To AI or not to AI.
Some things I will write with AI, using AI, but one thing I promise.... Every single journal entry I will proof read, probably tweak, and probably change to my voice...
Amplifying systems
for people who refuse
to stop learning
Founder, engineer, and reluctant writter. I write about AI, the unbuilding of old assumptions, and what it takes to stay useful when the tools learn faster than you do.
1
Articles
8
Journal entries
00 · Start here
A few paths through.
Not a homepage so much as a small lobby. Pick the door that fits the day.
01
If you're a founder
Start with Founder Notes. Then read the 2022 timeline entry — that's the year I stopped pretending.
02
If you're a builder
Read the AI & Unlearning series, then Build Logs. Pull requests on my essays are welcome.
03
If you're considering AI
Skip the takes. Read 'The engineer's new instrument', then the three Kraken build logs.
04
If you just want a feel
Open the Knowledge Garden, click a node at random. That's how I think — pull on a thread until something gives.
02 · Constellation Lineage
A little bit how I think + a network of people whose core principles align with mine. Each node was invited by someone already inside — there is no public sign-up. The shared concepts that connect us are what trace the lineage.
1 person·30 topics·7 seats remaining
Core themes
Branches
Leaves
People
◉Drag to pan · click a node to pin · 30 ideas, 70 connections, 1 person
01 · Writing themes
Eleven preoccupations, currently.
The places I keep returning to. The shape of them changes; the gravity doesn't.
01 / 11
AI & Unlearning
5 entries
09 / 11
Exploration & Curiosity
0 entries
01 / 11
Processes & Definitions
0 entries
05 / 11
Meaning & Becoming
0 entries
08 / 11
Communities & Human Networks
0 entries
02 / 11
Entrepreneurship
0 entries
03 / 11
Field Notes
1 entries
04 / 11
Leadership & Scale
1 entries
04 / 11
Systems & Architecture
2 entries
07 / 11
Lessons Learned
1 entries
06 / 11
Life & Resilience
1 entries
02 · The Journal
A loose, public notebook.
Half-formed thoughts, weekly build logs, slow lessons. Updated when I have something worth posting — not on a schedule.
A letter to the version of me from 2022
Things I'd tell him about the year after the exit, the silence, the slow rebuild, the part nobody warns you about.
What I haven't told anyone about Kraken
The version of Kraken I'm building in 2026 is not the one I pitched in 2024. I want to write down why, before I forget the difference.
Eight things I'd tell a first-time founder over coffee
Distilled from a decade of doing it wrong. The ones nobody really tells you because they sound either obvious or terrifying.
Designing for systems that will outlive their architect
A decade-old codebase is a love letter from a stranger. How I now write code I expect someone else to inherit on day 1.
Stand-Ups Feel Like the New Punch Clock
If you need a daily ritual to find out what people are doing, the problem isn't communication — it's that nobody knows the plan or it's because a mindset was put there due to AI production over the team, the transformation cemented the practice instead of liberating the understanding of where the focus should be... team and collective-accountability
03 · Publications
The pieces I didn't rush.
Essays, articles, books and posts I let sit for months. Some are series. Most started as journal entries that wouldn't let go.
Featured book · Chapter III of V
The engineer's new instrument
A long essay on what it means to build software in the era of agents — and why the craft has changed shape, not died.
Three Days, Three Months, and What I Had to Unlearn
This piece is the start of a series. Each piece stands alone, but they're connected — each one picks up a thread the previous one left, building toward something specific. If you work on AI in real systems, follow along. I'm starting with a question: what assumptions in your work are artifacts of an old constraint set, and which of them are you still defending out of habit? I'd be curious which one comes to mind first. In my case, what I had to unlearn was essential to see, to learn, to understand... what? Well, that’s what these articles are about.
Architectures of trust
Notes toward a theory of why the best technical systems mirror the best social ones.
Operating from the inside out
A field manual for founders who built the company before they finished building themselves.
When the map stops working
Strategies, tactics, and small rituals for the months your old playbook no longer applies.
04 · Living projects
Companies and systems in progress.
Not case studies. These are alive — some growing, some retired, all still teaching me something.
Paused · 2024 –
Yuniku Inc.
Custom Software Development over Cloud
Led business development, operations, technology delivery, and team growth for a custom software development consultancy, helping drive revenue through the successful acquisition, delivery, and management of over 18 software projects across multiple industries.
Built and mentored a multidisciplinary team of 10+ engineers and professionals, overseeing recruitment, performance, project execution, and long-term organizational planning. Managed client relationships from initial engagement through proposal development, solution design, estimation, budgeting, contract negotiation, delivery, and ongoing account growth.
Directed both onshore and offshore teams while leading software architecture, engineering, and cloud deployments across AWS, Azure, and DigitalOcean. Successfully delivered enterprise platforms, CRMs, mobile applications, social networks, blockchain solutions, customer experience systems, educational platforms, and industry-specific software for sectors including government, energy, finance, retail, hospitality, healthcare, and professional services.
Played a key role in company growth initiatives, including acquisition activities, internal valuation processes, business turnaround efforts, and strategic planning. Acted as a bridge between business, product, and engineering, translating customer needs into scalable technology solutions while ensuring profitability, delivery excellence, and long-term client success.
Who to hire. Who to partner up with. Who to trust. TBD
Building · Phase 0
Constellation Lineage
A federated trust network for personal blogs — where lineage replaces follower counts.
A SaaS for people who run personal blogs and want to be part of a real network without the noise of public sign-ups. Each blog is a node; each invite is a thread in the lineage. There is no signup form — you arrive because someone you trust vouched.
The Universe layer (codename Stellis) projects every connected blog into a single cosmos. Topics orbit a sun. People sit in bands by trust depth; activity gravity pulls the active ones closer. Resonance scoring surfaces "people you don't know yet who think like you" without ever flattening the chain that got them in.
Built on Apache AGE so the graph is real, not a side-table. Codename: Stellis.
Trust beats reach. A small graph that's real outperforms a big graph that's noise — and the math of "closer to the sun" makes that visible.
Building · in flight
J. Chehda Orbital
A personal operating system for ideas, projects, and the slow work of becoming.
The site you're reading. A cinematic, interactive home where the work is the door — long-form writing, a working journal, a portfolio that breathes, and a constellation of people I trust with the questions I'm actually sitting with.
The aim isn't reach. It's resonance: a small place that signals what I'm doing right now (the Emission System) and a Universe that lets a handful of trusted blogs cross-pollinate without anyone needing to chase followers.
That curated discovery — fewer, better nodes — beats raw maximalism. People remember a memorable shape, not a long list.
06 · Timeline
Not a CV. A long thread.
The story I tell myself when I need to remember why I started. The companies are footnotes; the years between them are the chapters.
2026
Now
TBD
TBD
TBD
2026
Now
Building Kraken in the open
Core Sports · Kraken Labs
Splitting time between scaling Core Sports past 50 federations and spinning Kraken out of internal use. Writing weekly. Trying to do less, better.
2025
leveling up
Stepped into Platform Director
DatumSure · Tomball, Texas
Took ownership of the platform org. The work now spans cloud-native infrastructure, distributed systems, and the AI layer that's reshaping how we operate at scale.
2024
Founding
Started Core Sports
Lisbon · Solo, then 3, then 11
Took a year off, then made the dumbest, most necessary decision: build the boring infrastructure under a sport I love. First customer in week six.
2022
new chapter
Director of Engineering & DevOps at DatumSure
DatumSure · Córdoba, Argentina
Stepped into the director seat. Owned engineering direction, architecture approvals, cloud strategy, and the policies that turn good intent into shippable software.
2023
Year off
A deliberately quiet year
Mostly Porto
Wrote 60+ essays, no startup. Therapy. Long walks. Re-learned why I started building things in the first place.
2021
big stage
Engineering Manager at PayPal
PayPal · Córdoba, Argentina
Worked on customer-perceived latency in PayPal's payment + checkout flow. Direct line from a millisecond shaved to conversion saved.
2022
Exit
Sold Atlas Sky
Acquired by a logistics group
Six years of work compressed into a 90-day diligence and a strange spring of decompression. Learned the difference between an exit and an integration the hard way.
2019
crossing borders
Territory Director across the US
Ayi & asociados · Córdoba, Argentina
Built the bridge between an Argentine technology shop and North American businesses. Mid- and long-term relationships, not transactions.
2019
Re-founding
Took over Atlas Sky as CEO
Reykjavík → Lisbon
Stepped up from CTO when our CEO left. Read every operations book I could find. Threw most of them away after six months.
2017
the leap
Co-founded Yuniku Inc.
Provincia de Córdoba, Argentina
Eighteen+ custom software projects, ten-person team, on/off-shore coordination, and the unglamorous craft of running a company: budgets, valuations, acquisition. The single biggest jump from engineer to operator.
2017
Co-founding
Co-founded Atlas Sky
Garage · Reykjavík
Started as a small consulting project for a regional airline. Became a company by accident, then on purpose.
2014
deep work
Joined Globant as Sr. Java Developer
Globant · Córdoba, Argentina
Two and a half years building for Southwest Airlines. Java + Spring on the back, React on the front. The shape of "enterprise frontend" before that phrase meant anything.
2014
First job
Engineer #4 at a fintech startup
London
Where I learned what real production traffic feels like. The first time I deleted a database in production. The first time I told the truth about it.
2011
first big-tech
Hewlett Packard — Java / J2EE Developer
HP · Córdoba, Argentina
Two years across Nextel and American Airlines accounts. Web services, BPEL, weblogic queues — the messy plumbing that makes 'just call the API' work.
2012
Origin
Made my first thing on the internet
Bedroom, age 17
A weather widget that 11 people used. I refreshed the analytics every six minutes. I haven't really stopped since.
2009
the beginning
First lines of code, first paycheck
Ayi & Asociados · Córdoba, Argentina
Started as a Java programmer on the Nevada CRM project. Same year I started my Systems Engineering degree at IUA. The two would feed each other for the next five years.
07 · Toolbox & links
Where to find me elsewhere.
Profiles, talks, repos, and the small public things I keep maintained.
in
LinkedIn
in/jchehda
Follow the journey,
not the algorithm.
One letter per month. Notes from the desk: what I built, what broke, what I'm rethinking, and the one thing I'd undo if I had the year back.
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