Behavioral Software Engineering by Mario Fusco

Traditional economic theory imagines us as perfectly rational agents, but Kahneman and Tversky’s work on behavioral economics showed we’re anything but. Fusco argues that software engineers suffer the same cognitive quirks—anchoring and availability biases skew performance benchmarks; pro-innovation, bandwagon, and “not-invented-here” mindsets steer us toward hype or homegrown tools; and framing effects change how we tackle identical problems.

In this talk, you’ll get a tour of fifty years’ worth of behavioral research, see how these mental shortcuts sneak into your code reviews and tech choices, and learn why understanding your own brain’s weird wiring can actually boost the quality of your work.

Watch on YouTube