JS at the Edge of the World

Want to live life on the Edge? Lambda functions open a world of possibilities for running on-demand, server-side code without having to run a dedicated server. It’s been 4 years - What have people been using them for? In this talk we explore how people are pushing the frontiers of serverless Node.js to do everything from making slackbots to making money for your next great side project!

Hi organizers! I have dozens of examples of cool things people are doing with Lambda functions, and I think that this topic is still super under explored in Node.js conferences relative to how much power they give to the individual developer (not to mention it’s basically free for side projects!). I want to give this talk to entertain and inspire people to start making more APIs to solve their own problems with any Lambda function provider, because it’s cheaper, more secure, and most people don’t even know what they can do with it!

I can Babel Macros (and So Can You!)

Babel macros are a new way to solve DX and UX tradeoffs by metaprogramming to write code the way that is best for you while delivering code that is best for the user. Case in point: JSX - but why stop there? In this talk we explore how I wrote babel-blade to solve the double declaration problem in clientside GraphQL libraries, and how to get started writing your first babel macro!

Hi organizers! Babel is a core part of the JS ecosystem, and I think still very underexplored/underappreciated because of the perception that it is hard to get into and limited to transpiling JSX and TC39 proposals. With the increasing adoption of babel-plugin-macros (adopted by large ecosystems like React) the addressable space for babel has -exploded-. Essentially making it possible to move computation and metaprogramming from run time to build time making for faster apps -and- a better developer experience! I want to tell the world!!

React Suspense For The Rest of Us

Even if you don’t work with React, you’re likely to have come across a React dev super excited about the new Suspense feature in React. What is it? Why are people so hyped? Should I care? This talk is an introduction for anyone who feels out of the loop - walking through the history of the idea and the general UI problems it solves (even for React Native!). We will approach this in a framework-agnostic way, so that you can see if the Suspense design pattern might make sense in your next project!

Hi organizers! I’ve given this talk once at a meetup before and it was really well received. I am a moderator of /r/reactjs, maintainer of fresh-async-react and regular speaker on React topics, and I find myself fielding the most questions about React Suspense from people who don’t use React day to day. I think a framework-agnostic talk that focuses on what they need to know would be super helpful even if they work on other frameworks, so that they can adapt these ideas to solve their problems, or explore using React in new ways.

The Dawn of Hybrid Site Generators

There is a sea change afoot in the worlds of frontend frameworks and static site generators: the two have gotten married! React has Gatsby and React-Static, Vue has VuePress, even Svelte has Sapper. What’s going on? In this talk we explore how the UX bar has been raised for making fast, full-featured sites on the JAMStack, and how new tools are meeting that bar!

Hi organizers! I have been intimately involved with the JAMStack (working at Netlify, and having contributed docs and code to Gatsby and React-Static) and I think that Hybrid Site Generators are an awesome new trend that people should be aware of. Basically frontend frameworks are all getting static site generators glommed on to become complete site frameworks that combine all the best web performance practices (server rendering, inlined CSS, chunked data, whole 9 yards) with the responsiveness of Single Page App (without the slow bundle time!). I think this is best-in-class in web development and am excited to see it developing in all major frameworks, and I would love to share this trend with the audience!

Learn in Public

Getting ahead in tech can often feel overwhelming. Am I supposed to spend all my free time on open source? How can I find a mentor? Where do I start? What about this giant pile of newsletters and blogposts I need to read? If you have ever asked these questions, you’re not alone. In this interactive talk we explore why learning in public is a great strategy used by many well known developers, and how you can get started on your path!

This talk is an expansion of a viral essay I wrote (https://twitter.com/swyx/status/1009174159690264579) for a talk I gave at a bootcamp, and the response from senior developers was overwhelmingly positive. I think a lot of junior developers suffer from shyness and impostor syndrome and don’t know that this is a valid path for learning (and one that I have used very effectively in my own career). My aim is to go into some interviews I have done with these well respected JS devs and show how they too got started by learning in public, and hopefully get the audience members fired up and inspired to do the same!