I enjoy building with AI, whether it's at my day job or with personal projects. Because it scratches the itch of the builder in me that I don't always get when I'm writing every line of code.

It means that I can step back, and think more about the problem I'm solving, the system design, and of course building faster than I would if I did it all by hand. That's definitely been something I've enjoyed at my day job, as delivering code is not a bottleneck^[1]. Now more emphasis is on your system design. Does it follow the existing standards and patterns? Can it be expanded later if the scope increases? It also gives you more time to think through edge-cases. Can the design handle them better, or can you build in the controls that ensure proper monitoring? Etc.

To some extent, it makes everyone an architect. And I think if you're abstracted away one level, where you are thinking more about how it behaves as part of a wider codebase and domain, you're less likely to make quick tradeoffs simply to deliver faster.

But there is one itch it doesn't scratch. At least not for me, and not yet.

It's the one where it's late at night, it's just you, you've got music playing on your headphones, and you're just programming. It's not always about building some big project, or working towards an idea that AI can help orchestrate and speed up.

Sure, it helps the builder that wants to build and ship products. But at least for me, writing prompts and coordinating agents isn't the same as actually getting into the code, and feeling like you're doing something.

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1. Well, actually: "Delivering code was never the bottleneck" - Go away. ↩︎

I'm in bed, I have the windows wide open, and the fan on full blast, and I'm actually starting to feel cold. I'm very glad we're finally reaching the end of this heatwave.

So I guess that's what losing the Champions League feels like then.

At least we're still Premier League Champions.

There's just under 14 hours until the UEFA Champions League Final. Let's hope Arsenal can finally bring home the trophy. 🏆

Britain is typically a cold, wet, and gray place. But whenever the sun comes out, the country seems to come alive. The pub gardens are full, people are out having picnics, kids are out playing, and people generally are more upbeat.

But I have to say, the past week or so has killed me. I don't want to get into international comparisons, or try to claim how "intense" British heat is, but I've had to deal with ~30°c (>25°c indoors) heat for about a week, and with very inadequate fans as the only solution to combat our well insulated buildings.

I'm pretty sure I find it worse than most though, I wear t-shirt and shorts in 15°c. There's not much else I can do at 30°c.

I've been trying to organically spend less time on my iPhone. For a few weeks my average daily usage dropped from over 6 hours to around 4 hours a day, but it has been creeping up again.

However, I remembered the post by my friend, Elliot, who pointed out (among many great points), that a better metric to try and reduce was pickups. I can see that in the past few weeks my pickups have gone from around 80 a day to 120 a day, with the two most common apps used after pickup being X and Instagram.

While I don't plan on stopping using these apps completely, it does feel like they're my goto solutions for any moments of free time.

So the other day, after seeing constant ads on Instagram, I decided to try to use Blank Spaces. If you don't know what it is, it's essentially a set of widgets that you can turn your iPhone into a "dumbphone".

This now means on my Home Screen, I have seven apps I can launch from the Blank Spaces widget, and four from my Docks.

Widget:

• Calendar
• Photos
• Huckleberry (App for tracking baby sleep, nappy changes, etc.)
• Claude (Random questions that come to me)
• Spotify
• NetNewsWire (RSS reader)
• Micro.blog (In my mind, a slower and more human version of a social network)

Dock:

• WhatsApp
• Messages
• Safari
• Music (Purchased music, I'm slowly building my collection)

It's not as restricted as I've seen others, and I don't have any form of notes app. But that's because I want this to be realistic.

The only contender that I can think of as a future addition is Instagram. Admittedly, I can get lost in Explore and Reels, but it's also where most friends and family are.

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In case people are interested, the wallpaper is one I took myself while on a boat ride in Guilin, China. I beleive it was the Li River.

I came across a rather interesting idea (via Intial Charge):

I added a widget to every page here that lets anyone in the world immediately send me a notification. Type a message, hit send, and it’ll pop up on my phone, watch, and computer near instantly.

Is this a good idea? No. But it’s a funny idea, and that’s all that counts these days. Scroll to the bottom of this page if you want to give it a try.

I liked the idea so much, I decided to implement it here on this blog! So at the bottom of a post (while I still think it's a good idea), you'll be able to send a message directly to my phone.

For those interested, it uses ntfy.sh to send the messages.

Fountain pens aren't new to me. I used them in school when learning how to write, and then I later used them to write multiple page essays. But for whatever reason^[1], when I left school, I didn't use one again. Until very recently, when I purchased a Lamy Safari Fountain Pen ^[2].

I chose this pen because I wanted a reasonably priced fountain pen, that I could use in my daily life at work and at home. Whether it was taking notes during a meeting, sketching out a few writing ideas, or simply to remember things.

What I thought would be a simple upgrade from a typical ballpoint pen, turned out to be a little nudge toward being more intentional. Not just with what I write, but how.

When I use a ballpoint pen, it feels like I should write a quick scrappy note, something that shouldn't live for very long. When I type on a computer or a phone, it feels fast, efficient, but it can be so efficient, that there's no thought behind any of the words.

But pair a nice pen with a little notebook^[3], and it simply feels nice to write. In addition, my natural writing speed means there are little pauses built in, which means I tend to think more as I write.

The permanence of words on paper also has an effect. Not in an extreme perfectionist way. But that if I am spending the time to write something down, I want it to have some thought behind it, honesty, and if possible I want it to be good.

At the same time, it's also a fun experience trying to write neatly again. There's a sense of writing becoming a little "craft" in itself, rather than a means to an end.

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1. I want to place a general blame on society, but who knows. ↩︎

2. Sunset Pink, Medium 0.6mm nib. ↩︎

3. Such as a little Field Notes notebook. ↩ ↩︎

I'm not someone that is good with picking favourites. But around two years ago I realised that Paramore are my favourite band of all time^[1]. And I think All We Know Is Falling is in good contention to be my favourite album.

I can listen to any song by itself, and also the full album from start to finish. And it definitely comes with enough nostalgia to make it even better.

On that note, I need to make sure I go to see Paramore when they next perform in Europe. I saw them live for the first time in the O2 Arena in 2023, and it was by far the best gig I've ever been to in my life. I don't know why I waited so long.

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1. I have to also mention Linkin Park and Oasis. ↩︎

I forget how key iTunes was to my music listening experience. The whole experience of buying music, whether physical or digital, and then managing your own music library felt great. And then having all the cover art together felt like a little art collection.

Maybe it's the perspective of streaming compared to a curated library of your own music, but I don't get the same feeling with the current Music app.

Looking back at the various iterations of iTunes, I get mixed feelings. Some of the UI components used (even in later versions) would be classed as ugly in modern times, with scroll bars that didn't disappear, repetitive list views, harsh button borders, etc. But I remember it felt great to use.

One of my favourite parts of the iTunes UI over the years was the expanded album view in iTunes 11. You had the artwork on one side, and the colours from it were used to present the tracklist.

Now looking at the current Music app on Mac, it just looks bland in comparison. It doesn't feel like it was made by the same company.