Keynote: How Complex Systems Taught Me To Fail - Imogen Wright

[EuroPython 2026 - Keynote - S1 on 2026-07-15]
🎤 *How Complex Systems Taught Me To Fail by Imogen Wright*
🔗 https://ep2026.europython.eu/session/how-complex-systems-taught-me-to-fail
📝 Abstract:
This talk traces a meandering story of twenty years of invention, triumph and disaster, touching on theoretical physics, cloud computing, viral genetics, pandemic responses, and nearly dying in an NHS A&E queue. You'll pick up four generally applicable laws of complex systems, gain some superpowers for averting an apocalypse, and hopefully laugh a bit along the way. This isn't much of a technical talk and it is neither sanitised nor triumphant — expect sarcasm, most of all during the rough patches. My hope is that you'll leave seeing your own work differently, especially if it's quiet and unglamorous. Resilience is a property of systems, not their components, and it's the people who notice small changes and tend locally who make the biggest differences of all.
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