Andi Smith
Technical Leader • Product Engineer • AI Consultant
Today I Learned
Useful things I have learned. Shared so you may learn too.
Best practices for building agentic AI systems
Experimenting with Agentic AI systems.
Tagged AI, agentic and systems on August 17, 2025OpenFreeMap survived 100,000 requests
An interesting story of how OpenFreeMap survived heavy traffic from viral hit Wplace.live.
Tagged performance, scaling and traffic on August 13, 2025The Hardest Lessons for Startups to Learn
A informative list of lessons for startups.
Tagged startup and advice on August 10, 2025Startup = Growth
Paul Graham on the importance of growth.
Tagged startup, advice and scaling on July 11, 2025Utopia - Fluid responsive design
Fluid responsive design utilising CSS clamp and fluid typography.
Tagged CSS, responsive and design on July 3, 2025Startups in 13 Sentences
Rules to live by for startups.
Tagged startup and advice on July 1, 2025The Power of an Annual Review
Running your own annual review is a great way to reflect on your career and goals.
Tagged career, goals and leadership on June 26, 2025If you could have your way
Understanding what you want and how to get it.
Tagged career, product, leadership and goals on June 20, 2025Do Things That Don't Scale
Paul Graham on why you should do things that don't scale.
Tagged startup, advice and scaling on June 10, 2025Before you memo()
Some simple techniques to improve performance in React before you need to use memo().
Tagged React and performance on May 31, 2025Parsing the c64 Bubble Bobble Wind Currents
A great explanation of how the complex airflows in Bubble Bobble were programmed.
Tagged Bubble Bobble, Physics and Parsing on May 19, 2025Interpolation and Extrapolation with React Native Animated
Explanation of interpolation and extrapolation, and how it applies to React Native Animated.
Tagged React Native and Animated on May 3, 2025Thoughts on MCP
A simple explanation of MCP and how it works.
Tagged AI, MCP, API and integrations on March 11, 2025My LLM Codegen Workflow at the moment
Great perspective on how to use AI to build a working codegen workflow.
Tagged AI, codegen and workflow on February 16, 2025The Sims Game Design Documents
A collection of design documents for how they built the original The Sims PC game.
Tagged The Sims and design on February 14, 2025The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team
A good model for understanding the five dysfunctions of a team.
Tagged teamwork and dysfunctions on January 30, 2025Ways you're eroding accountability
Advice on how to properly build a culture of accountability in your team.
Tagged accountability and teamwork on January 29, 2025Once you are laid off, you will never be the same again
Interesting article on how to spot a upcoming lay off and how being laid off changes you.
Tagged layoff and career on January 26, 2025NotebookLM
Whack your CV in to this and it'll give you a little pick me up.
Tagged notes and organization on December 11, 2024AWS CDK Immersion Workshop
A great tutorial for getting started with the AWS CDK Infrastructure as Code toolkit and learning about constructs.
Tagged AWS and CDK on July 16, 2024How we got our first 1,000 users
How PostHog got their first users.
Tagged startups and users on June 29, 2024Advice that I can't get out of my head
Advice on the importance of strong leadership, trusting your gut and competing brutally.
Tagged startups, leadership, burnout and gut on March 31, 2024AWS Icons
A great collection of current AWS icons in SVG format that you can paste in to Miro.
Tagged AWS and icons on February 7, 2024Storyteller Tactics
An incredible list of tactics to use when telling a story in a presentation.
Tagged storytelling and presentations on November 27, 2023AWS Tips I Wish I'd Known Before I Started
A whole bunch of useful things to know about how AWS works.
Tagged AWS and tips on October 30, 2023