alfred mukudu

Professional dabler. I go where the threads lead me. Opinions are my own.

[Amazon Web Services @awscloud]

More AI-generated code doesn't make your team faster. It might actually slow you down.

[David Fowler @davidfowl]

If you want a solution that doesn’t require you to connect your bank account to an online service and just works with files on disk:

https://t.co/dp1VkfpbTN

[alfred mukudu @amukudu]

@vendorprisey @anshublog "The recurring element of ARR is where we get some of the confusion" - T Otter, 2025 😅

[Felicia Mabuza-Suttle @Feliciamabuza]

I am homesick! Merry Xmas!

Loving this "Zulufied" version of Jingle Bell.

[Andy Jassy @ajassy]

Every cloud provider faces the same AI infrastructure challenge: chips need to be positioned close together to exchange data quickly, but they generate intense heat, creating unprecedented cooling demands.

We needed a strategic solution that allowed us to use our existing air-cooled data centers to do liquid cooling without waiting for new construction. And it needed to be rapidly deployed so we could bring customers these powerful AI capabilities while we transition towards facility-level liquid cooling.

Think of a home where only one sunny room needs AC, while the rest stays naturally cool – that’s what we wanted to achieve, allowing us to efficiently land both liquid and air-cooled racks in the same facilities with complete flexibility.

The available options weren't great. Either we could wait to build specialized liquid-cooled facilities or adopt off-the-shelf solutions that didn't scale or meet our unique needs. Neither worked for our customers, so we did what we often do at Amazon… we invented our own solution.

Our teams designed and delivered our In-Row Heat Exchanger (IRHX), which uses a direct-to-chip approach with a "cold plate" on the chips. The liquid runs through this sealed plate in a closed loop, continuously removing heat without increasing water use. This enables us to support traditional workloads and demanding AI applications in the same facilities. By 2026, our liquid-cooled capacity will grow to over 20% of our ML capacity, which is at multi-gigawatt scale today.

While liquid cooling technology itself isn't unique, our approach was. Creating something this effective that could be deployed across our 120 Availability Zones in 38 Regions was significant. Because this solution didn't exist in the market, we developed a system that enables greater liquid cooling capacity with a smaller physical footprint, while maintaining flexibility and efficiency.

Our IRHX can support a wide range of racks requiring liquid cooling, uses 9% less water than fully-air cooled sites, and offers a 20% improvement in power efficiency compared to off-the-shelf solutions. And because we invented it in-house, we can deploy it within months in any of our data centers, creating a flexible foundation to serve our customers for decades to come.

Reimagining and innovating at scale has been something Amazon has done for a long time and one of the reasons we’ve been the leader in technology infrastructure and data center invention, sustainability, and resilience. We're not done… there's still so much more to invent for customers.

[Wasteland Capital @ecommerceshares]

Do NOT install any agentic browsers like OpenAI Atlas that just launched.

Prompt injection attacks (malicious hidden prompts on websites) can easily hijack your computer, all your files and even log into your brokerage or banking using your credentials.

Don’t be a guinea pig.

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

[alli @sonofalli]

babe are you ok? it’s already q4 and you’ve barely touched your “2025 roadmap”

[claire vo 🖤 @clairevo]

Let me tell you a dirty secret about a lot of execs:

They're extremely smart.
And they haven't had to do their own work for years.

Look inside any mid->large size company and you'll find VP+ executives that were promoted fast and furious in their early career because they're smart, hard working, make good decisions, have good taste, and can manage up down and sideways well.

And as they become more senior, they start to earn the "you're too important to [X]" executive scaffold:
- EAs for admin/scheduling/todos
- Chief of Staff to keep their directs on track
- Sr. leaders working under them eager for opportunity, so take on projects, presentations, meetings, etc.

They're still smart, and they're still hard working, and they still make good decisions, so they tend to orchestrate and use these tools at their disposal quite well, choosing what gets done by whom.

But
- they show up to board meetings with decks made by their team
- they show up to sales meetings with prep docs done by the sales person
- they share insights generated by some data team
- they +@[ea] to schedule every meeting
- someone reads & responds to their emails

And their job becomes
- charm customers
- charm candidates
- charm the team
- charm the board
- charm the market
- have good ideas (for someone else to do)

And before someone shouts "this just optimizes for people who are highly political!" I must emphasize: these people are still usually wicked smart, they're usually extremely charming, and they work really hard (earliest on, latest off.) They hang in the forest, not a tree. Their experience saves your butt once or twice.

They just don't have to put their hands on a keyboard and do the things. Sometimes they *can't* put their hands on a keyboard and do the things, because they're in endless meetings and on endless trips to do the charming/idea things.

But after awhile of this, their "doing the things" muscle atrophies. Your CMO can't write compelling copy. Your CPO doesn't look at designs anymore. Your CRO can't login to demo. Your VPE doesn't have the latest local env setup.

And over time, as an exec, your ability to be wicked smart degrades with your distance from the work, especially when things like AI come and smack your team in the face.

This is all to say, I have two warnings for you if you've made it this far:

EXECS: Do not stop doing the things. Take on projects, write your docs, do your own damn analysis, and don't stop touching the work. Fix your calendar so you're not just bopping meeting to meeting, and use that big brain of yours do actually build something.

TEAMS: Consider yourself lucky if you have a leadership team that can still/wants to do the things. Trust: you'd rather have a micromanagey CEO who drops suggested edits in your doc than a manager-class exec team that doesn't even know your doc exists. Your company will be better for the work, the specificity, the care that comes with a doing-the-things leadership team, than a organizes-the-work leadership team.

And for all of you: AI will generate a little microcosm of the dynamic above, but for IC work. I love AI, but still think it's important to exercise the muscle daily of writing, coding, reading, speaking, thinking. All unused skills will atrophy. Make sure you get stronger, not weaker, with these new tools.

Ok back to doing things 😎

[alfred mukudu @amukudu]

To Change Company Culture, Focus on Systems—Not Communication https://t.co/b8RsUfpDFB

[James Clear @JamesClear]

It doesn’t make sense to continue wanting something if you’re not willing to do what it takes to get it.

If you don’t want to live the lifestyle, then release yourself from the desire. To crave the result but not the process, is to guarantee disappointment.

[alfred mukudu @amukudu]

@tat_hilda I think that's what Tata would have wanted

[alfred mukudu @amukudu]

@tat_hilda

[Raj Shamani @rajshamani]

“Being ready” is a myth.
You start. You suck. You figure it out. You get better.

[poorly drawn lines @PDLComics]

Bad habits

[Manchester United @ManUtd]

Today's the day 🏆🔥

#MUFC || #UELfinal

[Marc Seitz — oss/acc @mfts0]

Uber just invented …

… the bus

[Andrew Carr 🤸 @andrew_n_carr]

Language models thinking step by step to do arithmetic...

[Tomi @tomiwebstr]

IF I DIE BURY ME IN A MAN UNITED SHIRT BECAUSE I JUST MIGHT COME BACK

[I Am Devloper @iamdevloper]

I have an idea

Teach all the fitness influencers who get up at 3.55am how to restart prod

Problem solved, we all get a lie in