--- title: Postmodern Programming - Tony Van Eerd - NDC Toronto 2026 description: A conference talk transcript from NDC Toronto 2026 by Tony Van Eerd, a C++ committee member, exploring 'postmodern programming' through a mix of humor, poetry,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/postmodern-programming---tony-van-eerd---ndc-toronto-2026-e6hd5eejw twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Postmodern Programming - Tony Van Eerd - NDC Toronto 2026 | daily.dev og:description: A conference talk transcript from NDC Toronto 2026 by Tony Van Eerd, a C++ committee member, exploring 'postmodern programming' through a mix of humor, poetry,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/postmodern-programming---tony-van-eerd---ndc-toronto-2026-e6hd5eejw og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/E6hD5eejw.png og:image:alt: Postmodern Programming - Tony Van Eerd - NDC Toronto 2026 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Postmodern Programming - Tony Van Eerd - NDC Toronto 2026 **[NDC Conferences](https://daily.dev/sources/ndc)** · 44 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A conference talk transcript from NDC Toronto 2026 by Tony Van Eerd, a C++ committee member, exploring 'postmodern programming' through a mix of humor, poetry, and genuine software design insights. Key ideas include: separating state management from decision-making in code, the concept of 'deference' (meaning derived from context and contrast), naming APIs consistently so inconsistencies stand out, the underuse of functions/subroutines as a fundamental abstraction, and the importance of code as communication to multiple audiences simultaneously (compiler, computer, end user, other developers). The talk uses Dr. Seuss-style rhymes, self-referential graphs, and postmodern literary theory as framing devices to encourage developers to broaden how they think about writing code. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The Pragmatic Programmer: 20th Anniversary Edition](https://daily.dev/posts/the-pragmatic-programmer-20th-anniversary-edition-bcp8pqahz) · Hacker News · 32 upvotes · 1 comments - [AI and NDC London 2026: A .NET Conference From a Developer’s Perspective](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-and-ndc-london-2026-a-net-conference-from-a-developer-s-perspective-rruw1sx8x) · We Are .NET · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#general-programming](https://daily.dev/tags/general-programming), [#architecture](https://daily.dev/tags/architecture), [#c++](https://daily.dev/tags/c++) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/postmodern-programming---tony-van-eerd---ndc-toronto-2026-e6hd5eejw) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Postmodern Programming - Tony Van Eerd - NDC Toronto 2026","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/postmodern-programming---tony-van-eerd---ndc-toronto-2026-e6hd5eejw","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/postmodern-programming---tony-van-eerd---ndc-toronto-2026-e6hd5eejw"},"datePublished":"2026-07-22T09:57:56.908Z","dateModified":"2026-07-22T09:58:19.272Z","description":"A conference talk transcript from NDC Toronto 2026 by Tony Van Eerd, a C++ committee member, exploring 'postmodern programming' through a mix of humor, poetry,...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eo7zq8Phmn0/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eo7zq8Phmn0/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"NDC Conferences","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"NDC Conferences","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--SiIyojEj--/f_auto/v1748760369/logos/ndc","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/ndc"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/postmodern-programming---tony-van-eerd---ndc-toronto-2026-e6hd5eejw","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"general-programming,architecture,c++","timeRequired":"PT44M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"Postmodern Programming - Tony Van Eerd - NDC Toronto 2026","description":"A conference talk transcript from NDC Toronto 2026 by Tony Van Eerd, a C++ committee member, exploring 'postmodern programming' through a mix of humor, poetry,...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eo7zq8Phmn0/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-07-22T09:57:56.908Z","duration":"PT44M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/E6hD5eejw","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/eo7zq8Phmn0"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"NDC Conferences","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/ndc"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Postmodern Programming - Tony Van Eerd - NDC Toronto 2026"}]} ```