How many spoons does your environment cost: Broken demos & human element - Dawn Wages

[EuroPython 2026 - S3B on 2026-07-15] 🎤 *How many spoons does your environment cost: Broken demos & human element by Dawn Wages* 🔗 https://ep2026.europython.eu/session/how-many-spoons-does-your-environment-cost-broken-demos-human-element 📝 Abstract: This talk is one part technology dance and one part walk through of Python environment best practices. In under 30 minutes, you'll see me load up some of the most gnarly environments and watch them fail. This isn't just another talk about dependency management. It's about the hidden cost of environment friction: the cognitive load, the lost spoons, the brilliant developers who almost quit tech because they felt "too stupid" to make pip work. It's about recognizing that setup barriers aren't just inconvenient—they're accessibility barriers that determine who gets to write Python. In this talk we'll cover: - Several environment failures (with dramatic audience participation): GPU-enabled errors, OS errors, mounted systems, CI/CD and virtual environments - The human side of technical frustration: spoon theory, burnout - Patterns about how environments break - What the Python community is doing to lower these barriers. Content note: This talk discusses mental health, burnout, and the emotional impact of technical barriers with care and intention. --- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/