Built a token-wise likelihood visualizer for GPT-2 over the weekend. There are some interesting patterns and behaviors you can easily pick up from a visualization like this, like induction heads and which kinds of words/grammar LMs like to guess.

Lessons: 1. However you build your app, strive for unidirectional data flow so you can at least predict the maximum amount of recomputing. 2. Have a fast enough rerender fallback for the inevitable. Before react I used some helper utilities that encouraged this pattern.

Two of the hardest things about cognitively demanding work are: 1) You can’t really make it go faster. There are tricks to getting unstuck but it usually proceeds very nonlinearly. 2) It often looks like it could have been done in a far shorter amount of time when it’s over.

Hey kids! Got your git branches all like this? main L branch_1 L branch_2 And now want to update branch_2 on main after branch_1 was merged into main? Cruise thru your rebase in one step with: git rebase --onto main $(git merge-base branch_2 branch_1) branch_2

I will never, ever get this

Vegans have extremely strong ethical arguments. Even if you still want to eat meat, it's still better to admit that than to deny it. I explain why here. richardhanania.com/p/eating-anima…

I've seen 4 eras of SF tech people: Era 1 (2000s): hoodie-wearing utopians who wanted to unite all humanity through social media and raves Era 2 (2010s): hard-charging refugees from the finance bust who were always trying to sell you on their mobile app startup

The I hate tailwind starter kit

please.stop.using.builder.patterns.for.your.javascript.sdk() bundlers.cannot.treeshake.them()

there's something at the core of the american ideology that's only captured in happy go lucky 80s movies, which is that the noble pursuit of fun is probably one of the most productive forces in the universe and works way better than grinding away dutifully on things you hate

For the most recent video, I had way too much fun simulating the electric field (or rather, the component of that field responsible for radiation) and how it responds to an accelerating electric charge.

"React Serialized Components" really is the easier way to think about it. The struggle between rendering HTML on the server and screwing around with DOM in the browser is why people end up just doing it one way (server only with html DSLs) or the other (React SPA). With RSC that

this is inspiring… many countries are now seeing falling carbon emissions alongside rising economic growth… the many amazingly positive things happening in the world deserve more attention!

iOS notification indicators if the Roman Empire had never fallen

The worst take about the web is that you should not use JS/React/etc because HTML alone is good enough. It's an 'austerity mind virus' that has captured even some smart engineers. The idea that the web is for 'documents' and if it stays in its own little box like 1995 it's going

Tackling NIMBYs head on has been an abject failure. You don't smash them — sooner or later they smash you. We need a different approach. And there’s a weirdly obvious solution to fighting NIMBY: 'stuffing their mouths with gold'. Sam Bowman (Sam Bowman) and I discuss his 'housing

Notes on visiting China. On scale, construction, youngsters, public opinion, censorship, tech, and AI. Link below.

I'm begging you all to inline your documentation to your source code so that I can read it in my editor. I don't care how awful your api docs page is, I don't even want to go to it.

The single thing most likely to make me tune someone out is realising their conclusions are all driven by one big ideology, while the specifics of individual cases barely register. Common examples: 1. The root cause is capitalism 2. Government is to blame 3. Something something