Siddharth Dayalwal
Dev Community Specialist @ Storyblok
Siddharth Dayalwal is a developer community and ecosystem builder with an experience in designing and scaling global developer programs, hackathons, and ambassador initiatives. He has worked closely with product, growth, and developer experience teams to drive adoption, gather feedback, and support builders at scale. Outside of his professional role, he runs Hack This Fall, one of India’s most active builder communities, and is deeply passionate about empowering developers through learning, collaboration, and community-led growth.
The cognitive load crisis: how modern web systems burn out teams
May 15 - 14:15h
Modern web systems are more powerful than ever, yet development teams are increasingly overwhelmed. As architectures grow more complex, developers face fragmented tools, constant context switching, and an endless stream of decisions, all contributing to cognitive overload and burnout.
This talk approaches the problem from a systems design perspective, not as a productivity or tooling issue. We’ll explore how modern architectures unintentionally increase mental overhead, why adding more tools often makes developer experience worse, and how automation and AI can amplify complexity when poorly designed.
Finally, we’ll look at architectural patterns that reduce cognitive load by minimizing decisions, simplifying workflows, and designing systems that support calmer, more sustainable development. Attendees will leave with practical principles for building web systems that scale without burning out the humans who build them.