The opening keynote Lorna Mitchell and I did at the PHPBenelux conference in Antwerp on January 28, 2010.

1. PHPBenelux 2011
Lorna Mitchell
Ivo Jansch

2. 1. See This Talk

3. 2. Participate In Communities

4. 3. Build Relationships, Not Systems

5. “The greatest missing skill is somebody who's
both good at understanding the engineering and
who has good relationships with the hard-core
engineers, and bridges that to working with the
customers.”
Bill Gates

6. 4. Use Analogies

7. 5. Learn To Speak Manager

8. BINGO CHART
Planning Revenue Mindshare
Stock Win-Win Paradigm
Stake-
Spin-off Mission
holder
Eyeballs Profit Monetize
CxO Downsize Branding

9. 6. Teach

10. 7. Learn To Google

11. Would I
Generalize be the A Problem
the only one?
Problem
Yes
No
Solved
Minimize Found
Broad
Scenario
Search
Found
Get help
Narrow
Search
Post

12. 8. Ask Questions But Learn To Fish

13. "Give a man a fish and you feed
him for a day. Teach a man to fish
and you feed him for a lifetime."
Chinese Proverb

14. 9. Keep Reading

15. #linktuesday
http://phpdeveloper.org
http://techportal.ibuildings.com
http://devzone.zend.com
http://phparch.com

16. 10. Plan Ahead

17. 11. Take It One Step At A Time

18. Pick a new
technology
Master Explore
Get
Comfortable

19. 12. Keep Your Hands Dirty

20. 13. Less = More

21. “Perfection is achieved, not
when there is nothing more to
add, but when there is nothing
left to take away”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

22. Conference
Speaker Event
Entity
Organizer Person
Attendee
ok better bad

23. 14. Code For Today

24. 15. Cut Your Losses

25. 16. Reflect

26. Evaluate
Apply Learn
Improve
Continuous Evaluation

27. 17. Be Organized

28. 18. Inside Out
vs Outside In

29. 19. Learn Other Languages

30. <?php
System.out.print(‘Hello’);
?>

31. 20. Take Distance

32. 21. Bitwise Problem Search

33. Good Bad
r1 r484 r968
Good Bad Bad
r484 r726 r968
...
Good First Bad Commit Bad
r512 r513 r514

34. git bisect
+
unit test
=
lightning fast problem pinpoint

35. 22. The Dunning-Kruger Effect

36. Unawareness
Overestimation
What you
What there What you
think you What you
is to think
could know
know you know
know
‘I know everything’
“Seniors”

37. Awareness
Modesty
What
What What you
you What
there think you
think you
is to could
you know
know know
know
‘I know what I don’t know’
Actual Seniors

38. 23. Use The Force

39. 24. Be Healthy

40. 25. Passion

41. 26. Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone

42. 27. Have A Role Model,
Be A Role Model

43. Thank you!
Lorna Mitchell Ivo Jansch
http://www.lornajane.net http://www.egeniq.com
@lornajane @ijansch
Please rate this talk at http://joind.in/2411
Come see us at ______
The full credits for the pictures in this presentation can be found in the slide deck online.

44. Resources
The following URLS point to relevant information. If you liked the presentation, you are going to want to
have a look at the following sites:
• Sleep Well - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/23/coders_insomnia_mental_hygiene/
On the Be Healthy slide, we talked about how good health improves your development skills. This is
an interesting article about recommended sleep hygiene for programmers.
• Getting Things Done - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done
On the ‘Be Organized’ slide, we discussed how you can structure the way you work. This wikipedia
article is a great starting point.
• How To Ask Questions The Smart Way - http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
This article by Eric Raymond goes with the item about asking questions.
• The Passionate Programmer - http://pragprog.com/titles/cfcar2/the-passionate-programmer
In the ‘Passion’ item, we mentioned a book by the pragmatic programmers. This is the URL for it.

45. Credits
The following pictures were used in this presentation. All images are licensed with a creative common license.
• ‘#27’ by Dwayne Madden - http://www.flickr.com/photos/dj-dwayne/4553167357/
• ‘This Way’ by Steve Snodgrass - http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevensnodgrass/4906011803/
• ‘I don’t want to be your ...’ by Josh Pesavento - http://www.flickr.com/photos/pezz/3785769013/
• ‘Matt Dillon kicks off ...’ by Yodel Anecdotal - http://www.flickr.com/photos/yodelanecdotal/499434961/
• ‘Still Human’ by Quinn Dombrowski - http://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/3821448668/
• ‘Good Friends’ by Juliana Coutinho - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ngmmemuda/4166182931/
• ‘TAM London Audience’ by Matt Brown - http://www.flickr.com/photos/londonmatt/3977320759/
• ‘Crowd in DPC’ by Juozas Kaziukenas - http://www.flickr.com/photos/juokaz/4702578495/
• ‘The Bridge’ by Ian Carroll - http://www.flickr.com/photos/iancarroll/3050791327/
• ‘Bingo Night’ by Robert Banh - http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertbanh/3319821124/
• Untitled by Kristina Sohappy - http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristina-sohappy/4242102266/
• ‘ZendCon Tutorial Day’ by Andries Seutens - http://www.flickr.com/photos/andriesss/4027902414/
• ‘Google Logo in Building43’ by Robert Scoble - http://www.flickr.com/photos/scobleizer/4249731778/
• ‘Tiffus teaching Hoonan how to fish by Brett Kelly - http://www.flickr.com/photos/inkedmn/758241963/
• ‘Programming related books at home, RHS’ by Michael Fogus - http://www.flickr.com/photos/fogus/2629211069/
• ‘Darts of Pleasure’ by Melissa Gray - http://www.flickr.com/photos/melissagray/4002863212/
• ‘One step at a time’ by Fernando de Sousa - http://www.flickr.com/photos/fernando/150271931/
• ‘War and Peace Show’ by Growl Roar - http://www.flickr.com/photos/growlroar/4821487849/
• ‘Less is more? More than what?’ by Theilr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/theilr/2200873034/
• ‘Spaghetti’ by Cyclonebill - http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyclonebill/2223412838/

46. Credits
The following pictures were used in this presentation. All images are licensed with a creative common license.
• Untitled by Eduard Orbitron - http://www.flickr.com/photos/eduardorbitron/5187761681/
• ‘Riverside and I-35’ by Dustin Coates - http://www.flickr.com/photos/dustinc/577521134/
• ‘Drawer Organizers’ by Rubbermaid Products - http://www.flickr.com/photos/rubbermaid/4545308035/
• ‘Complicated Sign’ by Redvers - http://www.flickr.com/photos/redvers/1249510693/
• ‘Library Refresh’ by Mike McCune - http://www.flickr.com/photos/mccun934/5000045252/
• ‘The requisite startup foosball table’ by Quami77 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/yakshaving/3795071232/
• ‘Haystack’ by Fod Tzellos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/fod/237453417/
• ‘Red Lion Denver Southeast Fitness Center’ by Red Lion - http://www.flickr.com/photos/43536733@N03/4009413538/
• ‘Fire’ by Matthew Venn - http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewvenn/366986755/
• ‘Main conference room’ by Felix de Vliegher - http://www.flickr.com/photos/felixdv/2579551939/
• ‘Matthew Weier-O’Phinney’ by Juozas Kaziukenas - http://www.flickr.com/photos/juokaz/4702577233/
We have used other materials, such as the Dilbert and XKCD comics and the Yoda picture from Star Wars, under the assumptions
that embedding them is fair use; they are copyrighted by their respective owners. Sources:
• http://www.dilbert.com
• http://www.xkcd.org
• http://www.starwars.com