Keynote: Emails from my Grandad with Sarah Boyce

Code review can be a painful and anxiety-inducing experience. As developers, our work is regularly scrutinized by our colleagues. Comments about bugs, edge cases, or “code smells” are a normal part of the process, but when you’re the author, it can sometimes feel like you’re under attack.

I learned at a young age that my grandad would light up if I involved him in my work. When I told him about a presentation I was preparing, a few days later an email would arrive (often with a Word document attached titled something like “Sarah ideas” or “Sarah extra ideas”). Inside were pages of suggestions. Sometimes they were small. Sometimes they were big...

And yet, through those emails, I always felt something else: love.

In this talk I’ll explore how we receive feedback and our relationship with it. Drawing on lessons from those emails and experiences in code review and mentorship, I hope to invite you to reconsider criticism, not as an attack, but as a gift.

This talk was presented by Sarah Boyce at DjangoCon US 2026 in Chicago, Illinois, USA
https://2026.djangocon.us/talks/keynote-tuesday-emails-from-my-grandad/

LINKS:
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On GitHub: https://github.com/sarahboyce
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