Dan Beglin

Javascript, Node, Serverless, Cloud Ops. Home Automation, Home Automation, Home Automation! Lead Developer

[Dan Beglin @SmartHomeDan]

I think Serebii highlights the actual difference between a good UX and a on trend UX. The website doesnt look like Glass UI and its vibe is right out of 2000. Yet its actually so easy to find the right information. I keep coming back after 20 years and its because it just works

[Joe Merrick @JoeMerrick]

I really appreciate all of your support.

Obviously, Serebii isn't a looker and I know that.

Fun fact. in 2019 I did literally recode the entire website to look exactly the same but with much more modern technologies...so it's an intentional thing.

[Dan Beglin @SmartHomeDan]

@manthanguptaa I use it but only for personal projects due to enterprise constraints.

I like it. It keeps me much more connected to the actual code than “overnight” agents do which I like. After using claude code and this, Ive found i dont feel as cognitively declined with antigravity

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

As evidenced by the unbridled promotion and implementation of technology at the expense of human dignity, we are truly experiencing an eclipse of the sense of what it means to be human. It is imperative to recover an understanding of the true meaning and grandeur of humanity as intended by God. It is in this sense that the challenge we currently face is not technological, but anthropological, and it is my hope that the Encyclical Letter to be published within a few days will contribute to answering this challenge.

[Mat Velloso @matvelloso]

Years ago a junior dev in my team built a web service that would take a full SQL as the input, and run it straight into the database. He argued this would make it the most flexible, simple approach and any use case would just work.

We had to patiently explain all the things that could go horribly wrong with that.

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

Mark Zuckerberg engineered a custom hardware device for his wife in 2019. No clock face. One faint light. A one-hour window.

Priscilla had a specific problem. She'd wake up in the middle of the night, check her phone for the time, and the number itself spiked her anxiety. 4am meant worry about the kids waking soon. 5:30 meant calculating whether to just get up. The information was the trigger.

Most engineers approach "can't sleep" by adding things to the bedroom. A meditation app. A Hatch alarm. A weighted blanket. A sleep coach.

Mark removed the variable that was running the wake-up loop.

The Sleep Box sits on Priscilla's nightstand and shows nothing for 23 hours a day. Between 6am and 7am it emits a single faint light. Faint enough not to wake her if she's still asleep. Visible enough that if she's already up, she knows it's okay to start the day. The rest of the night, dark. No clock. No time display. If she wakes at 3am she has no data to push her cortisol up with, so she goes back to sleep.

He wrote the firmware and built the enclosure himself. No team, no procurement, no Meta resources. He posted the result on Instagram and said it worked better than he expected.

The design move most CEOs would never run is the personal one. The instinct is to outsource a family problem to a specialist. A sleep coach. A doctor. A consumer electronics startup with a Series B and a marketing budget.

Mark intervened at a specific link in the chain. Time data hitting Priscilla's brain at 3am was what broke sleep. The phone got moved off the nightstand and replaced with a box that physically cannot deliver that data.

The box has no clock. That's the entire product.

[Tanning Salon Don @TheSalonDon]

Get in as many group chats as you can at a young age

As you get older, those are the only friends you have left

Friends outside of group chats will completely fall off

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

The fastest way to expose whether a CEO actually uses their own product: make them do the most basic task on camera.

Outlook has over 400 million active users. Microsoft’s productivity segment generated $77.8 billion last year. And the official Microsoft support page for “Outlook search not working” tells users to open the Windows Registry Editor and manually create DWORD values.

That’s the fix. For a product used by almost every Fortune 500 company on Earth. Edit your registry.

The reason Outlook search has been broken for years is the same reason it will stay broken: Microsoft sells to IT procurement, not to the person trying to find last Tuesday’s email. The buyer and the user are completely different people. The CIO signs a 3-year enterprise agreement based on security compliance, Azure integration, and per-seat bundling. Nobody in that purchasing decision opens Outlook and types “Q3 budget” into the search bar to see what happens.

This is why Gmail search works and Outlook search doesn’t. Google built for the end user first and sold enterprise later. Microsoft built for the enterprise buyer first and shipped whatever search users would tolerate.

345 million paid seats. The switching cost is so high that Microsoft could ship Outlook with no search at all and most companies would renew anyway.

Every CEO of an enterprise software company knows this. The product doesn’t need to be good. It needs to be locked in.

[Dan Beglin @SmartHomeDan]

@AdiB73938685 @implausibleblog Hang on, either you can write it off now, or write it off in 20 years when its accrued 7% interest a year? Either way the tax payer is getting hit but if we sort it now its cheaper

[Dan Beglin @SmartHomeDan]

Today I solved my first cryptic crossword clue and it made me happy

[cooper @marnieapologist]

my body does not know the difference between a mistake at work and being hunted for sport

[Simons @Simon_Ingari]

“Can I bring my baby to the interview?”

The message came in at 11 PM:

“Hi, I have an interview with you tomorrow at 2 PM. My childcare fell through. Can I bring my 8-month-old? I understand if you need to reschedule.”

Old me would have rescheduled.
Unprofessional. Distraction. Red flag.

New me replied:
“Absolutely. See you tomorrow.”

She showed up with her baby on her hip.
She apologized three times before even sitting down.

Ten minutes in, the baby started crying.
She tried to soothe him while answering questions.
She apologized again.

I stopped the interview and said:

“Hey. You’re managing a fussy baby, answering complex questions, and staying calm under pressure. That’s literally the job. Handling chaos while staying professional. You’re already proving you can do it.”

Her eyes filled with tears.

We hired her.

She’s been with us for a year now.
The most reliable team member we have.

Why?

Because when you’re used to handling a screaming infant at 3 AM and still showing up to work the next day, workplace stress feels like nothing.

Working parents, especially mothers, are some of the most organized, efficient, and resilient people you’ll ever hire.

Yet we lose them because our hiring processes are built for people with zero caregiving responsibilities.

If your interview process can’t accommodate a parent facing a childcare issue, you’re not filtering for professionalism.

You’re filtering for privilege.

[james hawkins @james406]

it's messed up that there a million songs about love but zero about hopping on a quick call with key stakeholders

[Dan Beglin @SmartHomeDan]

We are going to have to fundamentally redesign our APIs for the world of Agentic AI to work.

Most data apis dont provide any context, because we build for humans that dont need it to build UIs and Integrations.

[Dan Beglin @SmartHomeDan]

Some of my closest friends who I speak to daily are ex-colleagues from years ago. There is absolutely nothing wrong with investing in the relationships you have now in your workplace. You'll enjoy your job more and you might find some life long friendships.

Build Relationships.

[Xeer @Xeer]

reminder: once you leave a job, you really do not see or speak with any of those people ever again. doesn’t matter if you shared meals or late nights with them every other week prior.

[Dan Beglin @SmartHomeDan]

Heres the link to the study if you are interested: https://t.co/kCrSjGUAl6

[Dan Beglin @SmartHomeDan]

I used to think the biggest reason team members or employees didnt speak up was because of fear.

I assumed the fear of looking bad, getting it wrong, or upsetting someone important was what held teams back from really voicing their thoughts and finding improvements.

Nope!

[Dan Beglin @SmartHomeDan]

One of my goals for 2026 is to really lean into this. I want to make sure our Team Retro items are valued more, and we leave Q1 with some clear wins that my team have driven, not me.