Meta Tech Podcast

Ever wondered how the culture of big companies like Meta, Microsoft and Amazon differ? Jay comes with a fairly unique perspective as he has now worked at all three of them. In his discussion with Pascal, he shares his views on the trade-offs that a company value like “Move Fast” brings along and how companies assign different weights to the value of making mistakes. Got feedback? Send it to us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/metatechpod), Instagram (https://instagram.com/metatechpod) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy). Fancy working with us? Check out https://www.metacareers.com/. Links: Power On: The Story of Xbox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJYsA1jXf60 Timestamps: Intro 0:06 Jay Introduction 1:18 Business Engineering at Meta 2:43 Social Impact 5:35 Culture Shocks 8:24 The Value of Mistakes 14:15 Finding your Pace 16:14 Modes of Working in Different Teams 19:32 Expectations vs Reality 23:36 Workflows 30:02 Incidents 37:26 Internal Mobility 42:24 Outro 45:30 Bloopers 46:10

msys is the technology that underpins most of the messaging products Meta offers. What started as a small library in C wrapping sqlite is now used by many teams across the company and is now trying to address the developer experiences challenges that arise from the initial focus on speed and size above all else. Tune in to Pascal's interview to learn how Akshay and Chris are tackling this and other thorny issues.  Got feedback? Send it to us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/metatechpod), Instagram (https://instagram.com/metatechpod) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy). Fancy working with us? Check out https://www.metacareers.com/. Links: Meta Tech Podcast Episode 37: Faster and Smaller Messenger for With Amy Meta Tech Podcast Episode 39: White Labeling Messenger for iOS with Amy Project LightSpeed: Rewriting the Messenger codebase for a faster, smaller, and simpler messaging app   Timestamps:   Intro 0:06 Introduction Chris 1:33 Introduction Akshay 2:54 msys overview 3:37 Products adopting msys 7:16 Building features with msys 13:06 Migrations 20:28 Optimising DevX 26:38 Web Client 33:30 What's Next for msys 34:40 Outro 36:50 Outtakes 37:45

Cami returns to the Meta Tech Podcast, with now having 18 months of AR/VR experience under her belt. Cami is excited to share what developers can now do on the Quest platform. In this episode, Pascal and Cami discuss new SDKs for motion controls, voice and spatial objects; and for creators without programming experience - there’s Horizon Worlds.  Cami, as a Developer Advocate, shares her expertise whilst being acutely aware of areas that require careful consideration. To find out more from Cami and the exciting updates on Quest, tune into episode 43 of the Meta Tech Podcast. Got feedback? Send it to us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/metatechpod), Instagram (https://instagram.com/metatechpod) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy). Fancy working with us? Check out https://www.metacareers.com/.   Links: Display prototypes on Zuck’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/4/videos/355247026677540/ Boz to the Future on Display Tech: https://www.facebook.com/1681/videos/390455039578133/ Presence Platform Announcement: https://developer.oculus.com/blog/introducing-presence-platform-unleashing-mixed-reality-and-natural-interaction-for-oculus-developers/?locale=en_GB Presence Platform Developer Portal: https://developer.oculus.com/presence-platform/ Cami on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cwillycs Keep talking and nobody explodes: https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/2010043642376517/?locale=en_GB wit.ai: https://wit.ai/   Timestamps: Intro 0:06 Cami: Reintro 2:01 Horizon Worlds 3:22 Presence Platform SDK 7:59 Voice SDK 12:57 Insights SDK 17:34 Next-Gen Displays 24:14 Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes 28:20 Building for Horizon 31:37 ELI5 on YouTube 36:59 Meta Connect 42:51 Outro 44:14

The approach we take to building the Facebook app is based around three adjectives: trustworthy, people-centric and unified. In this episode, Pascal talks with Maria who is a director of engineering for product architecture and product excellence. They discuss what it means for a culture that is known for being driven by metrics to become more people-centric. What are examples of metrics that are aligned with people goals and when do they fail to capture them? Tune in to hear the answers to these questions and much more. Got feedback? Send it to us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/metatechpod), Instagram (https://instagram.com/metatechpod) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy). Fancy working with us? Check out https://www.metacareers.com/. Links: Rachel Nabors on The Diff: https://thediffpodcast.com/docs/episode-12 Meet the Developers: Mobile Edition (Pritesh Nandgaonkar): https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2022/05/23/meet-the-developers-pritesh-nandgaonkar/ Meta Open Source on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FacebookOpenSource Meta Tech Podcast Episode 29: Design Systems with Sriram: https://pca.st/u8r4u6h6 Meta Tech Podcast Episode 9: Android Bytecode Optimisation with Emma https://pca.st/J3cn    Timestamps: Intro 0:06 The Diff: Episode 12 1:23 Meet The Developer: Prish 1:38 Meta Open Source on YouTube 2:01 Intro 2:26 Intro Maria 2:36 Craft in FB App 5:15 Metrics vs People? 6:40 Unquantifiable Quality Goals 10:14 Dropping Facial Recognition 11:38 Dynamic Goals in a Dynamic World 13:21 Driving Cultural Change 15:49 Average vs Power Users 18:53 Metrics for Quality 22:33 Dev Tools' Role for Quality 29:12 Supporting People at Meta 33:38 Most Exciting Upcoming Change 39:25 Outro 40:43 Bloopers 42:00

For our second special for Earth Week, we are talking to Bilge who works as a research scientist at Meta AI. Her open-source project Carbon Explorer evaluates solutions to make data centres operate on 24/7 renewable energy. Why this is easier said than done and how engineers can help within their day-to-day work to reduce their carbon footprint are among the many things Pascal and Bilge discuss in this episode.   Got feedback? Send it to us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/metatechpod), Instagram (https://instagram.com/metatechpod) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy). Fancy working with us? Check out https://www.metacareers.com/. Links: Carbon Explorer: https://github.com/facebookresearch/CarbonExplorer Holistic Approach for Designing Carbon Aware Datacenters: https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.10036 Open Catalyst: https://opencatalystproject.org/ Open Catalyst SchrepTech Interview: https://ai.facebook.com/blog/how-ai-is-helping-address-the-climate-crisis/ Timestamps: Intro 0:05 Intro Bilge 2:18 Optimising for the Environment 4:01 Carbon Explorer 5:02 Mitigations for Renewable Intermittency 7:17 Operational and Embodied Footprints 10:57 Motivations for Carbon Explorer 13:06 Battery Storage 14:36 Renewable Curtailment 15:52 Empowering Engineers 18:20 Carbon Intensity APIs 19:22 AI Carbon Intensity Forecasts 22:07 Carbon Metrics 23:17 Where to Learn More 25:38 Outro 27:32 Bloopers 29:45

The most recent IPCC report has reiterated that the climate crisis is an all hands on deck situation. We all need to think about the impact our actions have on the planet that provides our life support system. Ramya is a TPM on the Meta AI team and analyses the impact AI has, as it grows superlinearly, on energy use and carbon emissions. Her recent work on Green AI identifies ways for reducing that footprint without limiting the options engineers have for building great products for connecting people. Got feedback? Send it to us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/metatechpod), Instagram (https://instagram.com/metatechpod) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy). Fancy working with us? Check out https://www.metacareers.com/.   Acronyms: LCA: Life Cycle Assessment PUE: Power Usage Efficiency Links: Sustainable AI: Environmental Implications, Challenges and Opportunities: https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.00364 Make an Impact for Earth Day: https://about.fb.com/news/2022/04/make-an-impact-for-earth-day/ Green AI SchrepTech: https://ai.facebook.com/blog/how-ai-is-helping-address-the-climate-crisis/ Timestamps: Intro 0:05 Intro Ramya 2:13 The Cost of AI 3:05 Measuring AI's Carbon Footprint 11:00 Trade Offs 13:28 Calculating the Carbon Intensity 16:01 Mitigation Options 18:36 Cultural Changes 25:35 Societal Value 26:13 Running AI on Edge Devices 29:02 What's Next? 32:33 Outro 34:55

Amy, an experienced iOS developer at Facebook, shares her journey of joining the company. She discusses developing a separate work chat app for Workplace, challenges of inheriting code from Messenger, and white labeling the app. Other topics include origins and growth, open sourcing plans for Lexical, and challenges with data model.

Kevin has had an unusual career path that led him to an engineering role at Meta. He first joined the company in a sales role before he moved into a more product-focused position. Working closely with engineers, Kevin decides to pursue a career in software development himself. Instead of dropping out of his job to get formal education in the space, he takes online courses and within less than a year smashes the internal interview process. To learn what his thinking behind the change was and which resources were particularly helpful, tune in to episode 38!   Got feedback? Send it to us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/metatechpod), Instagram (https://instagram.com/metatechpod) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy). Fancy working with us? Check out https://www.metacareers.com/.   Links: Coursera Datastructures and Algorithms classes: https://www.coursera.org/courses?query=data%20structures%20and%20algorithms Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/   Timestamps: Intro 0:06 Introduction Kevin 1:22 Learning to Code 3:38 Learning Resources 12:50 Deciding When to Stop 16:42 Interview Prep 21:57 The Big Day 24:45 Dealing With Imposter Syndrome 29:53 Interviewing is Broken 38:41 Outro 40:52

New year, new us! Inside Facebook Mobile is now the Meta Tech Podcast but Pascal will continue to bring you stories about mobile development and many other topics.  For this episode's interview, we're tackling one of the few remaining big apps we never had a guest from: Messenger. Amy worked on Messenger for 3 years before recently moving on to Reality Apps to work on AR.   Amy discusses with Pascal how Messenger for iOS was rewritten as part of Project Lightspeed to make it smaller and faster. They used a range of low-level hacks while providing high-level abstractions that product teams could safely and productively build on top of. Amy was also the first one to prototype with Catalyst and Meta and has some important tips for you on how not to accidentally wipe your Mac while doing so.  Got feedback? Send it to us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/metatechpod) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy). Fancy working with us? Check out https://facebookcareers.com. Links: Project LightSpeed: https://engineering.fb.com/2020/03/02/data-infrastructure/messenger/ Mac Catalyst: https://developer.apple.com/mac-catalyst/ Buck: https://buck.build/ Remodel: https://github.com/facebook/remodel - Remodel is a tool that helps iOS and OS X developers avoid repetitive code by generating Objective-C models that support coding, value comparison, and immutability.   Timestamps: Intro 0:06 Introduction Amy 2:25 Messenger Culture 3:37 Building with Buck 5:38 Catalyst 6:27 Project Lightspeed 17:13 Remodel 23:55 Image Asset Optimisations 28:50 Theming 36:44 What's Next for Amy? 38:21 Outro 39:21 Bloopers 39:54

Keeping engineers effective is not a small task when you work at Meta’s scale. Many of the tools you take for granted simply break or become unbearably slow. Chandrika’s team looks after developer experience at Meta and takes a holistic approach that spans the editing experience (IDEs, editors), builds, continuous integration and even custom calendar tooling. Her team ensures that as new platforms, for instance AR/VR, and languages like Swift and Kotlin emerge, our infrastructure is ready. Got feedback? Send it to us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/insidefbmobile), Instagram (https://instagram.com/insidefbmobile) and don’t forget to follow our host @passy (https://twitter.com/passy). Fancy working with us? Check out https://facebookcareers.com. Links: The Diff Podcast: https://thediffpodcast.com/docs/episode-10/ Meta Connect Keynote: https://fb.watch/9YydoWHMEE/ Jest: https://jestjs.io/   Timestamps: Intro 0:06 News: The Diff is back 1:25 Chandrika before Meta 1:50 Meta vs other Megacorps 9:57 DevEx at Meta 12:05 Different Dev Infra Teams 23:18 Unexpected Challenges 26:45 Kotlin & Swift 30:34 Measuring Developer Experience 35:53 App Health & Perf 37:46 Cross-App Dev 40:12 Outro 42:17