FROM THE TRENCHES Issue №288

Practical decisions for AI and software

Technical guides to choose models, verify software and plan delivery.

Latest articles

New comparisons, practical guides and engineering lessons.

Products shipped, how many failed, and the boring middle Product & MVP

Products We Shipped: What Outcome Benchmarks Can Prove

A transparent framework for measuring shipped-product outcomes without turning approximate internal observations into a market benchmark.

Kevin Riedl
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Web3 gas cost hindsight across L1 L2 and Solana Web3 & Privacy

Web3 Gas Cost Hindsight: Compare L1, L2, and Solana

Replace static fee tables with production-shaped measurements across Ethereum, Base, OP Mainnet, Arbitrum, Polygon PoS, and Solana.

Kevin Riedl
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Scope change measurement across fixed-price and time-and-material engagements Business & Regulation

Fixed Price vs T&M: Measure Scope Change

Why universal scope-creep rates are not defensible, how to measure change consistently, and what to compare before choosing a commercial model.

Kevin Riedl
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Comparing fractional and in-house CTO leadership in Austria Leadership & Teams

Fractional CTO vs Hiring in Austria

Compare the leadership mandate, authority, availability, team needs, employment cost inputs and current supplier terms before choosing a model.

Kevin Riedl
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MiCA and FMA reality for Austrian Web3 startups in 2026 Business & Regulation

MiCA + FMA Reality Austria 2026

A current engineering guide to Austrian crypto scoping after the MiCA transition, including CASP authorization, token issuance, prudential safeguards, and the EU Travel Rule.

Kevin Riedl
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GDPR plus EU AI Act stacking for DACH SaaS founders Business & Regulation

GDPR + EU AI Act for DACH SaaS

A current framework for classifying AI use cases, mapping GDPR and AI Act duties, assigning evidence owners, and planning applicable deadlines.

Christof Jori
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Evidence-based review of why AI agent projects are paused or cancelled AI & Agents

Why AI Agent Projects Get Cancelled

What Gartner's forecast does and does not show, plus an evidence-based review of value, evaluation, tools, cost, handoff, data, scope and governance risks.

Christof Jori
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RAG versus fine-tuning versus long-context architecture decision in 2026 AI & Agents

RAG vs Fine-Tuning vs Long-Context 2026

A workload-based method for testing retrieval, supervised fine-tuning, long context, and hybrid architectures without relying on universal cost crossovers.

Christof Jori
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LLM API cost modeling and architecture decisions in 2026 AI & Agents

LLM API Costs 2026. Architecture Shift

A current method for modeling input, output, reasoning, caching, tools, batch work, retrieval, and operations before changing an AI architecture.

Christof Jori
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