This Tech Conference Is Worth Binge-Watching Like Your Favourite TV Series

Key points

• Software Should Work 2026 (SSW 2026) is a streamed conference covering software reliability, released in July 2025, with 13 talks watchable in a single day.
• Richard Feldman's talk compares web development stacks from 1996, 2006 and 2026, charting how software has grown more complex with each decade.
• Richard Hipp, creator of SQLite (the tiny database engine running quietly inside billions of phones and apps), gives a personal account of how testing shapes reliable code.
• SSW 2026 covers topics from the mathematics of formal analysis to team culture, AI oddities and the myth of the lone superhero engineer.
• The conference is free to stream and rewards watching from start to finish, something rare in online tech events.

Binge-watching a tech conference sounds like punishment. Most online events are either too narrow, too corporate, or wildly uneven in quality. SSW 2026 is none of those things.

First reported by The Register, the event dropped 13 talks this July under one straightforward premise: software should work. That sounds obvious. It isn't.

What does "software reliability" actually mean?

It means a lot more than code that runs without crashing. Reliable software needs clear design, manageable complexity, good team habits, honest testing and the right tools. SSW 2026 treats all of it.

One standout is Richard Feldman's comparison of web stacks, the collection of tools and technologies developers use to build websites and apps, across three decades: 1996, 2006 and 2026. He then lines up eight modern programming languages and environments side by side: TypeScript, Node.js, Python, Ruby, Rust, Zig, Go and Roc. The resulting graph is one of the clearest pictures of how dramatically software has grown in complexity over thirty years.

Another talk comes from Richard Hipp, the creator of SQLite. SQLite is a compact database, a structured way of storing and retrieving data, that ships inside virtually every smartphone, browser and connected device on the planet. Hipp's talk follows how his codebase changed as his testing methods evolved. It sounds dry on paper. It isn't. It is a story about human motivation, creative stubbornness and the slow, unglamorous work of keeping something trustworthy across decades.

Why does this matter to ordinary people?

Because software failure costs real people real things: lost bookings, broken medical records, payments that vanish, apps that drop you mid-task. Reliability is not an engineer's hobby. It is the invisible infrastructure of daily life.

SSW 2026 makes that case without lecturing. Its speakers were free to pick their own angles, so the lineup moves from formal mathematical analysis (a rigorous, proof-based way of checking software logic) to the value of daydreaming, the dangers of expecting one brilliant coder to fix everything, and sharp arguments about specific tools. The conference also looks at how commercial pressure works against good practice, and why the field still lacks a shared language for talking about quality.

Should you actually watch it?

Yes, if you work in or near technology, or if you simply use software every day and have ever wondered why it breaks. Block out a free day. The 13 talks are short enough to hold attention and varied enough to keep rewarding you.

This is what a good symposium, a genuine exchange of ideas rather than a marketing showcase, looks like when it works. Curiosity gets paid back in full.