Dave Guarino
@allafarce.bsky.social
Software and complex (not complicated) systems. Pursuing the public good, sometimes with technology.
A Friday thought: I reject a definitional shift of civic tech into something more closely resembling modest organizational change management.
January 23, 2026 at 11:24 PM
A Friday thought: I reject a definitional shift of civic tech into something more closely resembling modest organizational change management.
My partner was hospitalized and I now have the strong desire to build an LLM eval for guidance on avoiding surprise bills from ERs/hospitals/ambulances.
High quality advice in that (charged) moment would be deeply impactful at scale.
High quality advice in that (charged) moment would be deeply impactful at scale.
January 22, 2026 at 12:31 AM
My partner was hospitalized and I now have the strong desire to build an LLM eval for guidance on avoiding surprise bills from ERs/hospitals/ambulances.
High quality advice in that (charged) moment would be deeply impactful at scale.
High quality advice in that (charged) moment would be deeply impactful at scale.
Great example of a tiny life improvement AI coding (Claude Code) made a 5 minute project:
Update my Siri-SMS-to-Asana tool to put any message with "today" in it in the Today section of My tasks
Update my Siri-SMS-to-Asana tool to put any message with "today" in it in the Today section of My tasks
January 19, 2026 at 7:39 PM
Great example of a tiny life improvement AI coding (Claude Code) made a 5 minute project:
Update my Siri-SMS-to-Asana tool to put any message with "today" in it in the Today section of My tasks
Update my Siri-SMS-to-Asana tool to put any message with "today" in it in the Today section of My tasks
A prompt I gave a friend that he rated highly:
“What would you build assuming software development is free?”
“What would you build assuming software development is free?”
January 16, 2026 at 10:56 PM
A prompt I gave a friend that he rated highly:
“What would you build assuming software development is free?”
“What would you build assuming software development is free?”
I predict one of the stranger aspects of building software becoming free is that a key constraint will be a person’s own individual awareness of what they really want (and honesty about their intents)
January 14, 2026 at 4:43 PM
I predict one of the stranger aspects of building software becoming free is that a key constraint will be a person’s own individual awareness of what they really want (and honesty about their intents)
"Claude says USAA"
A text from my partner just now. And also a concise signpost of where we're headed.
A text from my partner just now. And also a concise signpost of where we're headed.
January 14, 2026 at 12:10 AM
"Claude says USAA"
A text from my partner just now. And also a concise signpost of where we're headed.
A text from my partner just now. And also a concise signpost of where we're headed.
A note I jotted down today:
“Don’t try to persuade the skeptics; try to intrigue the curious”
“Don’t try to persuade the skeptics; try to intrigue the curious”
January 13, 2026 at 11:45 PM
A note I jotted down today:
“Don’t try to persuade the skeptics; try to intrigue the curious”
“Don’t try to persuade the skeptics; try to intrigue the curious”
Comments from software engineers diminishing vibe coding strike me as a signal of lack of understanding of the true spectrum of software: from super powered Excel spreadsheets to systems defending against state advanced persistent threats. It’s far, far from a binary around an imagined “real”.
January 13, 2026 at 10:45 PM
Comments from software engineers diminishing vibe coding strike me as a signal of lack of understanding of the true spectrum of software: from super powered Excel spreadsheets to systems defending against state advanced persistent threats. It’s far, far from a binary around an imagined “real”.
The first AI lab to release a "circling back" capability will decimate the software PM market.
January 13, 2026 at 9:32 PM
The first AI lab to release a "circling back" capability will decimate the software PM market.
Okay I do think my favorite use of a language model at this point is building a pipeline for Claude to ingest a recipe photo from a cookbook and unpack all the tacit cooking knowledge into explicit knowledge I can actually act on!
January 8, 2026 at 5:47 AM
Okay I do think my favorite use of a language model at this point is building a pipeline for Claude to ingest a recipe photo from a cookbook and unpack all the tacit cooking knowledge into explicit knowledge I can actually act on!
I built a Skill to access SNAP's federal regulations in AI agents as part of some bigger work. It was really enjoyable to see how easy this has become.
(I'll confess to getting a bit turned around in the Claude docs on skills vs. commands vs. plugins)
(I'll confess to getting a bit turned around in the Claude docs on skills vs. commands vs. plugins)
January 7, 2026 at 12:07 AM
I built a Skill to access SNAP's federal regulations in AI agents as part of some bigger work. It was really enjoyable to see how easy this has become.
(I'll confess to getting a bit turned around in the Claude docs on skills vs. commands vs. plugins)
(I'll confess to getting a bit turned around in the Claude docs on skills vs. commands vs. plugins)
I've been wanting to try the Claude Agent SDK more directly and ended up building a tool that ingests recipes (from cookbook photo) and does a bunch of things, but the best one being making implicit aspects of the recipe explicit.
January 5, 2026 at 3:47 AM
I've been wanting to try the Claude Agent SDK more directly and ended up building a tool that ingests recipes (from cookbook photo) and does a bunch of things, but the best one being making implicit aspects of the recipe explicit.
A state capacity + AI thought:
1. Much of the dysfunction attributed to governmental organizations is more accurately attributable to *large* organizations generally
2. If AI can give outsized leverage to small teams, what could that mean for effective government?
1. Much of the dysfunction attributed to governmental organizations is more accurately attributable to *large* organizations generally
2. If AI can give outsized leverage to small teams, what could that mean for effective government?
January 3, 2026 at 6:42 PM
A state capacity + AI thought:
1. Much of the dysfunction attributed to governmental organizations is more accurately attributable to *large* organizations generally
2. If AI can give outsized leverage to small teams, what could that mean for effective government?
1. Much of the dysfunction attributed to governmental organizations is more accurately attributable to *large* organizations generally
2. If AI can give outsized leverage to small teams, what could that mean for effective government?
Something I've been taking scratch notes on recently:
I think for diffusion of AI capabilities to reach people accessing government services/benefits to actually happen quickly + go well, we might want some "responsible agent standard" specific to that domain's nuances.
(I have spec thoughts!)
I think for diffusion of AI capabilities to reach people accessing government services/benefits to actually happen quickly + go well, we might want some "responsible agent standard" specific to that domain's nuances.
(I have spec thoughts!)
January 1, 2026 at 9:19 PM
Something I've been taking scratch notes on recently:
I think for diffusion of AI capabilities to reach people accessing government services/benefits to actually happen quickly + go well, we might want some "responsible agent standard" specific to that domain's nuances.
(I have spec thoughts!)
I think for diffusion of AI capabilities to reach people accessing government services/benefits to actually happen quickly + go well, we might want some "responsible agent standard" specific to that domain's nuances.
(I have spec thoughts!)
Using Claude Code I built a tiny little Apple Watch app to talk to… Claude! (via Siri)
It’s called Norbert (cybernetics!) and has been super helpful for on the go tiny quick questions and staying off my phone.
Getting it in TestFlight, DM me your email if you want to try it!
It’s called Norbert (cybernetics!) and has been super helpful for on the go tiny quick questions and staying off my phone.
Getting it in TestFlight, DM me your email if you want to try it!
January 1, 2026 at 5:37 PM
Using Claude Code I built a tiny little Apple Watch app to talk to… Claude! (via Siri)
It’s called Norbert (cybernetics!) and has been super helpful for on the go tiny quick questions and staying off my phone.
Getting it in TestFlight, DM me your email if you want to try it!
It’s called Norbert (cybernetics!) and has been super helpful for on the go tiny quick questions and staying off my phone.
Getting it in TestFlight, DM me your email if you want to try it!
Having a toddler, a relative with early stage Alzheimer's, and a senior dog who is diabetic and blind, I really genuinely think if AI takes away a lot of the "solve small puzzles on a computer all day" we'll have quite meaningful work to do.
December 31, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Having a toddler, a relative with early stage Alzheimer's, and a senior dog who is diabetic and blind, I really genuinely think if AI takes away a lot of the "solve small puzzles on a computer all day" we'll have quite meaningful work to do.
Well the toddle has pneumonia and I’m taking the dog to the pet ER. Happy new year and may the exogenous shocks of this coming year be fewer than in the prior!
December 31, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Well the toddle has pneumonia and I’m taking the dog to the pet ER. Happy new year and may the exogenous shocks of this coming year be fewer than in the prior!
I’ve now got Claude Code in the iPhone app running Python scripts under the hood to access our household management stuff in Asana and help me go through stuff on the go.
December 30, 2025 at 6:17 PM
I’ve now got Claude Code in the iPhone app running Python scripts under the hood to access our household management stuff in Asana and help me go through stuff on the go.
I’m updating my view in working in the open and open source. Both seeing more second order effects and the drastic reduction in cost to repurpose open code/work from AI has made it much, much more valuable in my eyes.
open.substack.com/pub/daveguar...
open.substack.com/pub/daveguar...
Working in the open is much more valuable than I once thought
It’s time to mark to market a view of mine that has evolved over the past decade.
open.substack.com
December 29, 2025 at 4:36 PM
I’m updating my view in working in the open and open source. Both seeing more second order effects and the drastic reduction in cost to repurpose open code/work from AI has made it much, much more valuable in my eyes.
open.substack.com/pub/daveguar...
open.substack.com/pub/daveguar...
AI helped me successfully transfer my toddler. I heretofore fully reject any claim that AI is useless.
December 26, 2025 at 5:30 PM
AI helped me successfully transfer my toddler. I heretofore fully reject any claim that AI is useless.
I am so, so excited for a world where the creation of software is not constrained by an individual’s faculty with language syntax and tolerance of yak shaving.
December 25, 2025 at 3:46 AM
I am so, so excited for a world where the creation of software is not constrained by an individual’s faculty with language syntax and tolerance of yak shaving.
Yet another helpful use for Claude Code: connect it to our household tracker (Asana) and go through open items and propose what an actionable, concrete next step is.
December 24, 2025 at 4:37 AM
Yet another helpful use for Claude Code: connect it to our household tracker (Asana) and go through open items and propose what an actionable, concrete next step is.
Civic tech could stand some more consequentialism.
December 23, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Civic tech could stand some more consequentialism.
I am SO excited to learn that Sefaria has an MCP server! This serves exactly the niche need that I and 7 other people have!
December 19, 2025 at 12:06 AM
I am SO excited to learn that Sefaria has an MCP server! This serves exactly the niche need that I and 7 other people have!
The other night I spiked a little "Abundance Legislative Linter" to read through proposed city ordinances (for now, SF) and do some basic evaluation on how well or poorly they align to "abundance" principles. Claude Code enables so many fun side projects.
December 17, 2025 at 11:49 PM
The other night I spiked a little "Abundance Legislative Linter" to read through proposed city ordinances (for now, SF) and do some basic evaluation on how well or poorly they align to "abundance" principles. Claude Code enables so many fun side projects.