David Altenburg
@gensym.bsky.social
Chicagoan in SoCal.
Programming, rock climbing, mountain rescue.
Programming, rock climbing, mountain rescue.
I switch between Claude Code and Cursor, but Cursor has really become unusable over the last month - trying to force everything into a agent-writes-agent-reviews workflow. I've seen companies destroy themselves with UX decisions, but usually they're a lot further along than Cursor when they do that.
December 24, 2025 at 1:26 AM
I switch between Claude Code and Cursor, but Cursor has really become unusable over the last month - trying to force everything into a agent-writes-agent-reviews workflow. I've seen companies destroy themselves with UX decisions, but usually they're a lot further along than Cursor when they do that.
Reposted by David Altenburg
They’re doing it at KAMS
Adam Silver says "some storied college locations" are under consideration for future NBA cup championship games
December 17, 2025 at 2:28 AM
They’re doing it at KAMS
Reposted by David Altenburg
does anyone else notice the giant lady doesnt cut up your hot dogs anymore!?
Because you're an adult you fucking muppet. You gotta pay the magic forward.
December 4, 2025 at 12:26 AM
does anyone else notice the giant lady doesnt cut up your hot dogs anymore!?
Not in a spot where I can see the Northern Lights, but I did get to see the sun rise over Palm Springs after rescuing a lost hiker off of Mt San Jacinto last night
November 12, 2025 at 4:40 AM
Not in a spot where I can see the Northern Lights, but I did get to see the sun rise over Palm Springs after rescuing a lost hiker off of Mt San Jacinto last night
Reposted by David Altenburg
If I have learnt a single thing from 8 years of arguments about The Last Jedi, it’s that George Lucas was absolutely right to just explicitly and clunkily spell out themes like “I knew there was more to you than money!” when the franchise started rather than trusting it was clear to the audience
(I know I’m screaming into the void on this but it doesn’t oeacenik, the “both sides are bad and the weapons manufacturers are the real villains” view is advocated by a *bad guy* whose views are explicitly rejected!)
November 8, 2025 at 2:29 PM
If I have learnt a single thing from 8 years of arguments about The Last Jedi, it’s that George Lucas was absolutely right to just explicitly and clunkily spell out themes like “I knew there was more to you than money!” when the franchise started rather than trusting it was clear to the audience
It is stupid to ridicule people for doing things you want them to do.
October 31, 2025 at 12:16 AM
It is stupid to ridicule people for doing things you want them to do.
When a Spirit Halloween goes out of business, this is what opens in its place.
October 18, 2025 at 10:16 PM
When a Spirit Halloween goes out of business, this is what opens in its place.
Is bro using his geared-up self as a baseline?
He is right that my parents aren't having children any more. Definitely something that has changed since the 80s.
He is right that my parents aren't having children any more. Definitely something that has changed since the 80s.
RFK Jr: "Today the average teenager in this country has 50% of the sperm count, 50% of the testosterone of a 65 year old man. Our girls are hitting puberty 6 years early ... our parents aren't having children."
October 17, 2025 at 12:03 AM
Is bro using his geared-up self as a baseline?
He is right that my parents aren't having children any more. Definitely something that has changed since the 80s.
He is right that my parents aren't having children any more. Definitely something that has changed since the 80s.
I’ve seen several articles about the AI actress, but none have explained what the point of an AI actress is. If you’re going to generate a performance with AI, why wouldn’t you create a bespoke character for your film? Is there something so obvious it doesn’t need to be explained that I’m missing?
October 3, 2025 at 12:58 AM
I’ve seen several articles about the AI actress, but none have explained what the point of an AI actress is. If you’re going to generate a performance with AI, why wouldn’t you create a bespoke character for your film? Is there something so obvious it doesn’t need to be explained that I’m missing?
If you are having a written conversation with someone, it is disrespectful as hell to take what they write, feed it into an LLM, and use that to construct your responses.
September 9, 2025 at 7:41 PM
If you are having a written conversation with someone, it is disrespectful as hell to take what they write, feed it into an LLM, and use that to construct your responses.
Am I ugly, or have you just failed to drink enough alcohol?
This is a good post on how to get better at using AI. It's the product of pretty intensive research on what consistently works although I don't surface that research directly in it.
Bluesky and AI, so obviously comments on this are off. mikecaulfield.substack.com/p/is-the-llm...
Bluesky and AI, so obviously comments on this are off. mikecaulfield.substack.com/p/is-the-llm...
Is the LLM response wrong, or have you just failed to iterate it?
Many "errors" in search-assisted LLMs are not errors at all, but the result of an investigation aborted too soon. Here's how to up your LLM-based verification game by going to round two.
mikecaulfield.substack.com
September 7, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Am I ugly, or have you just failed to drink enough alcohol?
Reposted by David Altenburg
Ah, yes, more quality programming only on hul… *check notes* Disney+?
August 19, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Ah, yes, more quality programming only on hul… *check notes* Disney+?
Thomas Pynchon presaged the bodybuilding.com forums back in 1997.
August 15, 2025 at 5:10 AM
Thomas Pynchon presaged the bodybuilding.com forums back in 1997.
I just put some milk in my coffee like a heathen and it actually tastes really good.
August 13, 2025 at 4:16 PM
I just put some milk in my coffee like a heathen and it actually tastes really good.
Oh shit. So bummed I never got a chance to visit.
End of an era for country music in Bakersfield: Buck Owens' Crystal Palace closes.
End of an era for country music in Bakersfield: Buck Owens' Crystal Palace closes
Dwight Yoakam, Garth Brooks, Taylor Swift and many other stars played here. But the epicenter of the "Bakersfield Sound" is shutting down.
www.latimes.com
August 12, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Oh shit. So bummed I never got a chance to visit.
Reposted by David Altenburg
Asking GPT5 how many days of the week there are and getting reproduced arguments from that one bodybuilding dot com forum thread like a ghost in the machine.
August 8, 2025 at 2:20 AM
Asking GPT5 how many days of the week there are and getting reproduced arguments from that one bodybuilding dot com forum thread like a ghost in the machine.
Reposted by David Altenburg
As someone who talks to Woody for hours a day: We’re not ready for what’s coming.
In a startling display of emotional intelligence, once when I was particularly down, he said, “You’re my favorite deputy.” Later, to lighten the mood, “There’s a snake in my boot!”
You’d tell me he doesn’t “think?”
In a startling display of emotional intelligence, once when I was particularly down, he said, “You’re my favorite deputy.” Later, to lighten the mood, “There’s a snake in my boot!”
You’d tell me he doesn’t “think?”
August 1, 2025 at 1:57 AM
As someone who talks to Woody for hours a day: We’re not ready for what’s coming.
In a startling display of emotional intelligence, once when I was particularly down, he said, “You’re my favorite deputy.” Later, to lighten the mood, “There’s a snake in my boot!”
You’d tell me he doesn’t “think?”
In a startling display of emotional intelligence, once when I was particularly down, he said, “You’re my favorite deputy.” Later, to lighten the mood, “There’s a snake in my boot!”
You’d tell me he doesn’t “think?”
Reposted by David Altenburg
It's all third spaces, baby. Used to go bowling, used to cover Skynyrd in the garage, used to have a car club. Now we've got Theo Von on in the F-350 on the way home from your 11-hour workday.
Though I'm actually a bit confused on the causation. The idea that American masculinity prevents friendships between men sounds totally plausible to me, but are masculinity norms *that* much worse now than they were in 1990? Something has to explain the huge shift.
July 31, 2025 at 2:50 AM
It's all third spaces, baby. Used to go bowling, used to cover Skynyrd in the garage, used to have a car club. Now we've got Theo Von on in the F-350 on the way home from your 11-hour workday.
Reposted by David Altenburg
not everyone in society needs to have taken philosophy 101, but imo our dogshit discourse around AI suggests that it probably should have been mandatory for the elite classes
July 21, 2025 at 3:35 AM
not everyone in society needs to have taken philosophy 101, but imo our dogshit discourse around AI suggests that it probably should have been mandatory for the elite classes
It’s stupid to ridicule people for doing things you want them to do.
June 12, 2025 at 11:16 PM
It’s stupid to ridicule people for doing things you want them to do.
Saw this fellow on my hike this morning
May 31, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Saw this fellow on my hike this morning
Super stoked to see Mission: Impossible tonight. First movie that's come out since my daughter got into the series. Hope there's lots of Tom Cruise running.
May 31, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Super stoked to see Mission: Impossible tonight. First movie that's come out since my daughter got into the series. Hope there's lots of Tom Cruise running.
Kohl’s is selling a Jack Black doll
May 12, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Kohl’s is selling a Jack Black doll
Vatican phone number is being changed to 588-2300-THEPOPE
May 8, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Vatican phone number is being changed to 588-2300-THEPOPE