Sam Willis

Building Realtime @neondatabase & @databricks.
Prev co-founder @ElectricSQL (acquired by Databricks).
Started co-creator of @tan_stack DB.

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

My overriding thought going into 2026:
Problems you thought were out of reach no longer are.
Pick a problem 100x harder than you thought possible to tackle alone, and run with it.
Start now. AI will catch up and make it possible.

[Andy Hattemer @andyhattemer]

If coding agents are really as good as everyone says, it makes sense to try again at the intractable problems in databases.

[Nikita | Scaling Lakebase Postgres @nikitabase]

Transactional/analytical is being solved with LTAP and we will swing at multi-master super hard.

I'm excited to be able to solve such long standing database problems.

[Nikita | Scaling Lakebase Postgres @nikitabase]

There are two unclimbable mountains in database world: 1 Combined transactional/analytical processing 2 true multi-master scale out

We are making significant progress on both in Lakebase

[sam @samgoodwin89]

Neon is doing “git for infrastructure”.

One branch containing your functions, buckets and database is the way to go.

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

If used to be "the best tool for the job is the one you know", that's completely changed, and with it the way we think about a lot of things.
So many abstractions were about providing a layer for humans so that their knowlage transferred. Again not really needed any more.
I'm increasingly convinced that the right tool for the job is the one with the fewest abstractions over the platform.
Building a mobile/desktop app, do it in the OS native toolkits.
Building an api server, go for a low level language that scales.
The one I'm still trying to work out is websites/apps, what we should be doing there. The frameworks fulfill a vital role on the client, but I'm much less convinced on the server. I probably want a lower level, high performance language on the server. I think we're going to see a new generation of full stack frameworks that use JS on the client, but Rust or Go on the server.

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

@AlemTuzlak 🔥

[Alem Tuzlak 🇧🇦 @AlemTuzlak]

Yeah... well, I meant 2 mil is here.

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

While everyone else is betting on Bot, or Dots, or Muse, or Duet, I'm betting on Jerry.
He can do anything they can, he just has a little more fun doing so...
More soon!

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

Jerry can do things BTW!

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

Absolutely incredible growth in PGlite 📈
*40 Million Downloads a Week!*
Do follow @tudor_tdrz for updates, he's doing an incredible job maintaining PGlite 🔥🚀

[Tudor Zaharia @tudor_tdrz]

#PGlite at 40M weekly downloads. It's not just squashing bugs and memory consumption optimizations, we're also looking ahead at big features coming out. Stay tuned!

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

https://t.co/aggAtXClkO

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

Jerry can do things BTW!

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

This is Jerry BTW!

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

Spots! 🧦

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

Jerry can do things BTW!

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

This is Jerry BTW!

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

Looks like the kind of thing a first year industrial design student would model for a "introduction to injection moulding" class.
That's both amazing, and really bad...

[OpenAI @OpenAI]

Two OpenAI team members worked with GPT-6 Astra to design a prototype device for talking to Codex in under a week, as a side project.

Astra designed the enclosure, circuit board, interface, and software. Getting it manufactured still required several rounds of review and iteration.

[Andre Landgraf @andrelandgraf]

Sam took hill climbing agents to literal

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

@andrelandgraf Just wait till you se what else he can do 😉

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

Spots! 🧦

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

Parachute 🪂

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

This weekend, if you are vibe coding, don't build something productive, don't built a tool for yourself to use, don't build something because you need it.
Build something RIDICULES because you CAN!
Enjoin the unlimited & unbounded creativity we have been gifted!

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

Parachute 🪂

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

Zigzags!

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

Zigzags!

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

Making something a little whimsical...

[Sam Willis @samwillis]

Making something a little whimsical...