New entry most days
Daily
One entry at a time: the question it answers, the mechanisms that make it work, and where the approach breaks down.
Jev’s claimed decision-model speedup
This asks how Jev’s reported decision-model acceleration should be evaluated instead of treating a “200x faster” figure as a general property of an AI system. Read it to see how decision latency is decomposed, how type constraints can remove runtime work, and why end-to-end workload boundaries still constrain the result.
Systems8 min readmoderateSystem One inference costs and Jevons effects
This asks how cheaper System One inference can increase total model spending instead of reducing an existing inference bill. Read it to see how lower unit cost expands product scope, how agentic workloads turn demand into feedback, and why budgets, capacity, and marginal utility still constrain the result.
Systems9 min readmoderatePostgres Connection Pools and Throughput Limits
This asks how to size Postgres connection pools instead of equating more database connections with more throughput. Read it to see how pools bound concurrent work, how Postgres turns connection pressure into scheduling and contention, and why the workload's bottleneck still constrains the result.
Systems8 min readmoderateHarness engineering in software development
This asks how engineers build and reason about test harnesses instead of treating tests as isolated assertions around production code. Read it to see how fixtures establish controlled state, how evaluation scaffolding turns behavior into evidence, and why the harness itself still constrains confidence, speed, and maintainability.
Systems9 min readmoderateCDN edge caching and origin revalidation
This asks how a CDN decides what to cache at the edge instead of treating every request as an origin lookup. Read it to see how cache keys separate representations, how freshness and validation govern reuse, and why correctness still constrains the cacheable surface.
Systems8 min readmoderate