temporal.md

30-Minute Temporal Talk – Slide Storyline Slide 1 – Hook

Title: We think we see everything.

Show:

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.

Ask them to count the F’s.

Most say 3. Answer: 6.

Say: If we miss half the letters in one sentence, imagine the failures we miss across retries, crashes, timeouts, redeploys.

Distributed systems fail in ways humans are terrible at noticing.

Slide 2 – Production reality

Title: Systems are messy.

Even in good environments:

requests timeout

responses get lost

retries duplicate work

pods restart

deployments happen mid-flow

humans are late

dependencies are slow

Business expectation?

✅ always correct ✅ never lose progress ✅ easy to debug

Slide 3 – A bug we’ve all written

Title: Looks fine. Isn’t.

Withdraw → Deposit.

Try/catch. Log error.

Withdraw succeeds. Deposit fails.

Money is gone.

Say: Logging an error is not a recovery strategy.

Slide 4 – Why this keeps happening

Because normal services were built for:

👉 request → response

But business processes are:

👉 long 👉 multi-step 👉 cross-service 👉 failure prone 👉 sometimes human driven

We force a square peg into a round hole.

Slide 5 – Time breaks everything

Title: Now wait 2 days for approval.

What do we do?

keep thread alive?

write to DB and poll?

cron jobs?

manual scripts?

And what happens when we deploy tomorrow?

Who remembers we were waiting?

Slide 6 – Async callback illusion

We fire an event.

If downstream is slow or unavailable:

different systems believe different truths

reconciliation jobs appear

DLQs appear

replay tools appear

We accidentally build infrastructure instead of product.

Slide 7 – Even when nobody is “down”

This is where you answer product.

Failures without outages:

caller crashes after success

network drops reply

retry runs twice

deployment mid-transaction

race conditions

timeouts

Up ≠ correct.

Slide 8 – Enter Temporal

Title: What if your code never forgot?

Temporal provides:

✅ durable execution ✅ automatic retries ✅ persistent state ✅ timers without threads ✅ survives crashes & deploys ✅ complete history

You write business logic. Temporal handles survival.

Slide 9 – The mental shift

Title: Describe the process to Temporal.

Your service doesn’t fight failures anymore.

It says:

Here are the steps. Make sure they happen.

Slide 10 – Architecture Client | Service ──► Temporal | Task Queue | Workers (anytime)

Workers can die, scale, redeploy.

Progress is safe.

Slide 11 – The magic trick

Title: Workflows resume. They don’t restart.

If a worker crashes in step 7 of 20:

It continues at step 7.

Because history is recorded.

Like a save game.

Slide 12 – Why checkpoints are huge

Temporal stores:

inputs

outputs

decisions

timers

signals

When it runs again, it deterministically lands exactly where it left off.

No guessing. No rebuilding state.

Slide 13 – Revisit bank transfer

Withdraw → Deposit.

If deposit fails:

retry automatically

or compensate

never lose where we were

No custom saga framework. No manual repair.

Slide 14 – Revisit 2-day approval requestApproval() waitForSignal() continue()

Service can restart 50 times.

Still waiting.

Slide 15 – Revisit downstream dependency

Instead of:

A → call → B and pray

You do:

A → workflow B → worker

If B is down → task waits.

Loose coupling. Safe progress.

Slide 16 – Here’s what people miss

Temporal is not only for failure.

It makes normal development better.

Slide 17 – Engineering gets simpler

You delete:

❌ retry code ❌ idempotency hacks ❌ state tables ❌ polling ❌ cron recovery ❌ DLQ replayers

Focus returns to business logic.

Slide 18 – Visibility becomes insane

Open a workflow and see:

every step

every retry

inputs & outputs

current state

Ask:

Where is order 123 stuck?

Answer in seconds.

Slide 19 – Product people love this

Now you can measure:

approval times

bottlenecks

failure rates

SLA by step

Without building extra tracking.

Slide 20 – New product capabilities

Things that were painful become easy:

✨ human in the loop ✨ long timers ✨ pause/resume ✨ multi-stage onboarding ✨ subscriptions ✨ migrations mid-process

Reliability enables innovation.

Slide 21 – Real world examples

Where companies use it:

payments & refunds

food delivery lifecycle

travel booking

account provisioning

KYC flows

infrastructure creation

returns & exchanges

If it spans time → Temporal.

Slide 22 – Safe deployments

You can push new workers while processes are running.

They pick up safely.

Huge operational win.

Slide 23 – When not to use it

Simple CRUD. Single quick calls.

If there’s no state over time → skip it.

(credibility booster)

Slide 24 – What happens after teams adopt it

People start asking:

“Should this be a workflow?”

And reliability maturity jumps.

Slide 25 – Summary

Temporal = durable execution for business logic.

It remembers so your services don’t have to.

Slide 26 – Closing punch

“If the process matters to the business, it should survive failure.”

temporal_grok.md

Slide 1 – Title / Hook Title (huge, centered): You Think Your Code Is Reliable. Subtitle (smaller): Watch This. Visual: The classic sentence in big bold letters: FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS. Below it (reveal later): Count the F’s → Most say 3… There are 6. Bottom tagline: Distributed systems hide even more failures. Speaker note: Pause after reveal. “If we miss half in one line, imagine retries, crashes, lost callbacks across your services…” Slide 2 – Production Reality Title: Reality Check: Your “Working” System Is Lying Visual: Chaotic collage — broken chain links, crashing icons, timeout hourglass, zombie pod, deploy rocket mid-flight. Bullets (red accents):

Timeouts Lost responses Duplicate retries Mid-flow restarts Slow dependencies Tired humans

Big contrast box (green): Business expects: Always correct • Never lose progress • Debug in seconds Slide 3 – Classic Bug We’ve All Written Title: The Money-Losing Bug You’ve Probably Shipped Visual: Simple before/after flowchart Left: Withdraw → try/catch → Log error → Deposit Right: Money vanishes icon (red ghost $) Key phrase (bold): Logging ≠ Recovery try/catch ≠ Durability Slide 4 – Root Cause Title: Square Peg, Round Hole Visual: Literal square peg jammed into round hole, cracking. Text: Normal services built for: request → response Business reality: Long • Multi-step • Cross-service • Failure-prone • Human-involved Slide 5 – Time Breaks Everything Title: Now Wait 2 Weeks for Approval… Visual: Calendar spanning weeks → thread dying, DB poll failing, cron job ghosted after deploy. Question (big): What survives the next deploy? Slide 6 – Async Illusion Title: Fire-and-Forget = Fire-and-Pray Visual: Event arrow → downstream service down → split-brain icons, DLQ pile, reconciliation robot army. Text: We build infrastructure instead of product. Slide 7 – Failures Without Outages Title: Up ≠ Correct Visual: Green “UP” light → hidden red cracks underneath (caller crash after success, network drop, double retry, race, timeout). Slide 8 – Enter Temporal Title: What If Your Code Was Invincible? Visual: Shield icon around code block, unbreakable chain. Big green checkmarks:

Durable Execution: crash-proof code Automatic retries + backoffs Persistent state + call stack Timers that wait years Survives crashes, deploys, outages Full deterministic history

Tagline: You write normal code. Temporal makes it bulletproof. Slide 9 – The Mental Shift Title: Stop Fighting Failures Visual: Before: developer wrestling monster (failures). After: developer calmly describing steps to a guardian (Temporal). Text: “Here are the steps. Make sure they happen.” Slide 10 – Architecture Title: How It Fits Together Visual: Clean diagram (client → service → Temporal box → Task Queue → scalable Workers pool). Arrows showing resilience. Labels:

Client starts Workflow Temporal remembers everything Workers come & go — progress safe

Slide 11 – The Magic Title: Workflows Resume — They Never Restart Visual: Save game checkpoint metaphor — character dies at step 7 → loads exactly at step 7 with same gear/state. Text: Worker crashes mid-execution? Next worker continues exactly where it left off. Slide 12 – Why This Works Title: Deterministic Replay = No Guessing Visual: Timeline replay animation — inputs → decisions → outputs replayed perfectly. Bullets:

Every input, output, timer, signal stored Re-execution lands in identical state No custom state rebuilds

Slide 13 – Bank Transfer Reborn Title: Atomic Across Services — No Saga Boilerplate Visual: Linear code: withdraw() → deposit() Green check: Exactly-once semantics auto-handled. Text: Deposit fails? → Retry or compensate — never loses position. Slide 14 – Long-Running Approval Title: Wait 2 Weeks? No Problem. Visual: Code snippet: JavarequestApproval(); await signal("approved"); // or timeout continueProcess(); Text: Service restarts 100×. Still waiting perfectly. Slide 15 – Loose Coupling Done Right Title: Downstream Down? Task Just Waits Visual: A → Workflow → B (via worker) If B down → hourglass icon, no panic. Slide 16 – Beyond Failure Handling Title: Temporal Isn’t Just Reliability — It’s Joy Visual: Sad developer → happy developer deleting code piles. Text: “I forgot reliability was a problem.” Slide 17 – Delete This Forever Title: Code You Can Finally Delete Visual: Trash can with icons flying in:

Retry loops Idempotency hacks State tables Polling Cron recovery DLQ replayers

Green tag: Focus = business logic Slide 18 – Visibility Magic Title: Debug With a Time Machine Visual: Temporal UI screenshot mockup — workflow timeline, every step, retry, input/output. Text: “Where is order #123?” → Answer in seconds. Slide 19 – Product Loves It Title: Instant Business Insights Visual: Dashboard icons: bottlenecks, approval times, SLA per step, failure heatmaps. Slide 20 – Unlocks New Features Title: Painful Becomes Easy Visual: Sparkles around:

Human-in-the-loop Forever subscriptions Multi-year migrations Pause/resume AI agents resuming after offline days

Slide 21 – Real-World Wins Title: Where Teams Use Temporal Today Visual: Logos/icons: payments, delivery, travel booking, KYC, infra provisioning, returns. Extra wow: “Even Temporal launched a workflow… to space. Disconnected mid-flight. Resumed perfectly.” Slide 22 – Fearless Deploys Title: Push Code While Workflows Run Visual: Deploy rocket launching → running workflows continue smoothly. Slide 23 – When NOT to Use It Title: Keep It Simple When… Text (credibility):

Simple CRUD Quick fire-and-forget calls No state over time

Tag: If no duration → skip Temporal. Slide 24 – The Viral Effect Title: After Adoption… Text: “Should this be a workflow?” becomes the default question. Reliability maturity jumps. Slide 25 – Summary Title (big): Temporal = Durable Execution for Business Logic Subtitle: Your code remembers everything — so you don’t have to fight failures. Slide 26 – Closing Title (huge, centered): If the Process Matters to the Business… Subtitle (impactful): …it should be invincible. Final call-to-action (bottom): Try one workflow this week. You’ll never go back. Thank you + Q&A