I just got a notification that a WebKit bug reported in 2007 by @danwood, and that I commented on in 2010, “might be fixed” now. It only took 20 years! bugs.webkit.org/show_bug….

“Arbitrage” is a financial term which basically amounts to taking advantage of one market not valuing a product the same as another market. I think we are in an extreme arbitrage situation with AI-generated code and application consumers. They don’t know the apps can be made so cheaply now.

I have never made as much money as an indie developer as I did, or would, as a full-time employee. But do you know what never gets old? Seeing a “you just made $39.95” notification when you’re not even working.

“I can call you Betty, and Betty when you call me you can call me AI…” #RuinAClassicWithAI

In the space of a single day, AI impresses me with its staggering ability to achieve implausible success, and then frustrates me by seeming unable to balance the variables of a simple challenge. Stealing from the U.S. military, I’m dubbing this trait: “The impossible? It can do right away. The practical? that will take a little longer…”

Claude, sudo make me a sandwich.

People of the Northeast United States: if you’ve ever wondered what it would feel like to live in Northern California, it feels like this. 365 days a year.

I ran in to an acquaintance at my favorite wine store, whom I’d never seen there before. It turns out he’s been shopping there for 30 years, and knows all the same people I do. I’ve “only” been shopping there for 20 years. I know it’s killing you, the place is The Wine and Cheese Cask in Somerville.

The most valuable skill in software is making an LLM do what your employer wishes it would.

IMO if you can’t find fault in what is considered status quo perfection, you shouldn’t be working in the field.

I sense that some are confused because I express intense enthusiasm for AI while also mocking it at every chance. This is how I roll. I worked for Apple for several years, simultaneously believing it made the best human-facing platforms, while lambasting them at every turn for how bad they are.

Because of AI help, I’m getting about, if I had to guess, 4x done in the same amount of time I used to spend, leaving even more time to make quippy comments here.

On that note, I can see how some people who are not particularly good at communication would fine AI benefits underwhelming. The ability to be direct, precise, and adaptive with your text is key to getting a good result from any AI. Sometimes it’s like a bad photographer saying “this camera sucks!”

Muhammad AI. #RuinALegendWithAI

For years and years and years, I emphasized “communication skills” on my resume as an advantage for working well with others. Now it has become the most important skill for working well with AI.

God give me the confidence of an AI chatbot that has just delivered its 20th consecutive “this time we finally got it!” declaration.

AI is neither useless nor flawless. To build something great with its help, you have to accept it as the most prolific idiot you’ve ever worked with.

AI is neither useless nor flawless. To build something great with its help, you have to accept it as the most prolific idiot you’ve ever worked with.

I think there should be a special award for getting contiguous grey lines in Wordle.

Wordle 1,719 4/6*

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🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Almost 20 years ago (!) I opined: “C is the New Assembly”, suggesting that we had moved beyond the need to optimize things by writing assembly code. If I wrote the same article today, it might be “Hand-written Code is the New Assembly” redsweater.com/blog/278/…

During any tech transition, the people who retain old-school knowledge while the new-school is developing are particularly valuable. Nobody needs to know punch cards anymore, but I’m sure that while punch cards were being phased out, extensive knowledge about them was incredibly useful.

Parallels to the past: C Programmers who benefitted from knowing Assembly. Java programmers who benefited from knowing manual memory management. UIKit programmers who benefited from knowing AppKit. SwiftUI programmers who … well, they kind of got a raw deal.

We’re at a turning point, where everybody 20 years old or so, and older, will have a fundamental advantage against every younger programmer when it comes to “coding with AI”. Younger programmers will have no natural incentives to learn non-vibe coding techniques. Things are gonna get weird.

Most of the downsides of inviting AI into your software development workflow can be mitigated by insisting on understanding everything you let it do.

Of all musical instruments, the most important is the ear.