February 6, 2024 • 1 minute read •

Facebook Eng Culture & Modern Data Stack Consolidation

On open source software, data, and understanding Facebook’s high performance culture.

Name: Nick Schrock
Handle: @schrockn

Nick Schrock is the Founder of Dagster Labs and previously Co-Creator of GraphQL while at Facebook. In this episode, we discuss how Facebook maintained a culture of urgency and decentralization. Nick dives into the problem solved behind GraphQL’s creation and how the product rolled out within Facebook.

He also covers the modern data stack and how Dagster Labs is moving beyond the orchestration layer to provide more value to data engineering workflows.

Finally, Nick and show host Shomik Ghosh discuss Nick’s decision to transition from the CEO role and advice he has for other founders in the Open Source space.

Listen to the podcast:

In this episode

Nick discusses:

Joining Facebook During “Move Fast & Break Things” Era
Why Facebook Open Source Has Proliferated So Well
How Facebook Culture Changed to “Move Fast With Stable Infrastructure”
Making the Shift From Mobile to Desktop
Creating GraphQL
Finding Space to Work on GraphQL (Power of Decentralized Decision Making)
Rolling out GraphQL to All Facebook Developers
Starting Dagster (And Why Not Start a GraphQL Focused Company)
Learnings from GraphQL Translated to Dagster
Evolving Dagster Labs to a Platform from a Single Product
How the Practice of Data Engineering Differs from Data Engineers
Nick's Transition from CEO to CTO
Advice for Open Source Founders
What’s Coming Next for Dagster Labs

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