VB17 short-view: Filip Danić

Video games changed his childhood dreams of becoming a doctor. Filip’s spirit animal is a horse, the wild one.

1/ What did you want to be when you grew up?

As a little kid I probably dreamt of being a scientist, doctor, or police detective. After I discovered video games and the Internet, a part of me always knew that working with computers was my calling. I’ve never looked back since. :)

2/ What is your spirit animal and why?

My name is actually derived from the Greek name “Philippos“, which translated to “horse-loving“. Interestingly enough, I would choose a horse as my spirit animal.

But I’m going with the depiction of wild horses, not the domesticated ones. I prefer to imagine horses as creatures who value and enjoy freedom above all else.

3/ Who is your tech hero?

I can’t say I have one. While in college I learned to greatly admire the work of people such as Donald Knuth and Dennis Ritchie.

4/ Why should people come to your talk at VDB17? Give us a punch line :)

Devs: if you’re dreaming of an AI-enabled future you’ll probably be interested to see where we are now and where we’re heading. If you’re interested in working with chatbots, this will be a good talk to get you started.

Designers: you’ll learn about conversational interfaces and what designing without user interfaces looks like.

Business folks: you’ll see some amazing, practical uses of chatbots in the enterprise and get a good idea of how to leverage them.

And in general: I’ll make sure you walk out of the room with something, preferably some new-found knowledge and a bottle of awesome Serbian beer. :)