Philip Winston
@metastable.org
Writer | Programmer: Graphics, Games, Neuroscience, AI. Gamedev: Guitar Hero. Podcast Host: Software Engineering Radio. Writing at metastable.org and tobeva.com.
Them: "Your DNS changes may take up to 24 hours to propagate".
Me: Checks 15 seconds later to see if it's happened already.
Me: Checks 15 seconds later to see if it's happened already.
January 20, 2026 at 4:14 AM
Them: "Your DNS changes may take up to 24 hours to propagate".
Me: Checks 15 seconds later to see if it's happened already.
Me: Checks 15 seconds later to see if it's happened already.
Top 10 dream features for Claude Code:
1) Continual learning for the lifetime of the project
2) 100x faster
1) Continual learning for the lifetime of the project
2) 100x faster
January 20, 2026 at 12:11 AM
Top 10 dream features for Claude Code:
1) Continual learning for the lifetime of the project
2) 100x faster
1) Continual learning for the lifetime of the project
2) 100x faster
In all my imaginations growing up, I never pictured a future like the one we living in.
January 19, 2026 at 11:09 PM
In all my imaginations growing up, I never pictured a future like the one we living in.
Indefatigable is good choice of word. It’s a weird thing no matter what you ask for, it will dive in 0.2 seconds later. May or may not succeed but always tries.
January 19, 2026 at 10:56 PM
Indefatigable is good choice of word. It’s a weird thing no matter what you ask for, it will dive in 0.2 seconds later. May or may not succeed but always tries.
Alexa just told me 1/5th of a inch of snow is expected. That’s around 0.5mm of rain. Sig figs anyone?
January 19, 2026 at 5:56 PM
Alexa just told me 1/5th of a inch of snow is expected. That’s around 0.5mm of rain. Sig figs anyone?
Unexpected perk of agentic coding you can walk away with it running. No cost if not in use. Come back days later and go “okay wtf was I doing” and it brings you up to speed perfectly.
January 19, 2026 at 3:58 PM
Unexpected perk of agentic coding you can walk away with it running. No cost if not in use. Come back days later and go “okay wtf was I doing” and it brings you up to speed perfectly.
How many AIs people have running on their behalf will resemble the use of CPU cores. Most people will use just one, but some power users will use 100% of whatever they can afford to buy.
January 19, 2026 at 4:12 AM
How many AIs people have running on their behalf will resemble the use of CPU cores. Most people will use just one, but some power users will use 100% of whatever they can afford to buy.
Great tagline for a film. The movie has odd tone, we're basically watching over the shoulder of a hired-killer as he methodically tries to survive and restore his life after a botched killing sends him on the run.
January 19, 2026 at 3:16 AM
Great tagline for a film. The movie has odd tone, we're basically watching over the shoulder of a hired-killer as he methodically tries to survive and restore his life after a botched killing sends him on the run.
JSON beat XML at data and then Markdown beat XML at text.
January 18, 2026 at 9:14 PM
JSON beat XML at data and then Markdown beat XML at text.
Whenever I see a famous actor like Brad Pitt, whose character is struggling in a film, I think to myself, just quit what you are doing and go become an actor, you'd be amazing at it.
January 18, 2026 at 4:18 PM
Whenever I see a famous actor like Brad Pitt, whose character is struggling in a film, I think to myself, just quit what you are doing and go become an actor, you'd be amazing at it.
Teach an AI to fish: Claude was struggling with my movie timeline layout, so I gave had it start using Puppeteer to capture screenshots, and had it add extra debug information on screen.
January 18, 2026 at 1:02 AM
Teach an AI to fish: Claude was struggling with my movie timeline layout, so I gave had it start using Puppeteer to capture screenshots, and had it add extra debug information on screen.
There's a story of the Beatles and their van was broken down and they were standing on the side of the road. One of them looked to the other and said, "Something will happen” and that became a motto of theirs.
January 17, 2026 at 10:13 PM
There's a story of the Beatles and their van was broken down and they were standing on the side of the road. One of them looked to the other and said, "Something will happen” and that became a motto of theirs.
I use the word 'opine' a lot talking to Claude Code, such as "opine if it's better to do A or B." I'm not sure it works better than "would it be better to do A or B?" but opine means "express an opinion or belief, especially in a formal or deliberate way.".
January 17, 2026 at 6:04 PM
I use the word 'opine' a lot talking to Claude Code, such as "opine if it's better to do A or B." I'm not sure it works better than "would it be better to do A or B?" but opine means "express an opinion or belief, especially in a formal or deliberate way.".
Amazing Scott Alexander post on Scott Adams. I too was a young Dilbert fan, emailed him and received a reply, read many of his non-Dilbert books, and then watched his fall into right-wing madness with festering lament: www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-dilbe...
The Dilbert Afterlife
Sixty-eight years of highly defective people
www.astralcodexten.com
January 17, 2026 at 1:52 PM
Amazing Scott Alexander post on Scott Adams. I too was a young Dilbert fan, emailed him and received a reply, read many of his non-Dilbert books, and then watched his fall into right-wing madness with festering lament: www.astralcodexten.com/p/the-dilbe...
People who argue about "the right way" to develop software, like to use AI tools, often under appreciate the range in types of software that people work on.
January 17, 2026 at 3:13 AM
People who argue about "the right way" to develop software, like to use AI tools, often under appreciate the range in types of software that people work on.
What could you do if AI were no better than today, but we could run it 1,000,000x faster? Computers have gotten over a quadrillion times faster since they debuted in 1940's.
January 16, 2026 at 8:13 PM
What could you do if AI were no better than today, but we could run it 1,000,000x faster? Computers have gotten over a quadrillion times faster since they debuted in 1940's.
Teamwork makes the dream work.
January 16, 2026 at 4:19 PM
Teamwork makes the dream work.
Robots won’t be constrained to only go human speed. You’ll need a strobe light to see what’s going on in a factory, because it will just be a blur.
youtube.com/shorts/v15z...
youtube.com/shorts/v15z...
🤖 #KyberLabs Backdrivable Torque Hand — Ultra-Fast Bolt Rotation Like Human Fingers! #robotics
This is insane! @KyberLabsRobots is showing off their hand rotating a nut at super high speed, fully in real time. The secret is the hand’s full backdrivabil...
www.youtube.com
January 16, 2026 at 2:02 AM
Robots won’t be constrained to only go human speed. You’ll need a strobe light to see what’s going on in a factory, because it will just be a blur.
youtube.com/shorts/v15z...
youtube.com/shorts/v15z...
Tahoe does contain a lot of dubious design decisions. I love the plate grabbing GIF here. noheger.at/blog/2026/0...
January 15, 2026 at 7:58 PM
Tahoe does contain a lot of dubious design decisions. I love the plate grabbing GIF here. noheger.at/blog/2026/0...
I think “intentionally using humans to do something AI could do cheaper” will be the “premium” option in many domains. A parallel human economy. McDonald's might choose robots, but Chick-fil-A will keep humans and thus charge more. Consumers vote with their wallets.
January 15, 2026 at 1:57 PM
I think “intentionally using humans to do something AI could do cheaper” will be the “premium” option in many domains. A parallel human economy. McDonald's might choose robots, but Chick-fil-A will keep humans and thus charge more. Consumers vote with their wallets.
I have my four git worktrees using four separate pairs of hard-coded ports. These keeps me sane instead of wondering what tree is running on what port. I also use four mac Spaces, each with its own iTerm2, VSCode, and Chrome.
January 15, 2026 at 3:03 AM
I have my four git worktrees using four separate pairs of hard-coded ports. These keeps me sane instead of wondering what tree is running on what port. I also use four mac Spaces, each with its own iTerm2, VSCode, and Chrome.
Created and merged my first Claude Code PR from my phone. The regular Claude app has a tab “Code” and you can hook it up to a GitHub repo. Start a session it creates a branch, once pushed tap Create PR, GitHub app pops up, view and merge it.It CI/CD
January 14, 2026 at 10:15 PM
Created and merged my first Claude Code PR from my phone. The regular Claude app has a tab “Code” and you can hook it up to a GitHub repo. Start a session it creates a branch, once pushed tap Create PR, GitHub app pops up, view and merge it.It CI/CD
It took movies/TV about 10 years until they were able to integrate realistic smart phones use into plots, stopped pretending they didn’t exist. How long for AI?
January 14, 2026 at 3:56 AM
It took movies/TV about 10 years until they were able to integrate realistic smart phones use into plots, stopped pretending they didn’t exist. How long for AI?
It’s a dynamic and exciting time to be a software engineer. Yes there's a patina of existential dread as well, but I say take it one day at a time.
January 13, 2026 at 10:56 PM
It’s a dynamic and exciting time to be a software engineer. Yes there's a patina of existential dread as well, but I say take it one day at a time.
When I Claude code I'm massively more willing to take on changes than if I had to do them by myself. This is good and bad.
January 13, 2026 at 4:27 AM
When I Claude code I'm massively more willing to take on changes than if I had to do them by myself. This is good and bad.