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.
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.
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.
He’s impressive. But I’m not sure I’ve read 100% of any of his except the Scott Adams one. Deep deep dives, very “rationalist”.
January 18, 2026 at 6:32 PM
He’s impressive. But I’m not sure I’ve read 100% of any of his except the Scott Adams one. Deep deep dives, very “rationalist”.
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.
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.
Teamwork makes the dream work.
January 16, 2026 at 4:19 PM
Teamwork makes the dream work.
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
Horrible advice from Elon. An abundant future will raise the floor: good public housing, free internet, free calories. But if you want a nice home in a nice location, or any aspect of your lifestyle to be above baseline, you’ll still want money.
January 12, 2026 at 8:56 PM
Horrible advice from Elon. An abundant future will raise the floor: good public housing, free internet, free calories. But if you want a nice home in a nice location, or any aspect of your lifestyle to be above baseline, you’ll still want money.
There are a lot of similarities between Aronofsky’s Mother! (2017) and Alex Garland’s Men (2022). Both are horror-adjacent, surreal, and deeply critical of men. Both take place in creepy rural homes. I just watched Mother! for the first time: whoa.
January 12, 2026 at 12:00 AM
There are a lot of similarities between Aronofsky’s Mother! (2017) and Alex Garland’s Men (2022). Both are horror-adjacent, surreal, and deeply critical of men. Both take place in creepy rural homes. I just watched Mother! for the first time: whoa.
Claude Code said Fly.io was best way to deploy my side-project. It handled the entire setup and deploy from command line. I only went to their site to enter my credit card. These types of referrals will be worth billions.
January 11, 2026 at 5:12 PM
Claude Code said Fly.io was best way to deploy my side-project. It handled the entire setup and deploy from command line. I only went to their site to enter my credit card. These types of referrals will be worth billions.
Old days: "Wouldn't it be cool if someone made a graphical browser for SQLite databases? Today: "Here are fourteen options, several hundred thousand developer hours total." This is why things speed up exponentially.
January 11, 2026 at 12:01 AM
Old days: "Wouldn't it be cool if someone made a graphical browser for SQLite databases? Today: "Here are fourteen options, several hundred thousand developer hours total." This is why things speed up exponentially.
Obsidian just did a double-jump: open Claude Code in the root of your notes repo. Boom... markdown, ftw. obsidian.md/
January 10, 2026 at 8:01 PM
Obsidian just did a double-jump: open Claude Code in the root of your notes repo. Boom... markdown, ftw. obsidian.md/
Spent all day Claude Coding, then went to pick up a pizza at our local joint:
January 10, 2026 at 2:49 AM
Spent all day Claude Coding, then went to pick up a pizza at our local joint:
I tweak very few cosmetic settings in VS Code, but increasing the size of workbench.tree.indent larger is the first thing I do on a new laptop.
January 8, 2026 at 7:01 PM
I tweak very few cosmetic settings in VS Code, but increasing the size of workbench.tree.indent larger is the first thing I do on a new laptop.
Fidji Simo, OpenAI's "CEO of applications,” gives a great succinct answer here during her new Wired interview:
January 7, 2026 at 5:46 PM
Fidji Simo, OpenAI's "CEO of applications,” gives a great succinct answer here during her new Wired interview:
TikTok creator Polyfoci came up with this brilliant and to my knowledge novel way to visualize chess games. Must hear the audio as well.
January 6, 2026 at 4:58 AM
TikTok creator Polyfoci came up with this brilliant and to my knowledge novel way to visualize chess games. Must hear the audio as well.
Black Swan (2010) and Whiplash (2014) are both insider depictions of the brutal quest for perfection in hyper-competitive artistic domains. In Black Swan, the tormentor and collapse are internal, while in Whiplash, they are external.
January 5, 2026 at 4:43 AM
Black Swan (2010) and Whiplash (2014) are both insider depictions of the brutal quest for perfection in hyper-competitive artistic domains. In Black Swan, the tormentor and collapse are internal, while in Whiplash, they are external.
From HN, the total number of monthly Stack Overflow questions over time. It was SO GOOD for a long time. And with STUNNING foresight Jeff and Joel sold it in 2021 for $1.8 billion. Amazing outcome.
January 4, 2026 at 2:57 PM
From HN, the total number of monthly Stack Overflow questions over time. It was SO GOOD for a long time. And with STUNNING foresight Jeff and Joel sold it in 2021 for $1.8 billion. Amazing outcome.
Ban all indoor fireworks. In Rhode Island in 2003, "pyrotechnics used by the band’s crew ignited highly flammable acoustic foam," killing 100 people. Same damn thing. Use LEDs.
January 2, 2026 at 8:30 PM
Ban all indoor fireworks. In Rhode Island in 2003, "pyrotechnics used by the band’s crew ignited highly flammable acoustic foam," killing 100 people. Same damn thing. Use LEDs.