I wonder if there is a word or phrase for writer’s block, in terms of writing a blog centered on topics in one’s professional experiences, that is entirely because I have so much to say with everything I have learned and built in tech since the beginning of 2024. Number one thing I learned is my own version of the experience/realization the Japanese call 生き甲斐（ikigai).
I’ve gotten a certain suggestion from a few people, and no, even if I have writer’s block an AI is not writing my posts for me. The prose I postulate in written word cannot be comprehended and thus enacted by a learning machine the way the machines are today. Sure, they can do marketing/social media copy for other bots to read, but that’s not what I write. I am referring more to long form technical discussions, some philosophical essays, narratives of experiences in the tech field (incl. as a Woman In Tech) and unrelated to this blog but just as important: the sci-fi dystopia novel/s I am doing my best to finish/publish before they wouldn’t be sci-fi anymore..
The one exception in a few cases I may make in terms of AI written content I may use is if I trained, tested, tuned the LLM and personally designed, architected and developed said LLM-powered AI bot to write in a way I intend. Better yet I figure out how to build my own model from scratch\ and then do those other things. Regardless, that could totally still be sub-par, and that would not surprise me in the slightest.
There is a reason the craft of writing prose in human language is part of the humanities.
Late 2023 I began learning about new emerging ways to “build software with AI” that drew me in as I’d been curious about AI for a long time and had read about it. At the time (early 2019) I felt access to learn machine learning and to be a part of scientific innovations in AI wasn’t something I could consider as it seemed to happen largely in expensive engineering graduate schools, and I have a BA in English and a BA in International Studies. I taught myself to code online for free.
In late 2023, I found out about all the new places to teach yourself to code AI for free and then literally code and deploy AI for free. Open source technology is a HUGE augmentation toward future innovation, and part of why it is, is letting everyone see the code and docs online without paying American university tuition. (I’m still paying for my “free tuition” English degree LOL.)
And that is how I found that thing in my career — I had landed on the “craft”, the noun that is my job, “software engineer” — but not what meaning I have in this discipline. I was a generalist full stack developer, and I much enjoy(ed) this, as it is a goal for me to have wide experience as a developer to draw on in my future in leadership as a tech lead, and on to executive, etc… SWE is the craft, AI is my avenue to inventing what doesn’t exist yet.
I got good at AI. The single-minded fury with which I code(d) my first chatbot pojrect was in fact me doing the thing I love to do while nobody is watching or pays. Code AI after work. Code AI before work. (Don’t ask me what happened when I would try to do it during work. However odd it seems, especially now with companies scrambling for AI experts, my enthusiasm had mixed reviews.)
To pay it forward, I shall continue to write, and to be visible in what I’ve taught, trained, built and learned myself. Post topics will be on recent work as well as some on previous efforts, perhaps when I write a tutorial on something I’ve learned and tried. I am open to suggestions to add to my backlog.
I am also interested in becoming a contributor for an open source AI project, but not looking around quite yet. If your project is looking, though, feel free to reach out to me directly.
More to come on such topics as: RAG apps and use cases, a breakdown of “original” RAG and its offshoots of techniques, Coworking with Icarus and the trials of being a “hold my beer engineer”, why OpenAI is sus but all companies are being sus here and it’s kind of funny, my first opportunities for leading technical architecture design, tech principal responsibilities and of course as a de-facto tech lead on an AI PoC team.