Support for Utah's Proposition 4 is emphasized, advocating for fair redistricting and political balance while urging representatives to uphold the law.
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Jacob O'Bryant is a software engineer and founder with interests in programming and renewable energy.
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In an interview on the podcast Imperfect Creatives, Jacob O’Bryant discusses his journey as a solo entrepreneur, revealing the psychological challenges he faced and his realization that he values invention over business-building. ...
4.3I'm shutting down The Sample
2025-09-10 • email yakread self-publishing sample
The author, Jacob O'Bryant, announces the shutdown of his email newsletter, The Sample, which he operated from February 2021 to August 2022. Despite initial traction, the newsletter was unable to become a sustainable business and ...
The text discusses the rewriting of Yakread's ranking algorithm, which merges newsletter/RSS subscriptions and bookmarked articles into a personalized feed. It explains the process of picking and recommending items, sorting bookma...
The author has been rewriting the Yakread codebase over the past few months, experimenting with different ways to structure the code. The plan is to shut down The Sample and migrate the users to Yakread. The author is also plannin...
The author describes their decision to leave the LDS church after studying evidence from both sides and becoming an agnostic. They provide advice on evaluating evidence and share their thoughts on the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith,...
The author reflects on their experience with formal education and their preference for homeschooling. They discuss the Sudbury Valley School, a school without classes, homework, or exams, and the benefits of this model. The author...
The author discusses the development of Platypub, a blogging/newsletter platform, and the challenges faced. The platform has been rewritten as a CLI tool and the author plans to target Clojure programmers and technical users. The ...
0I am still alive
2025-03-11 • social media online communities yakread biff discussion app
The author discusses his current projects and future plans, including working on Yakread and other apps, and the need for a better discussion app. He also talks about the challenges of setting up an online community and the ideal ...
The author discusses resurrecting the Discourse forum, switching from Discord, and the improvements made to Yakread. They also talk about open-sourcing the codebase, adding dark mode and typography settings, and other features. Th...
The author has recently started a new job as a software engineer at Tyba, where he will be working in the energy industry. He is also planning to work on his side projects, including Yakread, Biff, and writing essays. The author i...
The author discusses their recent experiences and plans to experiment with Mastodon, a decentralized social media platform. They are interested in using Mastodon as a public place for comments and discussions, and to generate news...
Jacob O'Bryant is in the middle of interviews for two larger startups and has a compelling offer from a 6-person startup in the renewable energy space. He is planning to make some updates to Yakread, including adding an 'in case y...
The author questions the importance of discussion apps over reading apps after reading a manifesto from the Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure. They recommend more emphasis on small community/discussion apps and loyal cl...
The author discusses his decision to renege on starting a TFOS subreddit due to recent events and his preference for Discord over Reddit. He also contemplates making Yakread open-source and abandoning the Yakstack initiative. The ...