When and How to Explore: an Engineer's Guide

GOTO Chicago 2017

I'm willing to bet that you want to become a better engineer and problem-solver. You have probably already seen the benefits of exploring unfamiliar technologies, patterns, algorithms and approaches that make you better at your job, leading to efficiency gains and innovations at your company.

In this talk, I'll tell you the story of my confrontation with the classic dilemma: exploration vs. exploitation. You'll hear about my journey from developing large-scale production applications to experimenting in sparsely-charted territory, including lessons learned in the process. I hope you walk out of this talk with a renewed enthusiasm for exploration and a framework that you can use to decide when to explore and when to exploit.