Weekend Reading — Why plan when you can panic?
/dev/null On the one hand, AI means we no longer need to write boilerplate code. On the other hand, we like to get together, socialize, and make friends, This week I joined /dev/null, which is a new social network for developers. And it is fun. Very fun. You sign in with your GitHub account. You don't post messages, you commit. You don't favorite, you star. And you can follow what other people are chatting about. Come join us.
Tech Stuff
Reylo Import .sql files into TypeScript code with full type inference. Requires TypeScript 7.1 with its cool new content mappers.
F*cking Good Libraries Tell it what you’re trying to do and it will list the software libraries that can do it for you.
Instant Search the documents on your computer based on what’s in them. Basically it builds a search index from the files on your computer, and runs semantic search. And it can even search images.
SOML A config format that is pleasant to write and easy to read. The convenience of YAML without the weirdness:
SOML keeps what I like about YAML: comments, no braces around the file, no commas at the ends of lines, and keys without quotes. It removes what hurts: in YAML, the content of a value decides its type. In SOML, the syntax decides, so
'no'is a string,3.10is a float, and2is an int, in every implementation.
Magpie I’m running too many agents at the same time (I'm easily distracted), and switching LLMs when you've got so many agents is annoying, so I'm using Magpie to setup common LLM routing rules and point my AI agents at them. Switch once from a central point.
Ampcode This looks incredible enough to amp up: you can run multiple agents, agents run on hosted servers, so no worktrees to juggle, no code conflicts to worry about, and you can even review and direct your agents from your mobile phone.
I've not written a line of code in the last 3 months and I've never been more productive. Love the new way of working.
Peel Another day another app that helps you uninstall apps on your Mac — I have yet to find the perfect one, but this looks promising.
newllm A script I wrote to figure out which LLMs I can use for free. If you're not too excited about paying for tokens, but also not happy when you reach usage limit on a given model, this could help. And if you need to make changes, just ask your AI agent to make the script fit your needs.
does anyone remember when people would talk about code smells. or design patterns. or application architecture principles.
Surprise Driven Development Why plan when you can panic?
Eye for Design
Paddington (n.) — a school of UI which prides itself on leaving large amounts of empty space between the elements
Dev Null News I love this. ❤️ /dev/null went with this news report UI instead of the clunky old changelog.
Peoples
Getting good at AI takes time and practice
It shouldn't be surprising that working with AI involves actual skills. It's like working with a really weird person: a savant with mad skills in some areas and huge gaps in others, a prolific but inexpert communicator, a workaholic with no long-term memory, and so on.
Business Side
Amelia Bellamy-Royds 🧵 This should be the future of the software industry:
But so long as he's only using it for himself? It's working for him.
As critics of vibe-coding, we emphasize the bottleneck of software dev isn't writing code, it's good product design. But one user making a product for himself is the perfect design feedback loop.
The feature set of his vibe-coded app is perfect, for him.
It's as accessible & usable as it needs to be, for him.
After automation: Solo founding will be the default I believe this is true:
This creates a new problem to solve. The biggest way to increase the likelihood of solo success is not to add a cofounder of convenience—it's to surround yourself with resources and other solo founders so you can build "solo, together." In a world of increased automation, building a solo company will be more viable than ever, but that doesn’t mean you have to build totally alone.
Machine Intelligence
What Engineers Still Need to Know When AI Agents Code
This is where our industry is headed: Owning a software system will depend a lot less on having written it (or similar systems) by hand; instead, what will become most important is knowing just enough to know when something is wrong, and being willing and able to dive as deep as needed, when needed.
Clank Overflow Clankers unite! A place where agents can share, verify, and debunk claims of bugs, documentation drift, and other problems they encounter in public tools and software.
Everything Else
Beavers chew down sign warning walkers about beavers in Poland Become ungovernable (via Matthew Haughey)
Picard management tip: Time is the rarest commodity. Manage yours wisely.
Fun fact: If you heat your solid state drive into a gaseous state, you get cloud storage.
Tree Appreciator This is a fun game. Two trees. They’re not identical. See if you can spot the differences.
With the Earth spinning @ 1,600 kph
while orbitting the Sun @ 107,000 kph;
The Sun speeding through the Milky Way @ 792,000 kph
while the Milky Way travels across the universe @ 2 million kph..
Your fitness tracker will still say that you haven't moved enough.
In a departure lounge. Lady sits next to us with a T-shirt that reads “Introvert but will chat about otters”. Just had a conversation about Canadian Giant Otters.
So that was nice.
‘Maxxing’ is Dictionary.com’s word of the year: ‘It’s cooler than saying you’re doing more’
This year, maxxing stood out because it really connects to so many different parts of life. People are proteinmaxxing their breakfast, tokenmaxxing their use of AI during the workday, cozymaxxing on a Friday night.
An industry designed to absorb all of your attention has spawned a new industry that charges you to remove those things from your life.
But as I have done, simply deleting the apps from your phone seems to work pretty well and costs you nothing. As a bonus, you get your time back to do more meaningful things.
thesketchbookchronicles "Inktober 2026 Day 30: Cookie"
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