Jujutsu - A Version Control Alternative to Git & Comp in Government Roles

Last month we got quite a bit of good feedback on the compensation talk and Neil's presentation on Analog to Digital Converters was super engaging.

This month we will continue the compensation series with big government jobs as the focus. Then we will learn about an alternative to git for source code version control. Of course there will also be the usual #BeerOps social after. Several of us will be coming back from Western Slope Startup Week and will be excited to share our experiences.

Understanding Compensation - Big Government
Karl Castleton will share his experiences around government compensation packages and how to think about their value when choosing the next step in your career.

Karl is Comp Sci faculty at CMU. He has held roles in the private and public sector. Karl is the host behind the excellent meeting location at the university. (Thanks!!!)

Jujutsu: The hero we didn’t know we needed
Version control is one of the most important tools in a developer’s toolbox, but Git’s complexity often gets in the way of productivity and confidence. Enter Jujutsu (jj-vcs), a next-generation version control system created by former Mercurial and Google engineers. Designed to make version control intuitive, safe, and powerful, jj eliminates the staging area, automatically tracks changes, and makes it nearly impossible to lose work.

In this talk, Chris Skalenda will introduce jj, highlight its core concepts, and show how it reimagines branching, rebasing, and conflict resolution. You’ll learn how jj’s operations log and history-rewriting features enable both safer experimentation and cleaner collaboration. Whether you’re a beginner frustrated with Git or an experienced developer looking for more powerful workflows, jj might just be the hero you didn’t know you needed.

Chris Skalenda is a Senior Staff Software Engineer at Honor, where he works on building scalable cloud systems that make a real impact. Before that, he led engineering as VP at Scoot and helped shape cybersecurity tools as a Staff Engineer at Tanium. With nearly twenty years in tech, Chris enjoys blending hands-on problem solving with mentoring teams and building products people love to use.

Agenda
5:45pm - 6:00pm Zoom comes up
6:00pm - 6:15pm Socialize, network
6:15pm - 6:45 pm Comp in Government - Karl
6:50pm - 7:45pm Jujutsu - The hero we didn't know we needed
8:00pm - #BeerOps - Location TBD.