Ryan Healey
Senior Software Developer @ LMAX Group
Bath, United Kingdom
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Bioengineer turned programmer with 6 years professional experience at THG and LMAX, Ryan might not have as much experience in the game compared to most but he's keen to learn and eager to share what he's learnt. He is very interested in testing and the human side of software as well as being a strong believer that coding should be fun and hopes that his talks are too.
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What's your favourite number of threads?
Now you're presumably thinking, "What a stupid question?". Surely, there's no one answer to this. It depends on several factors; what you're doing, where the code is running, and how many you need. However, I had never really thought about it in-depth before until someone asked me: "What is your favourite number of threads?".
In this short (and hopefully fun) talk, I will take you through nearly all possible answers to this question and why they are both right and wrong on a technical and human level. Finally, I will give what I believe is the ultimate and final answer to the question: "What is the best number of threads?".
There is no barrier to entry here. If you know what a thread is, then you're qualified enough to come along and have fun.
The developers worked in two by two. Hurrah! Hurrah!
Pair programming is not dead!
With the rise of AI tools and code assistants, or a more remote and distributed workforce, it’s easy to think that pair programming is becoming a redundant process. It has always been a somewhat controversial practice. To managers, on the surface it looks like 2 people doing 1 person's job. To developers, the thought of typing with another developer watching your every keystroke sounds uncomfortable at best. I am here to convince you that it still worthwhile, how to make it work, and the results it will bring you.
Pair programming has long been an agile process and a core part of the extreme programming methodology. As a practicer of extreme programming myself, I can advocate for benefits it has provided me, my team and our project. From increased speed to delivery, higher quality products and reducing knowledge silos; that’s just to name a few. At LMAX Group, we have made pair programming a core part of our development culture for over 15 years now and we don't plan on getting rid of it any time soon. However, the way we work, and the technology we use, is not static and pair programming is far from being a new hot topic. So where does it fit in a modern software development team.
Finally, AI code assistants are becoming better and a lot bigger part of the software developer's toolbox. Does this make pair programming less effective? Does it make it more effective? Most of all, is a human developer using an AI code assistant pair programming? Do we still see the benefits?
Stop Testing! (my patience)
Slow feedback is killing your productivity in more ways than you think.
As humans, feedback systems are at the very core of our existence. It tells us if we’re in pain, if we are hungry, if we are tired. Our software gives us feedback too. We write some code and something happens, the information we get back to us is that feedback.
As developers, we build feedback systems around our software to tell us everything is working as it should. From automated testing, production monitoring all the way down to compile errors or even that little red squiggly line that tells us we’ve made a typo.
Feedback is great at telling us that we have done something wrong, but we need to know quickly. And I mean quickly.
In this talk, I will explore why slow feedback is dangerous, how it kills your productivity, how it wastes your time and how it makes your life pretty miserable.
But it’s not all doom and gloom, I will also tell you what you can do to make it better. I will give you some tools and tricks you can use to help make your feedback so much smoother. Finally, I will urge you to be impatient in your work (with your feedback cycles, not your colleagues) because it will pay off for yourself and everyone around you.
Agile On The Beach 2026 Sessionize Event Upcoming
Norfolk Developers Conference 2026 Sessionize Event
Jfokus 2026 Sessionize Event
J-Fall 2025 Sessionize Event
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