Matt Blewitt

Finally cracked sub 59 minute 10K today. This isn't huge in the grand scheme of things, but is an achievement for me.

On to 25K, and revisiting the 10K benchmark next year I think.

years after working with a team that was vehemently against deleting any test, no matter how flaky, I have assembled my counter-doctrine: you should delete tests

andre.arko.net/2025/06/30/y...

The lack of fundamentals has been the thing for me. Generating reams of code they can't understand, because they don't have the basics down.

ChatGPT is like giving someone carbon-plated supershoes to an 18 month old.

I love seeing your art evolution! It is not lost on me that your favourites have _very_ distinctive art styles (and 3 are Masaaki Yuasa joints!)

The two together are like the Demon Core.

BasicObject#method_missing in Ruby, and it isn't even close.

sisyphus at daily standup: i had to roll back some changes

Great compilation.

I think it was proven CRANE and SALET are the most optimal now, but ALTER and SONIC are still my favourite starting words.

Embodiment Or, touching grass is good actually.

Trying to be a bit looser with blog stuff: matt.blwt.io/post/embodim...

PALPATINE HOLOGRAM: 𝑨𝑹𝑬 𝑾𝑬 𝑶𝑵 𝑻𝑹𝑨𝑪𝑲 𝑻𝑶 𝑴𝑬𝑬𝑻 𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑸𝑼𝑨𝑹𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑳𝒀 𝑲𝑷𝑰𝑺?

IMPERIAL BUREAUCRAT: Y-yes my lord.

PALPATINE: 𝒀𝑶𝑼’𝑹𝑬 𝑨 𝑹𝑶𝑪𝑲𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑹. 𝑳𝑬𝑻’𝑺 𝑻𝑶𝑼𝑪𝑯 𝑩𝑨𝑺𝑬 𝑳𝑨𝑻𝑬𝑹.

Big same.

I definitely choose to go up to RR or even serialisable for specific operations, but not generally.

I feel that the tradeoff is sometimes worth it for RR if and only if you are comfortable with the additional complexity.

You probably have an app/service that performs operations against a Postgres database.

Do you change the transaction isolation level from the default?

The weather was wonderful today. Marred by being on-call, but such is life.

A vermouth and soda would be quite nice around now.

There is no requirement for endless growth. It's OK to reach a point and stop. Find comfort that there is a terminal level, and bask in it.

Mild take - if you run infrastructure, you should move as many critical packages you have to your in-house build system.

www.vatican.va/roman_curia/...

The Vatican has weighed in. This is a great read, even for the non-religious. 215 citations. Embodiment was one of my favourite topics at university - phenomenology is great.

OOOOOOOH YEEEAAAAAH

THE CREAM RIIIIIISES TO THE TOP of the Gartner quadrant.

1. Impact. How much revenue does my work protect or generate?

2. Quality. Does my work meet or exceed customer expectations?

3. Efficiency. Reward making the right buy versus build decision.

4. Reusability. How do others leverage my work?

5. Supportability. How much work do I create for others?

Gosh, this should never have made it passed review.

Non-custom error page? Full error details, including potentially sensitive information? Shame, shame!

The human organism always worships.

First it was the gods, then it was fame (the observation and judgment of others), next it will be the self-aware systems you have built to realize truly omnipresent observation and judgment.

Deus Ex is both batshit and weirdly precisent.

YouTube video by amvhell AMV Hell 8

AMVs are art.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_Yb...

Being a good writer has always been valuable, but in an era of bland AI slop I suspect that being able to write with an authentic, human voice is effectively becoming a super power

I think it's a toss up between the Mk II and ν Gundam for me. The funnel array on the ν Gundam gives it such an imposing aura without veering too much away from the chonk.

In a previous life, we used to use Da Bomb and a toothpick when making Bloody Mary's at a bar I worked at. Get fresh toothpick, dip in Da Bomb, dip in drink during prep, throw away toothpick. Very efficient and no one ever complained ours were not spicy enough.

That said if you’re looking for a leader in developer relations, especially one who understands how to connect it to business outcomes & marketing goals, hit me up :)

Another good Postgres trick - pg_export_snapshot() and SET TRANSACTION SNAPSHOT.

This lets you maintain a consistent view of data while the outside world changes - very useful for say, parallel exporting of data as part of ETL processes.

Remember, Postgres fans - to get snapshot isolation, you need to set REPEATABLE READ, which is not the default.

I agree with Qian here - you will have fewer problems with this isolation level.

A picture of a Yule Lad with white beard and hair and a red hat, eating skyr

Tonight Skyrgámur (Skyr Gobbler), the 8th of Iceland's 13 Yule Lads, comes down from the mountains. He loves skyr, a type of Icelandic yogurt.

Children leave their shoes out in the window for him, he gives the good ones a small gift, the bad ones get a potato.

Illustration: Brian Pilkington.