About the author

I'm Gaurav Ramesh, a Director of Engineering at OpenTable, where I lead teams building a customer data platform and CRM for restaurants. I've been in the technology industry for over 10 years, leading teams for the last four, and like many others, I'm witnessing the shift from traditional software to AI-powered systems with awe, wonder, and a bit of fear.

On a personal level, I'm seeing AI unlock productivity and help people build skills that were previously out of reach. At the same time, I'm also seeing how hard it is to navigate the field, sift through the noise — and how much a good grasp of underlying principles and architecture matters. This book is my attempt to help myself and others have a structured trajectory for learning and building a strong foundation for the next era of technology.

This work sits at the intersection of a few of my interests: writing, technology and engineering, and design (this website!) and allows me to commit to a more ambitious effort than publishing blog posts. I also work better with long-term goals. There’s something rewarding in the commitment and persistence it takes to stick with them. Giving it a public life, a clear, ambitious goal, and a deadline, reduces decision paralysis and forces me to stay on track and deliver a quality piece of work.

For my other writing and rambling, you can find me at outofdesk.blog, and on LinkedIn and Twitter.