# Anfal Mushtaq

> Staff Software Engineer, Applied AI in Vancouver, BC. Personal site and long-form writing on AI-augmented software engineering, spec-driven development, system design, and the human side of technology.

12+ years across web, streaming, SMB SaaS, and AI. Products reaching 5M+ streamers, 100K+ businesses, and 80K+ real estate pros. First principles over frameworks. Human outcomes over hype.

Every page on this site is also available as Markdown: append `.md` to the URL, or request it with `Accept: text/markdown`. The full text of every article is in one file at https://anfalmushtaq.com/llms-full.txt.

## Pages

- [Home](https://anfalmushtaq.com/index.md): Who I am, latest writing, work summary
- [About](https://anfalmushtaq.com/about.md): Engineer and builder based in Vancouver. 12+ years shipping software across web, streaming, SMB SaaS, and AI. First principles over frameworks. Human outcomes over hype.
- [Articles](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles.md)
- [Work](https://anfalmushtaq.com/projects.md)
- [Uses](https://anfalmushtaq.com/uses.md)

## Articles

- [Primitives of Spec-Driven Development](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/primitives-of-spec-driven-development.md): SDD isn't a prompting style — it's the next layer of software engineering. Here are the six primitives every custom framework ends up needing, with ASCII diagrams you can steal.
- [Presentation Material for VanJS talk on Vibe Code Like An Engineer](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/vibe-code-like-an-engineer-material.md): Presentation Material for VanJS talk on Vibe Code Like An Engineer
- [A Practical Guide to AI-Augmented Software Engineering](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/a-practical-guide-to-ai-augmented-software-engineering.md): A comprehensive framework for integrating AI into professional software development workflows while maintaining quality and performance.
- [My Journey Through WebSummit 2025 Without a Plan](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/my-journey-through-websummit-2025-without-a-plan.md): My Journey Through WebSummit 2025 Without a Plan
- [A Short Guide on Git for Vibe Coders](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/a-short-guide-on-git-for-vibe-coders.md): A short guide on Git for Vibe Coders
- [Voice Agents: TL;DR of Week 2](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/voice-agents-week2-tldr.md): A TL;DR of the second week of the Voice Agents course, covering architecture, latency, infra, and telephony.
- [Voice Agents: TL;DR of Week 1](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/voice-agents-week1-tldr.md): A TL;DR of the first week of the Voice Agents course, covering architecture, latency, infra, and telephony.
- [How to Validate Your Idea: My Personal Notes](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/how-to-validate-your-idea.md): A practical, step-by-step guide to validating your startup or indie project idea, based on personal experience and continuous learning.
- [How to get a custom email free](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/how-to-get-a-custom-email-free.md): How to get a custom email free
- [RAG for Startups with Limited Budget and Time](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/rag-for-startups-with-limited-budget-and-time.md): How to implement RAG for startups with limited budget and time.
- [Is Hallucination a Vehicle for Creativity?](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/is-hallucination-a-vehicle-for-creativity.md): Exploring whether hallucination in AI can foster creativity and innovation.
- [Deep dive into LLMs like ChatGPT by Andrej Karpathy (TL;DR)](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/deep-dive-into-llms-like-chatgpt-tldr.md): A TL;DR version of Andrej Karpathy's "Deep dive into LLMs like ChatGPT" video.
- [Knuth AI: What's Next?](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/whats-next-for-knuth-ai.md): A look at the future of software development and how AI will change the way we code
- [Knuth AI: A Journey from Concept to Reality Check](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/knuth-ai-journey.md): Exploring the development of an AI assistant that promotes thoughtful coding
- [Find your ikigai](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/find-your-ikigai.md): Discovering your ikigai - a personal journey beyond longevity to finding true purpose
- [A Practical Guide to System Design Thinking](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/a-practical-guide-to-system-design-thinking.md): Learn system design through the lens of a lead engineer - from problem analysis to implementation.
- [Why I have disabled Github copilot](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/why-i-disabled-copilot.md): An in-depth look at why I have disabled Github copilot
- [My path for learnning AI](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/my-path-for-learning-ai.md): The learning path I am following to become better at AI.
- [Can Humans Stay Relevant?](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/can-humans-stay-relevant.md): In this age when AI is exponentially growing and poses some serious questions. Is it possible for humans to stay relevant?
- [Why you should love maths!!](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/why-you-should-love-maths.md): Why you should love maths!!
- [Startup Guide](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/startup-guide.md): Step by step guide to starting a startup.
- [Are we living in the jail of our mind?](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/are-we-living-in-the-jail-of-our-minds.md): Are we living in the jail of our mind?
- [Write Your Code For Humans](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/write-your-code-for-humans.md): Write your code for humans.
- [Open Source A Hidden Gem](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/open-source-a-hidden-gem.md): Why you should start contributing to open source projects.
- [Hello World](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/hello-world.md): Why I have decided to learn C++.
- [Tailwind CSS Review By A Backend Developer](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/tailwind-css-review-by-a-backend-developer.md): My thoughts on tailwindcss as a back-end developer.
- [The Next Stage Of Our Evolution](https://anfalmushtaq.com/articles/the-next-stage-of-our-evolution.md): What is the next stage of our evolution as a species? where are we headed? is Mars going to be our next home?

## Optional

- [RSS feed](https://anfalmushtaq.com/rss/feed.xml): Full-content feed of every article
- [CV (PDF)](https://anfalmushtaq.com/api/resume): Current résumé
- [Contact](mailto:hello@anfalmushtaq.com): hello@anfalmushtaq.com