A software engineer's map to the ideas behind LLMs, RAG, and agents. Most of AI engineering builds on foundations you already have. The trick is learning to see the connections.

You Might Be Closer to AI Engineering Than You Think

AI explained through the lens of computer science

AI Engineering

Notes on Discord's migration from Cassandra to ScyllaDB and their data modeling strategy for handling trillions of messages with strict latency requirements.

How Discord Stores Trillions of Messages

Notes on how PostgreSQL handles connections, manages memory, and coordinates background processes to provide ACID guarantees.

PostgreSQL Process Architecture

Notes on how Netflix uses GraphQL Federation to compose a unified API from hundreds of microservices while maintaining team autonomy and independent deployability.

How Netflix Scales its API with GraphQL Federation

Annotations

The framework era trained developers to be expert consumers of abstractions they did not design. AI agents are ending that era, and real engineering is reclaiming its place.

Software Engineering is Back

Essays

Notes

A solo backpacking journey through 10 European countries, balancing remote work and exploration

A solo, budget-friendly journey through 10 European countries. Driven by instinct, shaped by spontaneity, and enriched by strangers who became stories, friends, or fleeting moments I'll never forget.

Shahbaz Zaidi

AI Engineering

Travel

Solo Europe Workation 2025

Essays

Annotations