Zachary Proser

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§ 00 · Mind on Fire LLC — Software & AI consultancy

The mind is a fireto be ignited.

I’m Zack — a builder, writer, and teacher. Applied AI at WorkOS, formerly Pinecone, Cloudflare, and Gruntwork. Fifteen years across the whole stack: frontend to backend, distributed cloud systems, DevOps, and open source. Mind on Fire is my consultancy: software and applied AI that ships.

The fire above draws from my 160 essays. Explore the full constellation on a larger screen, or browse every essay below.

I do this work because I love it — and everything I learn, I give away.

✱The Modern Coding letter5,000+ engineers
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14yrs
Shipping software
5,000+
Newsletter readers
184wpm
Voice-coding velocity
21yrs
Writing online
Featured engagement
Workshops · From $15kBooking · Q3 open

Make Claude how your team works — by default.

Three practitioners who ship with Claude daily at WorkOS come into your team — single team or whole org — and embed inside your pods. We leave you with workflows, skills, and named champions. Half-day, full-day, or two-day.

Crew
1 – 3 practitioners
Shape
½ – 2 days
For
Team or whole org
Book a workshop →Engagement shapes →
~/workshops — calendarLive

Booking the next collaboration weeks.

Jun 17Healthcare · Org-wideBooked
Jul 22Fintech · Two-dayBooked
Aug — openYour org here→
Sep — openYour org here→
Typical lead time 6–10 wkHold a date →
On stage

Shipping production AI daily. Teaching what works on stage.

Keynotes, conference talks, hands-on workshops, and live demos — from a16z and DevSecCon to AI Engineering London and WorkOS × Anthropic.

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~/speaking — ledgerSince 2023
13
Talks, workshops & demos
9
Hands-on workshops
9
Stages & conferences
5
Recordings to watch
As seen at
AI EngineerWorkshops · London + SFAnthropicWorkshop · Claude CoworkAndreessen HorowitzTalk · ~125 in roomWorkOSShowcase · Applied AIDevSecConKeynote · 2025CohereCo-host · a16z meetup
Untethered Productivity — AI Engineering London
Talk · Recording

Untethered Productivity

Staying Healthy, Creative, and Shipping in the AI Coding Era

Human attention is the real bottleneck. Signal layers, verification gates, voice-first dispatch, and an Oura Ring integration that factors your sleep into the day’s plan.

Watch the talk
Applied AI: Three Learnings — WorkOS Applied AI Showcase
Video
Talk · RecordingMay 2026

Applied AI: Three Learnings

Interface beats stack, complete the loop, and the imagination gap — three lessons from shipping internal AI tooling.

WorkOS Applied AI ShowcaseWatch →
Skills at Scale — AI Engineering London
Video
Workshop · 80 minApril 2026

Skills at Scale

Claude Code skills across workflows, agents, and teams — an 80-minute hands-on workshop with Nick Nisi.

AI Engineering LondonWatch →
Claude Cowork Workshop — WorkOS × Anthropic
Video
Workshop · RecordingFebruary 2026

Claude Cowork Workshop

A hands-on hour with Lydia from Anthropic — Cowork enablement from first live demo to a working workflow.

WorkOS × AnthropicWatch →
DevSecCon Keynote — DevSecCon 2025
Video
Keynote · Recording2025

DevSecCon Keynote

Modern AI and security — keynote address to the security engineering community.

DevSecCon 2025Watch →

Bring a keynote, workshop, or live demo to your event or team.

Watch all talks →Book me to speak →
§ 01

Deep & machine learning, by hand

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Also from the catalog
Tutorial · Premium$149 · Shipping

Build a chatbot that actually knows your shit.

End-to-end RAG with Pinecone, the Vercel AI SDK, and Next.js 15. No hallucinations. No magic. A production harness you can hand to your team and they'll still understand it in six months.

Runtime
Node 20
Vector DB
Pinecone
Eval
Ragas++
Try the live demo →Buy — $149
Newsletter5,000+ readers

The Modern Coding letter.

Dispatches from the edge of applied AI. What I'm building, what I'm learning, the tools I'd actually pay for. Names named, vendors graded, evals included.

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§ 02

Open-source projects

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§ 03

AI-assisted development

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§ 04

Reference architectures

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§ 05

Career notes — from the field

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§ 06

Video & screencasts

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