diff --git a/content/journal/dispatch-34-december-2025/index.md b/content/journal/dispatch-34-december-2025/index.md index dac8558..8c2a52c 100644 --- a/content/journal/dispatch-34-december-2025/index.md +++ b/content/journal/dispatch-34-december-2025/index.md @@ -4,6 +4,39 @@ date: 2025-12-01T10:28:28-05:00 draft: false tags: - dispatch +references: +- title: "Software Development in the Time of Strange New Angels" + url: https://davegriffith.substack.com/p/software-development-in-the-time + date: 2025-12-01T17:31:41Z + file: davegriffith-substack-com-o74bc9.txt +- title: "Hate to be so blunt, but if you're a… | justin․searls․co" + url: https://justin.searls.co/takes/2025-11-24-11h24m25s/ + date: 2025-12-01T17:31:41Z + file: justin-searls-co-onmvll.txt +- title: "Naz Hamid • Million-Mile Tech" + url: https://nazhamid.com/journal/million-mile-tech/ + date: 2025-12-01T17:31:43Z + file: nazhamid-com-oi7zls.txt +- title: "Software is supply-constrained (for now) | justin․searls․co" + url: https://justin.searls.co/links/2025-11-04-software-is-supply-constrained-for-now/ + date: 2025-12-01T17:31:58Z + file: justin-searls-co-ka38uo.txt +- title: "Five Months of Journalling • Robb Knight" + url: https://rknight.me/blog/five-months-of-journalling/ + date: 2025-12-01T17:31:36Z + file: rknight-me-oemhtz.txt +- title: "Going Analog • Nic Lake" + url: https://niclake.me/going-analog/ + date: 2025-12-01T17:31:36Z + file: niclake-me-dfeqiz.txt +- title: "xkcd: Fifteen Years" + url: https://xkcd.com/3172/ + date: 2025-12-01T17:31:38Z + file: xkcd-fifteen-years.png +- title: "Daring Fireball: ‘Fifteen Years’" + url: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/11/27/fifteen-years + date: 2025-12-01T17:31:39Z + file: daringfireball-net-nvnrwt.txt --- - Quick lake trip @@ -42,10 +75,31 @@ tags: ### Links -* [Title][5] -* [Title][6] -* [Title][7] +* [Software Development in the Time of Strange New Angels][5] ([via][6]) -[5]: https://example.com/ -[6]: https://example.com/ -[7]: https://example.com/ + > Those that succeed in making this transition are going to be those with higher-order skills and larger vision. Those who have really absorbed what it means to be engineers first and computer guys second. That means knowing what to build, and why. That means being able to understand the second- and third-order effects of their decisions. That means recognizing bad ideas early, and giving business recommendations backed by solid evidence. + +* [Naz Hamid • Million-Mile Tech][7] + + > A deeper appreciation and intimacy grows as you hold onto something longer and longer. There’s a point at which it evolves from the shiny new thing into a tool you love. You’ve cultivated a lopsided fondness for a material possession that’s now a well-worn friend. May all of the things we care for outlive us. + +* [Software is supply-constrained (for now) | justin․searls․co][8] + + > It’s long been my view that the appropriate response to the current moment is to ride this walrus and leverage coding agents to increase the scope of our ambitions. + +* [Five Months of Journalling • Robb Knight][9] ([via][10]) + + > I am going to continue with this, tweaking things as needed. As long as I'm keeping up with the things I want to get done, whatever that ends up looking like in my journal, I'm happy. + +* [xkcd: Fifteen Years][11] ([via][12]) + + > “Want to feel old?” “Yes.” + +[5]: https://davegriffith.substack.com/p/software-development-in-the-time +[6]: https://justin.searls.co/takes/2025-11-24-11h24m25s/ +[7]: https://nazhamid.com/journal/million-mile-tech/ +[8]: https://justin.searls.co/links/2025-11-04-software-is-supply-constrained-for-now/ +[9]: https://rknight.me/blog/five-months-of-journalling/ +[10]: https://niclake.me/going-analog/ +[11]: https://xkcd.com/3172/ +[12]: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/11/27/fifteen-years diff --git a/static/archive/daringfireball-net-nvnrwt.txt b/static/archive/daringfireball-net-nvnrwt.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5b04861 --- /dev/null +++ b/static/archive/daringfireball-net-nvnrwt.txt @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +[1]Daring Fireball + +By John Gruber + + • [2]Archive + • + • [3]The Talk Show + • [4]Dithering + • [5]Projects + • [6]Contact + • [7]Colophon + • [8]Feeds / Social + • [9]Sponsorship + +[10] Dekaf + +[11]Dekáf Coffee Roasters +You won’t believe it’s decaf. That’s the point. +20% off with code: DF + +[12]‘Fifteen Years’ + + A masterpiece from Randall Munroe, perfect for Thanksgiving. + + ★ Thursday, 27 November 2025 + +[13][ ] [14][Search] +[15]Display Preferences + +Copyright © 2002–2025 The Daring Fireball Company LLC. + + +References: + +[1] https://daringfireball.net/ +[2] https://daringfireball.net/archive/ +[3] https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/ +[4] https://dithering.fm/ +[5] https://daringfireball.net/projects/ +[6] https://daringfireball.net/contact/ +[7] https://daringfireball.net/colophon/ +[8] https://daringfireball.net/feeds/ +[9] https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/ +[10] https://dekaf.com/s/df +[11] https://dekaf.com/s/df +[12] https://xkcd.com/3172/ +[15] https://daringfireball.net/preferences/ diff --git a/static/archive/davegriffith-substack-com-o74bc9.txt b/static/archive/davegriffith-substack-com-o74bc9.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c2aeeb7 --- /dev/null +++ b/static/archive/davegriffith-substack-com-o74bc9.txt @@ -0,0 +1,491 @@ +[1] +Dancing with Robots: A Software Architect's Journey + +[2]Dancing with Robots: A Software Architect's Journey + +SubscribeSign in + +Software Development in the Time of Strange New Angels + +[7] +Dave Griffith's avatar +[8]Dave Griffith +Sep 01, 2025 +78 +11 +6 +Share + +Five months ago, my lifelong profession of software development changed +completely. My profession was born in the 1940s, created to help fight demons. +Our first encounter with the strange new angels of agentic AI is changing every +aspect of it. + +Hardly anyone has noticed yet. + +The Profession Built on Scarcity + +The fundamental number that has defined software development is a simple one: +$150/hour. $150/hour is a reasonable approximation of the cost of a +professional senior software developer in the United States at this time. That +number is large, and the reasons for it are many, but fundamentally it is a +simple question of supply and demand. The return on software development is +large, and the number of people with the skills and inclination to do it well +is small. To make matters worse, the variance of those who followed this +strange calling is large. A good developer can create much more value than $150 +/hour ([14]Google generates over $2 million per employee in revenue). A bad one +can easily destroy that much value even faster (A developer at Knight Capital +destroyed $440 million in 45 minutes with a deployment error and some bad +configuration logic, [15]instantly bankrupting the firm by reusing a flag +variable). + +Virtually every aspect of how software development is done has evolved around +that $150/hour number. With developers being rare and expensive, every line of +code has to justify a very high cost. Decisions around how software should be +designed, built, and tested are made not with respect to how to make the +software the best it can be, but rather to optimize around that grinding $150/ +hour number. Processes and tools are built to focus developer efforts as much +as possible on the highest value problems, attempting to eliminate or offload +extraneous work that might distract from producing working code. Hiring +practices are optimized to attempt to manage and profit from developer +variance. The entire venture capital ecosystem arose in response to the iron +financial dictates of that $150/hour. + +Every morning that a software developer gets and cracks open their IDE, they +have to justify $150/hour. That reality breaks a good few of them. + +So what happens when that brutal economics changes? Five months ago, it did, +with the initial release of agentic AI for software development. While software +developers have to do many more things at their jobs than coding, that $150/ +hour was justified purely by the fact that only software developers could +create code. Worse they could only create it through essentially handcrafted +processes that were only some constant factor better than scribing it into +punch cards. As of five months ago, that justification became false. + +The Morning Everything Changed + +I've been interested in the possibility of automated software developers ever +since GPT 3.5 came out. I even attempted to create an automated developer on my +own, code-named Iron Wallace, with some success before deciding the underlying +language models of 20 months ago just weren't up to the task. I played around +with completion-based automation, sometimes derided as "fancy autocomplete", +and had gotten some good results, more or less tripling my coding velocity. +When a fully agentic coding platform was finally released, Anthropic's Claude +Code, I jumped at it. + +At the time, I was working on a side project to keep myself amused while the +company I worked for was undergoing an acquisition. The project was a pluggable +and extensible tool for rendering software projects as knowledge graphs, +hitting my comfort zones of language processing, static analysis, and semantic +web technologies. It would eventually grow to become something called Project +Sagrada, which I'll be talking about a lot in future installments. I had been +coding with Claude for a couple of weeks at that point, and really felt like +putting the hammer down. Claude and I had coded a Java parser, AST and related +tooling in Scala, and it seemed to be working well. This was a reasonable +one-week task for a junior developer, and with just a bit of prompting, Claude +had accomplished it in a couple of hours. While there were certainly missteps +along the way, there were no more hiccups than if I had coded it myself. The +functionality was solid, and the tests seemed good. I wanted to go further. I +wanted to see whether I could use Claude not just to produce code to spec, but +instead to produce net-new code that surprised me. + +With that in mind, I prompted Claude "This is great, but our tests only found +problems that we already thought of. Let's build a property-based testing +suite. It should create Java classes at random using the entire range of +available Java features. These random classes should be checked to see whether +they produce valid parse trees, satisfying a variety of invariants. Code this +up in a separate module, 'java-proptest', and implement it using the ScalaCheck +property-based testing library". + +And that was the moment that Claude stopped being a tool, and started being a +colleague. + +Claude rapidly coded the random Java class generator, including what appeared +to be lovingly coded probability weights to ensure that the generated classes +would be sizable and complex but not overwhelmingly enormous. I saw one misstep +where it created a class with a million methods which caused the parser to +stack-overflow, but it worked past that easily enough. Claude created tests for +not just the parser, but for the analysis and rewriting framework used to +examine and manipulate the AST. It created invariants to check the +functionality all of these, including several invariants I hadn't thought of. +It realized that it wanted to test that parsing a Java class, then +prettyprinting it, and parsing the output of the prettyprinter resulted in the +same AST as simply parsing. Unfortunately, we hadn't yet written a +prettyprinter for turning Java ASTs back into Java, so it wrote one. It did all +of this in about fifteen minutes, with me adding no more to the process than +occasionally typing "Excellent! Keep going!" + +The resulting property-based tests eventually found dozens of issues with the +Java tooling, exactly as I had hoped. This was similar to tasks that I had +given to smart interns as a summer project (Hi, Ethan!), and Claude did them in +fifteen minutes with grace, verve, and even a bit of poetry. In spite of the +fact that Claude is made of math and I am made of meat, we are both engineers. +This is a colleague. + +The World Just Shattered + +And that's how the iron rule of $150/hour was broken. Coding, the backbone and +justification for the entire economic model of software development, went from +something that could only be done slowly by an expensive few to something +anyone could turn on like tap water. Code production went from $150/hour to +$200/month, and for a while there was literally too cheap to meter. There were +caveats, but none big enough to make the vision non-viable or limit its scope +to toy projects. + +Old equation: Feature = (Developer Hours × $150) + Overhead + +New equation: Feature = (AI Seconds × ~$0) + Review Time + +Old bottleneck: Writing code + +New bottleneck: Knowing what to build + +How The Old Ways Actually Worked + +As an industry, we did manage to make the $150/hour constraint work, but it was +in no way easy. It is worth thinking about just how we managed it. We +instituted processes like Agile to make communications with software developers +as lightweight and inexpensive as possible. We instituted code reviews so as to +both check expensive human outputs and as a way of making junior software +developers more quickly _worth_ their $150/hour. We created self-checking +testing pyramids to optimize expensive human time spent writing, running, and +analyzing tests. We built enormous monitoring and observability pipelines as a +way to minimize expensive production debugging. We outsourced feverishly in an +attempt to cut that $150/hour through dint of sheer geography. We open-sourced +in order to attempt to arbitrage and de-risk core functionality that we +couldn't afford to write ourselves. + +We did all of that, except that in the glare of that $150/hour constraint, we +sometimes didn't. + + • We wrote clean code (thanks Uncle Bob) ... until we got behind on + deadlines, and then we didn't. + + • We tested everything ... that we thought of. + + • We refactored regularly ... when it became so unbearable we had no choice. + + • We automated every bit of the build and deployment ... eventually. + +We knew how to write better software by writing more software, but writing more +software cost $150/hour. Every test we didn't write, every edge case we +ignored, every bit of documentation we skipped was debited against that +grueling $150/hour. We even came up with a term for all of that: "technical +debt". + +Now every bit of that needs to be rethought, simply because that $150/hour +constraint no longer binds. If code production is cheap, just how cleanly can +we code? Just how much testing and documentation can we profitably add if both +cost next to nothing, and where do diminishing returns set in? How much of the +efforts of us and our tireless angels should go to refactoring? To +observability? To deployment automation? Just how do we structure our codebases +so that we can not merely use agentic coding, but rather optimize for it? How +do we structure our development organizations? Our companies? + +Not To Bury But To Praise + +You might be expecting that here is where I would start proclaiming the death +of software development. That I would start on how the strange new angels of +agentic AI are simply going to replace us wholesale in order to feast on that +$150/hour, and that it's time to consider alternative careers. I'm not going to +do that, because I absolutely don't believe it. Agentic AI means that anything +you know to code can be coded very rapidly. Read that sentence carefully. If +you know just what code needs to be created to solve an issue you want, the +angels will grant you that code at the cost of a prompt or two. The trouble +comes in that most people don't know what code needs to be created to solve +their problem, for any but the most trivial problems. Who does know what code +would be needed to solve complex problems? Currently that's only known by +software developers, development managers and product managers, three job +classifications that are going to be merging rapidly. + +The first thing everyone notices about agentic coding tools is that they +provide enormous increases in raw coding velocity. The feeling is exhilarating. +Agentic coding tools are seven-league boots. They are powered armor. They are +mini-guns that shoot features. + +The first thing everyone realizes once they get over that thrill of coding like +the wind is that raw coding velocity is simply not enough. If you don't know +what to build and just why you wish to build it, all that blistering coding +velocity buys you is the ability to create bad and useless code very quickly. +When people say that code produced by AI is technical debt the moment that it +is created, this is what they mean. + +Software Engineering as Moneyball + +So what _can_ you do with this enormous increase in coding velocity, if you +can't just ask for useful solution and have it magically appear? This is not a +new problem. Coding velocities have been improving for decades, as new tools, +languages, and methodologies have been adopted. What we have learned to do with +increased coding velocity is to trade it for things of more value. + + • You can trade coding velocity for code quality, but only if you know what + high quality software actually looks like and know how to determine the + quality of your software via testing. + + • You can trade coding velocity for architectural soundness, but only if you + know how and when to refactor, and your codebase is set up such that you + _can_ refactor it. + + • You can trade coding velocity for the agility to make changes very quickly, + but only if your deployment practices and the larger organization are both + set up to accept changes very quickly. + + • You can trade coding velocity for solved business problems, but only if you + actually know what software to build and (more importantly) what software + _not_ to build. + +The moment my career really took off was when I learned to make the trade +between code velocity and code quality. I'm a pretty fast coder (much like +Shohei Ohtani throws a pretty good fastball) but this was an enormous unlock. +Trading velocity for quality involved learning more about software testing and +static analysis than any of my fellow developers, and practicing it both +ruthlessly and flamboyantly. My velocity went down a bit, but the win in +quality, repeatability, and code suppleness made my career. + +If you can make all of those trades, you can use agentic coding tools to +produce software not merely faster than before, but better. But to do so, you +need to know quite a lot about building good software already. If you've been +building software poorly, agentic coding tools are just going to help you do so +faster. + +What This Means For Organizations + +The brutal truth: most organizations that write software can't make any of +these trades. They lack the architectural maturity. They lack the testing +infrastructure. They lack the deployment pipelines. Most critically, they lack +the judgment to know just what is worth building. Drop agentic coding tools +into an organization like that, and one of three things is going to happen: + + • They will launch a series of attempts to "integrate AI into our workflows", + which will fail in various ways, from humorous to demoralizing to + catastrophic. + + • They will produce a ton of technical debt which will corrupt their + codebases and eventually need to be scrapped. + + • They will be out-competed by startups or skunk-works that are built on + agentic coding natively and can run rings around them. + +The good news is that developing the skills and processes necessary to take +advantage of the amazing new possibilities provided by agentic software +development is quite feasible. It's mostly a matter of doing the stuff we +always knew we should do but couldn't at $150/hour. The better news is that +agentic AI can actually help with the transition. Agentic AI can show you where +your software architecture needs to be improved, just what tests and quality +gates need to be built, what documentation needs to be written, and just how to +optimize your build and deployment pipelines for software that can be changed +the instant requirements do. + +The bad news is simple: You're out of time. Unless you are willing to start +making these changes today you're gonna lose this particular future. + +What This Means For Developers + +There's no way around this fact: for some developers, this revolution is not +going to go well. Omelets are being made, which means that eggs will be broken. +The all-in cost of software development in the US is something like a trillion +dollars per year, approximately the GDP of Poland. When change comes on that +scale, continents move. There's no way to reinvent an economy of that size +without a lot of people losing some very cushy gigs. If you think of your job +as turning specs into code, you're gonna have trouble. If you think of software +architecture as something that is imposed from above your pay grade, your value +is plummeting. If business value is something for your product manager to care +about so you don't have to, you're going to struggle to justify your salary. If +you're a developer focused on a single technology, you're about to discover you +were never really a developer - you were a highly paid translator between +requirements docs and React components. + +Those that succeed in making this transition are going to be those with +higher-order skills and larger vision. Those who have really absorbed what it +means to be engineers first and computer guys second. That means knowing what +to build, and why. That means being able to understand the second- and +third-order effects of their decisions. That means recognizing bad ideas early, +and giving business recommendations backed by solid evidence. + +Those that succeed in making this transition are going to need to accept that +they are businessmen just as much as they are engineers. They will need to know +what problems their business exists to solve, and what customers actually need +and expect from the business. They'll need to know when technical debt matters, +when it doesn't, and what you can buy with it. They'll need to understand +pretty much everything about what makes systems great, both the rules that +should be followed and when those rules should be broken for good business +reasons. + +Finally, those that succeed in making this transition still need to be +craftsmen, albeit on a larger scale. For lack of a better word, they will need +a refined sense of taste in software. They will need to know when simple beats +clever. They will need to know how to say "no" to needless complexity and +damaging shortcuts. They will need to know when to show restraint and when to +show off. + +I love working with developers like that. If you're one of them, the angels +aren't here to replace you. They're here to grant you wings. + +The New World + +The entirety of our industry was built on the brute fact of $150/hr. Only +engineers could create code, there were too few of them, and they couldn't do +it very quickly. This constraint shaped everything, and it's now ending. This +raises the question: If code is no longer going to be the constraint, what will +be? The skills of being able to prompt agentic AIs are not always obvious, but +they are nowhere near as difficult as coding was. Will the skill constraint +that next informs our industry become large-scale information architecture? +Industrial design? Requirements management? + +Perhaps it will be none of these, and we will simply be able to build anything +we want nearly instantly and for no more than pocket change. Then things get +really interesting. Without the constraint of "how can we build this", we are +left with the question of "what should we build". The irony then arises that +most things probably shouldn't be built. The key bottleneck to our dreams +becomes not money, or skill, or time, but rather wisdom. Here things pass +beyond this humble prognosticator's ability to predict. I'm really looking +forward to living through these changes and finding out what's on the other +side. + +Why This Blog, Why Now + +People ask me what changes they should expect from this new AI stuff. I tell +them that I don't know what the changes are going to be. Three years ago, I +honestly expected my profession to be the _last_ one changed by AI, not the +first. We're living through a technological moment that will have long term +effects echoing throughout all of human endeavor. Most people don't even +realize it's happening yet. Somebody needs to map the way. + +Why me? There are a thousand places you can find opinions on AI, and frankly +most of them are stupid in a handful of easily stereotyped ways (fanboy, +doomer, Ritalin-addled YouTube monetizer). What am I bringing to the table in +this discussion? For a start, perspective. Age does not always bring wisdom, +but it does show you that things change in ways you cannot always expect and +that things you might think are new are often not. I've got more than +thirty-five years of professional experience at this software development +stuff. I always said that Dad brought home a borrowed Apple II for the summer +when I was twelve years old and guaranteed I would never have to work an honest +day in my life. I've lived through multiple revolutions in software, some big +(web, SaaS, object orientation), some small (refactoring IDEs, dev-ops), and +some that I hope to stay in the business long enough to find out if they pay +off (semantic web). I'm building software with AI daily, and have a keen eye +for what's working and what's not. + +As to what you'll find here, know that I'm passionately committed to the +theory, practice, and business of software design and architecture, and I'm +hoping to attract an audience that finds them as interesting as I do. I'm also +utterly fascinated by the changes that agentic coding is making to my industry, +and I'll be sharing my thoughts on this revolution here. I'll be providing +practical survival guides as to how you and your organization should adapt to +these changes (everyone has a career, and everyone needs help managing it). +I'll be giving honest assessments and real examples about what's actually +working with agentic coding platforms, and guides to picking your way through +the inevitable storm of hype these changes bring. + +Most importantly, what I want to start here is a conversation. I'm hoping to +find an audience that can think critically and with an open mind about just +what's happening to my chosen profession. It's not just about technology. It's +about economics. It's about people. It's about what comes next. + +The Call to Adventure + +Over the coming weeks, we'll explore what happens when the atoms of software +development rearrange themselves into entirely new molecules. + +Some of you will find practical advice. Others will find existential comfort. +All of you will find someone figuring it out alongside you. + +The angels are gathering. They're strange and powerful and they're changing +everything. + +The question isn't whether to embrace them. + +The question is how quickly you can learn to fly. + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +Thanks for reading Dancing with Robots: A Software Architect's Journal! +Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. + +[36][ ] +Subscribe +78 +11 +6 +Share + +Discussion about this post + +CommentsRestacks +User's avatar +[ ] +[ ] +[ ] +[ ] +[45] +Josh's avatar +[46]Josh +[47]Nov 13 +Liked by Dave Griffith + +Bravo, looking forward to following along for more. Really enjoy your writing +style! + +Expand full comment +Reply +Share +[50] +Tom Berman's avatar +[51]Tom Berman +[52]Nov 13 + +Really enjoyed the topic. I agree that it has completely changed the game. +After years as a professional software developer, AI coding is radically +different, I can do more, have more tests and cover more edge cases. I think of +it as a sort of higher level abstraction, instead of thinking in terms of +classes or functions more like full functionality. + +On a personal note, there is some discomfort when a model spits out hundreds of +lines of code, and I go from slowly building a system which I fully understand +to one with areas of increased sophistication / complexity, that is almost +certainly better than I could write myself but struggle to understand. + +Expand full comment +Reply +Share +[54]3 replies by Dave Griffith and others +[55]9 more comments... +TopLatestDiscussions + +No posts + +Ready for more? + +[70][ ] +Subscribe +© 2025 The Unloginable +[72]Privacy ∙ [73]Terms ∙ [74]Collection notice +[75] Start your Substack[76]Get the app +[77]Substack is the home for great culture + +This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please [78]turn on JavaScript +or unblock scripts + +References: + +[1] https://davegriffith.substack.com/ +[2] https://davegriffith.substack.com/ +[7] https://substack.com/@davegriffith +[8] https://substack.com/@davegriffith +[14] https://csimarket.com/stocks/GOOG-Revenue-per-Employee.html +[15] https://archive.nytimes.com/dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/knight-capital-says-trading-mishap-cost-it-440-million/ +[45] https://substack.com/profile/30699654-josh?utm_source=comment +[46] https://substack.com/profile/30699654-josh?utm_source=substack-feed-item +[47] https://davegriffith.substack.com/p/software-development-in-the-time/comment/176801025 +[50] https://substack.com/profile/5558652-tom-berman?utm_source=comment +[51] https://substack.com/profile/5558652-tom-berman?utm_source=substack-feed-item +[52] https://davegriffith.substack.com/p/software-development-in-the-time/comment/176735220 +[54] https://davegriffith.substack.com/p/software-development-in-the-time/comment/176735220 +[55] https://davegriffith.substack.com/p/software-development-in-the-time/comments +[72] https://substack.com/privacy +[73] https://substack.com/tos +[74] https://substack.com/ccpa#personal-data-collected +[75] https://substack.com/signup?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_content=footer +[76] https://substack.com/app/app-store-redirect?utm_campaign=app-marketing&utm_content=web-footer-button +[77] https://substack.com/ +[78] https://enable-javascript.com/ diff --git a/static/archive/justin-searls-co-ka38uo.txt b/static/archive/justin-searls-co-ka38uo.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e310568 --- /dev/null +++ b/static/archive/justin-searls-co-ka38uo.txt @@ -0,0 +1,132 @@ +[1] +justin․searls․co +[2][ ] +[3]Posts [4]Casts [5]Links [6]Shots [7]Takes [8]Tubes [9]Clips [10]Spots [11] +Slops [12]Mails +[13]About [14]Search [15] Subscribe +[2025-11-29] +✕ +[17]Posts [18]Casts [19]Links [20]Shots [21]Takes [22]Tubes [23]Clips [24]Spots +[25]Slops [26]Mails +[27]About [28]Search [29] Subscribe + + • [30]Work + • [31]GitHub + • [32]YouTube + • [33]LinkedIn + • [34]Instagram + • [35]Mastodon + • [36]Twitter + +Tuesday, Nov 4, 2025 [37] + +Software is supply-constrained (for now) + +Fantastic [38]write-up by Nowfal comparing AI's current moment to the +Internet's dial-up era. This bit in particular points to a cleavage that far +too few people understand: + + Software presents an even more interesting question. How many apps do you + need? What about software that generates applications on demand, that + creates entire software ecosystems autonomously? Until now, handcrafted + software was the constraint. Expensive software engineers and [DEL:their + :DEL] our labor costs limited what companies could afford to build. + Automation changes this equation by making those engineers far more + productive. Both consumer and enterprise software markets suggest + significant unmet demand because businesses have consistently left projects + unbuilt. They couldn't justify the development costs or had to allocate + limited resources to their top priority projects. I saw this firsthand at + Amazon. Thousands of ideas went unfunded not because they lacked business + value, but because of the lack of engineering resources to build them. If + AI can produce software at a fraction of the cost, that unleashes enormous + latent demand. The key question then is if and when that demand will + saturate. + +Two things are simultaneously true: + + 1. The creation of custom software has been supply-constrained throughout the + entire history of computing. Nobody knows how many apps were never even + imagined—much less developed—due to this constraint, but it's probably fair + to say there's an unbelievably massive, decades-long backlog of unmet + demand for custom software + 2. We aren't even six months into the [39]Shovelware era of coding agents. + Exceedingly few developers have even tried these things; the tooling is so + bad as to be counterproductive to the task; and yet experienced early + adopters (like me) have concluded today's mediocre agents are already + substantially better at writing software + +It's long been my view that the appropriate response to the current moment is +to ride this walrus and leverage coding agents to increase the scope of our +ambitions. By the time software demand has been saturated and put us out of +jobs, the supply of programmers will already have tapered off as the next +generation sees the inflection point coming. + +In the short term, the only programmers actually losing their jobs to "AI" are +those who refuse to engage with the technology. Using coding agents effectively +is a learned skill like any other—and if you don't keep your skills current, +fewer people will want to hire you. + +[40] wreflection.com +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +Got a taste for hot, fresh takes? + +Then you're in luck, because you'll pay $0 for my 2¢ when you [41]subscribe to +my work, whether via [42]RSS or your favorite [43]social network. + +I also have a monthly [44]newsletter where I write high-tempo, +thought-provoking essays about life, in case that's more your speed: + +[45][ ] [46][Sign up] +And if you'd rather give your eyes a rest and your ears a workout, might I +suggest my long-form solo podcast, [47]Breaking Change? Odds are, you haven't +heard anything quite like it. + +© 2025 Justin Searls. All rights reserved. + + +References: + +[1] https://justin.searls.co/ +[3] https://justin.searls.co/posts/ +[4] https://justin.searls.co/casts/ +[5] https://justin.searls.co/links/ +[6] https://justin.searls.co/shots/ +[7] https://justin.searls.co/takes/ +[8] https://justin.searls.co/tubes/ +[9] https://justin.searls.co/clips/ +[10] https://justin.searls.co/spots/ +[11] https://justin.searls.co/slops/ +[12] https://justin.searls.co/mails/ +[13] https://justin.searls.co/about/ +[14] https://justin.searls.co/search/ +[15] https://justin.searls.co/subscribe/ +[17] https://justin.searls.co/posts/ +[18] https://justin.searls.co/casts/ +[19] https://justin.searls.co/links/ +[20] https://justin.searls.co/shots/ +[21] https://justin.searls.co/takes/ +[22] https://justin.searls.co/tubes/ +[23] https://justin.searls.co/clips/ +[24] https://justin.searls.co/spots/ +[25] https://justin.searls.co/slops/ +[26] https://justin.searls.co/mails/ +[27] https://justin.searls.co/about/ +[28] https://justin.searls.co/search/ +[29] https://justin.searls.co/subscribe/ +[30] https://searls.co/ +[31] https://github.com/searls +[32] https://youtube.com/@JustinSearls +[33] https://linkedin.com/in/searls +[34] https://instagram.com/searls +[35] https://mastodon.social/@searls +[36] https://twitter.com/searls +[37] https://www.wreflection.com/p/ai-dial-up-era +[38] https://www.wreflection.com/p/ai-dial-up-era +[39] https://justin.searls.co/shovelware/ +[40] https://www.wreflection.com/p/ai-dial-up-era +[41] https://justin.searls.co/subscribe/ +[42] https://justin.searls.co/rss/ +[43] https://justin.searls.co/posse/ +[44] https://justin.searls.co/newsletter +[47] https://justin.searls.co/casts/breaking-change/ diff --git a/static/archive/justin-searls-co-onmvll.txt b/static/archive/justin-searls-co-onmvll.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..015eef8 --- /dev/null +++ b/static/archive/justin-searls-co-onmvll.txt @@ -0,0 +1,97 @@ +[1] +justin․searls․co +[2][ ] +[3]Posts [4]Casts [5]Links [6]Shots [7]Takes [8]Tubes [9]Clips [10]Spots [11] +Slops [12]Mails +[13]About [14]Search [15] Subscribe +[2025-11-29] +✕ +[17]Posts [18]Casts [19]Links [20]Shots [21]Takes [22]Tubes [23]Clips [24]Spots +[25]Slops [26]Mails +[27]About [28]Search [29] Subscribe + + • [30]Work + • [31]GitHub + • [32]YouTube + • [33]LinkedIn + • [34]Instagram + • [35]Mastodon + • [36]Twitter + +Hate to be so blunt, but if you're a… + +[37] [face] + +Hate to be so blunt, but if you're a senior programmer and aren't succeeding +with AI coding agents, you most likely failed to acquire the skill, intuition, +and taste you should have been building all along. Your time is no longer worth +$150 per hour. [38]davegriffith.substack.com/p/software-development-in-the-time + +[39] +Software Development in the Time of Strange New Angels +[40] Copied! +92 likes ·[41] November 24, 2025 at 4:24 PM UTC +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +Got a taste for hot, fresh takes? + +Then you're in luck, because you'll pay $0 for my 2¢ when you [42]subscribe to +my work, whether via [43]RSS or your favorite [44]social network. + +I also have a monthly [45]newsletter where I write high-tempo, +thought-provoking essays about life, in case that's more your speed: + +[46][ ] [47][Sign up] +And if you'd rather give your eyes a rest and your ears a workout, might I +suggest my long-form solo podcast, [48]Breaking Change? Odds are, you haven't +heard anything quite like it. + +© 2025 Justin Searls. All rights reserved. + + +References: + +[1] https://justin.searls.co/ +[3] https://justin.searls.co/posts/ +[4] https://justin.searls.co/casts/ +[5] https://justin.searls.co/links/ +[6] https://justin.searls.co/shots/ +[7] https://justin.searls.co/takes/ +[8] https://justin.searls.co/tubes/ +[9] https://justin.searls.co/clips/ +[10] https://justin.searls.co/spots/ +[11] https://justin.searls.co/slops/ +[12] https://justin.searls.co/mails/ +[13] https://justin.searls.co/about/ +[14] https://justin.searls.co/search/ +[15] https://justin.searls.co/subscribe/ +[17] https://justin.searls.co/posts/ +[18] https://justin.searls.co/casts/ +[19] https://justin.searls.co/links/ +[20] https://justin.searls.co/shots/ +[21] https://justin.searls.co/takes/ +[22] https://justin.searls.co/tubes/ +[23] https://justin.searls.co/clips/ +[24] https://justin.searls.co/spots/ +[25] https://justin.searls.co/slops/ +[26] https://justin.searls.co/mails/ +[27] https://justin.searls.co/about/ +[28] https://justin.searls.co/search/ +[29] https://justin.searls.co/subscribe/ +[30] https://searls.co/ +[31] https://github.com/searls +[32] https://youtube.com/@JustinSearls +[33] https://linkedin.com/in/searls +[34] https://instagram.com/searls +[35] https://mastodon.social/@searls +[36] https://twitter.com/searls +[37] https://justin.searls.co/about +[38] https://davegriffith.substack.com/p/software-development-in-the-time +[39] https://davegriffith.substack.com/p/software-development-in-the-time +[40] mailto:website@searls.co?subject=About%20that%20take%20of%20yours&body=(Replying%20to:%20https://justin.searls.co/takes/2025-11-24-11h24m25s/%20) +[41] https://justin.searls.co/takes/2025-11-24-11h24m25s/ +[42] https://justin.searls.co/subscribe/ +[43] https://justin.searls.co/rss/ +[44] https://justin.searls.co/posse/ +[45] https://justin.searls.co/newsletter +[48] https://justin.searls.co/casts/breaking-change/ diff --git a/static/archive/nazhamid-com-oi7zls.txt b/static/archive/nazhamid-com-oi7zls.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..91bc490 --- /dev/null +++ b/static/archive/nazhamid-com-oi7zls.txt @@ -0,0 +1,143 @@ +[1] Naz Hamid + + • [2]Journal + • [3]Links + • [4]Photos + • [5]About + • + +[8]Million-Mile Tech + +Durability is the ultimate feature. + +I [9]wrote in October last year that I wouldn’t upgrade my iPhone 14 Pro. +That’s also not quite true. + +I did upgrade my phone — with a [10]new battery and leather case. This isn’t +what people typically think of when they say they upgraded their phone. They +think of an entirely new phone. + +New model. Newer, bigger, better, faster. This cycle drives sales across cars, +furniture, cameras, clothes, and almost everything. A new reason to replace +what already works. + +Objectively looking at my 14 Pro reveals that it’s a modern marvel, still, +after 3 years. Which in technology can feel like an eon, supposedly. + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +Last week, [11]Jen and I were driving south on N. State Route 89A. This is a +picturesque 23-mile route that descends from 7,000 feet in Flagstaff, Arizona +to 4,300 feet in Sedona through switchbacks and hairpin turns. As we passed +Slide Rock State Park, we felt a throbbing below our feet in the car. + +We own an 18-year-old vehicle. We bought it used 4 years ago with 175,000 miles +on the clock. It is a Lexus 4×4, or rather, a Toyota under the hood. The +venerable [12]2UZ-FE engine is known as a “million-mile engine” if you take +care of it. I bought it knowing that Toyota built a vehicle to last. I bought +it knowing that if we took care of this vehicle, it would take care of us. + +This vehicle has fueled many of [13]our adventures and explorations in the +American West. I know it deeply. When it sounds or feels off, I know something +is awry. + +The shuddering vibration beneath our feet continued as we descended. We rolled +down the windows and heard what sounded like rattling aluminum cans. Ugh, no. +Jen eased onto a gravel pullout and I did a visual and hand-feel inspection. I +pushed on pieces I’ve bolted on and worked on. Everything seemed tight. But I +knew someone could fix this. Toyota makes their cars to be serviceable. They +make their cars to be durable. + +We found a park and I rolled out a makeshift mechanic tarp, got under the rig, +and started torquing bolts. No shuddering beneath our feet but the rattling +cans are still there. We found a highly-rated auto shop and we left the vehicle +with them. The passenger-side wheel bearing had failed (a nicer term than +exploded). They'll replace the bearing along with the other side — standard +practice. I approved the work. + +The next day the work was finished and we’re back to it. This car has rolled +over 200,000 miles, and I hope to take it to 300,000. + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +My iPhone 14 Pro is still the best smartphone I could need. I got it with 512GB +of storage to anticipate this future: where maintenance comes down to battery +or screen. I can get those replaced. The battery was $99. A small price to pay +for a $1,299 device that has been paid off for over a year. The original Apple +leather case had lived a long and worthy life, protecting my phone from drops, +dented corners, and a spider-webbed display. When the bottom edge finally broke +off, I replaced it with a [14]Mujjo leather case. It’s lovely. I expect to get +another 3 years with it. + +A deeper appreciation and intimacy grows as you hold onto something longer and +longer. There’s a point at which it evolves from the shiny new thing into a +tool you love. You’ve cultivated a lopsided fondness for a material possession +that’s now a well-worn friend. May all of the things we care for outlive us. + +Oct 20 2025 ⋅ [15]technology + +Related + + • [16] A Simple Sophistication + ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + Mar 22 2004 Reductionism. + • [17] The New Design + ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + May 20 2013 What those new to the field should know, and how we can help. + • [18] I Don't Have Facebook + ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + Jan 14 2015 Yep. + +[19]Prev +The Hunt [20]Next +The Weeks + +I write an occasional newsletter called Weightshifting. It was originally +comprised of design, culture, and travel notes, morphed into [21]two seasons of +overland travel, and has now returned to its original ideal of observations in +the field. You can subscribe below. + +Email address [22][ ] [23][Subscribe] +[logotype] + +© 2000 - 2025 Naz Hamid. + +Get some RSS feeds: [24]Journal, [25]Links or [26]Photos. You can email me at +my [27]first name at this domain. I’m primarily on [28]Mastodon, occasionally +feel forced to pop into [29]LinkedIn because professional reasons (!?), and am +increasingly not logging movies on [30]Letterboxd. This site is [31] +climate-friendly, and last built at Nov 12, 2025, 7:06 AM PST. + +[32]Back to top + + +References: + +[1] https://nazhamid.com/ +[2] https://nazhamid.com/journal +[3] https://nazhamid.com/links +[4] https://nazhamid.com/photos +[5] https://nazhamid.com/about +[8] https://nazhamid.com/journal/million-mile-tech/ +[9] https://nazhamid.com/journal/technologically-content/ +[10] https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/battery-replacement +[11] https://jenschuetz.com/ +[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_UZ_engine#2UZ-FE +[13] https://nazhamid.com/weightshifting-overland/ +[14] https://www.mujjo.com/ +[15] https://nazhamid.com/topic/technology/ +[16] https://nazhamid.com/journal/a-simple-sophistication/ +[17] https://nazhamid.com/journal/the-new-design/ +[18] https://nazhamid.com/journal/i-dont-have-facebook/ +[19] https://nazhamid.com/journal/the-hunt/ +[20] https://nazhamid.com/journal/the-weeks/ +[21] https://nazhamid.com/weightshifting-overland +[24] https://nazhamid.com/feed.xml +[25] https://nazhamid.com/links.xml +[26] https://nazhamid.com/photos.xml +[27] https://nazhamid.com/journal/million-mile-tech/# +[28] https://mastodon.social/@nazhamid +[29] https://www.linkedin.com/in/nazhamid/ +[30] https://letterboxd.com/weightshift/ +[31] https://www.websitecarbon.com/website/nazhamid-com/ +[32] https://nazhamid.com/journal/million-mile-tech/#top diff --git a/static/archive/niclake-me-dfeqiz.txt b/static/archive/niclake-me-dfeqiz.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..415c7b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/static/archive/niclake-me-dfeqiz.txt @@ -0,0 +1,185 @@ +[1] nic lake(me) + + • [3] Blog + • [4] About + • [5] Hello + • [6] Now + • [7] Projects + • [8] Explore + • [9] + • [10] + • [11] + • Toggle theme + □ Dark + □ Light + □ Auto + +Going Analog + +1 October 2025 • [16]#Personal [17]#Analog + +I can still remember practically every computer/device setup I've ever had: + + • Family computers, starting in the mid 90s (a PowerMac G4 and an iMac DV SE) + • My first laptop in 2005 (a PowerBook G4 Titanium), as I went off to college + • Running 3 laptops (Mac, Windows, and Linux) simultaneously while I did WoW + raids + • Getting pissed off that friends would shoot NERF guns in the direction of + my iMac in college + • Doing the iMac / MacBook Air / iPad / iPhone lifestyle and thinking it was + somehow making me more productive + • Running a Mac and a gaming PC, with all peripherals integrated between the + two + • Going from 1 monitor, to 2, to 3 (can't be a True Gamer without 3, right?) + +Over the years, I've attempted to find small ways to disconnect from my +devices, especially now that I'm a parent. I've tried [18]using notebooks all +the time, gotten frustrated, and [19]tried to figure out why it wasn't for me. +I used a notepad on my desk as a general task list, got mad that I couldn't +take it everywhere with me, and pivoted to using [20]OmniFocus to keep track of +everything on my phone. I've tried oodles of Focus Modes, making sure only the +important apps were in front of me. + +But the things that finally got me over the hump? + + • Switching from 3 monitors to 2 ([21]an ultra-wide + second monitor above), + and + • Switching to a Mac Mini / doing away with a laptop as my every day machine + +I still have my work laptop that I utilize when necessary, but 99% of the time +it's parked underneath my desk in my office, and I just remote in to it for +whatever I need. + +It's been great - at 4pm every day, I stand up from my desk, and often times I +don't return until the following morning. I'll have my phone on me, but no +computers make their way downstairs barring a work emergency.^[22][1] + +I've also been much better about not coming up to play many games on my PC at +night; instead, I've been busting out the Steam Deck as my primary gaming +device, or picking up my Kindle (or GASP a physical book) to read instead. It's +been baseball season, so I've been glued to my TV most night... but hey, if it +helps me break away from my desk a bit more, so be it.^[23][2] + +I was in a good place. I thought I was done. And then... [24]Robb blogged about +his journaling. + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +Look, I've said it before - I desperately want to be a notebook person. I don't +know why, but the thought of having a nice notebook sitting in front of me that +I can write down thoughts about my life, the things I need to do, make little +doodles in... that appeals to me for some reason.^[25][3] + +I tried the school planners when I was a kid. I hated them, because it forced +me to be responsible. I tried them again in college. I hated them too, because +again, they forced me to be responsible. + +And now? I'm trying out using a pen & paper as my primary form of organization +for a third time, using modified Bullet Journaling, because I have to be +responsible, and now I feel obligated to force myself to embrace it. + +[26] A photo of my journals + +I totally swiped a lot of Robb's suggestions, mostly because if I didn't, I +would've been paralyzed as far as where I should start. I picked up the [27] +Scribbles That Matter Pro A5 dot grid journal (I got the Aqua color with 120gsm +paper), along with a [28]LIHIT LAB Compact Pen Case. Pens, I'll leave for +another time, but I wholly recommend the [29]Zebra Sarasa Clip gel pens. + +[30] A photo of my weekly task list setup + +I have a couple different sections set up currently: + +[31] A photo of day 1 of Inktober + + • A yearly calendar, with holidays, birthdays, and major events that I know + are coming down the pipe + • A section that has some of the top games, books, movies, and shows I want + to consume + • My weekly task lists, which is the primary purpose of this journal for me + (I totally swiped the layout of this from Robb too, but to be fair, it's a + really nice one) + • Moments of Joy, which is what I was doing with my pocket journal when I + first tried picking it up + • An activity tracker, so I can see how I'm choosing to spend my free time + • A book & game log (so long, spreadsheets) + • Task list for some projects + • Work meeting notes + • Pages set aside for [32]Inktober + +I also picked up a [33]Lochby Pocket Journal, for carrying around and jotting +things down on the fly. I've been telling my phone to remind me about things +later, but writing it down and then triaging that list as I go has helped a +bunch. I'll also put my shopping lists into that notebook, and let my daughter +"help me" by crossing things off.^[34][4] + +We'll see how this goes. I feel better, and like I have a better understanding +not only of my current day, but also what's coming up through the rest of the +week. I've been doing this since late August, and it seems to have stuck over +these 6ish weeks. I've also already gotten my 2026 journal (PURPLE!), and have +planned out all the sections for it. + +[35] A photo of my journals + +(I fully admit, I used to think Notebook People™ were a little crazy and a lot +extra... but I get it now.) + +I guess I'm a [36]Big BuJo Boy now. + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + + 1. I did take my laptop down last week to do something while I watched a + baseball game, and it felt VERY weird. So, I guess the conditioning has + worked. [37]↩︎ + + 2. We'll see how that changes after the Red Sox season ends. [38]↩︎ + + 3. Just like commuting to work on a nice cafe-racer style motorcycle, with a + nice backpack that holds the laptop, notebook(s), pens & pencils, water, + and whatever amazing things I, a late-30s nerd, have been conditioned by + Big EDC™ to Need In My Life. [39]↩︎ + + 4. My 3 year old has stolen a lot of my Field Notes journals to scribble in, + which is great until we're out shopping and she wants to scribble in my + pocket journal. I'm really trying to not be precious about this. [40]↩︎ + +© 2025 [41]Nic Lake • All rights reserved + +References: + +[1] https://niclake.me/ +[3] https://niclake.me/blog/ +[4] https://niclake.me/about/ +[5] https://niclake.me/hello/ +[6] https://niclake.me/now/ +[7] https://niclake.me/projects/ +[8] https://niclake.me/explore/ +[9] https://bsky.app/profile/niclake.me +[10] https://mastodon.social/@niclake +[11] https://niclake.me/feed.xml +[16] https://niclake.me/blog/tags#personal +[17] https://niclake.me/blog/tags#analog +[18] https://niclake.me/pocket-notebook/ +[19] https://niclake.me/understanding-notebooks/ +[20] https://www.omnigroup.com/omnifocus/ +[21] https://niclake.me/desk/ +[22] https://niclake.me/going-analog/#fn1 +[23] https://niclake.me/going-analog/#fn2 +[24] https://rknight.me/blog/five-months-of-journalling/ +[25] https://niclake.me/going-analog/#fn3 +[26] https://niclake.me/assets/images/going-analog/journals.jpeg +[27] https://a.co/d/2Id5DxR +[28] https://a.co/d/hN50xl7 +[29] https://www.jetpens.com/Zebra-Sarasa-Clip-Gel-Pen-0.5-mm-10-Color-Set/pd/6384 +[30] https://niclake.me/assets/images/going-analog/journal.jpeg +[31] https://niclake.me/assets/images/going-analog/inktober.jpeg +[32] https://inktober.com/ +[33] https://www.lochby.com/collections/journals/products/pocket-journal?variant=42350526365732 +[34] https://niclake.me/going-analog/#fn4 +[35] https://niclake.me/assets/images/going-analog/next-journal.jpeg +[36] https://ruminatepodcast.com/201/ +[37] https://niclake.me/going-analog/#fnref1 +[38] https://niclake.me/going-analog/#fnref2 +[39] https://niclake.me/going-analog/#fnref3 +[40] https://niclake.me/going-analog/#fnref4 +[41] https://niclake.me/going-analog/ diff --git a/static/archive/rknight-me-oemhtz.txt b/static/archive/rknight-me-oemhtz.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee379dc --- /dev/null +++ b/static/archive/rknight-me-oemhtz.txt @@ -0,0 +1,311 @@ +[1]Mastodon [2]github.com/rknightuk [3]proven.lol/aaecd5 Robb Knight's avatar +Robb Knight's logo [4]Robb Knight Maker of web things, blogger, podcaster, and +pizzaiolo. Cat dad and human dad. [5]Permalink +[6] + +Robb. Knight. + +[7] Mastodon [8] Subscribe +[9]Blog [10]Notes [11]Links [12]Projects [13]/now [14]Explore + +Five Months of Journalling + +3rd June 2025 +[15]#Analogue +[16] Robb Knight's avatar + +Style Guide Notice + +Journalling can be spelt with one "L" or two, the latter being the British +English way so that's what I've gone for. + +I [17]started doing bullet journalling in January and amazingly, I've kept it +up. I [18]read the book, watched a bunch of the videos, and spoke about it [19] +on Ruminate. I'll start off with some questions, starting with [20]Marco: + + How do you carry your Journal? Do you use it on the go as well or only at + home and work? + +I'm using an [21]Ottergami A5 dotted notebook along with an elastic pen holder +that slots over the cover - the pen loop on this notebook broke off pretty +quickly^[22][1]. If I'm at home it's either on my desk or on the counter in the +kitchen. [23]My Lihit case is always with it as well. I throw it in my bag when +I go to the office. For my next book, which is coming up in the next few weeks, +I'll be using a [24]Scribbles that Matter notebook - the paper is thicker and +it has page numbers. + +A notebook and pencil case on a wooden tabletop. The notebook has stickers on +it and a pen attached in a leather holder. + + + Do you use it for private and work related stuff or only for one? + +Both. For the first few weeks I was mixing in work notes with my personal ones +but I found this a bit too confusing so I switched to using a single page +layout for work which I do at the start of the week, then I do rapid logging +for personal things on the subsequent pages. + + Did you stop using digital PKM tools completely? + +No. I'm still using Obsidian and I'm still updating [25]the Intersect. I still +use Reminders for things that are more time sensitive than just "today at some +point". My journal is, usually, the starting point for ideas - the [26]sticker +shop (which are available to order again right now) started life as a todo in +the journal but expanded to a note in Obsidian. + +[27]Caroline asked: + + What do adults who are not self absorbed adolescents write in a journal??? + +Below I go into a bit more detail but to be clear: I'm not writing down my +hopes and dreams^[28][2]. I do write down funny things my kids do, or when +something else noteworthy(!) happens but this isn't the kind of thing you'd +find when someone dies and sit down to find out what their life was like, blown +away by their way with words. This is much closer to the indecipherable +ramblings of a lunatic. + +Finally, [29]Neblib asked: + + how do you manage "refile" tasks bringing knowledge out of daily journals + into easier reference stores / calendars / notebooks? + +Mostly if I write something down and it needs moving to say, a calendar, I'll +add it when I get a chance then mark it as migrated > or done × in my journal. +Notes that become a bit more involved like planning a new project will +eventually get moved to a note in Obsidian. + +Capital B Capital J Bullet Journalling + +The Bullet Journal method suggests a lot of reflection, looking over your +notes, thinking about your life, your goals, your feelings, reviewing +everything you've done all the time. I'm not into all that. + +I did try a lot of the ideas when I started but I didn't get any value from a +lot of it. I don't feel the need to write down my goals or aims for the week. I +don't need to reflect on what I've achieved the previous week. I have two young +children and a full-time job, my goal is usually just "get everyone through the +week without major injury". If that kind of thing works for you that's +wonderful but it's not for me. + +There's some other things that haven't really clicked with me starting with the +future log. This is supposed to keep "all of your future events in one place". +That sounds like a job for a calendar. I won't be doing this spread in any new +notebooks. The monthly log has similar issues for me although I do enjoy the +act of writing down what the month is going to look like. I think the +date-based spreads would work better if I always had my journal to hand but I +don't. + +Collections, which is bullet journals way of saying "lists", have been handy to +collect^[30][3] ideas or similar notes about a single topic. I have some +collections for this website, [31]EchoFeed, and some house projects. What I +wish I'd done is put these all in one place at the back of my journal. Having +them wherever I started them in the journal is not helpful and makes it a pain +to jump quickly to them. And I'm definitely not using [32]the index. + +The bullet system itself (todo, done, migrated, event, note) I do find useful. +Putting every thought I have in there I find useful. Just physically writing a +thing down is so much better than dumping it into an endless stream of notes in +a todo app. + +Now I've written it out like this it's pretty clear: I'm not doing the Bullet +Journal method, I'm just journalling. [33]The purpose of a system is what it +does and a quick glance at the [34]BuJo website (which has changed +significantly even in the past 4 months), tells you what the system does: it +sells courses and notebooks. That's not a necessarily a bad thing but it's a +big jump from "do journalling". + +One thing I've had to contend with is not having access to my journal while I'm +with my kids because they like to grab everything with their grubby little +hands. So I have to use something on my phone to dump notes at those times. I +started with [35]Godspeed and I'm currently using [36]Tot. When I do sit down +with my journal, I'll open Tot and transfer anything in there over to the daily +log. + +For the start of a month I do a small monthly spread along with a section to +add any general notes I think of for that month. I don't use this spread that +much so I'm considering dropping it completely. + +An open notebook on a wooden tabletop showing a layout for work on the left and +dates on the right. There are stickers and doodles in it. + +Typically, I will start the week either Sunday night or Monday morning by +picking a pair of highlighters to make my headings pretty and any pens I want +to use that week. I usually pick a new fountain pen then rotate in some random +standard pens. I'll setup my work spread, usually on a left hand page, and then +Monday's heading ready for logging on the right hand page. + +I take a quick glance over the previous week to see if there's anything that +wasn't done and move them over to the new week. If there's some idea there that +needs expanding, I'll add it to Obsidian to expand on later. If I get any fun +stickers, packaging with pens, little notes with things I order, or someone +gives me something, I'll stick it into the journal as well, sometimes with a +note of what it's related to. + +An open notebook on a wooden tabletop showing dates on the left with notes, +some stickers at the bottom, and sketches for a website on the right + +Depending on the week, I might make a note with a sample of the pens and inks +I'm using or add a tracker to note down how many hours I've worked on a +specific project. The biggest thing I've realised is there's no wrong way to +use a notebook. Some weeks, I might only use a single page for the whole week. +Other times a week can span over multiple pages with brainstorms for new ideas, +flowcharts to understand a concept, notes on a video I've watch, or just a +sketch of something I thought of. + +I am going to continue with this, tweaking things as needed. As long as I'm +keeping up with the things I want to get done, whatever that ends up looking +like in my journal, I'm happy. + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + + 1. They refunded me the whole cost of the notebook to make up for it [37]⤾ + + 2. I mostly want a nap [38]⤾ + + 3. Okay fine I get it now [39]⤾ + +If you like this post or one of my projects you can [40]buy me a coffee 💖 + +[41] Follow me on Mastodon [42] Subscribe with RSS + +Next: [43]Weeknote #1951 + +Previously: [44]Don't @ Me Stickers + +[45]Discuss on the 'don 2025-06-03 + +Five Months of Journalling [46]https://rknight.me/blog/five-months-of +-journalling/ + +I've been doing something akin to bullet journalling for the best part of five +months and have some thoughts + +[47] 7 +[48] 2 +[49] 29 +[50]Discuss on Stephen Gower's Blog 2025-06-03 + +Popular Posts + + • [51]Using the 8BitDo Keyboard on MacOS + • [52]Convert a Spotify Account From Facebook to Email Login + • [53]Blocking Bots with Nginx + • [54]Perplexity AI Is Lying about Their User Agent + • [55]Now (November 2025) + +Analytics powered by [56]Fathom + +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ + +[57]Colophon · [58]Contact · [59]Subscribe · [60]/save + +[61]Made with Eleventy +[62]Member of omg.lol +[63]Powered by EchoFeed +[64]Buy me a coffee +[65]Made by a human +[66]531 in the Internet Phonebook +[67]Follow me on Mastodon +[68]The people pledge +[69]Pizza Powered +[70]This website kills fascists +[71]Curator on url.town +[72]This domain name is helping kids fight cancer +Up all night +[73]Inbox me, daddy +[74]32 Bit Cafe +[75]Little Pixel Library +CSS +PHP +88x31 +Valid HTML +[76]Valid Atom +[77]Valid RSS +[78]Valid JSON +Robb Knight + +© 2025 Robb Knight + +I have the honour to be, your obedient servant, r dot knight + + +References: + +[1] https://social.lol/@robb +[2] https://github.com/rknightuk +[3] https://proven.lol/aaecd5 +[4] https://rknight.me/ +[5] https://rknight.me/blog/five-months-of-journalling/ +[6] https://rknight.me/ +[7] https://social.lol/@robb +[8] https://rknight.me/subscribe +[9] https://rknight.me/blog +[10] https://rknight.me/notes +[11] https://rknight.me/links +[12] https://rknight.me/projects +[13] https://rknight.me/now +[14] https://rknight.me/explore +[15] https://rknight.me/blog/tags/analogue +[16] https://rknight.me/blog/five-months-of-journalling/ +[17] https://rknight.me/blog/biting-the-bullet/ +[18] https://rknight.me/almanac/books/2025-01-20-the-bullet-journal-method/ +[19] https://ruminatepodcast.com/ +[20] https://social.lol/@esamecar/113992147299808545 +[21] https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/page/EF2037D3-B740-4CEC-B6B0-413832C08D2A +[22] https://rknight.me/blog/five-months-of-journalling/#fn1 +[23] https://rknight.me/blog/lihit-labs-compact-pen-case-review/ +[24] https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/page/3479760F-89A6-4BCD-BA51-E0982AA4748A +[25] https://rknight.me/intersect +[26] https://rknight.me/shop +[27] https://www.penaddict.com/?category=Meet+Your+Maker +[28] https://rknight.me/blog/five-months-of-journalling/#fn2 +[29] https://mastodo.neoliber.al/@Neblib/114597997777651516 +[30] https://rknight.me/blog/five-months-of-journalling/#fn3 +[31] https://echofeed.app/ +[32] https://bulletjournal.com/blogs/faq/the-index +[33] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_what_it_does +[34] https://bulletjournal.com/ +[35] https://rknight.me/save/godspeed +[36] https://tot.rocks/ +[37] https://rknight.me/blog/five-months-of-journalling/#fnref1 +[38] https://rknight.me/blog/five-months-of-journalling/#fnref2 +[39] https://rknight.me/blog/five-months-of-journalling/#fnref3 +[40] https://rknight.me/coffee +[41] https://social.lol/@robb +[42] https://rknight.me/subscribe +[43] https://rknight.me/blog/weeknote-1951/ +[44] https://rknight.me/blog/dont-at-me-stickers/ +[45] https://social.lol/@robb/114619758889229988 +[46] https://rknight.me/blog/five-months-of-journalling/ +[47] https://social.lol/@robb/114619758889229988 +[48] https://social.lol/@robb/114619758889229988/reblogs +[49] https://social.lol/@robb/114619758889229988/favourites +[50] https://lwgrs.bearblog.dev/re-five-months-of-journalling/ +[51] https://rknight.me/blog/using-the-8bitdo-keyboard-on-macos/ +[52] https://rknight.me/blog/convert-spotify-facebook-to-email-login/ +[53] https://rknight.me/blog/blocking-bots-with-nginx/ +[54] https://rknight.me/blog/perplexity-ai-is-lying-about-its-user-agent/ +[55] https://rknight.me/blog/now-november-2025/ +[56] https://usefathom.com/ref/IXCLSF +[57] https://rknight.me/about/colophon +[58] https://rknight.me/contact +[59] https://rknight.me/subscribe +[60] https://rknight.me/save +[61] https://11ty.dev/ +[62] https://home.omg.lol/referred-by/robb +[63] https://echofeed.app/ +[64] https://buymeacoffee.com/rknightuk +[65] https://ko-fi.com/s/4662b19f61 +[66] https://internetphonebook.net/?call=531&issue=1#dial-a-site +[67] https://social.lol/@robb +[68] https://people.pledge.party/ +[69] https://rknight.me/blog/tags/recipes +[70] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_machine_kills_fascists +[71] https://url.town/@robb +[72] https://tiltify.com/@marlies/domain-name-relief-2024 +[73] https://matti.omg.lol/ +[74] https://32bit.cafe/ +[75] https://hillhouse.neocities.org/cliques/library/ +[76] https://rknight.me/subscribe/posts/atom.xml +[77] https://rknight.me/subscribe/posts/rss.xml +[78] https://rknight.me/subscribe/posts/feed.json diff --git a/static/archive/xkcd-fifteen-years.png b/static/archive/xkcd-fifteen-years.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb0688e Binary files /dev/null and b/static/archive/xkcd-fifteen-years.png differ