The text discusses the concept of discernment, using the example of Íñigo López de Oñaz y Loyola's experience. It explains how discernment is a functional mental tool outside any religious context and how it can be effective in pi...
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Sam Bleckley is a consulting software engineer, designer, and artist working out of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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The text discusses the inefficiency of the courtroom and how it is designed to be robust rather than efficient, with each participant having a specific role. It emphasizes the importance of slow, robust systems in social instituti...
The text discusses the 'I Wish' song in Beauty and the Beast and the show-stopping number in Wicked, offering alternative perspectives on the songs and their thematic relevance. The author also reflects on their critical nature an...
0Why I Rewrote a Century-Old Artist's Anatomy Book
2025-01-01 •
The author discusses the process of rewriting and improving the century-old artist's anatomy book, Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy. The project involved modernizing the text, connecting illustrations to the text, and addressing ou...
0On Tools
2024-11-19 •
The blog post discusses the concept of tools and how they transform tasks, categorizing them into three types of transformations. It emphasizes that tools should make hard work easier and warns against introducing complications th...
0The Anatomist's Fallacy
2024-10-29 •
The blog post discusses the anatomist's fallacy, which is the tendency to ascribe purpose to something simply because it's effective at something, even when it's the result of a system that might not be capable of intention at all...
0Build a Laboratory
2024-10-07 •
The text discusses the concept of a minimum viable product (MVP) and suggests reframing it as a complete business hypothesis. It emphasizes the importance of testing assumptions through smaller experiments and building a laborator...
0AI in 2024: Eat the fruit, leave the rind
2024-08-31 •
The blog post discusses the exciting uses of LLMs, particularly in generating vector embeddings of text. It emphasizes the potential of vector embeddings for search, clustering, and providing accurate results without the need for ...
0AI in 2024: Making a Case
2024-08-26 •
The blog post discusses various arguments against generative AI and provides counterpoints to each argument. The author addresses concerns about energy consumption, copyright infringement, creativity, laziness, and job displacemen...
0AI in 2024: What Good is Bullshit?
2024-08-16 •
The blog post discusses the practical application of generative AI and its potential uses. It presents a 3-point summary of the paper 'Generative AI is Bullshit' and explains the concept of 'bullshit' as a technical term. It also ...
0Build a Product, Not a Chatbot
2023-09-04 •
The blog post discusses the use of generative AI in products, cautioning against rushing to build chatbots and prompt UIs that serve up raw generative results. It emphasizes the importance of self-reflection, quality control, and ...
0Don't Fire Your Illustrator
2023-08-20 •
The blog post discusses the author's unique perspective as a software engineer and artist on image-generative AI systems. It is divided into two parts, with the first part providing a technical description of stable diffusion and ...
0Garden Path Content
2023-06-04 •
The text discusses the history of storytelling and the evolution of content creation, from prehistory to modern times. It explores the concept of 'garden path content' and how it has been influenced by algorithm-driven platforms. ...
0On the UI of Selecting Options
2022-10-30 •
The blog post discusses the best UI element to use for selecting options based on the number of options available. It recommends using a switch for two or three options, a radio group for four or five options, and a dropdown selec...
0On Inputting Numbers
2022-10-29 •
The blog post discusses the challenges and best practices for numeric inputs on the web, including different types of numeric inputs, considerations for user experience, and recommendations for building a design system.
0Unreal Work
2022-03-20 •
The text discusses the concept of 'unreal work' and the feeling that certain tasks are peripheral to the main work. It emphasizes the importance of valuing all aspects of work and finding meaning in all tasks, rather than consider...