Skip to content
Future Tech 2027
10–11 March 2027 · Jaarbeurs UtrechtCall for papersSpeak

Session

What is refactoring (according to Hannah Arendt)?

Karl van Heijster

Edition
2026
Day
Day 1
Time
14:30 · 15 min
Room
Mission 1

This talk was given at Future Tech 2026.

What can Hannah Arendt's philosophical reflections teach us about refactoring? Well, for one thing, why the metaphor of technical debt is misleading. But if refactoring isn't about paying off technical debt, what then is it? And what does that mean for the role refactoring can (or should?) play in our daily work?

Speaker

Karl van Heijster

Karl van Heijster

Software developer, philosopher, testing enthusiast

Karl is a software developer at Cito, one of the world’s leading organizations in the field of developing assessment tests. His developer journey revolves around continuous, iterative improvement. He has a Master’s degree in Philosophy, so even though he is pretty knowledgeable on the subject of code and communication, he knows he knows nothing. Karl chronicles his observations on the world of software development every week at www.karlvanheijster.com (in Dutch).

We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide video features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our advertising partners, YouTube and our analytics provider. How we handle your data

Details