Probably the more fun part of Claude Code atm is unlearning when you used to say "no". Previously out-of-scope code is now just... possible. eg, would've taken me weeks to months to code a natural language search engine for a bunch of local documents, and now it's done in 20min of time.
With the snowcrete apocalypse on the US east coast, I've had to do some treadmill running and I feel humans just weren't made to run in place. I can't even dopamine dose myself with short-form video to keep the boredom at bay.
Vibecoding has so seriously reinvigorated my joy for building stuff again. Out here letting Claude code new things on a Sunday afternoon while I'm cleaning my apartment. PEAK
Back with a new monthly newsletter! This month, among other things are full of: algorithms, boredom, AI coding, seriousness, and aesthetics in the 21st century. Multiple essays, multiple links, many things. Enjoy!
https://sceneswithsimon.com/p/a-long-drive-back-to-non-algo-time
I want to run more LLM setups but hesitant to upload private and sensitive information to existing providers. What's the best local LLM setups atm? Or some other trusted setup (like running your own server?)?
Ironic given that crypto only works due to voluntary collectivism. Bitcoin's genesis comes from first having given compute to a p2p network in order to receive the benefits. The entire thing only works because of the collective "other" making cryptographic commitments into the future.
All the Opus chatter finally caused me to try AI coding. Yes. Never touched it (mostly because I've been writing). With Claude Code and Opus 4.5, I refactored code in 2 hours what would've easily taken me a few weeks of relearning the codebase+coding+debugging to do. Increasingly being dragged down by context switching. No more. Bring on 2026. 😎
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Early ETH miners on fire off the shoulder of Roberta's. I watched early ConsenSys HQ glitter with stickers in the dark near the Morgan Ave L. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."
Feel like I've hit the limit on Duolingo for my daily Spanish lesson. Learning far too niche vocab and grammar for my actual speaking and listening ability. Curious what else is there if any of you all use language learning apps?
My magical realism pet theory is that David Bowie was the gravitational well for the weird. And when he died in Jan 2016, we lost the ability to keep it all intact.
Unconventional peak experiences #4: 2 whiskeys down, cocooned on a flight with strangers to a far-flung destination, lights dancing in the cabin from TV screens, Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works in your ears, reading an epic sci-fi book.
