
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 15 & 16, 2026
Delivering AI results without a playbook?
Find what’s working at LDX3
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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Put an end to being the “go-to” engineer
Being the individual people run to in a fire may feel great short-term, but the negative effects can pile up.
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Staff+ engineers are the key to AI adoption
As the organizational glue, staff+ engineers are best placed to bring in successful AI adoption.
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The cost of skipping hard conversations (and how to have them)
How avoidance can create to leadership debt.
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What to do when you have a bad manager
The best way to deal with a bad manager is to meet them where they are.
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New study suggests major productivity boost when using Cursor’s coding agent
Is this the massive productivity benefit we’ve been waiting for?
Videos for Staff engineers
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In partnership with TailscaleInclusion: What works, and why I’m still talking about it
Explore practical ways to make inclusion part of everyday teamwork, from communication styles to better collaboration and decision-making.
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In partnership with DXThe state of AI in software development: Insights across 400+ organizations
Learn where AI actually boosts developer productivity, how leading teams measure impact, and practical ways to separate measurable gains from hype.
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In partnership with UnblockedYour agents lack context: Here’s how to fix “You’re absolutely right!”
Learn how to build the context layer AI agents need to produce organization-aware, permission-safe, genuinely useful code.
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In partnership with PagerDutyProduction AI agents: The gap between promise and reality
Learn what it really takes to move AI agents from impressive demos to safe, reliable production systems.
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Mentoring that actually changes careers
A practical, human take on mentoring that actually helps people grow, by sharing real experience and honest guidance.
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The mechanics of scaling: Why delivery slows as you grow, and what to do about it
In this talk, I will show how rising incidents, fragile systems, slower delivery and constant firefighting are often signs of hitting systemic limits rather than execution failure.
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Finding the 80/20: Lessons from delivering our first LLM feature
How to choose what actually matters when shipping your first LLM feature, balancing evaluation, trust, and delivery without overengineering.
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Inclusive leadership across cultures: Practical patterns for global engineering teams
Concrete, repeatable patterns for leading global teams across cultures, reducing friction, building trust, and helping diverse voices contribute fully.
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Things fall apart – Architecture to avoid progressive collapse
How to design systems so small failures stay contained, preventing cascading outages and large-scale architectural collapse.
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30 to 70 PRs a day: How we managed to not wreck our systems
Practical platform practices that compound over time, helping teams ship faster, improve reliability, and make AI-assisted delivery actually work.
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In partnership with LaunchDarklyFrom code tsunami to controlled innovation: Launching software in the age of AI
How to harness the explosive speed of AI-driven development without losing control, compromising safety, or putting customer experience at risk.




