Nick Gustafson has introduced a comprehensive educational series titled "Holding the LLM Stack in Your Head," covering the entire technological stack of Large Language Models—from mathematical foundations to modern agentic system protocols.
What Happened
Nick Gustafson released a course divided into 10 thematic blocks (arcs). The program includes studying mathematics (vectors, gradients, optimizers), transformer architecture, inference mechanisms such as KV-cache and PagedAttention, as well as building agentic systems using the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and loop protocols.
Context
This resource offers a transition from the superficial use of ready-made LLM APIs to a deep understanding of systems engineering and resource optimization, creating a structured knowledge roadmap for specialists.
Why It Matters for the Industry
Creating such roadmaps helps standardize the understanding of the LLM stack within the engineering community. This facilitates the industry's transition from simple API wrappers to the development of complex, optimized system solutions and the standardization of approaches to building agentic architectures.
Why It Matters for Users
For engineers and developers, this is a comprehensive free textbook that allows for the systematization of knowledge. It helps bridge expertise gaps—from linear algebra to modern tool integration standards—which is critical for professional growth in AI engineering.
Sources
Author
Look at AI, Editorial Staff