1. adamgordonbell Dec 2, 2025

   Matt is amazing. After checking out his compiler optimizations, maybe check out the recent interview I did with him.

       What I’ve come to believe is this: you should work at a level of abstraction you’re comfortable with, but you should also understand the layer beneath it.
   
       If you’re a C programmer, you should have some idea of how the C runtime works, and how it interacts with the operating system. You don’t need every detail, but you need enough to know what’s going on when something breaks. Because one day printf won’t work, and if the layer below is a total mystery, you won’t even know where to start looking.
   
       So: know one layer well, have working knowledge of the layer under it, and, most importantly, be aware of the shape of the layer below that.
   

   https://corecursive.com/godbolt-rule-matt-godbolt/

   Also this article in acmqueue by Matt is not new at all, but super great introduction to these types of optimizations.

   https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3372264

2. adamgordonbell Nov 29, 2025

   I did find beads helpful for some of this multi-context window tasks. It sounds a little like there is some convergence between what they are suggesting and how it give you light weight sub tasks that survive a /clear.
3. adamgordonbell Nov 28, 2025

   I've found it pretty useful as well. It doesn't compete with gh issues as much as it competes with markdown specs.

   It's helpful for getting Claude code to work with tasks that will span multiple context windows.

4. adamgordonbell Oct 19, 2025

   My 2 cents on BQN: I am certainly a novice with array languages, but I know they have conceptual power.

       Looking for a modern, powerful language centered on Ken Iverson's array programming paradigm
   
       BQN aims to remove irregular and burdensome aspects of the APL tradition, and put the great ideas on a firmer footing.
   

   And BQN seems like the closest thing to a 'modern' array language. Modern, meaning, looking like my biased version of what language should look like.

   Open source, has namespaces, and you can define your own operators and so on.

   Heard of it from conor hoekstra

5. 8 points Sep 16, 2025

   Neo, Your Newest Platform Engineer

   2 comments adamgordonbell pulumi.com
6. adamgordonbell Sep 2, 2025

   Looks cool.

   But isn't Hugo or Jekyll the easy way to turn markdown into a website?

   Jekyll was literally made by github to have a simple way to turn a markdown page into a github pages site. Wasn't it?

   Just put an index.md in the root of a empty repo and flip the right flags in Github and have a static site.

7. adamgordonbell Sep 2, 2025

   > In the early days of FedEx, Smith had to go to great lengths to keep the company afloat. In one instance, after a crucial business loan was denied, he took the company's last $5,000 to Las Vegas and won $27,000 gambling on blackjack to cover the company's $24,000 fuel bill.

   Some who take on unreasonable risk will be among the most successful people alive. Most will lose eventually, long before you hear about them if they keep too many taking crazy risks.

   Who is a great genius, and is who is just winning at "The Martingale entrepreneurial strategy"?

8. adamgordonbell Aug 20, 2025

   What makes prompts like 'you are a book researcher' an agent?

   Isn't this just some loops and joining with some changes in prompts?

   Can't you write this in a for loop calling the open AI API directly?

9. adamgordonbell Aug 19, 2025

   > simultaneously extremely similar to and extremely different

   yeah, I don't understand the change tbh.

   It's said Eric Heisserer spent years and years on the screenplay so I'm assuming he couldn't sell the original version. But it's a bit like making fight club and removing the big reveal. It ends up feeling the same, but not having the same impact and meaning almost the opposite.

10. adamgordonbell Aug 17, 2025

    Also this:

    > The best reason to take multiple life extension supplements is to hedge our bets, because we really don’t know which of them are effective in humans.

    And earlier:

    > Personally, I take large doses of rapamycin 2 days a week, 8 weeks per year. For personalized recommendations, you can consult your favorite life extension doc.

11. adamgordonbell Aug 15, 2025

    Not doubting all this, but the possum thing is interesting.

    They were in southern ontario in my youth in essex county ( late 80s ). And google says they were reports as far back as the 60s of scattered sightings.

12. adamgordonbell Aug 14, 2025

    You seem to be suggesting he's writing from a place of not knowing about the benefits of one-on-one learning and the "two sigma problem" when this is something he frequently writes about.
13. adamgordonbell Aug 14, 2025

    My understanding is Math Academy is like combining anki with direct instruction.

    It's a business premised on teaching people things faster by understanding research around learning.

    If the math it teaches is the math you need or want to learn, its likely an efficient way to learn it.

    So, you are paying for efficiency. Like using Pimsleur rather than spending a year in France.

14. adamgordonbell Aug 13, 2025

    I can agree about the odd supply management rules.
15. adamgordonbell Aug 12, 2025

    You think the tariffs will hurt people you don't like in your country ( those from Ontario and Quebec) more than yourself so you are in favor of them?

    Patriotic of you.

16. adamgordonbell Aug 7, 2025

    People use it in much smaller dosages then it's usually prescribed to apparently beneficial effect.

    I believe its also in the water supply in certain places, so if it works for dementia there are natural experiments already running on this.

    https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/low-dose-lithium-a-new...

17. adamgordonbell Aug 7, 2025

    Wow, small world, I just made a podcast episode about the dangers of turning your brain off when using Agentic coding solution and referenced the whispering earring as my metaphor.

    I feel like if you use the agentic tools to become more ambitious the you'll probably be fine. But if you just work at a feature factory where you crank out things as fast as you can AI coding is going to eat your brain.

    Link: https://corecursive.com/red-queen-coding/#the-whispering-ear...

18. adamgordonbell Aug 1, 2025

    I recall him mentioning ( thought maybe it didn't make the cut ) that he would be supporting sqlite into his 90s.

    That he was contractually obligated to do so, and that he kept that in mind, probably effects his attitude towards shipping certain things.

19. adamgordonbell Jul 30, 2025

    Ok, now what is the solution for hornets?
20. adamgordonbell Jul 25, 2025

    So with Kiro, you iterate on a spec and a task list as the key activity?

    It sounds like a very PM type approach to coding.

    Does that mean it fits PM types more than IC dev types?

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