Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · 8h

Just posted a couple of reflections to my website on one month of two boys.

Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · 6d

I'm putting together a Scottish Obsidian Users Group. Plan is to run a few lunch/evening online sessions to share tips and tricks 👇

Scottish Obsidian User Group @scotobs.org · 6d

We now have a website, events calendar and newsletter. Next step, organising either a Lunch N' Learn or an Evening session. Keen to hear what time would work best for folks!

Reposted by Jamie McHale

Duncan Stephen @duncanstephen.net · 7d

The ideas behind agile tend to be squashed down to two words: “move fast”. But the Agile Manifesto says nothing about moving fast.

The forgotten purpose of agile — Empowered teams responding to change

The ideas behind agile tend to be squashed down to two words: “move fast”. But the Agile Manifesto says nothing about moving fast.

duncanstephen.net

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Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · 7d

Bedtime is when I have the best conversations with my wee guy. We make stuff up together, play with words, talk about our day. He is the one being generative. I'm not against using AI as a tool, but it would be sad to outsource that part of the day.

Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 8d

Some parents are letting their kids talk to ChatGPT in the guise of characters. Some are using it to tell bedtime stories or create coloring books.

"My son thinks ChatGPT is the coolest train loving person in the world. The bar is set so high now I am never going to be able to compete with that.”

‘My son genuinely believed it was real’: Parents are letting little kids play with AI. Are they wrong?

Some believe AI can spark their child’s imagination through personalized stories and generative images. Scientists are wary of its affect on creativity

www.theguardian.com

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Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · 9d

Great work! 🙌

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Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · 12d

Went to the Lothian Bus Depot Doors Open Day yesterday. Lots of family fun!

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Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · 15d

Gathering interest for a Scottish Obsidian Users Group with @scottishtechnology.club - register here for updates: tally.so/r/3Nk6dO

Scottish Obsidian Users Group

Made with Tally, the simplest way to create forms.

tally.so

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Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · 16d

Organised this tonight 👇

Edinburgh JavaScript Meetup @edinburghjs.org · 16d

Kicking off the meetup and livestream with a talk on AI context from Alan Mathieson

Alan speaking in front of the EdinburghJS crowd and livestream camera

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Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · 19d

Lots of folks planning to join us on Tuesday night - seems like AI for JavaScripters is a hot topic!

Edinburgh JavaScript Meetup @edinburghjs.org · 19d

We're sold out for our "Let's talk about AI" night on Tuesday. There is a waitlist available, and we'll be livestreaming on the @scottishtechnology.club YouTube channel.

www.meetup.com/edinburghjs/...

September Meetup - Let's talk about AI, Tue, Sep 23, 2025, 6:30 PM | Meetup

Welcome to the EdinburghJS September Meetup! We'll be meeting on **Tuesday 23rd September, 18:30** for light refreshments and talks at the TravelPerk offices, Nova House, 3

www.meetup.com

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Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · 19d

Is the UK doing anything to pick up skilled workers that the US is rejecting / alienating?

Gergely Orosz @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com · 20d

Those on an H1B cannot return to the US from tomorrow (Sunday) unless paying $100K. This is an out-of-the blue presidential action. We’ll see software engineers stranded abroad.

One easy to predict outcome: those on US visas will travel less… for work, for conferences etc.

Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · 19d

bsky.app/profile/grim...

Dr. Cat Hicks @grimalkina.bsky.social · 19d

I mean doing situated text analysis BEFORE these models was already really interesting, and so is reading back through your old journals, I do not get why people are dunking on this, it shows understanding & curiosity. Bsky has turned into "we hate all models" as a default

Anil Dash @anildash.com · 20d

I get why everyone is dunking on this, but, having trained a very simple model on the ~3 million words I’ve written over the last 25 years, it’s actually very interesting to explore what’s there, to see what’s surprising or where I’ve changed my mind, or where my opinion diverges from its output.

Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · 19d

Plus the Readwise "Chat with your Highlights" is interesting - gathering together and connecting across my Kindle/RSS highlights for the past couple of years.

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Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · 19d

I've got my journal in markdown notes, via Obsidian - Claude Code has been interesting to use to explore connections / summarise time periods

bsky.app/profile/genm...

Matt Webb 🌸🌼🌸 @genmon.fyi · 19d

I’ve been running Claude Code over my notes across a similar time period, not to generate text but to make broad connections across them — you’re right it’s fascinating

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Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · 19d

bsky.app/profile/anil...

Anil Dash @anildash.com · 20d

I get why everyone is dunking on this, but, having trained a very simple model on the ~3 million words I’ve written over the last 25 years, it’s actually very interesting to explore what’s there, to see what’s surprising or where I’ve changed my mind, or where my opinion diverges from its output.

Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 20d

this exists it is called thinking

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Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · 19d

But I wonder if a "private LLM" allows for a different type of thinking, akin to thinking out loud?

psyche.co/ideas/talkin...

"Speaking out loud to yourself also increases the dialogical quality of our own speech. Although we have no visible addressee, speaking to ourselves encourages us to actively construct an image of an addressee and activate one’s ‘theory of mind’ – the ability to understand other people’s mental states, and to speak and act according to their imagined expectations. Mute inner speech can appear as an inner dialogue as well, but its truncated form encourages us to create a ‘secret’ abbreviated language and deploy mental shortcuts. By forcing us to articulate ourselves more fully, self-talk summons up the image of an imagined listener or interrogator more vividly. In this way, it allows us to question ourselves more critically by adopting an external perspective on our ideas, and so to consider shortcomings in our arguments – all while using our own speech." (Psyche, Talking Out Loud to Yourself Is a Technology for Thinking)

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Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · 20d

Original post disconnected (fair enough, don't want to dunk on the author). Topic: is discussing private notes with an LLM just thinking? Writing as a tool for thinking is pretty well discussed!

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Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · 20d

I don't really get this - I have a private database of notes, I have private written journals. They both help me think. Would you confuse the journals themselves for thinking?

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Reposted by Jamie McHale

Glasgow JavaScript Meetup @glasgowjs.org · 23d

Thank you to everyone who came to the meetup last night! Shout out to Michael, Kelsie, Allan, Louise and Mark at CGI and Gavin at Glasgow City Council for their volunteering+support!

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Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · 24d

Come join us this evening in Glasgow!

ScottishTechnology.club @scottishtechnology.club · 24d

Tue 16th 📆 September Meetup - Does it even need to be a mobile app? with GlasgowJS, Glasgow

September Meetup - Does it even need to be a mobile app?, Tue, Sep 16, 2025, 6:30 PM | Meetup

Welcome to the GlasgowJS September Meetup! We'll be meeting on **Tuesday 16th September, 18:30** for light refreshments, networking and talks at the BJSS office 180 W Georg

www.meetup.com

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Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · 29d

Got the same email from them to two different addresses saying the CEO loved my website. They failed to answer a subject access request (UK law) for how they got my contact details.

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Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · Sep 10

First visit to the bike park at the Crags Centre with the boy - will hopefully graduate from a balance bike soon 📸

Me running along next to Jack on his wee balance bike

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Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · Sep 4

Sure you'll agree we made a good choice with his name! 👋

Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · Sep 4

Welcomed Rory to the world last weekend - happy times for our wee family

www.jamiemchale.com/journal/hell...

Hello Rory

Personal website of Jamie McHale - freelance web developer, host of Scottish JavaScript meetups, keen runner, reader and photographer

www.jamiemchale.com

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Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · Sep 4

Drop an email to Victoria - [email protected] - she runs the scheme. Some folks opt for email intros, others have open calendar links. Let her know what works for you.

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Jamie McHale @jamiemchale.com · Aug 26

And even if they don't suffer, if lots of people (due to UI/UX) believe that they could it's worth having a public discussion of what constitutes suffering and why. And even short of that, how we treat things that "seem" like they could suffer probably has an impact on how we treat things that do.