My latest newsletter is filled to the brim with interesting stuff, but I know you don't have time to wade through that wall of text (love a good mixed metaphor!), so here's a selection as a fediverse thread.
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I've been learning some Janet! Janet is a LISP inspired by Clojure, but with fast native builds, and direct C interop.
I'm using Janet is to create a blue-green deployment tool, codenamed Cyan. Zero-downtime deploys, integrating with systemd machinery, deploying directly from a git repository.
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I'm reading Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity, by Daron Acemoğlu, and Simon Johnson. Acemoğlu wrote Why Nations Fail, and together with James Robinson the three of them are also recipients of the 2024 Nobel Price of Economics.
The book is a response to the techno-optimistic stance that technological progress is inherently good. They show that throughout history, people only benefit from "progress" when specific political and social countervailing forces are present.
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I'm reading Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity, by Daron Acemoğlu, and Simon Johnson. Acemoğlu wrote Why Nations Fail, and together with James Robinson the three of them are also recipients of the 2024 Nobel Price of Economics.
The book is a response to the techno-optimistic stance that technological progress is inherently good. They show that throughout history, people only benefit from "progress" when specific political and social countervailing forces are present.
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I've also been reading Tools for Conviviality (1973) by Ivan Illich. This is not an easy read. Illich was writing at the time of the first oil shock, a time when the economic optimism of the postwar period finally took a nosedive. He is anti-institutionalist to the extreme, rejecting even modern medicine and the school system in a way that is hard to appreciate in 2026. That said, a lot of what he writes about "tools" could be directly applied to AI, so I'm curious to work my way through this one.
Some small quotes:
Certain tools are destructive no matter who owns them ... Destructive tools must inevitably increase regimentation, dependence, exploitation, or impotence
And:
The attempt to overwhelm present problems by the production of more science is the ultimate attempt to solve a crisis by escalation
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I've also been reading Tools for Conviviality (1973) by Ivan Illich. This is not an easy read. Illich was writing at the time of the first oil shock, a time when the economic optimism of the postwar period finally took a nosedive. He is anti-institutionalist to the extreme, rejecting even modern medicine and the school system in a way that is hard to appreciate in 2026. That said, a lot of what he writes about "tools" could be directly applied to AI, so I'm curious to work my way through this one.
Some small quotes:
Certain tools are destructive no matter who owns them ... Destructive tools must inevitably increase regimentation, dependence, exploitation, or impotence
And:
The attempt to overwhelm present problems by the production of more science is the ultimate attempt to solve a crisis by escalation
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Each newsletter I do a poll, just as a fun way to get some reaction from the readers. But just this time I'll let you Fedi denizens add your two cents as well!
We're asking: How is your relationship with AI coding tools?
Do you choose to use them, or have to use them, and do you enjoy using them, or not?
https://pollariser.eu/poll/04fa283a-fed9-4b41-a3fe-4e6a3056e6ac
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Each newsletter I do a poll, just as a fun way to get some reaction from the readers. But just this time I'll let you Fedi denizens add your two cents as well!
We're asking: How is your relationship with AI coding tools?
Do you choose to use them, or have to use them, and do you enjoy using them, or not?
https://pollariser.eu/poll/04fa283a-fed9-4b41-a3fe-4e6a3056e6ac
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I finally shipped the new @heartconf site: https://2027.heartconf.eu/
Got to really flex my design and CSS muscles on this one!
I wanted to go really bold! Saturated colors, thick lines, bold type. Both to stay far away from the aesthetic of AI companies and slopcoded UIs, and also because these are contentious times, it's not the time to be timid. In 2019 our biggest concern was how to be inclusive towards underrepresented groups. That still matters, but now we're also grappling with how to resist our entire industry being remade by a fascist project.
It was important to me to have a site and branding up that really captures the vibe of what I'm going for, before really getting into the weeds of contacting sponsors, speakers, etc. Now the real work can begin.
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I finally shipped the new @heartconf site: https://2027.heartconf.eu/
Got to really flex my design and CSS muscles on this one!
I wanted to go really bold! Saturated colors, thick lines, bold type. Both to stay far away from the aesthetic of AI companies and slopcoded UIs, and also because these are contentious times, it's not the time to be timid. In 2019 our biggest concern was how to be inclusive towards underrepresented groups. That still matters, but now we're also grappling with how to resist our entire industry being remade by a fascist project.
It was important to me to have a site and branding up that really captures the vibe of what I'm going for, before really getting into the weeds of contacting sponsors, speakers, etc. Now the real work can begin.
>>
The EU wants to finally do something about those obnoxious cookie banners. They were introduced by the advertising industry, as a form of malicious compliance. Of course the ad industry is lobbying hard to keep the status quo. Go write to your EU MPs and tell them how you feel about this!
https://killthecookiebanner.eu/
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The EU wants to finally do something about those obnoxious cookie banners. They were introduced by the advertising industry, as a form of malicious compliance. Of course the ad industry is lobbying hard to keep the status quo. Go write to your EU MPs and tell them how you feel about this!
https://killthecookiebanner.eu/
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On to the bookmarks!
A three-part series by Anil Dash, about how Venture Capital has changed, becoming an ideological tool, and becoming detached from any rational signals like actual revenue.
- VC isn’t VC anymore — understanding the rise of Cancer Capital
- Cancer Capital: VC didn’t use to work like this
- Cancer Capital: It sucks for founders, too!
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On to the bookmarks!
A three-part series by Anil Dash, about how Venture Capital has changed, becoming an ideological tool, and becoming detached from any rational signals like actual revenue.
- VC isn’t VC anymore — understanding the rise of Cancer Capital
- Cancer Capital: VC didn’t use to work like this
- Cancer Capital: It sucks for founders, too!
>>
Spain has been at the vanguard among its EU peers on several progressive policy areas. It's also a popular destination for new data centers, due to the availability of energy (Spain is already a renewables powerhouse), and land. Still, we've seen in other places that a data center boom will quickly absorb whatever renewables are available, leading to phased out fossil fuel capacity being brought back online, or the building of new fossil fuel power plants. This proposed legislation doesn't just mandate 80% renewables on average, but every hour, which is much higher bar, and effectively shifts the responsibility for building out sufficient capacity to the data center operators themselves. I'll be watching this with interest, hopefully this can become a template for other countries or the EU as a whole as well.
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Spain has been at the vanguard among its EU peers on several progressive policy areas. It's also a popular destination for new data centers, due to the availability of energy (Spain is already a renewables powerhouse), and land. Still, we've seen in other places that a data center boom will quickly absorb whatever renewables are available, leading to phased out fossil fuel capacity being brought back online, or the building of new fossil fuel power plants. This proposed legislation doesn't just mandate 80% renewables on average, but every hour, which is much higher bar, and effectively shifts the responsibility for building out sufficient capacity to the data center operators themselves. I'll be watching this with interest, hopefully this can become a template for other countries or the EU as a whole as well.
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Heidegger vs. AI!
AI Criticism, and especially criticism of AI coding tools, is often countered with the phrase "it's just a tool". Turns out it's not that simple. Tools shape individuals, society, our worldview, and we should examine them carefully and critically. This one caused quite the discussion when I shared it on Clojure's Slack community.
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Heidegger vs. AI!
AI Criticism, and especially criticism of AI coding tools, is often countered with the phrase "it's just a tool". Turns out it's not that simple. Tools shape individuals, society, our worldview, and we should examine them carefully and critically. This one caused quite the discussion when I shared it on Clojure's Slack community.
>>
Picture!
Last weekend I was volunteering at Cirque Gitan, a circus and music festival organised every two years in the nearby town of Diest. It's a special place, 100% grass roots. No corporate sponsors whatsoever.
FIN
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I've been learning some Janet! Janet is a LISP inspired by Clojure, but with fast native builds, and direct C interop.
I'm using Janet is to create a blue-green deployment tool, codenamed Cyan. Zero-downtime deploys, integrating with systemd machinery, deploying directly from a git repository.
>>
@plexus Super cool. Janet's been on my list of things to check out for a while.
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I've been learning some Janet! Janet is a LISP inspired by Clojure, but with fast native builds, and direct C interop.
I'm using Janet is to create a blue-green deployment tool, codenamed Cyan. Zero-downtime deploys, integrating with systemd machinery, deploying directly from a git repository.
>>
@plexus "God damn it, Janet!"? (in memory of Tim Curry and not wishing to upset anyone's god.)
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Picture!
Last weekend I was volunteering at Cirque Gitan, a circus and music festival organised every two years in the nearby town of Diest. It's a special place, 100% grass roots. No corporate sponsors whatsoever.
FIN
@plexus this looks so lovely
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J jwcph@helvede.net shared this topic
