Alan Nichol
@alanmnichol.bsky.social
Co-founder@Rasa, doing chatbots since before they were good. Sharing takes I can't put on linkedin. Former physicist, wannabe chef, someday cuneiform translator.
This is so good and funny and I for one hope “tickling the simpsons” catches on. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/m...
Why Does A.I. Write Like … That?
www.nytimes.com
December 18, 2025 at 2:14 PM
This is so good and funny and I for one hope “tickling the simpsons” catches on. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/m...
Everyone here keeps telling me to use the for you feed but it’s full of exactly the stuff I’ve curated my feed to avoid.
December 10, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Everyone here keeps telling me to use the for you feed but it’s full of exactly the stuff I’ve curated my feed to avoid.
Reposted by Alan Nichol
mcp is bananas, we are literally doing rpc over markdown here
December 8, 2025 at 2:16 PM
mcp is bananas, we are literally doing rpc over markdown here
Maybe my longest most firmly held opinion is I hate drinking coffee from a to-go cup
November 28, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Maybe my longest most firmly held opinion is I hate drinking coffee from a to-go cup
TIL about this family relation
Ada, Countess of Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, mathematician & a pioneer of computing; born 1815, died #OTD 1852. #WomeninStem
Painted by Margaret Sarah Carpenter 1836
UK Government Art Collection
Painted by Margaret Sarah Carpenter 1836
UK Government Art Collection
November 27, 2025 at 8:52 AM
TIL about this family relation
Reposted by Alan Nichol
Still reeling from the Stanford report on Brexit. Reduced GDP by up to 8% and investment by as much as 18%. The UK Treasury would have £40 billion more each year if Britain had remained in the EU. Devastating self-immolation.
The Economic Impact of Brexit
Other
siepr.stanford.edu
November 24, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Still reeling from the Stanford report on Brexit. Reduced GDP by up to 8% and investment by as much as 18%. The UK Treasury would have £40 billion more each year if Britain had remained in the EU. Devastating self-immolation.
2 tickets to give away for Scotland <> Tonga on Sunday.
Only ask in return is make a donation to a local charity.
Pls Reskeet for reach.
Only ask in return is make a donation to a local charity.
Pls Reskeet for reach.
November 21, 2025 at 8:03 PM
2 tickets to give away for Scotland <> Tonga on Sunday.
Only ask in return is make a donation to a local charity.
Pls Reskeet for reach.
Only ask in return is make a donation to a local charity.
Pls Reskeet for reach.
Ok this editing is very impressive
November 21, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Ok this editing is very impressive
Reposted by Alan Nichol
From Bronze Age Wales, the spectacular Mold Cape! 🤩
An incredible ancient feat of sheet-goldworking, beaten from a single gold ingot some 3,600 years ago!
The extraordinary embossed decoration is said to mimic strings of beads.
📷 by me
#FindsFriday
#Archaeology
An incredible ancient feat of sheet-goldworking, beaten from a single gold ingot some 3,600 years ago!
The extraordinary embossed decoration is said to mimic strings of beads.
📷 by me
#FindsFriday
#Archaeology
November 14, 2025 at 1:21 PM
From Bronze Age Wales, the spectacular Mold Cape! 🤩
An incredible ancient feat of sheet-goldworking, beaten from a single gold ingot some 3,600 years ago!
The extraordinary embossed decoration is said to mimic strings of beads.
📷 by me
#FindsFriday
#Archaeology
An incredible ancient feat of sheet-goldworking, beaten from a single gold ingot some 3,600 years ago!
The extraordinary embossed decoration is said to mimic strings of beads.
📷 by me
#FindsFriday
#Archaeology
My toddler knows the words “elbow”, “eyebrow”, and “apple”. She also pronounces them exactly the same way
October 27, 2025 at 10:36 AM
My toddler knows the words “elbow”, “eyebrow”, and “apple”. She also pronounces them exactly the same way
Reposted by Alan Nichol
Hi. I wrote an essay about AI slop: How it feels like an invasive species for the internet. How its boosters describe building a future that’s devoid of craft. How frictionlessness can be nihilistic & how this stuff seems to leach part of our shared humanity out of the world. I hope you'll read it.
AI’s Invasive Species
The slop is winning.
www.theatlantic.com
October 20, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Hi. I wrote an essay about AI slop: How it feels like an invasive species for the internet. How its boosters describe building a future that’s devoid of craft. How frictionlessness can be nihilistic & how this stuff seems to leach part of our shared humanity out of the world. I hope you'll read it.
Reposted by Alan Nichol
from my lunch today; "the trouble is not so much AI making you more productive, but that it's tripling the output of the biggest f***ing idiot where you work"
October 21, 2025 at 9:21 PM
from my lunch today; "the trouble is not so much AI making you more productive, but that it's tripling the output of the biggest f***ing idiot where you work"
Yes I’m looping you in to this conversation here’s a reverse-chronological list of past messages each wrapped with some boilerplate and older messages are at ever increasing levels of indentation.
How is email even real
How is email even real
October 15, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Yes I’m looping you in to this conversation here’s a reverse-chronological list of past messages each wrapped with some boilerplate and older messages are at ever increasing levels of indentation.
How is email even real
How is email even real
Think this is the first time slop has snuck in to my discover weekly. open.spotify.com/track/3eGrMm...
Juicy - 1950's Soul Version
open.spotify.com
October 13, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Think this is the first time slop has snuck in to my discover weekly. open.spotify.com/track/3eGrMm...
I used Siri to set a reminder to “go by Lupe Pinto’s” and I genuinely have no idea how it transcribed that correctly
October 7, 2025 at 4:44 PM
I used Siri to set a reminder to “go by Lupe Pinto’s” and I genuinely have no idea how it transcribed that correctly
In a world of slop posts having something to say is a radical act
October 7, 2025 at 1:08 PM
In a world of slop posts having something to say is a radical act
We’ve been trying to correct our toddler that her name is not, in fact, “you” and it’s quite the routine
October 3, 2025 at 1:08 PM
We’ve been trying to correct our toddler that her name is not, in fact, “you” and it’s quite the routine
In German they don’t say “professor of [subject]” they say professor FOR [subject] and it irks me every time I see it
October 3, 2025 at 11:23 AM
In German they don’t say “professor of [subject]” they say professor FOR [subject] and it irks me every time I see it
Can you think of a demonym for an island in the med ?
“Corsican”
“Corsican”
October 2, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Can you think of a demonym for an island in the med ?
“Corsican”
“Corsican”
Heard “AI slop” on bbc #wakeuptomoney this morning. Lads, we did it.
September 19, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Heard “AI slop” on bbc #wakeuptomoney this morning. Lads, we did it.
good point well made
most people’s criticisms of MCP are either bogus or misapplied, but one that i never hear and should is that it doesn’t standardize partial function application
if you visualize the server as a class, and tool as function, the “constructor args” aren’t standardized
they go in ENV, headers, etc.
if you visualize the server as a class, and tool as function, the “constructor args” aren’t standardized
they go in ENV, headers, etc.
September 9, 2025 at 10:27 AM
good point well made
to get promoted in tech, when you're out of your depth just say "we should be more strategic and less tactical". Boss move - makes it someone else's problem that you can't keep up.
September 8, 2025 at 1:58 PM
to get promoted in tech, when you're out of your depth just say "we should be more strategic and less tactical". Boss move - makes it someone else's problem that you can't keep up.