All posts

2026

May

• Don't torture your future self (May 23 · 7)
• PSA: you should care about UV levels (May 17 · 2 · 2)
• Post-Inkhaven Post (May 5 · 20 · 10)

April

• Don't screw the crew (Apr 30 · 39 · 3)
• The time I almost got a job at CEA (Apr 30 · 5 · 1)
• Weighing animal minds, part II (Apr 30 · 1)
• Claude Coding apps on the cheap (Apr 30 · 2)
• The Magnetisers (Apr 30 · 2 · 2)
• Opinionated advice on doing Inkhaven (Apr 29 · 11 · 2)
• Weird and wonderful papers I've read (Apr 29 · 3)
• More vibe coding at Inkhaven (Apr 29 · 3)
• Anger release (Apr 29 · 3)
• Should you Found to Give? (Apr 28 · 2)
• AI has taste now, too (Apr 27 · 3 · 1)
• Digital poison (Apr 26 · 7)
• Forecasting measured the wrong thing (Apr 25 · 5)
• I had magnets pointed at my brain (Apr 23 · 6 · 1)
• Vibe coding at Inkhaven (Apr 22 · 5)
• Getting back on the apps (Apr 22 · 8 · 5)
• AI CEOs are not saying it's dangerous just to hype their companies (Apr 21 · 5)
• Weighing animal minds, part I (Apr 20 · 6)
• The connection puzzle (Apr 20 · 3)
• Connection, loud and quiet (Apr 19 · 12 · 2)
• You can just not do things (Apr 18 · 9 · 4)
• Anatomy of a breakup (Apr 17 · 12 · 1)
• Semaglutidonomics (Apr 14 · 5 · 2)
• No More Inkslop (Apr 13 · 33 · 6)
• You can just take less Mounjaro (Apr 12 · 3 · 3)
• Keep Thinking with Claude (Apr 12 · 3)
• The median take is taken (Apr 11 · 5 · 2)
• Blogging – a colossal waste of time? (Apr 10 · 12 · 4)
• The connection gap (Apr 9 · 4)
• Inkhavening (Apr 8 · 17 · 1)
• Should anyone be vegan? (Apr 6 · 16 · 7)
• Cult of REWE (Apr 5 · 5 · 1)
• Talking to strangers: an app adventure (Apr 5 · 4 · 6)
• Much more than you wanted to know about gabapentinoids (Apr 3 · 6)
• Capture and coast (Apr 2 · 1 · 1)
• A paean to bigness (Apr 1 · 7)

March

• Not yet Dariopilled (Mar 3 · 2)

February

• I'm doing Inkhaven (Feb 24 · 6 · 2)
• The magic toothpaste you can't buy (Feb 17 · 6 · 1)
• New Claude Code funsies (Feb 7 · 5)

January

• Does shutting down dark web markets kill people? (Jan 20 · 3 · 2)
• My Claude Code workflow (Jan 12 · 4 · 3)

2025

December

• Could LLM psychiatrists be better than meat ones? (Dec 10 · 1 · 1)
• A fabulous train journey (Dec 6 · 2)

October

• I went on a Zen meditation retreat (Oct 9 · 2 · 2)

August

• Everything is broken and that's great (Aug 10 · 4 · 1)

2022

March

• Moving to Substack (Mar 20)

2021

December

• Get boosted - especially if you had the AstraZeneca vaccine (Dec 11)

April

• The value of information (Apr 12)

2020

March

• Coronavirus testing (Mar 28)

2019

August

• Blackout in Britain (Aug 9)

July

• Xiaomi electric scooter - the missing manual (Jul 27)
• Boris Johnson addresses the masses (Jul 18)

2018

August

• A Buildpack for GraalVM (Aug 9)

July

• Getting started with Graal (Jul 30)
• Multi-file wordcount – an exercise in concurrent Ruby (Jul 17)

June

• Tracking physical presence with packet sniffing (Jun 26)
• Geoffrey Miller on polyamory (Jun 25)
• 🔗 Drug elimination calculator (Jun 18)
• 🔗 Where We Donate and Why It Matters (Jun 15)
• Scope insensitivity and d3.js (Jun 15)
• Blagging your way through d3.js (Jun 13)
• Hey, Cochrane - quick answers to medical questions (Jun 5)

May

• Becoming a dramatically better programmer (May 31)
• Learning Programming Languages with Spaced Repetition (May 29)
• BitTorrent clients for fun and profit (May 23)
• Last chance – see an Iridium flare (May 22)

April

• How to improve EA Funds (Apr 4)

2017

September

• London's short-sighted Uber ban (Sep 23)

March

• I went to an Effective Altruism conference (Mar 21)

2016

November

• How to BOSH (Nov 4)

October

• Two gweilos in Morocco (Oct 30)

June

• Brexit: the next step (Jun 28)
• Honest abstractions (Jun 21)

May

• Links #2 (May 27)
• How we spend our days is how we spend our lives (May 7)

April

• State of the Union: programming professionally in 2016 (Apr 15)

March

• Sleeping better with melatonin (Mar 6)
• A huge opportunity to do good (Mar 3)

February

• Ruby bindings (Feb 11)

January

• Giving what we can (Jan 10)

2015

December

• To mistakes (Dec 25)
• The wrong idea (Dec 10)

November

• App icon product placement (Nov 26)
• Change your defaults (Nov 12)

October

• Concourse: CI as Code (Oct 18)
• An eternal golden braid (Oct 4)

August

• Startup Lessons (Aug 20)

March

• Kill your Buddhas (Mar 22)

2014

December

• Employed! (Dec 15)

November

• The Twelve-Second Code Year [part 4] (Nov 5)
• Makers Academy (Nov 5)

October

• Getting started with Sinatra and test-driven development (Oct 16)
• Goodbye, Little Printer (Oct 7)

September

• The Twelve-Second Code Year [part 3] (Sep 29)
• FizzBuzz in CoffeeScript – a worked example (Sep 25)
• Anniversary (Sep 9)
• The Twelve-Second Code Year [part 2] (Sep 7)

August

• The Twelve-Second Code Year [part 1] (Aug 25)

July

• How not to forget your dreams (Jul 15)
• To be happier, talk to strangers (Jul 8)

June

• The passing of a psychedelic giant (Jun 3)

April

• Why it doesn't matter if people are offended by Live Below the Line (Apr 29)
• A simple game for a large group of people (Apr 3)
• However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light (Apr 2)

February

• Encryption and veganism can go mainstream -- by being invisible (Feb 23)
• Push back against state surveillance (Feb 11)
• Amazon reviews as poetry (Feb 10)

January

• PRISM break (Jan 30)
• Links #1: Don't give to beggars, more rational resolutions, one hour R, write for yourself (Jan 19)
• Start cautiously. Always produce. (Jan 14)
• The temptation of smart drugs (Jan 4)
• Why Hailo works (Jan 3)

2013

September

• Notes from FutureFest (Sep 28)
• Google fights aging (Sep 19)

August

• Do the groundwork, but keep the vision in mind (Aug 3)

July

• Right on the money (Jul 31)
• Beating PRISM with Hemlis (Jul 11)
• Wrong about nearly everything (Jul 10)

June

• I know I don't know what I want (Jun 20)
• Fail more. (Jun 19)
• Summing up happiness research (Jun 15)

May

• That's a lot of drugs (May 23)

March

• Relationships are the important thing (Mar 17)

2012

February

• Preparing for the pandemic (Feb 25)

2011

December

• Be grateful for MDMA (Dec 7)

November

• Don't confuse consuming and producing (Nov 6)

October

• What's the point of OpenPCR? (Oct 31)
• Shortcuts for supercentenarians (Oct 26)

March

• Ambitious psychology (Mar 16)

2010

November

• The youth of synthetic biology (Nov 6)

October

• Learning to learn (Oct 22)

January

• Pause (Jan 30)

2009

December

• Fashionable pharmaceuticals (Dec 18)

November

• The immortality brigade (Nov 27)

August

• Thinking of the children (Aug 24)

July

• Hello, world. (Jul 7)