How to see in the dark factory | LaunchDarkly's Cameron Etezadi

The era of the "two-pizza" engineering team is officially dead, replaced by the "two-slice" team and a massive token budget. This week, LaunchDarkly CTO Cameron Etezadi joins the show to explain why traditional guardrails are breaking down and how engineering teams can regain control using runtime agent frameworks. He introduces the concept of the "dark factory," a highly automated assembly line for safely observing, flagging, and deploying AI-generated code to production. The conversation turns to the new ROI of software development, why engineers must now act as frontline managers, and how to navigate the build-versus-buy dilemma in the modern token economy. As AI speeds up how code gets written, the real bottleneck moves downstream to review, testing, and release, where software either delivers measurable value or quietly stalls. Check out the latest research from LinearB on how to measure that value.Life Beyond Tokenmaxxing Workshop: Watch the full replay on demand at linearb.io Follow the show:Subscribe to our Substack Follow us on LinkedInSubscribe to our YouTube ChannelLeave us a ReviewFollow the hosts:Follow AndrewFollow BenFollow DanFollow today's guest:LaunchDarkly AgentControl: Learn how to govern your probabilistic AI with runtime agent frameworks at launchdarkly.com/platform/agent-controlThe Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt: Read the quintessential business novel on the theory of constraints at AmazonThe Phoenix Project by Gene Kim: Explore the seminal book on IT, DevOps, and business success at IT RevolutionSimAnt: Dive into the history of the 1991 classic electronic ant colony simulation at Wikipedia.Follow Cameron: LinkedIn OFFERSStart Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free.Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era.LEARN ABOUT LINEARBAI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production.AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance.AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil.MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.