1
Eugene Yan
I work to bridge the field and the frontier, and help build safe, reliable AI systems that scale. I also write and speak about AI-powered systems and products, and prototype for fun.
- Popular posts
- 18
- Total points
- 5,161
- HN comments
- 1,959
- Rank
- #208 personal
Visit eugeneyan.com → On Hacker News Mar 2020 – Oct 2025
AI & Machine Learning 7Life, Learning & Writing 4Web & Frontend 3Tools & Productivity 3Career & Management 3Software Engineering 2
2
The First Rule of Machine Learning: Start Without Machine Learning
Why this is the first rule, some baseline heuristics, and when to move on to machine learning.
3
Patterns for building LLM-based systems and products
Evals, RAG, fine-tuning, caching, guardrails, defensive UX, and collecting user feedback.
4
Improving recommendation systems and search in the age of LLMs
Model architectures, data generation, training paradigms, and unified frameworks inspired by LLMs.
5
6
Simplicity is an advantage but sadly complexity sells better (2022)
Pushing back on the cult of complexity.
7
Writing better by answering why, what, how
Three documents I write (one-pager, design doc, after-action review) and how I structure them.
8
Obsidian-Copilot: A Prototype Assistant for Writing and Thinking
Writing drafts via retrieval-augmented generation. Also reflecting on the week's journal entries.
9
Most of the time, you don’t really need another MOOC
Stop procrastinating, go off the happy path, learn just-in-time, and get your hands dirty.
10
Task-specific LLM evals that do and don't work
Evals for classification, summarization, translation, copyright regurgitation, and toxicity.
11
Uncommon Uses of Python in Commonly Used Libraries
Some off-the-beaten uses of Python learned from reading libraries.
12
Building the same app using various web frameworks
FastAPI, FastHTML, Next.js, SvelteKit, and thoughts on how coding assistants influence builders' choices.
13
14
Experimenting with LLMs to Research, Reflect, and Plan
Also, shortcomings in document retrieval and how to overcome them with search & recsys techniques.
15
Advice for new principal tech ICs (i.e., notes to myself)
Based on what I've learned from role models and mentors in Amazon
16
What I wish I knew about onboarding
Mindset, 100-day plan, and balancing learning and taking action to earn trust.
17
What I did not learn about writing in school
Surprising lessons I picked up from the best books, essays, and videos on writing non-fiction.
18
Push notifications – What to push, what not to push, and how often
Sending helpful & engaging pushes, filtering annoying pushes, and finding the frequency sweet spot.