Start Here — A Guide to Professional Imposter Syndrome
New here? This is the best way to read the blog.
Hey, welcome. If you just found this blog, here’s the quick version: I’m Ali, I work at AWS, and I write deep-dive technical posts about the things I’m learning. The blog is called Professional Imposter Syndrome because half the time I’m writing, I’m not sure I understand the topic well enough to explain it — and that’s kind of the point.
Here’s how I’d recommend reading, depending on what you’re interested in.
If you want to understand distributed systems
Start with my CAP Theorem series. It’s a 4-part deep dive that goes way beyond the “pick two” interview answer.
CAP Theorem Explained: Beyond the “Pick Two” Myth — What C, A, and P actually mean (it’s not what you think)
CP Systems Explained: The Hidden Cost of Strong Consistency — etcd, Zookeeper, Postgres, MongoDB, and consensus protocols
AP Systems Explained: Stale Data Beats Dead Servers — DynamoDB, Apache Cassandra, DNS, and conflict resolution
Beyond “Pick Two”: Real-World Trade Offs — PACELC, how systems weigh trade-offs, and levels of consistency
If you want to learn about cryptography
Cryptography for Software Developers — Symmetric vs. asymmetric encryption, hashing, MACs, digital signatures, and what you actually need to know
If you want to learn about networking and data structures
Computer Networks 101 — The OSI and TCP/IP models, explained properly
Merkle Trees — A fundamental data structure in cryptography and blockchain
Merkle Trees...continued — Implementing Merkle Trees in Go
The Rise of Edge Computing — How and why computing is moving to the edge
If you want the personal stuff
Hello, World — Why I started this blog
Life at Amazon — 5 years at AWS, the lessons I learned, and why I almost burned out
What’s coming next
I’m working through a 52-topic content calendar covering distributed systems, networking, cryptography, OS internals, and compilers. The CAP Theorem series wraps soon, then I’m diving into Raft consensus, event-driven architecture, Linux internals, and eventually a “build your own compiler” series.
Subscribe to get new posts every other week. All content is free.
— Ali