About
Build From Zero is a blog about building software and hardware from the ground up, written by me, Tom Victor — a programmer and entrepreneur who would rather understand how something works than trust that it does.
What you will find here
Most of what I publish falls into one of four areas:
- Rust and systems programming. Why Rust exists, how ownership and borrowing actually work, and what it is like to ship production services in it.
- Python and Go backends. Django, FastAPI and Gin, dependency management, design patterns, and the open-source tools I have built along the way such as Iotcore, an MQTT broker for Python with a Rust core, and Gorf, a Django-inspired REST framework for Go.
- Embedded and IoT. Zephyr RTOS, C refreshers, MQTT, and the unglamorous parts of getting a device to talk to a server.
- Building products with AI. How I built CVBlender, an AI-assisted CV builder with a Rust backend and a React front end, and what I learned about making language models useful without letting them invent things.
The articles I am proudest of are the case studies: real projects, real architecture decisions, and the mistakes that came with them. Introductions and cheat sheets are here too, because I write them for myself first.
Why “from zero”
Every tool on this blog started as an empty directory and a problem I actually had. The name is a reminder that nothing here is theoretical: if I write about it, I built it, broke it, and fixed it.
Get in touch
Corrections, questions and project ideas are welcome. Email [email protected], or find me on GitHub, LinkedIn or X. New articles go out through the newsletter in the footer and the RSS feed.