KP

[KP @xalpy]

@BoringBiz_ That's what it's called work-life and not life-work !!

[Iain Cameron @theiaincameron]

In the state of Wyoming, USA, lies a real hydrological oddity. It's a small stream (creek) that is thought to be one of a just a few examples in the world. It is placed so precariously and perfectly that it's hard to believe it is able to exist.

1/n

[KP @xalpy]

@kkstau not only in Gujarat!!!

[tender @tenderizzation]

the field of deep learning "borrowing" bastardized versions of neurons from neuroscience, optimization from math, and system design from computer architecture
https://t.co/rqSj0B5yqU

[KP @xalpy]

@baldridgecpa Just like Concur where you hate to submit claim to reimburse the expense !!!

[Ra_Bies 3.0 @Ra_Bies]

What a beautiful explanation of Entropy. Too good is this girl’s clarity and understanding of spirituality & philosophy

[KP @xalpy]

@PunsterX It's copied from Mr.Bean movie.

[rohanbabu @rohanbabu]

There is an invisible layer that affects many friendships in Bengaluru.

That layer is called urban and civic exhaustion.

Friendships don’t fade because people don’t care. They fade because the city quietly drains the energy required to sustain them.

The traffic takes an hour out of your evening. Work spills into what used to be personal time. Weekends become recovery periods rather than social ones.

You start saying things like:

“Let’s meet soon.”
“Next week for sure.”
“Once things settle down.”

Things rarely settle down.

What earlier required a 10 minute auto ride now requires planning, coordination, and stamina. You have to build stamina to be rejected by drivers on apps, to cross under constructed sites, to take long jumps over open drainages and collect dust on your face.

Friendships slowly move from physical spaces to WhatsApp reactions and Instagram replies.

The affection is still there. The intent is still there.

But the civic friction of the city sits between people.

In cities like Bengaluru, maintaining friendships has quietly become an act of effort. And sometimes, effort is the first casualty of urban and civic exhaustion.

[KP @xalpy]

@godofprompt TUTORIALS

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Went down the rabbit hole on this one. The answer is actually wild.

5,000 years ago, Sumerian merchants in modern-day Iraq needed a number that's easy to divide. They picked 60. It has 12 divisors (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, 60). Base-10 only has four. That's 3x as many ways to split something evenly, which matters when you're dividing grain and wages and can't handle repeating decimals.

The counting method is the best part. They used their thumb as a pointer on the three bone segments of each finger. Four fingers, three segments, that's 12 per hand. Track multiples of 12, on the other hand, and you hit 60. No pen needed. Merchants in parts of Asia still count this way today.

The system spread from Sumer to the Babylonians, then eastward to Persia, India, and China, and westward to Egypt and Rome. By 1800 BC, Babylonian students were using base-60 to calculate the square root of 2 to six decimal places on clay tablets. One student's homework from 4,000 years ago, now at Yale, holds the most accurate computation found anywhere in the ancient world. The Greeks adopted it for astronomy, which locked it into navigation, cartography, and eventually clocks in the 14th century.

People have tried to kill it. During the French Revolution in 1793, France mandated decimal time: 10 hours per day, 100 minutes per hour, 100 seconds per minute. New clocks, new laws, the whole thing. Lasted 17 months. Workers hated getting one day off every ten days instead of one every seven. They tried again in 1897. Scrapped by 1900. The metric system replaced feet and pounds across most of the world. But 60 minutes in an hour? Untouchable.

60 is just too good at being divided. You can split an hour into halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, sixths, tenths, twelfths, or twentieths and land on a whole number every time. Try that with 100, and you get ugly decimals for thirds, sixths, and most common splits. 5,000 years of civilizations looked at that math and came to the same conclusion: 60 wins.

[Victoriano Izquierdo @victorianoi]

In 20 years, vibe coders will look at the Linux kernel repo the way we look at the pyramids. In awe, unable to imagine how they managed to drag all those giant stones and pile them up in the middle of the desert.

[KP @xalpy]

@godofprompt Claude

[Andrej Karpathy @karpathy]

A few random notes from claude coding quite a bit last few weeks.

Coding workflow. Given the latest lift in LLM coding capability, like many others I rapidly went from about 80% manual+autocomplete coding and 20% agents in November to 80% agent coding and 20% edits+touchups in December. i.e. I really am mostly programming in English now, a bit sheepishly telling the LLM what code to write... in words. It hurts the ego a bit but the power to operate over software in large "code actions" is just too net useful, especially once you adapt to it, configure it, learn to use it, and wrap your head around what it can and cannot do. This is easily the biggest change to my basic coding workflow in ~2 decades of programming and it happened over the course of a few weeks. I'd expect something similar to be happening to well into double digit percent of engineers out there, while the awareness of it in the general population feels well into low single digit percent.

IDEs/agent swarms/fallability. Both the "no need for IDE anymore" hype and the "agent swarm" hype is imo too much for right now. The models definitely still make mistakes and if you have any code you actually care about I would watch them like a hawk, in a nice large IDE on the side. The mistakes have changed a lot - they are not simple syntax errors anymore, they are subtle conceptual errors that a slightly sloppy, hasty junior dev might do. The most common category is that the models make wrong assumptions on your behalf and just run along with them without checking. They also don't manage their confusion, they don't seek clarifications, they don't surface inconsistencies, they don't present tradeoffs, they don't push back when they should, and they are still a little too sycophantic. Things get better in plan mode, but there is some need for a lightweight inline plan mode. They also really like to overcomplicate code and APIs, they bloat abstractions, they don't clean up dead code after themselves, etc. They will implement an inefficient, bloated, brittle construction over 1000 lines of code and it's up to you to be like "umm couldn't you just do this instead?" and they will be like "of course!" and immediately cut it down to 100 lines. They still sometimes change/remove comments and code they don't like or don't sufficiently understand as side effects, even if it is orthogonal to the task at hand. All of this happens despite a few simple attempts to fix it via instructions in CLAUDE . md. Despite all these issues, it is still a net huge improvement and it's very difficult to imagine going back to manual coding. TLDR everyone has their developing flow, my current is a small few CC sessions on the left in ghostty windows/tabs and an IDE on the right for viewing the code + manual edits.

Tenacity. It's so interesting to watch an agent relentlessly work at something. They never get tired, they never get demoralized, they just keep going and trying things where a person would have given up long ago to fight another day. It's a "feel the AGI" moment to watch it struggle with something for a long time just to come out victorious 30 minutes later. You realize that stamina is a core bottleneck to work and that with LLMs in hand it has been dramatically increased.

Speedups. It's not clear how to measure the "speedup" of LLM assistance. Certainly I feel net way faster at what I was going to do, but the main effect is that I do a lot more than I was going to do because 1) I can code up all kinds of things that just wouldn't have been worth coding before and 2) I can approach code that I couldn't work on before because of knowledge/skill issue. So certainly it's speedup, but it's possibly a lot more an expansion.

Leverage. LLMs are exceptionally good at looping until they meet specific goals and this is where most of the "feel the AGI" magic is to be found. Don't tell it what to do, give it success criteria and watch it go. Get it to write tests first and then pass them. Put it in the loop with a browser MCP. Write the naive algorithm that is very likely correct first, then ask it to optimize it while preserving correctness. Change your approach from imperative to declarative to get the agents looping longer and gain leverage.

Fun. I didn't anticipate that with agents programming feels *more* fun because a lot of the fill in the blanks drudgery is removed and what remains is the creative part. I also feel less blocked/stuck (which is not fun) and I experience a lot more courage because there's almost always a way to work hand in hand with it to make some positive progress. I have seen the opposite sentiment from other people too; LLM coding will split up engineers based on those who primarily liked coding and those who primarily liked building.

Atrophy. I've already noticed that I am slowly starting to atrophy my ability to write code manually. Generation (writing code) and discrimination (reading code) are different capabilities in the brain. Largely due to all the little mostly syntactic details involved in programming, you can review code just fine even if you struggle to write it.

Slopacolypse. I am bracing for 2026 as the year of the slopacolypse across all of github, substack, arxiv, X/instagram, and generally all digital media. We're also going to see a lot more AI hype productivity theater (is that even possible?), on the side of actual, real improvements.

Questions. A few of the questions on my mind:
- What happens to the "10X engineer" - the ratio of productivity between the mean and the max engineer? It's quite possible that this grows *a lot*.
- Armed with LLMs, do generalists increasingly outperform specialists? LLMs are a lot better at fill in the blanks (the micro) than grand strategy (the macro).
- What does LLM coding feel like in the future? Is it like playing StarCraft? Playing Factorio? Playing music?
- How much of society is bottlenecked by digital knowledge work?

TLDR Where does this leave us? LLM agent capabilities (Claude & Codex especially) have crossed some kind of threshold of coherence around December 2025 and caused a phase shift in software engineering and closely related. The intelligence part suddenly feels quite a bit ahead of all the rest of it - integrations (tools, knowledge), the necessity for new organizational workflows, processes, diffusion more generally. 2026 is going to be a high energy year as the industry metabolizes the new capability.

[Navin Kabra @NGKabra]

Rewriting my thread on #karmanyevaadhikaraste because it is important enough to get right

The first few tweets are a simple introduction and you can skip those because it will be familiar to most Indians

But the rest of the thread, the example applications, are the good stuff

[tobi lutke @tobi]

Pretty much

[Amish Tripathi | Author | Broadcasting | History @authoramish]

3. Look at this photo.

It's an unedited photo of the Sudama Cave, part of the Barabar Rock-cut complex, built during the Mauryan Empire. 2300 years old.

Notice the monk's reflection? That's not a mirror. That's granite rock made reflective...using now-lost Mauryan technology!

[KP @xalpy]

@cooltechtipz But I believe only pacific salmons and not Atlantic l.

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

Ray Bradbury; the only way to live is to live with enthusiasm

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

Four years ago, I stepped off the traditional path to carve my own.

I thought I understood what I was getting into. I didn’t.

Here are 5 harsh truths nobody told you about entrepreneurship (that I wish I knew earlier)…

1. Real freedom is terrifying.

Let’s get something straight: Entrepreneurship is not for everybody.

Over the last decade, social media gurus have sold a dream that anybody can bet on themself and become a millionaire working a few hours per week while sipping piña coladas on a beach.

It’s a great story if you’re selling a course or community, but it’s mostly a lie.

All of these people want to sell you the secret formula, but the truth is there’s no operating manual for entrepreneurship. There’s no recipe. There’s no “7 simple steps” to launch the business of your dreams.

Most people want the social media version of entrepreneurial freedom. In my experience, real entrepreneurial freedom looks…well…different.

Real freedom is terrifying.

It’s the recognition that everything is on you. It’s the acceptance that you have to hunt if you want to eat. It’s the accountability to recognize that when things aren’t going well, you are the only one who can change it. It’s staring out into the darkness. It’s riding the ups and downs. It’s the pain of the loss and the euphoria of the win.

Most people want the illusion of freedom. They wouldn’t last a few days with the reality.

But for those who accept the challenge, there is nothing more rewarding.

2. Most of society is built for traditional employment.

There are a lot of simple things that you take for granted as a traditional employee that disappear as an entrepreneur.

Like getting a mortgage to buy a house. The bank prefers a traditional (W2) employee making $100k per year to an entrepreneur making $250k per year.

Healthcare and benefits are much the same. Easy on the traditional path. Painful on the entrepreneurial path.

The truth is that a lot of the societal infrastructure was built around traditional employment. There are promising startups working to change that, but I have yet to see meaningful progress.

The point: Be prepared for headaches in unexpected places.

3. Lack of structure will be your worst enemy.

If you’re on a traditional path, your day has a clear, fixed rhythm. Leave for work by 8. Arrive at 9. Meetings until 12. Lunch. Emails until 2. Meetings until 5. Leave for home.

There’s a clear structure to your professional life.

In my opinion, the single greatest challenge facing new entrepreneurs is the lack of this structure in their days.

It’s a weird feeling waking up and not knowing what you should be doing. It’s oddly disconcerting. And for those who’ve grown accustomed to the structure of the traditional path, it can be a significant blocker to progress.

The best advice I can offer: Create clear structure to your days. Even if it’s malleable and subject to change, having a general sense of what you do at specific times of day will help ease the tension of the transition to a naturally structure-less environment.

4. It’s a lonely journey (most of the time).

When you start living differently, you will stop fitting into your old environments.

The people you felt aligned with start to feel distant. It's almost as if you start speaking an entirely different language. You no longer have much to talk about. They don't seem to understand your values or motivations.

Some will say you've changed. They might even laugh at your ambitions or tell you to be realistic.

And as you leave behind the old, you have yet to attract the new.

The season of loneliness is natural—a sign you're on the right path. Embrace it. Use the solitude and the focus it unlocks to accelerate your growth.

5. Nobody cares if you win (or if you lose).

When you start walking the unfamiliar path, there’s a tendency to burden yourself with the weight of external expectations. You want to prove people wrong. You want the doubters to eat their words. You want to show the world what you’re capable of.

You’re already doing a hard thing—and now you’re making it even harder by carrying this additional load.

A mentor gave me a simple piece of advice early in my journey:

Nobody cares.

When you're winning, when everything is going well, when you're crushing it, nobody cares. When you're losing, when everything is falling flat, when you're down and out, nobody cares.

It doesn't mean nobody loves you. It just means nobody cares about your life as much as you do. It just means that you are in control.

It’s all on you. Everything. Nobody is coming to save you.

And fortunately, you don’t need any saving. You can just do things. You can wake up one morning and choose to change your life. You can reinvent yourself anytime you want. You are capable of squeezing every last drop out of this life.

But it’s up to you. Nobody cares.

So you might as well do the thing. You might as well pursue what calls you. You might as well lean into that dream sends chills down your spine. You might as well live your life on your own terms.

Just Start Walking

I hope these lessons are valuable to someone out there on their journey. I know they would have been for me.

Whenever I reflect on the last four years, I come back to my favorite quote:

“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.” - Rumi

You won’t have all the answers at the beginning. You won’t feel ready. But clarity lives on the other side of action.

So, just start walking.