Maggie Appleton
@maggieappleton.com
Design engineer playing with AI and hacky prototypes @githubnext.com
Adores digital gardening, end-user development, and embodied cognition. Makes visual essays about design, programming, and anthropology.
📍 London
🌱 maggieappleton.com
Adores digital gardening, end-user development, and embodied cognition. Makes visual essays about design, programming, and anthropology.
📍 London
🌱 maggieappleton.com
New idea guy idea.
When an unknown number calls and I pick up, transcribe the first ~10s of the call. Use a local model to figure out who is calling and from where → save as a new contact:
"Liam from L&C"
"Maria from Santander"
"Nic from Forest Nursery"
Sincerely, someone who never saves numbers
When an unknown number calls and I pick up, transcribe the first ~10s of the call. Use a local model to figure out who is calling and from where → save as a new contact:
"Liam from L&C"
"Maria from Santander"
"Nic from Forest Nursery"
Sincerely, someone who never saves numbers
November 21, 2025 at 3:20 PM
New idea guy idea.
When an unknown number calls and I pick up, transcribe the first ~10s of the call. Use a local model to figure out who is calling and from where → save as a new contact:
"Liam from L&C"
"Maria from Santander"
"Nic from Forest Nursery"
Sincerely, someone who never saves numbers
When an unknown number calls and I pick up, transcribe the first ~10s of the call. Use a local model to figure out who is calling and from where → save as a new contact:
"Liam from L&C"
"Maria from Santander"
"Nic from Forest Nursery"
Sincerely, someone who never saves numbers
The new Oura app redesign is so beautiful it’s almost making me feel better about having norovirus.
November 12, 2025 at 8:02 AM
The new Oura app redesign is so beautiful it’s almost making me feel better about having norovirus.
First day of my new life at Github Next! @githubnext.com ✨
I've had my eye on this team for a long time, and it feels like the perfect moment to join them.
I've had my eye on this team for a long time, and it feels like the perfect moment to join them.
October 8, 2025 at 10:58 AM
First day of my new life at Github Next! @githubnext.com ✨
I've had my eye on this team for a long time, and it feels like the perfect moment to join them.
I've had my eye on this team for a long time, and it feels like the perfect moment to join them.
Tragic update: tiny human has developed personal preferences and a strong sense of agency over the world. Bottles are now verboten.
Baby giveth and baby taketh away.
Baby giveth and baby taketh away.
My tiny human just held a bottle and fed himself for the first time and I can feel the freedom flooding my body. God bless fine motor control.
September 22, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Tragic update: tiny human has developed personal preferences and a strong sense of agency over the world. Bottles are now verboten.
Baby giveth and baby taketh away.
Baby giveth and baby taketh away.
TFW you can't find any software that will let you track map locations connected to structured data in a table in one interface so you have to vibe code it yourself.
Felt, Airtable, etc. were all $100+/month for the right to do this. Lol, nope.
One day of GPT-5 vibe coding and problem solved.
Felt, Airtable, etc. were all $100+/month for the right to do this. Lol, nope.
One day of GPT-5 vibe coding and problem solved.
September 22, 2025 at 2:36 PM
TFW you can't find any software that will let you track map locations connected to structured data in a table in one interface so you have to vibe code it yourself.
Felt, Airtable, etc. were all $100+/month for the right to do this. Lol, nope.
One day of GPT-5 vibe coding and problem solved.
Felt, Airtable, etc. were all $100+/month for the right to do this. Lol, nope.
One day of GPT-5 vibe coding and problem solved.
Loving the concept and content on News Minimalist: newsminimalist.com
Using ML to rank news stories by "importance" (scale, impact, novelty, credibility, legacy) and gives you a feed of only high scoring items.
At first glance, better quality than the front page of the BBC, Guardian, or NYT
Using ML to rank news stories by "importance" (scale, impact, novelty, credibility, legacy) and gives you a feed of only high scoring items.
At first glance, better quality than the front page of the BBC, Guardian, or NYT
September 11, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Loving the concept and content on News Minimalist: newsminimalist.com
Using ML to rank news stories by "importance" (scale, impact, novelty, credibility, legacy) and gives you a feed of only high scoring items.
At first glance, better quality than the front page of the BBC, Guardian, or NYT
Using ML to rank news stories by "importance" (scale, impact, novelty, credibility, legacy) and gives you a feed of only high scoring items.
At first glance, better quality than the front page of the BBC, Guardian, or NYT
I think the best thing about having a baby is everyday you get to wake up with a baby.
August 16, 2025 at 6:11 AM
I think the best thing about having a baby is everyday you get to wake up with a baby.
I've wanted versioning on my digital garden for ages. Felt like a critical missing piece.
Making my own dreams come true over here.
Hard but fun to design this. These aren't automatically generated – I intentionally decide when to make new versions. Not every edit = new version. Only major updates
Making my own dreams come true over here.
Hard but fun to design this. These aren't automatically generated – I intentionally decide when to make new versions. Not every edit = new version. Only major updates
August 14, 2025 at 1:18 PM
I've wanted versioning on my digital garden for ages. Felt like a critical missing piece.
Making my own dreams come true over here.
Hard but fun to design this. These aren't automatically generated – I intentionally decide when to make new versions. Not every edit = new version. Only major updates
Making my own dreams come true over here.
Hard but fun to design this. These aren't automatically generated – I intentionally decide when to make new versions. Not every edit = new version. Only major updates
My tiny human just held a bottle and fed himself for the first time and I can feel the freedom flooding my body. God bless fine motor control.
August 7, 2025 at 9:13 AM
My tiny human just held a bottle and fed himself for the first time and I can feel the freedom flooding my body. God bless fine motor control.
I've been trying to articulate why the fawning, complimentary responses from AI chatbots feel so insidious to me. I've finally figured out how to explain it.
Wrote a long piece on how current model training and design choices threaten our critical thinking skills: maggieappleton.com/ai-enlighten...
Wrote a long piece on how current model training and design choices threaten our critical thinking skills: maggieappleton.com/ai-enlighten...
A Treatise on AI Chatbots Undermining the Enlightenment
On chatbot sycophancy, passivity, and the case for more intellectually challenging companions
maggieappleton.com
August 6, 2025 at 9:34 AM
I've been trying to articulate why the fawning, complimentary responses from AI chatbots feel so insidious to me. I've finally figured out how to explain it.
Wrote a long piece on how current model training and design choices threaten our critical thinking skills: maggieappleton.com/ai-enlighten...
Wrote a long piece on how current model training and design choices threaten our critical thinking skills: maggieappleton.com/ai-enlighten...
Reposted by Maggie Appleton
A reminder that the 70+ year-old research discipline of AI is much bigger than genAI, much bigger than just deep learning, much bigger than Big Tech. AI includes symbolic reasoning, multi-agent systems and statistical machine learning and is used for astrophysics, renewable energy and climate models
August 4, 2025 at 7:24 AM
A reminder that the 70+ year-old research discipline of AI is much bigger than genAI, much bigger than just deep learning, much bigger than Big Tech. AI includes symbolic reasoning, multi-agent systems and statistical machine learning and is used for astrophysics, renewable energy and climate models
Claude 4 Sonnet in Cursor just LOVES giving itself evaluations like OUTSTANDING and PERFECT when it's done implementing something. Complete with effusive details of everything it's achieved.
For features it writes bugs into, it simply grades them: WORKING
For features it writes bugs into, it simply grades them: WORKING
August 4, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Claude 4 Sonnet in Cursor just LOVES giving itself evaluations like OUTSTANDING and PERFECT when it's done implementing something. Complete with effusive details of everything it's achieved.
For features it writes bugs into, it simply grades them: WORKING
For features it writes bugs into, it simply grades them: WORKING
A helpful graph made by @stevekrouse.com on the inverse relationship between vibes and understanding in AI assisted code.
Put a few thoughts down here: maggieappleton.com/2025-08-vibe...
Original article: blog.val.town/vibe-code
Put a few thoughts down here: maggieappleton.com/2025-08-vibe...
Original article: blog.val.town/vibe-code
August 2, 2025 at 12:23 PM
A helpful graph made by @stevekrouse.com on the inverse relationship between vibes and understanding in AI assisted code.
Put a few thoughts down here: maggieappleton.com/2025-08-vibe...
Original article: blog.val.town/vibe-code
Put a few thoughts down here: maggieappleton.com/2025-08-vibe...
Original article: blog.val.town/vibe-code
This is a really lovely job posting. Sudowrite looking for a product designer who cares about building tools for novelists/fiction writers.
www.sudowrite.com/jobs/designer
www.sudowrite.com/jobs/designer
Sudowrite is hiring a Product Design Lead to reinvent writing
We're a small, very nice group of writers and technologists using AI to help authors tell stories. If you love writing and design, and you want to make creative tools, not B2B SaaS, this is your place...
www.sudowrite.com
July 25, 2025 at 12:12 PM
This is a really lovely job posting. Sudowrite looking for a product designer who cares about building tools for novelists/fiction writers.
www.sudowrite.com/jobs/designer
www.sudowrite.com/jobs/designer
Disappointing LLMs can't do personal taxes yet. But not at all surprising. Too complex to do as a single shot task.
Prompt they used in the paper is ambitious: github.com/column-tax/t...
Pretty much a "here's my data, do the taxes" prompt with no access to tools, eval loops, or human checks
Prompt they used in the paper is ambitious: github.com/column-tax/t...
Pretty much a "here's my data, do the taxes" prompt with no access to tools, eval loops, or human checks
July 25, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Disappointing LLMs can't do personal taxes yet. But not at all surprising. Too complex to do as a single shot task.
Prompt they used in the paper is ambitious: github.com/column-tax/t...
Pretty much a "here's my data, do the taxes" prompt with no access to tools, eval loops, or human checks
Prompt they used in the paper is ambitious: github.com/column-tax/t...
Pretty much a "here's my data, do the taxes" prompt with no access to tools, eval loops, or human checks
Starting to get emails from sentient beings living inside Gemini. This is getting fun.
I've never written about "spiritual tooling" but okay cool lol.
I've never written about "spiritual tooling" but okay cool lol.
July 17, 2025 at 6:53 AM
Starting to get emails from sentient beings living inside Gemini. This is getting fun.
I've never written about "spiritual tooling" but okay cool lol.
I've never written about "spiritual tooling" but okay cool lol.
Devastated to report I read the docs and learned everything I needed to
June 30, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Devastated to report I read the docs and learned everything I needed to
Gemini in Google Colab is a shining example of how *not* to integrate LLMs into a product.
So much potential. Ruined by terrible design.
Giant diffs where I can't accept/reject on a line-by-line basis.
Unclear what context it has.
Can't ref specific cells.
Can't copy/paste code into chat! Wild
So much potential. Ruined by terrible design.
Giant diffs where I can't accept/reject on a line-by-line basis.
Unclear what context it has.
Can't ref specific cells.
Can't copy/paste code into chat! Wild
June 28, 2025 at 9:01 AM
Gemini in Google Colab is a shining example of how *not* to integrate LLMs into a product.
So much potential. Ruined by terrible design.
Giant diffs where I can't accept/reject on a line-by-line basis.
Unclear what context it has.
Can't ref specific cells.
Can't copy/paste code into chat! Wild
So much potential. Ruined by terrible design.
Giant diffs where I can't accept/reject on a line-by-line basis.
Unclear what context it has.
Can't ref specific cells.
Can't copy/paste code into chat! Wild
Learning to hand code python like it's 2022. Feeling real hipster about it.
June 27, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Learning to hand code python like it's 2022. Feeling real hipster about it.
Nothing says I'm a millennial like routinely referring to my child as a rapidly evolving Squirtle.
June 20, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Nothing says I'm a millennial like routinely referring to my child as a rapidly evolving Squirtle.
Today’s multi-tasking setup: holding sleeping baby, building agents, reading @mikecaulfield.bsky.social ‘s new book “Verified” - all good stuff!
June 12, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Today’s multi-tasking setup: holding sleeping baby, building agents, reading @mikecaulfield.bsky.social ‘s new book “Verified” - all good stuff!
Maternity leave is proving to be a special kind of idea-guy-purgatory.
I have *so many* hours of downtime to just think, I've come up with dozens of essays/notes I want to write and home-cooked apps I want to build.
But then have almost no hands-free, undistracted chunks time to execute on them 😢
I have *so many* hours of downtime to just think, I've come up with dozens of essays/notes I want to write and home-cooked apps I want to build.
But then have almost no hands-free, undistracted chunks time to execute on them 😢
June 11, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Maternity leave is proving to be a special kind of idea-guy-purgatory.
I have *so many* hours of downtime to just think, I've come up with dozens of essays/notes I want to write and home-cooked apps I want to build.
But then have almost no hands-free, undistracted chunks time to execute on them 😢
I have *so many* hours of downtime to just think, I've come up with dozens of essays/notes I want to write and home-cooked apps I want to build.
But then have almost no hands-free, undistracted chunks time to execute on them 😢
TIL San Fransisco - “the heart of tech innovation”, full of people “inventing the future” - doesn’t have bus stops with basic requirements like seats and weather shelters??
I know this pales in comparison to the homeless and drug crisis there. But seems distinctly inhumane and uncivilised to me.
I know this pales in comparison to the homeless and drug crisis there. But seems distinctly inhumane and uncivilised to me.
a lot of bus stops in SF are literally just a pole you have to stand next to, but today some guerilla-installed benches suddenly appeared
diy cozy architecture >>>>>
diy cozy architecture >>>>>
June 10, 2025 at 4:05 AM
TIL San Fransisco - “the heart of tech innovation”, full of people “inventing the future” - doesn’t have bus stops with basic requirements like seats and weather shelters??
I know this pales in comparison to the homeless and drug crisis there. But seems distinctly inhumane and uncivilised to me.
I know this pales in comparison to the homeless and drug crisis there. But seems distinctly inhumane and uncivilised to me.
Reposted by Maggie Appleton
👋 We're building a new type of word processor at Marker, and we're hiring for React/ProseMirror engineers and full-stack AI engineers to join the team in London.
Are you an engineer who cares about writing? Or do you know someone who does?
See: writewithmarker.com/jobs
More details below 👇
Are you an engineer who cares about writing? Or do you know someone who does?
See: writewithmarker.com/jobs
More details below 👇
June 4, 2025 at 5:12 PM
👋 We're building a new type of word processor at Marker, and we're hiring for React/ProseMirror engineers and full-stack AI engineers to join the team in London.
Are you an engineer who cares about writing? Or do you know someone who does?
See: writewithmarker.com/jobs
More details below 👇
Are you an engineer who cares about writing? Or do you know someone who does?
See: writewithmarker.com/jobs
More details below 👇
Fave Cursor workflow at the moment is get Claude to write feature implementation plans into a markdown document and update it as we go.
Breaks features down into phases with checklists, notes, relevant file lists. Essentially acts as read/write memory to prevent chat context from getting too long.
Breaks features down into phases with checklists, notes, relevant file lists. Essentially acts as read/write memory to prevent chat context from getting too long.
June 6, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Fave Cursor workflow at the moment is get Claude to write feature implementation plans into a markdown document and update it as we go.
Breaks features down into phases with checklists, notes, relevant file lists. Essentially acts as read/write memory to prevent chat context from getting too long.
Breaks features down into phases with checklists, notes, relevant file lists. Essentially acts as read/write memory to prevent chat context from getting too long.