First time in San Francisco. I'd been to California before, but never SF. The city hits different when you're actually there. Those hills, the fog rolling in (locals call it Karl), the whole vibe.
The Conference
Been using Next.js for years, so when I managed to snag tickets to the conf, I was pretty stoked. Finally got to see Guillermo Rauch and Lee Robinson present in person.
What They Announced
The keynote broke down their roadmap into four parts:
- Make it Work: Better data fetching
- Make it Right: Turbopack is finally stable
- Make it Fast: New caching strategies
- Make it Blazing Fast: Even more performance gains
Pretty solid plan. Turbopack being stable is huge for dev experience.
The AI Session That Actually Mattered
Oleg Akbarov from Perplexity gave a talk on building UIs with AI. Not your typical "AI will change everything" fluff. He showed actual code:
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Streaming Architecture How to handle AI content streams without your UI freezing up. The demos actually worked.
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Schema Validation Keeping AI responses consistent. This has been a pain point for me, so the examples were useful.
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LLM Output Handling Taking messy LLM responses and turning them into something your components can use.
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React Integration Real patterns for React components that don't tank performance when dealing with AI.
Took a ton of notes. Actually applicable stuff, not just theory.
The Food
Look, I like food. SF delivered.
Niku Steakhouse does A5 Wagyu right. Pricey but worth it if you're into that.
Lazy Bear was interesting. Communal dining, which isn't usually my thing, but it worked. Reminded me of this spot in London I used to go to.
The winter squash fondue was legit good. They do these elderflower gummy bears between courses. Weird but it works.
Desserts were wild. Persimmon sundae, French toast with foie gras ice cream. Not combinations I'd think of, but they pulled it off.
Also grabbed Mission burritos a couple times. If you know, you know.
Neighborhoods Worth Checking Out
Mission District
Valencia Street is where it's at. Good coffee, interesting shops. Mission Dolores Park is solid for working outside if the weather's nice. Tartine Bakery lives up to the hype, but yeah, you'll wait in line.
North Beach
Italian neighborhood that actually feels Italian. Buena Vista Cafe does a mean Irish Coffee (they claim they invented it in the US). City Lights is a bookstore worth browsing. You can walk to Chinatown from here too.
Golden Gate Park
Massive park. Japanese Tea Garden is peaceful. You can rent paddle boats at Stow Lake if that's your thing. Bring good shoes, you'll walk a lot.
Wrapping Up
Good conference, good city. The Next.js team clearly has their priorities straight with the performance improvements. The AI integration patterns from Oleg's talk are already in my backlog to try.
SF itself? I get why developers flock there. The tech scene is obviously huge, but the city has character beyond just startups and VCs. Would definitely go back for the next conf.