Skepticamp 2024 – Talk 5 – Why Your Computer Is Like That – Andrew Taylor

This audio is a part of the Skepticamp 2024 event, that happened on October 18th 2024 in Mercure Piccadilly Hotel, Manchester and was livestreamed at https://www.twitch.tv/sitp

About the talk: In a world where humans can literally fly, somehow the word "technology" has come to mean violating labour laws to undercut taxi firms and dressing it up as "innovation" by bolting on a phone app. The tech industry is revered by the media as inspirational, miraculous and futuristic, it has almost unlimited money, and many extremely clever engineers work in it — so why does nothing work properly? Let's discuss some of the very silly ideas pushed from above by bosses, and from below by developers.

About the speaker: Andrew has been touching computers for long enough that you'd think he'd know better, been a professional developer since 2012, and is now the tech lead at a small web company. He is also a longtime member and organiser of Manchester Skeptics.

The music used in this episode is by Thula Borah and is used with permission.