Get Smart With Stupid Models
The AI companies want you to believe you need to pay up to keep up. Don't buy it. Here's how you can get great output out of "stupid" models.
Drew Lyton
Just a writer, engineer, and founder sharing the things I've learned the hard way so that hopefully you don't have to.
Latest posts
Introducing ebb
Why I stopped building a notes app and created a framework for building real-time, collaborative, offline-capable applications instead.
A Dream Come True
Hey friends 👋, For the past four months, I've been on hiatus preparing for and reveling in the birth of my first child. She's happy, healthy, beautiful, goofy, and constantly smells like cheese. My wife and I couldn't be more in love. Growing a
The Pressure Is On
Hey friends 👋, A couple weeks ago, my essay, The Future Is NOT Self-Hosted hit the front page of Hacker News and stayed there for almost 36 hours. The piece got 30,000 views over night, received hundreds of comments and replies, and this newsletter grew from an intimate
The Future is NOT Self-Hosted
In a world where corporations have detached buying from owning, one man attempts to do something radical: build his own cloud.
Meditations for those who struggle with vacations
Hey friends 👋, I'm down a rabbit hole this week on self-hosting and haven't had time to finish an essay. But, I told myself I wouldn't go two weeks without sending out a newsletter. So, instead of my normal, regularly scheduled ramblings, here
What if you knew you would fail?
👋 Hey friends, "What would you do if you knew you could not fail?" This is one of those motivational mantras designed to help us push past our fear of failure. If success was guaranteed, we'd have the courage to pursue our wildest dreams: start that
Fashioned In The Clay
👋 Hey friends, Tomorrow (June 14th), millions of people across the country are taking to the streets in solidarity to express their disdain for this regime's corrupt, authoritarian and oligarchical antics. If you're interested in finding a protest near you, you can learn more about "
The AI Empire
Hey friends 👋, In Kurt Vonnegut's 1952 debut techno-dystopian novel, Player Piano , there is a world-class machinist named Rudy. One day, a group of engineers and researchers visit Rudy in his shop. They ask him for permission to record him while he works. They show him
Multi-modal
Hey friends 👋, Ryan Holiday, the prolific author of the Stoic Virtue series, has written a book a year for nearly ten years. When asked how he does it, he answered by quoting Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People : The main thing is keeping the
Stone and sky
Hey friends 👋, Look. I don't care if you're a fan of Star Wars . If you haven't already, you should watch Andor . This show is one of the best pieces of media I've ever seen. Poster for the Star Wars show "
The Calvary is Not Coming
Hey friends 👋, This is probably obvious, but I am someone that likes to know things. Sometimes, that pursuit of knowledge comes from a place of pure curiosity. But often times, it is the way I seek safety. Understanding the unknown provides me with a sense of confidence and comfort
Make it easier for the next person
Hey friends 👋, I love a good underdog story. It's inspiring to hear tales of people going from nothing to something. I get to come away feeling like, "If them, why not me?" But this week, I've been thinking about what happens when these
The Machinery Question
Hey friends 👋, In pre-industrial England, being a weaver was a good job. Weaving was an accessible trade with a relatively short apprenticeship. The work itself was not incredibly demanding, but the demand for the work was high and steady. Most weavers worked three days a week from the
Postcard from the eye of a hurricane
Hey friends 👋, What a weird week. While small businesses have been whiplashed by wild changes in trade policy, elderly folks have been worried about their retirement portfolios as markets crash, and immigrants live in fear of wrongful deportation, I've been writing. It's a strange feeling