Description

What if the story of your developer journey was a screenplay, and every bug, burnout, and breakthrough was a hidden computer science lesson in disguise? Inspired by Adaptation starring Nicolas Cage, this talk reimagines ten years of “just hacking JavaScript” as a story of discovery, improvisation, and transformation.

Through real-world scenes such as mis-wiring an Arduino over WebSockets, debugging async chaos, and wrestling with retry logic in AWS Lambdas, you’ll see how the fundamentals of logic, state, algorithms, and computation quietly emerge from hands-on experience.

This isn’t a theory-heavy lecture. It’s a reflective journey for anyone who has learned by doing. You’ll walk away with a framework for turning day-to-day challenges into lasting understanding, reframing impostor syndrome as curiosity in disguise, and finding confidence in the messy middle of self-taught growth.

What You’ll Learn

Relatable Analogies:
How real-world problems map to classic CS concepts such as state machines hidden in UI bugs, queue theory hiding in async systems, and recursion revealed in debugging loops.

Practical Reflection:
Methods to capture and translate on-the-job learning into a personal CS curriculum without going back to school.

Mindset Shift:
Why embracing uncertainty is the key to mastery and how to transform impostor syndrome into fuel for continuous growth.

Why You Can’t Miss This Talk

Memorable Learning:
By blending storytelling and technical insight, this talk makes abstract CS ideas tangible and emotionally resonant.

Actionable Growth Framework:
You’ll leave with tools to recognize patterns, reflect on mistakes, and document your own “curriculum by experience.”

Broad Appeal:
Perfect for self-taught developers, bootcamp grads, mentors, and educators seeking ways to connect practice with principle.

Empowering Takeaway:
Your career isn’t an accident. It’s an adaptation in progress. Learn how to embrace the script as you write it.