Nerdearla debuts in Spain in 2025 and starts with a 100% virtual event that has Donald Knuth as the central figure. The legendary American computer scientist, author of The Art of Computer Programming series and considered the “father of algorithm analysis”leads the opening.
Born in Buenos Aires in 2014, Nerdaarla has established itself in the last decade as a kind of high-voltage technical “nerdfest”: a space for developers, specialists in data, infrastructure, security, design, management and those curious about technology. According to the organization, in its recent Latin American editions the event attracted nearly 15,000 in-person attendees and 50,000 online participants.
This year had as one of its strong points Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon, who spoke with Clarín and discussed the advances (and dangers of artificial intelligence). Andrew Tanenbaum, one of the fathers of open source operating systems, also participated.
Starting on Friday the 14th and Saturday the 15th, the conference moves to La Nave (C. Cifuentes 5, Madrid), where in-person activities will be combined with live streaming that can be followed from Argentina and the world. Access is free, but requires prior registration on the official site nerdearla.es.
The landing in Madrid now seeks to extend a bridge between the tech community of Europe and Latin America under the same umbrella, with a grid that mixes historical names in computing with current references from the local ecosystem.
“Machines are great, but dangerous when they tempt us to disconnect”
In conversation with Clarín, before his talk, Knuth spoke about some of the topics that marked his career: the place of algorithmsthe relationship between humans and machines and the idea of programming as an art form.
Faced with a world increasingly permeated by automation and artificial intelligence, the computer scientist separates himself from naive enthusiasm and focuses on how tools can interfere with our way of thinking: “Machines are great for reviewing tedious details, but they are dangerous when they tempt us to disconnect”, he warns.
At the same time, Knuth claims a deliberate, almost meditative practice on one’s own intellectual work and continuous learning: “I believe in carefully analyzing one’s activities, both when one is alone and when interacting with others, to learn what types of behaviors best help fulfill one’s personal mission,” says the computer scientist and mathematician.
Knuth also spoke of a battle that lives in its own routine: the daily fight against distraction. He recalled that he decided to stay away from email to protect his work time and left a simple but forceful message: “The main thing that young thinkers (and old thinkers and middle-aged thinkers) need is to keep thinking. Our brains will atrophy if we don’t exercise them to the fullest.”
Along these lines, he says that he usually chooses “doing things the hard way” on purpose: “I think it is usually better to take the stairs than to use the elevator; better to go by bike than by car; better to play music than just listen to it.” The logic behind this posture is to train the head: to force ideas to pass through the mind several times “and be reinforced,” even when technology invites us to simplify everything to just one click.
In addition to Knuth, Nerdearla Spain 2025 brings together historical references of the web and current voices of the tech ecosystem: Håkon Wium Lie, creator of the CSS language, one of the key pieces of how the web is seen today, Patricia Pomies, former COO of They are gloatingwith a focus on management and scaling of technological teams, Omar Sanseviero, member of the Google DeepMind, José Edelsteintheoretical physicist and scientific disseminator, Miguel Ángel Durán (midudev), Spanish software engineer and popularizer with a massive community on YouTube and Twitch, among others.
They will be joined by dozens of international and local speakers, who will provide their local perspective on infrastructure, security, product design, data and organizational culture. The agenda includes workshops, with content for senior profiles and for those who are taking their first steps in technology.
In a market where large technological conferences usually involve tickets with costs that are usually high, Nerdearla Spain is committed to another model: highly technical content, free access and a community that is built around the exchange of collective knowledge.
Donald Knuth’s presence at the opening functions as a declaration of principles: the same rigor that helped define What do we mean by “algorithm” It can be discussed in Spanish with a community of people who program, research and build technology from anywhere in the world.