About this Site

Welcome to Code + Kin! My name is Ronald Leung, the founder and main author of this site. I’m a senior engineering leader who has spent over two decades building distributed systems and am now exploring the frontiers of AI Engineering. This blog is where I share what I’ve learned and what I’m still figuring out in tech and in life.

A Life in Systems and Scale

I started my career at a small startup where every engineer wore multiple hats. Debugging production issues at three in the morning taught me the difference between theory and practice. Over the years I moved on to larger organizations and led teams responsible for building highly available, distributed applications. Along the way I’ve delivered platforms that process billions of events a day, migrated legacy monoliths to cloud native architectures and incubated new products in AI engineering.

These experiences taught me two things. First, there are no shortcuts in engineering. You either put in the work up front or you pay for it later with interest. Second, technology doesn’t stand still. The rise of large language models and the promise of agentic AI are changing how we build systems and how we think about automation. I’m fascinated by what’s possible when you combine rigorous engineering with modern machine learning.

Why I Started This Blog

I created this site for three reasons:

To sharpen my thinking – Writing forces clarity. By articulating what I believe about software, leadership and life, I test my assumptions and identify where I’m wrong.
To give back – When I was coming up, I relied on generous mentors and countless blogs to learn. This is my way of paying it forward to other engineers, managers and anyone curious about AI and distributed systems.
To humanize technology – Too many technical blogs read like white papers. I weave in stories about my family and daily life because technology doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The choices we make at work affect the people we love and the communities we live in.

What You’ll Find Here

On these pages you’ll see deep dives into topics like building production ready retrieval augmented generation pipelines, designing distributed databases and navigating the messy reality of machine learning in production. I’ll write about leadership – hiring well, giving feedback, aligning teams and making tough calls. You’ll also find reflections on parenting, living in Vancouver and what it’s like to juggle a demanding career with a full life at home.

My tone is direct and occasionally blunt. I’ve never been a fan of corporate jargon or glossy hype. If something doesn’t work, I’ll say so. If a trend seems overblown, I’ll explain why. My aim is to help you think critically about the technology choices you make and the kind of leader you want to be.

A Bit More About Me

I live in Vancouver with my spouse and two kids. When I’m not exploring the latest in AI, you can find me playing floor hockey, sipping a matcha or oat‑milk latte with my spouse and playing with my kids. Staying grounded in family and these simple pleasures keeps me balanced when work gets intense.

Connect With Me

If you’re an engineer, a manager or a curious observer of technology, I hope you’ll find something useful here. I don’t host comments on the site, but you’re welcome to reach out directly. You can connect with me if you want to talk about engineering leadership or AI or suggest topics you’d like me to cover.

Thanks for stopping by.