IDEAS, DECISIONS & LESSONS

Journal

Notes on AI, architecture and building useful products.

878 articles

10 Feb 2025 · 4 min read

I Tried Five Vector Databases. Here's What I'd Actually Use.

We tested ChromaDB, Pinecone, Weaviate, Qdrant, and pgvector for our RAG system. Benchmarks, costs, developer experience — and the one I'd pick today.

20 Oct 2024 · 4 min read

Setting Up Azure OpenAI for Enterprise: What Nobody Tells You

We integrated Azure OpenAI into a client's enterprise platform. Here's the practical stuff — networking, content filtering, cost surprises, and what the docs don't cover.

08 Jun 2024 · 5 min read

15 Years of .NET: From Web Forms to AI Agents

I started with ASP.NET Web Forms in 2008. Now I'm building AI agents with .NET and Python. A reflection on how the ecosystem changed — and how it didn't.

22 Jan 2024 · 4 min read

architecture

Why We Stopped Fighting the Monolith and Started Strangling It

The story of migrating a 2M+ line retail platform to microservices. What the strangler pattern actually looks like when you're in the middle of it.

10 Dec 2023 · 4 min read

career

What Nobody Tells You About Becoming a Tech Lead

I made the switch from senior developer to technical lead. Here's what I got wrong, what surprised me, and what I wish someone had told me earlier.