$ whoami


Hello there! I'm Shaishav Kr, often known by my internet alias @wiresufer

Seasoned technology professional with over 15 years of hands-on experience in Machine Learning, Cloud, IoT, Robotics, Platform Engineering and Enterprise PaaS/SaaS.

My journey has been a roller coaster filled with valuable learnings, real-world case studies, and practical insights that I'm excited to share.
In the past 9+ years, I've also been a driving force behind small, high-paced engineering teams in both 0-to-1 and 1-to-Scale startups.


My Mission

  1. Solving "hard" inter-disciplinary engineering problems using software, data science and AI as force multipliers,
  2. at the intersection of Computer Science and the Physical World,
  3. in business domains with measurable impact towards "betterment" of "human condition"


Shaishav Kumar profile pic
  1. 👷 Engineering
    1. 🌐 IoT, 🤖 Robotics,
    2. 🖥️🧠 Machine Learning and AI
    3. 🐰 Golang, ☸ Kubernetes, 🐳Docker & friends.
    4. 🐧 Linux Kernel Internals
  2. 💼 Management and Strategy
    1. 🙇 Engineering leadership for small + high-impact teams
    2. 🌎 Managing Remote-first global teams.
    3. 🚀 Product Management
    4. 🏗️ B2b SaaS/PaaS overview
  3. 🧠 Right brain musings (in small, infrequent doses)
    1. ⌚Productivty
    2. 📸 Photography
    3. 📖 Philosophy, and 🥳 Happiness

Ship faster. Scale smarter. Win markets.

From seed-stage chaos to enterprise scale - I've been there. Mentoring engineers, coaching founders, and advising on technical & AI strategy. Let's solve your hardest problems.

Book a 30-min call

Weekly insights

Engineering leadership, AI strategy, and startup lessons.

Writing

Manage Sensitive API Keys in Public Dotfiles Using PGP and SOPS

In modern development environment, it’s common to host dotfiles publicly—especially for sharing across machines or with the broader developer community. However, this convenience introduces security risks, such as accidentally exposing sensitive information like API keys, tokens, and credentials in public repositories. API keys for services like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Cloud, and more, if exposed, can lead to security breaches and unauthorized access.

Engineering
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Bike Shedding and the Law of Triviality: Lessons from the Linux Kernel Conflict

In product teams, especially in open-source communities and startups, bike shedding—focusing on trivial, superficial details at the expense of more significant issues—can derail progress. Recent disputes in the Linux kernel community between developers over introducing Rust highlight how the law of triviality can cause friction and stagnation. This post explores the concept of bike shedding, using this real-world example to illustrate its effects, and provides practical advice on how leaders can prevent it.

Management
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I've often grappled with how to give feedback without coming across as too harsh or too soft. Navigating this fine line has always baffled the engineer in me - I've seen the same approach work in some cases and backfire in others. It becomes even more challenging when I need to mentor others to practice the same. How am I to teach someone Radical Candor when I myself haven't always done it right.

Management
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Business of Datacenters - An India perspective #1

A few months ago I had a word with my friend Kumar Aakash about our views on AI's future, specially in the context of Indian startup opportunities. One thing which came up was a lack of any serious specialized AI datacenter infrastructure at that time. Some of the key challenges we noted were

Business
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Story Untold is a Story Lost

Have you ever felt that you aren't valued in this world. Do you feel people dont "see" you? Have you asked yourself the question, do you tell your story?

Insights
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Tech Tip - Getting QT5 to respect system wide dark mode and GTK theme

It seems my quest for a low overhead xubuntu desktop comes with its fair share of small annoying little gremlins. Today we talk about how QT5 and Ubuntu sometimes don't play nice specially when it comes to respecting dark mode themes. I will go throuh my motivations to use xubutu, or rather any operating system image for that matter.

Engineering
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Deep Dive into Linux Graphics: From Program to Pixel

Linux graphics is a complex ecosystem involving multiple layers of software and hardware. In this deep dive, I'll explore each component of the Linux graphics stack, from user programs to the final pixel on your screen. On this quest, I will provide practical examples and commands you can run on your Linux machine to interact with these components directly and take a peek under the hood

Engineering
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Future of Organizations - Post GenAI Outlook and Trends

A common conversation I have with Startups and Big Corp leaders alike is, how would the world evolve with GenAI. These conversations have slightly different trajectories depending on whether the leader is a technical person or a product/biz person. While there is a lot of material out there, I have noticed a BS scale evolving.

Engineering
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Linux Kernel Explained - Deep Dive Series for System Engineers

The Linux kernel is a monumental achievement in the world of open-source software, driven by a passionate community of contributors.
This collaborative effort has resulted in a powerful, versatile operating system that powers an estimated 80-90% of the internet. From the smartphones in our pockets to the vast cloud infrastructure, Linux is the backbone of many technologies we rely on daily.

Engineering
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