Mike Lee Williams
@mlw.bsky.social
member of technical staff • my favourite directed graphs are webrings
Reposted by Mike Lee Williams
for example, I thought this was ridiculous. turns out it was only 3 months early. in 2026, of the couple thousand lines of code shipped with my name on them, pretty sure I typed less than 10% of them by hand
Anthropic's CEO says that in 3 to 6 months, AI will be writing 90% of the code software developers were in charge of
"And then in 12 months, we may be in a world where AI is writing essentially all of the code," Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said.
www.businessinsider.com
January 19, 2026 at 5:29 PM
for example, I thought this was ridiculous. turns out it was only 3 months early. in 2026, of the couple thousand lines of code shipped with my name on them, pretty sure I typed less than 10% of them by hand
when my manager starts submitting pull requests out of the blue
Tom Waits - "What's He Building?"
YouTube video by Tom Waits
www.youtube.com
January 14, 2026 at 1:55 AM
when my manager starts submitting pull requests out of the blue
Reposted by Mike Lee Williams
very funny to try to scare people away from using LLMs by starting with the most thoughtfully designed and rigorously developed software on the planet
January 8, 2026 at 8:52 PM
very funny to try to scare people away from using LLMs by starting with the most thoughtfully designed and rigorously developed software on the planet
i am sorry to say that this is 100% correct samuelalbanie.substack.com/p/documentat...
Documentation Considered (Increasingly) Harmful
In 1968, Edsger Dijkstra published a legendary article titled “Go To Statement Considered Harmful,” arguing that its use obfuscated program flow and should be abolished.
samuelalbanie.substack.com
January 5, 2026 at 4:22 AM
i am sorry to say that this is 100% correct samuelalbanie.substack.com/p/documentat...
my top books of 2025.
new fiction:
helen philips - "hum" (ai job replacement literary dystopia, goes well with "the wall", see below)
vincenzo latronico - "perfection" (kyle chayka's airspace in a novella form)
new fiction:
helen philips - "hum" (ai job replacement literary dystopia, goes well with "the wall", see below)
vincenzo latronico - "perfection" (kyle chayka's airspace in a novella form)
January 5, 2026 at 3:21 AM
my top books of 2025.
new fiction:
helen philips - "hum" (ai job replacement literary dystopia, goes well with "the wall", see below)
vincenzo latronico - "perfection" (kyle chayka's airspace in a novella form)
new fiction:
helen philips - "hum" (ai job replacement literary dystopia, goes well with "the wall", see below)
vincenzo latronico - "perfection" (kyle chayka's airspace in a novella form)
my work pays for me to have a weekend print sub to the NYT. the politics are vile of course (especially of the headline writers who are clearly fifth columnists). but the main thing I’ve noticed after reading it cover to cover every weekend for a couple of months is that it is unbelievably boring.
January 4, 2026 at 2:02 PM
my work pays for me to have a weekend print sub to the NYT. the politics are vile of course (especially of the headline writers who are clearly fifth columnists). but the main thing I’ve noticed after reading it cover to cover every weekend for a couple of months is that it is unbelievably boring.
Reposted by Mike Lee Williams
why does this matter? practically speaking, denial leads orgs like the Society of Indexers to give their members very bad advice! is it good for indexers to be blindsided when inevitably (yes, inevitably) in a month someone writes a script that produces a human-quality index for $5?
they gave an entire book to chatgpt and asked it to make an index in one prompt. it did badly, so they conclude LLMs can't help with indexing. this is a bit like trying to chop a tomato with the back of a knife
got it (thx @mattweiner19.bsky.social ) and...oof, man. I believe it 100% to be well-intended, but this is not how you effectively use an LLM.
this is deeply naive use. are these people going to force me to go write an indexer proof-of-concept on my birthday because they're wrong on the internet?
this is deeply naive use. are these people going to force me to go write an indexer proof-of-concept on my birthday because they're wrong on the internet?
December 21, 2025 at 5:05 PM
why does this matter? practically speaking, denial leads orgs like the Society of Indexers to give their members very bad advice! is it good for indexers to be blindsided when inevitably (yes, inevitably) in a month someone writes a script that produces a human-quality index for $5?
Reposted by Mike Lee Williams
the Saturday Financial Times, the only good newspaper that you can get delivered in New York City
November 29, 2025 at 8:58 PM
the Saturday Financial Times, the only good newspaper that you can get delivered in New York City
finally found a quote that's been stuck in my head for 25 years. from the boxer hector "macho" camacho: "When I do good, they boo me. When I do great, they boo me. If they don’t boo me, I get mad. When I make love to my girlfriend, she boos me." this quote explains a lot of posters.
November 5, 2025 at 3:08 PM
finally found a quote that's been stuck in my head for 25 years. from the boxer hector "macho" camacho: "When I do good, they boo me. When I do great, they boo me. If they don’t boo me, I get mad. When I make love to my girlfriend, she boos me." this quote explains a lot of posters.
i'm not saying there's a bubble, and if there is i'm not saying this is the top, but catered lunch today was from dimes.
October 29, 2025 at 6:29 PM
i'm not saying there's a bubble, and if there is i'm not saying this is the top, but catered lunch today was from dimes.
some personal news
October 27, 2025 at 1:30 AM
some personal news
Reposted by Mike Lee Williams
Stay woke friends
October 19, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Stay woke friends
it's real
Delightful read on 6-7, which is all my kids talk about. Who knew they were so familiar with Derridean poststructuralism
www.wsj.com/lifestyle/si...
www.wsj.com/lifestyle/si...
The Numbers Six and Seven Are Making Life Hell for Math Teachers
‘Six seven’ sends teens into a frenzy that schools have been powerless to stop. ‘It’s like throwing catnip at cats.’
www.wsj.com
October 14, 2025 at 3:18 PM
it's real
i'm banned for life from the PTA messageboard because i reply to every octoberfest committee message with "october 26? you're out of your mind. octoberfest is in september! it *ends* the first weekend of october! get your head in the game!!!! jfc people"
October 14, 2025 at 3:14 PM
i'm banned for life from the PTA messageboard because i reply to every octoberfest committee message with "october 26? you're out of your mind. octoberfest is in september! it *ends* the first weekend of october! get your head in the game!!!! jfc people"
It’s ‘It’s “It’s decorative gourd season, motherfuckers”, motherfuckers’, motherfuckers.
September 18, 2025 at 7:31 PM
It’s ‘It’s “It’s decorative gourd season, motherfuckers”, motherfuckers’, motherfuckers.
don’t ever knock this country to me
September 15, 2025 at 8:00 PM
don’t ever knock this country to me
saw this on the subway today. the woman wearing it seemed like she had it all figured out.
September 6, 2025 at 12:51 AM
saw this on the subway today. the woman wearing it seemed like she had it all figured out.
Reposted by Mike Lee Williams
Reposted by Mike Lee Williams
Rude
August 21, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Rude
it is happening again
August 9, 2025 at 7:53 PM
it is happening again
whenever i start a new job i like to make the same joke about my 90 day onboarding plan being entirely comprised of trying to get my python environment set up. sadly that joke no longer works (because uv). anyway, today is my first day at anthropic!
July 22, 2025 at 2:18 PM
whenever i start a new job i like to make the same joke about my 90 day onboarding plan being entirely comprised of trying to get my python environment set up. sadly that joke no longer works (because uv). anyway, today is my first day at anthropic!
The Lily and The Lion, part 6 of Maurice Druon's accursed kings series, is a flawless masterpiece, just like the other 5 parts (part 7 is not canon). i am on the record about loving these books: maxread.substack.com/p/a-great-pu...
July 12, 2025 at 7:29 PM
The Lily and The Lion, part 6 of Maurice Druon's accursed kings series, is a flawless masterpiece, just like the other 5 parts (part 7 is not canon). i am on the record about loving these books: maxread.substack.com/p/a-great-pu...
wealth of shadows by graham moore is a good novel if you like monetary theory and ww2 but i cannot in good faith recommend it to anyone else
The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides is extremely well done history/non-fiction for dads. I guess the worst thing you could say is it tells an incredible story in a somewhat simplistic way.
Banal Nightmare by Halle Butler is great. fucked up millennial women in a college town. kept reminding me of the movie Heathers (complimentary) even though all the characters are like 40.
July 12, 2025 at 7:24 PM
wealth of shadows by graham moore is a good novel if you like monetary theory and ww2 but i cannot in good faith recommend it to anyone else