About Muiz Oyebowale

[ ]Origin

“I didn't pick engineering. Engineering picked me — and then I had a lot of questions about why.”
— me, being dramatic about it

Started writing code

~2021

5+ years of breaking and fixing things

It started with curiosity, the way most things do. I wanted to understand how things worked — not the surface of it, but the actual mechanism underneath. What was the computer actually doing? Why did this line of code produce that result? The questions didn't stop, and at some point I realised I was an engineer.

I started with C. It wasn’t the most forgiving place to begin, but it taught me the fundamentals properly — and made picking up new languages feel a lot less intimidating.

Backend engineering felt like a natural home. I like the parts nobody sees. The performance work, the data modelling, the failure modes, the 3am alerts that teach you more about a system than a week of reading docs. I like that it's mostly invisible — if you did it right, nobody knows you were there.

Now I'm pointing that same obsession at AI and ML. Not because it's a trend. Because I started pulling the thread and couldn't stop. The intersection of systems engineering and intelligence is the most interesting problem space I've encountered. I'm still early. I'm paying attention.

[ ]How I think

Core operating principle

I ask why until it makes sense.

Not because I'm difficult. Because I genuinely cannot move forward until I understand the thing underneath the thing. The root cause. The actual reason a decision was made. The constraint that nobody documented but everyone assumed.

It makes me slower sometimes. It makes the work better, always. And once in a while, the why reveals that we're solving the wrong problem entirely — which is the most valuable discovery you can make before you've written any code.

// apologies in advance to my future Product Managers.

Working style

I listen — actually

Not the kind of listening where you're composing your reply. The kind where you catch the thing behind the thing they said. Details most people scroll past.

Slow to start, thorough to finish

I ask questions that feel annoying in the moment and save time in the long run. You want this person on your team before the architecture is decided, not after.

I write code for the next person

That person is often me, six months later. So: clear naming, honest comments, no clever tricks that only make sense at 2am.

Disagreement is a feature

I'll push back if something doesn't make sense. Respectfully. Persistently. I'll also change my mind the moment I see a better argument — ego doesn't survive good evidence.

Perfectionist, managed

I want everything to be right. I've learned to ship anyway. The tension between those two things produces most of my best work.

Terminal-first, everything-else-second

If a tool doesn't have a CLI, I'm suspicious of it. If it does, I've probably already aliased it to three letters.

[ ]The journey

Not a career page. The actual story.

2021

HTML, then JavaScript

origin

Started with HTML, then wrote my first line of JavaScript. Things worked. I didn't know why. That bothered me more than it should have.

2022

ALX & C

foundations

Joined ALX (full-stack, leaned backend) and wrote my first line of C. It slowed me down in a good way — memory, pointers, and what the machine is actually doing. Also picked up Python around this time.

2022

Terminal era

tooling

Started writing Bash scripts and struggling with Vim. The first few weeks were… humbling. Eventually it clicked. Now it's home.

2023

First real users

production

Worked on a booking system people actually used. It broke once. I fixed it under pressure. Learned more in that moment than in months of building alone.

2024

Thinking in systems

systems

Started seeing things less as features and more as systems — APIs, background jobs, data flow, and failure modes.

2025

The AI thread

AI/ML

Started pulling on the LLM thread. One paper led to five more. Sleep schedule took a hit. Still worth it.

2026 →

Leaning into it

now

Focusing on AI/ML and MLOps. Building, writing, and figuring things out in public. Also learning Rust, because apparently I enjoy difficulty.

[ ]Learning roadmap

What I'm building toward

// updated April 2026

AI / LLMs

Building

Started with API wrappers, moved into prompt engineering, now reading papers on fine-tuning and RAG architectures. The more I learn, the more questions I have. This is a good sign.

Topics

›LLM API integration (OpenAI, Anthropic)
›Prompt engineering patterns
›RAG architectures
›Fine-tuning concepts
›Embeddings & vector stores

Reading

— Attention Is All You Need

— The Illustrated Transformer

— Chip Huyen's ML Engineering

// currently: building things that embarrass future me

MLOps

Reading

Coming from a backend/infra background means the 'Ops' part of MLOps feels familiar. The 'ML' part is where I'm doing the work. Bridging the two is where it gets interesting.

Topics

›ML pipeline design
›Model versioning & registries
›Experiment tracking (MLflow, W&B)
›Model serving patterns
›Data versioning (DVC)

Reading

— Designing ML Systems — Chip Huyen

— Made With ML

// the infra part I get. the model part: getting there.

Rust

Reading

I like Rust because it refuses to let you be sloppy. The borrow checker is a strict code reviewer who never takes a day off. I respect it. I also occasionally want to argue with it.

Topics

›Ownership & borrowing
›Error handling (Result, Option)
›Traits & generics
›Async Rust (tokio)
›CLI tooling with clap

Reading

— The Rust Book

— Rust by Practice

— Error Handling in Rust

// current status: the borrow checker and I have an understanding

[ ]Setup & uses

What I actually use

// dashed = still in the oven (let me cook)

Editor

NeovimYes, still. Yes, in 2026. The config is always being rewritten.

VsCodeDon't we all?

Terminal

ZshWith enough plugins to make purists uncomfortable.

TmuxMultiple panes. Always. Can't go back.

lazygitGit, but I can actually remember the keybindings.

lazydockerBecause docker ps | grep is not a workflow.

Shell tools

fzfFuzzy find everything. Everything.

ripgrepgrep, but it respects my time.

batcat with syntax highlighting. Can't unlearn it.

curl / httpieFor when Postman feels like too much.

Linux (Arch btw)Where I do real work.

Ubuntu / DebianServers. Always.

Backend daily

PythonPrimary language. FastAPI or Django depending on the job.

PostgreSQLThe database. I don't debate this.

RedisCache, queue broker, pub/sub. Does a lot of lifting.

DockerEverything runs in a container. Non-negotiable.

CeleryAsync tasks. Beats cron jobs.

Currently learning

RustBorrow checker and I are building a relationship. Slowly.

PyTorchFor the ML side of the pivot.

MLflowExperiment tracking. Starting to make sense.

[ ]The human side

Not just a résumé

Watching

Marvel. DC. Animations. Sci-fi. Any superhero film that exists.

I watch everything — live action, animated, sequels that probably shouldn't exist. I have opinions about which Spider-Man was objectively the best. They are correct.

MCUDCEUInto the Spider-VerseArcaneInvincibleStudio Ghibli

Editor of choice

Neovim

Still. In 2026.
Config: I'm done this time, I promise.
Regrets: zero.

$ nvim .
# home. sweet. home.

Free sample

“Hold on, while I think of a good one...”

// there are more where that came from.
// you have been warned.

Good conversation topics

I'm bad at small talk. I'm very good at the kind of conversation that starts with “wait, but why does that work?” and ends ninety minutes later with everyone slightly smarter.

Distributed systemsHistory of computingHow things failWhy anything works at allThe philosophy of debuggingBad dad jokes

[ 07 ]What's next

See the work

Projects that shipped.

Things I built, problems I solved, and at least one project that exists because I was tired of doing something manually.

View all projects →

Get in touch

Let's build something interesting.

Open to backend roles, AI/ML work, and conversations that don't start with “circling back.” Hard problems preferred.

say hello →résumé ↓

MuizOyebowale

I ask why until it makes sense.

Working style

Not a career page. The actual story.

What I'm building toward

What I actually use

Not just a résumé

Projects that shipped.

Let's build something interesting.