Tech

Under the hood.

Data engineering, AdTech, AI tools, and the real mechanics behind systems most people use without thinking about. Written by someone who builds them.

June 2026  ·  AI & Tools

How an LLM Is Made: Months, Millions, and a Trillion Guesses

You pick an LLM off a shelf, but where does one come from? How a large language model is actually made, how it learns, why it answers the instant you hit enter, and why it sometimes says something wrong with a straight face. No math, everyday comparisons.

AI & Tools Data Engineering

June 2026  ·  Data Engineering

The Agent Doesn't Have a SQL Problem

Pointing an AI agent at your warehouse is a weekend project. Getting it to answer correctly, every time, in a way people trust, is the whole job. Why the hard part was never the SQL, and what a Snowflake semantic layer actually does about it.

Data Engineering AI & Tools

June 2026  ·  AI & Tools

The Machine That Stopped Waiting

For twenty-five years, computers got better but still waited for you to know what to ask. In late 2022, that changed. The shift from AI that answers to AI that acts, told through a blinking DOS cursor, a 3am pipeline that fixes itself, and a ten-month-old who keeps opening Spotify.

AI Agents

May 2026  ·  AdTech

How Ads Find You in 100 Milliseconds

Every time you load a webpage, a live financial auction runs in under 100ms to decide which ad you see. Here's exactly how it works — the bidding, the data, the money, and why you're still seeing those shoe ads.

AdTech Data Engineering