Next Step: Play Time!

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.

Transcript

1. Trisha Gee Lead Developer Advocate, Gradle Next Step: Play Time! What do you do with what you just learned?
2. • Lead Developer Advocate at Gradle • Java Champion & JetBrains Community Contributor • 20+ years development experience • Author and Person With Opinions Trisha Gee
3. • Lead Developer Advocate at Gradle • Java Champion & JetBrains Community Contributor • 20+ years development experience • Author and Person With Opinions Trisha Gee
4. Three days at a conference learning interesting things!
8. What are you going to do with everything you’ve learnt?
18. “In the modern office context, [knowledge workers] tend to rely on stress as a default heuristic for moderation.” Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout Cal Newport
19. This means that you are, by default, ALWAYS TOO BUSY
20. This means that you are, by default, ALWAYS TOO BUSY
21. Your management is pretty happy with this
22. Your management is pretty happy with this
23. Your management is pretty happy with this
24. “Research indicates that when organizations overload employees, base their incentives primarily on the amount of time they work, and excessively monitor their activities, productivity and efficiency actually drop.” https://hbr .org/2023/03/beware-a-culture-of-busyness
25. By Amy (Trisha’s daughter)
26. AND you’re too busy to make the changes that will make you less busy
27. “[Knowledge workers] exist at that point of… having too much to do, but… just manageable enough to avoid reform.” Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout Cal Newport
28. If you want to make the most of what you’ve learnt here, you probably need to make some changes
30. The bald fact is that many companies provide developers with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive as to fill their days with frustration. That alone could explain reduced efficiency as well as a tendency for good people to migrate elsewhere.” https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/attracted-to-the-desert-or-the-forest Kent Beck
33. Start Small
34. Do not try to re-write the whole application in Rust
35. Culture of Continuous Learning Brown Bags Hack days and Hackathons 20% Time Experimentation Sprints
36. Culture of Continuous Learning Brown Bags Hack days and Hackathons 20% Time Experimentation Sprints
37. Culture of Continuous Learning Brown Bags Hack days and Hackathons 20% Time Experimentation Sprints
38. Culture of Continuous Learning Brown Bags Hack days and Hackathons 20% Time Experimentation Sprints
39. Culture of Continuous Learning Brown Bags Hack days and Hackathons 20% Time Experimentation Sprints
44. Choose where to spend your energy
45. I will make those work requirements easier
46. I will make the team more efficient or more effective
47. Everyone else has been going on about how cool or interesting I am
48. You think this is kinda cool or interesting
49. You are an investment
50. The second law of thermodynamics: entropy always increases with time
51. Entropy is a gradual decline into disorder
52. If you aren’t improving something, things are getting worse.
54. Things might get worse before they get better
55. The bald fact is that many companies provide developers with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive as to fill their days with frustration. That alone could explain reduced efficiency as well as a tendency for good people to migrate elsewhere.” https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-trough-of-despair Kent Beck
56. The bald fact is that many companies provide developers with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive as to fill their days with frustration. That alone could explain reduced efficiency as well as a tendency for good people to migrate elsewhere.” https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-trough-of-despair Kent Beck You Are Here
57. The bald fact is that many companies provide developers with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive as to fill their days with frustration. That alone could explain reduced efficiency as well as a tendency for good people to migrate elsewhere.” https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-trough-of-despair Kent Beck You Are Here
58. The bald fact is that many companies provide developers with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive as to fill their days with frustration. That alone could explain reduced efficiency as well as a tendency for good people to migrate elsewhere.” https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-trough-of-despair Kent Beck You Are Here
59. The bald fact is that many companies provide developers with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive as to fill their days with frustration. That alone could explain reduced efficiency as well as a tendency for good people to migrate elsewhere.” https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-trough-of-despair Kent Beck You Are Here
60. The bald fact is that many companies provide developers with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive as to fill their days with frustration. That alone could explain reduced efficiency as well as a tendency for good people to migrate elsewhere.” https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-trough-of-despair Kent Beck You Are Here
61. The bald fact is that many companies provide developers with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive as to fill their days with frustration. That alone could explain reduced efficiency as well as a tendency for good people to migrate elsewhere.” https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-trough-of-despair Kent Beck You Are Here
62. The bald fact is that many companies provide developers with a workplace that is so crowded, noisy, and interruptive as to fill their days with frustration. That alone could explain reduced efficiency as well as a tendency for good people to migrate elsewhere.” https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/the-trough-of-despair Kent Beck You Are Here
63. Why are you doing this?
64. More efficient team, faster delivery, higher productivity
65. More efficient team, faster delivery, higher productivity
66. Learning and trying new things is FUN
67. Wait, WORK should be fun?
68. “The Joys of the Craft”
69. “The Joys of the Craft” 1. The sheer joy of making things
70. “The Joys of the Craft” 1. The sheer joy of making things 2. The pleasure of making things that are useful to other people.
71. “The Joys of the Craft” 1. The sheer joy of making things 2. The pleasure of making things that are useful to other people. 3. The fascination of fashioning complex puzzle-like objects of interlocking moving parts and watching them work
72. “The Joys of the Craft” 1. The sheer joy of making things 2. The pleasure of making things that are useful to other people. 3. The fascination of fashioning complex puzzle-like objects of interlocking moving parts and watching them work 4. The joy of always learning
73. “The Joys of the Craft” 1. The sheer joy of making things 2. The pleasure of making things that are useful to other people. 3. The fascination of fashioning complex puzzle-like objects of interlocking moving parts and watching them work 4. The joy of always learning 5. The delight of working in such a tractable medium
74. How can I sell THAT to the boss??
75. Fun is productive
76. Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” Aristotle
77. Research shows: Fun is good for business
78. Research shows: Fun is good for business
82. Play gives us energy
83. Breaks and recess are not deviations from learning. They are part of learning. Years of research show…. kids who have recess work harder, fidget less… focus more intently…. earn better grades.… develop better social skills, show greater empathy, and cause fewer disruptions. They even eat healthier food. In short, if you want kids to flourish, let them leave the classroom.” When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing Daniel H. Pink
84. Breaks and recess are not deviations from learning. They are part of learning. Years of research show…. kids who have recess work harder, fidget less… focus more intently…. earn better grades.… develop better social skills, show greater empathy, and cause fewer disruptions. They even eat healthier food. In short, if you want kids to flourish, let them leave the classroom.” When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing Daniel H. Pink
85. Breaks and recess are not deviations from learning. They are part of learning. Years of research show…. kids who have recess work harder, fidget less… focus more intently…. earn better grades.… develop better social skills, show greater empathy, and cause fewer disruptions. They even eat healthier food. In short, if you want kids to flourish, let them leave the classroom.” When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing Daniel H. Pink
86. Play safely
88. Where to play? Pet projects Spikes or prototypes Build system / deployment tools / CD pipeline Automated tests Internal tools New project or service
89. Where to play? Pet projects Spikes or prototypes Build system / deployment tools / CD pipeline Automated tests Internal tools New project or service
90. Where to play? Pet projects Spikes or prototypes Build system / deployment tools / CD pipeline Automated tests Internal tools New project or service
91. Where to play? Pet projects Spikes or prototypes Build system / deployment tools / CD pipeline Automated tests Internal tools New project or service
92. Where to play? Pet projects Spikes or prototypes Build system / deployment tools / CD pipeline Automated tests Internal tools New project or service
93. Where to play? Pet projects Spikes or prototypes Build system / deployment tools / CD pipeline Automated tests Internal tools New project or service
94. Where to play? Pet projects Spikes or prototypes Build system / deployment tools / CD pipeline Automated tests Internal tools New project or service
95. We need time to think
96. We need time to think
97. Default Mode Network
98. Take the time to make time
99. “We engineers automate so that we can focus on the fun stuff — and the fun stuff is the work that uses most of your brain, and it’s not usually something you can do for hours and hours, day after day.” The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change Camille Fournier
100. This is to MAKE SPACE, not to DO MORE
101. “There’s absolutely nothing you can do to motivate others. People are already intrinsically motivated, engaged, and interested.” Organizational Physics: The Science of Growing a Business Lex Sisney
105. Learning stuff makes you better at learning stuff (not just better at the thing you learnt)
106. Learning stuff makes you better at learning stuff (not just better at the thing you learnt)
107. “Adapting to an ever-accelerating sequence of new technologies also trains the mind to explore and master complex systems.” Everything Bad is Good for You: How Popular Culture is Making Us Smarter Steven Johnson
108. Doing fun stuff can move things forward
109. “Sometimes I just don’t have the energy to tackle a new feature, but I want to work. Picking an item off the Fun List… brings me joy. Don’t underestimate how much better you are as a programmer when you’re happy.” Tidy First?: A Personal Exercise in Empirical Software Design Kent Beck
110. Paying the cost of learning speeds you up in the long run
111. “Learning drains cognitive resources, but after you’ve learned it, using the now-automatic knowledge and skill is fast and effortless. Knowledge in the head trades slower learning time now for faster using time later.” Badass: Making Users Awesome Kathy Sierra
112. Learning is not just for developers
113. “One major weak spot for managers is losing touch with the tools and processes for actually developing, testing, deploying, and monitoring code.” The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change Camille Fournier
116. Measuring Developer Productivity SATISFACTION & WELL-BEING Performance Activity Communication & Collaboration E ffi ciency & Flow
117. What if…
118. You could “capitalise on the training investment” of this conference…
119. …spend time having fun at work…
120. AND “add business value”?
121. Let’s Play
122. Thank You! bit.ly/dev-rel-trg
123. How is it that so many knowledge workers end up with workloads calibrated to the exact edge of the overhead tax tipping point? Newport, Cal. Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout (p. 61). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
124. In knowledge work, when you agree to a new commitment, be it a minor task or a large project, it brings with it a certain amount of ongoing administrative overhead: back-and-forth email threads needed to gather information, for example, or meetings scheduled to synchronize with your collaborators. This overhead tax activates as soon as you take on a new responsibility. Newport, Cal. Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout (p. 56). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
125. Most workers who are fortunate enough to exert some control over their efforts—such as knowledge workers, small- business entrepreneurs, or freelancers—tend to avoid taking on so much work that they crash and burn, but also tend to avoid working a reasonable amount. Newport, Cal. Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout (p. 61). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
126. They exist at that point of maximum sustainable overhead tax that seems to represent the worst of all configurations, as it maintains the pain of having too much to do, but keeps this pain just manageable enough to avoid reform. Newport, Cal. Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout (p. 61). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
127. How do knowledge workers decide when to say no to the constant bombardment of incoming requests? In the modern office context, they tend to rely on stress as a default heuristic for moderation.
128. “…should be celebrating is not their mastery of a specific platform… but rather their seemingly effortless ability to pick up new platforms on the fly, without so much as a glimpse at a manual. What they've learned is not just the specific rules intrinsic to a particular system; they've learned abstract principles that can be applied when approaching any complicated system.” Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad is Good for You: How Popular Culture is Making Us Smarter (pp. 176-177). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.
129. “There’s absolutely nothing you can do to motivate others. People are already intrinsically motivated, engaged, and interested. In fact, when you try to motivate people by offering incentives, threats, bribes, and rewards, you’re actually creating a disincentive to work, lowering both job satisfaction and productivity.” Sisney, Lex. Organizational Physics: The Science of Growing a Business (p. 295). Kindle Edition.
130. “We engineers automate so that we can focus on the fun stuff — and the fun stuff is the work that uses most of your brain, and it’s not usually something you can do for hours and hours, day after day.” Fournier , Camille. The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change (p. 121). O'Reilly Media. Kindle Edition.
131. https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/measuring-developer-productivity #4: a software engineer who wants to grow at their craft.
132. Why do you personally want to dive in and learn more? (FOMO is a poor driver) You must be selective