It's pretty easy to spot AI slop actually. It usually looks like 'too much'. Too much animation Too many words Too much code Too many pages Too much enthusiasm

Finally: Hack Weeks is evolving. This time last year Tom and I started running 4 day hack weeks for anyone that wanted to learn more about and build with AI. People learned. But so did we. We saw how not just individuals but whole teams needed support with this change.

Found Up North is back! This time we're on a F.U.N day out on 27th April, working together for a whole day at Department Campfield, in the heart of Manchester.

Figma has ~90% market share today. And it's dying. Not because of a single 'Figma killer' (I don't believe one will exist), but because the category itself is dissolving.

I just launched a half caff coffee brand in under a week. Why? I like to have 4-5 cups of coffee a day. I like the ritual, and I don't like having to switch to tea.

Kae Tempest was absolutely spellbinding tonight. 90 minutes, non stop. Couldn't look away. And he didn't even play my favourite track!

First thoughts on Atlas, the chatGPT browser. This really blurs the lines between web browsing and chatting, with shared conversation history across both. Makes me feel a bit funny — right now I'd rather a separation of church and state.

Northern founders, unite! (again) After a couple of months off while we navigated school summer holidays, wedmin, house moves and various other life events, Found Up North is back with another meetup for northern founders on 7th Oct. Grab a ticket at foundupnorth.com, see you there!

Liminal space. That in-between state, neither one thing nor other. How do we hold ourselves in an in-between place? As humans we're terrible at this. "It's the not knowing that's hard."

Hack Week #1 was a belter. (And #2 is live - see thread) So many good builds, but more than that, what a brilliant group of people.

FUN is back again On 26th of June we'll be once again descending on Ape and Apple in Manchester for our Found Up North founders meet up. Expect more group discussions, interesting talks (to be announced soon) and opportunity to deepen connections with the founder community.

This pricing is just so good. No scary cliffs, just $1 per 1000 emails. Solid docs, simple UI. Well done Plunk.

Two ways to get your Hacker Hat 1. Go to our shop and buy one 2. Join a hack week and get one for free hackweeks (dot) com

I can't get this idea out of my head. We're all going loopy on the socials about AI disrupting us all, yet seemingly everyone I talk to who's actually in a company with a mandate to 'use more AI' is feeling disillusioned and alienated by it.

Make things for each other Jony and Sam's announcement this week (and the 9min video which I did eventually watch) gave me not much more than an eye roll. (I dont have much time for SA tbh). But...

The long death march of Pocket is finally nearly up. In October it will shuffle off this internet coil. Might have to build myself a replacement.

The flow in the granola iOS app to test and enable live activities is fkin glorious. Made me do an audible 'huh'

Guys if you were to attend a fun hack week and then you got a free dad hat, which of these would you like it to be?

Anyone want to watch 9mins21 of Sam and Jony blowing smoke up each others arses? Nope me neither

James Turrell says hi

I don't understand why apple aren't building a Siri iPhone app clone of chatGPT - powered by an on device AI. Install it on iPhones - power of defaults. Even if not the best models, it would be good enough for most, for now.

P3?

Good day for dog

First ever gig tonight

Guys

I now text my wife pictures when I've 'dialled it in'. What am I becoming

New toy! Still shit at the milky flower art thingy

Always dreamed of vibe-coding your way out of your 9-5? Not sure how to make your first internet pound? Want to raise some money but based up north?

How's your day going?

Pristine CS2 spotted at my parents house. Better days.

Do what you wanted to do, OR do something completely different and unrelated because AI

Is there a more patronising word in the english language than snazzy?

Update - is good

It's now clear: we need more *founder* community in the North. Tech community sure, but specifically founders. It's just a unique and lonely journey that demands likeminded folks to be able to bare your soul to.

How was everyone else's weekend?

I appear to have just taught my three year old the meaning of "shot not". This doesn't bode well for future obedience...

Going from "Have a thought" to "Get it on the internet" has never been quicker. Except if you're rolling your own markdown based blog out of the box. Then it's 'find a computer' -> 'fire up IDE' -> 'manually create and link images'. Sure there are CMSs but they're either paid or complex to set up

When composer can't work something out (like just now, wrong version of a package causing an error) and then I work it out, I want to let it know what the issue was. But does that help it, me or anyone?

Ted Hughes #poemsky

Starting to do more in person meetings and coffees again (hooray!) and remembered that I'm terrible at not overrunning irl. I never want to check the time mid flow (feels rude) and love a chat. Literally having to set alarms for myself now

[First day working in an optometrists] Me: They’re called reading glasses but they don’t actually read. You still have to do that. Optometrist: Can I see you in my office? Me: *nudges customer* I would hope so lol

Made a spoon

I'm trying to break my foot-gun of never blogging because 'who cares'. I'm going to start treating my blog more like a space to blurt and think a bit more. Also for shits & gigs I rewrote my whole site in Astro last week. So here's a post to celebrate. jonnyburch.com/a-faustian-...

For Europeans, the schadenfreude around the Deepseek story is just too delicious. The timing especially is just *chefs_kiss*. robertreich.substack.com/p/american-c...

One goal for mine for 2025 is to meet fellow entrepreneurs in Manchester and the north. Having not found anything particularly compelling for 2+ years, alongside @a7fort.bsky.social I've started foundupnorth.com with a goal to bring together northerners making internet money.

I have two tickets for @phlaimeaux.bsky.social show in Manchester, Sunday 16th Feb. Absolutely hilarious live, must see. Gutted to miss it but emergency half term sunny holiday was called for.

First act of 39yo me: attempt a Hyrox with no training. Maybe wisdom kicks in at 40?

39 today. They say get 4 different colours on your plate for a balanced meal right?

@harmantom.bsky.social all is right with the world 👋