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All computer users may soon have the ability to author small bits of code. What structural changes does this imply for the production and distribution of software?

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Recently lots of people have been trying very hard to make large language models like ChatGPT into better oracles—when we ask them questions, we want the perfect answer. As an example, in my last post, I explored some techniques for helping LLMs answer complex questions more reliably by coordinating multiple steps with external tools.

I’ve been wondering, though, if this framing is missing a different opportunity. What if we were to think of LLMs not as tools for answering questions, but as tools for asking us questions and inspiring our creativity? Could they serve as on-demand conversation partners for helping us to develop our best thoughts? As a creative muse?

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Disclaimer: I’m not an expert on LLMs, this is just a quick report on a Sunday hack project. Please let me know if I can improve my approach or I got something wrong!

Read this article on my blog

In a previous post I’ve written about why browser extensions are an amazing platform for customizing existing software. Because the browser DOM can be hacked in open-ended ways, it’s possible to build extensions that modify the behavior of an app in ways that the original creators never anticipated or intended to support.

Today I’ll make that point more concrete by sharing the story of a side project I made. Over the past couple years, I built a browser extension called Twemex that helps people find interesting ideas on Twitter. Twemex started as a tiny utility to improve my own Twitter experience, but it grew to have tens of thousands of users, and ultimately I sold the extension to Tweet Hunter in a recent acquisition.

Potluck: Dynamic documents as personal software

We recently published an essay about Potluck, a research project I worked on together with Max Schoening, Paul Shen, and Paul Sonnentag at Ink & Switch.

You can read the essay here:

Potluck: Dynamic Documents as Personal Software

Hi everyone. To begin this newsletter I just wanted to say that I’m horrified by the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, and am wishing for strength to the brave Ukrainian people. For me, this war serves as a stark reminder of the privilege that is peace and physical safety. If you’d like to donate to humanitarian causes, I’ve seen Razom recommended as a reputable organization.

And now, on to less important things.

Riffle

For the past six months or so, I’ve been having a lot of fun collaborating with Nicholas Schiefer, Johannes Schickling, and my PhD advisor Daniel Jackson on a new project called Riffle. We’re trying to simplify app development for both experts and novices, by applying ideas from databases to managing UI state in local-first apps. We published an essay with some findings from our initial explorations:

A common complaint these days is that our work tools and practices bias much too heavily towards constant collaboration. We’re all drowning in Slack pings and meetings, and what we really desperately need is some time to close the office door and just…think.

While I’m sympathetic, I think this view is too simplistic. Thinking alone and thinking together aren’t two ends of a one-dimensional number line that we can tune with a dial; the interplay is far richer than that!

A couple years ago, I moved from working at a fast-growing YC startup to being a grad student in computer science. Ah, no more Slack pings, and an empty calendar: I could finally just…think. This has actually been quite nice in practice: I can spend a morning reading a research paper on a whim, and the empty space does seem to enable me to think new thoughts. But I also quickly realized that this isn’t sufficient, and collaboration still plays an essential role in nearly all of my work. Whether it’s getting feedback from my advisor, leaning on teammates to make progress, or just having a fun time throwing around ideas, I need to work with others to make progress.

It’s been a while since the inaugural installment of this newsletter! Extrapolating from all the available data points, it appears these will be sent out every 3 months or so.

First, a couple quick updates:

Metamuse podcast: I was recently a guest on the Metamuse podcast (one of my favorites to listen to!). We had a wide-ranging conversation about , data interoperability on the web, making software that invites customization, and more. If you’re interested, .

Trying out this newsletter thing…

It’s sort of astonishing to think about how much value I’ve gotten from Twitter over the last few years. At its best, my Twitter feels like spending a leisurely afternoon at a cafe where computing enthusiasts are cycling through and casually discussing the issues of the day. I love how the character limit encourages an unpolished tone and open-ended conversations.

Still, I do find myself wondering whether I’m training my brain to only write in 280-character snippets. And it’s a bit strange how anything on Twitter can suddenly spill over the walls of the cafe and become intensely public.

So I’m thinking perhaps this email newsletter will be a way to discuss my research in longer sentences, and to have cozier conversations. Definitely reply and let me know if you have ideas on topics/questions you’d like to see me talk about here.