Phil Steitz
@psteitz.bsky.social
Animal lover, trail runner, mathematician, product and tech leader, open source developer
Rooting around in the racks at Home Depot, Wallace picked up a price tag. Great deal!
November 14, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Rooting around in the racks at Home Depot, Wallace picked up a price tag. Great deal!
Reposted by Phil Steitz
TIL about fail points
In many ways, fail points are what mock objects should be in a real world. They allow you to inject alternative behavior into a real object without having to mock up the entirety of realistic behavior.
See here for a golang implementation.
github.com/etcd-io/gofa...
In many ways, fail points are what mock objects should be in a real world. They allow you to inject alternative behavior into a real object without having to mock up the entirety of realistic behavior.
See here for a golang implementation.
github.com/etcd-io/gofa...
GitHub - etcd-io/gofail: failpoints for go
failpoints for go. Contribute to etcd-io/gofail development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:30 PM
TIL about fail points
In many ways, fail points are what mock objects should be in a real world. They allow you to inject alternative behavior into a real object without having to mock up the entirety of realistic behavior.
See here for a golang implementation.
github.com/etcd-io/gofa...
In many ways, fail points are what mock objects should be in a real world. They allow you to inject alternative behavior into a real object without having to mock up the entirety of realistic behavior.
See here for a golang implementation.
github.com/etcd-io/gofa...
Yes, they can absolutely “keep their storied pomp!” At least the city where she stands has not forgotten who we are.
November 7, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Yes, they can absolutely “keep their storied pomp!” At least the city where she stands has not forgotten who we are.
Reposted by Phil Steitz
The benevolent dictator model feels tempting for #OSS - faster, fewer debates. Then a PR argument with the single person in charge reminds me:
Speed isn’t health. Community is.
Speed isn’t health. Community is.
November 7, 2025 at 7:48 PM
The benevolent dictator model feels tempting for #OSS - faster, fewer debates. Then a PR argument with the single person in charge reminds me:
Speed isn’t health. Community is.
Speed isn’t health. Community is.
Reposted by Phil Steitz
Sci-fi short story:
scientist discovers how to create superhuman artificial intelligence (ASI): you need to train your #LLM on deep center embeddings! But scientist is disinterested in this direction.
…So in order to do so, tech bros would need to study #linguistics …
Working title: X-Bar X-Risk
scientist discovers how to create superhuman artificial intelligence (ASI): you need to train your #LLM on deep center embeddings! But scientist is disinterested in this direction.
…So in order to do so, tech bros would need to study #linguistics …
Working title: X-Bar X-Risk
Transformer LMs get pretty far by acting like ngram models, so why do they learn syntax? A new paper by sunnytqin.bsky.social, me, and @dmelis.bsky.social illuminates grammar learning in a whirlwind tour of generalization, grokking, training dynamics, memorization, and random variation. #mlsky #nlp
Sometimes I am a Tree: Data Drives Unstable Hierarchical Generalization
Language models (LMs), like other neural networks, often favor shortcut heuristics based on surface-level patterns. Although LMs behave like n-gram models early in training, they must eventually learn...
arxiv.org
November 6, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Sci-fi short story:
scientist discovers how to create superhuman artificial intelligence (ASI): you need to train your #LLM on deep center embeddings! But scientist is disinterested in this direction.
…So in order to do so, tech bros would need to study #linguistics …
Working title: X-Bar X-Risk
scientist discovers how to create superhuman artificial intelligence (ASI): you need to train your #LLM on deep center embeddings! But scientist is disinterested in this direction.
…So in order to do so, tech bros would need to study #linguistics …
Working title: X-Bar X-Risk
What a moon last night! This pic was taken with no flash around 9:00PM.
November 5, 2025 at 1:10 PM
What a moon last night! This pic was taken with no flash around 9:00PM.
Reposted by Phil Steitz
Computer programmers be like:
§1. LLMs generate code for me. Sometimes it even works.
1/🧵
§1. LLMs generate code for me. Sometimes it even works.
1/🧵
November 2, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Computer programmers be like:
§1. LLMs generate code for me. Sometimes it even works.
1/🧵
§1. LLMs generate code for me. Sometimes it even works.
1/🧵
Reposted by Phil Steitz
Yearly donation to Wikipedia ✅
Please, do the same, great folks working there!
Please, do the same, great folks working there!
October 30, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Yearly donation to Wikipedia ✅
Please, do the same, great folks working there!
Please, do the same, great folks working there!
Reposted by Phil Steitz
Out-and-out superb explanation.
📣THREAD: It’s surprising to me that so many people were surprised to learn that Signal runs partly on AWS (something we can do because we use encryption to make sure no one but you–not AWS, not Signal, not anyone–can access your comms).
It’s also concerning. 1/
It’s also concerning. 1/
PSA: we're aware that Signal is down for some people. This appears to be related to a major AWS outage. Stand by.
October 27, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Out-and-out superb explanation.
Reposted by Phil Steitz
A bittersweet story but glad to see a principled stance!
TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-...
🧵
🧵
The official home of the Python Programming Language
www.python.org
October 27, 2025 at 7:11 PM
A bittersweet story but glad to see a principled stance!
Reposted by Phil Steitz
I've received an 'exclusive' invite to try Nature's new 'research assistant', which will burn down a forest to provide a 'summary of the paper' I'm reading and I have SUCH exciting news for them, that's called an 'abstract' and the actual authors already wrote it for me, no forest-burning required.
October 17, 2025 at 2:10 PM
I've received an 'exclusive' invite to try Nature's new 'research assistant', which will burn down a forest to provide a 'summary of the paper' I'm reading and I have SUCH exciting news for them, that's called an 'abstract' and the actual authors already wrote it for me, no forest-burning required.
Reposted by Phil Steitz
My @devoxx.com talk "Self-Healing Rollouts" is up: auto creating issues from @argoproj.bsky.social Rollouts canary failures, that get in turn auto-fixed by code assistants like Google Jules or GitHub Copilot and then re-deployed 🤯 (second half is all demo) #devoxx #argo
youtu.be/ABjIUw7ojiU?...
youtu.be/ABjIUw7ojiU?...
Self Healing Rollouts: Automating Production Fixes with Agentic AI & Argo Rollouts by Carlos Sanch
YouTube video by Devoxx
youtu.be
October 15, 2025 at 10:23 AM
My @devoxx.com talk "Self-Healing Rollouts" is up: auto creating issues from @argoproj.bsky.social Rollouts canary failures, that get in turn auto-fixed by code assistants like Google Jules or GitHub Copilot and then re-deployed 🤯 (second half is all demo) #devoxx #argo
youtu.be/ABjIUw7ojiU?...
youtu.be/ABjIUw7ojiU?...
Reposted by Phil Steitz
Do a funded PhD with me! We are looking for projects at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary enquiry into AI and inequalities!
www.linkedin.com/posts/susan-...
www.linkedin.com/posts/susan-...
Power and Difference in the time of responsible AI at University of Sheffield on FindAPhD.com | Susan Oman
Do a funded PhD with me! We are looking for projects at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary enquiry into AI and inequalities!
"Your doctoral research project will be designed by you to respond to...
www.linkedin.com
October 15, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Do a funded PhD with me! We are looking for projects at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary enquiry into AI and inequalities!
www.linkedin.com/posts/susan-...
www.linkedin.com/posts/susan-...
www.schneier.com/blog/archive...
This is obviously sick and un-American, but the second order effects are really scary. Imagine what the US would be like if this crap had been going on for say the last 10 years. We really have to get rid of these guys.
This is obviously sick and un-American, but the second order effects are really scary. Imagine what the US would be like if this crap had been going on for say the last 10 years. We really have to get rid of these guys.
The Trump Administration's Increased Use of Social Media Surveillance - Schneier on Security
This chilling paragraph is in a comprehensive Brookings report about the use of tech to deport people from the US: The administration has also adapted its methods of social media surveillance. Though ...
www.schneier.com
October 15, 2025 at 1:47 AM
www.schneier.com/blog/archive...
This is obviously sick and un-American, but the second order effects are really scary. Imagine what the US would be like if this crap had been going on for say the last 10 years. We really have to get rid of these guys.
This is obviously sick and un-American, but the second order effects are really scary. Imagine what the US would be like if this crap had been going on for say the last 10 years. We really have to get rid of these guys.
Had fun with Claude today. I gave it a problem that is painful for humans but right in the LLM wheelhouse. Given an arrow ipc file, read its schema and write a java class that can create List<Thing> from the records in the file. Like what avro does, but for tables. Claude crushed it in python.
October 13, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Had fun with Claude today. I gave it a problem that is painful for humans but right in the LLM wheelhouse. Given an arrow ipc file, read its schema and write a java class that can create List<Thing> from the records in the file. Like what avro does, but for tables. Claude crushed it in python.
Reposted by Phil Steitz
How do we measure AI productivity? Here is how Google, GitHub, Microsoft, Dropbox, Atlassian and others measure it:
Article: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-tech-c...
#ML #MachineLearning #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #MLOps #AIOps #DataOps
Article: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-tech-c...
#ML #MachineLearning #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #MLOps #AIOps #DataOps
October 13, 2025 at 10:02 AM
How do we measure AI productivity? Here is how Google, GitHub, Microsoft, Dropbox, Atlassian and others measure it:
Article: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-tech-c...
#ML #MachineLearning #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #MLOps #AIOps #DataOps
Article: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/how-tech-c...
#ML #MachineLearning #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #MLOps #AIOps #DataOps
news.slashdot.org/story/25/10/...
This is every pricing team’s nightmare: consumers starting to watch the time series. An app to do the tracking and identify real discounts would be cool.
This is every pricing team’s nightmare: consumers starting to watch the time series. An app to do the tracking and identify real discounts would be cool.
'I Tracked Amazon's Prime Day Prices. We've Been Played' - Slashdot
"Next time Amazon hypes its Prime Days savings, remember this: The prices during the sale aren't always better," writes a Washington Post technology columnist. "I've got the receipts to prove it."
I...
news.slashdot.org
October 12, 2025 at 6:35 PM
news.slashdot.org/story/25/10/...
This is every pricing team’s nightmare: consumers starting to watch the time series. An app to do the tracking and identify real discounts would be cool.
This is every pricing team’s nightmare: consumers starting to watch the time series. An app to do the tracking and identify real discounts would be cool.
Reposted by Phil Steitz
UT Austin Linguistics is hiring in computational linguistics!
Asst or Assoc.
We have a thriving group sites.utexas.edu/compling/ and a long proud history in the space. (For instance, fun fact, Jeff Elman was a UT Austin Linguistics Ph.D.)
faculty.utexas.edu/career/170793
🤘
Asst or Assoc.
We have a thriving group sites.utexas.edu/compling/ and a long proud history in the space. (For instance, fun fact, Jeff Elman was a UT Austin Linguistics Ph.D.)
faculty.utexas.edu/career/170793
🤘
UT Austin Computational Linguistics Research Group – Humans processing computers processing humans processing language
sites.utexas.edu
October 7, 2025 at 8:53 PM
UT Austin Linguistics is hiring in computational linguistics!
Asst or Assoc.
We have a thriving group sites.utexas.edu/compling/ and a long proud history in the space. (For instance, fun fact, Jeff Elman was a UT Austin Linguistics Ph.D.)
faculty.utexas.edu/career/170793
🤘
Asst or Assoc.
We have a thriving group sites.utexas.edu/compling/ and a long proud history in the space. (For instance, fun fact, Jeff Elman was a UT Austin Linguistics Ph.D.)
faculty.utexas.edu/career/170793
🤘
Reposted by Phil Steitz
Want to work on open source full time? The @roost.tools engineering team is starting to hatch! Come build OSS tools making a difference in Trust & Safety.
This is a fully remote role, though some schedule overlap with North American time zones is expected.
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...
This is a fully remote role, though some schedule overlap with North American time zones is expected.
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...
ROOST.tools hiring Staff Software Engineer in United States | LinkedIn
Posted 8:52:18 PM. About ROOSTROOST is a community effort to build scalable and resilient safety infrastructure for…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.
www.linkedin.com
October 7, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Want to work on open source full time? The @roost.tools engineering team is starting to hatch! Come build OSS tools making a difference in Trust & Safety.
This is a fully remote role, though some schedule overlap with North American time zones is expected.
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...
This is a fully remote role, though some schedule overlap with North American time zones is expected.
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...
Reposted by Phil Steitz
An unexpected challenge at the start of Naomi Saphra’s career shaped her research as a computer scientist. www.quantamagazine.org/to-understan...
October 5, 2025 at 3:46 PM
An unexpected challenge at the start of Naomi Saphra’s career shaped her research as a computer scientist. www.quantamagazine.org/to-understan...
Fred says, “Save animals, save the planet!”
Happy World Animals Day!
Happy World Animals Day!
October 4, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Fred says, “Save animals, save the planet!”
Happy World Animals Day!
Happy World Animals Day!
Reposted by Phil Steitz
With supply-chain attacks on NPM rising, we disabled all install scripts (preinstall, postinstall, etc.) across our projects.
That broke builds for native modules, especially libpq, which we rely on heavily.
Our fix: pre-build libpq for Linux (x86_64 + arm64) and macOS, then publish it to NPM.
That broke builds for native modules, especially libpq, which we rely on heavily.
Our fix: pre-build libpq for Linux (x86_64 + arm64) and macOS, then publish it to NPM.
October 2, 2025 at 4:17 PM
With supply-chain attacks on NPM rising, we disabled all install scripts (preinstall, postinstall, etc.) across our projects.
That broke builds for native modules, especially libpq, which we rely on heavily.
Our fix: pre-build libpq for Linux (x86_64 + arm64) and macOS, then publish it to NPM.
That broke builds for native modules, especially libpq, which we rely on heavily.
Our fix: pre-build libpq for Linux (x86_64 + arm64) and macOS, then publish it to NPM.