The HTML version of my talk at Code Camp Wellington 2026.
Or: “Easy is not always an uncomplicated good” 🤬 🧑💻
The front-page
Choose friction to choose growth
🧑🎓 🧱 🛋️
Foreword
📧 steve.barnett@intopia.digital
🤓 Digital Accessibility Consultant
🛠️ Finding and removing friction
1. Friction
Quick definition(s)
📕 📗 📘
Friction is resistance
- The force of resistance to relative motion
- That is: stop-it-slipping-ness
🧪 🧍 🪑
Friction is difficulty
- It stops things being easy
- That is: have-to-do-something-ness
🫸 🤔 🧑💻
2. Favourable non-friction
Or: “Easy can be good”
🌴 🧠 ⚠️
Code completion
- For example: IntelliSense in VS Code
- No hunting around, it’s right there
- There’s no value in this being difficult
🕵 🎯 👍
3. Unfavourable non-friction
Or: “Easy can be bad”
📈 ⌛ 🫠
Taking shortcuts that lead to tech debt
- For example: 0% test coverage
- “That’s a problem for future-me”
- Tech debt more generally
🧓 🦶 🔫
4. Favourable friction
Or: “Difficult can be good”
😬 ⌛ 🤩
Adding a new framework (or library)
- For example:
React - Switching from Vue or Angular or …
- Get the finer flavours of it
⏱️ 😌 📉
5. Choosing friction
Making mistakes Getting feedback
😰 🔄 🫡
Friction is fervour
😋 Difficult is interesting
😪 Easy is boring
🧩 Solving problems with code
Feasibly factious example
(Or: “Probably provocative example”)
- Choose friction when using AI
- Don’t let AI do the work
- Do let AI help do the work
🤖 🎁 🤔
The finale
Choose friction to choose growth
🧑🎓 🧱 🛋️
Thank you! 🙇
steve.barnett@intopia.digital
P.s. check out this book! 👇
