CTO Insights - Issue #145
Airbnb’s Payment Infrastructure, Building Trust, Strategy with AI, and more...
Welcome to CTO Insights #145!
CTO Insights is a weekly newsletter on software engineering and technical leadership, aiming to provide you with a set of topics to keep you up to date with the latest developments in the industry and help you be a better leader.
This week’s favorite - How to Build Trust and Can GenAI Do Strategy.
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Architecture
Scaling Airbnb’s Payment Platform
In this article, you'll learn how Airbnb transformed from a simple platform for booking unique stays into a global payments powerhouse. Dive into the evolution of Airbnb's payment systems, exploring early challenges, the implementation of local payment methods in 191 countries, and the development of advanced financial infrastructure.
Discover the behind-the-scenes strategic decisions that enabled Airbnb to handle diverse currencies and payment routes.
Scalability
Improving Efficiency Of Goku Time Series Database at Pinterest
A story on how Pinterest tackled challenges in Goku's architecture, improving recovery times and query experiences, and reducing costs. This three-part series delves into the technical intricacies of Goku's short-term and long-term storage, showcasing significant efficiency enhancements and offering insights into managing large-scale data storage and retrieval in a dynamic tech environment.
Culture
To Solve Big Problems, Make Everyone Feel Included in Your Mission
It’s human nature to want to spend our days working on something more than a paycheck, and the best leaders find ways to connect their teammates’ work to something bigger. That starts by making everyone feel included in the mission. If your team feels connected to the mission, then making big bets and solving big problems will always be within your reach.
In this article, the author discusses how several prominent leaders instilled their teams with a sense of the organization’s larger purpose, and how you can do the same.
Leadership
How to Build Trust
Explore the process of building trust in management. Uncover practical strategies, from demonstrating consistency and transparency to handling feedback and delegation effectively. Learn how to balance confidentiality, when to use role power, and the importance of respecting boundaries, all aimed at fostering a trusting environment. Dive into the crucial nuances of trust-building for managers and the long-term commitment it requires. A must-read.
AI
Can GenAI Do Strategy?
This article presents a classroom experiment that compared a strategy developed by a team of MBA students in the traditional way with one developed using a virtual AI assistant, which was an interactive tool that linked a tried-and-tested strategy toolkit as a plug-in to the generative AI underlying Chat GPT.
The results of the two independent processes were largely similar, with the AI-assisted strategy being, if anything, more original. The difference? The students took a week and the AI just 60 minutes
Other
Creating a bespoke LLM for AI-generated documentation
Discover how Databricks efficiently developed an AI-generated documentation feature. Remarkably, two engineers achieved this in just one month with under $1,000, improving performance and reducing costs tenfold.
It’s easier than you think: 2 engineers, 1 month, and less than $1,000
Generative AI for Beginners - A Course
A unique 12-lesson course on Generative AI for beginners, created by Microsoft Cloud Advocates. It offers an in-depth exploration of building Generative AI applications.
Dive deep into project-based learning, community engagement, and apply for startup support with free OpenAI and Azure credits.
The Radiating Programmer
What have you worked on?
Learn how sharing detailed work updates can prevent bureaucratic pitfalls, foster better decision-making, and enhance project clarity.
Closing Notes
Thanks for making it this far! 🙏
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