Software Factory: What It Is and What It Is Not

What changes when agents take the software engineering work and humans keep the judgment.

Sep 22 • Shaikh Quader

3

Read like a mapmaker: my 4-step method for understanding hard concepts

Guess it, skim it, read only what you need, then write it down from memory.

Sep 6 • Shaikh Quader

7

LLMs Are Not All You Need

Understanding the AI model families that solve the problems LLMs can't

Sep 2 • Shaikh Quader

5

2

A Student Asked Me About a Career in Product Management. I Changed His Question.

The real conversation about understanding customers, choosing a niche, and why technical depth matters more than a role title.

Sep 2 • Shaikh Quader

August 2026

How I write short-form technical posts

A three-step writing process that keeps my voice, tone, and language

Aug 31 • Shaikh Quader

4

I built my own yardstick for evaluating AI search

I built an evaluation workbench that uses real human queries, not synthetic ones from an LLM, for evaluating hybrid search

Aug 2 • Shaikh Quader

6:47

June 2026

Going Back to Bytes

An AI architect refreshes the basics, 25 years later

Jun 13 • Shaikh Quader

2

May 2026

Why Your RAG Pipeline Needs a Re-Ranker

If your RAG pipeline returns chunks that are close to your question but not quite right, a re-ranker is probably the fix.

May 23 • Shaikh Quader

1

April 2026

How I Grew as a Technical Leader by Learning From My Mistakes Leading Major AI Projects at IBM Db2

The five lessons that came from leading AI projects from concept to delivery — and how they reshaped my technical leadership.

Apr 30 • Shaikh Quader

1

I Spent One Hour Showing Engineering Students How to Use AI. This Is That Talk.

How I use AI to run a full-time role at IBM and a PhD at the same time, and the free AI tools every engineering student can start with today.

Apr 14 • Shaikh Quader

2

1:00:31

I Joined IBM With No Personal Operating System. So I Built One.

For students stepping into their first engineering role, this is the roadmap I wish I had on day one at IBM.

Apr 7 • Shaikh Quader

1

The Step Most AI Portfolios Skip

If you are preparing for an AI role, you have likely built something solid. Here is what to add that shows you can think like a professional engineer.

Apr 3 • Shaikh Quader

2