Reading time ~1 min

Posted by Leon Jacobs on 20 December 2023

Keynoting 0xcon in Johannesburg this year, I had the immense privilege of talking and sharing ideas about something that is dear to my heart. That is, giving back more than you take. And by giving back I don’t mean *just* doing research or writing tools. Instead, giving back includes things like writing documentation or even just teaching someone else!

In my talk, “your contributions, today” I reflected on a current view of practical security research and contributions in a time of ever-increasing systems complexity, abstractions and Instagram reels. By drawing parallels to the “Free-rider Problem” as described in an economics context, I argued that as an industry we need to caution against this phenomenon manifesting by actively making contributions.

The talk is available to view on YouTube now, and you can get the slides from my GitHub repository. What are you going to contribute today?