"Subscribed for quick summaries of topics. Saves time. Googling and Youtube and collating info isn't convenient."
— RB
Technically
Making practical sense of software and AI.
AI, tractors and the productivity paradox
Where are AI's productivity gains hiding? What kitted out Model Ts can teach us.
What’s an inference provider?
How the rise of open source AI models is fueling the growth of a new infrastructure category.
I Let Claude Code Autonomously Run Ads for a Month
Applying the Ralph Wiggum loop to things other than writing code.
Neural Network
Neural networks are the mathematical brains behind modern AI—think of them as simplified versions of how your actual brain processes information.
Pre-Training
Pre-training is the "undergrad degree" phase where the model builds its foundational knowledge and world model.
Machine Learning
Machine Learning uses math to predict an output given an input
LLM
Large Language Models take in a prompt and generate text.
Databricks is apparently worth $100B. What do they even do?
What we should really be asking is “What does Databricks not do?”
Data lake
A Data Lake is an unstructured place to put data. It’s usually meant for long term storage and infrequent querying.
A/B Testing and Experimentation
Experimentation is one of the ways that companies understand if their product efforts are working, and ipso facto, what they should be spending time on.
Databricks
Databricks sells a data science and analytics platform built on top of an open source package called Apache Spark.
OpenAI
OpenAI is the most popular provider of generative AI models like GPT-4.
Schema
A schema is like the blueprint for a relational database.
Blockchain
A blockchain is just another way to store data, exactly like a database.
Confluent
Apache Kafka is a framework for streaming real time data, and Confluent offers Kafka as a managed service.
Elastic
Elasticsearch is a popular open source database for storing and searching unstructured data.
All about Infrastructure as Code
The deceptively simple text files that help you avoid huge mistakes when shipping software.
What's a Package Manager?
And why are AI labs buying them up?
A Beginner’s Guide to Bring Your Own Cloud
The profitable but challenging deployment model sweeping the nation.
Networking
Networking in software engineering refers to connecting two or more different things.
DevOps
DevOps is a process (e.g. a bunch of key practices) that helps teams take software they’ve built and make sure it works well at scale.
Postman
Postman is a suite of tools that helps developers build, test, and use internal and external API endpoints.
Splunk
Splunk is a tool for storing and searching logs, specifically focused on security.
VPN
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) lets you route your internet access through a specialized server that keeps your sensitive information private.
Tokenization
Tokenization is one of the ways that backends protect sensitive information, like credit cards or social security numbers.
Snyk
Snyk helps developers make sure that the code they're writing is secure.
Okta
Okta is an enterprise-focused identity provider: they take care of managing usernames, passwords, and permissions.
"Technically has allowed me better bridge the gap between user problems and how our system works under the hood."
— Adelaide Hallowell
What are code sandboxes?
Why coding agents need a safe place to play, just like we all do.
Justin GageRecent
How my non-engineering team at Sentry learned to shipFree
We moved 2,500 pages out of our CMS with Claude Code and Git. 4 months ago, most of us hadn't written code.
Matt HendersonAll about Infrastructure as CodeFree
The deceptively simple text files that help you avoid huge mistakes when shipping software.
Will RaphaelsonWhat is Next.js?Free
The web framework your next vibe-coded app will probably be built in.
Justin GageWhat's a Package Manager?
And why are AI labs buying them up?
Will Raphaelson
When not to vibe codeFree
Should I ship something myself, or call in engineering help?
Sarah Krasnik Bedell
What’s an inference provider?
How the rise of open source AI models is fueling the growth of a new infrastructure category.
Will Raphaelson
I Let Claude Code Autonomously Run Ads for a MonthFree
Applying the Ralph Wiggum loop to things other than writing code.
What their products actually do and why they're so valuable.
Databricks
SegmentSnyk
VercelQuick explanations of the concepts you see every day.
Video
Analyzing all 203 million trades on Kalshi
Kalshi just raised a new round at an $11B valuation. How much revenue does their prediction market really make?
Sam Schneider
Relationships are the moat
What's the forward deployed engineer role, and why is every startup hiring them?
Sung Won Chung
Learning Tracks
Curated collections of foundational articles to guide you through the basics of getting more technical at work.
AI, it's not that complicated ↗
How to understand and work effectively with AI and ML models and products.
- How do Large Language Models work?
Breaking down what ChatGPT and others are doing under the hood
- What's RLHF?
How AI models learned to stop being weird and start being helpful.
- What's GPT-3?
GPT-3 is a Machine Learning model that generates text.
- What’s a data science notebook?
Data Science Notebooks help data teams explore data with code.
Analyzing Software Companies ↗
The products and business models of leading software companies.
- Databricks is apparently worth $100B. What do they even do?
What we should really be asking is “What does Databricks not do?”
- What does Snowflake do?
Snowflake sells a powerful cloud data warehouse for analytics and data science teams.
- What does OpenAI do?
OpenAI is the most popular provider of generative AI models like GPT-4.
- What does dbt do?
dbt (no capitals) is a tool for transforming and organizing data in your warehouse.
Building Software Products ↗
How to make positive contributions to your product roadmap.
- The top 5 things PMs should know about engineering
Engineering and code basics that can make you a better PM to work with.
- What's code?
Code is step by step directions, but for computers.
- What's the internet?
A network of computers all connected to each other and sharing information.
- What's cloud?
Cloud is how companies rent infrastructure over the internet.
From Spreadsheets to Databases ↗
You've outgrown Excel, but you've got to put that data somewhere besides your parents basement.
- The Beginner's Guide to Databases
There are 300+ databases; what do they all do?
- SQL for the rest of us
If you’re not a data scientist but you have questions, you want to know SQL.
- The Excel User's Guide to Databases: Schemas
Why that schema change is going to take your engineers two weeks.
- The Excel User's Guide to Databases: Migrations
Why your feature is held up by a migration and why this is actually good.
How AI Models Actually Work ↗
How do these things actual work under the hood? What does it mean to train one? Is it more like going to the gym, studying for a test, or sleeping?
- What is Machine Learning?
How computers learn patterns from data — and why it’s the foundation for everything from stock prediction to ChatGPT.
- How do Large Language Models work?
Breaking down what ChatGPT and others are doing under the hood
- How do you train an AI model?
A deep dive into how models like ChatGPT get built.
- The beginner’s guide to AI model architectures
Unlike an onion, hopefully these neural network layers won't make you cry.
Working With Data Teams ↗
How to make positive contributions when working with analytics and data science teams.
- How do product analytics work?
Product analytics is how teams instrument and analyze data about their product usage.
- What your data team is using: the analytics stack
A deep dive into all of the tools that data teams use to do their work.
- SQL for the rest of us
If you’re not a data scientist but you have questions, you want to know SQL.
- What's the Modern Data Stack?
The new set of tools data teams use to get their jobs done.