The original promise of the web was a decentralized network where everybody was both a reader and a publisher. But over the past ~30 years, the internet h...
I love how Bear blog feels like the old web. It's fast, text-first , and feels like plain HTML. The only exception was the Toast icon at the bottom. I like having a way to say "I like this" but I wanted to restyle it to look more like an HTML link. I landed on a +1 that looks like a link. When you click it, it thanks the reader and adds one to the counter. Then I added a script that adds "like" or…
When I work with my hands, like on a woodworking or home improvement project, I have moments of frustration, but most of the experience is joy. There are small incremental improvement all leading to the end of the project. But when I write, I write in loops, and it always hurts. I write something small, “no that’s not it”, delete. Write again, “ok that’s good, let’s keep it.” Write again,…
On paper, I should be right in the center of the Venn diagram for ChatGPT Voice Mode. I love audio. It’s a great format for both input and consumption because it doesn’t require your full attention. You can listen while working out, doing things around the house, or driving to work. I use an iPhone, spend about ~1:15 in the truck each day, and use ChatGPT constantly. So when I saw that OpenAI…
Today, I listened to this great podcast episode with Tom Sachs and Adam Savage, while working out. There's so many interesting quotes and stories that I kept finding myself saving clips to my phone. When I later looked for the episode, I realized there isn't a transcript online, and the page for this episode is strangely missing from the City Arts & Lectures podcast website . So, I'll post some of…
Last week I wrote a blog post that got 100x more reads than any of my other posts. It hit the top of Bear Blog Discovery, my boss shared it with our company, and it reached #2 on Hacker News. A couple friends have asked me what my goal was with the post and how I got it to the top of Hacker News. The answers aren't that sexy, but I wanted to share the story because I enjoy reading things like…
There's something I love about opening a text-only webpage. They're a refuge from the GDPR cookie banners, the trashy ads, the email opt-ins, and the god-forsaken auto-play video. A text-only webpage is clean. It's readable. It's fast and it's simple. The page is just made of text, so it's infinitely reproducible. You can paste the whole thing into an email to a friend. You can put it in ChatGPT…
I bought a 2020 Gladiator Mojave a few years and did quite a few modifications including an AEV lift, 37" tires, and adding a GFC rooftop tent. But one of my favorite projects was trying to remove as much of the visual clutter from the interior. This included swapping the mats, simplifying the Apple Play UI, simplifying labels, and removing the warning stickers from my visors . These stickers are…
My desktop is constantly getting cluttered with files, images, and tons of screenshots. It's a consequence of having a thin client where I don't save many files to my computer, so the desktop has become the default place I store files when they're "in use." So I clutter it up for a few days, get bothered by the mess, and have to sift through a dozen files with default filenames to make sure I…
We found that when employees are getting good one-on-ones with their manager, no matter how busy they are, no matter how many meetings they have, they want more. ” This quote from an HBR podcast episode was so counterintuitive to me. Extremely busy employees actually want more 1-on-1s? Or are they super busy because their boss is setting up so many meetings? When I've been super busy, I dread…
I use ChatGPT every day and have become somewhat of a ChatGPT evangelist over the past few months. I regularly pull out my phone to show people how they could use ChatGPT to offload some of their more mundane tasks. After convincing them to experiment with ChatGPT, I recommend a few pieces of advice: Use ChatGPT for at least 10 hours before you give up, you'll get a lot better at prompting Use…