Topic hubs
Start with a topic
Curated paths through my writing, talks, case studies, and mentoring themes across AI platforms, data engineering, MLOps, and technical leadership.
AI Platform Architecture
Practical notes on designing production AI platforms, LLM routing, self-hosted assistants, RAG systems, and the infrastructure patterns behind reliable AI products.
Data Engineering Leadership
Guides and reflections for leading data engineering teams, shaping platform roadmaps, setting technical direction, and building useful data products.
Production MLOps and LLMOps
Operational patterns for MLOps, LLMOps, AI observability, cost control, fallback strategies, and Kubernetes-based AI workloads.
Technical Mentorship
Mentorship resources for data engineers, AI builders, technical leads, and people navigating career growth in modern data and AI work.
Build vs Buy Data Strategy
Decision frameworks for data platform build-vs-buy choices, capability strategy, vendor lock-in, and long-term platform ownership.
Start here
Reading paths by audience
Four entry points for the most common reasons people land here: building data systems, shipping AI platforms, leading technical teams, or preparing a mentoring question.
Data engineers
For data engineers
Start with first-principles platform decisions, data modelling trade-offs, and talks about building data systems from the ground up.
AI builders
For AI builders
Follow the practical path through self-hosted assistants, LLM routing, AI-native data platforms, and agent-first documentation.
Technical leaders
For technical leaders
Read about capability strategy, product thinking, operating through ambiguity, and leading across data, AI, and product boundaries.
Mentees
For mentees
Use these pieces to frame a concrete mentoring question around career growth, technical direction, or navigating the AI learning curve.
Featured
Popular reads and talks
Tech
The Infinite Canvas and the Finite Mind
A personal reflection on what happens when the tools outpace the thinker.
AI
Lessons Learnt Self-hosting an AI Assistant
A practical guide to self-hosting an AI assistant on Azure using OpenWebUI, Kubernetes, LiteLLM, and a custom RAG pipeline.
Data Strategy
Build vs Buy is not a Cost decision. It's a capability decision.
In this piece, I distil what I've learnt along the way and share what has worked for me in practice.
Data Strategy
First Principles Thinking in Data Engineering
Why asking Why? five times can save your data platform
Latest
Newest first-party updates
Supercharge your code repository with pre-commit hooks
How a small, fast-moving team baked quality guardrails into the repo itself, so formatting, linting, and security checks run before every commit.
The Infinite Canvas and the Finite Mind
A personal reflection on what happens when the tools outpace the thinker.
Lesson in Product Thinking by John Ternus, the New Apple CEO
What Apple's design trade-offs reveal about how great products are actually optimised.
Stop Writing README.md. Start Writing AGENTS.md
Why agent-first documentation is becoming the practical way to guide AI Agents in real codebases.
Resources
Resources worth building
These are the practical checklists and frameworks this archive is growing toward. For now, each card points to the most relevant topic hub or existing writing.
LLM routing architecture checklist
A future checklist for model gateways, fallback paths, retrieval boundaries, cost controls, and operational ownership.
Explore AI platform architecture
Data platform build-vs-buy decision matrix
A future framework for separating cost, control, capability, lock-in, and long-term platform ownership.
Explore build-vs-buy strategy
AI cost observability template
A future operating template for tracking model spend, latency, usage patterns, and value signals in production AI systems.
Explore production LLMOps
Modern data platform roadmap
A future roadmap guide for sequencing foundations, governance, product delivery, and team operating models.
Explore data leadership
Insights
Articles, talks, and reflections on technology, data, and leadership.
2026-08-31
Supercharge your code repository with pre-commit hooks
How a small, fast-moving team baked quality guardrails into the repo itself, so formatting, linting, and security checks run before every commit.
2026-06-25
7 min read
The Infinite Canvas and the Finite Mind
A personal reflection on what happens when the tools outpace the thinker.
Lesson in Product Thinking by John Ternus, the New Apple CEO
What Apple's design trade-offs reveal about how great products are actually optimised.
Stop Writing README.md. Start Writing AGENTS.md
Why agent-first documentation is becoming the practical way to guide AI Agents in real codebases.
URL Shortener TUI: A Hobby Project
A look at building a terminal-first URL shortener with Textual, built-in redirects, and a polished keyboard-driven workflow.
Build vs Buy is not a Cost decision. It's a capability decision.
In this piece, I distil what I've learnt along the way and share what has worked for me in practice.
An Introduction to Data Engineering (Talk)
Very grateful to Argentina Programa and Fabricio Sodano for hosting me.
Stop using UUIDv4 for your primary keys. Use UUIDv7 instead.
A practical look at primary keys, index locality, and time-ordered UUIDs
Lessons in Data, Speed, and Systems. What Formula 1 Taught Me
This article reflects on how Formula 1 as a sport shaped my thinking about data, speed, and systems
First Principles Thinking in Data Engineering
Why asking Why? five times can save your data platform
Lessons Learnt Self-hosting an AI Assistant
A practical guide to self-hosting an AI assistant on Azure using OpenWebUI, Kubernetes, LiteLLM, and a custom RAG pipeline.
The AI-Native Data Platform We've All Been Waiting For
Why an AI-native data stack matters and how Nvidia is building toward it.
Inside My macOS Terminal Stack
Optimising speed, clarity and everyday dev workflow with iTerm2, zsh and the right plugins.
Financial functions in Snowflake using Python UDFs
A practical guide to implementing PMT and Interest Rate calculations.
How I Vibe-Coded My Portfolio With Agentic AI
A deep dive into how I utilized agentic AI to vibe-code my portfolio, exploring an innovative approach to building with artificial intelligence.
Kickstarting a Greenfield Data Project
My talk about how we built a data platform from the ground up at Wisr