# Rustikon 2026 - Simple Reader Script (Easy English)

Short and clear lines for easy pronunciation.

## Slide 1

STORY: Act 1 - Hook & Promise
TENSION: Low -> Medium
EMPHASIS: Credibilidad y dolor real
DELIVERY: Calma, pausas limpias

Why I Needed Rust

Finally. infra Automation I Can Sleep On

🛡 ●●●○○

😴 ●●●○○

🔥 ●○○○○

## Slide 2

STORY: Act 1 - Hook & Promise
TENSION: Low -> Medium
EMPHASIS: Credibilidad y dolor real
DELIVERY: Calma, pausas limpias

Years. One Problem.

1987 → 2025

Era Tool Lesson

----- ------ --------

1990s Perl Power without safety is a disaster

2000s Python practical work without safety rules is fragile

2010s Bash · Chef · Ansible · Terraform More tools don't solve approach problems

2020s Go · ???

Each time. I thought I had the answer.

Each time. reality proved me wrong.

## Slide 3

STORY: Act 1 - Hook & Promise
TENSION: Low -> Medium
EMPHASIS: Credibilidad y dolor real
DELIVERY: Calma, pausas limpias

The Evolution

How we got here

## Slide 4

STORY: Act 2 - Escalation
TENSION: Medium -> High
EMPHASIS: Crecimiento de complejidad sin control
DELIVERY: Ritmo creciente

Stage 1. Local (late 80s / early 90s)

Dumb terminals. Single machine. One state.

Local development. long deployment cycles. low urgency

One state. easy to observe. easy to control

I A C: procedural scripts. logic hidden inside the application

> The Perl Era: we could do anything.

>

> We could also break anything.

>

> Beautiful. terrifying metaprogramming.

>

> No safety net.

> Silent failures at 3 AM.

>

> Lesson: power without safety is a disaster.

🛡 ●●●●○ &nbsp; 😴 ●●●●○ &nbsp; 🔥 ●○○○○

## Slide 5

STORY: Act 2 - Escalation
TENSION: Medium -> High
EMPHASIS: Crecimiento de complejidad sin control
DELIVERY: Ritmo creciente

Stage 2. Networks / Internet

Systems getting farther away. More people. More coordination.

Remote access. spread out teams. security becomes relevant

Cost of downtime rises. processes become critical

Harmonizing: package installs. config. updates across multiple machines in parallel

I A C: reproducible automation. first declared attempts

> The Python Era: rapid development. great community.

>

> But nothing stopped you from being wrong.

>

> Type hints came late. and optional.

>

> Runtime errors >> compile-time errors.

>

> Lesson: practical work without safety rules is fragile.

More pieces. More people. Getting interesting.

🛡 ●●●○○ &nbsp; 😴 ●●●○○ &nbsp; 🔥 ●●○○○

## Slide 6

STORY: Act 2 - Escalation
TENSION: Medium -> High
EMPHASIS: Crecimiento de complejidad sin control
DELIVERY: Ritmo creciente

Stage 3. Containers / Cloud / CI-CD

Everything. Everywhere. All at once.

Monolith → spread out. all day. every day. high availability

Cloud. hybrid. multi-cloud. on-prem. simultaneously

Rollback and rollforward: database transactions. but for infra

Scale horizontally AND vertically. and descale

C I slash C D continuous: new features. new deploys. permanent churn

> The Cloud/I A C Era: Ansible. Terraform. Chef. Puppet.

>

> What changed? The syntax.

>

> What didn't? The fundamental problems.

>

> Still fighting type safety. Still discovering errors in production.

>

> Lesson: more tools don't solve approach problems.

🛡 ●●○○○ &nbsp; 😴 ●○○○○ &nbsp; 🔥 ●●●●○

## Slide 7

STORY: Act 2 - Escalation
TENSION: Medium -> High
EMPHASIS: Crecimiento de complejidad sin control
DELIVERY: Ritmo creciente

I could automate infra.

But I couldn't make it reliable.

I couldn't prevent mistakes.

I couldn't sleep.

🛡 ●○○○○ &nbsp;&nbsp; 😴 ○○○○○ &nbsp;&nbsp; 🔥 ●●●●●

## Slide 8

STORY: Act 3 - Problem Anatomy
TENSION: High
EMPHASIS: Causa raiz y costo de fallar tarde
DELIVERY: Didactico, frases cortas

Why I A C Fails

The restaurant problem

## Slide 9

STORY: Act 3 - Problem Anatomy
TENSION: High
EMPHASIS: Causa raiz y costo de fallar tarde
DELIVERY: Didactico, frases cortas

The Restaurant

Every restaurant has at least three actors.

Restaurant infra

--- ---

Guest declares what they want declared config (YAML. HCL)

Waiter validates and transmits controller (K8s. Ansible)

Kitchen executes and delivers Runtime / setup

Dish arrives. or doesn't Deployment succeeds. or not

What makes it work. or not:

The guest declares. Doesn't implement.

The waiter must know what's possible. before going to the kitchen.

> "I want X" → waiter goes to kitchen

> → "we don't have X. why is it on the menu?"

> → back to the table.

>

>

> Equivalent: I configured a host with port 8443 → that port isn't allowed → reconfigure from zero.

## Slide 10

STORY: Act 3 - Problem Anatomy
TENSION: High
EMPHASIS: Causa raiz y costo de fallar tarde
DELIVERY: Didactico, frases cortas

The Truth That Mutates

State is not static. It can change at every step of the chain.

Step Truth for this actor

--- ---

Guest speaks What they want

Waiter's notepad What was written down

Kitchen markings What's done / not done

Payment ticket What was actually served

> Fail early = fail cheap. Fail in production = nightmare.

The context problem:

The waiter knows the regular customer: "always no salt."

The kitchen doesn't. If the waiter changes. that context disappears.

config drift is the same thing: Implicit state. Not explicit. Not propagated. Lost silently.

The cost of failure depends on where it happens:

Fail at the table (impossible order): cheap. caught before kitchen

Fail in kitchen (ingredient missing): medium. renegotiate with guest

Fail at delivery (wrong dish arrives): expensive. experience destroyed

## Slide 11

STORY: Act 3 - Problem Anatomy
TENSION: High
EMPHASIS: Causa raiz y costo de fallar tarde
DELIVERY: Didactico, frases cortas

"We Don't Have Mushrooms"

When an actor in the chain can't fulfill part of the order.

> "Can I substitute vegetables?"

>

> That renegotiation must be explicit. Traced. Re-authorized. Not silent. Not assumed.

config drift is silent renegotiation:

The system changes. Nobody notified. State diverges without trace.

Rust's answer. Option :

[code example]

> The compiler check is the waiter who cannot pretend an ingredient exists.

## Slide 12

STORY: Act 3 - Problem Anatomy
TENSION: High
EMPHASIS: Causa raiz y costo de fallar tarde
DELIVERY: Didactico, frases cortas

The Config Evolution

How we got from code to YAML hell

Hardcoded. everything inside the binary. Full control. Zero flexibility.

External config (JSON). works between machines. Unreadable for humans at scale.

YAML / TOML. more readable. Fragile syntax. Implicit types. Silent errors.

YAML + Serde. Serde validates the structure:

Does the field exist? Is it the right type?

Do we accept "elephant" as a pet? If the type is String... yes.

Serde validates shape. Not meaning.

Helm / Jinja templates. YAML generated from variables (in YAML).

Does it validate the content of the generated YAML? No. Not at all.

Like using an LLM with a markdown reference: the format is there.

but is the content correct? Nobody safety rules that.

## Slide 13

STORY: Act 3 - Problem Anatomy
TENSION: High
EMPHASIS: Causa raiz y costo de fallar tarde
DELIVERY: Didactico, frases cortas

Continuous C I slash C D.

No semantic check.

Continuous hope.

(crossing our fingers in production)

🛡 ●○○○○ &nbsp;&nbsp; 😴 ○○○○○ &nbsp;&nbsp; 🔥 ●●●●●

## Slide 14

STORY: Act 3 - Problem Anatomy
TENSION: High
EMPHASIS: Causa raiz y costo de fallar tarde
DELIVERY: Didactico, frases cortas

Three Questions Without Answers

Question 1 —

— Why do we wait for things to break?

"Works on my machine". in production. I don't know

Fail late = maximum cost. We want: fail fast. fail cheap

Question 2 —

— Do we actually know what we want?

Is the declaration sufficient and consistent with what's possible?

What are the boundaries? Static or dynamic? What is the source of truth. and when does it mutate?

Question 3 —

Can we guarantee determinism ?

C I slash C D without semantic check = continuous hope

We want certainty. not randomness

"Works on my machine" cannot be the production standard

> We're not inventing anything new. Everything already exists.

> The question is whether we're managing it correctly.

## Slide 15

STORY: Act 4 - Turning Point
TENSION: Peak
EMPHASIS: No faltan tools, falta paradigma
DELIVERY: Silencios intencionales

The tools weren't the problem.

The languages weren't the problem.

The approach was the problem.

## Slide 16

STORY: Act 4 - Turning Point
TENSION: Peak
EMPHASIS: No faltan tools, falta paradigma
DELIVERY: Silencios intencionales

Systems we don't know how to control.

We hope they work.

When they don't. we fix them.

Continuous nightmare.

( alarm state as the new normal)

🛡 ●○○○○ &nbsp;&nbsp; 😴 ○○○○○ &nbsp;&nbsp; 🔥 ●●●●●

## Slide 17

STORY: Act 4 - Turning Point
TENSION: Peak
EMPHASIS: No faltan tools, falta paradigma
DELIVERY: Silencios intencionales

Rust

The answer to all three questions

## Slide 18

STORY: Act 4 - Turning Point
TENSION: Peak
EMPHASIS: No faltan tools, falta paradigma
DELIVERY: Silencios intencionales

The Bridge: From Serde to Types

Serde loads structurally valid config.

But "elephant" as pet: String compiles.

Rust's answer: don't use String. Use a type.

[code example]

This is the shift.:

Not the config format. The model of what it can contain.

Serde validates shape Types validate meaning

The compiler check validates before the binary exists.

## Slide 19

STORY: Act 5 - Resolution
TENSION: High -> Medium
EMPHASIS: Types y compiler como respuesta
DELIVERY: Claro y tecnico

What Rust Gives Us

Answer to Question 1: fail early. fail cheap

[code example]

Answer to Question 2: explicit contracts

[code example]

## Slide 20

STORY: Act 5 - Resolution
TENSION: High -> Medium
EMPHASIS: Types y compiler como respuesta
DELIVERY: Claro y tecnico

The compiler check as Pre-Validator

Answer to Question 3:

guaranteed determinism

[code example]

The compiler check validates:

Before building the binary

Not after hours of execution

Not when a function nobody touched in months finally gets called

Predictable behavior: memory. resources. workflows

The compiler check is the waiter who validates the order.

Before it reaches the kitchen.

Before the guest waits.

Before any ingredient is missing.

🛡 ●●●●○ &nbsp; 😴 ●●●●○ &nbsp; 🔥 ●●○○○

## Slide 21

STORY: Act 5 - Resolution
TENSION: High -> Medium
EMPHASIS: Types y compiler como respuesta
DELIVERY: Claro y tecnico

The Human Impact

When the system is trustworthy:

✓ Sleep comes back

✓ Confidence returns

✓ The team trusts the automation

✓ Stress decreases

✓ You can actually rest

> What you can't measure: fear .

>

> What you can measure: MTTR .

>

> Before: > 30 minutes. Now: .

🛡 ●●●●●&nbsp; 😴 ●●●●●&nbsp; 🔥 ●○○○○

## Slide 22

STORY: Act 5 - Resolution
TENSION: High -> Medium
EMPHASIS: Types y compiler como respuesta
DELIVERY: Claro y tecnico

Continuous C I slash C D.

Types. compiler check. Explicit state.

Continuous certainty.

(to keep sleeping well)

🛡 ●●●●● &nbsp;&nbsp; 😴 ●●●●● &nbsp;&nbsp; 🔥 ●○○○○

## Slide 23

STORY: Act 5 - Resolution
TENSION: High -> Medium
EMPHASIS: Types y compiler como respuesta
DELIVERY: Claro y tecnico

In Production

This is not theory

## Slide 24 (name: provisioning)

STORY: Act 6 - Proof in Production
TENSION: Medium -> High
EMPHASIS: Casos reales e impacto operativo
DELIVERY: Energetico y concreto

import { ref. computed } from 'vue'

const useWhite = ref(false)

const bgStyle = computed(() => ({

backgroundImage: url('${useWhite.value ? "/w-arch-diag-v2.svg" : "/arch-diag-v2.svg"}').

backgroundSize: 'contain'.

backgroundRepeat: 'no-repeat'.

backgroundPosition: 'center'.

position: 'absolute'.

inset: '0'.

cursor: 'pointer'.

}))

🌗

## Slide 25

STORY: Act 6 - Proof in Production
TENSION: Medium -> High
EMPHASIS: Casos reales e impacto operativo
DELIVERY: Energetico y concreto

Nickel

YAML rejected. TOML rejected. Reason: no type safety.

YAML wrote what we wanted.

It couldn't say what was possible.

Nickel closes that gap

— at config time. not at 3 AM.

[code example]

Typed Source of Truth

Result (ADR-003): zero config type errors in production.

Config hierarchy:

defaults → workspace → profile → environment → runtime

Each layer merges.

Type system catches conflicts.

At config time. not deployment time.

The guest wrote an impossible order.

Nickel makes impossible orders unwritable.

> Serde validates shape.

>

> Nickel validates meaning.

>

> The compiler check validates before deployment.

## Slide 26

STORY: Act 6 - Proof in Production
TENSION: Medium -> High
EMPHASIS: Casos reales e impacto operativo
DELIVERY: Energetico y concreto

Traits as Provider

The kitchen can change. AWS ≠ UpCloud ≠ bare metal. Same menu.

[code example]

Explicit state. no drift:

[code example]

Contracts

Checkpoint every 5 minutes

No implicit state.

> No "the waiter remembers the customer doesn't want salt."

It's in the order. Always. Explicit.

## Slide 27

STORY: Act 6 - Proof in Production
TENSION: Medium -> High
EMPHASIS: Casos reales e impacto operativo
DELIVERY: Energetico y concreto

Dependency Graph

Failfast: bool is not a config option.

It's a principle encoded as a type.

Typed DAG. dependency resolution enforced at workflow compile time:

The kitchen doesn't serve the main course before the starter is done.

DependencyType::Hard is that rule. In the type system. not in a runbook.

[code example]

Fail Fast. Fail Cheap

DependencyType::Hard - failure stops the chain. Always.

DependencyType::Soft - continues. explicitly degraded.

DependencyType::Optional - missing is expected and fine.

> The compiler check catches the install order.

> Not the on-call engineer at 2 AM.

🛡 ●●●●● &nbsp; 😴 ●●●●● &nbsp; 🔥 ●○○○○

## Slide 28

STORY: Act 6 - Proof in Production
TENSION: Medium -> High
EMPHASIS: Casos reales e impacto operativo
DELIVERY: Energetico y concreto

Real Applications

## Kubernetes

The controller provisions cluster components as a typed workflow:

[code example]

Each dependency is a DependencyType.

The compiler check catches: installing Cilium without Kubernetes.

Not the on-call engineer at 2 AM.

>"In my machine it works" has a price here.

>

> This is the highest-stakes infra in the deck.

## Blockchain Validators

Validators require brutal uptime.

A validator that fails loses funds. not your infra's money.

Your customer's.

Post-quantum cryptography: CRYSTALS-Kyber + Falcon + AES-256-GCM hybrid. Validator keys protected against quantum computers.

SLOs with real error budgets: 99.99% = 52.6 min downtime/year. Prometheus blocks deploys when burn rate exceeds budget.

Deterministic config: validator parameters are types. A bondamount that isn't a valid u128 doesn't compile.

## Slide 29

STORY: Act 6 - Proof in Production
TENSION: Medium -> High
EMPHASIS: Casos reales e impacto operativo
DELIVERY: Energetico y concreto

Disaster Recovery

Rollback as a type. not a procedure

3 AM. Something broke. You need to rollback.

Without types: you improvise.

With types: you choose a strategy

— or it doesn't compile.

[code example]

Multi-backend backup: restic. borg. tar. rsync

— all as enum variants.

Production backup and DR restore use the same type. the same schema.

> The runbook exists.

>

> Nobody reads it clearly at 3 AM under pressure.

>

> The type forces the decision before the crisis.

>

> The state is the same in prod and in DR. Always.

## Slide 30

STORY: Act 6 - Proof in Production
TENSION: Medium -> High
EMPHASIS: Casos reales e impacto operativo
DELIVERY: Energetico y concreto

Self-Healing

> When something breaks at 3 AM

>. the system responds. not you.

[code example]

— Typed Remediation

What happens at 3 AM:

Alert fires → RemediationEngine matches condition → runs RestartService

Works: silent. Nobody woken up.

Fails 3×: page sent. with full state. checkpoint. and execution history.

> You wake up to information. Not to chaos.

🛡 ●●●●● &nbsp; 😴 ●●●●● &nbsp; 🔥 ●○○○○

## Slide 31

STORY: Act 6 - Proof in Production
TENSION: Medium -> High
EMPHASIS: Casos reales e impacto operativo
DELIVERY: Energetico y concreto

Without types. Without compiler check. Without explicit state.

MTTR > 30 minutes.

────────────────────────

Rust. Types. Explicit state.

Automated response.

MTTR (at 3 AM. without you.)

🛡 ●●●●● &nbsp;&nbsp; 😴 ●●●●● &nbsp;&nbsp; 🔥 ●○○○○

## Slide 32

STORY: Act 7 - Close & CTA
TENSION: Medium -> Low
EMPHASIS: Cierre emocional con accion
DELIVERY: Lento y memorable

Why This Matters

For everyone in this room

## Slide 33

STORY: Act 7 - Close & CTA
TENSION: Medium -> Low
EMPHASIS: Cierre emocional con accion
DELIVERY: Lento y memorable

For You

If you've been frustrated like me

Rust solves problems you already have.

This is not hype. It is operational relief.

Start here:

Model your infra as types

Let the compiler check pre-validate before deployment

If you're earlier in your career

Start with type safety from day one.

Build for stable work. not only speed.

The shortest path:

Types for config.

Traits for providers.

Determinism for operations.

## Slide 34

STORY: Act 7 - Close & CTA
TENSION: Medium -> Low
EMPHASIS: Cierre emocional con accion
DELIVERY: Lento y memorable

I have perspective from long production experience.

I have seen technologies come and go.

Rust is not hype. Rust is relief with evidence.

It solves real operational problems I had for decades.

More years is not a liability.

It is an advantage.

## Slide 35 (name: end)

STORY: Act 7 - Close & CTA
TENSION: Medium -> Low
EMPHASIS: Cierre emocional con accion
DELIVERY: Lento y memorable

Why I Needed Rust

🛡 ●●●●●

😴 ●●●●●

🔥 ●○○○○

Three Closing Lines

I have lived this problem for decades.

Rust gave me deterministic systems and better sleep.

Start small: model infra as types.

Thank you. Questions?

More info:

· jesusperez.pro

· setup.systems · vapora.dev · rustelo.dev

