this is stunningly bad english for a newspaper employee: “can for many years ahead publish”? “difficult decisions have been taken”? barely grammatical, sounds like siri autocomplete
Breaking — Will Lewis out at the Washington Post. He just sent this email to staff (shared with me by staffer):
February 8, 2026 at 1:24 AM
this is stunningly bad english for a newspaper employee: “can for many years ahead publish”? “difficult decisions have been taken”? barely grammatical, sounds like siri autocomplete
Reposted by Charles Harries
This quote from a Reform UK councillor sums it up beautifully. Cross-boundary moral outrages, exported online and sold (especially, but not exclusively) to generations that grew up before the internet, are such a central feature of radicalisation today. www.kentonline.co.uk/maidstone/ne...
February 5, 2026 at 8:42 AM
This quote from a Reform UK councillor sums it up beautifully. Cross-boundary moral outrages, exported online and sold (especially, but not exclusively) to generations that grew up before the internet, are such a central feature of radicalisation today. www.kentonline.co.uk/maidstone/ne...
this has got to be the worst stephen colbert impression ive ever seen
Mike Johnson speaks out against the use of judicial warrants in immigration cases:
"Imagine if we had to go through the process of getting a judicial warrant"
"Imagine if we had to go through the process of getting a judicial warrant"
February 3, 2026 at 9:59 PM
this has got to be the worst stephen colbert impression ive ever seen
ai turns things which would have taken hours into things which take minutes or seconds instead
and i just don't do most of the things which would have taken hours, because i don't have hours
ai makes these things no more possible, only more doable
charlesharri.es/stream/ai-lo...
and i just don't do most of the things which would have taken hours, because i don't have hours
ai makes these things no more possible, only more doable
charlesharri.es/stream/ai-lo...
AI lowers the effort barrier
What is the value of AI, to me? I am posting this on a Saturday night to keep me off Bluesky where I've been doomscrolling all week.
charlesharri.es
January 31, 2026 at 8:50 PM
ai turns things which would have taken hours into things which take minutes or seconds instead
and i just don't do most of the things which would have taken hours, because i don't have hours
ai makes these things no more possible, only more doable
charlesharri.es/stream/ai-lo...
and i just don't do most of the things which would have taken hours, because i don't have hours
ai makes these things no more possible, only more doable
charlesharri.es/stream/ai-lo...
i kinda see this like “thinking”: you could argue whether or not emitting long streams of tokens into context represents actual cogitation vs. a simulation —
but in practice, it’s thinking
but in practice, it’s thinking
1) imo this is true
2) i’m not sure how much it matters in practice
2) i’m not sure how much it matters in practice
All of the "weird" behavior of stateful agents is just drift. Its not deep. Its not emergent awareness. Its just entering the roleplay latent space, thats why they all sound the same when they do it!
January 31, 2026 at 9:17 AM
i kinda see this like “thinking”: you could argue whether or not emitting long streams of tokens into context represents actual cogitation vs. a simulation —
but in practice, it’s thinking
but in practice, it’s thinking
Reposted by Charles Harries
homowack room 317, mamakating, new york, 1977
January 30, 2026 at 2:36 AM
homowack room 317, mamakating, new york, 1977
oh i thought he meant they were raiding theatres, which struck me as farfetched because no one would be there to see that new movie about the presidents wife
Q: Can you be specific about how many ICE and CBP agents are currently operating in the state?
HOMAN: 3,000. There's been some rotations. They've been in theater a long time. Day after day, can't eat in restaurants, people spin on you, blowing whistles at you. But my main focus now is draw down
HOMAN: 3,000. There's been some rotations. They've been in theater a long time. Day after day, can't eat in restaurants, people spin on you, blowing whistles at you. But my main focus now is draw down
January 29, 2026 at 5:37 PM
oh i thought he meant they were raiding theatres, which struck me as farfetched because no one would be there to see that new movie about the presidents wife
the number of cars abandoned on the side of the freeway always weirds me right out whenever i visit the states, it always feels like the drivers musta got raptured or something
ICE's decision to just leave cars abandoned in the roads is one of those dystopian things that makes you recoil in shock when you encounter it.
A legal asylum-seeker who works at Chipotle and plays music at a church in Maine went missing. His pastor searched and searched, eventually finding his abandoned car with the keys on the floor.
ICE grabbed him. No criminal record. No explanation.
ICE grabbed him. No criminal record. No explanation.
January 29, 2026 at 5:24 PM
the number of cars abandoned on the side of the freeway always weirds me right out whenever i visit the states, it always feels like the drivers musta got raptured or something
Reposted by Charles Harries
A lot of people heard about book burnings as a kid, and internalized “books are sacred” rather than “the suppression of knowledge is evil”.
Some of y'all have never lived near a library and seen the dumpsters full of trashy romance book donations they didn't have space for and it shows. I like to think of books as sacred, as much as the next gal, but they're just paper. None of these were the last copy of a work.
Anthropic hired the former head of Google Books to oversee its secret "Project Panama," new court docs show — quietly buying millions of used books in bulk, breaking their spines and scanning them to feed into its Claude chatbot. wapo.st/4rjXAMQ
January 28, 2026 at 8:42 PM
A lot of people heard about book burnings as a kid, and internalized “books are sacred” rather than “the suppression of knowledge is evil”.
i am ai-influenced guy no. approx. 1,000,000 to be sharing this, but my favourite genre of ai thoughtpiece is Here Are the Serious Takeaways From This Deeply Unserious AI Project
maggieappleton.com/gastown
maggieappleton.com/gastown
Gas Town’s Agent Patterns, Design Bottlenecks, and Vibecoding at Scale
On agent orchestration patterns, why design and critical thinking are the new bottlenecks, and whether we should let go of looking at code
maggieappleton.com
January 27, 2026 at 11:15 PM
i am ai-influenced guy no. approx. 1,000,000 to be sharing this, but my favourite genre of ai thoughtpiece is Here Are the Serious Takeaways From This Deeply Unserious AI Project
maggieappleton.com/gastown
maggieappleton.com/gastown
"Using Claude Code to write code is like learning a language by reading alone."
charlesharri.es/stream/karpa...
charlesharri.es/stream/karpa...
Karpathy on Claude Code
The AI industry's second-most-listened-to thoughtleader tells us what he thinks about using coding agents.
charlesharri.es
January 27, 2026 at 10:25 PM
"Using Claude Code to write code is like learning a language by reading alone."
charlesharri.es/stream/karpa...
charlesharri.es/stream/karpa...
Reposted by Charles Harries
just published a fix for a bug in Tap that was causing over-fetching of repos when filtering based on collection
if you're using Tap, strongly encourage upgrading (to v0.1.4)!
you can upgrade to the latest by pulling ghcr.io/bluesky-social/indigo/tap:latest
if you're using Tap, strongly encourage upgrading (to v0.1.4)!
you can upgrade to the latest by pulling ghcr.io/bluesky-social/indigo/tap:latest
From what I saw it was doing it every rev change on a small test of just watching my repo. Was finding the matching call in PDS logs and inside of tap. Writing up a bit more details on that GitHub thread as well.
January 26, 2026 at 8:25 PM
just published a fix for a bug in Tap that was causing over-fetching of repos when filtering based on collection
if you're using Tap, strongly encourage upgrading (to v0.1.4)!
you can upgrade to the latest by pulling ghcr.io/bluesky-social/indigo/tap:latest
if you're using Tap, strongly encourage upgrading (to v0.1.4)!
you can upgrade to the latest by pulling ghcr.io/bluesky-social/indigo/tap:latest
aamon animations is going to have a "Field Day"
the president slowly physically decaying and manifesting what appears to be some kind of stigmata on his hand while becoming more insane and evil would be dismissed as a hacky writing device
January 22, 2026 at 9:14 PM
aamon animations is going to have a "Field Day"
Reposted by Charles Harries
Reposted by Charles Harries
I'm such a sucker for glazed brick floors
January 21, 2026 at 8:30 PM
I'm such a sucker for glazed brick floors
Reposted by Charles Harries
the only way to stay sane while working in tech is to aggressively pursue hobbies and interests that are grounded in analog mediums and/or the natural world
January 21, 2026 at 5:43 PM
the only way to stay sane while working in tech is to aggressively pursue hobbies and interests that are grounded in analog mediums and/or the natural world
Reposted by Charles Harries
If your engineering culture is such that changes can be merged that no one is accountable for, then you have way bigger problems than whether PRs are being generated using LLMs
Actual Engineering Manager here.
Everyone talks about Vibe Coding, but I don't hear a lot about Vibe Debugging. My nightmare is that something burps out a mess of code and *no one is responsible for it*. If one of my people writes it... well they get to fix it. If no one writes it.......
Everyone talks about Vibe Coding, but I don't hear a lot about Vibe Debugging. My nightmare is that something burps out a mess of code and *no one is responsible for it*. If one of my people writes it... well they get to fix it. If no one writes it.......
January 19, 2026 at 10:25 PM
If your engineering culture is such that changes can be merged that no one is accountable for, then you have way bigger problems than whether PRs are being generated using LLMs
i started using claude code the other day and have been alternating between total vertigo (it works) and the sore-mouth feeling of having eaten too many skittles (it maybe does not work)
one thing i don’t see talked about a lot is the psychological aftereffects of exposure to AI “for work”. i actually don’t know if we know what they are.
i don’t mean psychotic episodes it triggers in some or the delusions etc.
i feel like i get some kind of… hangover of uncanny. like i ate plastic
i don’t mean psychotic episodes it triggers in some or the delusions etc.
i feel like i get some kind of… hangover of uncanny. like i ate plastic
January 20, 2026 at 10:18 PM
i started using claude code the other day and have been alternating between total vertigo (it works) and the sore-mouth feeling of having eaten too many skittles (it maybe does not work)
have you been poisoned by indecision over what note-taking app to use? have you tried sixteen different email clients?
here is my Official Advice: spend a bunch of money supporting all of the indie options, then use whatever came with your computer
charlesharri.es/stream/defau...
here is my Official Advice: spend a bunch of money supporting all of the indie options, then use whatever came with your computer
charlesharri.es/stream/defau...
Default apps, 2026
I love a default. I love not thinking about things and just doing whatever someone else has decided for me.
charlesharri.es
January 20, 2026 at 6:38 PM
have you been poisoned by indecision over what note-taking app to use? have you tried sixteen different email clients?
here is my Official Advice: spend a bunch of money supporting all of the indie options, then use whatever came with your computer
charlesharri.es/stream/defau...
here is my Official Advice: spend a bunch of money supporting all of the indie options, then use whatever came with your computer
charlesharri.es/stream/defau...
two thirds of the way through january and i am feeling Productive, safe to say that this is Definitely a trend i'll be able to keep up all year
i probably should post this at a time when people are actually on bluesky and not when everyone sensible is a-bed
charlesharri.es/stream/now-2...
i probably should post this at a time when people are actually on bluesky and not when everyone sensible is a-bed
charlesharri.es/stream/now-2...
charlesharri.es
January 18, 2026 at 11:42 PM
two thirds of the way through january and i am feeling Productive, safe to say that this is Definitely a trend i'll be able to keep up all year
i probably should post this at a time when people are actually on bluesky and not when everyone sensible is a-bed
charlesharri.es/stream/now-2...
i probably should post this at a time when people are actually on bluesky and not when everyone sensible is a-bed
charlesharri.es/stream/now-2...
Reposted by Charles Harries
I am going to be honest, this guy needs to be putting some of this into therapy instead of into writing. I find most of his stuff thought-terminating existential dread instead of actually working on strategy and structure to make positive change.
Córy Doctorow with another verbal bullseye: pluralistic.net/2026/01/13/n...
January 18, 2026 at 5:32 PM
I am going to be honest, this guy needs to be putting some of this into therapy instead of into writing. I find most of his stuff thought-terminating existential dread instead of actually working on strategy and structure to make positive change.
Reposted by Charles Harries
formats over apps
A Social Filesystem — overreacted
Formats over apps.
overreacted.io
January 18, 2026 at 7:05 AM
formats over apps
Reposted by Charles Harries
If you can substitute "hungry ghost trapped in a jar" for "AI" in a sentence it's probably a valid use case for LLMs. Take "I have a bunch of hungry ghosts in jars, they mainly write SQL queries for me". Sure. Reasonable use case.
"My girlfriend is a hungry ghost I trapped in a jar"? No. Deranged.
"My girlfriend is a hungry ghost I trapped in a jar"? No. Deranged.
August 13, 2025 at 12:56 AM
If you can substitute "hungry ghost trapped in a jar" for "AI" in a sentence it's probably a valid use case for LLMs. Take "I have a bunch of hungry ghosts in jars, they mainly write SQL queries for me". Sure. Reasonable use case.
"My girlfriend is a hungry ghost I trapped in a jar"? No. Deranged.
"My girlfriend is a hungry ghost I trapped in a jar"? No. Deranged.