Recently I had a appearance on Devoxx Belgium and JFall in the Netherlands. Subject of this quicky, The dyslexic programmer, creativity did not kill the cat.
WHy you might ask, dyslexia is a bad thing right? Well actually I am quite happy that I have this. During the presentation I showed and explained why having dyslexia is good thing.
Abstract of the talk:
Dyslexia is generally considered a disability, prejudices are always in place (they are slow and can not read or write). To be honest some of it is true but they have other qualities that make them excellent developers. There A lot of misconceptions about dyslexia. Did you know that approximately 2 out of 10 persons are dyslexic? and 6 out of 10 do not even know it or are trying to hide it?
After a short introduction on what dyslexia actually is I will present you with some interesting facts that you probably did not know. From there on I take you on a ride into the mind of a dyslexic. His reading skills, the problems he faces and more important their perception of the world. The way that we perceive the world allows us to have a different look at anything we encounter. This different look is sometimes referred to as thinking outside the box.
At the end of the presentation, I hope that I reframed this perceived weakness as being a powerful tool. And some pointers on how to interact with us, it is not that different from any other person.
Additional links
- JFall teaser YouTube, JFall teaser
- Slide deck Speaker Deck
- JFall 2018 The dyslexic programmer, creativity did not kill the cat
- Devoxx Belgium 2018 The dyslexic programmer, creativity did not kill the cat
