In his NDC Porto 2025 keynote, Rob Conery argues that unstructured, goal-less tinkering—aka play—has driven tech’s biggest revolutions. From Claude Shannon’s juggled contraptions at Bell Labs to the Homebrew Computer Club’s beer-fueled schematic swaps, and the open-source pioneers rewriting collaboration rules, he shows how “just for fun” experiments light the fuse of innovation.
By tracing this playful thread through computing history, Conery flips the script: what looks like a distraction is often the spark for breakthroughs. Embracing AI, open networking, or public code-sharing not as side gigs but as the real work, he invites us to goof off with purpose and unleash the next big leap.
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