Keynote: Critical Shifts in Thinking for the Systems Age

In my lifetime, we have experienced the equivalent of 20,000 years of change. Nonlinear change. Digital information systems have had a staggering effect on relational complexity.

Yet, we still approach software development in a mechanistic, industrial and reductionistic way. To design information systems, we need to think in systems.

I don’t just mean adopt Kubernetes. I mean change the structure of our thinking. As Robert Pirsig said,

“If a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will simply produce another factory.”

In this talk, we’ll explore “the rationality that produced” our current approaches. And describe mindshifts that can help us thrive in the systems age.