Four new posts since the last issue. One Flipper Zero, one lunch decider, some platform anxiety, and the unsexy work of actually using what you built.

Hey there,

Quick update from the "weekends and after the kids are asleep" department. Four new posts since the March issue. Some of them are builds. Some of them are the less fun question of what actually happens to a build after you ship it.

In order of most to least recent.

Recent Posts

I Had No Idea How to Use My Flipper Zero, So I Built Something That Taught Me

I bought a Flipper Zero, turned it on, pet the dolphin a few times, and then had absolutely no idea what to do next. The device can do incredible things. The distance between "can" and "I actually know how" is brutal. So I built something to teach myself, which is the only way I learn anything that sticks.

Every Platform Has an Asterisk

I was on Substack for a while. Substack had a Nazi problem. I started paying closer attention to where I write, and to the asterisk I now mentally attach to every rented platform. A short piece on why I'm trying to own more of my stuff and what that tradeoff actually looks like in practice.

I Outsourced My Lunch Decisions to a Random Number Generator

It's 11:47 AM. You've triaged Slack, sat through standup, answered a pile of emails, and now someone is asking what you want for lunch. I built the dumbest possible solution. Type the options, click a button, done. Use it whenever your brain needs a break.

The Boring Part Is the Whole Point

I'm pretty good at building things. I'm much worse at consistently using the things I build. I keep watching this same pattern play out at work too: the exciting build, the quiet neglect, the "let's evaluate a new tool" conversation six months later. This one landed harder than I expected and I'm still chewing on it.

Links I'm Into

Where is it like to be a language model?. Robin Sloan's latest Winter Garden edition. He locates "the model" in the forward pass (the fleeting handful of milliseconds where the actual magic happens) and then runs a small experiment asking different LLMs whether that experience feels positive or negative. I linked Winter Garden last time. I'm linking it again. I apologize for nothing.

The search for Satoshi Nakamoto reaches a new suspect. I love a good bitcoin mystery and this is the most credible "we found him" attempt in years. The NYT makes the case that Adam Back is Satoshi. Convincing? Ehhhhh...maybe.

Esoteric Ebb. An isometric Disco-Elysium-like set in a city on the eve of its first-ever election. Somebody blew up a tea shop. You're a cleric. Perfect for all that "time" I "have" for "games".

Recently Read

What I've been reading, for anyone also trying to stare at something that isn't a screen.

The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman. Third Thursday Murder Club. I first started this series due solely to the fact Richard Osman was on Taskmaster UK (Season 2, btw). His group of murder-solving retirees have drawn me in and I absolutely love the characters.

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson. Follow-up to Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. The level of meta-ness in these books is refreshing and fun, and its great that Stevenson really walks you through the structure of the whodunnit story structure. And I still have no idea who the murderer is.

The Blade Itself and Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie. First two of the First Law trilogy. Grimdark fantasy where everyone is compromised, nobody is safe, and the sprinkling of humor is really well done. Book three is queued up.

That's it for this one. Thanks for reading.

If any of these posts hit, reply and tell me. If they didn't, reply and tell me that too. I like hearing from people who also poke at things to see how they work.

Jimmy

stackandsignal.com