Diep Dao
Large Language Models: How AI Understands and Generates Language
This is Post 12 — the final post — in the Computer Science Series. The previous post explained deep learning and transformers. Now we put it all together: La...
Categories
computer-science
Deep Learning: Neural Networks and the Transformer Revolution
This is Post 11 in the Computer Science Series. The previous post covered classical machine learning. Now we go deeper: neural networks — the technology behi...
Machine Learning: Teaching Computers to Learn
This is Post 10 in the Computer Science Series. The previous post covered distributed systems. Now we look at machine learning — the technology behind spam f...
Distributed Systems: When One Machine Is Not Enough
This is Post 9 in the Computer Science Series. The previous post covered building applications. Now we look at what happens when your app grows beyond one ma...
Application Development: Building Software That Lasts
This is Post 8 in the Computer Science Series. The previous post covered databases. Now we look at application development — the craft of building software t...
Databases: Storing and Querying Data at Scale
This is Post 7 in the Computer Science Series. The previous post covered networks and security. Now we look at databases — how we store, organize, and query ...
Networks & Security: How the Internet Works and How to Protect It
This is Post 6 in the Computer Science Series. The previous post covered data structures. Now we look at how computers communicate — and how we keep that com...
Data Structures: The Right Container for the Right Job
This is Post 5 in the Computer Science Series. The previous post explained how to measure algorithm efficiency. Now we look at data structures — the containe...
Algorithms: Thinking About Efficiency
This is Post 4 in the Computer Science Series. The previous post covered operating systems. Now we get to the heart of computer science: algorithms.
Operating Systems: The Software That Runs Everything Else
This is Post 3 in the Computer Science Series. The previous post explained how a CPU executes instructions. Now we look at the software that manages the CPU ...
Computer Architecture: Inside the CPU
This is Post 2 in the Computer Science Series. The previous post covered how bits encode everything — numbers, text, audio, video. Now we look at the machine...
Introduction to Computer Science: From Bits to Generative AI
This is the first deep-dive post in the Computer Science Series. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to consolidate your mental model of the field, t...
Bits & Bytes: How Computers Encode, Transmit, and Decode Everything
This is the second deep-dive in the Computer Science Series. The first post mapped the entire CS landscape — from hardware to generative AI. Now we zoom in o...
Welcome to the Computer Science Series
Computer Science is one of the youngest engineering disciplines and one of the most consequential. In fewer than 80 years it has gone from vacuum tubes to la...
ai
AI Agents in Production: Planning, Tool Use, and Safety Boundaries
This is Post 4 in the AI Series. The previous post covered LLM system design and RAG.
LLM Systems and RAG: Building Useful AI Beyond Prompt Demos
This is Post 3 in the AI Series. The previous post covered MLOps and evaluation.
MLOps and Evaluation: From Notebook Models to Reliable Production
This is Post 2 in the AI Series. The previous post covered the learning journey and foundations.
Project: Personalized Agents — Build Your Own AI with OpenClaw
What if your AI agent truly knew you — your goals, your communication style, your preferences — and adapted every response accordingly? That’s what Personali...
Project: @diepdao/aicli — API Docs CLI for AI Copilots
A global npm CLI that gives AI copilots (GitHub Copilot, Claude, Cursor) instant access to the latest API documentation for any open-source tool — Kafka, Red...
Project: AI & Agents Workflow — Text-to-SQL, Text-to-Dashboard
An AI agents system that lets traders create and modify dashboards using natural language — powered by Text-to-SQL and Text-to-Dashboard agents communicating...
AI and Blockchain — The Promises, The Fear, and What People Who Build Them Actually Know
TL;DR: Everyone fears blockchain will kill banks and AI will kill jobs. But people who actually build these things know the truth: replacing centuries-old fi...
How Andrew Ng’s Courses Changed the Way I Think About AI
If there’s one person whose teaching shaped my understanding of AI more than anyone else, it’s Andrew Ng. This post is about that journey — from watching his...
Welcome to the AI Series
Artificial Intelligence has been at the centre of my career for the better part of a decade. I’ve built NLP models for financial news, deployed deep learning...
finance
Risk Management and Trader Dashboards: From Trades to Decisions
Risk dashboards are decision systems. They must be fast, consistent, and explainable under pressure.
Corporate Banking Systems: Loans, Facilities, and Controls
Corporate banking platforms handle long-lived relationships, complex limits, and strict operational controls.
Banking and Financial Institutions: Operating Model for Engineers
Banks are federations of specialized teams tied together by shared data, controls, and regulation.
Financial Engineering for Builders: Pricing, Curves, and Risk
Financial engineering in production is the discipline of turning models into reliable, explainable, and testable systems.
Market Microstructure: How Trades Actually Happen
Market microstructure is the study of how buyers and sellers interact, how prices form, and how orders become trades. For engineers, this is where system beh...
Introduction to Financial Markets: A Software Engineer’s Map
If computer science gives you the language of systems, finance gives you the language of money, risk, and incentives. As a software engineer working across c...
Project: Financial Engineering & Risk Management System
Building a complete simulation trading and risk management system from scratch — the kind that powers real trading desks.
Welcome to the Finance Series
Finance and technology have been intertwined throughout my career. Working on financial market terminals, corporate banking workflows, and real-time risk das...
personal
My Journey — Part 7: Singapore, Family, and Finding My Ground
Part 7 of my personal journey series. Read Part 6 here.
My Journey — Part 6: University, a Japanese Company, and the Man Who Changed Everything
Part 6 of my personal journey series.
My Journey — Part 5: Ho Chi Minh City and the Beginning of Everything
Part 5 of my personal journey series. Read Part 4 here.
My Journey — Part 4: Coming Home, and Leaving Again
Part 4 of my personal journey series. Read Part 3 here.
My Journey — Part 3: School, Coffee, and Learning to Want More
Part 3 of my personal journey series. Read Part 2 here.
My Journey — Part 2: Following My Uncle to the Highlands
Part 2 of my personal journey series. Read Part 1 here.
My Journey — Part 1: The Village
My Journey — Full Series The Village — Ha Tinh ← you are here Following My Uncle to the Highlands School, Coffee, and Learning to Want More...
Personal Life — Where the Story Behind the Engineer Lives
I grew up in a remote village in Ha Tinh, central Vietnam. I left as a child to follow my uncle to the coffee highlands of Tây Nguyên. I put myself through u...
blockchain
Blockchain Scalability: Layer 2 Rollups, Data Availability, and Trade-offs
This is Post 4 in the Blockchain Series. The previous post covered DeFi protocol design.
DeFi Protocol Design: AMMs, Lending, and On-Chain Risk
This is Post 3 in the Blockchain Series. The previous post covered smart contracts and the EVM.
Smart Contracts and the EVM: How Ethereum Actually Executes Code
This is Post 2 in the Blockchain Series. The previous post covered blockchain fundamentals.
Project: Blockchain & Smart Contracts — Tokenizing Trading Assets
A smart contract creation framework for tokenizing traditional trading assets — stocks, bonds, futures, and options — on the Ethereum blockchain.
AI and Blockchain — The Promises, The Fear, and What People Who Build Them Actually Know
TL;DR: Everyone fears blockchain will kill banks and AI will kill jobs. But people who actually build these things know the truth: replacing centuries-old fi...
Blockchain From First Principles: Cryptography, Consensus, and the Trustless Ledger
Most introductions to blockchain start with Bitcoin or Ethereum and work backwards. This one goes the other direction — starting from the fundamental compute...
Welcome to the Blockchain Series
Blockchain caught my attention not as a buzzword, but as a genuinely interesting engineering problem: how do you build a system that multiple untrusted parti...
projects
Project: Personalized Agents — Build Your Own AI with OpenClaw
What if your AI agent truly knew you — your goals, your communication style, your preferences — and adapted every response accordingly? That’s what Personali...
Project: @diepdao/aicli — API Docs CLI for AI Copilots
A global npm CLI that gives AI copilots (GitHub Copilot, Claude, Cursor) instant access to the latest API documentation for any open-source tool — Kafka, Red...
Project: Redis MinHash — Similarity Grouping at Scale
A Redis-based MinHash implementation for grouping similar items at scale — using Locality-Sensitive Hashing (LSH) to efficiently find near-duplicate document...
Project: Blockchain & Smart Contracts — Tokenizing Trading Assets
A smart contract creation framework for tokenizing traditional trading assets — stocks, bonds, futures, and options — on the Ethereum blockchain.
Project: AI & Agents Workflow — Text-to-SQL, Text-to-Dashboard
An AI agents system that lets traders create and modify dashboards using natural language — powered by Text-to-SQL and Text-to-Dashboard agents communicating...
Project: Financial Engineering & Risk Management System
Building a complete simulation trading and risk management system from scratch — the kind that powers real trading desks.
data-engineering
Project: Redis MinHash — Similarity Grouping at Scale
A Redis-based MinHash implementation for grouping similar items at scale — using Locality-Sensitive Hashing (LSH) to efficiently find near-duplicate document...