments
So today I finally settled all the backlog from the last week and have little bit of time to write down my thoughts about two days in Poznan. And let me be clear from the beginning: Polyconf was the best conference I have ever been to.
First of all big thanks to the organizing team. For me everything went quite smooth, with just one exception of the first day meal, but one exception is making the rule (or this is what they told us in czech grammar classes), and it had happy conclusion. The parties and everything overall went just like hot knife through the butter. So I would say A- is right mark.
Second and most important was the agenda and content presented on the conference which was above the par in every aspect for me. From every point of view, I have heard about things I have longed so long to get some touch with, many things I have never imagined, and then some I would never said, I will meet on the IT/CS conference. I will try to describe my top ten in the order of the impact on me:
States and nomads
It seems chat (and great fun. Clap on Closure anyone?) I had with Zach on the party night before, somehow opened my mind to all the highest concepts, he was talking about, but definitely one of the best talks I have ever heard. Maybe the elevated state of the hangover, I don’t know.
The comparisons and metaphors, Zach used, turned my head up to those plateaus the best knowledge resides on. And from this point in the time I will never think about the programming the same. I will always see the forrest and will always try to be nomad in my mind. I will always think about the right size and detail of the map. And well be little bit of afraid of the Morlocks.
If I would like to be only on one talk this would be it. Thank you again Zach for heads-up. This quality really had a name.
Forerunners
Flow-Based Programming For JavaScript — thing I was thinking about for very long time in the very smooth presentation. I think this is one of the biggest part of the future of the programming. Especially chat on first day after party opened some great insights and closed some doubts. Special thanks to Henri for the best stickers.
The Value Of Diversity And Other Lessons From Biology— great talk about how nature develops new systems and what we could learn from it. Things I am thinking for long time in the right package. And then remixed, relativized, and explained again. Thank you Gareth.
How to become a great developer and have a life too — totally unexpected look at our lives as programmers. And then _zing_ it made sense. We are dreamers of dreams, creators of the air castles and the most important asset in our toolbox is our mind. Thank you Adam.
Testing the Hard Stuff and Staying Sane — last but not least important (here I just wanted to respect the appearance). Maybe most balanced form technical and real life advice points. Generated tests makes so much sense for the unit tests, that I already started to play with them. The two best giveaways: the goal of the computer engineer is to avoid blame and never tune your radio when you are emergency breaking, big thanks for them John.
Bits
Taiga.io — I loved to talk with Alejandro about the labor of love. Keep up great work!
Immutability: Putting The Dream Machine to Work — really great speak in term of presentation. Also good insights.
How to become an agile company — great enthusiasm and interesting point of view.
Writing Snake game in ClojureScript with React — best live-coding session ever. Period!
Bridging the gap — one API, 5 languages — already heard the Ruby version, so no surprises. But you gotta like Honza’s style.
Well all the talks I saw was good. These just made dent in my mental map of the field.
Social
For the very end I spared the social aspect of the conference, which I found amazing.
Special thanks to David and Martin for the best nerd chat in the car.
Thank you all and see you next year!
