I’ve worked in the tech industry for close to two decades at this point. I’ve seen how difficult it is to build quality products, but I’ve also seen that it can be done. It just feels like no one gives a shit anymore, beyond a handful of independent devs and small shops. It’s wild.
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Simplify
I was messing about with some images on a website recently and while I was happy enough with the arrangement on large screens, I thought it would be better to have the images in a kind of carousel on smaller screens—a swipable gallery.
My old brain immediately thought this ...
Coattails
When I talk about large language models, I make sure to call them large language models, not “AI”. I know it’s a lost battle, but the terminology matters to me.
The term “AI” can encompass everything from a series of if/else statements right up to Skynet and HAL 9000. I’ve ...
A cartoonist’s review of AI art - The Oatmeal
Stick with this. It’s worth it.
Life Is More Than an Engineering Problem | Los Angeles Review of Books
lareviewofbooks.org/article/life-is-more-than-an-engineering-problem/
A great interview with Ted Chiang:
Predicting the most likely next word is different from having correct information about the world, which is why LLMs are not a reliable way to get the answers to questions, and I don’t think there is good evidence to suggest that they w...
Decontrolled
I was supposed to be in Cork over the weekend.
Not only was it high time I paid my mother a visit, but the Cork Folk Festival was happening too. So I booked some relatively cheap plane tickets for myself and Jessica back in August and noted down the days in my calendar.
We...
Reading The End of the World is a Cul de Sac by Louise Kennedy.
Reading The End of the World is a Cul de Sac by Louise Kennedy.
Not going to Cork after all, thanks to Storm Amy. Thanks, Amy. Thamy.
Not going to Cork after all, thanks to Storm Amy.
Thanks, Amy.
Thamy.
Going to Cork. brb
Going to Cork. brb
Decentralizing quality || Matt Ström-Awn, designer-leader
I’ve personally struggled to implement a decentralized approach to quality in many of my teams. I believe in it from an academic standpoint, but in practice it works against the grain of every traditional management structure. Managers want ‘one neck to wring’ when things go wrong. Decentralized quality makes that impossible. So I’ve compromised, centralized, become the bottleneck I know slows things down. It’s easier to defend in meetings. But when I’ve managed to decentralize quality — most memorably when I was running a small agency and could write the org chart myself — I’ve been able to do some of the best work of my career.
Hacker Laws
I’m fascinated by eponymous laws, and here’s a whole bunch of them gathered together, including a few I hadn’t heard of (mostly from the world of software).
Wednesday session
Wednesday session
Summer’s end
It’s October. Autumn is wrapping itself around us, squeezing the leaves from the trees. Summer has slipped away, though it gave us a parting gift of a few pleasant days this week to sit outside at lunchtime.
I’ve got a bit of a ritual now for the end of September. I go to S...
How to create a typographic hierarchy – Pangram Pangram Foundry
- Start with the text
- Use size intentionally
- Contrast weights and styles
- Play with spacing
- Use colour, but don’t rely on it
- Limit your font choices (but choose well and wisely)
- Repeat, repeat, repeat
- Test your system
Tim Berners-Lee Invented the World Wide Web. Now He Wants to Save It | The New Yorker
A profile of Tim and the World World Web.
Extremely offline: what happened when a Pacific island was cut off from the internet | Tonga | The Guardian
theguardian.com/news/2025/sep/30/tonga-pacific-island-internet-underwater-cables-volcanic-eruption
A fascinating look at the importance of undersea cables, taken from a new book called The Web Beneath the Waves.
Netflix’s House Of Guinness is schlocky trash but it’s schlocky trash with Irish subtitles available, so I’m thoroughly enjoying watching/reading it.
Netflix’s House Of Guinness is schlocky trash but it’s schlocky trash with Irish subtitles available, so I’m thoroughly enjoying watching/reading it.
22 – 26 September 2025 – Walknotes
God, I love the way that Denise writes:
On the train there’s an ad for Adobe Express: “Commercially safe AI. Trusted results”. The ad shows a photo slotting in to a design. Commercially safe for everyone but photographers and designers. I couldn’t get a seat facing forwards, so I head backwards into the future like some half-arsed AI metaphor.
Monday session
Monday session
Clouds looming towards Brighton.
Clouds looming towards Brighton.
What You Need to Know about Modern CSS (2025 Edition) – Frontend Masters Blog
frontendmasters.com/blog/what-you-need-to-know-about-modern-css-2025-edition/
Here’s a comprehensive round-up of new CSS that you can use right now—you can expect to see some of this in action at Web Day Out!
Thursday session
Thursday session
Earth
While I’ve been listening to Hounds Of Love, I’ve also been reading Orbital by Samantha Harvey.
Here’s a passage from an early chapter as the crew of the International Space Station watch a typhoon forming:
How wired and wakeful the earth seems suddenly. It’s not one of...
gilest.org: A chat with 19-year-old me
I love this conversation.
Hounds Of Love
The album Hounds Of Love by Kate Bush turned 40 years old this month. It has really stood the test of time. It still sounds like nothing else.
It’s kind of two albums in one.
There’s the A side with all those perfect pop songs—Running Up That Hill, Hounds Of Love, Cloudbus...
A tiny bit-o-CSS for Stable Scrollbar Gutters—zachleat.com
I’ve added this handy little bit of CSS to my starting styles.
Against the protection of stocking frames. — Ethan Marcotte
I don’t think it’s controversial to suggest that LLMs haven’t measured up to any of the lofty promises made by their vendors. But in more concrete terms, consumers dislike “AI” when it shows up in products, and it makes them actively mistrust the brands that employ it. In other words, we’re some three years into the hype cycle, and LLMs haven’t met any markers of success we’d apply to, well, literally any other technology.
Wednesday session
Wednesday session
Sponsor Web Day Out
If you work at a clever company, then you should let them know about sponsoring Web Day Out.
All the details are in this PDF sponsorship pack. Basically there are three (and only three) spots available, at three different levels of sponsorship.
One of the best things about the venue for Web Day Out is that always having an excellent auditorium, the Studio Theatre has a really nice space for the breaks. It would be the perfect spot to set up a stand and chat with all the smart attendees.
All the attendees will, by definition, be smart because they got tickets for Web Day Out—a steal at just £225+VAT.
Had cocido for lunch in Madrid yesterday and I’m still full today.
Had cocido for lunch in Madrid yesterday and I’m still full today.