Mar 13, 2026

Under Secretary of War on Iran, Anthropic and the AI Battle Inside the Pentagon | The a16z Show

Emil Michael, a key figure in the Department of Defense, outlines his strategy for modernizing the department by prioritizing Applied AI. He details the risks discovered in existing commercial AI contracts, which led to a vendor-lock crisis, and explains how the DoD is reforming its procurement processes to better engage with innovative startups and ensure technology serves national security interests without restrictive terms.

Mar 13, 2026

Architecture for Flow • Susanne Kaiser & James Lewis

In an interview with James Lewis, Susanne Kaiser discusses her book "Architecture for Flow," which synthesizes Domain-Driven Design, Wardley Mapping, and Team Topologies. She explains how this holistic approach helps design adaptive socio-technical systems by starting with the problem space, visualizing the value chain, and aligning team structures to the software architecture, all guided by her practical "Architecture for Flow Canvas."

Mar 12, 2026

The Future of Search: Agents, RAG, and Why Retrieval Still Matters — Simon Eskildsen, Turbopuffer

Simon Hørup Eskildsen, founder of turbopuffer, shares his journey from scaling Shopify's infrastructure to creating a new search engine for the AI era. He discusses how a prohibitively expensive experiment at Readwise inspired him to build a cost-effective vector search solution based on object storage and NVMe. Eskildsen breaks down turbopuffer's architecture, its role in cutting costs for companies like Cursor and Notion, his philosophy on building a 'P99' engineering team, and how agentic workloads are changing the future of retrieval.

Mar 12, 2026

Alex Karp on Palantir, AI Weapons, & American Domination | The a16z Show

Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, discusses the critical role of technology in national defense, warns Silicon Valley of a political backlash if it fails to support the military, and argues that America's key advantage in the AI race is its ability to cultivate and protect neurodiverse, unconventional talent.

Mar 12, 2026

Master Software Architecture: From Simplicity to Complexity • Maciej «MJ» Jedrzejewski • GOTO 2025

This presentation by Maciej Jedrzejewski explores the concept of evolutionary software architecture, arguing that architecture is not a static, upfront design but a continuous process. It delves into the cognitive biases that lead to over-engineering, emphasizes the critical role of context, and provides a practical four-step model for evolving systems from simplicity to complexity.

Mar 12, 2026

What Are Hierarchical AI Agents? Solving Context & Task Challenges

Explores the challenges of single AI agents, such as context dilution and tool overload, and introduces hierarchical AI agents as a solution. This summary details the structure, benefits, and limitations of multi-agent systems for more scalable and efficient AI workflows.