I joined Twitter in 2007 and my brain slowly morphed over the next 15 years from hopelessly verbose to nihilistically pithy. I've kicked the Twitter habit, but the takes keep flowing. That's why I post them here and format them as a social network of one. You're welcome to bookmark any of these takes, though I'm not sure why you would.
By the way, the hearts and like counts are fake. They're just there to make you feel safe.
Every time a new model hits, I ask it to write a Searls of Wisdom newsletter based on writing samples and an outline.
Every model has been SO bad at emulating my writing that it makes me literally angry. Just here to report that OpenAI’s o3-mini-high is no different. D-
Imagine the entrepreneur who started a UPS franchise 15 years ago with earnest hopes of connecting with the local community by offering services like private mailboxes and consultative shipping options.
Now imagine that person's life as a subcontractor of a subcontractor of Fulfillment by Amazon bound by an ironclad franchising agreement.
I appreciate the tinfoil hat set, but what's with all these RFID-blocking wallets? Car's fob won't unlock the doors because my wallet is close enough to block it.
Where can I get an RFID-boosting wallet?
Rough month for the tech CEO whose future fortunes depend on us all believing AI innovation requires hundreds of billions of dollars of server farms timkellogg.me/blog/2025/02/03/s1
TIL (the hard way) that in Florida, joint vehicle titles with "AND" between the names require both parties for every significant transaction. "OR" titles are also available and allow either party to be a self-actualized adult.
So impressed by my friend Nadia—she was featured on the Today show this morning for her remarkable success building The StoryGraph, which millions of people use to find their next favorite book! today.com/video/meet-the-woman-behind-the-popular-book-app-the-storygraph-231154757691
It says a lot that Final Cut Pro literally won’t allow you to save a library to a folder managed by iCloud Drive.
And one day after adding X support, my new Syndication app should also be cross-posting to Mastodon. Next up, Threads.
Just a few days after launching my TOP SECRET syndication app with Bluesky support, I've written a new adapter for cross-posting to X. Updated the site’s POSSE roundup accordingly: justin.searls.co/posse/
Becky keeps encouraging me to try nutritional yeast as a healthy, protein-rich seasoning, but the wires in my brain got crossed and I keep calling it "informational yeast" and then wondering what the hell it has to tell me.
With any luck, my website now syndicates to my Bluesky account.
And if you’re seeing this on Bluesky, then… hello!
I found myself wanting a commercial license that gave me a way to share my work, but which conferred literally no other privileges.
So I wrote a new one: the Fuck You Pay Me License github.com/searls/fypm
Someone should start a "Delete TikTok" challenge, wherein you record yourself accessing a friend's phone, deleting the TikTok app, and then capturing their reaction when they realize they can't reinstall it.
"How hard could it possibly be to truncate a string while making sure it doesn't cut off any URLs or hashtags?" he asked, ignorantly. gist.github.com/searls/9d8ee42929da99ae268477eb20818da6
No offense to the startup bros out there but “Agentic” sounds more like an Alzheimer’s drug that’s mired in a class action lawsuit for giving people cancer.
I find myself frequently wondering how much better LLMs would be at coding if they were trained to be humble and full of self-doubt instead of overconfident know-it-alls.
Super Switch. There’s a lot to unpack here (plan to record an episode of Breaking Change this weekend to discuss), but the biggest “surprise” is that this is the least surprising console Nintendo has ever designed. youtube.com/watch?v=itpcsQQvgAQ
Test Double is running a survey to better understand YOUR HOTTEST TAKES about software development. Please fill this out as accurately and spicily as possible 🌶️ forms.gle/UcnjShcTUxPVJmTm6
Just wasted 30 minutes trying to validate the following XML file:
AFAICT, 90% of XML validators don’t look up referenced XSD URLs and literally zero will validate against all of them if a default namespace is used at all. Prove me wrong!
$ rails new syndicate --database=postgresql --css=tailwind --skip-devcontainer --skip-docker --skip-kamal --skip-rubocop --skip-thruster --skip-action-mailbox