DevClub.lv – for people involved in software development

Burnout Is a System Bug: Leadership, Culture, and Psychosocial Safety by Ilja Lapkovskis at 150th “Mental Health” focused DevClub.lv

Posted onJune 15, 2026AuthorAnete ValaineLeave a comment

Announcement of Database focused 154th DevClub.lv

Posted onJune 10, 2026June 11, 2026AuthorAlina LetinskaLeave a comment

HI!

Databases are everywhere — but understanding how they really work is what separates good systems from great ones.
Join us at the next DevClub.lv meetup for an evening dedicated to modern database engineering. Learn how to read PostgreSQL execution plans, discover what’s new in MySQL 9.7, and see real-world MySQL corruption troubleshooting and recovery techniques from production environments.

You are welcome to Database focused event on June 18, 18:30, at Accenture office – 214 Brīvības gatve.

Please, register here.

Agenda for “Database” focused 154th DevClub.lv

Andrey Chervonets from CoMinder will give a talk “MySQL Corruptions Troubleshooting: Case Studies”.
This presentation is intended for beginners.
After years of work, every IT professional gains their own unique experience that can help them in the future.
Good old common sense, based on human intellect and time-proven methods, will save your time in the age of AI-driven technologies.
Using real-life cases, I will show how basic troubleshooting methods can save your time and how to avoid common pitfalls when unplanned issues arise.
Some corruption recovery techniques will be learned as well.
Case 1: Ubuntu + Zabbix upgrade failed due to problems with MySQL database. Logical data corruption while no issues with software upgrade .
Case 2: Zabbix MySQL database corruptions recovery after storage hardware issues.

(Language – Latvian)

Andrey Chervonets is DBA with 25+ years experience of supporting information systems based on Oracle products and technologies. He is Oracle Database OCP/OCE, Oracle AS/WebLogic OCP, IBM DB2 Certified Database Administrator.
Aivars Kalvāns will give a talk “EXPLAIN: make it make sense”.
Most developers know how to measure the time a database query takes and to find which one is the slowest. But what next? What is going on there? Is it good that it’s doing that? Is the query supposed to take this much time? Will some indexes help? In this talk, I will help you decipher database query plans and give some rules of thumb to understand if the database is doing the best it can. We will also use query plans to find the best indexes for queries by observing what the database is looking for. I will also share several anti-patterns I have seen in projects and show how to rewrite them in a database-friendly way. Although I will use Python to explain the principles and execute my queries, I will show the raw SQL to make it applicable to any programming language.

(Language- English)
Tags: SQL, PostgreSQL, Explain plan, Python

Aivars Kalvāns is a FinTech developer, software architect, and consultant. He spent more than 18 years developing and architecting payment card software for acquiring and issuing, as well as for accounting and utility payments, through mobile phones, ATMs, and POS terminals. At the moment, he is a contractor exploring Foreign Exchange, SWIFT, SEPA, ledgers, and other areas of the FinTech landscape.
Scott Stroz from Oracle will give a talk “The Next Chapter of MySQL: What’s new in Versions 9.7”.
Scott Stroz will deliver his speech ONLINE.
MySQL 9.7 LTS marks a major milestone for MySQL Community Edition, delivering expanded capabilities across observability, high availability, application development, and query performance. In this session, Scott explores the Community Edition features introduced in MySQL 9.7 LTS and what they mean for teams building and operating MySQL-backed systems. You will learn how new replication and Group Replication observability features provide better insight into lag, flow control, cluster health, and failover behavior; how OpenTelemetry support helps integrate MySQL into modern monitoring pipelines; how JSON Duality Views continue to evolve for application architectures; and how the Hypergraph Optimizer broadens access to advanced query planning in Community Edition.
This is not a product pitch. It is a practical look at what is now available in MySQL Community Edition, why these features matter, and how they can help teams build, scale, monitor, and optimize MySQL-backed applications with more confidence.

(Language – English)

Scott Stroz is a Developer Advocate for MySQL and has been a full-stack developer for longer than the term “full-stack developer” has been around. In that time, MySQL was the only constant in his development stack. He is passionate about sharing what he has learned on his coding journey so others may learn from his mistakes.

Videos from previous events you can find at our homepage and our YouTube channel. The best way to be informed about new videos is to Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

If you have any challenge where you are looking for external help, remember – Nine Brains can help you find world-class trainers and consultants almost for any need people in software development could have. Contact us to get to know more!

Com Tec Co (CTCo) is a global digital services provider with 600+ experts driving digital transformation across industries.
We’d love to connect with tech professionals who are passionate about innovation and growth:
– Full-Stack Developer
– Java Developer
– Delivery DevOps Engineer

At Dativa, we deliver secure and scalable IT solutions trusted by governments and enterprises, backed by deep expertise in custom software and e-services development. Join us!

Trading since 2017, Gravity Team is one of the leading crypto market makers and liquidity providers, with cumulative trading volumes to date in excess of $400 billion. Join our community of innovators, problem solvers and owners who apply scientific discovery techniques to make crypto markets a better place for everyone.
– AI Platform Architect

Levelpath is on a bold mission to revolutionize procurement software—and make it delightful. Founded in 2022, we’re a AI-powered platform tackling real challenges in the $11.5B (and growing) market. Our engineering team builds cutting-edge solutions that unify workflows, data, and automation for a seamless business experience. Backed by top Silicon Valley VCs and a proven founding team, we’re hiring developers who thrive on solving hard problems and pushing boundaries to transform the enterprise.
– Senior Security Engineer

GoCardless is a global fintech building the world’s bank payment network, processing over US$130B annually for 100,000+ businesses. Our teams also use AI and open banking to increase payment success and reduce fraud, creating complex engineering challenges at a massive scale. We’re solving problems that affect how money moves globally. Join us to build the future of payments!
– Data Analyst II
– Software Development Engineer – Payment Intelligence team
– Ruby Software Development Engineer

Thanks to our sponsors for supporting DevClub.lv events:

Register here for the 154th Database focused DevClub.lv

Announcement of Cognitive Recovery focused 153rd DevClub.lv

Posted onApril 16, 2026April 17, 2026AuthorAlina LetinskaLeave a comment

HI!

Our recent Mental Health focused event brought a lot of interest around burnout, so this time we are continuing the conversation with a more practical focus: how to protect and restore our Cognitive resources in demanding IT environments.

You are welcome to “Cognitive Recovery“ focused event on April 23, 18:30, at GoCardless office– Marijas iela 2a, Novira Plaza, entrance “East”, 3rd floor.

Please, register here.

Also, after Margarita Birkena’s burnout talk at our recent Mental Health event sparked strong interest and many follow-up questions, we are now collecting ideas for possible future sessions she could develop further. If you would like to contribute a topic, question, or situation, please check our Facebook post for details.

Agenda for “Cognitive Recovery” focused 153rd DevClub.lv

Dr.Zane Bedikere from RSU Psihosomatiskās medicīnas un psihoterapijas klīnika will give a talk “Cognitive Hygiene in IT – Sustaining Focus and Mental Resilience”. In this session, we explore how to maintain cognitive performance and emotional resilience in high-demand IT environments. We will discuss what happens to the brain and nervous system under prolonged stress, why burnout develops, and why simple rest is often not enough. The talk provides practical, evidence-informed strategies to restore cognitive energy, improve focus, and sustain long-term performance.

(Language- English)
Tags: Cognitive hygiene, Mental resilience, Burnout prevention, Productivity

Dr.Zane Bedikere is a medical doctor and psychotherapy specialist. She brings over 10 years of experience in direct sales, management, and leadership, having built and led high-performance teams. She focuses on helping individuals and teams improve resilience, self-regulation, and sustainable performance.
Armands Lucijanovs will give a talk “Movement biohacking”.
If we sleep 8 hours a night, then we are awake for 16 hours every day. The state of our bodies largely depends on what and how we do things during this time – what movements we make, what static body positions we take, and how often we change them.
The human body can move in many different ways, but not all movements are equal. It’s possible to move in ways that are efficient, safe, and strengthen the body, thus promoting its well-being and longevity. It is also possible to move in ways that, in the long run, can cause discomfort, pain, and injury. By incorporating functional movement into our everyday lives, we promote healthy bodily function and longevity while reducing muscle and joint stiffness (caused by a sedentary lifestyle) and preventing injuries. Moving with awareness and making small changes, if necessary, to our movement and body positioning habits paves the way to our physical well-being and the ability to move freely for the duration of our lives. We will take a look at squatting, bending, posture, gait and explore different ways to sit, incorporating movement and stretching while doing so.

(Language – English)
Tags: Functional movement, Daily movement hacks, Alignment

Armands Lucijanovs, together with his brother Raivis, is in the process of creating a company that will offer educational services on healthy habits regarding sleep and movement. Armands has learned about functional movement from biomechanist and world-renowned author Katy Bowman. Armands has always been an avid proponent of movement. He started playing football and ice-skating at the age of seven, almost forty years ago, and still does so to this day. He has run two marathons, a half marathon, numerous 10K and 5K races. He has participated in a famous Latvian endurance event – a 136-km walk from Kolka to Dubulti that one must complete in under 55 hours. Armands also likes throwing baseballs, juggling and, one of his favourites, slacklining.
Raivis Lucijanovs from NGO “Miega ieradumu centrs” (Sleep habits center) in his lecture “Biohacking sleep” will provide the benchmark for determining existing sleep quality before speaking about the significant role of quality sleep to aim for the quality lifespan well above 50 years (that is the current threshold for the average Latvian). Different measurement methods of sleep will be reviewed, sleep chronotypes for individual use will be explained as well as relevant sleep lifehacks will be provided to sleep better.

(Language – English)
Tags: quality sleep, sleep chronotype, sleep habits, quality lifespan, sleep lifehacks

Raivis Lucijanovs is experienced financial manager with 25 years of experience in the field, now acting as the outsourcing CFO for SMEs. Sleep habits is a passionate topic of special interest to Raivis where 8 years of research have resulted in establishing the NGO “Miega ieradumu Centrs” to create the sleep habits ecosystem in Latvia. Raivis is also serving as the sleep coach by providing individual coaching sessions, delivering lectures and masterclasses on the topic of sleep habits.

Videos from previous events you can find at our homepage and our YouTube channel. The best way to be informed about new videos is to Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

At Dativa, we deliver secure and scalable IT solutions trusted by governments and enterprises, backed by deep expertise in custom software and e-services development. Join us!
–Full-Stack Developer

GoCardless is a global fintech building the world’s bank payment network, processing over US$130B annually for 100,000+ businesses. Our teams also use AI and open banking to increase payment success and reduce fraud, creating complex engineering challenges at a massive scale. We’re solving problems that affect how money moves globally. Join us to build the future of payments!
– Full-Stack Software Development Engineer (Python, Ruby)
– Software Development Engineer
– Senior Data Scientist, Payment Intelligence

Com Tec Co (CTCo) is a global digital services provider with 600+ experts driving digital transformation across industries.
We’d love to connect with tech professionals who are passionate about innovation and growth:
– Quality Assurance Engineer
– Lead Delivery DevOps Engineer

Thanks to our sponsors for supporting DevClub.lv events:

Register here for the 153rd Cognitive Recovery focused DevClub.lv

Announcement of AI in SDLC focused 152nd DevClub.lv

Posted onMarch 19, 2026March 19, 2026AuthorAlina LetinskaLeave a comment

Hi!

This event is focused on practical ways AI can be used across different stages of the SDLC — helping teams prototype faster, understand complex systems, and introduce AI at scale.

You are welcome to “AI in SDLC” focused event on Wednesday, March 25, 18:30, at Emergn Latvija office, Skanstes street 25, Riga. Elemental Business Centre building “Green”.

Please, register here.

Agenda for “AI in SDLC” focused 152nd DevClub.lv

Andris Gaņģis from CUBE Systems will give a talk “Lowering Project Overheads and risks with “Vibe Coded” Prototypes”
In this session, we explore how AI no-code development tools can fundamentally reshape the way projects are planned, validated, and designed. We will discuss replacing traditional documentation and static wireframes with functional, AI-generated prototypes to accelerate project timelines and ensure team alignment. The talk will provide a practical roadmap, including which tools to use, tips on how to use them, and the pitfalls to look out for.

(Language- English)
Tags: MVP, Product Discovery, Product Development, Lovable, Vibe coding

Andris Gaņģis is a CTO @ CUBE Systems. Seasoned product leader with nearly 20 years of experience building software solutions, ranging from simple tools to enterprise systems. He drives the entire product lifecycle, from inception through deployment and long-term evolution. A dedicated mentor, he focuses on optimizing team workflows and empowering developers to deliver high-impact, high-quality results.
Muntis Rudzītis from Emergn will give a talk “AI Agents in the SDLC: Beyond Code Generation”
Most AI coding tool demos focus on writing new code, but writing code for new features is only part of the full software development lifecycle. This session explores how AI agents can support the non-coding/non-developer side of software development process – helping business analysts extract and understand logic, data analysts explain and create complex queries, and teams working with large legacy codebases. Muntis will share practical examples on using AI to explore brownfield projects, generate documentation, surface business rules, and turn messy reality into structured understanding.

(Language – English)
Tags: SDLC, Software Architecture, Business Analysis, Documentation, AI Agents, Legacy Systems, Brownfield

Muntis Rudzītis is a Lead Data Scientist / ML & AI Developer @ Emergn AI Lab. Muntis specializes in ML and AI, applying advanced techniques to deliver fast, scalable solutions that drive real business outcomes. He designs end-to-end systems that embed ML/AI capabilities into both new and existing products.
Marks Petrovs from Accenture will talk about “The experience of Enterprises in introducing agentic AI on corporate level”
Marks Petrovs will share practical experience of introducing agentic AI at the enterprise level. How AI reshapes business models, influences product development, and impacts operational and legal areas.
Also talking about some of enterprise challenges:
– integrating AI into existing processes and legacy systems
– aligning AI initiatives with business goals
– data security, compliance, and legal clarity
– managing change across teams and roles
– building trust in AI-driven decisions
In addition, some lessons learned from scaling AI adoption, with a focus on team readiness and the difference between individual AI usage and enterprise-wide adoption.

(Language – English)
Tags: AgenticAI, EnterpriseAI, DigitalTransformation, InnovationLeadership, EnterpriseStrategy, ProductDevelopment, Agentic SDLC, AIGovernance, ResponsibleAI

Marks Petrovs is a leadingAccenture Baltics Innovation Studio and Innovation Portfolio/Project manager. Specializes in AI/ ML, particularly Virtual assistants, Computer Vision and Agentic Architecture. In addition to driving innovation within Accenture, Marks is responsible for leading sales and solutioning efforts, as well as delivering innovation pilots to clients and shaping new business models and opportunities.

Videos from previous events you can find at our homepage and our YouTube channel. The best way to be informed about new videos is to Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Join a dynamic, hands-on workshop designed by Accenture for IT professionals who want to move beyond basic prompting and start architecting AI systems that deliver real value. You will explore the core building blocks of agentic systems – skills, context, and orchestration – and gain practical experience designing and implementing agent-based solutions using modern tools and patterns. Registration mandatory, places are limited.

GoCardless is a global fintech building the world’s bank payment network, processing over US$130B annually for 100,000+ businesses. Our teams also use AI and open banking to increase payment success and reduce fraud, creating complex engineering challenges at a massive scale. We’re solving problems that affect how money moves globally. Join us to build the future of payments!
– Software Development Engineer
– Security Engineer
– Senior Data Scientist, Payment Intelligence

Emergn is a global digital business services firm on a mission to improve the way people and companies work. Forever. Every day, across the world, our teams are pioneering faster, better ways to bring our clients’ most exciting ideas to life. Want to join us?
– Senior QA Manual Specialist
– Senior Python developer
– Senior Data Engineer

Join Gravity Team Trading Arena on March 25! Code a trading strategy on real crypto market data and compete against other engineers to see whose logic actually makes money. No finance background needed-just sharp code; Winner takes home PS5 Pro. Secure your spot here.

Thanks to our sponsors for supporting DevClub.lv events:

Register here for the 152nd AI in SDLC focused DevClub.lv

Burnout: When the System Runs Out of Resources by Dr. Margarita Birkena at 150th “Mental Health” focused DevClub.lv

Posted onMarch 12, 2026March 12, 2026AuthorAnete ValaineLeave a comment

Upadated Almost Java focused 151st DevClub.lv

Posted onMarch 11, 2026March 12, 2026AuthorAlina LetinskaLeave a comment

Hi!

There have been changes to the agenda once again. Our first speaker, Norberts Kakste, will be replaced by Māris Ločmelis.
See the updated agenda below.

You are welcome to Almost Java focused event on Thursday, March 12, 18:30, at C.T.Co office– Meistaru iela 33, Valdlauci, Kekavas parish, Kekavas district.

Agenda for “Almost Java” focused 151st DevClub.lv

Anton Ragutskii from Teya will give a presentation “Durable Execution in Practice: Eliminating Failure Classes in Distributed Systems with Temporal”
Modern high-load backend systems and distributed architectures often look solid on paper — yet in production they can become brittle, difficult to reason about, and surprisingly expensive to operate. Retries pile up, partial failures turn into incidents, and long-running business processes become a maze of timeouts, compensations, and “what if” logic spread across multiple services.
In this talk, Anton will share practical lessons from real systems in fintech, gaming, and enterprise platforms, and explain how durable execution and workflow-as-code approaches — powered by Temporal — can help model long-running processes in a way that is observable, testable, and resilient by design. You’ll see how this approach can eliminate entire classes of failures that teams often accept as “just how distributed systems work.”
(Language – English)

Anton Ragutskii – I am a Staff Engineer with 10+ years of experience designing and operating high-load backend systems and distributed architectures. Most of my work is focused on building reliable production services using Java, Spring Boot, and modern cloud-native tooling.
Over the years, working with complex systems across fintech, gaming, and enterprise platforms, I’ve seen the same pattern repeat: architectures evolve fast, but reliability and operational clarity often degrade over time. That pushed me to look for better ways to model long-running business processes and handle failure in distributed systems.
Martins Ceske from C.T.Co will be giving a talk about “From Prompt to Production: AI-Assisted Development for Java Engineers”
In this session Martins will demonstrate how AI tools can be integrated into the everyday workflow of a software developer. The talk will show a complete development process powered by AI — starting from generating a story with acceptance criteria, continuing with creating tests, implementing the feature, and finishing with AI-assisted code review and technology evaluation. The goal is to show how AI can act as a powerful development assistant that helps engineers move faster while still keeping developers in control of design and architecture decisions.
(Language – English)

Martins Ceske is a senior Java software engineer with extensive experience building enterprise backend systems using Java and the Spring ecosystem. He is particularly interested in software architecture, developer productivity, and exploring how modern AI tools can enhance the way developers design, build, and maintain software systems.
Māris Ločmelis will give a talk titled “Things to Make Your Life Easier When Building Complex Apps in Java.”
This session will provide several structural examples of how to make your application more predictable and, in my opinion, demonstrate the correct use of abstraction in Java. There will be practical examples of bad code (and the reasons why it is bad) as well as examples of good code (and the reasons why it is good). We will also touch on package management tools such as Gradle or Maven, focusing on what is important to understand when adding dependencies and managing your project. This talk will help you understand how to correctly structure your application and prevent it from becoming spaghetti code.
(Language – English)

Tags: Java, Code Quality, Dependency Management.

Māris Ločmelis is a Senior Backend-focused Full Stack Developer. He specializes in improving existing systems by optimizing and reworking legacy components into more modern and maintainable solutions. Recently, he has been working primarily in corporate environments with cloud-heavy infrastructure.

Videos from previous events you can find at our homepage and our YouTube channel. The best way to be informed about new videos is to Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

GoCardless is a global fintech building the world’s bank payment network, processing over US$130B annually for 100,000+ businesses. Our teams also use AI and open banking to increase payment success and reduce fraud, creating complex engineering challenges at a massive scale. We’re solving problems that affect how money moves globally. Join us to build the future of payments!
– Data Science Manager
– Security Engineer
– Senior Data Scientist, Fraud Prevention

Emergn is a global digital business services firm on a mission to improve the way people and companies work. Forever. Every day, across the world, our teams are pioneering faster, better ways to bring our clients’ most exciting ideas to life. Want to join us?
– Java Full Stack Developer
– Senior Software Engineer
– Lead Javascript Developer

Com Tec Co (CTCo) is a global digital services provider with 600+ experts driving digital transformation across industries.
We’re actively hiring Java Developers — and we’d love to connect with tech professionals who are passionate about innovation and growth.

Why join CTCo?
– Global projects
– Growth‑focused culture
– Shape the digital future

If you’re a Java Developer looking for your next challenge, let’s connect!
And for everyone else — stay tuned. More opportunities are on the way!
Our actual vacancy:
– Java Developer

Gravity Team, trading since 2017, is one of the leading crypto market makers and liquidity providers, with cumulative trading volumes to date in excess of $400 billion. Join our community of innovators, problem solvers and owners who apply scientific discovery techniques to make crypto markets a better place for everyone.
– Senior Software Engineer – Trading Infrastructure Team
– Senior Software Engineer – Pricing and Hedging Systems
– DevOps Engineer

Thanks to our sponsors for supporting DevClub.lv events:

Announcement of Mental Health focused 150th DevClub.lv

Posted onFebruary 4, 2026February 16, 2026AuthorAnete ValaineLeave a comment

HI!

What if burnout isn’t about weakness or lack of rest, but about systems pushed beyond their limits for too long?
Join this event to explore how burnout actually develops, how to recognize early warning signs, and how to redesign your personal and professional systems before they break.

You are welcome to Mental Health focused event on WEDNESDAY, February 11, 18:30, at Startup House Riga office, Lastādijas iela 12-k3.

Please, register here.

Agenda for “Mental Health” focused 150th DevClub.lv

Please, note that the first talk will be in Latvian

Dr. Margarita Birkena from RSU Psihosomatiskās medicīnas un psihoterapijas klīnika will give a talk “Burnout: When the System Runs Out of Resources“
This lecture explores burnout as a predictable system failure rather than a personal weakness. Using clinical examples and a biopsychosocial perspective, burnout is examined as a state of chronic overload, misaligned expectations, and depleted recovery mechanisms.
You will learn:
– how to recognize early warning signals of burnout (before a full system crash)
– how burnout differs from depression and anxiety
– why rest alone often doesn’t solve the problem
– how to redesign personal and professional “systems” to improve resilience and sustainability
– practical strategies for prevention and recovery that actually scale in real life
(Language – Latvian)

Margarita Birkena is a medical doctor and psychotherapy resident with a second medical specialty and a second higher education degree – because one discipline clearly wasn’t enough. She works with burnout, depression, anxiety, and psychosomatic disorders, helping navigate the debugging of the human mind, where signals are not always clear and documentation is fragmentary. Her clinical approach combines medicine and psychotherapy, with a strong belief that humans are the core infrastructure of any functioning society.
Outside the clinic, Margarita runs a small distributed system of two Samoyeds, one of whom is also a certified children’s therapy dog and arguably has better emotional regulation skills than some adults. Her favorite film is The Lord of the Rings, which she considers an accurate case study of long-term group dynamics under chronic stress. She believes that the most reliable constant in any system—biological, psychological, or technological—is change.
Together with Dr. Margarita will be Canis-therapy dogs. Option provided by Ķepu māja.

Ilja Lapkovskis will give a presentation “Burnout Is a System Bug: Leadership, Culture, and Psychosocial Safety”
Burnout is often perceived as a personal issue — a lack of resilience, poor boundaries, or insufficient self-care.In reality, it is far less personal than it appears.
Burnout is a predictable outcome of how work is designed and led. High performers disengage not because they stop caring, but because unclear goals, stacked stress, and inconsistent leadership slowly erode focus, meaning, and performance. Teams keep delivering, but the work no longer matters. Burnout is not an alien disease — it spreads silently through organisations like a virus. If left unnoticed, it can cripple even the strongest teams. If identified early, it can be treated at the system level.
In this talk, I’ll share how my own burnout reshaped me as a leader, and present practical, leadership-level actions that help prevent burnout before people reach the breaking point.
(Language – English)

Ilja Lapkovskis – I am a software engineer and a tech leader, and a few years ago I burned out – properly. Not because I was weak or unmotivated, but because I was good at what I did and kept pushing in a system that quietly rewarded it.
After that, I made a leap of faith and went out on my own – trying to conquer the world of software development independently. Getting to the market like that isn’t easy. But it gave me the perspective I was missing before: clarity around goals, focus, and what actually matters.
That experience changed how I think about leadership. Today I’m here not to talk about burnout as a personal failure, but as a system problem. And what leaders can do differently.
I learned these lesson the hard way, and now I help teams see the light at the end of the tunnel before they burn out themselves.
Dmitrijs Lebedevs will give a talk titled “Beyond the Breaking Point: Lessons in Resilience and Recovery”
We often talk about burnout as an abstract concept, but for many of us, it’s a lived reality. This presentation chronicles my personal experience with professional exhaustion—from the initial causes to the eventual collapse. I will share the hard-won lessons I learned during my recovery process and offer insights on how to foster a sustainable path forward without sacrificing your well-being.
(Language – English)
The presentation by Dmitrijs will not be recorded and will not be available on our YouTube channel.

Dmitrijs is a Software Engineer who walked a mile in almost everybody’s shoes in the industry. For the past 28 years, he rebooted from a developer and test engineer to team lead, architect, engineering manager and you-name-it. Today, as an explorer of entangled pathways of Software Development, he invites you to walk along with him during his talk.

Videos from previous events you can find at our homepage and our YouTube channel. The best way to be informed about new videos is to Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

GoCardless is a global fintech building the world’s bank payment network, processing over US$130B annually for 100,000+ businesses. Our teams also use AI and open banking to increase payment success and reduce fraud, creating complex engineering challenges at a massive scale. We’re solving problems that affect how money moves globally. Join us to build the future of payments!
– Data Science Manager
– IT Technician
– Ruby Software Development Engineer

Emergn is a global digital business services firm on a mission to improve the way people and companies work. Forever. Every day, across the world, our teams are pioneering faster, better ways to bring our clients’ most exciting ideas to life. Want to join us?
– Senior Software Engineer
– Senior AI/ML Developer
– Senior Javascript Developer

Com Tec Co (CTCo) is a global digital services provider with 600+ experts driving digital transformation. While we’re not hiring now, we welcome connections with tech talent passionate about growth.
Why CTCo?
• Global projects
• Growth-focused culture
• Shape the digital future
Stay tuned—your next big opportunity could be coming soon!
– Java Developer

Thanks to our sponsors for supporting DevClub.lv events:

Performance Optimization – Why It Matters? by Andrei Dzianisau at 149th “High-Performance” focused DevClub.lv

Posted onJanuary 3, 2026AuthorAnete ValaineLeave a comment

Databases in High-Load Environments by Māris Ločmelis at 149th “High-Performance” focused DevClub.lv

Posted onJanuary 3, 2026January 3, 2026AuthorAnete ValaineLeave a comment

Basics of Speed on Modern Hardware by Gints Gailītis at 149th “High-Performance” focused DevClub.lv

Posted onJanuary 2, 2026January 2, 2026AuthorAnete ValaineLeave a comment

Let’s fool LLM by Aleksandrs Zavalnijs at 148th “Vibe Coding” focused DevClub.lv

Posted onDecember 27, 2025December 27, 2025AuthorAnete ValaineLeave a comment

Fun session on good vibes: when logic meets chaos by Alberts Bušinskis at 148th “Vibe Coding” focused DevClub.lv

Posted onDecember 27, 2025AuthorAnete ValaineLeave a comment

Vibe Coding for Production: AI-First Development with Agentic Platforms by Muntis Rudzītis at 148th “Vibe Coding” focused DevClub.lv

Posted onDecember 27, 2025December 27, 2025AuthorAnete ValaineLeave a comment

Building Efficient and Reliable Microservices by Oleg Anastasyev at 147th Reliability focused DevClub.lv

Posted onDecember 27, 2025December 27, 2025AuthorAnete ValaineLeave a comment

Why is my app SLOw? Defining reliability in platform engineering by Aleksejs Truhans at 147th Reliability focused DevClub.lv

Posted onDecember 27, 2025December 27, 2025AuthorAnete ValaineLeave a comment

How Meta Made MySQL Work at Scale by Max Morokko at 146th “MySQL 30th anniversary” focused DevClub.lv

Posted onNovember 30, 2025AuthorAnete ValaineLeave a comment

Announcement of High-Performance focused 149th DevClub.lv

Posted onNovember 27, 2025December 5, 2025AuthorAnete ValaineLeave a comment

HI!

There are slight changes in the agenda as due to ilness, Māris Ločmelis will be presenting last and joinin us online.

In this event, we’re diving into the core skills behind high-performance engineering — from writing efficient code close to the metal to mastering SQL for large-scale datasets.

You are welcome to “High-Performance” focused event on Thursday, December 4, 18:30, at Gravity Team office, Zunda Towers, Raņķa dambis 30, Zemgales priekšpilsēta.
Please enter through the main doors, take the elevators on the left side, and go up to the 19th floor.

Please, register here.

Agenda for “High-Performance” focused 149th DevClub.lv

Gints Gailītis from Gravity Team on “Basics of Speed on Modern Hardware”
This session will provide a glimpse into the mindset and techniques behind writing efficient software at Gravity Team. Gints will walk through code examples that demonstrate interactions between modern languages, compilers, operating systems and hardware, that are essential for building performant software.cycles.
(Language – English)
Tags: Performance Engineering, Low Latency, Systems Programming, Optimization

Gints Gailītis is a Senior Developer at Gravity Team, with 15+ years of experience in systems programming, networking, and performance-critical software. At Gravity Team, Gints leads efforts to re-architect the HFT software stack and infrastructure, optimizing for latency and throughput where possible. Before joining Gravity Team, he held engineering roles at Blue Coat Systems, whiteCryption, and Luxriot, focusing on efficient and reliable systems.

Andrei Dzianisau from EPAM Systems will give a talk “Performance Optimization – Why It Matters?”
Explore the core principles and practical techniques of performance optimization, covering everything from latency and throughput fundamentals to identifying bottlenecks across systems. The session will dive into ETL tools performance analysis, efficient database structures, and how application code interacts with the database. You’ll also see real profiling examples, optimization strategies at both code and system levels, and case studies showing how targeted improvements can deliver significant, measurable results.
(Language – English)

Andrei has over 28 years of IT experience in software development, integration, database design, administration and performance tuning, including 25 years with EPAM.
Due to illness, this speaker will present last on the agenda and will be joining us online.

Māris Ločmelis will give a talk titled “Databases in High-Load Environments.”
This session will introduce the key concepts of SQL databases, explain how SQL is built, and cover both practical and theoretical guidance on dealing with common problems in large datasets, including how to calculate complexity. It will also provide clear examples of how he has solved significant challenges in large database systems. The talk will include several self-made examples. Part of the session will be dedicated to introducing SQL databases to people who are not yet familiar with it.
(Language – English)
Tags: High Load, Database, SQL, Optimization, DB Schema

Māris Ločmelis is a full-stack, backend-focused developer who enjoys working on complex issues. High-load APIs are one of the areas where such challenges are abundant. Māris is a practical person, so he keeps things straightforward—avoiding unnecessary buzzwords while still diving into important details when needed.

Videos from previous events you can find at our homepage and our YouTube channel. The best way to be informed about new videos is to Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

In Evolution you can witness the creation of award-winning iGaming products from A to Z. Our teams create our product concepts, develop the software, and we deliver both the technical solutions and the personnel needed to offer live casino and online slots 24/7/365 on multiple platforms. Are you the one to help us create the next big product hit? Evolution is searching for:
– Information System Security Engineer
– QA Automation Engineer

Emergn is a global digital business services firm on a mission to improve the way people and companies work. Forever. Every day, across the world, our teams are pioneering faster, better ways to bring our clients’ most exciting ideas to life. Want to join us?
– QA Manual Specialist
– Senior QA Automation Engineer (JavaScript)
– Senior React Native Developer

Thanks to our sponsors for supporting DevClub.lv events:

Announcement of Vibe Coding focused 148th DevClub.lv

Posted onNovember 14, 2025November 14, 2025AuthorAnete ValaineLeave a comment

HI!

AI-driven development is changing how we build software — from rapid AI-generated prototypes to navigating the strange space between human logic and machine logic.
At our next meetup, we’ll explore the promise and pitfalls of vibe coding, the evolving philosophy of AI-assisted engineering, and the security challenges hidden inside modern LLM workflows.

You are welcome to “Vibe coding”focused event on Thursday, November 20, 18:30, at Emergn Latvija office, Skanstes iela 25, Rīga. Elemental Business Centre building “Green”.

Please, register here.

Agenda for “Vibe Coding” focused 148th DevClub.lv

Muntis Rudzītis from Emergn will give a talk “Vibe Coding for Production: AI-First Development with Agentic Platforms”
This session explores the concept of vibe coding – an AI-first development approach and how/if its fit for enterprise software development. Muntis will share practical insights from Emergn’s AI Lab on how AI tools can rapidly generate prototypes and MVPs, the challenges of scaling these solutions for production, and the methodologies that help bridge the gap between speed and reliability. The talk will cover some new methodologies developing in this area for prompting, documentation, and collaboration with AI agents, and how/where its different from more traditional software development cycles.
(Language – English)
Tags: AI-first development, Agentic platforms, Vibe coding, MVP, Product Design

Muntis Rudzītis is a Lead Data Scientist / ML & AI Developer @ Emergn AI Lab.
He specializes in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), applying advanced techniques and tools to deliver fast, scalable solutions that drive real business outcomes. With extensive experience in R&D and experimentation, he designs end-to-end systems that embed ML/AI capabilities into both new and existing products.

Alberts Bušinskis will give a talk titled “Fun session on good vibes: when logic meets chaos”
What happens when strict programming logic meets the unpredictable logic of humans – with large language models somewhere in between?
We’ll take a playful look at the philosophy of modern development and try to build a few ships in a bottle along the way.
(Language – English)
Tags: AI, LLMs, Logic, Creativity, Experiments

Alberts is a developer and creative tinkerer who loves building playful tech projects.He has led dev teams, joined plenty of hackathons, and now explores how human logic and AI randomness can create surprisingly good vibes.

Aleksandrs Zavalnijs from GoCardless, offers a critical look at the complex security landscape of Large Language Models.
This technical talk dissects common LLM vulnerabilities, including prompt jailbreaking, prompt injection, and hidden character exploits, using real-world examples. By showcasing how these powerful tools can be manipulated, the session examines the fundamental pros and cons of LLMs and highlights the need for robust security in modern development workflows
(Language – English)
Tags: LLM, AI, Security, Jailbreak, Prompt Injection

Aleksandrs is a Senior Backend Developer at GoCardless, specializing in high-reliability payment systems. Utilizing AI tools daily to enhance development processes, his personal interest centers on the rigorous evaluation of LLM capabilities. With a strong focus on security and scalable architecture, Aleksandrs is dedicated to understanding the technical pros and cons of artificial intelligence to drive better software development practices.

Videos from previous events you can find at our homepage and our YouTube channel. The best way to be informed about new videos is to Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Emergn is a global digital business services firm on a mission to improve the way people and companies work. Forever. Every day, across the world, our teams are pioneering faster, better ways to bring our clients’ most exciting ideas to life. Want to join us?
– Senior QA Automation Engineer (JavaScript)
– Senior QA Automation Engineer (Security Focus)
– Senior React Native Developer

Thanks to our sponsors for supporting DevClub.lv events:

When ORMs Don’t Save You: What Developers Should Really Watch Out For by Aytaj Guliyeva at 146th “MySQL 30th anniversary” focused DevClub.lv

Posted onNovember 10, 2025November 10, 2025AuthorAnete ValaineLeave a comment

The full stack approach: Supercharge your apps with MySQL, JavaScript and REST APIs… all in one! by Vittorio Cioe at 146th “MySQL 30th anniversary” focused DevClub.lv

Posted onOctober 27, 2025October 27, 2025AuthorAnete ValaineLeave a comment