About this blog

The internet is full of AI content: there's AGI hype content, deeply technical academic research, tips + tricks for using consumer AI apps...but practical AI engineering content is in short supply.

What’s harder to find is the perspective of a software engineer who’s actually shipping AI powered software into production.

That’s what this blog is about. Practical lessons from the ground floor, written by someone who’s moved across disciplines and now spends every day building AI software.

Who am I

I'm Pat. If I had to distill my background, it's focused on data intensive software products. This skillset turns out to lend itself well to the AI evolution of software where context is king. My career has been a series of pivots — each time learning a new discipline, teaching myself what I didn’t know, and evolving into a new kind of engineer.

• Mechanical Engineer: learning design and systems thinking
• Data Analytics Consulting: where I taught myself to code on the job
• Data Engineering: shipping real production systems, open source maintainer
• Platform Engineer: building a suite of AI agents for data teams
• Product Lead: defining roadmap, tracking cutting edge AI products
• AI Engineer: founding engineer at a seed-stage startup backed by top VC firms, building enterprise account management AI agents

I’m not a specialist in any single path. I’ve reinvented myself across disciplines, and AI engineering is my latest (and most exciting) evolution.

Why this blog exists

When I looked for content during my own pivot into AI engineering, I found plenty of great research, forward-looking breakthroughs, and consumer-focused tips. But what I didn’t find much of was guidance for engineers trying to actually ship production systems with LLMs:

• How to build software that leverages LLMs
• What actually works (and doesn’t) in production
• Framework tradeoffs and best practices
• Tools worth paying for
• Real-world system design patterns with LLMs

That’s the gap I want this blog to help fill.

What you’ll find here

On this blog, I’ll share:

• Practical guides for building AI-powered software
• Lessons learned from putting AI apps into production
• Reviews of frameworks and tools I’ve tested
• Thoughts on how AI is reshaping the craft of software engineering

If you’re a software engineer who wants to evolve into an AI engineer and actually ship working systems, this blog is for you.