Who Cares About the Shrimp?
I wrote an essay for Kernel Magazine, Issue 6 about shrimp welfare
Alex Wennerberg's Digital Home
Latest posts
I was in New York and soon I will be back in San Francisco
I quit my job in January, and have been on a professional sabbatical since then. I have spent the past six weeks in New York, a city I lived in for two years two years ago.
Naive design is better than AI design
There is a scourge of AI-designed signs taking over America, especially small businesses and organizations.
Artificial intelligence in The Amazing Digital Circus
The Amazing Digital Circus is a YouTube animated series that started in late 2023. Its visual style of the show is that of something for five-year-olds, but the target demographic is probably something like thirteen to twenty-one. It is staggeringly, incredibly popular—the pilot is currently…
The Art of the Longplay
I wrote an essay for The Empty Cup about longplays
Revisiting avatarspirit.net
This post was lost when I moved servers and will be restored July 25, 2026.
Do-nothing software development
I started a professional sabbatical in January. For the first few months, I continued to write code, but starting in March, I've almost completely stopped. The distance from actively building software has reinforced my sense that a lot of software work is unnecessary and the tech industry could…
Against big tech credentialism
Ryan Peterman is a YouTube interviewer who speaks with senior employees at big tech companies. On the one hand, it is incredible how accessible high-income professionals at highly competitive organizations are, and how open they are willing to speak about their work. But there is some danger in…
Put away your phone and play Pokémon on your Nintendo DS
If you don't regularly take public transit, you may not have the daily experience of bounded slices of time where you have nothing to do but sit and briefly wait. If you do, you'll notice that most people are looking at their phones.
AI can sort of code, can't write
I started a professional sabbatical in January. For the month of March, I wrote basically full-time. This is possibly the first time in my life that I have spent so much time doing so much writing, and it's been one of the more enjoyable experiences of my life. I spent about ten years working in…
How to make your website look great in 37 bytes of CSS
How to make your website look great in 37 bytes of CSS
Please don't vibe code your personal website
I have experimented enough with AI coding agents that I have come to pick up on their design style, and I've been noticing it on the internet more and more. Some of its stylistic choices I can articulate: too much animation, pointless elements, too many colors, sloppy overuse of haptics, buttons…
AI code and software craft
Update (Feb 17, 2026)—I no longer agree with many statements made in this blog post. I am leaving it here unmodified. See my follow-up: AI can sort of code, can't write.
My conversation with Sean Goedecke
After my last blog post, "Software engineers are not politicians," Sean responded on his blog, "Software engineers should be a little bit cynical." Sean was gracious enough to have a long-form discussion about this exchange, which I posted on my YouTube. I hope you all enjoy.
Software engineers are not politicians
If you live in or have been to New York City, you may recognize 432 Park Avenue.
How to watch The Adam Friedland Show on a CRT TV
I watch a lot of YouTube videos. I also have recently gotten into using a CRT TV. It is my only TV—a compromise between having no TV and having a normal TV, which I find too distracting, and also an unsettling presence in a room when it is off: a giant black rectangle. However, I found watching…
I played Diplomacy: World of Chaos
I've long been fascinated by the game Diplomacy. Allegedly the favorite board game of John F. Kennedy and Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy is a war game with relatively simple mechanics where seven players try to take over pre-WWI Europe. What differentiates it from other war games you may be familiar…
I read Infinite Jest
I recently watched the video "I tried doing nothing on an 18 hour flight," in which YouTube creator @BWong challenges himself to spend back-to-back flights doing absolutely nothing: not even talking to his parents beside him or sleeping. Just sitting in his seat staring blankly ahead, for eighteen…
The world is not a simulation
The simulation argument, formulated by Nick Bostrom, goes as follows: imagine that that a civilization is capable of creating a computer simulation complex enough that it can simulate consciousness. Since there could be infinitely many simulations with infinitely many conscious beings inside them…
My time in New York
It's not always clear why I moved to and from New York. I will do my best to explain it, but my reasons often feel post-hoc. I moved here in January 2022 and am leaving January 2024.
Worry by Alexandra Tanner
Worry (2024) by Alexandra Tanner reviewed
Considering fashion nihilism
The World Is On Fire But We're Still Buying Shoes by Alex Leach reviewed
Visions of work
"After Work" and "The Unsettling of America" reviewed
Heating people, not spaces — Low-Tech Magazine
Low Tech Magazine describes itself as "an online platform refusing to assume that every problem has a high-tech solution [...] underscor[ing] the potential of past and often forgotten technologies and how they can inform sustainable energy practices." The magazine challenges the notion that…
I did dry January
I enjoy drinking. I like the taste of alcohol, I like bars, I like social drinking, I like how drinking makes me feel. Drinking is fun. There are only two major problems I have with drinking. The first is being hungover. Haruki Murakami's story "All God's Children Can Dance" begins with a…
McMindfulness Book Review
McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality (2019) by Ronald Purser
Hello world
Welcome to my redesigned website. One of my goals for the new year is to write more, about technology, life, books I am reading, and so on. If you want to keep up with my writing, you can follow the Atom Feed or get email notifications. This website is a combination blog (hosted on the homepage)…
Great Wall is unquestionably the worst Magic: The Gathering card
The Great Wall of China is the longest wall in the world, a monumental testament to human engineering and a national symbol of China. Magic: The Gathering's Great Wall is none of those things.