Rob K

YouTube video by Nemertes How to Do Ambitious Research in the Modern Era

I spoke at Nemertes [next] about how Ink & Switch thinks about doing research as an independent organization. This talk isn't about our work but about the way we work -- if that interests you, check it out.
youtu.be/w7DVlI_Ztq8?...

asking the librarian if they have any books in dark mode

Malleable software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps The original promise of personal computing was a new kind of clay. Instead, we got appliances: built far away, sealed, unchangeable. In this essay, we envision malleable software: tools that users can...

Malleable software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps
www.inkandswitch.com/essay/mallea...

Career advice for developers:

Write normal code. Just the basic good stuff. Don't be fancy, don't be clever. Don't use currying everywhere. You don't need Docker for everything. Also don't write dumb code. Please write good code. But make it normal. As unsurprising as possible.

Thank you

Me: put that down already, we’re working on project B today

Brain: *staring at shiny project A* why not, after all, why shouldn’t I keep it

Me: ffs leave it

Brain: my preci—

Me: don’t

This is a really great real-world, realistic example of how you can use vision LLMs for complex data entry tasks. A 650 page PDF still took an hour of human work even with Gemini's assistance, but the job got done!

Wrote a few of my own notes here: simonwillison.net/2025/Jun/19/...

I continue to have fun doing fantasy cooking with LLMs - this time I tried "Give me a wildly ambitious recipe for zucchini cooked three ways" followed by "Go more ambitious" and now I need to get myself a centrifuge to help spherify my clarified zucchini consommé chatgpt.com/share/685370...

LLMs bring new nature of abstraction a short post

NEW POST

Gen AI for software development is the biggest jump up in abstraction since assembler to HLLs, but also a jump sideways.

martinfowler.com/articles/202...

The case against conversational interfaces Conversational interfaces are a bit of a meme. Every couple of years a shiny new AI development emerges and people in tech go "This is it! The next computing paradigm is here! We'll only use natural l...

"The case against conversational interfaces" by Julian Lehr (2025)

julian.digital/2025/03/27/t...

Based on what I’ve seen and read about Patchwork I’m really excited about it. This doesn’t help with how you talk about it, but I’m glad you are talking about it!