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speed engineer

Engineer obsessed with speed — from Rust to Go, I build, test, and share everything I learn about high-performance systems.

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Two Random Choices Beat One Careful One: The Load Balancer Mental Model Nobody Teaches
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Two Random Choices Beat One Careful One: The Load Balancer Mental Model Nobody Teaches

#systemdesign #performance #backend #computerscience
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3 min read

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The One Number That Actually Moves Your Latency (And Why Your Team Keeps Optimizing the Wrong Thing)
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The One Number That Actually Moves Your Latency (And Why Your Team Keeps Optimizing the Wrong Thing)

#performance #systemdesign #softwareengineering #debugging
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3 min read
The TCP Checksum Passed. The Data Was Corrupted Anyway.
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The TCP Checksum Passed. The Data Was Corrupted Anyway.

#networking #reliability #distributedsystems #programming
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4 min read
Your Promo Case Wasn't Judged on Its Own Merits. It Was Judged Against Whoever Went Before You.
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Your Promo Case Wasn't Judged on Its Own Merits. It Was Judged Against Whoever Went Before You.

#career #leadership #management #engineering
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3 min read
We Failed Over to a Healthy Region. The JVM Never Noticed — It Had Cached the DNS Answer Forever.
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We Failed Over to a Healthy Region. The JVM Never Noticed — It Had Cached the DNS Answer Forever.

#java #dns #networking #reliability
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3 min read
Upgrading Your Embedding Model Doesn't Break RAG Loudly — It Breaks It Quietly
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Upgrading Your Embedding Model Doesn't Break RAG Loudly — It Breaks It Quietly

#ai #rag #llm #vectordb
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3 min read
Why CPU-Based Autoscaling Makes Traffic Spikes Worse Before It Makes Them Better
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Why CPU-Based Autoscaling Makes Traffic Spikes Worse Before It Makes Them Better

#performance #kubernetes #devops #architecture
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3 min read
We Cut API Gateway Connections 6x With HTTP/2. One Bad Packet Then Stalled Every Request Sharing It.
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We Cut API Gateway Connections 6x With HTTP/2. One Bad Packet Then Stalled Every Request Sharing It.

#performance #networking #http2 #backend
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3 min read
Little's Law: The Formula Behind Every Thread Pool You'll Ever Size
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Little's Law: The Formula Behind Every Thread Pool You'll Ever Size

#performance #systemdesign #backend #computerscience
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3 min read
Cache-Aligned Isn't Zero-Copy: The Hidden memcpy in Your "Fast" Binary Protocol
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Cache-Aligned Isn't Zero-Copy: The Hidden memcpy in Your "Fast" Binary Protocol

#performance #c #systemsdesign #backend
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4 min read
Your 4 PM Interview Slot Is Silently Grading Candidates Harder Than Your 9 AM One
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Your 4 PM Interview Slot Is Silently Grading Candidates Harder Than Your 9 AM One

#career #hiring #interviewing #leadership
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3 min read
The Container Got OOMKilled at 61% Heap Usage. Here's Why Kubernetes Wasn't Lying.
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The Container Got OOMKilled at 61% Heap Usage. Here's Why Kubernetes Wasn't Lying.

#kubernetes #jvm #performance #devops
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3 min read
Your AI Agent's Retry Logic Just Charged a Customer Twice
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Your AI Agent's Retry Logic Just Charged a Customer Twice

#ai #llm #agents #architecture
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3 min read
You Added Ten Nodes and Throughput Didn't Move: The Hot Shard Problem
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You Added Ten Nodes and Throughput Didn't Move: The Hot Shard Problem

#architecture #database #scaling #distributedsystems
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3 min read
The Mental Model That Ended My Guess-and-Check Debugging
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The Mental Model That Ended My Guess-and-Check Debugging

#performance #debugging #systemdesign #devops
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3 min read
Your Coding Interview Stopped Measuring Anything the Day Candidates Got Copilot
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Your Coding Interview Stopped Measuring Anything the Day Candidates Got Copilot

#career #interviewing #ai #engineering
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3 min read
Your Multithreaded Code Is Correct and Still 8x Slower: False Sharing Explained
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Your Multithreaded Code Is Correct and Still 8x Slower: False Sharing Explained

#performance #concurrency #computerscience #systemdesign
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3 min read
Hyrum's Law: Why You Can Never Actually Deprecate Anything
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Hyrum's Law: Why You Can Never Actually Deprecate Anything

#discuss #architecture #api #engineering
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3 min read
The UDP Buffer Nobody Tunes: How a 256KB Kernel Default Cost Us 30% of Our Packets
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The UDP Buffer Nobody Tunes: How a 256KB Kernel Default Cost Us 30% of Our Packets

#networking #linux #performance #devops
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3 min read
Lost in the Middle: Why Feeding Your Agent More Context Makes It Dumber
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Lost in the Middle: Why Feeding Your Agent More Context Makes It Dumber

#ai #llm #rag #architecture
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3 min read
Why Your p99 Latency Explodes Long Before Your Servers Look Busy
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Why Your p99 Latency Explodes Long Before Your Servers Look Busy

#performance #systemdesign #backend #programming
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3 min read
Why Your p99 Latency Explodes Long Before Your Servers Look Busy
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Why Your p99 Latency Explodes Long Before Your Servers Look Busy

#performance #systemdesign #backend #programming
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3 min read
Your Backups Have Been Silently Corrupt Longer Than Your Retention Window
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Your Backups Have Been Silently Corrupt Longer Than Your Retention Window

#storage #backend #architecture #reliability
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3 min read
Your Hiring Freeze Has an Adverse Selection Problem
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Your Hiring Freeze Has an Adverse Selection Problem

#discuss #career #leadership #management
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3 min read
The CPU Graph Said 40%. We Were Being Throttled Every Second.
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The CPU Graph Said 40%. We Were Being Throttled Every Second.

#performance #kubernetes #devops #backend
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3 min read
Why Chaining Five Fast Services Gives You One Slow One
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Why Chaining Five Fast Services Gives You One Slow One

#performance #architecture #distributedsystems #backend
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3 min read
Coordinated Omission: Why Your Load Testing Tool Is Lying About Your P99
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Coordinated Omission: Why Your Load Testing Tool Is Lying About Your P99

#performance #testing #backend #systemdesign
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3 min read
Little's Law Explains Why Your Connection Pool Fix Actually Worked
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Little's Law Explains Why Your Connection Pool Fix Actually Worked

#performance #systemdesign #backend #computerscience
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3 min read
The 45-Hour Week That Burns You Out Faster Than the 90-Hour One
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The 45-Hour Week That Burns You Out Faster Than the 90-Hour One

#career #engineering #leadership #burnout
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3 min read
Temperature=0 Doesn't Mean Deterministic. Your Batch Size Does.
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Temperature=0 Doesn't Mean Deterministic. Your Batch Size Does.

#ai #llm #performance #machinelearning
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3 min read
We Cut Our Connection Pool 90% and P99 Latency Dropped From 4.1s to 80ms
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We Cut Our Connection Pool 90% and P99 Latency Dropped From 4.1s to 80ms

#postgres #backend #performance #architecture
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3 min read
Your P99 Latency Has a Suspicious 40ms Floor. Two 1980s Algorithms Are Arguing.
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Your P99 Latency Has a Suspicious 40ms Floor. Two 1980s Algorithms Are Arguing.

#networking #performance #backend #tcp
1
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3 min read
The Novelty Tax: Why Doing the Same Great Work Twice Gets You a Lower Review
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The Novelty Tax: Why Doing the Same Great Work Twice Gets You a Lower Review

#career #engineering #leadership #productivity
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3 min read
Two Workers Both Held the 'Only One' Lock. The Clock Was Never Synced.
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Two Workers Both Held the 'Only One' Lock. The Clock Was Never Synced.

#distributedsystems #backend #debugging #redis
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3 min read
Your AI Agent's Bill Tripled Overnight. The Prompt Cache Broke, Not the Model.
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Your AI Agent's Bill Tripled Overnight. The Prompt Cache Broke, Not the Model.

#ai #llm #backend #performance
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3 min read
Cache Stampede: The Failure Mode Hiding Behind a 99% Hit Rate
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Cache Stampede: The Failure Mode Hiding Behind a 99% Hit Rate

#performance #caching #architecture #backend
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3 min read
False Sharing: Why Adding Threads Made Your Code Slower
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False Sharing: Why Adding Threads Made Your Code Slower

#performance #concurrency #computerscience #architecture
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3 min read
Your Redundancy Math Assumes Independence. Production Doesn't.
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Your Redundancy Math Assumes Independence. Production Doesn't.

#reliability #systemsdesign #architecture #devops
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3 min read
RAID Doesn't Protect You From the Corruption That Actually Gets You
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RAID Doesn't Protect You From the Corruption That Actually Gets You

#storage #performance #backend #architecture
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3 min read
The Bus-Factor Paradox: Why the Person Who Understands the System Best Gets Cut First
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The Bus-Factor Paradox: Why the Person Who Understands the System Best Gets Cut First

#career #layoffs #engineering #leadership
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3 min read
A Timestamp in Your System Prompt Is Multiplying Your LLM Bill
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A Timestamp in Your System Prompt Is Multiplying Your LLM Bill

#ai #llm #performance #promptengineering
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4 min read
Your Retries Are a Load Multiplier: How a 5-Second Blip Becomes a 40-Minute Outage
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Your Retries Are a Load Multiplier: How a 5-Second Blip Becomes a 40-Minute Outage

#reliability #distributedsystems #architecture #devops
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3 min read
Your Average Latency Is Lying to You: The Tail at Scale
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Your Average Latency Is Lying to You: The Tail at Scale

#performance #distributedsystems #architecture #scalability
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3 min read
Debugging Is a Search Problem: Bisect Everything
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Debugging Is a Search Problem: Bisect Everything

#debugging #productivity #programming #career
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3 min read
Your Struct Layout Is Part of Your Wire Protocol
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Your Struct Layout Is Part of Your Wire Protocol

#performance #networking #c #architecture
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3 min read
Your Manager Can't Remember What You Did in March — and That's a Systems Problem
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Your Manager Can't Remember What You Did in March — and That's a Systems Problem

#career #engineering #productivity #leadership
1
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3 min read
Prompt Rot: Why Your Best AI Prompt Quietly Stops Working
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Prompt Rot: Why Your Best AI Prompt Quietly Stops Working

#ai #productivity #teams #saas
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3 min read
Why Your Project Quotes Are Always Wrong (And the Log That Fixes It)
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Why Your Project Quotes Are Always Wrong (And the Log That Fixes It)

#freelance #productivity #business #timetracking
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2 min read
How to Build a Shared Prompt Library Your Team Will Actually Use
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How to Build a Shared Prompt Library Your Team Will Actually Use

#ai #productivity #teams #saas
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2 min read
How Japan Just Beat Claude Mythos
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How Japan Just Beat Claude Mythos

#ai #productivity #agents #llm
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6 min read
Your users already built your product — look at their ugly workarounds
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Your users already built your product — look at their ugly workarounds

#startup #saas #productivity #lessons
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3 min read
Your team's best AI prompts are dying in chat threads
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Your team's best AI prompts are dying in chat threads

#ai #productivity #teams #chatgpt
1
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2 min read
Sunday Notes: Find Where Before You Theorize Why
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Sunday Notes: Find Where Before You Theorize Why

#productivity #saas #startup #debugging
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3 min read
I Lost 30% of My UDP Packets — and the Network Was Innocent
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I Lost 30% of My UDP Packets — and the Network Was Innocent

#networking #debugging #programming #performance
1
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3 min read
We Built Two Products Around the Same Boring Insight: Valuable Work Leaks
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We Built Two Products Around the Same Boring Insight: Valuable Work Leaks

#startup #saas #productivity #career
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2 min read
Networking for Developers: TCP vs UDP (When Each Protocol Kills Your App)
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Networking for Developers: TCP vs UDP (When Each Protocol Kills Your App)

Comments
7 min read
Your team doesn't have a prompt problem. It has a blank-box problem.
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Your team doesn't have a prompt problem. It has a blank-box problem.

#ai #productivity #chatgpt #teamwork
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3 min read
Your Oldest Client Is Probably Your Lowest-Paying One
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Your Oldest Client Is Probably Your Lowest-Paying One

#freelance #productivity #business #timetracking
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3 min read
Prompt drift: why the AI prompt that worked last month quietly stopped working
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Prompt drift: why the AI prompt that worked last month quietly stopped working

#ai #productivity #chatgpt #tutorial
1
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3 min read
The 6-Minute Tasks That Quietly Cost Freelancers a Full Day of Pay Each Week
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The 6-Minute Tasks That Quietly Cost Freelancers a Full Day of Pay Each Week

#productivity #freelance #timetracking #saas
1
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3 min read
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