last week i remembered that macOS lets you set your own icons and that *I* have the power to delegitimize the professionalism of the software that runs on my machine, so here's a thread of the 16 new icons i've made so far i really forgot how fun it was to just sit down and make art for myself :')

Error handling often clutters code. Fortunately, functional programming offers a more elegant way. @scottwlaschin.bsky.social explains the 'two-track' model 🚂 (railway-oriented programming) - keeping the success path clean while ensuring errors are always handled. 🎧 compiledconversations.com/9/

Programming isn't one-size-fits-all. In Episode 9 of Compiled Conversations, @scottwlaschin.bsky.social makes the case for being multi-paradigm - using the right language for the right job. Just like a tradesperson has more than one tool, a programmer should too. 🎧 compiledconversations.com/9/

RIP Danny Thompson. Here's a playlist featuring just some of the hundreds of songs that were graced by his bass playing. Includes Nick Drake, Pentangle, Donovan, John Martyn, Sandy Denny, Marc Bolan, David Sylvian, Kate Bush, Talk Talk, Lilac Time, Julian Cope etc ▶️ open.spotify.com/playlist/4XS...

Writing code isn't just for computers - it's for people too. @scottwlaschin.bsky.social explains how #DDD encourages developers to use the same language as non-developers; making code a tool for communication, not just execution. 🎧 compiledconversations.com/8/

I wanted to get a video of this ghost crab but every time I got close to their hole they scuttled back in, so I tried getting clever with it. I made a little sandcastle and shoved my phone into it, hit record, and walked away. Crab was VERY suspicious of this addition to their environment.

Ep. 8: Domain Modeling Made Functional, Part 1 w/ @scottwlaschin.bsky.social #DDD isn't about code - it's about communication, we discuss: - Strategic vs tactical DDD - (Sub)domains - Bounded contexts & ubiquitous language - Conway's Law & team organisation 🎧 compiledconversations.com/8/

Before the election, my MAGA focus group said its top priorities were ending inflation and releasing the Epstein files. Now, that same group says its top priorities are defunding scientific research and prosecuting John Bolton.

There are probably cases where we have to leave FP and do hardcore perf stuff, but with four partitions and four relatively small off the shelf containers we can do approximately 500.000 events pr second with no perf tuning and super simple code to maintain.

Kind of fun to see straight forward, functional programming in #fsharp with Result types on every single event and @scottwlaschin.bsky.social style domain driven design process 8-9 million events pr minute on a 2-core 4GB RAM Azure Container App IRL.

This is a great thread and the themes here apply to so many different problems that people think can't come back, but do

they had to go with “america party” over the more natural sounding “american party” because the american party already existed and they ran george wallace for president in 1968

Exeter, pursued by a bear

Venn diagram

Like I've said before, if you have any doubts about climate change, just go to a super-boring insurance conference and listen to the super-boring panels where they dryly talk about the growing threat of disasters so catastrophic and unpredictable in scope they simply cannot be insured at any price.

Last February, I led a proposal submission that encompassed six months, hundreds of hours, four institutions, a massive team, and and 256 pages. NSF just informed us that the entire Biology Integration Institute program was archived and our proposal would not even be reviewed. With a form email.

Where does #DomainDrivenDesign meet #FunctionalProgramming? We are considering scheduling a new edition of @scottwlaschin.bsky.social workshop based on his famous book. Show us your interest, subscribe to our waiting list: www.avanscoperta.it/en/training/... Period: January - February 2026 🤩

This is great news. We tried @mikecaulfield.bsky.social's SIFT framework last week. It was amazing - verifying and cross-referencing multiple claims using reputable sources. Using Claude Deep Research and MCPs for browser & structured thinking we got it to list all claims then validate each one.

This is a really nice blog post, and I'm touched that what I wrote back then had an impact in someone's life! Always humbling to hear these things, many years later. faingezicht.com/articles/202...

Well this couldn’t have come at a better time www.bbc.com/news/article...

I'm just glad one of these men has the nuclear codes and the other has all our personal data.

can’t remember where I saw it but someone realized you could get google’s AI to hallucinate elaborate explanations for fake proverbs by just typing them into search and i just checked and google still hasn’t fixed it and now i can’t stop doing it

A few weeks back someone was asking how the US legal system could be so impotent and accommodating of the Trump admin's incursions, and at the time I was reading 'A Nation of Enemies: Chile Under Pinochet'. This passage, about Chile's courts and judges, was instructive then, and resonates here.

VEO 3 Prompt: Generate a TV news anchor with a British accent, the anchor says "in shocking news, Jake Kaye Rowe ling's yacht sank with her on board after being attacked by orcas off the coast of turkey" include the announcement in the dialogue. This took one prompt and 2 minutes to generate.

I have been logged out of my toothbrush.

Today is National Biscuit Day, and it’s about time that I populated this account with biscuit (cookie) sets from the past few years. Here are some of my favourites. 🧵 First up, a set inspired by the delicious designs of William Morris and John Henry Dearle.

For those that don't know I've made what some people would call a "fact-checking" engine that runs on top of Claude.ai. I call it a "contextualization engine". It's called SIFT Toolbox, and it acts as a "prompting layer" that changes how Claude acts. checkplease.neocities.org

I really think at its heart philosophy is one giant battle, taking place over many eras and nations, between people who are basically pleasant bureaucrats and people who are sexy murder poets, and it’s both super important and super boring that the pleasant bureaucrats must win.

friday mood

More confidence in saying that as of now, approximately 1,600 fire-qualified federal employees are no longer on the job. That includes a lot of experienced leadership and support positions. 2/

Perfect headline:

As ubiquitous as microplastics are, "there’s almost no evidence of the history of this pollutant,” says @aukeflorian.nl. To find out when microplastics began infiltrating freshwater environments, he and his colleagues scoured hundreds of drawers at a natural history collection... 🧵🧪

This episode is always a tonic. Listen for 19 minutes of calm. Episode 33 - Champagne shingle on Felixstowe beach With each recession of a wave, water fizzes over the stones. The detail is intricate, each fragment moves with it's own audible signature. bit.ly/LenChSh

Spring Best Sellers Sale Week 6 Fresh Perspectives 40% Off – Through May 21 Code: 2025perspectives at checkout Titles on sale this week include: Domain Modeling Made Functional by @scottwlaschin.bsky.social pragprog.com/titles/...

My book is on sale this week if anyone hasn't read it yet :)

Your Code as a Crime Scene by Adam Tornhill Domain Modeling Made Functional by @scottwlaschin.bsky.social The Art of Functional Programming by Minh Quang Tran, PhD Seven Obscure Languages in Seven Weeks by @aqsaqal.bsky.social

“And so the Greeks send me this horse, we’re talking about one of the most beautiful horses you’ve ever seen. So big. So strong. Normally they keep this kind of horse for themselves but they were such big fans they said sir, please take our big wonderful horse we’ll even bring it to your house”

In case you're looking for a book to help you understand Trumpism, this was a "warning" written by a former high-ranking Nazi official in 1938 after he escaped Germany. Almost every page reads like a description of what's happening in America...

I saw advice to buy extra cans of food when you’re at the grocery store to donate to the food bank. I want to politely nudge you to give the money directly to food banks (or to mutual aid groups if you know of any). We can usually stretch a dollar farther than a dollar’s worth of canned goods

The bipartisan belief that America would be a better place if *other people* worked in a factory. www.ft.com/content/8459...

Somehow missed this 2022 UK paper exploring responses to radical right parties (RRP) and whether accommodation - i.e. "beat" them by repeating a version of their tale actually worked electorally. Short version: Nope. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Buckle up medium.com/@aletheisthe...

My latest blog post explains why we don't use our tests as documentation anymore and prefer to take a look at the production code directly: www.planetgeek.ch/2025/04/09/t... #fsharp #dotnet

this is a staggering amount of money to build camps—suggesting that building & running a gulag will be the primary function of the otherwise gutted Trump-state in last fiscal yr: "D.H.S. allocated about $3.4 billion for the entire custody operation overseen by ICE" www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/u...

Alright. I see a lot of analysis which is essentially “what is our theory of mind about Trump? Does he love the stock market? Is he a protectionist?” I will give you my theory of mind for him which has not failed me yet in explanatory power: he is a man whose greatest success was a reality TV show

BREAKING: the Trump administration has announced a new policy of “sakoku,” banning almost ALL foreign trade except for a small Dutch enclave; said to be looking at confiscating and destroying firearms to protect traditional samurai class

'I never thought I would live in times THIS interesting' sobs woman who voted for the Let's Make You Live In Interesting Times Party

Breaking now: Ministry of Economics reporting the tariffs have not caused significant changes to our trading volumes