Notes
It’s been a while since the last time I published a post with the list of articles I’ve read. This one contains the highlights from the past few months.
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We Were Wrong About GPUs — Fly.io invested in GPU Machines to support AI/ML tasks for developers, but they learned that most developers prefer using APIs for AI instead of managing GPUs themselves. Despite the challenges and costs of deploying GPUs, they found that the demand for these machines was lower than expected. The company is now scaling back its GPU ambitions while focusing on improving its core product offerings.
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Why I think AI take-off is relatively slow — Tyler Cowen argues that the rapid adoption of AI is slowed down by inefficiencies in less productive sectors and human bottlenecks, like regulatory delays. He believes that while AI can improve productivity, it will not transform the economy as quickly as expected due to the challenges of integrating it with human work. Overall, Cowen suggests that AI might boost economic growth modestly, but noticeable changes will take time.
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Is it okay? — The author discusses the impact of language models on creativity and copyright, arguing that their reliance on the entire internet raises ethical concerns. He believes that if these models only replicate existing content without contributing to human creativity, it is problematic. However, if they lead to significant advancements in science and technology, their use may be justified.
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The Inner Ring — The concept of the “Inner Ring” describes the human desire to belong to exclusive groups, which can lead to negative actions and feelings of exclusion. This longing for acceptance can overshadow genuine connections and fulfillment in life. True happiness comes from focusing on meaningful work and relationships rather than chasing after superficial insider status.
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Introducing S2 — Introduction to S2, a new approach to streaming data storage.
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Ghostty: Reflecting on Reaching 1.0 — This is a personal reflection on the project.
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How to Pick Your Life Partner - Part 2 — To endure 20,000 days, 100 vacations, and 100,000 leisure hours with another human being and do so happily, there are three key ingredients necessary.
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How to Pick Your Life Partner - Part 1 — Given that the choice of life partner is by far the most important thing in life to get right, how is it possible that so many smart people get it so wrong?
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The secret inside One Million Checkboxes — Teens wrote secret binary messages in One Million Checkboxes. The author found them.
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Group Chat: The Best Way to Totally Stress Out Your Team — The perils of the modern communications conveyor belt that never ends, divides your attention, fractures your time, and chains you to FOMO.
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Reflections on Founder Mode — Reflections on a recent Paul Graham piece – and on the culture at Oxide
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Founder Mode — At a YC event last week Brian Chesky gave a talk that everyone who was there will remember. Most founders I talked to afterward said it was the best they’d ever heard. Ron Conway, for the first time in his life, forgot to take notes. I’m not going to try to reproduce it here. Instead I want to talk about a question it raised.
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Obsession — Reflections on the concept of healthy obsession and how it can be a source of motivation and success.
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Leaving Neovim for Zed — A journey through text editors and how I landed on Zed after years of Neovim
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Why I Built Litestream — Despite an exponential increase in computing power, our applications require more machines than ever because of architectural decisions made 25 years ago. You can eliminate much of your complexity and cost by using SQLite & Litestream for your production applications.
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It’s in the stories — The author reflects on the importance of storytelling in leadership, sharing anecdotes about influential figures.
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Two Threads, One Core: How Simultaneous Multithreading Works Under the Hood — Simultaneous multithreading (SMT) is a feature that lets a processor handle instructions from two different threads at the same time. But have you ever wondered how this actually works?
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Why German Strings are Everywhere — German Strings are a custom string format developed for optimized data processing, adopted by many databases, focusing on performance and memory efficiency.
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The Kafka Metric You’re Not Using: Stop Counting Messages, Start Measuring Time — Traditional offset-based monitoring can be misleading due to varying message sizes and consumption rates. To address this, you can introduce a time-based metric for a more accurate assessment of consumer group lag.
For the last few years, especially after the pandemic forced us to switch to remote work, I’ve been searching for ways to break free from a stressful, sedentary lifestyle.
I’ve been trying to be more consistent. I’ve tried different approaches, but each attempt would start with enthusiasm, only to gradually fade away.
This year something was different. I still don’t know what it was, but I’ve been able to keep making progress. I’ve managed to work out for +130 hours. Almost a 70% increase from last year. Around 20 minutes a day.
These numbers aren’t impressive, but they represent something far more valuable for me: consistency. I’m proud not just of the numbers, but of maintaining a regular routine despite facing significant personal challenges during the second half of the year.
Next year, I’ll try to keep making progress. I’m going to keep making progress. I’m going to keep making progress.
This is the closest I’ll ever publicly get to a year review and a new year resolution. I’ve created this page to keep track of my progress.
Investigating challenging problems and bugs is an exciting experience that often leads to remarkable discoveries and personal growth. As a engineer, I’ve always found joy in decoding complex issues and diving deep into the unknown. The thrill of the hunt, the satisfaction of piecing together clues, and the ahá moment when everything falls into place are unique.
One of the most rewarding aspects of problem-solving is the opportunity to learn new things. Every bug, every system failure, and every unexpected behavior is a chance to expand your knowledge and skillset. It’s like being a detective in the digital world, where each case brings its own unique challenges and lessons.
The skills developed through problem-solving and investigation are not only valuable in professional settings but can also be applied to personal life. Embracing the challenge of investigating problems and bugs not only makes us better professionals but also equips us with valuable life skills. It teaches us to be persistent, adaptable, and open to learning.
While the truths we uncover can be difficult or painful, they ultimately lead us to growth and a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
Indeed, these problem-solving skills can sometimes lead to unexpected and challenging discoveries in our personal relationships. Such as uncovering long-term-perfectly-hidden lies and infidelities.
Slightly inspired by this thread: https://twitter.com/rosapolis/status/1828014752112545924