Welcome to BOS Life: a journal of building, breaking, and reflecting on intelligent systems

👋 Hello, world!

I’m Branden Olson Steele (BOS) – AI engineer by day, new dad by night, and espresso-fueled throughout.

After working for over a decade at the frontier between research, data science, and AI engineering, I’m finally starting the blog I’ve been meaning to write for… well, a decade!

Elevator pitch

I’m a generalist driven by a track record of delivering AI / ML systems that solve complex, high-impact problems across domains, with a recent and growing fintech obsession
I love building for production, especially systems powered by agents, GenAI, and LLMs that are ready to meet the real world
I’m lucky to have learned from world-class engineers, scientists, and mentors, who have showed me why pressure is a privilege
And every day, I’m humbled by how deep this rabbit hole goes!

Time to write

For years I’ve wanted to write seriously about AI / ML Engineering, but never quite found the time. However, over the last year, I shipped my biggest career project to date (more on that later, but here is a great post about it), I welcomed my first child to the world (Ada, named after you-know-the-one), and left a Fortune 500 company for a start-up.

In other words, time is now my most precious, vanishing resource.

So naturally, I figured—what better moment to launch a blog?

🥅 Goals of the blog

This blog is:

a forum for my thoughts, experiences, and lessons learned in the world of AI Engineering
a builder’s journal: scrappy, honest, occasionally messy, and always curious
a reflection of my own experiences and viewpoints. I can be and often am wrong, so don’t quote me 😉

This blog is NOT:

a research blog with journal-tier contributions, though I try my best to apply a research-oriented mindset to AI Engineering
a plug or product pitch, though I will unabashedly rave about any tools that make me a happy engineer
a guarantee of novel ideas. I’ll write about what’s on my mind, and while I’m not claiming all my ideas are original, my opinions are always hard-won

🖊️ Why I’m writing

I’m extremely fortunate to work in a field at the forefront of human innovation, using cutting-edge technology every day, and contributing to the state of the art. It’s heartwarming to see the crescendo of mass excitement and curiosity around AI as it progressively transforms our lives.

And while there are no shortages of learning resources out there, especially about a tech-friendly field like AI, I am hoping my particular career trajectory might offer unique perspectives, and maybe even meaningful insights.

Reason #2: To keep track of things

This field moves FAST. Paradigm shifts happen in the span of weeks, even days. I’ll return to my desk after a short PTO and feel like I’ve stepped into an alternate timeline. It’s wild.

Because of this, I sometimes get dizzy trying to track of all of the recent AI trends and tech. Friends or colleagues will ask if I’ve played around with the morning’s release of ThatGPT v-42, and I’ll sheepishly admit I haven’t even skimmed the changelog. Where does anyone find the time?

But here’s the thing: writing forces clarity. It’s structured, disciplined thinking—the antidote to passive scrolling and context collapse. So instead of trying to drink from the AI firehose through nightly cram sessions, I’d rather carve out time to process it thoughtfully. Writing helps slow things down just enough to actually learn.

Reason #3: I love to write

This is the biggest, most honest reason I’m doing this: I genuinely love writing. I always have.

Picture me at 5, lugging around a pen and a spiral notebook like it was mission-critical equipment–drafting, doodling, and documenting the grand drama of snack time.

Many folks think I went to grad school because I love STEM, but secretly, it’s because I love writing, especially about STEM.

And if I’m being perfectly honest, I do worry that as AI continues integrating deeply into our lives, I along with most everyone else will write less and less. I’m hoping that committing to a blog will keep my writing skills sharp, and really just keep me writing.

👀 So, what’s ahead?

What sort of posts are in store, you ask? Probably some thoughts on agent architecture, streaming UI headaches, the future of custom model building in a world with increasingly amazing off-the-shelf models, and how it feels to hand control to a system that talks back.

🚀 Let’s go!

I’m genuinely excited to dive in, share what I’m learning, and hopefully spark a few conversations along the way. I’ll figure out the whole comments-or-no-comments thing soon, but in the meantime: if anything resonates, surprises, or mildly offends your AI sensibilities, feel free to reach out. Always happy to chat!

So, here’s to writing code that thinks, systems that surprise, and posts that live rent-free in your brain – no tidy conclusion required.

Let’s build. 🛠️

Appendix: About the name

My birth surname was Olson, and I changed it to Olson Steele when I got married (my wife’s maiden name was Steele, and her new surname is now also Olson Steele). Thus, I am now B.O.S., which is some forced serendipity: “B.O. Life” just doesn’t have the same ring to it… 😜