Ask any software developer about their favourite stack, and they'll probably have strong opinions. (They might even have a snappy acronym for it, like LAMP or JAM or...) But if you ask any business about their stack, things aren’t so clear. They'll probably tell you the key components, and then add a laundry list of extra parts that got glued on later. The reality is, assembling large systems gets complicated. And with more and more options coming out every year, that potential complexity is only growing. These days, a good software developer must also be part researcher, and part explorer. So this week we're going to survey the landscape, and head out on the hunt for workable architectures. And joining us to do it is Ben Gamble. He's worked in fields as diverse as video games, enterprise software and AR headsets, and these days works for an Everything As A Service company helping people find and assemble the missing pieces their system needs. Who better to guide us through the software landscape? If you've ever worried that your system is too complicated, or is missing important parts, or you're just yearning for an architecture that feels more cohesive and less like a box of parts, come exploring with us.--Kris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/Ben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenGamble7The Schemaverse: https://schemaverse.com/Nerdsniping: https://xkcd.com/356/Tremor: https://www.tremor.rs/Anna McDonald’s talk on Completion Criteria: https://www.confluent.io/events/kafka-summit-london-2023/pragmatic-patterns-and-pitfalls-for-event-streaming-in-brownfield/Temporal.IO: https://temporal.io/