During the Cold War, the CIA knew how to expose Russian spies disguised as American citizens with 100% certainty. They used only a piece of paper and a few questions. How did they do that? Hacking your mind is easier than you think.

Let’s explore how these mental hacks affect the code we all read and write. We’ll take a stroll through the world of cognitive psychology, and shed some light on some of our industry’s best and worst practices.

We’ll have a few interactive examples of our mind’s limitations, examine how these limitations manifest themselves in real code samples and engineering practices, and take away scientifically backed techniques on how to write better code.