Chris Smith
@achrissmith.bsky.social
I post snarky things about software.
For all the people saying that LLMs are shifting the industry such that code reviews and understanding how things work is more important than knowing the syntax of a language… what if I told you that was _always_ the case?
January 8, 2026 at 5:36 AM
For all the people saying that LLMs are shifting the industry such that code reviews and understanding how things work is more important than knowing the syntax of a language… what if I told you that was _always_ the case?
Signs you’re on a toxic team #1362:
When you hear a colleague is leaving the company, and your reaction is that of jealousy.
When you hear a colleague is leaving the company, and your reaction is that of jealousy.
January 6, 2026 at 5:46 PM
Signs you’re on a toxic team #1362:
When you hear a colleague is leaving the company, and your reaction is that of jealousy.
When you hear a colleague is leaving the company, and your reaction is that of jealousy.
Wasn’t like, the world supposed to end by now? Why the heck do I need to deal with 2026.
December 23, 2025 at 4:31 AM
Wasn’t like, the world supposed to end by now? Why the heck do I need to deal with 2026.
I know it’s cliche as a neck beard to be saying this… but it still is pretty awesome when I write some code that replies on functional programming. There is an elegance to function composition that cannot be beat!
December 20, 2025 at 12:19 AM
I know it’s cliche as a neck beard to be saying this… but it still is pretty awesome when I write some code that replies on functional programming. There is an elegance to function composition that cannot be beat!
Years ago I was talking to a more grizzled engineer than me. And he talked about the importance of having tight deliverables, so that in his words he wouldn’t be tempted to “tend to the codebase like a garden”.
I think that concept really shines through in this post:
gricha.dev/blog/the-hig...
I think that concept really shines through in this post:
gricha.dev/blog/the-hig...
The highest quality codebase
Blog post
gricha.dev
December 11, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Years ago I was talking to a more grizzled engineer than me. And he talked about the importance of having tight deliverables, so that in his words he wouldn’t be tempted to “tend to the codebase like a garden”.
I think that concept really shines through in this post:
gricha.dev/blog/the-hig...
I think that concept really shines through in this post:
gricha.dev/blog/the-hig...
The thing they don’t teach you in parenting school is that those holiday concerts your kid is in? They are TERRIBLE. Like seriously. And apparently _you_ are the asshole for pointing this out to them.
December 11, 2025 at 3:45 AM
The thing they don’t teach you in parenting school is that those holiday concerts your kid is in? They are TERRIBLE. Like seriously. And apparently _you_ are the asshole for pointing this out to them.
“Bro, <LLM Model> is so June, 2025. AKA bullshit. You gotta get <Other LLM Model>, it’s like way better when you consider <absolutely no evidence>.”
December 10, 2025 at 11:46 PM
“Bro, <LLM Model> is so June, 2025. AKA bullshit. You gotta get <Other LLM Model>, it’s like way better when you consider <absolutely no evidence>.”
Let us have a moment of silence for the brave pumpkins, who sacrificed themselves so that we may enjoy a post-meal pie.
November 27, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Let us have a moment of silence for the brave pumpkins, who sacrificed themselves so that we may enjoy a post-meal pie.
Life pro tip: you’ll be able to remember the people in your spouse’s work stories by giving them colorful nicknames.
November 22, 2025 at 3:17 AM
Life pro tip: you’ll be able to remember the people in your spouse’s work stories by giving them colorful nicknames.
The easiest way to measure <X> about a company, is to see how engineers spend their time on-call.
November 19, 2025 at 1:52 AM
The easiest way to measure <X> about a company, is to see how engineers spend their time on-call.
Status Code 4XX, for when you want to make it clear that it’s more of a “you problem”.
November 18, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Status Code 4XX, for when you want to make it clear that it’s more of a “you problem”.
LLM: please do the same thing again, but in such a way it doesn’t fall with ERR_TOO_MANY_OUTPUT_TOKENS.
November 16, 2025 at 10:29 PM
LLM: please do the same thing again, but in such a way it doesn’t fall with ERR_TOO_MANY_OUTPUT_TOKENS.
Are the people on LinkedIn for real?
November 15, 2025 at 2:24 AM
Are the people on LinkedIn for real?
Any time I see the word “comprehensive”, I start to get the “this is some AI generated bullshit” tingles.
November 14, 2025 at 4:07 AM
Any time I see the word “comprehensive”, I start to get the “this is some AI generated bullshit” tingles.
Oh geez, this Q-Doba is really skeezy! … oh, wait. It’s just a Chipotle.
September 12, 2025 at 1:29 AM
Oh geez, this Q-Doba is really skeezy! … oh, wait. It’s just a Chipotle.
‘tmux’ this a game changer. Kicking myself I didn’t RTFM a long, long time ago.
September 10, 2025 at 10:52 PM
‘tmux’ this a game changer. Kicking myself I didn’t RTFM a long, long time ago.
That wasn’t laziness. It’s just some “temporal frugality”.
September 8, 2025 at 8:04 PM
That wasn’t laziness. It’s just some “temporal frugality”.
OH “Transparency comes in a lot of different colors”
September 5, 2025 at 7:25 PM
OH “Transparency comes in a lot of different colors”
Sure, I might not produce much shareholder value. But at least I’m stepping up to brew the first pot of coffee in the morning. That’s definitely a “force multiplier” for the entire floor of engineers!
September 5, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Sure, I might not produce much shareholder value. But at least I’m stepping up to brew the first pot of coffee in the morning. That’s definitely a “force multiplier” for the entire floor of engineers!
I also added the alt text on that last image to include “no ball hairs or tip”, because I care about inclusivity like that. (No sarcasm! Blind people need to know what “Digital Touch” is used for too!)
September 4, 2025 at 5:20 PM
I also added the alt text on that last image to include “no ball hairs or tip”, because I care about inclusivity like that. (No sarcasm! Blind people need to know what “Digital Touch” is used for too!)
Fact: iMessage’s “Digital Touch” feature has only ever been used to draw cock and balls.
I’m pretty sure the integration tests at Apple have elaborate ways of drawing C&Bs with all sorts of variations. And the regression test suite is just problematic C&Bs from legacy devices or obscure locales.
I’m pretty sure the integration tests at Apple have elaborate ways of drawing C&Bs with all sorts of variations. And the regression test suite is just problematic C&Bs from legacy devices or obscure locales.
September 4, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Fact: iMessage’s “Digital Touch” feature has only ever been used to draw cock and balls.
I’m pretty sure the integration tests at Apple have elaborate ways of drawing C&Bs with all sorts of variations. And the regression test suite is just problematic C&Bs from legacy devices or obscure locales.
I’m pretty sure the integration tests at Apple have elaborate ways of drawing C&Bs with all sorts of variations. And the regression test suite is just problematic C&Bs from legacy devices or obscure locales.
All I’m saying is that it’s not _not_ a best practice to add a —yolo flag to your CLI operations.
September 2, 2025 at 7:52 PM
All I’m saying is that it’s not _not_ a best practice to add a —yolo flag to your CLI operations.
Yeah, we aren’t particular about it. We just call it Heroine. Even if it isn’t from the Heroine alley of downtown Seattle.
August 22, 2025 at 3:53 AM
Yeah, we aren’t particular about it. We just call it Heroine. Even if it isn’t from the Heroine alley of downtown Seattle.
Achievement unlocked? I just told a generative AI to stop asking me to review its edits, and just complete all the items on its todo list. #yolo?
I’m fleshing out the reference docs for a service from the (well documented) API interface definitions… so far the AI is doing an OK-ish job.
I’m fleshing out the reference docs for a service from the (well documented) API interface definitions… so far the AI is doing an OK-ish job.
July 13, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Achievement unlocked? I just told a generative AI to stop asking me to review its edits, and just complete all the items on its todo list. #yolo?
I’m fleshing out the reference docs for a service from the (well documented) API interface definitions… so far the AI is doing an OK-ish job.
I’m fleshing out the reference docs for a service from the (well documented) API interface definitions… so far the AI is doing an OK-ish job.