pre.hn/site/link-log.yaml

- url: https://fromjason.xyz/p/notebook/any-technology-indistinguishable-from-magic-is-hiding-something/
  name: "Jason Velazquez: Any Technology Indistinguishable From Magic is Hiding Something"
  summary: |
    > I can’t stress this point enough. The reason why GAMM and all its little digirati minions on
    social media are pushing things like crypto, then the blockchain, and now virtual reality and
    artificial intelligence is because those technologies require a metric fuckton of computing
    power to operate. That fact may be devastating for the earth, indeed it is for our mental health,
    but it’s wonderful news for the four storefronts selling all the juice.
- url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpei_Yokoi#Lateral_Thinking_with_Withered_Technology
  name: "Concept: Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology"
  summary: |
    > [Gunpei Yokoi, long-time Nintendo designer and producter,] said "The Nintendo
    way of adapting technology is not to look for the state of the art but to utilize
    mature technology that can be mass-produced cheaply." He articulated his
    philosophy of "Lateral Thinking of Withered Technology" (枯れた技術の水平思考,
    "Kareta Gijutsu no Suihei Shikō") (also translated as "Lateral Thinking with
    Seasoned Technology"), in the book Yokoi Gunpei Game House. "Withered technology"
    in this context refers to a mature technology which is cheap and well understood.
    "Lateral thinking" refers to finding radical new ways of using such technology.
    Yokoi held that toys and games do not necessarily require cutting-edge technology;
    novel and fun gameplay are more important. In the interview, he suggested that
    expensive cutting-edge technology can get in the way of developing a new product.

    ht [Simon Willison](https://simonwillison.net/2024/Mar/14/lateral-thinking-with-weathered-technology/).
- url: https://coryd.dev/posts/2024/look-for-longevity/
  name: "Cory Dransfeldt: Look for longevity"
  summary: |
    > Everyone has a list of products they've seen fail and disappear or get acquired
    and disappear. I want a less-ambitious, lower-scale, bootstrapped company with a
    plan. I love solo founders with low costs and a fair subscription price.

    _Yep_. What deranged times we live in that it is routine not only for businesses
    to launch with no plan for ever generating a sustainable income, but for those
    businesses to rake in buckets and buckets of investment.
- url: https://chaos.guru/essays/2024/hostile-environments/
  name: "Luka Kladaric: Shipping quality software in hostile environments"
  summary: |
    A harrowing tale of fixing an unsustainable software project. I've been there.

    After being there, I agree with one of Luka's takeaways-- you cannot wait for
    permission to fix maintainability problems in software. You have do it. And if you
    have to do it quietly and subvert "the process" to make it happen, do it anyway.
- url: https://pando.beehiiv.com/p/javascript-was-slowing-me-down-all-in-on-elixir
  name: "Roberto Pando: Javascript was slowing me down. All in on Elixir"
  summary: |
    I love to hear these kind of stories about adopting Elixir. I went through a similar
    arc when I moved from Python/Django, to Node, to Ruby/Rails, and finally to Phoenix/Elixir.
- url: https://darthmall.net/weblog/2023/rss/
  name: "Evan Sheehan: RSS?"
  summary: |
    There's a swing back to RSS right now, which I think is good. But I also think that Evan's
    thoughts here are good. RSS can't be the only solution for how we take in the web. It can't
    be the only solution for how we decentralize the web again.

    Hat tip to [Greg Morris](https://gregmorris.co.uk/2024/01/29/visit-more-blogs) for his related
    post that helped me find this one.
- url: https://ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/generative/
  name: "Ethan Marcotte: Generative"
  summary: >
    A collection of quotes about AI from 1683 to 2024.
- url: https://seldo.com/posts/ai-ml-llms-and-the-future-of-software
  name: "Laurie Voss: On AI, ML, LLMs and the future of software"
  summary: >
    A level-headed explanation of what exactly AI, ML, and LLMs are. "LLMs are really complex markov
    chains; but the really complex part makes them qualitatively different" has been by go-to
    explanation of LLMs. I disagree, however, with the idea that LLMs "understand" anything. LLMs
    contain big statistical models of sentence and paragraph structure, and of the relationship
    between words and phrases. This allows them to generate text that is more of a statistical match
    for text written by humans. That humans see this as "understanding" is a form of pareidolia.

    This distinction is narrow, but important.
- url: https://coryd.dev/posts/2024/towards-a-quieter-friendlier-web/
  name: "Cory Dransfeldt: Towards a quieter, friendlier web"
  summary: >
    A series of great principles for a better web! Hear, hear!

    Side note: thanks to Cory for inspiring me to add a link log feed to this site,
    inspired by his at coryd.dev.
- url: https://www.abstractmachines.dev/posts/am013-easy-to-write-code-considered-harmful/
  name: "Leandro Ostera: AM013 – Easy-to-Write Code Considered Harmful"
  summary: >
    Leandro argues that the key to writing readable code is taking implicit context
    and making it explicit. I agree!

    This is also one reason I love Elixir. Many of the design choices in the language
    and standard library encourage you to explicitly write what you mean-- even if it
    is more keystrokes.
- url: https://soatok.blog/2024/02/27/the-tech-industry-doesnt-understand-consent/
  name: "Soatok: The Tech Industry Doesn't Understand Consent"
  summary: >
    A brilliant lens for thinking about our relationship with tech products, design,
    and terms of use. Opt-out "consent" isn't consent at all. "Maybe Later" isn't
    consent either.