From writing the code to designing the systems and decisions around it. Fourteen mental models, nine architect roles, and a roadmap into each.
You do not start over. You build a new layer. What carries over from software engineering, what you add, and the roles of the AI lifecycle, mapped.
The hardest first step out of pure building: development manager, engineering manager, or project manager. Leading the work instead of doing it.
From owning the how to owning the why and the what. Moving from output to outcomes, from the codebase to the customer and the bet on what to build.
How you think in the new role. The mental models that change the questions you ask, before you change the answers you give.
What you come to value, and defend. The principles that turn scattered judgment into a belief system other people can trust.
What you can actually do. A research-grounded roadmap of the concrete competencies the destination role demands, in order.
An interactive map of the roles in and around the path, so you can see where each one sits and choose what you want to be next.
A short, honest self-assessment for each role. Not a score to chase, but a mirror, to give you a feel for whether the move is yours to make.
The guides grow over time, one essay and one role at a time. The Architect guide is the most complete; the others are filling in. Wherever you are, the through-line is the same: keep the engineer, add the new layer, and go become what is next.