---
title: "Tools for technical work"
description: "A curated collection of useful AI, machine learning, and system design tools, each explained in one clear sentence."
canonical_url: "https://fanout.sh/tools"
md_url: "https://fanout.sh/tools.md"
access: "public"
---

# Tools for technical work

A curated collection of useful AI, machine learning, and system design tools, each explained in one clear sentence.

## Tools

### [Connected Papers](https://www.connectedpapers.com)

Build a visual graph around a paper to discover similar work and important prior research.

- Category: Paper discovery
- Collection: AI & ML

### [Dataset Search](https://datasetsearch.research.google.com)

Search datasets published across the web with Google’s dataset-focused index.

- Category: Datasets
- Collection: AI & ML

### [DrivenData](https://www.drivendata.org/)

Practice on real-world machine-learning competitions built around social-impact problems.

- Category: Practice
- Collection: AI & ML

### [Distill.pub](https://distill.pub)

Learn difficult machine-learning ideas through clear writing and interactive visual explanations.

- Category: Explanations
- Collection: AI & ML

### [Seeing Theory](https://seeing-theory.brown.edu)

Build intuition for probability and statistics through interactive, visual lessons.

- Category: Probability
- Collection: AI & ML

### [TensorTonic](https://www.tensortonic.com/)

Implement landmark ML papers from scratch in a browser-based coding environment.

- Category: Code practice
- Collection: AI & ML

### [Image Kernels](https://setosa.io/ev/image-kernels/)

Change convolution kernels live to see how blur, sharpen, and edge detection actually work.

- Category: Visualization
- Collection: AI & ML

### [ML Knowledge Graph](https://the-palindrome.github.io/ml-knowledge-graph/)

Explore machine-learning concepts as a connected graph of definitions, prerequisites, and related ideas.

- Category: Concept map
- Collection: AI & ML

### [Scrollscape](https://joshuahhh.com/about-scrollscape/)

Read papers as scrollable two-dimensional documents, zooming out to see the whole without losing your place.

- Category: Paper reading
- Collection: AI & ML

### [System Design Simulator](https://systemdesignsimulator.org/)

Explore system design and database internals through interactive simulations, failures, and stress tests.

- Category: Systems
- Collection: System design

### [Database of Databases](https://dbdb.io/)

Browse CMU’s encyclopedia of database systems, architectures, and implementation details.

- Category: Database catalog
- Collection: System design

### [DB Fiddle](https://www.db-fiddle.com/)

Write and run MySQL or PostgreSQL schemas and queries directly in the browser.

- Category: SQL playground
- Collection: System design

### [Postgres EXPLAIN Visualizer](https://explain.dalibo.com/)

Turn raw PostgreSQL EXPLAIN output into a readable visual query plan.

- Category: Query plans
- Collection: System design

### [Raft Consensus Visualization](https://raft.github.io/)

Manipulate a live Raft cluster and watch leader elections and replicated logs evolve.

- Category: Consensus
- Collection: System design

### [Bloom Filters by Sam Who](https://samwho.dev/bloom-filters/)

Build intuition for Bloom filters through manipulable bit grids and live false-positive experiments.

- Category: Probabilistic DS
- Collection: System design

### [Compactionary](https://disc-projects.bu.edu/compactionary/)

Change workloads and policies to see how LSM-tree compaction behavior and cost shift.

- Category: Storage engines
- Collection: System design

### [Flink Watermarks…WTF?](https://flink-watermarks.wtf/)

Experiment with event time, late data, and watermarks in an interactive stream simulation.

- Category: Streaming
- Collection: System design

### [Consistent Hash Ring Visualizer](https://gallery.selfboot.cn/en/algorithms/hashring)

Add and remove nodes to see how virtual nodes redistribute keys around a hash ring.

- Category: Sharding
- Collection: System design

### [Geohash.es](https://www.geohash.es/)

Encode, decode, draw, and inspect neighboring geohashes on an interactive map.

- Category: Geospatial
- Collection: System design

### [VisuAlgo Trees](https://visualgo.net/en/bst)

Animate BST and AVL search, insertion, deletion, and balancing step by step.

- Category: Data structures
- Collection: System design

### [HyperLogLog Playground](https://djhworld.github.io/hyperloglog/counting/)

Change precision and cardinality to see how HyperLogLog trades memory for estimation error.

- Category: Cardinality
- Collection: System design

---
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