Gerald Benischke

@beny23.github.io

3002 Followers 896 Following

Maker, breaker and fixer of software. Adventures in #appsec and #agile: beny23.github.io he/him

Cover of robots of dawn by Asimov
Time > money
40 hour work week
Your life is not a frivolous luxury
Viking ax fighting slide.
Our jobs should not determine our worth or identity
Cave painting slide
We should not need to work to justify our existence
"If there ever was a place where I feel l can change the world, this is it."
Slide of globe
Veerle zoomed out to the galaxy again
Veerle happy in front of bikes slide
What are we doing here?
DID YOU KNOW 3.68 BILLION people live below the $8.30 per day poverty line in 2026 (2021 purchasing power parities) Source: World Bank (2026), Porerty and Inequality Platfoers (version 20260324_2021_01_02_PR.OD) (data vt). pip.worldbank.org. Accessed on 2026-06-27 Note: Estimates after 2024 are noncasts. For more details visit the Nowcasts page.
Veerle with bank buildings slide
Work depiction slide.
Galaxy slide
Veerle doesn't want to talk about Al
TAKEAWAYS • Al Magnifies (Iterate & compound) Course correct (Iterate & compound) • Find a way to be curious, not fearful • Al is a team effort, and not just for engineers
Be curious, not fearful Fear shrinks your thinking, leading to term decisions, knee jerk reactions ar stress. Its demotivating and distracting...
Course Correct - A few degrees off at speed is a much bigger issue - Guard Rails matter even more - Specs and Plans are the highest leverage things you can produce ROl and taste matter even more
Al Magnifies (Biggest takeaway) Skills, Rules, AGENT.md and Documenting/Specs/Plans - CI/CD and Containers Linting Testing Feature Toggles/Flags - Feedback loops/Observability Guard Rails Backups Sandboxing
TCG's Al Engineering Journey Since AOTB '25
Ferrari dino slide
Where should I put my attention? Strategize, do not react Create depth (and judgment) Invest in trust
Who bridges the contexts?
Human touch slide
Depth depth depth slide
Subjective decision slide: Value = subjective decisions of worth Decide if something is good/bad Decide if something is worth doing (or not) Ranking competing priorities Change direction based on changing situations Conversion rate improved, but we're now attracting the wrong customer segment "This customer segment is worth pursuing even though CAC is high" vs "The economics don't justify it" Focus on delight on apps is more important than web development We assumed users wanted more automation, we learned they wanted more control www.francescacortes
Know what’s valuable skill slide.
Intentional curiosity slide
Skills lifetime slide
Choose intentional slide
Un-LLM-able slide
Opposite sides slide
Imagine the future
Francesca doesn’t know slide
Techniques slide
Spam and spam
Workshop 1 slide
Preparing slide
What goes wrong slide
Working with humans slide
Being professional slide
F word. Feelings. Slide.
Conclusions slide
Gotcha slide
No blocking, no pressure slide.
Cost is often a waiting game
Unreviewed and reviewed code end up on mainline.
Review column
4 eyes slide
Code reviews why slide?
Takeaways slide
Fixes for JML
Joiner process slide
What happens when you need to be audited slide
Dashboards slide
Modern platform problem
Triforce slide