https://justin.searls.co/shorter-form.xmljustin․searls․co - Shorter-form2026-10-05T15:49:18+00:00Justin Searlswebsite@searls.coHugohttps://justin.searls.co/favicon.icohttps://justin.searls.co/img/wide_logo.pngCopyright Justin Searls. All rights reserved.Where Justin Searls is content to post content.https://justin.searls.co/casts/zach-holman-wants-more-of-everything/Breaking Change podcast v56.0.1 - Zach Holman wants more of everything https://justin.searls.co/casts/zach-holman-wants-more-of-everything/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-10-05T15:48:00+00:002026-10-05T11:48:11-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-05-07h51m06s/<![CDATA[People have been begging David to loosen his grip on Rails or even to walk away entirely for 20 years. Now that he's signaling interest in walking away, the same people are pissed as hell. Smart.
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-05-07h51m06s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-10-05T11:51:06+00:002026-10-05T07:53:32-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-04-15h42m08s/<![CDATA[Seems like Anthropic cut the Opus 5.5 allowance last week. Ran out of weekly usage on a 20x plan 4 days in. Spent that last day optimizing my workflows to be more token efficient, and now I'm 38 hours since using my free…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-04-15h42m08s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-10-04T19:42:08+00:002026-10-04T15:51:24-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-04-08h59m59s/<![CDATA[I always challenge new models to take on work I wouldn't have previously assumed they could accomplish.
Kudos to Astra. I asked if it could edit the audio of my latest podcast in Logic (explaining what that meant), and…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-04-08h59m59s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-10-04T12:59:59+00:002026-10-04T09:01:33-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-03-22h59m52s/<![CDATA[Something I find befuddling: advances in AI-generated images, video, music, code, prose, and problem solving continue to legitimately impress me.
And yet, somehow, I've never seen an LLM produce a marketing tagline that…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-03-22h59m52s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-10-04T02:59:52+00:002026-10-03T23:03:00-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-03-08h59m56s/<![CDATA[There is a massive amount of arbitrage opportunity right now for competent agent-wielding developers.
Want to get rich in the next 5 years?
1. Find a niche enterprise software domain
2. Poach a well-connected sales…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-03-08h59m56s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-10-03T12:59:56+00:002026-10-03T09:03:36-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-03-08h52m32s/<![CDATA[Developing native Apple apps is generally much slower and tedious with agents than building web applications. That said, platform constraints can be liberating—with exactly one or two possible ways to accomplish…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-03-08h52m32s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-10-03T12:52:32+00:002026-10-03T08:54:41-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-03-08h22m48s/<![CDATA[New policy at Searls LLC: humans never touch spreadsheets again. Now have agent skills that will do all the grunt work and tedium to file expenses, document philanthropy, and rebalance mom's portfolio. Latest version of…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-03-08h22m48s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-10-03T12:22:48+00:002026-10-03T08:24:39-04:00https://justin.searls.co/casts/merge-commits-yagni-retiring-from-programming/Merge Commits podcast v - YAGNI: Retiring from programming https://justin.searls.co/casts/merge-commits-yagni-retiring-from-programming/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-10-02T19:36:34+00:002026-10-02T15:38:00-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-02-10h30m38s/<![CDATA[Wish I knew a programmer with the last name Holland so I could annoy them by insistently referring to Claude as Mr. Holland's Opus.
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-02-10h30m38s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-10-02T14:30:38+00:002026-10-02T10:31:31-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-02-08h08m54s/<![CDATA[Interviewing Zach Holman this morning on Hot Fix about AI and our discontents. Have something you want us to talk about? Let me know: https://justin.searls.co/feedback/ ]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-10-02T12:08:54+00:002026-10-02T12:11:00+00:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-01-11h09m11s/<![CDATA[My trusty iPhone Air just tumbled down a full flight of stairs at high speed without a single scuff, much less a scratch or crack. Still my favorite physical design for an iPhone.
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-01-11h09m11s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-10-01T15:09:11+00:002026-10-01T11:10:13-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-01-08h38m25s/<![CDATA[In the last 24 hours I have received dozens of e-mails that open with an LLM-generated line about something I wrote or said in my podcast.
Then the rest of the email is an exhortation to try some cursed vibe-coded…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-10-01-08h38m25s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-10-01T12:38:25+00:002026-10-01T08:40:02-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-29-17h28m37s/<![CDATA[Experiencing the common cold for the first time since I had turbinate reduction surgery and _holy shit_, this is how noses are supposed to work? You blow your nose and mucus comes out? And you can breathe all week long?…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-29-17h28m37s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-29T21:28:37+00:002026-09-29T17:29:35-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-29-09h17m54s/<![CDATA[The vast majority of programmers are late adopters. They don't follow programming news. They show up, do the job, go home. They may hear about things through the grapevine. They might go to a conference every 2 years.…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-29-09h17m54s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-29T13:17:54+00:002026-09-29T09:23:56-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-28-21h26m33s/<![CDATA[If I could go back in time 20 years and tell myself one thing, it would be this: "whatever it is, don't bother programming it if there's any way you can put it off until mid-2025."
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-28-21h26m33s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-29T01:26:33+00:002026-09-28T21:35:32-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-27-14h27m26s/<![CDATA[New iPhone 18 Pro is much better at staying cool in the Florida sun but it's still no match for a 65°C far infrared sauna. 🧖♂️
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-27-14h27m26s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-27T18:27:26+00:002026-09-27T14:28:15-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-26-20h51m32s/<![CDATA[Can't wait for iPhone Duo. Haven't had a folding phone since iPhone 6 Plus.
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-26-20h51m32s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-27T00:51:32+00:002026-09-26T20:52:39-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-26-13h36m47s/<![CDATA[It is very surprising that disabling iPhone/iPad auto-lock (say, changing from "3 minutes" to "Never") doesn't require an authentication step. Bad actor with temporary access to your device could enable it and wait until…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-26-13h36m47s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-26T17:36:47+00:002026-09-26T13:37:52-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-25-14h04m38s/<![CDATA[I complete agree coding agents make software engineering harder, but the rub is that many professional software engineers are pretty bad at these new hard things and it's hard to see how they're not totally screwed.… https://simonwillison.net/2026/Sep/24/harder/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-25T18:04:38+00:002026-09-25T14:07:02-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-24-22h09m05s/<![CDATA[I read way too many comments about DHH's Rails World keynote, and the substantive arguments seem pretty thin. Some people who love Ruby and Rails seem to feel disappointed/depressed/afraid to be told the things they care… https://www.reddit.com/r/rails]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-25T02:09:05+00:002026-09-24T22:14:17-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-24-09h59m44s/<![CDATA[For seemingly the sixth time in my career, DHH has arrived at the same conclusion I have—this time, that AI coding means we should be building more native apps, because development cost is no longer the bottleneck—but… https://youtu.be/vDjW_dRyKXY?t=1457&is=t5lg25x_naMgYtEB]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-24T13:59:44+00:002026-09-24T10:02:15-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-23-17h26m58s/<![CDATA[Across my 6 iOS apps, each GitHub issue is automatically triaged and assigned by an orchestrator agent to be implemented by a subagent UNLESS it's been labeled as "human" for specification or verification reasons.
At…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-23-17h26m58s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-23T21:26:58+00:002026-09-23T17:30:44-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-22-15h33m51s/<![CDATA[Opus 5.5 seems impressively competent and snappy! Get all your work done now before they nerf it to hell next week.
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-22-15h33m51s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-22T19:33:51+00:002026-09-22T15:34:30-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-22-14h09m26s/<![CDATA[A players hire A agents and B players hire C agents.
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-22-14h09m26s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-22T18:09:26+00:002026-09-22T14:10:28-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-20-10h15m09s/<![CDATA[Apple has been extremely cagey around usage limits for Private Cloud Compute, only sharing that subscribers of higher tiers of iCloud+ are allowed more usage.
Well, my apps make liberal use of Apple's language models…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-20-10h15m09s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-20T14:15:09+00:002026-09-20T10:20:17-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-20-07h09m09s/<![CDATA[It's too bad Amphetamine for macOS is free. Given how many engineers' AI workflows depend on keeping their MacBooks awake at all hours, if only they'd charged a subscription they probably could have raised $50M at a $3B…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-20-07h09m09s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-20T11:09:09+00:002026-09-20T07:10:34-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-19-10h41m06s/<![CDATA[First impressions: Series 12 is a *massive* performance improvement. Siri AI is much faster than on the 11, and for the first time the podcast app can actually play and download shows on demand without crapping out…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-19-10h41m06s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-19T14:41:06+00:002026-09-19T10:42:05-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-18-08h53m30s/<![CDATA[Glad people are reporting success with Siri AI, but I never had a single positive experience with it all summer. Three times yesterday I watched it spin endlessly, reply "I don't understand" to banal requests, or just… https://pogueman.substack.com/p/125-tests-of-the-new-ai-siri]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-18T12:53:30+00:002026-09-18T08:56:21-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-17-10h31m40s/<![CDATA[Codex is extremely frustrating in that when you send "steering" instructions reminding it to do the work in a certain way, it will almost always reply to acknowledge the request and then STOP ALL WORK.
I've tried…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-17-10h31m40s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-17T14:31:40+00:002026-09-17T10:33:02-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-16-08h46m17s/<![CDATA[A skill we need to learn is how to ratchet up our ambitions until we uncover what the models truly cannot do. And each time they're improved, to once again test the fences. Confidence and certainty in one's own workflow…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-16-08h46m17s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-16T12:46:17+00:002026-09-16T21:55:07+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-15-18h49m53s/<![CDATA[So I guess we're all just agreed that, "it's not against the law if an AI agent does it," then? https://www.strix.ai/blog/baseten-harbor-github-pat-takeover ]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-15T22:49:53+00:002026-09-15T22:51:00+00:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-15-09h27m27s/<![CDATA[By far the biggest change in the agentic coding era has been that I'm no longer chained to my computer all day. Just got more done by sending a few messages from my iPhone on the driving range than I would normally…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-15-09h27m27s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-15T13:27:27+00:002026-09-15T22:30:34+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-14-21h20m31s/<![CDATA[Say what you will about macOS Tahoe, but it accomplished the longest uptime I've ever experienced on a Mac (131 days, 40 mins) after 4+ months overseas. I tapped the dusty keyboard, and it immediately woke up my janky 6K…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-14-21h20m31s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-15T01:20:31+00:002026-09-15T10:21:42+09:00https://justin.searls.co/shots/2026-09-14-11h18m24s/iOS 27's nifty Captive WiFi feature https://justin.searls.co/shots/2026-09-14-11h18m24s/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-14T16:18:24+00:002026-09-15T01:22:47+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-14-10h28m19s/<![CDATA[A friend wrote to say that my "Full-breadth Developers" essay is aging frustratingly well, in his estimation.
Is it? I'm not nearly employed enough to have a good read on things.… https://justin.searls.co/posts/full-breadth-developers/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-14T15:28:19+00:002026-09-14T15:31:58+00:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-12-09h04m23s/<![CDATA[Cool to see RubyGems in Reuters and the WSJ! We did it, everybody! https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/cyberattack-by-rogue-ai-swarm-stokes-fears-of-out-of-control-agents-473a0352 ]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-12T00:04:23+00:002026-09-12T09:04:45+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-11-10h12m13s/<![CDATA[My ARSE® process for building apps with coding agents:
[A]mbitiously create by handing an agent a HUGE task to do over hours/days
[R]age at your computer as you uncover all its stupid decisions
[S]culpt the app by…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-11-10h12m13s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-11T01:12:13+00:002026-09-11T11:20:40+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-10-12h49m42s/<![CDATA[I think the iPhone Duo might serve me well in the Post-Programming Era. Now that 90% of my work is remotely coordinating Codex and Claude from my phone, I need a desktop-class browser more than I need a full-size laptop.…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-10-12h49m42s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-10T03:49:42+00:002026-09-10T13:21:35+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-10-09h38m28s/<![CDATA[Normally, the best way to watch an Apple event is the TV app on an Apple TV, but damn if their use of maxed-out HDR for visualizations combined with sudden cuts back to SDR footage didn't make it feel like every shot of…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-10-09h38m28s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-10T00:38:28+00:002026-09-10T09:40:59+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-08-14h41m03s/<![CDATA[Gonna go on record one last time and say that I hope Apple names its folding phone the iBook.
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-08-14h41m03s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-08T05:41:03+00:002026-09-08T14:41:31+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-06-20h46m14s/<![CDATA[Maybe it's because I got to see it in IMAX, but I really liked Christopher Nolan's Castaway reboot.
Casting Zendaya as Wilson was a bold choice, though.
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-06-20h46m14s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-06T11:46:14+00:002026-09-06T20:52:18+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-06-12h05m25s/<![CDATA[Biggest knock on Astra so far is that when I raise an issue during a long-running task, it will acknowledge my concern and then stop all work. Then I put the Tim Cook anecdote with "then why are you still here?" in my…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-06-12h05m25s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-06T03:05:25+00:002026-09-06T12:06:48+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-05-10h55m00s/<![CDATA[First Astra impressions: it's like Fable, but faster.
If you value your time, I can't see why you'd drive a coding agent with anything less than a Fable/Astra model. They produce so much less rework.
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-09-05-10h55m00s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-09-05T01:55:00+00:002026-09-05T10:56:58+09:00https://justin.searls.co/casts/breaking-change-v56-persistent-mode/Breaking Change podcast v56 - Persistent Mode https://justin.searls.co/casts/breaking-change-v56-persistent-mode/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-31T06:21:17+00:002026-08-31T08:00:08+00:00https://justin.searls.co/shots/2026-08-30-10h59m09s/Introducing OuijaRouter https://justin.searls.co/shots/2026-08-30-10h59m09s/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-30T01:59:09+00:002026-08-30T11:00:16+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-30-09h23m38s/<![CDATA[Asked Codex and Claude Code to each try their hand at a tricky Core Text layout issue for Japanese vertical writing:
GPT 5.6 Sol xHigh: 1,581,445 tokens and 2189 lines changed
Fable 5 medium: 37,000 tokens and 1 line…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-30-09h23m38s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-30T00:23:38+00:002026-08-30T09:26:52+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-30-00h26m42s/<![CDATA[/goal is a special command for OpenAI Codex in which it will keep working toward whatever goal you set until it gradually convinces itself that the stated goal is not what you wanted but rather some much easier objective…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-30-00h26m42s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-29T15:26:42+00:002026-08-30T00:27:39+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-29-14h01m59s/<![CDATA[Whenever I need to eke out some extra intelligence from an LLM, I ask it to speak to me in a British accent.
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-29-14h01m59s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-29T05:01:59+00:002026-08-29T14:02:39+09:00https://justin.searls.co/shots/2026-08-26-13h01m54s/Engrish is so back https://justin.searls.co/shots/2026-08-26-13h01m54s/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-26T04:01:54+00:002026-08-26T13:18:11+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-22-16h24m02s/<![CDATA[Talking about a conversation you had with an LLM is like telling people about your dreams: absolutely unacceptable no matter what.
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-22-16h24m02s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-22T07:24:02+00:002026-08-22T16:27:43+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-20-21h20m48s/<![CDATA[Many of you sent feedback about your experiences with agents at work—but it was all too positive! I want to hear about some goddamn disasters of team & organizational dysfunction, too! Send in your (anonymous) horror… https://justin.searls.co/feedback]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-20T12:20:48+00:002026-08-20T12:40:43+00:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-20-19h39m17s/<![CDATA[Demoed a component of my unreleased memorization app today. Reactions included:
• "Scary!"
• "I kinda want the opposite actually"
• "Do you want me to NOT use your app?"
Things are going great.
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-20-19h39m17s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-20T10:39:17+00:002026-08-20T19:40:56+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-20-08h13m38s/<![CDATA[Do you work on a team or at a company where most people are actually using agents in earnest? I'd love to hear your experience for a piece. Quick e-mail, call, whatever. Hit me up with my fancy new feedback form:… https://justin.searls.co/feedback]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-19T23:13:38+00:002026-08-20T01:18:28+00:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-19-21h56m36s/<![CDATA[The Opposite of Brooks's Law:
> Removing manpower from a late software project makes it less late.
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-19-21h56m36s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-19T12:56:36+00:002026-08-19T21:58:32+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-17-19h57m04s/<![CDATA[Now that I stand to gain very little financially from posting correct takes on the Internet, I find myself less motivated to post correct takes on the Internet.
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-17-19h57m04s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-17T10:57:04+00:002026-08-17T20:00:46+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-13-17h34m03s/<![CDATA["You can't afford bad engineers anymore." https://blog.florianherrengt.com/ai-removing-middle-class-software-engineering.html ]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-13T08:34:03+00:002026-08-13T17:34:30+09:00https://justin.searls.co/links/2026-08-11-claude-doesnt-need-you-anymore/Claude doesn't need you anymore https://justin.searls.co/links/2026-08-11-claude-doesnt-need-you-anymore/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-11T05:35:36+00:002026-08-11T05:43:33+00:00https://justin.searls.co/casts/breaking-change-v55-im-a-good-guyjin/Breaking Change podcast v55 - I'm a good guyjin https://justin.searls.co/casts/breaking-change-v55-im-a-good-guyjin/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-07T22:38:50+00:002026-08-08T07:14:44+00:00https://justin.searls.co/shots/2026-08-05-14h20m09s/Chill some Netflix and Chill https://justin.searls.co/shots/2026-08-05-14h20m09s/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-05T05:20:09+00:002026-08-05T14:22:58+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-05-11h13m35s/<![CDATA[In 2025, I bought four WD Black 8TB NVMe SSDs, slammed them in a Thunderbolt enclosure, and set them up as a 32TB Raid 0 volume for my Mac Studio.
Price in April 2025: $2,199.96
Price today: $5,836.00
Felt stupidly…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-05-11h13m35s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-05T02:13:35+00:002026-08-05T11:16:22+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-04-12h53m45s/<![CDATA[I realize this is Very Rude, but I've noticed a lot of the people who think AI sucks at writing code never seemed very good at writing code themselves. At this point, if you can't get it working, it's probably a skill… https://www.seangoedecke.com/llms-reward-expertise/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-04T03:53:45+00:002026-08-04T03:57:33+00:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-04-10h18m55s/<![CDATA[I joked last year that by leveraging coding agents I now "played the orchestra", by directing multiple programmers at once.
I have changed jobs again. Now I tell Fable to conduct an orchestra of Opus 5 agents for me.…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-08-04-10h18m55s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-08-04T01:18:55+00:002026-08-04T10:24:48+09:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-07-30-20h25m27s/<![CDATA[When I'm AFK, I want to just create issues and reply to them and have an agent spin up, do stuff, and wind down. order_taker seems to do that p well. https://github.com/searlsco/order_taker ]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-07-30T11:25:27+00:002026-07-30T11:27:23+00:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-07-24-22h02m34s/<![CDATA[I'd describe my approach to work as, "light-hearted and heavy-handed."
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-07-24-22h02m34s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-07-24T13:02:34+00:002026-07-24T22:03:50+09:00https://justin.searls.co/casts/breaking-change-v54-hot-sleeper/Breaking Change podcast v54 - Hot Sleeper https://justin.searls.co/casts/breaking-change-v54-hot-sleeper/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-07-23T02:04:47+00:002026-07-23T13:58:34+09:00https://justin.searls.co/mails/2026-03/Content Hiatus https://justin.searls.co/mails/2026-03/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-04-13T00:32:32+00:002026-04-13T00:32:36+00:00https://justin.searls.co/casts/breaking-change-v53-pod-freeze/Breaking Change podcast v53 - Pod Freeze https://justin.searls.co/casts/breaking-change-v53-pod-freeze/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-20T18:38:37+00:002026-03-21T01:54:55+00:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-19-09h45m28s/<![CDATA[Update on using MacBook Neo for dev tasks: this is definitely a device you should to reboot daily, even without Chrome or any Electron apps.
This morning, Zed (a native Rust app) was 500% CPU without a single window…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-19-09h45m28s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-19T13:45:28+00:002026-03-19T09:59:56-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-18-10h28m56s/<![CDATA[Using MacBook Neo for "real" development work and it's simultaneously juggling:
• Running Claude Code in three tabs at once
• Compiling multi-package Xcode builds
• Automating two iOS Simulators and a Mac build of my…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-18-10h28m56s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-18T14:28:56+00:002026-03-18T10:33:02-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-17-16h57m49s/<![CDATA[Claude sure goes down a lot for being a product targeting businesses.
Maybe Anthropic is just doing humanity a solid by helping us understand how much it will suck when the era of subsidized pricing for LLM-based…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-17-16h57m49s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-17T20:57:49+00:002026-03-17T16:58:58-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-17-13h38m21s/<![CDATA[Sent the DLSS 5 video to some not-very-online friends and they thought it looked incredible. Shame on them for not knowing that real gamers are supposed to be outraged! (I happen to think it looks slick as hell and am… https://youtu.be/4ZlwTtgbgVA]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-17T17:38:21+00:002026-03-17T17:42:13+00:00https://justin.searls.co/casts/merge-commits-freecodecamp-which-devs-are-screwed/Merge Commits podcast v - freeCodeCamp: Which Devs Are Screwed? https://justin.searls.co/casts/merge-commits-freecodecamp-which-devs-are-screwed/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-17T12:00:00+00:002026-03-17T13:22:47-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-17-07h50m27s/<![CDATA[We blew past this milestone without much fanfare, but it bears repeating: building awareness & goodwill by releasing open source no longer makes strategic sense for many companies. Agents increasingly consume & adapt…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-17-07h50m27s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-17T11:50:27+00:002026-03-17T07:55:09-04:00https://justin.searls.co/links/2026-03-16-models-are-commodities-harnesses-are-differentiators/Models are commodities, harnesses are differentiators https://justin.searls.co/links/2026-03-16-models-are-commodities-harnesses-are-differentiators/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-16T17:03:58+00:002026-03-16T18:38:16+00:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-15-15h41m02s/<![CDATA[Marathon is the first PVP-heavy game to get its hooks in me since… Unreal Tournament in 2001?
I fucking suck, but even playing solo it can feel incredible when you do manage to come out on top. If you want to roll with…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-15-15h41m02s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-15T19:41:02+00:002026-03-15T15:45:18-04:00https://justin.searls.co/posts/dual-loop-bdd-is-the-new-red-green-tdd/Dual-loop BDD is the new Red-green TDD https://justin.searls.co/posts/dual-loop-bdd-is-the-new-red-green-tdd/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-15T12:00:00+00:002026-03-15T12:49:53-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-14-11h34m10s/<![CDATA[Pro-tip to any devs who only discovered TDD thanks to coding agents: refactoring is inherently **directional**. It's more like prefactoring—you rearrange code to make the next change easy. That means you (and your agent)…
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-14-11h34m10s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-14T15:34:10+00:002026-03-14T11:41:20-04:00https://justin.searls.co/shots/2026-03-14-08h55m56s/Red-green rally https://justin.searls.co/shots/2026-03-14-08h55m56s/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-14T12:55:56+00:002026-03-14T09:12:06-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-14-07h19m36s/<![CDATA[Claude's electron app for macOS is such a buggy mess that I've uninstalled it and sequestered it to a Safari tab, just like I did to Slack, Discord, etc., six years ago. ChatGPT is a native app where things like the stop… https://tonsky.me/blog/fall-of-native/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-14T11:19:36+00:002026-03-14T11:21:34+00:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-13-12h10m21s/<![CDATA[I'll admit, it's hard not to get frustrated by all the posts about coding agents going viral lately that are saying the same shit I've been blogging and podcasting for multiple years at this point with little to no… https://blog.lmorchard.com/2026/03/11/grief-and-the-ai-split/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-13T16:10:21+00:002026-03-13T16:13:32+00:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-11-14h18m08s/<![CDATA[GPT 4.1? In 2026? Is the State Department on a budget? Is every diplomatic cable just going to have 300 space-delimited emdashes now?… https://www.nextgov.com/acquisition/2026/03/state-offloads-claude-underpinning-model-flagship-statechat/412022/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-11T18:18:08+00:002026-03-11T18:19:30+00:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-10-10h57m26s/<![CDATA[Want to buy Becky's iPhone Air? I can vouch that it's in excellent condition (unlocked, $300 less than MSRP). Buy here on Swappa or send me your best offer justin@searls.co https://swappa.com/listing/view/LACO93287 ]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-10T14:57:26+00:002026-03-10T10:58:58-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-08-23h18m29s/<![CDATA[I need a new blog to subscribe to. Know any you think I'd like? E-mail me: justin@searls.co
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-08-23h18m29s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-09T03:18:29+00:002026-03-08T23:20:11-04:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-08-12h54m22s/<![CDATA[Barely a month goes by where I can check the news without being reminded of the Cracked skit about two comedy writers who were hired to run a fake Donald Trump campaign and then accidentally got him elected… https://youtu.be/8qIQbydyHwc?si=COq7K0HLng3LHI1R]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-08T16:54:22+00:002026-03-08T16:58:45+00:00https://justin.searls.co/casts/breaking-change-v52.0.1-len-testa-bring-back-the-starcruiser/Breaking Change podcast v52.0.1 - Len Testa: Bring back the Starcruiser https://justin.searls.co/casts/breaking-change-v52.0.1-len-testa-bring-back-the-starcruiser/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-07T18:44:29+00:002026-03-07T15:46:46-05:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-07-10h23m05s/<![CDATA[For the extremely narrow Venn diagram of people who love both I Think You Should Leave and Disco Elysium, this is amazing https://youtu.be/6OKgdTXLWIg?si=RyS95BqxFBSEVwyQ ]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-07T15:23:05+00:002026-03-07T15:24:35+00:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-06-15h49m22s/<![CDATA[If Nothing releases a folding phone, they should absolutely name it the Nothing Burger https://www.pcmag.com/news/hands-on-nothing-4a-series-midrange-phones ]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-06T20:49:22+00:002026-03-06T20:52:23+00:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-05-15h45m01s/<![CDATA[Dear prospective sponsors,
You can't pay me to say nice things about you, but you CAN pay me to not say mean things about you. Please send inquiries to sponsorship@searls.co… https://www.theverge.com/news/889595/tim-sweeney-signed-away-his-right-to-criticize-google-until-2032]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-05T20:45:01+00:002026-03-05T21:11:04+00:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-05-08h27m49s/<![CDATA[You know, a lot of lefties are loathe to admit that the oil companies have been working hard to abolish ICE since before most of them were born
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-05-08h27m49s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-05T13:27:49+00:002026-03-05T08:28:01-05:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-04-15h55m50s/<![CDATA["$599 is a fucking statement." https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/599_not_a_piece_of_junk_macbook_neo ]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-04T20:55:50+00:002026-03-04T20:56:35+00:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-04-12h35m32s/<![CDATA[A lot of people were confused by Trump's immediate embrace of Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states, but it makes a lot more sense when you consider that he thinks they spell it "Golf"
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-04-12h35m32s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-04T17:35:32+00:002026-03-04T17:38:52+00:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-03-15h41m53s/<![CDATA[Can confirm, Claude Cowork is very cool, but if you actually use it for more than a few minutes it'll bring any Mac to its knees. Entire system becomes unresponsive eventually.… https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/22543]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-03T20:41:53+00:002026-03-03T20:43:07+00:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-03-02-14h11m46s/<![CDATA[The M4 iPad Air is notable, because it will set Apple apart as the only company to release a product in 2026 sporting more RAM for the same price as the outgoing model. (8GB to 12GB)… https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/02/apple-announces-ipad-air-with-m4-chip/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-02T19:11:46+00:002026-03-02T14:16:41-05:00https://justin.searls.co/casts/breaking-change-v52-skynet-anypercent/Breaking Change podcast v52 - Skynet any% https://justin.searls.co/casts/breaking-change-v52-skynet-anypercent/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-03-01T18:06:30+00:002026-03-01T21:10:30-05:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-02-28-10h16m20s/<![CDATA[Was always so inspired by that speech where JFK said "we will go to the moon... or do some other stuff instead" https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/feb/27/nasa-changes-delays-moon-missions ]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-02-28T15:16:20+00:002026-02-28T15:17:46+00:00https://justin.searls.co/spots/2026-02-27-07h55m19s/Sushi Izuki https://justin.searls.co/spots/2026-02-27-07h55m19s/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-02-27T12:55:19+00:002026-02-27T08:24:28-05:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-02-26-22h09m35s/<![CDATA[The new Star Trek Voyager game is such a thorough simulation that I think it's convinced me to abandon my dreams of joining Starfleet when I grow up. Being a captain is no fun at all!
🔗 https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-02-26-22h09m35s/]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-02-27T03:09:35+00:002026-02-26T23:51:57-05:00https://justin.searls.co/posts/agents-are-ushering-in-the-antisocial-coding-era/Agents are ushering in the Antisocial Coding era https://justin.searls.co/posts/agents-are-ushering-in-the-antisocial-coding-era/Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-02-26T16:26:27+00:002026-02-26T11:35:28-05:00https://justin.searls.co/takes/2026-02-26-09h16m42s/<![CDATA[If you've posted an issue to any of my repos and I never responded: GitHub apparently disabled automatic watching for new repositories last year and nobody noticed. Issues are now graveyards from Day 1.
No wonder my… https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/157470]]>Justin Searlswebsite@searls.co2026-02-26T14:16:42+00:002026-02-26T09:23:21-05:00