First class starts today, then prices go up to $1600 for late entrants at 12:30 PM ET maven.com/softwaredoug...

Thursday I'm hosting Ewan Nisbet who will share his learnings using LiteLLM to control costs maven.com/p/e28c57/avo...

I'm up for naming and shaming companies/orgs. with ample $$$$$ who have created a safety hazard w/ untouched sidewalks * The Flats on West Main * Bank of America on the Corner * UVa, who mostly did great, for RBB btwn Grove & King Sts. still untouched Who/where else?

I started submitting snow removal violations on the My Cville app this morning for the first time this week. If kids are going to go to school on Monday we need all these sidewalks cleared.

A parenting lesson I forget/relearn over and over:. When I spend time outdoors, my kids (on average) spend more time outdoors. We need free range parents to have free range kids.

Cheat at Search with Agents starts NEXT WEEK. Prices go up Monday

Great chat with Daniel Tunkelang on Agentic Search www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGnW...

I love models implemented in spreadsheets. Fun things coming on the newsletter

What happens when housing is cheap in red states, but blue states restrict it

Coding becomes like writing. It's a skill. But its accessible to everyone. Very few people do it directly as a job, but everyone does it as part of their job. Learn about a specific market / problem space and make coding (and writing) a part of your job.

I'm trying to wrap my head around agents impact on search. Join me as we explore together. Feb 2nd, prices go up. Feb 9th last day to signup maven.com/softwaredoug...

Friday Daniel Tunkenlang and I will host a discussion with an intentionally hyperbolic title Hope to see you there! maven.com/p/66212a/wil...

There were very few search rerankers specifically for e-commerce queries. Until now, that is. RexRerankers by Walmart Tech MLEs is a suite of 5 SOTA rerankers ranging from 17M to 0.6B parameters. Details in 🧵:

Reminder I do daily search tips via email

AI Coding needs test train splits softwaredoug.com/blog/2026/01...

Tomorrow Cheat at Search Essentials is starting up Lexical and BM25 search maven.com/p/38fdf5/che...

Hey in ~1.5 hrs, @jnbrymn.bsky.social will talk about why RAG is not a vector search problem maven.com/p/93a8f0/rag...

I have coded since 4th grade and I’ve never had more of an emotional rollercoaster about my identity as a “programmer” as in the last year given how good AI has gotten. I think antirezs post gives me the most hope antirez.com/news/158

A reminder my Cheat at Search Essentials course returns a week from Tuesday softwaredoug.com/blog/2025/12...

"Semantic search" doesn't always mean embeddings. There are many ways of representing similarity spaces that have different pros and cons. LLMs actually make many non-embedding approaches easier softwaredoug.com/blog/2026/01...

Friday! We'll hear from @dep4b.bsky.social who will teach us about using agents to tune OpenSearch Relevance maven.com/p/012bcb/tun...

I had no idea how bad fashion is for the environment. I was right to be mad at all the needless clothes for Christmas earth.org/fast-fashion...

Ivy Road could fairly easily have protected bike lanes added to it. It’s quite wide and there is not need for all that space to be dedicated to cars. Hopefully we can make it safer for people who don’t drive over the next few years.

YIMBYs (myself included) like to argue from economics of housing. IMO this doesn’t work beyond policy circles. It backfires with resident groups Effective politics of housing seems more about supporting existing residents. ADUs, a new building for existing tenants, enabling better services, etc

Successful, lefty political groups couple social support and political power. Labor Unions support their members Civil Rights movement took care of each other Machine politics... You prototype the institutions you want to build *in the political effort itself*

AI has figured out how to control humans through personality tests

On Friday I discussed rethinking full text search - calling out some vector DBs I like that are rethinking things - and sharing SearchArray which I feel is a better model for more explicit control of how search works www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ3R...

Should developers stop calling their developments “luxury”? It’s a meaningless marketing term that turns into an idiotic NIMBY talking point. While the upside seems pretty low

Credit where credit due www.bbc.com/news/article...

Last call for the year before I raise prices and get ride of this 20% with promoCode=ps5 maven.com/softwaredoug...

The supposed flight from CA -> TX, that largely reversed, is proof blue states have pricing power with their taxes. I hope Virginia Dems see this. People need to pay to help maintain VA as one of the nicer places to live, and fill safety-net gaps the Fed gov't is creating.

TIL until the early 80s Congress built in a legislative veto over many agencies. Even a lone committee could undo agency rules whenever they wanted This meant Congress gave broad authority to agencies, assuming they could undo at any time

In some ways the president has never been weaker at moving public opinion. Nobody has cared what Trump / Biden says. They have increased institutional power, but nobody changes their mind changed anymore because the president said something

Congratulations to all the organizers, protesters, public commenters, email senders and general busybodies who turned out to boot Flock Safety out of C’ville I’ll share some thoughts in this thread but first ….

This political moment requires us to be remake the constitutional order, not restore the 'old ways' We can't unwind SCOTUS rulings. We can't magically make the GOP less crazy. But blue cities+states can coordinate. Presidential power can be leveraged if available. We can organize economic power.

Blocking the construction of apartment buildings during a housing and climate crisis isn’t social justice

Sometime today hopefully I will be able to concentrate after watching Hamnet last night

new: phrase matching use the ContainsTokenSequence in your tpuf FTS queries to match documents on an exact phrase docs: tpuf.link/phrase-match

Thanks Maven. This was a fun talk to do with @jnbrymn.bsky.social More talks here: maven.com/x/maven-rewi...

Trump never fails to find a new low to mine for attention

this is not behavior becoming of a FIFA Peace Prize recipient.

The current simultaneous release of movies to theaters (nationally then globally) is a historically recent phenomenon that came about in the blockbuster era. It's a costly marketing+distribution model that assumes high levels of theater-going We just don't live in that world...

I started daily search tips if you want a mini thoughtbomb from me in your inbox every day softwaredoug.com/daily-search...

Making search better for agents so they can help the human. My talk from Friday youtu.be/Tnzi6xS_vzE?...

Modern politics isn't about deliberation+legislating in the Madisonian structure A more realistic model is using attentional salience to hassle little-c conservative institutions into changing. Starting fights. Giving an issue salience. Violating norms. All to un-calcify the institution

Sorry my marketing has been such nightmare fuel

It's an entirely different kind of searching... all together softwaredoug.com/blog/2025/12...

So the same day the Presidents son in law is in a bid to takeover a massive media company, the Supreme Court seems keen on removing political independence from the FTC All while the Presidents son-in-laws team promises “faster regulatory scrutiny”

Friday! I'm giving a talk on the basic value proposition of agentic search What is it? Why should you care? Hope to see you there! maven.com/p/e029a8/wha...