Nicola Mustone
@nicolamustone.bsky.social
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Author of buthonestly.io - Clarity without the comfort. Essays on leadership, programming, and web.
pinned post!
Design doesn’t matter if your site is slow. A beautiful site that takes 5 seconds to load quietly kills trust, conversions, and search visibility. Performance isn’t anti-design. It’s what makes design work.
buthonestly.io/web/wordpres...
#WordPress
#WebPerformance
#WebDesign
#SEO
#CoreWebVitals
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Design vs. Performance: Balance for Your WordPress Site
Learn how to balance speed and design on your WordPress site, improve Core Web Vitals, and know when visuals are worth the performance cost.
https://buthonestly.io/web/wordpress-site-performance-vs-desig/
2 months ago
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Design doesn’t matter if your site is slow. A beautiful site that takes 5 seconds to load quietly kills trust, conversions, and search visibility. Performance isn’t anti-design. It’s what makes design work.
buthonestly.io/web/wordpres...
#WordPress
#WebPerformance
#WebDesign
#SEO
#CoreWebVitals
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Design vs. Performance: Balance for Your WordPress Site
Learn how to balance speed and design on your WordPress site, improve Core Web Vitals, and know when visuals are worth the performance cost.
https://buthonestly.io/web/wordpress-site-performance-vs-desig/
2 months ago
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Nicola Mustone
WordPress
3 months ago
WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 approaches. With a host of new features rolling out in Gutenberg and Core, it's a crucial time for developers. Check out all the upcoming features and updates here:
developer.wordpress.org/news/...
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What’s new for developers? (February 2026)
WordPress 7.0 Beta 1 is on the way and introduces major developer-focused updates, including the always-iframed post editor, viewport-based block visibility, per-block custom CSS, expanded Gutenberg UI components, and new AI and CLI tools. Explore what’s coming.
https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2026/02/whats-new-for-developers-february-2026/
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Choosing what to play is harder than playing. ADHD + large library = scrolling instead of gaming. The real problem isn’t taste. It’s context. I started using AI to structure my mood and cognitive load.
buthonestly.io/web/choosing...
#ADHD
#GameDev
#Gaming
#AI
#ExecutiveFunction
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Using AI To Choose What To Play With ADHD
Using AI with ADHD to reduce decision friction when choosing games, focusing on mood, cognitive load, and fit instead of recommendations.
https://buthonestly.io/web/choosing-what-to-play/
3 months ago
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I used to blog in furious bursts, then disappear for months. Turns out it wasn’t laziness, it was ADHD cycles. My ADHD planner is set of self-made rules that work with my rhythm, not against it. 
buthonestly.io/web/adhd-pla...
#ADHD
#Creativity
#Writing
#Neurodiversity
#MentalHealth
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My Mental ADHD Planner: How I Blog Without Burning Out
How I built a simple mental ADHD planner to manage focus, avoid burnout, and blog in a way that fits my brain.
https://buthonestly.io/web/adhd-planner/
3 months ago
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Machine learning isn’t an oracle. It recognizes patterns, but it can’t predict real breakthroughs. This essay shows why ML fails at novelty, using speedrunning data as a concrete example.
#MachineLearning
#AI
#DataScience
#TechReality
#Programming
#CriticalThinking
#IndieWeb
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AI Is Not an Oracle: The Limits of Machine Learning
Machine-learning curves look confident until speedrunners change the game underneath them. MediEvil shows why “AI as oracle” fails.
https://buthonestly.io/programming/limits-of-machine-learning/
4 months ago
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I didn’t become a web developer by following a roadmap. I learned from browser games, forums, “View Source,” broken CSS, and PHP files that made no sense at first.
#WebDev
#Programming
#IndieWeb
#TechWriting
#LearningInPublic
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What Is a Web Developer? How I Became One Before AI
What is a web developer? A pre-AI learning story with honest advice on skills, timelines, jobs, and using AI without skipping real understanding.
https://buthonestly.io/web/what-is-a-web-developer/
4 months ago
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Team building that actually works isn’t about cheesy games or awkward moments — it’s about play with purpose. Check out my latest on activities that build real skills and connection.
#Leadership
#TeamBuilding
#PsychologicalSafety
#WorkplaceCulture
#Upskilling
buthonestly.io/leadership/t...
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Team Building Activities That Upskill Without Forced Fun
Team building activities that actually upskill: three funny games that build communication, listening, and calm teamwork—without forced fun.
https://buthonestly.io/leadership/team-building-activities-for-work/
4 months ago
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Nicola Mustone
Robin Ince
5 months ago
Yesterday’s photo - walking along another canal
#photography
#trees
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The Internet’s Landlord: Where Does Your Website Actually Sleep at Night?
iterativewonders.com/2025/12/26/t...
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The Internet’s Landlord: Where Does Your Website Actually Sleep at Night? – Iterative Wonders
Demystify web hosting with a fun landlord-and-apartment analogy: domains, DNS, shared hosting vs VPS vs dedicated, and managed WordPress hosting - so you finally understand where your website “lives” ...
https://iterativewonders.com/2025/12/26/the-internets-landlord-where-does-your-website-actually-sleep-at-night/
5 months ago
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It’s almost the EOY! A good time to share feedback with your peers, even if it’s only informal kudos of appreciation!
add a skeleton here at some point
5 months ago
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Leaders who never disconnect aren’t being responsible. They’re hiding weak systems. Time off is a stress test for trust, ownership, and decision making. Your absence is data.
buthonestly.io/leadership/t...
#Leadership
#Management
#WorkLifeBalance
#TeamCulture
#RemoteWork
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Time Off for Leaders: Can You Really Step Away?
Learn how time off for leaders can be planned, handed over, and used as a stress test for trust, ownership, and culture — without everything falling apart.
https://buthonestly.io/leadership/time-off-for-leaders/
5 months ago
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Nicola Mustone
I wrote about the 10 types of websites and how to choose the right platform for each. WordPress covers a wide range of cases, but some projects stay cleaner with a focused tool.
#webdev
#WordPress
#IndieWeb
#webdesign
buthonestly.io/web/10-types...
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10 Types of Websites and What I'd Use to Build Them
Wondering what to use for different website ideas? I walk through 10 types of websites and share the tools I’d pick for each.
https://buthonestly.io/web/10-types-of-websites/
5 months ago
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Nicola Mustone
I updated my essay and released the libraries and models for MiniRes, my tiny 3D printing cost calculator. Read the essay here (downloads at the end of the essay):
buthonestly.io/programming/...
#3dprinting
#keras
#automation
#neuralnetworks
#businessai
#freedownload
#engineering
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How I Built a 3D Print Cost Calculator with a Neural Network
Learn how I built a 3D printing cost calculator with a tiny neural network to predict resin consumption and automate my resin business.
https://buthonestly.io/programming/neural-network-predict-resin-usage-3d-printed-miniatures/
5 months ago
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I built a free WooCommerce plugin about 10y ago. I stopped updating it 7y ago. I opened its page yesterday to find out that 50k sites are actively using it! I am not sure how, it probably doesn’t work, but they have it active! It even has several daily downloads! I guess it’s time to update it.
5 months ago
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Most ADHD challenges in leadership aren’t about discipline. They’re about friction. Reduce the friction, and the work becomes workable. I wrote about the tools that make leadership sustainable for me:
buthonestly.io/leadership/t...
#ADHD
#LeadershipTools
#NeurodiversityAtWork
#WorkSmarter
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Tools for ADHD: Systems That Work When You’re Leading a Team
Leading with ADHD means building systems you can trust. Here’s how I use simple tools for ADHD, from calendars to AI notes, to stay reliable at work.
https://buthonestly.io/leadership/tools-for-adhd-leadership/
5 months ago
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I wrote about the 10 types of websites and how to choose the right platform for each. WordPress covers a wide range of cases, but some projects stay cleaner with a focused tool.
#webdev
#WordPress
#IndieWeb
#webdesign
buthonestly.io/web/10-types...
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10 Types of Websites and What I'd Use to Build Them
Wondering what to use for different website ideas? I walk through 10 types of websites and share the tools I’d pick for each.
https://buthonestly.io/web/10-types-of-websites/
5 months ago
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Have you ever tried reading a RAM memory dump and trying to make sense of it? It’s. So. Much. Fun! /* cries in hexadecimal */
5 months ago
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Everyday you share feedback. With your family, friends, coworkers, strangers. You don’t need 300 different ways to do it, one is enough! I shared my model that’s been working very well both at work and in life:
buthonestly.io/leadership/m...
#feedback
#leadership
#coaching
#sbimodel
#selfhelp
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Mastering Effective Feedback: Facts, Feelings, and Curiosity
Master effective feedback with a simple framework of facts, feelings, and curiosity that reduces defensiveness and builds psychologically safe, high trust teams.
https://buthonestly.io/leadership/mastering-effective-feedback-facts-feelings-curiosity/
5 months ago
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Have you ever seen the first version of WordPress? I certainly didn’t, and I honestly didn’t think it looked like this! “Say It!”
add a skeleton here at some point
5 months ago
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Gaming goes hand in hand with leadership! I learned a lot about coaching and growing teams from games like Dungeons & Dragons, Dead by Daylight, Chained Together, and more.
buthonestly.io/leadership/g...
#leadership
#gaming
#coaching
#techteams
#teambuilding
#dnd
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How Gaming Made Me a Better Leader
From Dungeons & Dragons to Dead by Daylight, discover how games quietly build real leadership skills in communication, empathy, trust, and teamwork.
https://buthonestly.io/leadership/gaming-made-me-better-leader/
5 months ago
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There’s lots of hate around Jetpack, but, all in all, it does its job and it does it well!
job.blog/2025/12/03/n...
#jetpack
#wordpress
#performance
#openweb
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Near-perfect website performance
The mobile performance score for this website is 99, my desktop performance score is 100. Nearly perfect. So how did this happen? My website has always been quite smoothly running. A big part of th…
https://job.blog/2025/12/03/near-perfect-website-performance/
5 months ago
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reposted by
Nicola Mustone
WordPress
5 months ago
Meet WordPress 6.9 “Gene”. This release delivers collaboration with soul. Notes in the editor, smooth drag and drop, new creative blocks, and faster performance across your site. Discover what is new and upgrade today:
wordpress.org/download/releas...
#WordPress
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I updated my essay and released the libraries and models for MiniRes, my tiny 3D printing cost calculator. Read the essay here (downloads at the end of the essay):
buthonestly.io/programming/...
#3dprinting
#keras
#automation
#neuralnetworks
#businessai
#freedownload
#engineering
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How I Built a 3D Print Cost Calculator with a Neural Network
Learn how I built a 3D printing cost calculator with a tiny neural network to predict resin consumption and automate my resin business.
https://buthonestly.io/programming/neural-network-predict-resin-usage-3d-printed-miniatures/
5 months ago
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Vibe coding WordPress blocks is now a thing. Telex turns one prompt into a working block, and the whole process feels… lighter. I wrote about about it, and why it might change how we build in WordPress.
buthonestly.io/web/wordpres...
#WordPress
#Gutenberg
#Telex
#Blocks
#WebDev
#VibeCoding
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Vibe Coding WordPress Blocks with Telex
Discover how Telex uses vibe coding to turn plain-English prompts into custom WordPress blocks, from quick prototypes to production-ready plugins.
https://buthonestly.io/web/wordpress-blocks-telex/
5 months ago
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The ensemble model is ready at
huggingface.co/nicolamuston...
It comes pretrained and with an helper script to prepare your own STL files for the model! I’ll update the blog tomorrow with more details!
#3dprinting
#regression
#neuralnetworks
#ai
#automation
#indie
#dndminiatures
add a skeleton here at some point
6 months ago
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Nicola Mustone
6 months ago
Chef 1: "My special sauce is a trade secret." Chef 2: “Here’s the recipe. If you make it better, you can share your version so everyone can enjoy it.” That’s the spirit of Open Source. I wrote a love letter to it here:
iterativewonders.com/2025/11/29/t...
#OpenSource
#Tech
#Developer
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The Code We All Share: A Love Letter to Open Source – Iterative Wonders
Imagine you go to a famous burger joint. You love the special sauce. You ask the chef for the recipe, and he looks at you like you just asked for his social sec
https://iterativewonders.com/2025/11/29/t..
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Are you into NLP and ML? I release datasets and notebooks at
buthonestly.io/resources/
free to use and explore in your own projects! Check them out. Available also on Kaggle.
#nlp
#engineering
#machinelearning
#mldataset
#kaggle
#freeresources
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Resources & Assets – BUT. Honestly
Free resources, tools, and assets for you to download and use for leadership, engineering, programming, and fun.
https://buthonestly.io/resources/
6 months ago
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reposted by
Nicola Mustone
Michael Peel
6 months ago
A giant clock to keep time for the next ten millennia is moving towards completion in a western US desert cavern. It's meant to promote long-term thinking in an age of short termism. The project, backed by Jeff Bezos, has been a suitably drawn out and enigmatic affair.
www.ft.com/content/22c0...
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The Clock of the Long Now is a 10,000-year-long timepiece backed by Jeff Bezos
Deep inside a Texas mountain, a vast mechanical clock tries to make humanity measure time on the scale of civilisation itself
https://www.ft.com/content/22c024b6-1963-45d6-90bc-e19192d0faaa
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I was not really satisfied with this essay because the dataset was missing, so I dug a bit more into old databases and finally found the dataset! I’m working on it as I write to clean it up and publish it as a free resource! I’ll update the essay and here when it’s ready.
add a skeleton here at some point
6 months ago
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Nicola Mustone
6 months ago
Ever stared at a message ending in a period and thought: "Okay, they definitely hate me"? We used to live in a world where text had no tone. We needed a hero. We got a visionary with a 12x12 pixel grid. I wrote a tribute to the origin of the Emoji.
iterativewonders.com/2025/11/27/t...
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The Architect of Emotion: Shigetaka Kurita, the Inventor of Emojis – Iterative Wonders
The human soul is a complicated thing. It is vast, turbulent, and capable of feeling seven different types of “anxiety” before breakfast. We were a species forc
https://iterativewonders.com/2025/11/27/the-architect-of-emotion-shigetaka-kurita-the-inventor-of-emojis/
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I used to price resin miniatures by hand. Now a quiet bit of business automation with AI predicts how much resin to use for each model in seconds, and I get my evenings back.
buthonestly.io/programming/...
#3DPrinting
#ResinPrinting
#AIForBusiness
#MachineLearning
#IndieBusiness
#Miniatures
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How I Built a 3D Print Cost Calculator with a Neural Network
Learn how I built a 3D printing cost calculator with a tiny neural network to predict resin consumption and automate my resin business.
https://buthonestly.io/programming/neural-network-predict-resin-usage-3d-printed-miniatures/
6 months ago
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Are you looking for Christmas gifts for friends and family? Check the Woo guide to holiday gifts! We selected Woo stores with super cool products for every taste!
woocommerce.com/posts/2025-w...
#woo
#woocomerce
#christmas
#holiday
#gifts
#ecommerce
#onlineshopping
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The 2025 WooCommerce holiday gift guide
Unique, fun gift ideas for friends, family, or yourself!
https://woocommerce.com/posts/2025-woocommerce-holiday-gift-guide/
6 months ago
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reposted by
Nicola Mustone
zeldman
6 months ago
130+ comments and counting. Tell us your story. Celebrate 20 years of WordPress dot com by showing us what you’ve built.
https://wordpress.com/blog/2025/11/21/20th-anniversary/
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Celebrating 20 Years of WordPress.com
Join us in celebrating 20 years of WordPress.com! From portfolios to blogs to online stores, see what millions are building on our platform.
https://wordpress.com/blog/2025/11/21/20th-anniversary/
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Nicola Mustone
6 months ago
He stepped away, but the code kept speaking. This is Michel Valdrighi.
iterativewonders.com/2025/11/25/m...
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Michel Valdrighi: The Coder Whose Code Never Went Silent – Iterative Wonders
Flip a coin. Actually, cheat a little in your favor. That is roughly the statistical probability (about 43%) that a random website you visit is powered by WordP
https://iterativewonders.com/2025/11/25/michel-valdrighi-the-coder-whose-code-never-went-silent/
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The modern internet has a Midas touch problem: if AI touches your work, people treat it like slop, no matter how much effort is behind it.
buthonestly.io/web/ai-slop-...
#AI
#Creativity
#MachineLearning
#NLP
#InternetCulture
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Touched by AI, Treated Like Slop: The Midas Touch of The Modern Internet
AI slop to many is anything touched by AI: a Reddit dogpile on my Dead by Daylight study and what it taught me about trust, real work, and using AI tools.
https://buthonestly.io/web/ai-slop-midas-touch-modern-internet/
6 months ago
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Hey
@bhvr.com
I did a study of your DbD reviews. 80% good is not actually all good! Check it out and, PLEASE, read our feedback:
buthonestly.io/programming/...
6 months ago
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Do you take time off as a lead? Do you have a solid plan for when you are away?
#leadership
#pto
#afk
#timeoff
#leaderpto
6 months ago
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Playing games taught me more about leadership than most “leadership books”. Pattern spotting, fast decisions, dealing with chaos, adapting under pressure… it’s all there! I wrote about it here:
buthonestly.io/leadership/g...
#leadership
#gaming
#management
#careers
#honestly
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How Gaming Made Me a Better Leader
From Dungeons & Dragons to Dead by Daylight, discover how games quietly build real leadership skills in communication, empathy, trust, and teamwork.
https://buthonestly.io/leadership/gaming-made-me-better-leader/
6 months ago
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“When feedback is grounded in facts and feelings and guided by curiosity, it becomes something more than a correction.” I wrote about how to actually do this in your day-to-day feedback:
buthonestly.io/leadership/m...
#leadership
#feedback
#management
#teams
#communication
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Mastering Effective Feedback: Facts, Feelings, and Curiosity
Master effective feedback with a simple framework of facts, feelings, and curiosity that reduces defensiveness and builds psychologically safe, high trust teams.
https://buthonestly.io/leadership/mastering-effective-feedback-facts-feelings-curiosity/
6 months ago
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reposted by
Nicola Mustone
6 months ago
Ever wondered how PHP, the language behind so much of the web, came to be? Turns out, its origin story is a lot like Corn Flakes – a truly brilliant invention that happened entirely by delightful accident. Here is the full story:
iterativewonders.com/2025/11/20/t...
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The Accidental Programming Language: PHP Just… Happened – Iterative Wonders
Forget grand blueprints and visionary manifestos. PHP, the language that hums beneath a huge slice of the modern web, essentially tripped and fell into existenc
https://iterativewonders.com/2025/11/20/the-accidental-programming-language-php-just-happened/
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I just spent an unreasonable amount of time turning 270k+ Steam reviews into an NLP playground. If you’re into NLP, transformers, or real-world text messiness, the full case study is here:
buthonestly.io/programming/...
#nlp
#machinelearning
#sentimentanalysis
#emotionanalysis
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DistilRoBERTa Emotion Analysis: NLP Case Study on Steam Reviews
How to run DistilRoBERTa emotion analysis in an NLP case study: cleaning a real Steam reviews dataset tagging moods, plotting results, and exploring sentiment.
https://buthonestly.io/programming/distilroberta-emotion-analysis-nlp-case-study/
6 months ago
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I put together a practical guide on building a convolutional neural network with Python and TensorFlow. I’m curious how others approach model structure, overfitting control, and dataset prep in their own projects. What would you do differently and why?
buthonestly.io/programming/...
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Building a Convolutional Neural Network in Python with TensorFlow
Learn how to build, train, and optimize a convolutional neural network in Python with TensorFlow, from MNIST preprocessing to Bayesian hyperparameter tuning.
https://buthonestly.io/programming/building-convolutional-neural-network-python-tensorflow/
6 months ago
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reposted by
Nicola Mustone
Emilius Duckberry
6 months ago
#3157 A helpful tutorial
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Why is AI-assisted coding considered smart, but AI-assisted writing feels controversial? I tried to map where the real line sits between human intention and machine help. Curious where you stand on this.
buthonestly.io/web/vibe-wri...
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Vibe Writing and the Line Between Human and Machine
Vibe writing explores co-writing with AI, questioning originality, intention, and what still makes human created text feel genuinely ours.
https://buthonestly.io/web/vibe-writing-line-between-human-machine/
6 months ago
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