What I read/listened-to the week of 09/16?
What I read
- The author is pretty excited about the new structured outputs feature in OpenAI’s API so I took it for a spin and developed an AI-assisted web scraper. This post summarizes my learnings.
- Focus on inputs and what you could control on
Personal finance for engineers
- A practical, no non-sense guide to handle your finances
How to Become a Product Engineer
- A practical guide that include technical workflows, responsibilities, and psychological tricks.
- How the cards, cash, debts and assets we carry stack up
- The Wall Street Journal takes a peek at the state of America’s wallet in comparison to 2019, before the pandemic hit and the rise in inflation. A few key stats: Average 401(k) balances increased to about $127,000 from about $104,000 two years earlier. Real median earnings were about 3.5% higher, adjusted for inflation. The average credit-card debt for those who carry a balance rose to $6,218 from $5,834, and the overall number of active credit cards reached a record high of about 590 million active cards, 40 million more than in 2019. Higher interest rates have made carrying debt more costly, and delinquencies are rising.
The Mysterious, Meteoric Rise of Shein
- The Atlantic chronicles the mysterious, meteoric rise of Shein. Little is known about the company, its profits, or “the world’s most anonymous CEO,” as The Wall Street Journal has called Shein’s founder. Not even reports of illegal labor practices, shady sourcing, allegations of artistic infringement, and an overall lack of transparency about its business operations seem to be slowing down the brand’s popularity. By the end of 2022, the retailer accounted for 50% of U.S. fast-fashion sales, compared to 12% in January 2020. And a “Sheinification” of the industry is nigh: It’s reported that Shein will start selling its technology to other brands, meanwhile other copycat sites are cropping up, H&M is speeding up production times, and Amazon is shortening delivery times.
Amazon Frugal Architecture Explained
- (1) don’t ignore costs during system design. (2) set limitations on resources - time, money, CPU, and so on.
Have a great week!
