Allen Pike
@allenpike.com
Building Forestwalk.ai, hosting Infer and It Shipped That Way, and writing about software and other tricky things. ⭐️
Vancouver • @apike elsewhere • allenpike.com
Vancouver • @apike elsewhere • allenpike.com
Thanks, Dave! I just added an addendum with info a couple of folks from Google have sent in about the bug.
February 12, 2026 at 12:00 AM
Thanks, Dave! I just added an addendum with info a couple of folks from Google have sent in about the bug.
A Broken Heart: Getting a 100x speedup by changing one dumb line of code
allenpike.com/2026/a-broke...
allenpike.com/2026/a-broke...
A Broken Heart
Or, getting a 100x speedup with one dumb line of code.
allenpike.com
February 1, 2026 at 7:02 AM
A Broken Heart: Getting a 100x speedup by changing one dumb line of code
allenpike.com/2026/a-broke...
allenpike.com/2026/a-broke...
- But Google knows "allen pike" is a "person" search.
- And "allen pike" has a similar embedding to the username "apike".
- And ”apike" has a similar embedding, as a typo, to "spike".
So, Google relates "allen pike” to “Spike Jonze". And that's why AI devs need good tracing and analysis tooling 🫠
- And "allen pike" has a similar embedding to the username "apike".
- And ”apike" has a similar embedding, as a typo, to "spike".
So, Google relates "allen pike” to “Spike Jonze". And that's why AI devs need good tracing and analysis tooling 🫠
January 29, 2026 at 9:59 PM
- But Google knows "allen pike" is a "person" search.
- And "allen pike" has a similar embedding to the username "apike".
- And ”apike" has a similar embedding, as a typo, to "spike".
So, Google relates "allen pike” to “Spike Jonze". And that's why AI devs need good tracing and analysis tooling 🫠
- And "allen pike" has a similar embedding to the username "apike".
- And ”apike" has a similar embedding, as a typo, to "spike".
So, Google relates "allen pike” to “Spike Jonze". And that's why AI devs need good tracing and analysis tooling 🫠
As systems include more layers of AI, it gets difficult to intuit why they behave as they do. For example, why is one of the Google results for “allen pike" the Wikipedia page for director Spike Jonze?
Zero people searching for Allen Pike are looking for info on Spike Jonze!
Zero people searching for Allen Pike are looking for info on Spike Jonze!
January 29, 2026 at 9:59 PM
As systems include more layers of AI, it gets difficult to intuit why they behave as they do. For example, why is one of the Google results for “allen pike" the Wikipedia page for director Spike Jonze?
Zero people searching for Allen Pike are looking for info on Spike Jonze!
Zero people searching for Allen Pike are looking for info on Spike Jonze!
Despite the challenges, it's exciting to imagine that 2026 could be the year where AI becomes able to complete multi-day tasks, perform useful household robotics work, or even produce working CSS layouts where only part of the screen scrolls
January 22, 2026 at 9:40 PM
Despite the challenges, it's exciting to imagine that 2026 could be the year where AI becomes able to complete multi-day tasks, perform useful household robotics work, or even produce working CSS layouts where only part of the screen scrolls
TIL there's a cracked Node dev working from Camano Island (number 10 for me, so far). I feel like the different islands should have rarities and different points. For example obviously Vancouver Island is only 1 point, but if you can collect Galiano or Guemes or something, that should be worth more
January 14, 2026 at 7:47 PM
TIL there's a cracked Node dev working from Camano Island (number 10 for me, so far). I feel like the different islands should have rarities and different points. For example obviously Vancouver Island is only 1 point, but if you can collect Galiano or Guemes or something, that should be worth more
One fact about the Pacific Northwest is that half of its software talent is in the cities, and the other half live on random-ass islands you've probably never heard of. The longer you live here, the more islands you'll learn that some talented developer is currently working from.
January 14, 2026 at 7:47 PM
One fact about the Pacific Northwest is that half of its software talent is in the cities, and the other half live on random-ass islands you've probably never heard of. The longer you live here, the more islands you'll learn that some talented developer is currently working from.
It's a common pattern to make users type "DELETE", or even the name of what they're deleting, for irreversible delete actions. This forces them to think before potentially deleting something critical.
Intercom takes this to a new level, forcing you to consider: "Should I be the one deleting this?"
Intercom takes this to a new level, forcing you to consider: "Should I be the one deleting this?"
January 13, 2026 at 10:46 PM
It's a common pattern to make users type "DELETE", or even the name of what they're deleting, for irreversible delete actions. This forces them to think before potentially deleting something critical.
Intercom takes this to a new level, forcing you to consider: "Should I be the one deleting this?"
Intercom takes this to a new level, forcing you to consider: "Should I be the one deleting this?"
A Box of Many Inputs: On browser address bars, local AI, and Roger Rabbit.
allenpike.com/2025/a-box-o...
allenpike.com/2025/a-box-o...
A Box of Many Inputs
On browsers, local classifiers, and Roger Rabbit.
allenpike.com
December 31, 2025 at 8:38 PM
A Box of Many Inputs: On browser address bars, local AI, and Roger Rabbit.
allenpike.com/2025/a-box-o...
allenpike.com/2025/a-box-o...
Talking to people about this, I’ve learned that people are more happy to type on their phones than I am 💫
December 6, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Talking to people about this, I’ve learned that people are more happy to type on their phones than I am 💫
Why is ChatGPT for Mac so good? A look at the the different AI labs' approaches to the Mac, and the opportunities therein.
allenpike.com/2025/why-is-...
allenpike.com/2025/why-is-...
Why is ChatGPT for Mac So Good?
Claude, Copilot, and making a good desktop app.
allenpike.com
December 1, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Why is ChatGPT for Mac so good? A look at the the different AI labs' approaches to the Mac, and the opportunities therein.
allenpike.com/2025/why-is-...
allenpike.com/2025/why-is-...
This is a fun Latent Space episode: they interview Priscilla Chan and her husband about the biology and AI work necessary to cure all diseases. www.latent.space/p/biohub
Building open AI to cure or prevent all disease by 2110 (w/ Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan)
The CZI has acquired EvoScale, established the first 10,000 GPU cluster for bio research, open sourced the largest atlas of human cell types, and gone all in on AI x Bio for its 2nd decade.
www.latent.space
November 20, 2025 at 7:34 AM
This is a fun Latent Space episode: they interview Priscilla Chan and her husband about the biology and AI work necessary to cure all diseases. www.latent.space/p/biohub
Good meetings are clear and short. Over the last couple weeks we’ve prototyped an agent that can join calls and build realtime notes – not a transcript, just clarity on key decisions.
A lot more to do, but having fun with this one 🌱 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2_7...
A lot more to do, but having fun with this one 🌱 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2_7...
Cedarloop on Zoom Demo – Nov 2025
Over the last two weeks at Forestwalk we’ve prototyped a realtime meeting notetaker agent. We think this could help teams get clarity faster, and ultimately have shorter and more useful meetings.
If…
www.youtube.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Good meetings are clear and short. Over the last couple weeks we’ve prototyped an agent that can join calls and build realtime notes – not a transcript, just clarity on key decisions.
A lot more to do, but having fun with this one 🌱 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2_7...
A lot more to do, but having fun with this one 🌱 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2_7...
Finally tried gpt-5-mini on some tasks, hoping at "minimal" reasoning it would be faster than claude-haiku-4.5 or gpt-4.1-mini.
Nope. Two other teams said 5-mini is so slow and unreliable that they can't use it either. Apparently "4 lightning bolts" means "takes 5-10s to process 200 tokens" 💫
Nope. Two other teams said 5-mini is so slow and unreliable that they can't use it either. Apparently "4 lightning bolts" means "takes 5-10s to process 200 tokens" 💫
November 6, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Finally tried gpt-5-mini on some tasks, hoping at "minimal" reasoning it would be faster than claude-haiku-4.5 or gpt-4.1-mini.
Nope. Two other teams said 5-mini is so slow and unreliable that they can't use it either. Apparently "4 lightning bolts" means "takes 5-10s to process 200 tokens" 💫
Nope. Two other teams said 5-mini is so slow and unreliable that they can't use it either. Apparently "4 lightning bolts" means "takes 5-10s to process 200 tokens" 💫
How to Not Get Acquired: An approach for minimizing distraction when trying to do something rather hard. allenpike.com/2025/how-not...
How to Not Get Acquired
Distraction management in intense times.
allenpike.com
November 1, 2025 at 6:36 AM
How to Not Get Acquired: An approach for minimizing distraction when trying to do something rather hard. allenpike.com/2025/how-not...
While the AWS team has resolved the severe us-east-1 outages, reading this post-mortem makes one thing clear: they are still suffering from a critical shortage of paragraph breaks
October 23, 2025 at 5:49 PM
While the AWS team has resolved the severe us-east-1 outages, reading this post-mortem makes one thing clear: they are still suffering from a critical shortage of paragraph breaks
I would have thought from M2 to M5 you could have gotten the same performance with less chassis but apparently that was not the goal
October 17, 2025 at 6:01 PM
I would have thought from M2 to M5 you could have gotten the same performance with less chassis but apparently that was not the goal
“When we released Vision Pro, it provided glimpse of what spatial computing can be. Consistently, though, we’ve heard your concerns about weight and comfort. That’s why we’ve made the M5 Vision Pro 25% heavier – ensuring it is pressing on your nose, cheeks, and face with unprecedented heft”
October 16, 2025 at 10:04 PM
“When we released Vision Pro, it provided glimpse of what spatial computing can be. Consistently, though, we’ve heard your concerns about weight and comfort. That’s why we’ve made the M5 Vision Pro 25% heavier – ensuring it is pressing on your nose, cheeks, and face with unprecedented heft”
Building Something Big: On the pros and cons of the indie path. allenpike.com/2025/buildin...
Building Something Big
On the pros and cons of the indie path.
allenpike.com
September 1, 2025 at 6:28 AM
Building Something Big: On the pros and cons of the indie path. allenpike.com/2025/buildin...
This makes me wonder – why doesn't the operating system do this? Like if Slack is on my left screen and a notification comes in, it would be nice to get the sound coming "from" Slack, if I'm wearing stereo headphones?
August 12, 2025 at 9:10 PM
This makes me wonder – why doesn't the operating system do this? Like if Slack is on my left screen and a notification comes in, it would be nice to get the sound coming "from" Slack, if I'm wearing stereo headphones?
Cursor's UI is nicer than using Claude Code in a terminal, but one helpful thing about Claude is that you can script hooks. For example, with an agent going on each screen, you can have Claude chime where it needs review or approval – panned left for the left screen, or right for the right. 🔊
August 12, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Cursor's UI is nicer than using Claude Code in a terminal, but one helpful thing about Claude is that you can script hooks. For example, with an agent going on each screen, you can have Claude chime where it needs review or approval – panned left for the left screen, or right for the right. 🔊
Every answer was "Let's be real: you want to know how tall giraffes are, but why are you even asking? We need to go to verified sources – then go BEYOND giraffes and assess all tall mammals. The big picture, man."
August 7, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Every answer was "Let's be real: you want to know how tall giraffes are, but why are you even asking? We need to go to verified sources – then go BEYOND giraffes and assess all tall mammals. The big picture, man."
If you're getting weird behaviour from ChatGPT 5, check "What traits should ChatGPT have?" under Customize ChatGPT. I had this prompt there to help 4o be more critical, but they trained GPT-5 to be more critical by default, so the prompt pushed it into overcaffeinated paranoia.
August 7, 2025 at 11:19 PM
If you're getting weird behaviour from ChatGPT 5, check "What traits should ChatGPT have?" under Customize ChatGPT. I had this prompt there to help 4o be more critical, but they trained GPT-5 to be more critical by default, so the prompt pushed it into overcaffeinated paranoia.