https://strangeskills.com/blog/ José Neves on data pipelines, PostgreSQL and bringing AI into engineering work. en Tue, 03 Nov 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://strangeskills.com/posts/database-locks-dont-let-your-ai-loose/ https://strangeskills.com/posts/database-locks-dont-let-your-ai-loose/ Tue, 03 Nov 2026 00:00:00 GMT LLM-written code tends to default to database locks to deal with concurrency. A small Go and PostgreSQL benchmark shows what that costs: last write wins served 1.5 to 3 times more users than the locking patterns. https://strangeskills.com/posts/meet-toki-our-ai-assistant/ https://strangeskills.com/posts/meet-toki-our-ai-assistant/ Sun, 10 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT An internal AI assistant — named after the Japanese 時 / とき (time, moment, era, opportunity) — autonomously resolved 32.5% of intervened engineering support requests over four weeks. A look at how it's plugged in, its quirks, and where it's actually helping versus where humans still own the work. https://strangeskills.com/posts/another-try-at-llm-workflow-automation/ https://strangeskills.com/posts/another-try-at-llm-workflow-automation/ Sat, 18 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT After repeated attempts at LLM workflow automation, a first real success comes not from smarter models but from scaffolding — small, scoped tools around the LLM that iterate, validate, and fit into existing workflows without a chatbox in sight. https://strangeskills.com/posts/automating-engineering-support/ https://strangeskills.com/posts/automating-engineering-support/ Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT ~15% of engineering time goes toward support work. After attempting a self-evolving knowledge graph and failing, a more practical AI-assisted approach emerged — one that lets a single engineer handle triage 10 to 30 times faster. https://strangeskills.com/posts/splitting-etl-pipeline-three-independent-layers/ https://strangeskills.com/posts/splitting-etl-pipeline-three-independent-layers/ Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Most ETL pipelines combine ingestion, change detection, and transformation into a single process. Learn why we're pulling them apart into three independent stages — and the early signs that suggest it might be the right call. https://strangeskills.com/posts/becoming-protocols/ https://strangeskills.com/posts/becoming-protocols/ Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT A reflection on how AI tools are reshaping how we communicate and create content online. Using AI to express ourselves is powerful — when used with intent — but we risk dissolving into the systems we use if we're not careful to remain present in what we produce. https://strangeskills.com/posts/from-ai-orchestrated-to-ai-practical/ https://strangeskills.com/posts/from-ai-orchestrated-to-ai-practical/ Wed, 18 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT A follow-up reflection on dismantling an AI orchestration system and rebuilding a practical, overhead-free workflow. This article explores the gap between what's theoretically possible with AI agents and what's practically useful today. https://strangeskills.com/posts/from-ai-assisted-to-ai-orchestrated/ https://strangeskills.com/posts/from-ai-assisted-to-ai-orchestrated/ Sat, 14 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT A personal reflection on the transition from using AI as a coding assistant to fully embracing AI-orchestrated development workflows. This article explores the mindset shift required to move beyond traditional software engineering practices and adapt to a new paradigm where AI agents handle increasingly complex tasks. https://strangeskills.com/posts/postgresql-logical-replication-next-chapter/ https://strangeskills.com/posts/postgresql-logical-replication-next-chapter/ Tue, 15 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT Toggl Engineering shares how they expanded their PostgreSQL logical replication CDC pipeline to support event-driven architecture and OLAP features. The team discusses challenges overcome and practical optimization techniques for handling near real-time data transformations across multiple transactional databases. https://strangeskills.com/posts/postgresql-logical-replication-journey/ https://strangeskills.com/posts/postgresql-logical-replication-journey/ Fri, 19 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT Toggl Track faced challenges serving analytical reporting needs alongside their transactional database. The engineering team implemented a PostgreSQL logical replication pipeline to stream data changes in near real-time, but discovered critical misconceptions about LSN offset tracking that caused data inconsistencies in production.