Personal homepage of Joshua Seigler 2026-09-26T00:00:00Z https://joshua.seigler.net/ 2026-06-13T16:45:08Z https://willybrauner.com/journal/signal-the-push-pull-based-algorithm <div class="markdown"><p>A clear explanation of the push-pull algorithm used in Signals, my favorite fine-grained reactivity mechanism. (Which may soon become a native Javascript feature!)</p></div> 2026-05-07T18:28:30Z https://www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2025/03/the-prodigious-plant-that-can-see-and-simultaneously-mimic-the-leaves-of-surrounding-species-without-physical-contact/ <div class="markdown"><p>There is a type of South American vine <em>Boquila trifoliata</em> aka <em>chameleon vine</em> that mimics the shape, size, texture, and color of leaves from nearby plants - including fake plastic plants! And how it does this is mostly a mystery. It's the only known polymorphic mimic in the plant kingdom. Amazing.</p></div> 2026-05-07T18:26:36Z https://atfzl.com/are-web-apps-really-slower-than-native/ <div class="markdown"><p>A critical look at web defaults, arguing that web performance is capable of essentially matching native performance <em>when the right approach is taken</em> but this approach often requires deep knowledge or extra work, because the most performant settings are not the defaults (as they are in native environments). Compelling.</p></div> 2026-05-07T18:21:10Z https://github.com/cosmiciron/vmprint <div class="markdown"><p>Finally a good way to generate PDFs</p></div> 2025-12-08T01:18:11Z https://www.experimental-history.com/p/bag-of-words-have-mercy-on-us <div class="markdown"><blockquote> <p>Trying to understand LLMs by using the rules of human psychology is like trying to understand a game of Scrabble by using the rules of Pictionary. These things don’t act like people because they aren’t people.</p> <p>We are in dire need of a better metaphor. Here’s my suggestion: instead of seeing AI as a sort of silicon homunculus, we should see it as a bag of words.</p> </blockquote></div> 2025-10-18T05:52:13Z https://tonsky.me/blog/syntax-highlighting/ <div class="markdown"><blockquote> <p>Applying human ergonomics and design principles to syntax highlighting</p> </blockquote></div> 2025-09-26T20:12:25Z https://gilest.org/doingpresentations/ <div class="markdown"><blockquote> <p>If you follow the advice on these pages and the ones we’ve linked to, you’ll end up with an excellent set of slides, and you’ll be able to present them coherently, with confidence. You’ll make your point. The audience you’re presenting to will know exactly what you’re trying to say, or asking them to do.</p> </blockquote> <p>via <a href="https://buttondown.com/davesmyth">Dave Smyth's <em>Five Links</em> newsletter</a></p></div> 2025-09-22T13:58:27Z https://css-tricks.com/is-it-time-to-un-sass/ <div class="markdown"><blockquote> <p>Many of the Sass features we've grown to love have made their way into native CSS in some shape or form. So, should we still use Sass? This is how developer Jeff Bridgforth is thinking about it.</p> </blockquote></div> 2025-08-27T20:59:01Z https://anthonymoser.github.io/writing/ai/haterdom/2025/08/26/i-am-an-ai-hater.html <div class="markdown"><p>&quot;I am an AI hater. This is considered rude, but I do not care, because I am a hater.&quot;</p> <p>Lovingly crafted vitriol - an principled argument from emotion against LLMs. Very effective reframe of this discussion.</p></div> 2025-08-21T13:34:29Z https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHRhPItNdIU <div class="markdown"><p>High energy, vocal merengue version of Mozart's Rondo alla Turca, from my favorite music scene ever, Vulfpeck.</p></div> 2025-08-19T04:34:46Z http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2025/08/ai-is-mirror-in-which-we-see-our-own.html <div class="markdown"><blockquote> <p>AI is not so much a tool that everyone uses in more or less the same way, but a mirror in which we see our own reflection--if we care to look.</p> </blockquote> <p>Charles with an insightful take as usual.</p></div> 2025-08-12T02:19:08Z https://julsimon.medium.com/why-mcps-disregard-for-40-years-of-rpc-best-practices-will-burn-enterprises-8ef85ce5bc9b <div class="markdown"><blockquote> <p>The Model Context Protocol (MCP) promises to standardize AI-tool interactions as the “USB-C for AI.” While its simplicity accelerates adoption, MCP systematically overlooks four decades of hard-won lessons from distributed systems. This isn’t an academic concern: enterprises deploying MCP today are building on foundations that lack fundamental capabilities that every production remote-procedure calling (RPC) system, since 1982, has deemed essential.</p> </blockquote></div> 2025-08-11T16:53:57Z https://yosefk.com/blog/managers-have-no-human-rights.html <div class="markdown"><p>Individual contributors can expect workplace psychological safety, but managers do not. This is not something that can be fixed, it's part of the role. Like how a plumber will sometimes have to smell sewage.</p> <p>Reasons:</p> <ol> <li>Managers are more or less fungible.</li> <li>They compete against each other since contributors and other resources are limited.</li> <li>They are exposed to competitive pressures affecting the company.</li> <li>They are not fully informed about the the subjects for which they are responsible.</li> <li>Nobody will protect managers from these factors the way an IC is protected.</li> </ol> <p>Managers can have a psychologically safe environment in a &quot;peace through strength&quot; fashion, or by being in the right place at the right time. But it is not permanent, and regression to the mean is just a growth cycle or reorg away.</p></div> 2025-08-03T20:41:08Z https://backlit.neocities.org/capitalist-guide-to-killing-free-webtech.html <div class="markdown"><p>Insight: open source software from for-profit companies (e.g. Wordpress) can still be made obsolete (to force use of newer, enshittified versions) by making the software it depends on (e.g. PHP) adopt (unwanted, unnecessary) breaking changes.</p></div> 2025-07-29T19:12:39Z https://github.com/jkoppel/jj-workshop <div class="markdown"><p>Video-guided 1-2 hour exercise to get hands-on familiarity with Jujutsu version control, starting from nothing.</p></div> 2025-07-24T04:20:24Z https://vasily.cc/blog/facts-dont-change-minds/ <div class="markdown"><p>In 2019 Vin Armani was telling people we were transitioning from an age of rationalism to one of mysticism. Six years later this knowledge has begun to reach mainstream discourse. Charts and graphs are <em>tactics</em>, they come after the belief is formed and reinforce or justify it. A worldview has a structure to it, and this article reframes persuasion and argument strategies as attempts to destabilize the structure of belief that supports a given worldview.</p> <p>Thinking about worldviews with this lens is useful for maintaining or examining your own beliefs, and for understanding the motivation behind other people's persuasive efforts.</p></div> 2025-07-24T02:35:19Z https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-haters-gui/ <div class="markdown"><p>The final word in AI haterade. This is an economic bubble, where NVidia sells GPUs so a handful of other companies can use them to lose massive amounts of money. It makes up a significant fraction of the economy, and it won't last forever. </p></div> 2025-07-23T05:06:07Z https://kubamartin.com/posts/introduction-to-the-jujutsu-vcs/ <div class="markdown"><p>I've used Jujutsu for a week or so. It's fantastic. I was going to write an introduction to Jujutsu article but this one is so much better than what I had planned. Read this one instead.<br /> I do wish it had a better name. Try looking up &quot;Jujutsu conflict resolution&quot; and you get a bunch of stuff about martial arts.</p></div> 2025-07-09T00:18:20Z https://www.eugyppius.com/p/the-eu-as-suicide-pact-or-how-germany 2025-07-06T18:32:46Z https://backlit.neocities.org/voice-of-god-the-truth-about-ai-assistants.html <div class="markdown"><p>Insightful. Basically claims that AI has been made so convenient (at great expense and effort) because it gives AI providers/operators enormous benefit: control over narrative at unprecedented depth and scale. </p></div> 2025-07-01T19:01:52Z https://leanrada.com/htmz/ <div class="markdown"><p>Super clever approach for putting HTML into other HTML. &quot;Is it a framework? It's a snippet.&quot;</p></div> 2025-06-29T03:05:58Z https://www.seanmcp.com/board-games/speed-catan/ <div class="markdown"><blockquote> <p>Speed Catan is a variation of the popular board game Catan that emphasizes game speed and simplicity for younger (or impatient) players.</p> </blockquote></div> 2025-06-28T22:20:45Z https://www.raptitude.com/2025/06/how-to-surf-the-web-in-2025-and-why-you-should/ <div class="markdown"><blockquote> <p>Just as it’s still possible (though seldom necessary) to ride a horse, it is still possible to surf the internet. It’s a thrill not yet lost to time.</p> </blockquote></div> 2025-06-26T14:29:51Z https://www.dafont.com/comic-helvetic.font <div class="markdown"><p>I don't understand why this feels ok but Comic Sans makes my skin crawl.</p></div> 2025-06-18T16:18:36Z https://mystor.github.io/git-revise.html <div class="markdown"><p>git-revise is a history editing tool designed for the patch-stack workflow. It's fast, non-destructive, and aims to provide a familiar, powerful, and easy to use re-imagining of the patch stack workflow.</p></div> 2025-06-15T02:28:23Z https://blog.lusito.info/markdown-code-blocks-with-a-title-filename.html <div class="markdown"><p>Smart alternative to immediately using some kind of markdown extension or plugin. Good perspective.</p></div> 2025-06-14T04:28:49Z https://midword.com/ <div class="markdown"><p>Just found my new favorite long-car-ride verbal game!</p></div> 2025-06-03T17:39:50Z https://verissimo.substack.com/p/verissimo-monthly-may-2025 <div class="markdown"><p>The Unreliability of LLMs &amp; What Lies Ahead</p></div> 2025-05-31T04:02:35Z https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/keeping_up_appearances <div class="markdown"><p>The only reason that LLMs took root in the first place was because our societies in the anglosphere have already developed cultures solely devoted to gaining status and keeping up the appearance of doing things rather than actually doing them. All other values, increasingly including even the accumulation of wealth (while this is still very much a thing that people pursue, wealth is increasingly becoming a proxy for status more than something desired in itself) are becoming subordinated to symbolic status games completely detached from anything real.</p></div>