👋 Hi, I’m Abdullah, a software engineer with a deep-seated passion for distributed systems, containers, and system architecture. My journey in technology has been driven by an insatiable curiosity and a desire to truly understand the inner workings of the systems we build and rely on. I also occasionally write code that requires actual effort, but prefer not to; which is probably why you are reading this intro post with a title more clichéd than a B2B AI enabled SaaS startup.

In my free time I read weird blogs, build projects, watch podcasts I don't understand, and sporadically go swimming. I love reasoning about, improving, and designing systems and infrastructure.

An abridged list of things I am passionate about:

• Architecture.
• Walkable cities.
• Traveling.
• Space.
• Sports.
• Mathematics.
• Aerospace Engineering.

The way we live is shaped by the cities we live in, so it’s important to get them right. Every new neighbourhood I have been to makes it hard for people to walk to the local market, necessitating owning a car. Neighbourhoods should be designed for people and not cars. What does a town need 400ft wide, 18 lane road for? There are a myriad of health and economic benefits to designing walkable cities which probably deserve a longer write-up. Maybe tomorrow. As Hillel famously said,

If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?
— Hillel

Engineering cutriosity has become second nature to me at this point. And this interest extends far beyond computers for me. It's the same reason which got me interested in math, engineering principles, and the art of doing science and engineering.

Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.
— Charles Bukowski

Outside of work and personal interests, I like to spend time with a few special people. They keep me grounded, challenge my thinking, and help me grow.

While this post is a bit more personal, most of what you’ll find here will be related to computer science and the stuff I work on. I’ll probably ramble from time to time about programming languages, algorithms, best practices, system design, and also my terrible code. I’m excited to share what I learn and hopefully provide something valuable as in what not to do. I will leave you with this excerpt from Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs by Abelson and Sussman.

Programs should be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.
— Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs)