Zellyn Hunter
@zellyn.com
He/Him.
Programmer. Square. Former YouTuber. Vaguely South African. ≡𝐺𝑂
Born 331.12 ppm CO₂
hachyderm.io/@zellyn
Programmer. Square. Former YouTuber. Vaguely South African. ≡𝐺𝑂
Born 331.12 ppm CO₂
hachyderm.io/@zellyn
My modest proposal for Democrats’ messaging in upcoming elections: “Joe Biden proved conclusively that even a dead president is better for the economy than Donald Trump”
November 6, 2025 at 4:02 PM
My modest proposal for Democrats’ messaging in upcoming elections: “Joe Biden proved conclusively that even a dead president is better for the economy than Donald Trump”
@simonwillison.net suggests coding without actually typing the code
Honestly, I'm surprised that anyone with an unlimited token budget is *not* doing this. I've been coding since I was 12 (in 1987), but my job is emphatically no longer typing "if" "x" ">" "3" ":"
simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/16/...
Honestly, I'm surprised that anyone with an unlimited token budget is *not* doing this. I've been coding since I was 12 (in 1987), but my job is emphatically no longer typing "if" "x" ">" "3" ":"
simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/16/...
Coding without typing the code
Last year the most useful exercise for getting a feel for how good LLMs were at writing code was vibe coding (before that name had even been coined) - seeing …
simonwillison.net
October 17, 2025 at 5:11 PM
@simonwillison.net suggests coding without actually typing the code
Honestly, I'm surprised that anyone with an unlimited token budget is *not* doing this. I've been coding since I was 12 (in 1987), but my job is emphatically no longer typing "if" "x" ">" "3" ":"
simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/16/...
Honestly, I'm surprised that anyone with an unlimited token budget is *not* doing this. I've been coding since I was 12 (in 1987), but my job is emphatically no longer typing "if" "x" ">" "3" ":"
simonwillison.net/2025/Oct/16/...
I'm in the process of getting Claude to write an entire fake backend system for a fairly large React web-app by intercepting the network calls with service workers (package MSW).
It's amazing.
Now, I'm using browser-use Claude to find bugs, using a prompt/instructions written by the first Claude!
It's amazing.
Now, I'm using browser-use Claude to find bugs, using a prompt/instructions written by the first Claude!
October 5, 2025 at 2:06 AM
I'm in the process of getting Claude to write an entire fake backend system for a fairly large React web-app by intercepting the network calls with service workers (package MSW).
It's amazing.
Now, I'm using browser-use Claude to find bugs, using a prompt/instructions written by the first Claude!
It's amazing.
Now, I'm using browser-use Claude to find bugs, using a prompt/instructions written by the first Claude!
Came downstairs from work on Friday, and all three of my brothers were sitting in the living room! They live in Toronto, Waco, and LA, and had conspired to fly in for my 50th… 😍
August 31, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Came downstairs from work on Friday, and all three of my brothers were sitting in the living room! They live in Toronto, Waco, and LA, and had conspired to fly in for my 50th… 😍
The “Closing the Loop” images from the always-amazing @amygoodchild.bsky.social are absolutely gorgeous!
www.amygoodchild.com/blog/buildin...
www.amygoodchild.com/blog/buildin...
Closing the Loop: Building Shapes with a Planar Graph — Amy Goodchild
There’s some fun computational geometry in my latest artwork, and in this article I’ll walk through how I take a scramble of disconnected paths and turn them into closed shapes, using half-edges and a...
www.amygoodchild.com
August 18, 2025 at 10:12 PM
The “Closing the Loop” images from the always-amazing @amygoodchild.bsky.social are absolutely gorgeous!
www.amygoodchild.com/blog/buildin...
www.amygoodchild.com/blog/buildin...
Why is "I'd like to restrict outbound internet connections from my project to a small allowlist, but still be able to talk to all the normal AWS/GCP things I _have_ to talk to to operate" such an infuriatingly difficult thing? It can't be uncommon…
August 18, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Why is "I'd like to restrict outbound internet connections from my project to a small allowlist, but still be able to talk to all the normal AWS/GCP things I _have_ to talk to to operate" such an infuriatingly difficult thing? It can't be uncommon…
That surprising feeling when your `terraform apply` actually works, without errors! So unexpected. And it only took 9 commits in my PR…
July 10, 2025 at 10:11 PM
That surprising feeling when your `terraform apply` actually works, without errors! So unexpected. And it only took 9 commits in my PR…
Should I listen to the Ross Douthat JD Vance interview? I mean, I know I'm going to, but at the same time wondering why I would inflict that on myself.
Then again, this might be a good day for it: I've already seen the picture of “Sam and Jony” so perhaps I've already hit rock bottom?
Then again, this might be a good day for it: I've already seen the picture of “Sam and Jony” so perhaps I've already hit rock bottom?
May 21, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Should I listen to the Ross Douthat JD Vance interview? I mean, I know I'm going to, but at the same time wondering why I would inflict that on myself.
Then again, this might be a good day for it: I've already seen the picture of “Sam and Jony” so perhaps I've already hit rock bottom?
Then again, this might be a good day for it: I've already seen the picture of “Sam and Jony” so perhaps I've already hit rock bottom?
Good news! As onsite/offsite budgets tighten, constant reorgs guarantee you'll still be able to see your coworkers!
a) "annual" team offsite
b) semi-annual reorg 2 months later
c) "clearly we need a post-reorg onsite"
a) "annual" team offsite
b) semi-annual reorg 2 months later
c) "clearly we need a post-reorg onsite"
May 20, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Good news! As onsite/offsite budgets tighten, constant reorgs guarantee you'll still be able to see your coworkers!
a) "annual" team offsite
b) semi-annual reorg 2 months later
c) "clearly we need a post-reorg onsite"
a) "annual" team offsite
b) semi-annual reorg 2 months later
c) "clearly we need a post-reorg onsite"
If you like fantasy, and murder mysteries, The Tainted Cup, and A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett are very good. It's been a while since I felt sad to end a book, wanting to hang out with the characters more. I'm glad I only found out about the series after there were already two!
May 14, 2025 at 9:26 PM
If you like fantasy, and murder mysteries, The Tainted Cup, and A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett are very good. It's been a while since I felt sad to end a book, wanting to hang out with the characters more. I'm glad I only found out about the series after there were already two!
“Big interviews tomorrow. I'll make sure I go to bed early so I'm well-rested.“
Brain: “I love your enthusiasm, and you always bring great ideas to the table… But I was thinking: how about we lie in bed half-awake until 4am instead?”
Brain: “I love your enthusiasm, and you always bring great ideas to the table… But I was thinking: how about we lie in bed half-awake until 4am instead?”
May 14, 2025 at 5:19 PM
“Big interviews tomorrow. I'll make sure I go to bed early so I'm well-rested.“
Brain: “I love your enthusiasm, and you always bring great ideas to the table… But I was thinking: how about we lie in bed half-awake until 4am instead?”
Brain: “I love your enthusiasm, and you always bring great ideas to the table… But I was thinking: how about we lie in bed half-awake until 4am instead?”
Based on my interactions with them as a job _seeker_, if you're a tech company not quite yet large enough to hire your own recruiter, you could do worse than to check out somatalent.com
May 8, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Based on my interactions with them as a job _seeker_, if you're a tech company not quite yet large enough to hire your own recruiter, you could do worse than to check out somatalent.com
New "Projects" page on my website: zellyn.com/page/project...
(The old page listed things I _wanted_ to do, not things that were done or partly done.)
(The old page listed things I _wanted_ to do, not things that were done or partly done.)
Projects
Zellyn's Website
zellyn.com
May 7, 2025 at 9:33 PM
New "Projects" page on my website: zellyn.com/page/project...
(The old page listed things I _wanted_ to do, not things that were done or partly done.)
(The old page listed things I _wanted_ to do, not things that were done or partly done.)
Interviewing is surprisingly fun. I should probably have been interviewing a little every month or two for the past decade, just to keep my hand in, and find out what interesting things people are working on. (It always felt a little dishonest to interview when not actually looking too…)
May 7, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Interviewing is surprisingly fun. I should probably have been interviewing a little every month or two for the past decade, just to keep my hand in, and find out what interesting things people are working on. (It always felt a little dishonest to interview when not actually looking too…)
So far, being in an interview is much more pleasant than waiting around between interviews.
Going well so far. Even getting to the point where I can type while being watched. Sort of.
Going well so far. Even getting to the point where I can type while being watched. Sort of.
May 7, 2025 at 4:58 PM
So far, being in an interview is much more pleasant than waiting around between interviews.
Going well so far. Even getting to the point where I can type while being watched. Sort of.
Going well so far. Even getting to the point where I can type while being watched. Sort of.
Nintendo just made it impossible for me to play Terraria with my kid 😔
Their new “virtual game card” system breaks the (supported, according to their docs) ability for him to use software on the main Switch while I use it on the secondary. Not even sure how to buy it twice as a fix if I wanted to…
Their new “virtual game card” system breaks the (supported, according to their docs) ability for him to use software on the main Switch while I use it on the secondary. Not even sure how to buy it twice as a fix if I wanted to…
May 3, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Nintendo just made it impossible for me to play Terraria with my kid 😔
Their new “virtual game card” system breaks the (supported, according to their docs) ability for him to use software on the main Switch while I use it on the secondary. Not even sure how to buy it twice as a fix if I wanted to…
Their new “virtual game card” system breaks the (supported, according to their docs) ability for him to use software on the main Switch while I use it on the secondary. Not even sure how to buy it twice as a fix if I wanted to…
Call me Chihiro was beautiful and slow and sad and you should watch it
May 3, 2025 at 3:16 AM
Call me Chihiro was beautiful and slow and sad and you should watch it
Has anyone trained an LLM on single-language documents, using only languages (or just documents) that share no linguistic roots/cognates?
Disclaimer: I want to know how infeasible the Star Trek universal translator is: can you just feed it enough new tokens and it can translate a new language? #ai
Disclaimer: I want to know how infeasible the Star Trek universal translator is: can you just feed it enough new tokens and it can translate a new language? #ai
May 2, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Has anyone trained an LLM on single-language documents, using only languages (or just documents) that share no linguistic roots/cognates?
Disclaimer: I want to know how infeasible the Star Trek universal translator is: can you just feed it enough new tokens and it can translate a new language? #ai
Disclaimer: I want to know how infeasible the Star Trek universal translator is: can you just feed it enough new tokens and it can translate a new language? #ai
@apenwarr.ca @crawshaw.io Who should I talk with if I'm interested in working at Tailscale, but don't want to throw a dart at similar-but-different entries on the jobs page and would rather have a conversation to figure out where I might be useful?
April 30, 2025 at 7:58 PM
@apenwarr.ca @crawshaw.io Who should I talk with if I'm interested in working at Tailscale, but don't want to throw a dart at similar-but-different entries on the jobs page and would rather have a conversation to figure out where I might be useful?
I spent a large chunk of the past years working on feature flags, migrating a homegrown system to a vendor. We worked with them to scale to our size. My old teammates joked they were taking bets on whether I'd write my own feature flag system after the layoff (no, but I did think about it!)
April 29, 2025 at 12:55 AM
I spent a large chunk of the past years working on feature flags, migrating a homegrown system to a vendor. We worked with them to scale to our size. My old teammates joked they were taking bets on whether I'd write my own feature flag system after the layoff (no, but I did think about it!)
If you haven't tried OpenAI image generation recently… give it a try (I'm just using the free quota). My wife's dad always says, "Keep it between the ditches", so I asked ChatGPT to make a card. Prompt in alt-text — it nailed it on the first try.
I'm getting weird feels on what images _mean_ now…
I'm getting weird feels on what images _mean_ now…
April 21, 2025 at 5:55 PM
If you haven't tried OpenAI image generation recently… give it a try (I'm just using the free quota). My wife's dad always says, "Keep it between the ditches", so I asked ChatGPT to make a card. Prompt in alt-text — it nailed it on the first try.
I'm getting weird feels on what images _mean_ now…
I'm getting weird feels on what images _mean_ now…
Holy shit Pantheon is good. How did I only just learn about this in a Wired "35 best shows on Netflix" article? 😂
April 17, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Holy shit Pantheon is good. How did I only just learn about this in a Wired "35 best shows on Netflix" article? 😂
You should go listen to @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social ‘s latest podcast episode now. I can’t promise you won’t end up crying in your kitchen over the sink during his opening monologue. But it’s important.
April 17, 2025 at 1:28 PM
You should go listen to @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social ‘s latest podcast episode now. I can’t promise you won’t end up crying in your kitchen over the sink during his opening monologue. But it’s important.
User tdeck on hackernews shows us how to execute a perfect troll comment.
If you can get two levels of responses joining in on the joke, followed by a comment that still thinks it's serious three levels deep, you're winning at internet! Respect.
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4365...
If you can get two levels of responses joining in on the joke, followed by a comment that still thinks it's serious three levels deep, you're winning at internet! Respect.
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4365...
You're just jealous. These guys have spun up their own RoHS and are doing a 100%... | Hacker News
news.ycombinator.com
April 11, 2025 at 6:21 PM
User tdeck on hackernews shows us how to execute a perfect troll comment.
If you can get two levels of responses joining in on the joke, followed by a comment that still thinks it's serious three levels deep, you're winning at internet! Respect.
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4365...
If you can get two levels of responses joining in on the joke, followed by a comment that still thinks it's serious three levels deep, you're winning at internet! Respect.
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4365...
@martin.kleppmann.com do you ever do open office hours? I'd love to grab 30 minutes of your time sometime to discuss two big questions I have about CRDTs:
1) What happens if you have a bug that breaks the semilattice nature? How do you bound the damage, and how do you repair things?
1) What happens if you have a bug that breaks the semilattice nature? How do you bound the damage, and how do you repair things?
April 10, 2025 at 3:24 PM
@martin.kleppmann.com do you ever do open office hours? I'd love to grab 30 minutes of your time sometime to discuss two big questions I have about CRDTs:
1) What happens if you have a bug that breaks the semilattice nature? How do you bound the damage, and how do you repair things?
1) What happens if you have a bug that breaks the semilattice nature? How do you bound the damage, and how do you repair things?