Co-founder of Microsoft and of the Gates Foundation. Writes Gates Notes on global health, energy and climate, and on whatever they have been reading.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Growth

  Their words

  Anyone who reads the new book Growth, the newest of 39 brilliant books by one of my favorite thinkers, will come away with similar urgency.

  gatesnotes.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  These Truths

  Their words

  But with the exception of a brief section covering the past 20 years (more on this below), I loved the book and hope lots of people read it.

  gatesnotes.com

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Why We Sleep

  Their words

  But even if you apply a mild discount factor, Why We Sleep is an important and fascinating book.

  gatesnotes.com

Writer and developer; runs Waxy.org, co-organises the XOXO festival, and was the first CTO of Kickstarter.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Google Colab

  Their words

  spending an increasing amount of my free time working with tools like Google Colab, Runway ML, TensorFlow, and Hugging Face to play around with machine-generated text, audio, imagery, and video.

  usesthis.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  IntelliMouse

  Their words

  a classic wired Microsoft optical IntelliMouse - in my opinion, the best mouse ever made and the only one that's ever felt comfortable in my hand.

  usesthis.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Microsoft IntelliMouse

  Their words

  a classic wired Microsoft optical IntelliMouse - in my opinion, the best mouse ever made and the only one that’s ever felt comfortable in my hand.

  usesthis.com

Scottish crime writer, author of the Tony Hill and Karen Pirie novels; former journalist and broadcaster.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  This Mortal Boy

  Their words

  It's an amazing novel, this. It's compelling. It's a novelization of a real event: the second last hanging in New Zealand.

  fivebooks.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  The Lost Man

  Their words

  I think The Lost Man is her best yet. It's not just a great crime novel, I think it's a great novel.

  fivebooks.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  American by Day

  Their words

  American by Day is engagingly written. Miller isn't afraid to write characters who are opinionated. They don't hold their tongue about what they believe in, they let rip. People are angry, people are passionate. I love the unorthodoxy of it, I suppose.

  fivebooks.com

Programmer and writer; specified JSON, wrote JavaScript: The Good Parts, JSLint and How JavaScript Works.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  OneDrive

  Their words

  I keep my projects on OneDrive. I use GitHub Desktop to push my public code.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  GitHub Desktop

  Their words

  I keep my projects on OneDrive. I use GitHub Desktop to push my public code.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Prince

  Their words

  I use Prince to make PDFs of my books.

  usesthis.com

Essayist; writes Astral Codex Ten, previously Slate Star Codex.

• Our reading nowkorrents.com

  Technological progress did not slow down from 1970 to the present, compared with its pre-1970 speed

  Their words, before

  I argued that technological progress had not slowed from 1970 to the present (compared to its pre-1970 speed).

  Their words now

  Despite its confidence and snark, my 2014 post was wrong.

Co-founder and CEO of Stripe and co-founder of the Arc Institute. Keeps a personal site of reading lists, open questions and notes on scientific progress and how research is funded.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  The cognitive costs of air pollution are almost certainly still significantly under-emphasised -- most EPA materials do not mention them at all.

  Their words

  Air pollution is a very big deal. Its adverse effects on numerous health outcomes and general mortality are widely documented. However, our understanding of its cognitive costs is more recent and those costs are almost certainly still significantly under-emphasized. For example, cognitive effects are not mentioned in most EPA materials.

  Pollutionpatrickcollison.com

Writer and researcher, founder of New Science; writes essays on science funding, sleep research, productivity and ambition at guzey.com.

From one piece Matthew Walker's "Why We Sleep" Is Riddled with Scientific and Factual Errors 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Getting the science wrong in a bestselling health book does real harm to the people who follow it.

  Their words

  Walker’s book has likely wasted thousands of hours of life and worsened the health of people who read it and took its recommendations at face value

  guzey.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  A celebrated popular science book can consistently misrepresent the literature it summarises and contradict its own sources.

  Their words

  I found that the book consistently overstates the problem of lack of sleep, sometimes egregiously so. It misrepresents basic sleep research and contradicts its own sources.

  guzey.com

Essayist; writes Astral Codex Ten, previously Slate Star Codex.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Eye movement reprocessing went from alternative to establishment, and moving your eyes while talking about a trauma does seem to help you process it.

  EMDRTrauma

  Their words

  Eye movement directed reprocessing (alternative when the book was written, now basically establishment) where you move your eyes back and forth while talking about your trauma, and this seems to somehow help you process it better.

  Book Review: The Body Keeps The Scoreslatestarcodex.com

American backpacking guide, writer and endurance athlete who has hiked more than 30,000 miles; author of The Ultimate Hiker's Gear Guide and publisher of gear reviews and trip-planning tutorials at andrewskurka.com.

• Recommendsaffiliate linkrcmnd.app

  Samsung Chromebook 3

  Their words

  For someone like Amanda, who has a normal 9-5 job, the Samsung Chromebook 3 ($220) is probably the only computer they need at home.

  andrewskurka.com

Creator of the Keras deep-learning library and the ARC-AGI benchmark.

From one piece On the Measure of Intelligence 5 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  If intelligence is the process of acquiring skills, no single task demonstrates intelligence unless it is a meta-task of skill-acquisition across many tasks.

  Their words

  If intelligence lies in the process of acquiring skills, then there is no task X such that skill at X demonstrates intelligence, unless X is actually a meta-task involving skill-acquisition across a broad range of tasks.

  On the Measure of Intelligencearxiv.org

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Both the special-purpose-programs view and the blank-slate view of human intelligence are likely incorrect.

  Their words

  Today, it is increasingly apparent that both of these views of the nature of human intelligence - either a collection of special-purpose programs or a general-purpose Tabula Rasa - are likely incorrect

  On the Measure of Intelligencearxiv.org

• Our readingkorrents.com

  The Abstraction and Reasoning Corpus can measure human-like general fluid intelligence and enable fair comparisons between AI systems and humans.

  Their words

  We argue that ARC can be used to measure a human-like form of general fluid intelligence and that it enables fair general intelligence comparisons between AI systems and humans.

  On the Measure of Intelligencearxiv.org

Software engineer and writer; former CTO of Wave, now at Anthropic. Blogs at benkuhn.net on attention, engineering management and doing hard things well.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Cree 100W-equivalent 5000K LED bulbs

  Their words

  Update 2020-11-16: For my home, I ended up switching from the corncob bulb to three 7-way splitters and 21 100W equivalent 5000K Cree bulbs from Home Depot. I found the Cree bulbs on sale so they were about the same price, the light was more diffused and they have a higher color-rendering index.

  benkuhn.net

Journalist and author of Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation. Writes the newsletter Culture Study, which runs a recurring links-and-recommendations issue.

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  Dinner: Changing the Game

  Their words

  Favorite Newish Cookbook With Recipes I Actually Make: Dinner, Changing the Game

  annehelen.substack.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Leuchtturm1917 Medium Week Planner

  Their words

  The Planner I Use Obsessively: Leuchtturm1917 Medium *Week* (Not Weekly) Planner

  annehelen.substack.com

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Orijen dog food

  Their words

  The Fancy Dogfood I Can Afford Because I Don’t Have Children And Makes The Dogs’ Fur So Lustrous: Orijen

  annehelen.substack.com

Founded CD Baby in 1998 and sold it in 2008, giving the proceeds to a charitable trust for music education. Since then a writer and speaker: five books and 550+ articles, published first at sive.rs, which they hand-code and keep free of advertising.

From one piece Digital pollution 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Generators emit thousands of lines where ten would do, and that waste is why people think their phone is slow.

  Their words

  These programs that generate a website, app, or file for you spit out thousands of lines of unnecessary junk when really only 10 lines are needed.

  Digital pollutionsive.rs

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Code and files generated by tools are pollution: hand-writing them is worth the effort because the bloat slows everything down for everyone.

  Their words

  I prefer coding everything by hand, because I don't like the huge piles of garbage that the automated generators create.

  Digital pollutionsive.rs

Writer and education-technology critic; published Hack Education for a decade and wrote Teaching Machines.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Firefox

  Their words

  DuckDuckGo is my default search engine. Firefox is my default browser.

  usesthis.com

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Scrivener

  Their words

  For my book, I've used Scrivener to store all my research notes. I don't actually write in Scrivener; but it's been really useful to help me organize this big writing project.

  usesthis.com

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Pilot Gel Ink Retractive Roller Ball

  Their words

  I used to have a special fountain pen, but printer cartridges and fountain pen cartridges are annoying and expensive, and so these days I stick with the ol' Pilot Gel Ink Retractive Roller Ball pen. Blue ink. It's got to be blue ink.

  usesthis.com

Programmer; started Rust, and writes long posts on language design, compilers and the history of computing.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  ctrld

  Their words

  Currently I'm using one called ctrld which is a derivative of Dina and my previous favourite family, Proggy.

  usesthis.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  ThinkPads

  Their words

  I still have a couple ThinkPads kicking around – a 32GB W530 and an older X61 – they still work, they're nigh-indestructible.

  usesthis.com

• Mixed onrcmnd.app

  QNAP NAS

  Their words

  I do have a QNAP NAS for local file service, movies and music, but I foolishly bought one with too little RAM so to keep it from paging I have it reboot itself every 24 hours.

  usesthis.com

Theoretical computer scientist, Schlumberger Centennial Chair of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin and director of its Quantum Information Center. Writes the blog Shtetl-Optimized.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  The AI Does Not Hate You: Superintelligence, Rationality, and the Race to Save the World

  Their words

  Briefly, I think the book is a triumph.

  scottaaronson.blog

Software engineer who writes about low-level and systems programming at nullprogram.com; author of the Elfeed feed reader, the Endlessh SSH tarpit and Enchive.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  OpenBox

  Their words

  I dislike big desktop environments, so instead I use OpenBox - bare-bones, without any task bar, start menu, etc.

  usesthis.com

• Likedrcmnd.app

  mpv

  Their words

  I use mpv for most media consumption. Its minimalistic keyboard interface is perfectly suited for my needs.

  usesthis.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Debian

  Their words

  I strongly prefer Debian, but Ubuntu is also acceptable.

  usesthis.com

Mathematical biologist; Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Bath and author of The Maths of Life and Death and How to Expect the Unexpected.

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  The Art of Statistics: Learning from Data

  Their words

  The Art of Statistics is a really accessible and comprehensive introduction to statistics. It's not only about the tools of statistics, but it also goes through lots of interesting and relevant areas where statistics can help us make important decisions.

  fivebooks.com

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  Do Dice Play God?: The Mathematics of Uncertainty

  Their words

  The thing I'd say about Do Dice Play God? is that it is very rewarding, but you do have to invest in it.

  fivebooks.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors

  Their words

  Matt is a stand-up comedian and he's a very funny guy. He makes mathematics interesting by making it funny. In this book, he pokes fun at people who've made silly mathematical mistakes, but at the same time he also looks at some issues that are quite serious: bridges collapsing and killing people, for example. He can do the somber, serious stuff as well. It's a great book. As far as I know, it's the first math book that's ever been a number one bestseller.

  fivebooks.com

Founder and president of the Roots of Progress Institute; writes the history and philosophy of progress, after a career as a software engineering manager and founder.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Understanding the causes of progress is a moral imperative, because progress is neither automatic nor guaranteed to continue.

  Their words

  So if progress is a moral imperative, it is also a moral imperative to understand its causes, so that we can protect them and reinforce them.

  Progress studies as a moral imperativerootsofprogress.org

President of the VideoLAN non-profit and one of the lead developers of the VLC media player; active on the project since 2005.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Fastmail

  Their words

  On the web, I use Fastmail and DDG, as the 2 websites I use the most.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  DDG

  Their words

  On the web, I use Fastmail and DDG, as the 2 websites I use the most.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  LibreOffice

  Their words

  I use vim, Dolphin and LibreOffice daily.

  usesthis.com

Essayist; writes Astral Codex Ten, previously Slate Star Codex.

• Our reading nowkorrents.com

  Psychedelics work by strengthening the brain's top-down priors

  psychedelics

  Their words, before

  I suggested that psychedelics might work by strengthening the brain's top-down priors.

  Their words now

  A more recent paper by Carhart-Harris and Friston provides compelling evidence that psychedelics probably work by _weakening_ the brain's top-down priors, meaning I got this one maximally wrong.

Writer and programmer; co-founder of the software studio Postlight and author of the Bloomberg Businessweek essay What Is Code?

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Google Pixel 3

  Their words

  My phone is a maxed-out Google Pixel 3, which I use for phone things: Email, reading, web browsing, messaging, music, and taking pictures

  usesthis.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Google Meet speakermic

  Their words

  so we use Google Meet speakermics, which allow for full-duplex conversations, which makes conversation far more organic. That device turned Google Meet from something exhausting to something really good.

  usesthis.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Huawei MateBook X Pro

  Their words

  It is a shameless, down-to-the-packaging ripoff of the before-they-screwed-up-the-keyboard-era MacBook Pro, and thus just a lovely machine.

  usesthis.com

Essayist; writes Astral Codex Ten, previously Slate Star Codex.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  A writer should keep a public list of the things they got significantly wrong, so that readers can judge their credibility.

  Their words

  But if I get something significantly wrong, I'll try to put it here as an acknowledgement and an aid for anyone trying to assess my credibility later.

  Mistakesastralcodexten.com

Writer and researcher, founder of New Science; writes essays on science funding, sleep research, productivity and ambition at guzey.com.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  The Design of Everyday Things

  Their words

  Don Norman's The Design of Everyday Things

  guzey.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  The Righteous Mind

  Their words

  Jonathan Haidt's The Righteous Mind

  guzey.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Conspiracy

  Their words

  Ryan Holiday's Conspiracy

  guzey.com

Full-stack developer, creator of Tailwind CSS; writes at adamwathan.me and makes courses and screencasts for web developers.

• Likedaffiliate linkrcmnd.app

  Elgato Key Light

  Their words

  I use this to light my face better when recording video. Happy I spent the extra money on this

  adamwathan.me

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  Audio Hijack Pro

  Their words

  I use this to record all of my podcast interviews. Fantastic software, highly recommended.

  adamwathan.me

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Vimeo

  Their words

  I host all of my course videos on Vimeo. It's essentially the only option — everything else is crazy expensive in comparison. Awesome service though, absolutely love it.

  adamwathan.me

Writer and researcher, founder of New Science; writes essays on science funding, sleep research, productivity and ambition at guzey.com.

From one piece How Life Sciences Actually Work: Findings of a Year-Long Investigation 3 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Short-termism and a lack of funding for young scientists are smaller problems in academia than outsiders assume.

  Their words

  Parts that seem to be less of a problem than I initially thought: short-termism; lack of funding for young scientists.

  guzey.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Scientific progress in biology is not slowing down.

  Their words

  My (contrarian, I guess) intuition is that scientific progress in biology is not slowing down.

  guzey.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Peer review is one of the things genuinely wrong with academia, not a safeguard that mostly works.

  Their words

  Specific parts of academia that seem to be problematic: rigid, punishing for deviation, career progression; peer review; need to constantly fundraise for professors.

  guzey.com

Financial journalist; chief financial correspondent at Axios and host of the Slate Money podcast, previously a blogger at Reuters and author of The Phoenix Economy.

From one piece Nota bene: Mass shootings 3 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Media coverage of mass violence functions as a socially acceptable outlet for anti-Trump sentiment.

  Their words

  the media reaction to mass violence is in reality a sublimated and socially acceptable reaction to Trump.

  Nota bene: Mass shootingsfelix.substack.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Increased media coverage of mass shootings increases public fear of them.

  Their words

  The more coverage that mass shootings receive, the more scared the country becomes.

  Nota bene: Mass shootingsfelix.substack.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Mass shootings are a relatively small share of American gun deaths compared to other causes.

  America

  Their words

  Mass shootings are a relatively small phenomenon even by the standard of American gun deaths.

  Nota bene: Mass shootingsfelix.substack.com

Artist and developer who makes esoteric software, games and tools aboard a sailboat as part of Hundred Rabbits with Rekka Bellum; creator of the Uxn virtual machine and the Orca livecoding environment.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Micro

  Their words

  here's some notable software that I use daily. I also maintain an active list here. Fish Shell. Micro text editor. Toot Mastodon client. cmus audio player.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  cmus

  Their words

  here's some notable software that I use daily. I also maintain an active list here. Fish Shell. Micro text editor. Toot Mastodon client. cmus audio player.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Krita

  Their words

  nnn file manager. Spreadsheet Calculator. Krita digital painting. Blender 3D editor. surf browser. Cozy audiobook player.

  usesthis.com

Co-founder of AngelList. Writes and podcasts at nav.al in short, aphoristic pieces on startups, wealth and judgement rather than long essays.

• Likedrcmnd.app

  What is Life?

  Their words

  Current reading list. Most into “The Beginning of Infinity” and “What is Life?” at the moment.

  x.com

Founded CD Baby in 1998 and sold it in 2008, giving the proceeds to a charitable trust for music education. Since then a writer and speaker: five books and 550+ articles, published first at sive.rs, which they hand-code and keep free of advertising.

• Likedrcmnd.app

  This Is Marketing

  Their words

  A must-read for every entrepreneur. A holistic, generous, human, emotional, long-term, story-driven approach to your business. The world would be a much better place if businesses were led this way. You'll have a competitive advantage if you do this, since so few do.

  sive.rs

Cognitive scientist and designer; author of The Design of Everyday Things; co-founder of Nielsen Norman Group; former vice president at Apple; founding director of the Design Lab at UC San Diego.

From one piece People-Centered (Not Tech-Driven) Design 2 beliefs · jnd.org

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Machines should do the parts of a task that people are bad at, so that people and technology work as partners on human terms.

  Their words

  Instead of having people do the parts of a task that machines are bad at, let’s reverse the process and have machines do the parts that people are bad at. Instead of requiring people to work on technology’s terms, require the machines to work on human terms.

  People-Centered (Not Tech-Driven) Designjnd.org

• Our readingkorrents.com

  What gets called human error is design error: technology-centred design makes people do what machines are good at and then blames them.

  America

  Their words

  Human error is blamed for over 90 percent of industrial and automobile accidents. It is the leading cause of aviation accidents, and medical error is reported to be the third-largest cause of death in the entire United States. Horrifying? Yes, but why do we label it “human error”? It is design error.

  People-Centered (Not Tech-Driven) Designjnd.org

Cognitive scientist and designer; author of The Design of Everyday Things; co-founder of Nielsen Norman Group; former vice president at Apple; founding director of the Design Lab at UC San Diego.

From one piece The Four Fundamental Principles of Human-Centered Design and Application 2 beliefs · jnd.org

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Experts should supply the facts and leave the methods to the people affected: a community will trust and implement a solution it chose itself, even one identical to the expert's.

  Their words

  If the people can decide, even if they come up with the same, identical solution as the expert people or machines, they will trust them, implement them, and abide with them.

  jnd.org

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Human-centred design starts by solving the root issue rather than the problem as presented, which is usually the symptom.

  Their words

  Solve the fundamental, underlying issues, not the symptoms. We recommend starting with field studies and observations of actual practice (an applied ethnography). Ask “why?” at each issue.

  jnd.org

Co-founder of Microsoft and of the Gates Foundation. Writes Gates Notes on global health, energy and climate, and on whatever they have been reading.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Blueprint

  Their words

  In his terrific book Blueprint, Christakis explains that humans have evolved to work together and be social.

  gatesnotes.com

Cognitive scientist and designer; author of The Design of Everyday Things; co-founder of Nielsen Norman Group; former vice president at Apple; founding director of the Design Lab at UC San Diego.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  The rule to defer judgment encourages design by committee; effective teams do not defer criticism, they create through it.

  Their words

  We challenge this approach. It encourages design by committee and infuses a superficial sense of collaboration that leads to compromises and weakens ideas. Our view, the product of years of studies of and participation in innovation projects, is that effective teams do not defer critical reflection; they create through criticism.

  Why Criticism Is Good for Creativityjnd.org

Author of Fluent Forever and founder of the app of the same name; teaches pronunciation first and vocabulary through images rather than translation.

From one piece How To Learn a Language Fast: Say No to Translation 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there

From one piece Discover the Key To Learning Pronunciation 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Removing translation from the process is what lets you think in the language from the beginning.

  Their words

  When you remove translation from your language learning process, you can learn to think in your target language from the beginning.

  blog.fluent-forever.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Translating in your head has a ceiling; thinking in the language is the only thing that gets past it.

  Their words

  There is a limit to translation. You can make your translations more and more complex, and you can get very fast at them, but it will never be as fast or as fluent as simply thinking in the language.

  blog.fluent-forever.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Failing to hear a language's sounds is what makes its words impossible to remember.

  Their words

  For one, if you don’t learn to hear the sounds in a new language, you’re doomed to have a hard time remembering it.

  Discover the Key To Learning Pronunciationblog.fluent-forever.com

Indian software developer and prolific blogger on PHP, Laravel and JavaScript; open-source enthusiast publishing near-daily at amitmerchant.com.

• Likedrcmnd.app

  JetBrains Mono

  Their words

  I’m using JetBrains Mono fonts across all my text editors and IDEs. These looks great overall and supports ligatures which is nice!

  amitmerchant.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Dracula theme

  Their words

  Both my editor and IDE is rocking Dracula theme. It’s a great dark theme and gives me a consistent environment across my devices and setups.

  amitmerchant.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  HTTPie

  Their words

  I use HTTPie to perform API calls. It’s a great tool and I love it!

  amitmerchant.com

Former options market maker who writes Moontower, a newsletter on trading, volatility, decision-making and how to think about risk outside markets too.

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  Steal Like an Artist

  Their words

  If you want a push I strongly recommend Austin Kleon’s short book Steal Like an Artist. I read it on New Year’s Day 6 years ago and just re-read it on vacation (twice!) last week.

  moontowermeta.com

Author of Shape Up; formerly head of strategy at Basecamp, where he worked on product design for seventeen years; now runs Felt Presence.

From one piece Shape Up, chapter 4: Find the Elements 2 beliefs · basecamp.com

From one piece Shape Up, chapter 2: Principles of Shaping 3 beliefs · basecamp.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Interface copy is an affordance: reading it is an act that gives the user information for what to do next.

  Their words

  We consider interface copy to be an affordance, too. Reading it is an act that gives the user information for subsequent actions.

  Shape Up, chapter 4: Find the Elementsbasecamp.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Any specific mockup from someone senior biases everyone after them, so early design should be breadboards and fat-marker sketches that leave room for designers.

  Their words

  Regardless of what you say, any specific mockups are going to bias what other people do after you—especially if you’re in a higher position than them. They’ll take every detail in the initial mockups as direction even though you didn’t intend it.

  Shape Up, chapter 4: Find the Elementsbasecamp.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Shaping is primarily design work: the shaped concept is an interaction design seen from the user's perspective, and it takes technical literacy, not programming.

  Their words

  Shaping is primarily design work. The shaped concept is an interaction design viewed from the user’s perspective. It defines what the feature does, how it works, and where it fits into existing flows.

  Shape Up, chapter 2: Principles of Shapingbasecamp.com

Writer, photographer and software maker based in Japan; publishes long-form essays, walking newsletters and self-made books at craigmod.com.

From one piece Fast Software, the Best Software 5 beliefs · craigmod.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  The best touch interfaces are physical buttons; on a screen, to feel tactile is to move without latency.

  Their words

  Excellent touch interfaces feel tactile. The best “touch interfaces,” in my opinion, are actual buttons, things with physicality, haptics. But on a screen, to feel tactile is to move without latency.

  Fast Software, the Best Softwarecraigmod.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Software should unbloat over time: the longer it is around, the more elegant it should become.

  Their words

  I love software that does this: Software that unbloats over time. This should be the goal of all software. The longer it’s around, the more elegant it should become. Smooth over like a river stone.

  Fast Software, the Best Softwarecraigmod.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Speed is a good proxy for engineering quality: software that slows down on simple tasks suggests engineers who are not obsessive about detail.

  Their words

  Speed and reliability are often intuited hand-in-hand. Speed can be a good proxy for general engineering quality. If an application slows down on simple tasks, then it can mean the engineers aren’t obsessive detail sticklers.

  Fast Software, the Best Softwarecraigmod.com

Creator of Homebrew, the macOS package manager, and a Swift developer.

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Steam Controller

  Their words

  I use a Steam Controller, which honestly is a really great choice for PC gaming that didn’t catch on and now Valve seem to have given up on it.

  usesthis.com

• Mixed onrcmnd.app

  Xcode

  Their words

  Xcode is too big and bloated, and often feels like it too.

  usesthis.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Swift

  Their words

  For all my Swift dev, which for me is as much as possible. Swift is a great language.

  usesthis.com

Creator of the Zig programming language; president and lead developer of the Zig Software Foundation.

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  musl libc

  Their words

  The Zig project owes a lot to musl, for many reasons

  andrewkelley.me

Writes Nintil, long researched essays on metascience, biology, economics and whatever he has decided to read the literature on.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  What limits science is how it is funded and organised, not how much money it gets.

  Their words

  I'm of the view, though this would take another post to explain, that the problems that science suffers have more to do with how science is done (funded, organized, produced) rather than how much money is gets, in general.

  Fixing science (Part 1)nintil.com

Professor of cognitive science at UC San Diego working on human-computer interaction and programming tools; creator of Python Tutor, the online code visualizer.

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Camtasia

  Their words

  I also really like Camtasia for recording and editing screencast demos.

  usesthis.com

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  Blue Yeti

  Their words

  For Skype calls and podcast recordings, I use the Logitech C920 webcam and either a Blue Yeti or Audio-Technica ATR2100 mic. Both are excellent mics for around $100.

  usesthis.com

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Tempur-Pedic TP9000 Mesh Task Chair

  Their words

  Lastly, I'm not super-picky about office chairs, but I've finally found a model that works for me without any fuss: the Tempur-Pedic TP9000 Mesh Task Chair from Staples; pro-tip: take the armrests off.

  usesthis.com

Former options market maker who writes Moontower, a newsletter on trading, volatility, decision-making and how to think about risk outside markets too.

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  Eat Stop Eat

  Their words

  I read Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat which gives a comprehensive survey of the research around IF. It’s my go-to rec for people interested in the topic.

  moontowermeta.com

Co-founder of AngelList. Writes and podcasts at nav.al in short, aphoristic pieces on startups, wealth and judgement rather than long essays.

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Transmetropolitan

  Their words

  No single favorite, but I liked V for Vendetta, Watchmen, The Boys, Transmetropolitan, Planetary, Sandman, and The Unwritten.

  x.com

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Planetary

  Their words

  No single favorite, but I liked V for Vendetta, Watchmen, The Boys, Transmetropolitan, Planetary, Sandman, and The Unwritten.

  x.com

• Likedrcmnd.app

  The Sandman

  Their words

  No single favorite, but I liked V for Vendetta, Watchmen, The Boys, Transmetropolitan, Planetary, Sandman, and The Unwritten.

  x.com

Essayist; writes Astral Codex Ten, previously Slate Star Codex.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  The Secret of Our Success

  Their words

  The Secret Of Our Success by anthropologist Joseph Henrich manages to be an amazing book anyway.

  slatestarcodex.com

British military historian and former army officer; author of Stalingrad, Berlin: The Downfall 1945, D-Day and The Second World War.

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  Life and Fate

  Their words

  These were the notebooks that we worked on in Moscow and one realised that here was most of the raw material for Life and Fate which I think is probably the most important work of fiction about World War II.

  fivebooks.com

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  Hitler

  Their words

  But I don't see Kershaw's work on Hitler really ever being surpassed.

  fivebooks.com

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  Leningrad: The Epic Siege of World War II, 1941-1944

  Their words

  But Anna Reid's book goes far further because, with excellent research in archives which weren't available before, she is able to show how totally cynical Stalin's attitude was to Leningrad. Indeed it was a major factor in the appalling loss of life and suffering, which is very hard to appreciate.

  fivebooks.com

Musician and writer; answers readers' questions weekly at The Red Hand Files, and fronts Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Desire and the making of art draw on the same faculty, and neither dries up with age.

  Their words

  With regards to sexual desire and songwriting, creativity and desire have always been inextricably linked for me.

  theredhandfiles.com

Interpretability researcher at Anthropic, which he co-founded; before that at OpenAI and Google Brain, where he wrote the explanations of neural networks most people learned them from.

From one piece Collaboration and Credit Principles 3 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  People tend to overestimate their own contributions to collaborative work.

  Their words

  Remember that you are likely overestimating your own contributions.

  Collaboration and Credit Principlescolah.github.io

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Failing to credit someone who deserves it does more harm than mistakenly crediting someone who doesn't.

  Their words

  the harm of not crediting someone who deserves it is often greater than the harm of crediting someone who doesn't deserve it.

  Collaboration and Credit Principlescolah.github.io

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Sharing credit generously benefits everyone because it encourages future collaboration.

  Their words

  Credit isn't zero sum. It is often in everyone's benefit to be generous with credit, because it creates an incentive for others to help in the future.

  Collaboration and Credit Principlescolah.github.io

Software design writer and chief scientist at Thoughtworks; wrote Refactoring and Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture.

From one piece Is High Quality Software Worth the Cost? 3 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Cruft is not carelessness: even the best teams inevitably create it, because the right design is only visible once the software has been built.

  Their words

  even the finest teams will inevitably create some cruft as they work

  Is High Quality Software Worth the Cost?martinfowler.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Poor internal quality begins to slow a team down within a few weeks, so almost no project is short enough for cutting corners to pay off.

  Their words

  Developers find poor quality code significantly slows them down within a few weeks.

  Is High Quality Software Worth the Cost?martinfowler.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  The usual trade-off between quality and cost does not apply to software: high internal quality is the cheaper way to produce it.

  Their words

  With this article I'll explain that this trade-off does not apply to software - that high quality software is actually cheaper to produce.

  Is High Quality Software Worth the Cost?martinfowler.com

Co-founder, chairman and chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management. Hosts the Masters in Business podcast for Bloomberg and wrote How NOT to Invest.

• Recommendsaffiliate linkrcmnd.app

  Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World

  Their words

  Bradley Hope and Tom Wright, Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World: Is financial fraud becoming its own sub-genre? This reporting into yet another fraud reminds me of The Spider Network or Bad Blood. What distinguishes this one is the size: it involved billions of dollars.

  ritholtz.com

• Recommendsaffiliate linkrcmnd.app

  Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell

  Their words

  Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle, Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell: I understood Bill Campbell was a behind-the-scenes guy in Silicon Valley, but I had no idea just how influential he was. Bill Gurley of Benchmark noted “I would argue that Bill has had a bigger impact on Silicon Valley than any other single person simply because his reach was so amazingly wide.” That’s a story I want to read.

  ritholtz.com

• Recommendsaffiliate linkrcmnd.app

  The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World

  Their words

  Charles C. Mann, The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow’s World: When it comes to climate change, there are many possible futures. At one end, things get irreversibly worse; at the opposite end, technology “solves” climate change just like any engineering problem. This book looks at that intellectual clash between environmentalists on the one side and the techno-optimists on the other by telling the history of two little-known twentieth-century scientists.

  ritholtz.com

Writer and researcher on how people organise online; wrote Working in Public, on the maintenance of open-source software, and Antimemetics.

• Our reading nowkorrents.com

  Company sponsorships, not individual ones, are where open source funding has to come from.

  open source

  On changing their mind

  I’ve seen recurring comments to the effect of “This is great, but individuals aren’t where the money’s at, it’s companies”, which is a position I’ve also previously taken.

Writer and researcher on how people organise online; wrote Working in Public, on the maintenance of open-source software, and Antimemetics.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Individual and corporate sponsorship of open source are two different products: a company buys support and visibility, a person buys a relationship.

  open source

  Their words

  With companies, open source developers are selling a product. With individuals, they’re selling themselves.

  The Twitch argument for GitHub Sponsorsnadia.xyz

Independent game developer, creator of the colony simulation RimWorld and author of Designing Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences. Previously worked on BioShock Infinite.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Razer DeathAdder

  Their words

  My monitor is an old Dell 24-incher; I use a Razer DeathAdder mouse and a Razer Black Widow mechanical keyboard.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Dell XPS-15

  Their words

  I've got a giant home-built desktop PC and a Dell XPS-15 laptop I use for development.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Unity

  Their words

  RimWorld is developed in the Unity engine - still on old version 5.6.

  usesthis.com

Co-founder of Microsoft and of the Gates Foundation. Writes Gates Notes on global health, energy and climate, and on whatever they have been reading.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Guns, Germs, and Steel

  Their words

  I still rank Guns, Germs, and Steel as one of the best things I’ve ever read.

  gatesnotes.com

German developer; founder and lead developer of Mastodon, the decentralized open-source social network.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  GIMP

  Their words

  When I need to touch vector graphics, I use Inkscape. If I need to edit raster images, I use GIMP.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  System76 Lemur

  Their words

  I have a System76 Lemur laptop which I carry around, and an Acer Predator G3-605 desktop.

  usesthis.com

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Razer Huntsman Elite

  Their words

  Peripheral-wise, I have a mechanical Razer Huntsman Elite keyboard, a Razer Mamba Elite mouse on a Razer Goliathus Chroma mousepad, and Razer Nommo Chroma loudspeakers. The lights cheer me up.

  usesthis.com

Designer and co-founder of Lux, makers of Halide, Spectre and Kino; formerly a designer at Apple.

From one piece A Spectre Retrospective – Part 2: Design 3 beliefs · lux.camera

• Our readingkorrents.com

  You know a design is great when it disappears: a superb typeface, good signage or a well-designed door handle is never noticed, only the absence of frustration.

  Their words

  When you come across an article set in a superb typeface for reading, some excellent airport signage or a well designed door handle, you don’t think about it or even notice it. If anything you might just notice being happier, or simply not frustrated. That’s how you know a design is great: it disappears.

  A Spectre Retrospective – Part 2: Designlux.camera

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Given a complicated premise, the best thing a designer can do is stick to a conventional design and let the features surprise and delight.

  Their words

  But given the already complicated premise of long exposure photography, the best possible thing we could do — and as a designer this is hard to admit — was to stick to a fairly conventional design and let the actual features surprise and delight.

  A Spectre Retrospective – Part 2: Designlux.camera

• Our readingkorrents.com

  The most important thing a designer can do to make new technology usable is to simplify, and sometimes fewer features make a better product.

  Their words

  The most important thing you can do as a designer to make great new technology usable is to simplify.

  A Spectre Retrospective – Part 2: Designlux.camera

Working on @ampcode. Writing registerspill.thorstenball.com. Once authored interpreterbook.com and compilerbook.com.

From one piece Learn more programming languages, even if you won't use them 3 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  A programming language functions as a lens that shapes how a problem is perceived when solving it.

  Their words

  Every programming language is a lens through which we can look at the problem we're trying to solve.

  thorstenball.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Each programming language embodies a distinct mental model for thinking about computation and writing programs.

  Their words

  Each language contains a different mental model, a different perspective for thinking about computation and how to write programs.

  thorstenball.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Programming languages shape how programmers think, similar to how spoken languages shape thought.

  Their words

  Languages shape the way we think*, each in their own peculiar way. That's true for programming languages as well.

  thorstenball.com

Essayist; writes Astral Codex Ten, previously Slate Star Codex.

• Dislikedrcmnd.app

  Method of Levels: How to Do Psychotherapy Without Getting in the Way

  Their words

  This book isn't just bad, it's dangerous.

  slatestarcodex.com

• Mixed onrcmnd.app

  How to Read Lacan

  Their words

  Despite being very readable, this book never really came together.

  slatestarcodex.com

• Likedrcmnd.app

  The Steerswoman

  Their words

  The Steerswoman is popular in the rationalist community, and now I see why.

  slatestarcodex.com

Software engineer who writes the blog Made of Bugs about performance, debugging and understanding computer systems. Previously worked at Anthropic on interpretability, at Stripe on Sorbet, and at Ksplice.

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  Hidden Figures

  Their words

  The book and movie only tangentially touch on Apollo itself (although it does appear!), but they make the list because they are well worth the read / watch, and they tell an important story of yet another facet of the immense collaboration that was the space program, and the incredible diversity of people and backgrounds and stories and kinds of work that went into making it all work.

  blog.nelhage.com

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon

  Their words

  This book tells the story of that decision, and of the work and the people who made that mission happen.

  blog.nelhage.com

• Likedrcmnd.app

  The Last Man on the Moon

  Their words

  This documentary was a solid telling of the story of that mission, and of the later-in-Apollo scientific goals and geological exploration that was achieved, as well as a wistful look back at the story of the last humans, to date, to set foot on the moon.

  blog.nelhage.com

Writer and researcher on how people organise online; wrote Working in Public, on the maintenance of open-source software, and Antimemetics.

From one piece Making money with licenses 4 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Free riding is not open source’s problem: the users who only download the code impose no cost on anyone.

  open source

  Their words

  Most users don’t actually impose costs back to maintainers: they download the code and never interact with the project.

  Making money with licensesnadia.xyz

• Our readingkorrents.com

  New licences are the wrong lever for paying maintainers: copyleft’s history shows terms companies ignore, and relicensing attempts get beaten back by their own communities.

  Their words

  As for my personal feelings on the matter, however, I’m skeptical that new licenses are the right approach on a systemic level, both in terms of feasibility, as well as where I think the world is going.

  Making money with licensesnadia.xyz

• Our readingkorrents.com

  A contribution is a cost to the maintainer, not a gift: it is taking part, not merely using the code, that consumes a project’s scarcest resource.

  Their words

  It’s only when users cross over to the production side (ex. report bugs, ask questions, submit patches) that they start to impose costs.

  Making money with licensesnadia.xyz