Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

Work with the garage door up

Andy Matuschak’s notes on working in public. Reading this post was part of the spark that got me blogging again.

How Peter Suhm manages his todo list

It needs to both support tasks that are due today and tasks that are due “sometime this week”.

I like this distinction and wish task managers had this concept by default. Overall a refreshingly simple approach to personal task management.

Turns out, competition works

Gigabit fiber for less money using this one weird trick: move to Austin.

How do developers define their worth when code is written by AI?

Lately I’ve been in a few podcasts and interviews and one question came up almost every time: What is left for developers to care about or define themselves with when all the code is written by AI? Here is the quick answer: being a developer was never about writing code. Code is a tool to […]

Don't let AI write for you

Alex Woods:

The goal of writing is not to have written. It is to have increased your understanding, and then the understanding of those around you. When you are tasked to write something, your job is to go into the murkiness and come out of it with structure and understanding. To conquer the unknown.

The second order goal of writing is to become more capable. It is like working out. Every time you do a rep on the boundary of what you can do, you get stronger. It is uncomfortable and effortful.

Letting an LLM write for you is like paying somebody to work out for you.

This comes close to what I was talking about in my last newsletter:

I don’t want AI to replace my thinking, and this is easier said than done. Thinking now requires self-discipline. It’s easier to effortlessly prompt the machine and forwarding the output as is. I don’t want to aim for good enough. I want AI to be a lever for better work.