Platforms: Build Abstractions, not Illusions

Let’s be honest, the tech we use today is amazing, but it can also be complex.

It’s only natural that teams want to build platforms that hide this complexity to improve productivity, avoid mistakes, and reduce cognitive load. But they may be misled to believe that the more complexity they hide, the better their platform is. Instead, they end up creating dangerous illusions!

This talk reflects on two decades of building complex distributed systems, highlighting where abstractions helped and where illusions led to major disappointments.