Awesome CTO

Mike's Notes

This is a snapshot of a great list of CTO resources written by Dima Kuchin. It came from Dima's GitHub repository and was last updated 4 years ago. It might be handy one day.

Resources

References

  • Reference

Repository

  • Home > Ajabbi Research > Library > Subscriptions > Amazing CTO
  • Home > Handbook > 

Last Updated

17/05/2025

    Amazing CTO

    By: Dima Kuchin
    Awesome CTO: 16/02/2025

    — Hello, my name is Dima and I'm a CTO

    — (chorus) Welcome, Dima

    A curated and opinionated list of resources for Chief Technology Officers and VP R&D, emphasising startups and hyper-growth companies.

    Subscribe to get updates

    Contents

    • CTO Position
    • Hiring
    • People management
    • Career growth
    • Project management
    • Handbooks
    • Development process
    • Architecture
    • Technologies
    • Data
    • Startups
    • Due Diligence
    • Money / Finance
    • Related stuff
    • Product
    • Marketing
    • Books
    • More links

      CTO Position

        Hiring

          People Management

            Career growth

              Project management

                Handbooks

                  Development process

                  Architecture

                  Technologies

                  Data

                  Startups

                  Due Diligence

                  Money / Finance

                  Related stuff

                  Product

                  Other

                • Awesome CEO (GitHub)
                • Awesome TPM (GitHub)
                  • By , No comments:
                  Tags

                  Figma on Design Systems

                  Mike's Notes

                  Note

                  Resources

                  References

                  • Reference

                  Repository

                  • Home > Ajabbi Research > Library >
                  • Home > Handbook >
                  • pipiWiki > Engines > Design System

                  Last Updated

                  17/05/2025

                  Figma on Design Systems

                  By: Mike Peters
                  On a Sandy Beach: 15/02/2025

                  Mike is the inventor and architect of Pipi and the founder of Ajabbi.

                  Figma has created a website about Design Systems. It looks beneficial. NNGroup has a helpful article about the differences between design systems and style guides.

                  • Talks
                  • Examples
                  • Code
                  • Where to start
                  • Articles
                  • Etc

                  By , No comments:
                  Tags ,

                  James Simons: My Guiding Principles

                  Mike's Notes

                  I'm a fan of Jim Simons. A brilliant mathematician, he made a fortune and then donated billions to support mathematics and open scientific research through the Simons Foundation, which he and his wife Marilyn established. Marilyn was the President, and Jim was the Chair. 

                  All the research results are made freely available. The foundation publishes Quanta, which is free and better than Nature. I often reproduce Quanta articles on this website.

                  Jim died last year.

                  Resources

                  References

                  • Reference

                  Repository

                  • Home > Ajabbi Research > Library >
                  • Home > Handbook > 

                  Last Updated

                  17/05/2025

                    James Simons: My Guiding Principles

                    By: James H. Simons
                    Simons Foundation: January 22, 2020

                    The chair of the Simons Foundation describes his five principles for building a successful organization.

                    The foundation began in 1994, and in its early years, it had no particular mission and was simply Marilyn’s and my vehicle for distributing charity. In 2003, after the foundation had grown considerably (in part due to principle 5!), Marilyn and I became interested in autism — its cause and possible methods of alleviating its symptoms. We didn’t know how to begin this effort, but in the summer of that year, a friend of ours agreed to convene a roundtable of outstanding neuroscientists as well as some people who were already working in the field. We learned a great deal from this: first, that autism is very largely genetic; and, second, that few great scientists were working in the field.

                    Our mission seemed clear: Attract great scientists, and begin with genetics. This decision was consistent with principle 1, since no one to our knowledge was taking this combined approach. A second decision was to bring Mike Wigler of Cold Spring Harbor Lab, a friend of mine and one of the world’s greatest geneticists, into the game. We were off and running.

                    Another decision Marilyn and I made that year was to focus the foundation almost exclusively on mathematics and science research. Again, this was consistent with principle 1, as very few U.S. foundations had such a focus, and we felt we could really make a difference.

                    After a few years of my overseeing the autism project, Marilyn and I realized that we needed an outstanding scientist to head the project, and we were lucky enough to hire Gerry Fischbach, the first scientist on the foundation staff. Not only was Gerry terrific, but he was indeed fun to work with. Together with Mike Wigler and a small staff, he created the Simons Simplex Collection. This was a cohort of almost 3,000 families that included both parents, one and only one child with autism, and at least one unaffected sibling. A great deal of effort was expended in designing and implementing this collection, and it has led to an enormous amount of great science. I consider this collection a beautiful thing — a fine example of principle 3.

                    The Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) has now gone on for 16 years. When Gerry stepped down in 2013, Louis Reichardt, an outstanding scientist and leader, became its head. Our perseverance has borne fruit. Not only have we discovered numerous genetic causes of the condition, but our first drug trials have been initiated. Our patience to some extent exemplifies principle 4.

                    The next area we focused on was math and physical sciences (MPS), and at Marilyn’s suggestion, we brought on David Eisenbud to head that effort. David’s first step was to invite to the foundation a group of mathematicians, a group of theoretical physicists and a group of computer scientists to tell us what the foundation could do to advance each of their respective fields. The math and physics groups proposed various grant programs, which were subsequently put in place, but the computer science group wanted only one thing: an institute for theoretical computer science. There was no such institute in the world.

                    A competition was established among leading U.S. research universities, and after several winnowing rounds, Berkeley was selected. Not only was their proposed leader, Richard Karp, an outstanding and renowned computer scientist, but Berkeley also agreed to give us the entirety of a small building that they would renovate for our purposes. This institute is now in its sixth year and has been an outstanding success, attracting multitudes of visitors and being run in a beautiful manner. The creation of this institute exemplifies principles 1, 2 and 3.

                    Guiding Principles

                    IN LATE 2010, just after I stepped down from Renaissance and started full-time at the foundation, I gave a talk at MIT. Marilyn accompanied me to the talk, and on the way there, she suggested that at the end I discuss my values. I felt ‘values’ was not quite the right word, so I used ‘guiding principles’ instead. They are listed below, and I believe they have been useful in my life and careers. After setting them forth, I will give a number of examples of their effect in building the foundation.

                    1. DO SOMETHING NEW; DON’T RUN WITH THE PACK. I am not such a fast runner. If I am one of N people all working on the same problem, there is very little chance I will win. If I can think of a new problem in a new area, that will give me a chance.
                    2. SURROUND YOURSELF WITH THE SMARTEST PEOPLE YOU CAN FIND. When you see such a person, do all you can to get them on board. That extends your reach, and terrific people are usually fun to work with.
                    3. BE GUIDED BY BEAUTY. This is obviously true in doing mathematics or writing poetry, but it is also true in fashioning an organization that is running extremely well and accomplishing its mission with excellence.
                    4. DON’T GIVE UP EASILY. Some things take much longer than one initially expects. If the goal is worth achieving, just stick with it.
                    5. HOPE FOR GOOD LUCK!

                    After a few years, Yuri Tschinkel succeeded David as head of MPS. Yuri is an excellent mathematician and a pleasure to work with. Under his leadership, a number of excellent grant-making programs have been initiated, as well as several collaborations (discussed below).

                    The last grant-making area to be established was life science, headed by Marian Carlson, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a totally fun person to work with. She too has initiated some innovative programs and collaborations (discussed below).

                    As the programs grew, particularly SFARI, there was increasing need for IT personnel. This problem was solved by bringing on board Alex Lash, a very senior IT type at Memorial Sloan Kettering. I learned the hospital was quite unhappy to lose him, but Marilyn and I were delighted to hire him, and he gradually built an excellent team of almost 30 people who serve both the science and administrative sides of the house.

                    In 2012, we came up with a new approach to grant-making, what we called collaborations. These would be goal-driven efforts involving a fairly large number of investigators from various institutions around the world, lasting as long as 10 years, or perhaps even more. To determine whether this was a good idea, we convened a weekend meeting of distinguished scientists from a broad set of fields. By the end of the meeting, we had decided this was indeed a good idea, provided the goal was extremely important, there was a reasonable chance of achieving it, and the leadership was outstanding.

                    The first of these collaborations was Origins of Life, which was quickly followed by the Global Brain, an effort to understand the dynamics of the brain as a whole. Today we have 18 active collaborations covering life science, math and physical sciences. By and large these are going very well. This program is a clear example of principle 1, as we know of no other foundation or government organization that funds such efforts.

                    In the course of the weekend meeting on collaborations, it was suggested that we create an institute devoted to data science. I liked this idea very much, since the wealth I had amassed was based on data science in the financial world, but instead of creating an institute on a university campus, I thought to assemble such an activity in-house. Marilyn was in full agreement. We were fortunate to recruit Leslie Greengard to head this effort, which became known as the Simons Center for Data Analysis (SCDA). Leslie not only is an outstanding applied mathematician, being a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, but also holds an M.D. from Yale. He focused SCDA on computational biology and built up an excellent team. I consider this another example of principle 1, as nothing quite like this seemed to exist.

                    SCDA worked so well that Marilyn and I decided to generalize the idea and create the Flatiron Institute for computational science. For this, of course, more space was required, and happily it existed right across the street! We recruited David Spergel from Princeton to build Computational Astrophysics, and then Antoine Georges from the Collège de France to build Computational Quantum Physics (working closely with Andy Millis). Finally, we determined that the fourth unit be Computational Mathematics, and that Leslie step down from Computational Biology to head this new unit. After a fairly long search, we decided to promote Mike Shelley, a group leader in the biology unit, to be its director. Underpinning this variegated research effort is the Scientific Computing Core, a team brilliantly headed by Nick Carriero and Ian Fisk.

                    The Flatiron Institute has run magnificently in every way, its staff producing outstanding research and convening meetings and workshops that inspire other scientists to do the same. It clearly exemplifies principles 1, 2 and 3: it has originality and great leadership and is truly a thing of beauty.

                    According to its bylaws, the Simons Foundation is intended to focus almost entirely on research in mathematics and science and to exist in perpetuity. If future leadership abides by these guiding principles, Marilyn and I believe the foundation will forever be a force for good in our society.

                    By , No comments:
                    Tags , , ,

                    Enshittification, tarpits and other things your mother never told you about

                    Mike's Notes

                    Here are some valuable resources about stuff you may have to deal with one day.

                    • Enshittification
                    • Tarpits
                    I am so disgusted with the degeneration of previously useful websites provided by the world's largest software companies that I took these measures to ensure that Pipi would never end up like that.
                    • No Investors
                    • No social media
                    • No sales, only word-of-mouth
                    • No ads
                    • No moats
                    • Open-source as much as possible
                    • Ownership by a foundation
                    • Only SaaS applications that are socially useful
                    • Built for experienced developer teams
                    • Open Handbook
                    AI companies are ignoring robots.txt files when they go out and scrape websites. That sucks.

                    Resources

                    References

                    • Reference

                    Repository

                    • Home > Ajabbi Research > Library >
                    • Home > Handbook > 

                    Last Updated

                    17/05/2025

                    Enshittification, tarpits and other things your mother never told you about

                    By: Mike Peters
                    On a Sandy Beach: 13/02/2025

                    Mike is the inventor and architect of Pipi and the founder of Ajabbi.

                      Enshittification

                      "Enshittification, also known as crapification and platform decay, is the term used to describe the pattern in which online products and services decline in quality over time. Initially, vendors create high-quality offerings to attract users, then they degrade those offerings to better serve business customers, and finally degrade their services to users and business customers to maximize profits for shareholders." - Wikipedia.

                      Examples

                      • Google Search
                      • Facebook
                      • Amazon

                      Tarpit

                      "A tarpit is a service on a computer system (usually a server) that purposely delays incoming connections. The technique was developed as a defense against a computer worm, and the idea is that network abuses such as spamming or broad scanning are less effective, and therefore less attractive, if they take too long. The concept is analogous with a tar pit, in which animals can get bogged down and slowly sink under the surface, like in a swamp." - Wikipedia

                      Examples

                      • Nepenthes
                      • Iocane

                      By , No comments:
                      Tags , , ,

                      The creative process behind Pipi

                      Mike's Notes

                      I discovered this superb, filmed interview with author J.K. Rowling about her writing process. It's worth watching how this talented individual consciously uses a creative process in her work.

                      Besides being in awe of her writing ability, I was also thinking about my creative process.

                      I'm a pattern thinker. That's visual thinking.

                      My creative process is similar to J.K. Rowling's, except I use images, relationships, 3D and 4D models, and patterns instead of words. I, too, have many ideas pouring out of my head like a firehose, just not in words.

                      I, too, keep a notebook beside my bed, so when I wake up at 2 a.m., I can write a word or draw a diagram.

                      I keep my drawings in A4 3-hole ring binders. There must be almost 100 binders now, and cartons of drawings are waiting to be filed away correctly. I use colour highlighters a lot. Everything is colour-coded like this website.

                      I also have to use assistive technology to write. Every word on this website has been rewritten 30 to 40 times by me and corrected by Grammarly. I'm a slow writer; writing a page takes a whole day.

                      I find articles written by others I agree with and republish them on this engineering blog, expressing my thoughts in their words and adding a few notes to explain the connection.

                      I also have multiple kinds of synesthesia, which Wikipedia defines as " a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway."

                      It was the same when I was a sculptor, making docos, building sets, doing landscape projects, and everything else, where I didn't need to write words. Reading and talking are easy. I have given hundreds of talks, usually technical, at conferences and workshops, and been on TV, radio, press interviews, etc.

                      But I could never describe this process in written words. Now I can. Watch J K Rowling describe it.

                      I also copied this post on my filmmaker website so that people could understand how I work.

                      Resources

                      References

                      • Reference

                      Repository

                      • Home > Ajabbi Research > Library >
                      • Home > Handbook > 

                      Last Updated

                      17/05/2025

                        J K Rowling on Writing

                        By: J K Rowling
                        Jkrowling.com: 12/02/2025

                        J.K. Rowling talks in depth for the first time about her writing

                        J.K. Rowling is often asked questions by fans and budding writers about her writing process: where she writes, how she writes, her inspiration and her research, how a book comes about, from the germ of an idea to the editing process and eventual publication.

                        Here for the first time, she responds to those questions, talking openly and in depth about her writing including Harry Potter, her other children’s books The Ickabog and The Christmas Pig, as well as writing as Robert Galbraith, the Cormoran Strike crime fiction series.

                        Filmed in her writing room in Edinburgh and in a London pub, these three On Writing films provide a personal insight into J.K. Rowling’s writing world.

                        Part 1

                        Part 2

                        Part 3

                        By , No comments:
                        Tags ,

                        Pipi self-hosts and the chicken-or-egg problem

                        Mike's Notes

                        I wanted to write about why and how Pipi 9 is self-hosting and why this created a chicken-or-egg problem.

                        Pipi 9 is still largely headless, and I need to use the UI to build a UI.

                        Resources

                        References

                        • Reference

                        Repository

                        • Home > Ajabbi Research > Library >
                        • Home > Handbook > 

                        Last Updated

                        17/05/2025

                        Pipi self-hosts and the chicken or egg problem

                        By: Mike Peters
                        On a Sandy Beach: 11/02/2025

                        Mike is the inventor and architect of Pipi and the founder of Ajabbi.

                        According to Wikipedia;

                        "An operating system is self-hosted when the toolchain to build the operating system runs on that same operating system. For example, Windows can be built on a computer running Windows.

                        Before a system can become self-hosted, another system is needed to develop it until it reaches a stage where self-hosting is possible. When developing for a new computer or operating system, a system to run the development software is needed, but development software used to write and build the operating system is also necessary. This is called a bootstrapping problem or, more generically, a chicken or the egg dilemma.

                        A solution to this problem is the cross compiler (or cross assembler when working with assembly language). A cross compiler allows source code on one platform to be compiled for a different machine or operating system, making it possible to create an operating system for a machine for which a self-hosting compiler does not yet exist. Once written, software can be deployed to the target system using means such as an EPROM, floppy diskette, flash memory (such as a USB thumb drive), or JTAG device. This is similar to the method used to write software for gaming consoles or for handheld devices like cellular phones or tablets, which do not host their own development tools.

                        Once the system is mature enough to compile its own code, the cross-development dependency ends. At this point, an operating system is said to be self-hosted." - Wikipedia

                        Part of the secret sauce of Pipi 9's success is its self-generating nature.

                        It's like watching the workings of a living biological cell, where hundreds of processes maintain and interact with each other. 

                        I had to manually create each engine and let them run against each other. It was a very slow and experimental process, like inventing a new cake recipe through trial and error. I stumbled across something that worked by accident.

                        As a result, it is headless. It has also been designed to generate its own no-code front-end, an HTML user interface for humans.

                        The current problem is that a no-code interface is needed to create the no-code interface. The lower layers of Pipi are supposed to help generate the UI and learn from user interactions, so a lot needs to be done, making it challenging to simulate.

                        This means the front end will go through many generations as Pipi learns from feedback loops to improve the UI further. The backend will also self-evolve.

                        So, it is slow, but progress is steady. And the more I get done, the easier and faster it will get.

                        So, back to that darn chicken, or is it the egg?

                        By , No comments:
                        Tags , ,
                        Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)