This is a smart take - there’s a way to use AI to turbocharge your growth, and a way to use it so you never learn anything.

I’ve also seen “problem decomposition” remain a huge part of the job and one not really accelerated by AI.

Disappeared to a Foreign Prison The Trump Administration is deporting people to countries they have no ties to, where many are being detained indefinitely or forcibly returned to the places they fled. Sarah Stillman reports.

Some strong (and very grim!) reporting on this from the New Yorker in November: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

"Absent LLMs, it is presumed that of the reader and the writer, it is the writer that has undertaken the greater intellectual exertion."

This is a pithy explanation of why I dislike LLM "slop"

The engineer–manager pendulum is breaking The hybrid era of engineering leadership is here, and the traditional IC/manager model is no longer suitable.

The engineer-manager pendulum model no longer accurately reflects how engineering leadership operates.

Most of us aren’t just an IC or a manager. Technology has forced us to live somewhere in the middle.

I wrote about what this actually looks like now:

www.modernleader.is/p/pendulum-r...

A red poodle sits next to large boulders, with trees in the background. He’s wearing an orange collar and looks extremely tired.

Monty says hello

And just for clarification, "learn to write well" doesn't mean "learn to write with big words and complex grammar"

It means: learn to...

-articulate an argument and support it with sound evidence and logical reasoning

-organize your writing so the reader can easily understand complex ideas

Vibe code is legacy code Updates and articles from the Val Town team

This resonates: blog.val.town/vibe-code

We spent two months talking with RC alums and thinking deeply about how LLMs are changing programming and learning.

Here’s what we learned, and how we're currently thinking about AI at RC: t.co/ddFj486ch8

the danger baby

I heard someone from a large company (that I generally respect!) say “code is not the bottleneck; our baroque approvals process is the bottleneck” and that I can believe

When people say “code is not the bottleneck” I think they must have a very narrow definition of what constitutes coding. Sure, if you pull all the thinking out and do it up front, then maybe “code” is fast

How My Reporting on the Columbia Protests Led to My Deportation As an Australian who wrote about the demonstrations while on campus, I gave my phone a superficial clean before flying to the U.S. I underestimated what I was up against.

This is shocking. Pure totalitarianism from DHS, and also blatantly unconstitutional.

www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

The End of Children Birth rates are crashing around the world. Should we be worried?

I thought the same thing, and there absolutely is a whole lot of racism in the framing as seen today, but the global trend makes it more complicated than I had thought. This article was really interesting www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Survival of the Richest Some of the wealthiest people in America—in Silicon Valley, New York, and beyond—are getting ready for the crackup of civilization.

Darth, this article was on display at the doctor’s office when my spouse got eye surgery: www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...

I truly wish democrats would realize this

“how many politicians have you seen doing photo ops in nurse scrubs?”

Holy crap this article

One thing Democratic leadership could do right now is to name an alternate HHS secretary--someone to provide ongoing public updates and health information. And do it for other departments too. Start showing voters what a Democratic government would look like--press conferences, speeches, all of it.

Once and Future Liberal Institutionalism When conservatives want to burn down the system.

I keep thinking about this www.liberalcurrents.com/once-and-fut...

New York versus the Bay in a nutshell

The days are still getting shorter but the earliest sunset is already behind us, so we’ve got that going at least

I definitely feel this - seems like there’s so much energy towards deciding exactly what you want when in fact very little of the experience is actually under your control.

Outrageously talented crew this season