Staging environment
Free Lesson

Avoiding expensive AI surprises with LiteLLM

60 min
Feb 5, 2026 12:30 PM
Virtual (Zoom)

In this video

What you'll learn

Put real cost and usage boundaries around LLM experiments

use local proxies like LiteLLM instead of relying on opaque hyperscaler abstractions to manage LLM use

Trade-offs between different ways of accessing Gemini

CLI tools vs APIs vs wrappers - when each approach actually makes sense

What works and what doesn’t running LLM tooling locally

Including lessons from Nix, Apple Containers, and lightweight setups without Docker

Why this topic matters

LLMs have lowered the barrier to experimentation, but raised the risk of silent, unbounded cost. For individual engineers and small teams, the gap between “enterprise best practices” and day-to-day reality is huge. This talk focuses on reclaiming control: making costs visible, experimentation safe, and tooling choices explicit, so you can move fast without unpleasant surprises on your credit card

You'll learn from

Ewan Nisbet

Ewan Nisbet

Technologist

Doug Turnbull

Doug Turnbull

Search Practitioner

Coach Search Teams at

Reddit
Shopify.com
Wayfair
OpenAI
Apple
See all products from Doug