index.md (8267B)
1 --- 2 title: "Dispatch #30 (August 2025)" 3 date: 2025-08-05T09:29:54-04:00 4 draft: false 5 tags: 6 - dispatch 7 references: 8 - title: "What is practice" 9 url: https://puddingtime.org/what-is-practice 10 date: 2025-08-04T19:29:53Z 11 file: puddingtime-org-zaewv0.txt 12 - title: "Son Heung-min is Tottenham. Tottenham is Son Heung-min. - The Athletic" 13 url: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6522100/2025/08/04/son-heung-min-is-tottenham-tottenham-is-son-heung-min/ 14 date: 2025-08-05T03:58:01Z 15 file: www-nytimes-com-dxmrrf.txt 16 - title: "Flounder Mode - Colossus" 17 url: https://joincolossus.com/article/flounder-mode/ 18 date: 2025-08-04T03:36:39Z 19 file: joincolossus-com-pz3sdf.txt 20 - title: "DIYR" 21 url: https://diyr.dev/ 22 date: 2025-08-04T03:36:44Z 23 file: diyr-dev-akislx.txt 24 - title: "Naz Hamid • Just One Good Thing" 25 url: https://nazhamid.com/journal/just-one-good-thing/ 26 date: 2025-08-04T03:39:16Z 27 file: nazhamid-com-8ujuab.txt 28 - title: "Contra Ptacek's Terrible Article On AI — Ludicity" 29 url: https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/contra-ptaceks-terrible-article-on-ai/ 30 date: 2025-08-04T03:41:30Z 31 file: ludic-mataroa-blog-pcjwzr.txt 32 - title: "The AI-Native Software Engineer - by Addy Osmani - Elevate" 33 url: https://addyo.substack.com/p/the-ai-native-software-engineer 34 date: 2025-08-04T03:41:34Z 35 file: addyo-substack-com-2unltb.txt 36 - title: "Full-breadth Developers | justin․searls․co" 37 url: https://justin.searls.co/posts/full-breadth-developers/ 38 date: 2025-08-04T03:42:52Z 39 file: justin-searls-co-9dhvbh.txt 40 --- 41 42 Nice to have a quieter month. We went down to Lake Norman for the Fourth, but otherwise stuck around town. Mom and Dad came down to celebrate Mom's birthday, hit up [Marbles][1] (which Nev loved so much she snuck away and we had to organize a search party) and a Durham Bulls game. 43 44 [1]: https://www.marbleskidsmuseum.org/ 45 46 <!--more--> 47 48 {{<dither IMG_9212.jpeg "782x600">}}Big sister smiles while sharing a popsicle with her baby brother in matching life jackets on a boat.{{</dither>}} 49 {{<dither IMG_9284.jpeg "782x600">}}Teen wakeboarding across a calm lake with pine trees and a towering power line framing the shoreline.{{</dither>}} 50 51 {{<dither IMG_8544.jpeg "782x600">}}Dad beams with one child snuggled tight on his shoulder and the other curiously taking in the park around them.{{</dither>}} 52 {{<dither IMG_9585.jpeg "782x600">}}Mom and daughter pose with the Durham Bulls mascot, thumbs up for a fun night at the ballpark.{{</dither>}} 53 54 Down at the lake, I started writing some music to capture the weekend as a sort of sonic journal. I finished it up at home in Ableton and called it "Lake Affect" (thanks ChatGPT for the title + cover art): 55 56 <audio controls src="/journal/dispatch-30-august-2025/Lake Affect.mp3"></audio> 57 58 I pulled a bunch of samples[^1] off the web -- fireworks, ospreys, ambient lake sounds -- to make it specific to the time and place. For the next one, I'll try my hand at making my own field recordings. 59 60 A Lego store opened up at our local mall, and we got Nev [her first set][2]. Legos featured prominently in my childhood and it's a real prime fatherhood feeling to be able to pass that down. Let's hope my folks kept all my old stuff. 61 62 [2]: https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/creative-dinosaurs-11041 63 64 I asked ChatGPT to write a program to automate an annoying multi-step process (removing Docker volumes, specifically). I use the program it created, `dvrm`, several times a week. I went ahead and [open-sourced it][3], but I feel strange putting my name on code I had really no hand in writing. I came up with the idea, and I tested that it works, but it feels roughly equivalent to signing my name to an AI-generated image. Anyhow, there it is if you delete Docker volumes with any frequency. 65 66 [3]: https://git.sr.ht/~dce/dvrm 67 68 I registered for the [Bull City Race Fest][4] half-marathon for what'll be the fourth year in a row. I am not in running shape, between a lingering foot issue and general exhaustion, but I'm intending to be ready. The weather's been blessedly cool the last few days (low 80s) -- let's hope that keeps up. I'd like to be able to do a few 6-8 mile runs when we go up to Rehoboth Beach in a few weeks, but I'm not there yet. 69 70 [4]: https://bullcityracefest.com/ 71 72 ### This Month 73 74 * Adventure: Rehoboth Beach with my family; Brooklyn for an old friend's wedding 75 * Project: make a beach-based track 76 * Skill: field recording 77 78 ### Reading & Listening 79 80 * Fiction: [_The Day of the Jackal_][5], Frederick Forsyth 81 * Non-fiction: [_The Book_][6], Alan Watts (a guy I follow [mentioned this author][7], then I saw this on our bookshelf -- maybe Claire picked it up? seemed like a sign + it's pretty short) 82 * Music: [_The Exciting Sounds of Menahan Street Band_][8], Menahan Street Band 83 84 [5]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-day-of-the-jackal-with-earbuds-frederick-forsyth/15562578 85 [6]: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-book-on-the-taboo-against-knowing-who-you-are-alan-watts/6705001 86 [7]: https://puddingtime.org/what-is-practice 87 [8]: https://menahanstreetband.bandcamp.com/album/the-exciting-sounds-of-menahan-street-band 88 89 ### Links 90 91 * [Son Heung-min is Tottenham. Tottenham is Son Heung-min.][9] 92 93 > Because he embodied the joy of football played well, the shared thrill as he burst past a defender, the graceful way he found the corner of the net. But also because he embodied the joy of people. He never hid his emotions on the pitch, or his love for his team-mates or colleagues or the fans who supported him. 94 95 * [Flounder Mode - Colossus][10] 96 97 > I asked Kelly about the tradeoffs of focusing on a single thing if you want to be great (which is what I had been getting at before). “Greatness is overrated,” he said, and I perked up. “It’s a form of extremism, and it comes with extreme vices that I have no interest in. Steve Jobs was a jerk. Bob Dylan is a jerk.” 98 99 * [DIYR][11] 100 101 > Celebrates the spirit of independence, creativity, and resourcefulness. The acronym DIYR stands for 'Do It Yourself Revolution', promoting reflection and new forms of production, combining simplicity and longevity, ethics and aesthetics. 102 103 * [Naz Hamid • Just One Good Thing][12] 104 105 > In the last year, a mindset shift and approach appeared as a very simple idea: just do one thing, that I want to do today. 106 107 * [Contra Ptacek's Terrible Article On AI — Ludicity][13] 108 109 > Let me be extremely clear — I think this essay sucks and it's wild to me that it achieved any level of popularity, and anyone that thinks that it does not predominantly consist of shoddy thinking and trash-tier ethics has been bamboozled by the false air of mature even-handedness, or by the fact that Ptacek is a good writer. 110 111 * [The AI-Native Software Engineer][14] 112 113 > A practical playbook for integrating AI into your daily engineering workflow 114 115 * [Full-breadth Developers | justin․searls․co][15] 116 117 > The software industry is at an inflection point unlike anything in its brief history. Generative AI is all anyone can talk about. It has rendered entire product categories obsolete and upended the job market. With any economic change of this magnitude, there are bound to be winners and losers. So far, it sure looks like full-breadth developers—people with both technical and product capabilities—stand to gain as clear winners. 118 119 [9]: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6522100/2025/08/04/son-heung-min-is-tottenham-tottenham-is-son-heung-min/ 120 [10]: https://joincolossus.com/article/flounder-mode/ 121 [11]: https://diyr.dev/ 122 [12]: https://nazhamid.com/journal/just-one-good-thing/ 123 [13]: https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/contra-ptaceks-terrible-article-on-ai/ 124 [14]: https://addyo.substack.com/p/the-ai-native-software-engineer 125 [15]: https://justin.searls.co/posts/full-breadth-developers/ 126 127 [^1]: Here are the samples I used: 128 129 1. [Lake Beach Waves][16] 130 2. [Wooden floor creak][17] 131 3. [Fireworks Field Recording][18] 132 4. [Cicadas][19] 133 5. [Osprey Sounds][20] 134 135 [16]: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/lake-beach-waves-28492/ 136 [17]: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/wooden-floor-creak-81237/ 137 [18]: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/fireworks-field-recording-70720/ 138 [19]: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/cicadas-18654/ 139 [20]: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/OSPREY/sounds