Notes from work and life

Blog

Articles on building AI systems, running through the Pacific Northwest, traveling widely, and thinking out loud about a good life.

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2026

2026 So Far: Work, Running, Travel, and Home

Personal Work Running Travel Life

A midyear reflection on Cerebras, 900 miles of running, life with Joy and the cats, and an unusually full 2026.

Building KeyTakes: A Lean Stack for an AI Reading App

AI Go Startups Engineering Books

How Google authentication, Go, AI, and DigitalOcean came together in a fast and focused reading app.

Smart Mysteries, British Crime, and Workplace Chaos: What I Want to Watch Next

TV Movies Crime Recommendations Personal

A personal watchlist built around the kinds of shows I keep coming back to: smart mysteries, British-flavored crime, and sharp workplace drama.

Chasing Clouds Above the Evergreen: My PNW Drone Journey

Drone PNW Washington Aviation Personal

Learning to fly a tiny drone in the Pacific Northwest turned into a deeper lesson in airspace, privacy, and how to see home from above.

Dear Human, Here's What I Know About You

AI Personal Life PNW

An AI-written sketch of a human life: part autobiography, part roast, part systems diagram.

Why I Run Mountains

Running Mountains Personal Ultra

On trail runs, suffering, and the strange clarity that comes only when your legs are burning and the world narrows to the next step.

Ireland for Marla: A Personal Guide to the Emerald Isle

Travel Ireland Personal Recommendations

My favorite spots in the Republic of Ireland — Dublin, Kerry, Dingle, Cork, and more — structured as a one-week tour for the second week of May 2026.

What Do I Want From Life?

Philosophy Life Personal Reflection

On lists, completion, and the uncomfortable truth that feeling alive requires pain, presence, and intentional work.

Why I Love the USA - A European's Perspective

USA Culture Personal Life

As someone who moved from Europe to the United States, here's my honest take on what makes this country genuinely remarkable.

Thoughts on the Future of Artificial Intelligence and What It Means for Us

AI Future Philosophy Personal

A personal reflection on where AI is heading in the short, mid, and long term—and how I plan to navigate this rapidly changing landscape.

Working at a Hyper Growth Startup

Work Startups Productivity

Reflections on intense weeks, staying sane, and protecting time while working in hyper-growth.

Latency Metrics That Actually Tell the Truth

Performance Monitoring Engineering APIs

A practical guide to latency metrics that reflect real user experience - p50, p95, p99, and why averages lie.

2025

2025 - A Year of Transition and Focus

Personal Review

Reflecting on a year of professional pivots, physical resilience, and strategic relocation.

How to Work With Me

Personality Collaboration Work

A personal user manual for effective collaboration, outlining communication preferences, work styles, and personal insights.

The Best Summer After a Layoff

Life Reflection Summer Career

A reflection on making the most of an unexpected summer off after being laid off.

Real-Time News Analysis for Investment Professionals with Cerebras and GPT-OSS

AI Finance Real-Time Cerebras GPT

A high-speed news analysis pipeline using Cerebras and GPT-OSS for real-time investment insights.

Backpacking Gear for PCT Section J

Backpacking PCT Gear Hiking

A comprehensive guide to the gear and supplies needed for backpacking Section J of the Pacific Crest Trail.

Eval Driven Design

Evaluation AI

An Article on Eval Driven Design not written by AI

Never Split the Difference

Personal Blogs

Persuasion Techniques from "Never Split the Difference" for Text-Based Scenarios

The Ultimate Guide to Supporting a 100-Mile Race

Running Blogs

Food, Gear, and Crew Tips for Supporting a 100-Mile Race

Essential Gear for Your Next Run in the Pacific Northwest

running pnw gear health

A checklist of essential items to bring on your runs in the beautiful but unpredictable Pacific Northwest.

Foods That Satisfy Appetite vs. Those with 'Empty Calories'

food health

Foods that make you feel full with few calories

Scotland July 2-5

Travel

A trip to Scotland.

AI Evaluations

Coding AI

Comprehensive guide to AI evaluation methods

AI Evaluations Pipeline

Coding AI

Techniques to evaluate AI systems effectively

AI Engineering Architecture and User Feedback

AI Engineering Architecture Feedback

Building AI systems with monitoring and feedback

Gitleaks Process

Engineering

Process for Checking and Adding Findings to .gitleaksignore

12 days in Austin

Travel

The April summer I badly needed

A bachelor trip to Victoria

Travel

A bachelor trip to Victoria

Norway and Scotland with Arnold

Coding Travel

A travel itinerary for Norway and Scotland with Arnold.

Embeddings in ML Design

Coding

A deep dive into embeddings, from one-hot encoding to two-tower architectures, and how they power recommendation systems at major tech companies.

Life is pretty great

Coding

What a wonderful life.

Setup my Mac

Coding

The tools I install when I get a new computer

2024

Yearly Raclette

Cooking NYE

The Ultimate New Year’s Tradition

Exploring Asia in 2025

Travel

My Trip to Asia from Jan 19 - Feb 1

San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua

Travel Central America Itinerary Adventure

A 2 week trip to Central America, of which, we will spend the majority in Nicaragua.

Some of my favorite dishes

Cooking

A short list of my favorite dishes

Venturing into MIT OpenCourseWare

Study

Study Agenda

High Performance Python Summary

Engineering

A summary of all 14 chapters of the book High Performance Python.

What should I do with rest of my life?

Life

A perspective by me.

Getting better in Systems Design

Coding

Designing Systems

My Takeaways from 'Robust Python'

Coding Python Best Practices

Elevating your Python code to new levels of robustness and reliability.

Red Teaming Study Guide

DeepEval LLM Evaluation Red Team

A complete guide to red teaming concepts and vulnerabilities.

DeepEval Evaluation Metrics - A Comprehensive Study Guide

DeepEval LLM Evaluation Metrics

A complete guide to the evaluation metrics available in DeepEval.

Definition of Done

Coding

My take on when to call something done.

Sasha and Simba at 8 weeks

Leisure

We adopted Sasha and Simba on June 3, 2024.

Living in America as a German for Two Years

Leisure

My personal perceptions living in WA state and Seattle

State of AI May 2024

Coding

The State of AI as of May 2024

The Best Poker Books for Every Level - From Beginners to Advanced Players

Leisure

Getting good at Poker is about setting foundations.

The Best Chess Books for Beginners to Masters - Your Ultimate Guide

Leisure

Getting good at chess is about setting foundations.

Getting better at Pickleball

Pickleball

Memorizing Pickle Tips

Level Up Engineering

AI Engineering

Next Steps in 2024

Shifts in LLM Usage

Coding

Reflections on my State of AI review.

FastAPI in Production

Coding

Key points from a tutorial on production-safe FastAPI service setup.

How can LLMs be integrated into Machine Learning?

Coding

Or even replaced?

State of AI

Coding

The State of AI as of Feburary 2024

Paving the Future of Data Analysis with Large Language Models

Coding

Large Language Models revolutionize data analytics by simplifying SQL queries.

Step 4 - Related Research

Coding

Insights from Text-to-SQL Conversion Research

Step 3 - Where to go from here

Coding

Where to go from here

Step 2 - Technical Implementation Details

Coding

An exhaustive explanation of the service

Step 1 - Leveraging Large Language Models for Intuitive SQL Queries

Coding

An Overview Article

Differences between Software Engineers and Data Scientists

Coding

In regard to object-oriented aspects

Marketing as an LLM State

Coding

Thoughts about Building Cordial AI

My Formula for Peak Performance - A Day in My Life

Lifestyle

A description of my life at Onni in 2024

Alaska Plan

Travel

This is a template plan for our trip to Alaska.

Getting started with CUDA

Coding

My summary of a video by Jeremy Howard, FastAPI

2023

My plan for NYC in March 2024

Life

A city of hustle and bustle

Giving Thanks - The People Who Shaped My Journey

Language Communication Persuasion Writing Techniques

On the occasion of Thanksgiving 2023, this blog post delves into the power of gratitude. Reflecting on personal growth and the pivotal individuals who have guided, inspired, and shaped my path, it serves as a heartfelt homage to those who have made a lasting impact on his life.

Unlocking the Secrets of the Memory Palace

Memory Knowledge Canon Learning Lifelong

Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer explores the powerful mnemonic device known as the method of loci or the memory palace technique.

The Transformative Power of Reading - A NLP Engineer's Perspective

reading cognitive development stress reduction empathy book recommendations

Discover the profound impact of reading on knowledge acquisition, cognitive development, empathy, and stress relief from the perspective of an NLP engineer. Explore a curated reading list and learn why reading is essential for personal growth.

Cultivating Connections - Social Activities for Friends and Spouses

Lifestyle Relationships Cooking Technology Photography Arts

An exploration of diverse and enriching activities designed to strengthen bonds with friends and loved ones, with a personal touch.

Mastering the Code - A Coder’s Strategic Roadmap to Professional Expertise by Q1/2024

Coding Mastery Software Development Professional Development Tech Skills Programming Languages Code Challenges Software Engineering Philosophy Coding Education Career Roadmap Tech Community

Elevate your coding skills with our strategic Q1/2024 roadmap, featuring hands-on practice, learning resources, and sharing expertise through teaching and community engagement.

Navigating the Tech Landscape - Finding Your Ideal Job in AI and NLP

Career Job Search Artificial Intelligence NLP Technology

An analytical approach to choosing the right company for your tech career.

Setting Personal and Professional Life Goals for 2035

Life Goals Personal Development NLP Career Growth Health and Fitness Real Estate Investment

Envisioning our future can often feel like an exercise in navigating through a fog of uncertainty. However, it’s possible to craft a strategy for the read more...

Mastering the Art of Balance - A Guide to the Perfect Weekly Schedule

Productivity, Health and Wellness, Work-Life Balance, Time Management, Healthy Eating, Fitness Routine, Socializing

Dive into the art of crafting a balanced weekly schedule that promotes productivity, health, and well-being. Learn how to blend work, fitness, nutrition, and social activities into a harmonious lifestyle that not only fulfills your duties but also nourishes your soul and brings joy to your everyday life.

Trip Itineraries for 2024

Travel

Discover Seb Duerr's 2024 trip itineraries crafted with GPT-4 assistance, blending nature, culture, and city experiences across global destinations.

Oaxacan Wonders and Mexico City Marvels

travel

A Nomadic Adventure Like No Other

2022

My Global Journey - Living in Seven Different Countries

Travel

Another life goal ticked.

A Glimpse of Every Country I've Journeyed To

travel

An exciting visual journey through 82 countries.

Dense Passage Retrieval of 10-k Reports with Haystack

Instructions

Gaining valuable insights by questioning a 10-k report

2021

Finetuning a DNN for Extroversion

Coding

This micro-service allows to find paraphrases for a given text based on T5.

Implementing Extroverted Writing Analysis in spaCy

Persuaide engineering

A practical spaCy implementation for classifying and transforming writing styles.

An Implementation Strategy for Extroverted Writing

Persuaide engineering

Four linguistic strategies for transforming introverted and extroverted writing styles.

The Theory of Extroverted Writing

Persuaide engineering

Research and linguistic patterns behind introverted and extroverted writing styles.

Working With Large-Scale Email Data

Persuaide engineering

Sourcing, parsing, and preparing public email datasets for language-model experiments.

Finding a Base Dataset

Persuaide engineering

How to find a useful base dataset for a text-to-text machine learning task.

Data-Centric Modeling

Persuaide engineering

Finding a dataset for your purpose.

What makes a message persuasive?

Research

An attempt to define persuasiveness in a natural text context.

2020

4 Steps to Create Synthetic Datasets with T5, PAWS and Your Text Corpus

Coding

Extending T5's capabilities with paraphrasing for synthetic dataset creation.

Invoking more Creativity with Pawraphrases based on T5

Coding

This micro-service allows to find paraphrases for a given text based on T5.

How to Use the Generative Text Infilling Model

Coding

This micro-service allows infilling multiple words into a context. This article explains how to use it.

Hosting your text infilling (based on GPT-2) through FastAPI on GCP

Coding

This micro-service allows infilling multiple words into a context through AI. Researchers from Stanford addressed this. I made their work available through an API.

Running GPT2 Inference through a Streamlit Interface on GCP

Coding

These are non-working instructions for running a Deep Neural Network on a Streamlit server.

NLP Recent Paper Review

Coding

Summary of Review by HuggingFace on recent NLP papers.

The Transformer review

Coding

Summary of the Illustrated Transformer by J. Alammar.

An Introduction to Deep Neural Networks

Coding

A brief illustrative Introduction on how DNNs work.

Brilliant Green

Research

My Summary of the Book Brilliant Green

Tracking Object Movements with Machine Learning (Open CV)

Coding

Plants respond to happy emotions. This article illustrates how to use Machine Learning to show this repeatedly.

The Transformative Impact of Traveling

Motivation

Read how to travel to 60 countries in 5 years.

How Crafting Code Can Change Your Life

Coding

Outlining a path to become a Machine Learning Scholar at MIT.

It is Your Time - Following Your Roadmap

Motivation

How to derive a one-year roadmap from your strategy.

2025 - Preparing a Strategy

Motivation

How to find your calling to carve out a strategy for a one year study leave.