; ===== notes · 4 entries, append-only ===================
Field notes.
Written while the solder cooled — decisions, dead ends, and the numbers that settled arguments. Every note traces back to a real system in the atlas.
running logs
one-off notes
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Hybrid retrieval beat my vector database, and it wasn't close
Building a data-science assistant taught me that pure semantic search quietly fails on the queries experts actually ask — and that BM25, a 30-year-old algorithm, fixes it.
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Building EPIC++, a language that compiles to LLVM IR
What actually happens between a .epp source file and machine code — two-pass compilation, lvalues vs rvalues, and the day the structs finally worked.
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300ms or bust — notes from inside a payment gateway
What I learned at Chapa rebuilding 70% of a payment gateway's screens in two weeks, and helping tune Go microservices until concurrent payments answered in 300ms.