Techniques for Wielding Data and Behaviors - Mike Shah - NDC Toronto 2026

Value of the Information & Strength of the Argument

The talk provides valuable insights into data manipulation and design patterns, with practical code examples that illustrate each concept. Shah’s argumentation is clear and logical, building from basic data types to more advanced patterns. He effectively demonstrates how different programming paradigms and language features can be leveraged to solve problems flexibly. The emphasis on trade-offs and real-world use cases strengthens the practical value of the content.

Scientific Rigor, Source Quality, Title Accuracy

The talk is scientifically rigorous in its technical explanations, though it lacks formal citations. Shah references books like ‘Code’ and ‘Hacker’s Delight’ and mentions his own GitHub repository, but does not provide direct links to external sources. The title accurately reflects the content, which is focused on techniques for data and behavior manipulation. The presentation is well-organized and the speaker’s expertise is evident.

The title accurately reflects the content, which focuses on techniques for manipulating data and behaviors in programming.

8/10

The talk is a technical tutorial by an experienced educator (Mike Shah, Yale University) with practical code examples. The content is well-structured and grounded in established programming concepts. However, it lacks formal citations or references to external sources, and the presentation is based on the speaker's expertise rather than peer-reviewed research.

Markers derived by PSI from the transcript: the creator did not define chapters.

• 02:00Introduction and overview of the talk's goals.
• 05:00Discussion on the fundamental nature of computers as bit transformers.
• 10:00History of programming languages from B to C, with examples.
• 15:00Introduction to data manipulation techniques: casting and bit swizzling.
• 20:00Explanation of unions and tag unions for flexible data interpretation.
• 25:00Transition to object-oriented programming and emulating OOP in C.
• 30:00Introduction to design patterns: strategy pattern and higher-order functions.
• 35:00Discussion on the visitor pattern and command pattern.
• 40:00Explanation of coroutines and runtime type building.
• 45:00Summary and final thoughts on wielding data and behaviors.

• NDC Conferences — Conference organizer and event information.
• NDC Toronto — Specific conference event page.

• Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software — The book that formalized design patterns, including strategy and visitor, which are discussed in the talk.
• Coroutines in C++ — C++ reference on coroutines, a technique mentioned in the talk for controlling execution.
• Tagged union — Wikipedia article on tagged unions, which are used in the talk for flexible data interpretation.