Performance advice tells us to reduce bundle size, minimize re-renders, and optimize everything to the extreme. But do we really need to? Is there anything else we can explore to make our apps look and feel faster—and if we’re lucky, actually be faster?

In this talk, we will review some conventional wisdom and explore techniques beyond it, like different UX strategies, overfetching, and modern Web APIs. We’ll even ask an unexpected question: Can SEO and LSO (LLM Search Optimisation) help with performance?

Let's be honest, nowadays most of us see an error, copy it into ChatGPT, and hope for the best. I've done it. You've done it. We've all wasted 30 minutes going back and forth with AI when our browser could've shown us the answer in 2 minutes.

This talk is about remembering that our browsers have incredible debugging tools we've forgotten how to use. Through live demos of real bugs, I'll show you how breakpoints, call stacks, and the network tab can solve problems maybe faster than any AI assistant.

You'll learn:

• How to ditch console.log hell and actually watch your code run
• Breakpoint tricks that pause your app so you can inspect what's really happening
• How to read call stacks without your eyes glazing over
• Network tab techniques that expose exactly why your API is misbehaving
• When debugging tools beat AI (and when AI is actually helpful)
 I'm not saying don't use AI—I use it all the time. But there's something powerful about understanding your own code well enough to fix it yourself. Plus, you'll be way faster, and you'll actually learn something instead of just copy-pasting solutions you don't understand.

Ever hit that point where everything you’ve been faking suddenly stops working? Yeah, me too. What came next? Let’s just say it involved some unexpected career detours, a lot of self-reflection, and maybe a meltdown or two.

In this talk, I’ll share a story that’s part comedy, part cautionary tale—what happens when you realize the path you’ve been on might not be the one you actually care about. If you’re in tech, feeling stuck, or wondering why your career doesn’t feel as fulfilling as it should, you’re not alone.

Let’s explore the fine line between ambition and burnout, and how sometimes the best thing you can do is just stop pretending.

Every want to do build something but was told you shouldn't by "The Internet"? Me Too. Here's the story of how I chose to ignore those people and finally do the thing I've wanted to do since I was a kid, make a video game!