In this episode of The Dark Arts of Team Optimization, hosts Kyle Johnson and Franz Aliquo interview Ruslan Belkin, Head of Platform Engineering at Inflection AI and Co-founder and CEO of Jelled.AI. The conversation centers around the philosophical and practical shifts that AI is imposing on engineering culture, team structures, and personal productivity. The guest shares deeply reflective insights on hope, fear, responsibility, and the role of process all through the lens of decades of Silicon Valley experience.

Ruslan Belkin is a seasoned engineering leader with three decades of experience at industry titans like LinkedIn, Twitter, Salesforce, NAUTO, and MetaMind. Known for his systems thinking, technical rigor, and philosophical clarity, Ruslan is a unique voice in tech leadership, advocating for accountability, vision-driven development, and radical simplicity in engineering management.

Expect to Learn

- Why "too much hope in that equation" became a viral and cautionary mantra for engineering planning.

- How AI is shifting the center of gravity from code to specifications and evaluations.

- What singular ownership and stack-ranked priorities look like in high-performance teams.

- The role of stoicism in leadership and decision-making under pressure.

- How to hire for undefined problems and cultivate emotionally resilient, adaptable teams.

Episode Breakdown with Timestamps

[00:00:00] – Teaser

[00:00:56] – Meet Ruslan Belkin

[00:02:07] – Engineering Without Illusions

[00:06:24] – AI, Specs, and the Death of Code

[00:10:43] – The Next 24 Months of AI

[00:15:39] – Hiring for Ambiguity

[00:23:52] – Stack-Ranked Priorities: No Peanut Butter Planning

[00:25:31] – The Process Paradox

[00:31:32] – Building Teams Like Legos

[00:34:21] – Stoicism at Work

[00:37:02] – The Equation Blog & Personal Balance

[00:39:10] – Advice to a Younger Self

[00:41:12] – Best Teams & Twitter War Stories

[00:43:10] – Where to Find Ruslan

📱 Follow our Guest Ruslan Belkin:

👉 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rbelkin/

👉 X: https://x.com/ruslansv

👉 Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/inflectionai & https://www.linkedin.com/products/jelled/

👉 Company Website: https://inflection.ai & https://jelled.ai/

📱 Follow the Hosts Kyle Johnson and Franz Aliquo:

👉 Kyle’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyleclaytonjohnson/

👉 Franz’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/franz-aliquo/

📱 Follow Holonic:

👉 Website: https://www.becomeholonic.com/

👉 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/becomeholonic/