Let's talk about salaries in tech

Tech employee salaries have soared over time, and as an Italian entrepreneur with a company in San Francisco, it's clear that pay disparities exist between countries, and the factors behind salary discrepancies among nations may not be immediately evident.

Is displaying salary in job offers beneficial for candidates, or could it work in the employer's favor?

Additionally, how can we ensure equitable compensation for underrepresented groups in tech?

Delving into tech salaries and fostering open discussions about pay is vital for a fair industry.

Talking about money shouldn't be taboo!

Understanding JavaScript compilation

Compiling modern JavaScript to older ECMAScript-compatible versions has allowed the web to evolve incredibly fast while making us happier developers. But how does the compilation process work? How can we write our own Babel plugins? What do we need to know to get started doing it?
In this talk, we will explore the world of compilers, keeping things easy and accessible to anyone, so that everyone can start writing their own Babel plugins or extending the default JavaScript grammar.

Explaining distributed systems like I'm five

When you really need to scale your application, adopting a distributed architecture can help you support high traffic levels. The problem is: how should you do that? When can we call a system as "distributed"?

In this talk, we will look at many easy examples of how a distributed architecture could virtually scale infinitely, always explaining this... like I'm five!

Writing a full-text search engine in TypeScript

Have you ever wondered how full-text search engines such as ElasticSearch or Algolia works? Let's find out!
In this talk, we will build a RESTful full-text search engine from scratch, understanding how to choose the right algorithms and data structures for accomplishing such a task.
You will see how to maintain incredibly high performances while working with a massive amount of data and understand why it is so important to choose the right algorithm or data structure for accomplishing such tasks

Solving imaginary scaling issues

Serverless, auto-scaling, NoSQL databases... how many times have we found ourselves struggling with the idea of creating a super-overengineered architecture for scaling our products? But... do we really need that scaling level? Are we approaching the topic in the wrong way? There's an easier way to create software architectures that scale. Let's find out!

Are all programming languages in english?

After some time searching for the best programming language for my projects, I wondered: is there a programming language that does not use any English keyword?
Of course, the short answer is no, but where do all the other non-English-based programming languages hide? How did we end up using that idiom for writing code?
Let's explore these questions during this talk!

Refactoring large JavaScript codebases

What happens if you're in a small team and need to refactor a huge JavaScript codebase? What if you have to upgrade your code following the latest ECMAScript specifications? Updating hundreds of thousands of files by hand seems not the best possible option, so here comes the concept of codemods. In this talk, we will see how JavaScript gets interpreted, transformed, and eventually compiled so that refactoring a large codebase won't be a problem anymore.

From ravioli maker to international speaker

Speaking at conferences is awesome! But how should one start? And what about writing tech articles, books, and contributing to open-source software? How can a person with no computer science background break into the developer relations world? Well, that's what I did, and I'm going to tell you all of my secrets during this talk!

Maths or magic? End-to-end encryption explained with art

Every time we send a message on the most popular messaging platforms, we want to make sure that our communication is private and inaccessible to malicious users. We also want to ensure that in case of a data breach, the messages will be encrypted so that no one could potentially easily decrypt them. But how do we do that?
How does end-to-end encryption work, and is it really that secure?
In this interactive talk, we will see how to make our communications secure by implementing one of the most popular e2e encryption algorithms... with some help from the public!

Full-text search at the edge with Orama

How can a JavaScript-based search engine retrieve millions of records in a matter of microseconds? Why is JavaScript the right language to implement a true isomorphic application to be deployed everywhere, from mobile applications to edge networks? In this talk, we will see how Orama, a full-text search engine written in JavaScript, is challenging the search industry with an incredible combination of performance and developer experience.

To fall in love with algorithms and data structures in 20 minutes

Let's be honest; if we want to build performant software, we must dig into algorithms and data structures. As a self-taught developer, it has never been an easy task for me... until I found a way to fall in love with them!
In this talk, I'll share some practical, real-world examples of algorithms and data structures you can use right now in production - the easy way.

Things I learned while writing high-performance JavaScript applications

During the past months, I developed Lyra, an incredibly fast full-text search engine entirely written in TypeScript.
It was surprising to me to see how it could compete with solutions written in Rust, Java, and Golang, all languages known for being typically "faster than JavaScript"... but is that even true?
In this talk, I will share some lessons I learned while developing complex, performance-critical applications in JavaScript.

Making complexity simple

In this talk, we will discover how design principles can be applied to make advanced and abstract computer science concepts accessible to everyone.
We will start by choosing four algorithms of increasing complexity and abstraction, explaining them from a programmer's point of view, and how to make them accessible to everyone (nontechnical people) thanks to the application of a framework developed for this specific situation.

In the talk, we will look at:
- Why many concepts in computer science are so complex and abstract to explain
- How to reduce the cognitive load when studying a new algorithm or concept
- The process used to make these topics accessible
- The principles to be applied
- Examples of simple, complex, concrete, and abstract algorithms (and how to make them all accessible)

This talk is aimed at developers, designers, and non-technical people who work in an area where the complexity of the developed solutions tends to grow and be challenging to explain in the onboarding, sales, and pitch phases.