
Latest
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AI-generated abandonware is hollowing out open source
When everyone can build, the scarce resource becomes maintainers.
Editor’s picks
What is a staff engineer? Technical leaders who aren’t managers
Staff engineers are technical leaders who have deep domain knowledge, walking the line between tech and the business.

New York • September 8 & 9, 2027
Loved LDX3 New York? Pre-sale tickets for 2027 are now available.
Essential reading
On our StaffPlus playlist
How to master the four Staff archetypes and elevate your impact
While the specifics of the job can vary widely, Will Larson has famously categorized the Staff+ experience into four archetypes: Tech Lead, Architect, Solver, and the Right Hand.
Understanding the role as a Staff engineer
How to define, develop and deliver in your role on the technical track.
How to balance technical direction and leadership work
But as is often the case in business, priorities constantly shift and where you focus your efforts will too. So how do you strike the right balance between working on the technical direction of the business and those tasks that require you to put your leadership hat on?
Start with an exit in mind: How to be effective by being selfish as a staff engineer
Staff engineers often get overwhelmed by long-term ownership of critical projects. This talk explores how to avoid burnout by starting every project with an exit strategy—whether transferring ownership, pausing or bootstrapping a team.


The festival for modern engineering leadership
New York • September 15 & 16, 2026
More for Staff engineers
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Should the daily stand-up die?
Will the real agile developers please stand up? Please stand up. Please, stand up.
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The CrowdStrike disaster is a lesson about testing
What’s been dubbed the world’s biggest IT outage should be a wakeup call to the industry.
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Why Zig is one of the hottest programming languages to learn
A recent Stack Overflow survey revealed Zig is highly-admired and developers are highly-paid – but why?
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5 lessons from CrowdStrike’s global outage
What can engineering leaders learn from one of the biggest IT disasters in history?
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Why OpenFeature is central to modern feature management
Get to know the open source project changing the game for feature flags.
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Streamline development processes with application templates
Increase efficiency, collaboration, and innovation.
Videos for Staff engineers
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Y2K: The bug that didn’t bite
Unearthing the lessons of Y2K to avoid future coding catastrophes and build more sustainable software.
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How to zoom out (and when to stop)
A practical guide for engineers and new engineering leaders on expanding their scope effectively, recognizing when to change their perspective, and maintaining the right balance between strategic thinking and technical depth.
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Dressing to the 9s
Everybody wants high reliability, but the path isn’t exactly clear. This talk is for people who need to know what works and what doesn’t.
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Going all-in on data products
Explore how a development team fully embraced building a data product alongside their new operational product.
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Getting excited about maintaining legacy systems
Learn how maintaining legacy systems builds real-world skills in debugging, system thinking, and mentoring others effectively.
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Documentation and AI: How to write right now
Think AI can handle your documentation? Sometimes. This talk breaks down where it helps, where it doesn’t, and what still needs the human touch.
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A safe place to land: Practical (and hyper-scale tested) advice for technical decision-making while evolving systems in place
Practical strategies for evolving systems at hyperscale while balancing innovation, stability, and reliability – featuring real-world insights from Fastly.
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Accessibility needs better marketing
Web accessibility is seen as a chore, something to suffer through. This view ignores the needs of people with disabilities and diminishes their worth as humans and worthy customers. How do we change the process?
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Fast, informed, impactful: How to master decision-making
Master the art of efficient decision-making and turn slow, ineffective engineering decisions into a powerful competitive advantage.
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Were our values a lie? Leading teams through diversity’s collapse
As industry shifts impact diversity, leaders must stay true to their values. This talk provides strategies to uphold your principles, build resilience, and foster inclusivity and trust, even when the company no longer prioritizes them.
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So you want to hire engineering force multipliers?
10x engineers, platform engineering, infrastructure, DevEx… What do they have in common?
They’re hard to hire, easily burned out, difficult to grow, and likely to fail. Let’s talk about how to do it right.
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In partnership with PostmanHuman-first leadership, AI-powered
Discover how AI can free engineering leaders to focus on people, not process – driving innovation without losing the human core.



