sawyer

sawyer

@sawyer-p.me

it from bit https://sawyer-p.me

119 followers213 following725 posts

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sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

2026 is the year to get silly with it. The perfect time to activate Goofy Mode. Perfect time to buy a kazoo and and a yo yo. I’m showing up to work in a propeller hat folks.

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

I love formal verification + fuzzing techniques but am wary that we're quickly speedrunning towards a future where people are generating enormous incomprehensible correctness proofs about their programs, but are none-the-wiser on what properties have actually been proven.

Joe Fabisevich@mergesort.me

I don't say this lightly: this approach is clearly the future of software development. I have a blog post brewing that touches on the subject, but fuzz testing and formal verification at scale will make all software an order of magnitude better, safer, and more reliable.

anthropic.comLLMs are making formal software verification feasible at a much larger scaleClaude formally proved security properties in the compiled code of 123 open-source libraries. Along the way, it found bugs that had eluded detection for years.
sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

I think we're quickly discovering with the discourse on AI in programming + math that there's immense value still in concretely understanding what your program is doing. How can we know what we should build next if we don't understand what we built before?

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

A core problem when trying to do programming with LLMs is ensuring that there is mutual understanding on the specification. That means the human needs to be able to read and validate whatever spec is driving the behavior of the program. If they can't, they do not know what the program does.

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

Ah it's a good day when I'm learning about how to get RCE on php websites and how to get my mac's curl program to trust fabricated TLS certificates. It's like seeing a rainbow, a wave of nostalgia. The internet is just as safe as 1995 again.

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

At work am increasingly needing to think in terms of billions and trillions, which is uh 😳

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

Emacs with the ECA package is pretty amazing. Have not used emacs in a while and forgot just how well designed it is. How has every single piece of software been so CONSISTENTLY wrong about how to make a productive text based computer interface.

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

People be talking about making new terminal multiplexers when all we really need is a super performant emacs you can't accidentally lock up by writing stupid elisp.

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

Building on this, programming the actual system architecture by hand I kind of feel is just as (if not way more) efficient than looping on design docs with LLMs. Really really good architecture lets you confidently delegate work to LLMs. The fundamental patterns and system design are so important.

sawyer@sawyer-p.me

Some weird and interesting things from this week: 1. Wrote some code by hand today, did not feel weird or uncomfortable at all. Expected some atrophy, but noticed none. 2. Shipping a major new product at work heavily built with AI. Some issues but far more on the rails than expected.

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

Telling an LLM “go solve this constrained problem with these tools this is how you know you’ve done it right” is actually a pretty great experience these days.

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

You can do that way more effectively if you’ve modularized and decoupled your system. You can also do that way more effectively if you hand wrote at least all the types and function stubs!

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

Some weird and interesting things from this week: 1. Wrote some code by hand today, did not feel weird or uncomfortable at all. Expected some atrophy, but noticed none. 2. Shipping a major new product at work heavily built with AI. Some issues but far more on the rails than expected.

sawyer reposted

tweety fish oh wow like a chimera or something spoooky
@sifu.tweety.fish

there is nothing whatsoever inherent to data centers or the kind of computation necessary for LLMs that means they have to be polluting; they're a great option for green energy for various reasons and can be closed loop with non-potable water etc. [ CUT TO: PRESENT MOMENT ] ah well nevertheless

This post is unavailable.
sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

Damn literally just set up my entire nix system around 1Password… it’s honestly crazy that a fascist Linux rice has corporate sponsors. Not even really a distro!

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

Reading the classics > We should recognize that already now programming is much more an intellectual challenge: the art of programming is the art of organizing complexity, of mastering multitude and avoiding its bastard chaos as effectively as possible. Notes on Structured Programming, 1969

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

Sorry to say but Cortez the Killer may be one of Neil’s worst songs. Not because he’s criticizing Cortez but it gets the history really wrong and generally doesn’t make any fucking sense.

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

Learning sailing makes me look at wonderful gifs like this and think shit like sail is luffing, clearly on a broad reach, link needs to sheet in to catch wind coming starboard, boat will start heeling port side

Johan Peitz - Icy Tower is coming soon!@johanpeitz.com

Always found the sailing in Wind Waker an extremely soothing experience. Just cruising the ocean with no goal. I tried to recreate this in #pico8. Dragon Roost Island next! #pixelart #lowpoly #3d

sawyer reposted

philpax
@philpax.me

the append-only log is the god data structure. from the append-only log, all things come. praise be upon it

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

It’s unreal how amazing the California coast is. Also unreal how much amazing preservation Californians do to keep the ecosystems happy and healthy.

Monterey Bay Aquarium@montereybayaquarium.org

🌊 Nearly 90 California lawmakers have sent a clear message: No new offshore drilling and continued strong protection for California’s iconic coast! 🧵

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

I absolutely love her for this. I absolutely want a politician who LOATHES holidays. Finally some representation in my democracy.

Cameron 🇺🇸🗽🦅@cameroncorduroy.bsky.social

you know i'm starting to think she just hates holidays for their own sake, not even as a woke thing

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

Fantasizing about a TV that’s literally just a monitor, the remote has a power button and three scroll wheels. One to select video input, one to change volume and one to change brightness.

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

Reading comments on posts like these reminds me that 99.9% of users on bluesky have zero clue that bluesky's architecture is radically different from every other social media platform. They literally just think it's x dot com for liberals.

The Verge@theverge.com

Bluesky's new CEO Toni Schneider on the platform's reputation for being a liberal bubble: "Yes, we definitely want that to change. It is already changing. It certainly wasn’t designed to attract one specific group of people."

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

You literally have the freedom, right now, on bluesky to curate your own feed, post your own posts, interact in threads etc. nearly completely independent of bluesky's computers.

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

Perks of living in California: - Mendocino Farms - ... Having trouble remembering others. I think I'm just hungry.

sawyer
@sawyer-p.me

Saw an interview with Mamdani where he mentioned he believes society should provide “freedom from want” as a fundamental freedom. That’s… really beautiful.