Our Mission
Systems Thinking in the AI Era transforms junior engineers from code writers into AI-safe system thinkers. We teach the 7 universal building blocks + 3 external entities that power every system—from Instagram to Netflix to Uber.
While AI can write code, it cannot make architectural decisions. Our course series develops the pattern recognition and architectural thinking that makes you valuable in the AI era—not replaceable by it.
Why We Created This Course Series
Traditional engineering education takes 3-5 years to develop system thinking through experience. But AI changed the timeline—teams now expect architectural thinking much earlier in careers.
We distilled decades of system design experience into a framework that accelerates this transformation. Instead of learning specific technologies that become obsolete, you master universal interface patterns that remain constant across all platforms and technologies.
The Building Blocks Approach
Every system you've ever used—Instagram, Gmail, Uber, Netflix—is composed from the same 7 building blocks:
Task Blocks
Service - Request/response processing
Worker - Background processing
Storage Blocks
Key-Value Store - Caching and fast lookups
File Store - Media and large file storage
Queue - Message processing
Relational Database - Structured data
Vector Database - AI & similarity search
Plus 3 external entities that interact with these building blocks to create complete systems:
User
Time
External Service
About Your Instructor
Kay Ashaolu
University Lecturer & Engineering Manager
Kay is a university lecturer and engineering manager with 20 years of full stack engineering experience spanning academia, government, and industries including social media, health care, and finance. He earned his Master's degree in Information Management and Systems and has built his career around empowering engineers to think architecturally.
He created this course series to transform engineers from code writers into system thinkers—professionals who make the architectural decisions that AI cannot replicate.
Through years of teaching and mentoring, Kay distilled complex system design into universal building block patterns that work across every platform from Instagram to Netflix to Uber. This course series represents his proven framework for making engineers AI-safe, not AI-replaceable.
Course Series Structure
Course I: The Seven Building Blocks (Available Now) - Master the 7 universal interface patterns + 3 external entities through interactive labs and real-world challenges.
Course II: Content Systems (Coming 2026) - Apply building blocks to Instagram, Netflix, YouTube patterns. Master read-heavy workloads and content delivery.
Course III: Real-Time Systems (Coming 2026) - Learn Slack, Discord, WhatsApp patterns. Master real-time messaging and low-latency systems.
Course IV: Business Integration Systems (Coming 2026) - Master Stripe, Shopify, Salesforce patterns. Learn payment processing and enterprise integration.
What Makes Us Different
Unlike bootcamps that teach specific technologies, we teach universal patterns. Unlike traditional CS courses that focus on algorithms, we teach practical system design. Unlike experience-based learning that takes years, we provide systematic frameworks for immediate application.
You don't just learn to build features—you learn to design systems, make architectural trade-offs, and think like senior engineers. These are the skills that make you AI-empowered, not AI-replaceable.