jmarlena

Anyone else dream of launching the next wordle and retiring early?

I wonder if new word games like this one get a lot of agent traffic. Excited to try it.

Slack

From an engineering community's Slack. That's an engineer wondering. I giggled.

“The IBM 704 could handle only about 4,000 ‘words’ of code in its memory. A good programmer was concise and elegant and never wasted a word. They were poets of bits.”

From “The Secret History of Women in Coding” by Clive Thompson

Curious about the last one. What do you mean by turning speed vs regular speed? Speed to pivot or change something major vs scale?

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Use your words.

I keep returning to this question: “How much time was actually saved if you factor in PR review?”

Also, I see a lot of generated PRs abandoned when scrutiny comes because it can be easier to rebuild to understand & test than to fix something.

I maintain that science writing is a form of technical writing.

And that story-driven science writing adapted for young people (and/or the visually inclined) can be a fun, creative form of explaining things.

I wonder if there’s a broader word for technical writing craft now.

This is human earned context in an academic setting. 😆

This is why I like Git version control & ‘git blame’ for understanding the writing/drafting process.

I responded on LinkedIn but sure wish more tech writers were on Bluesky.

Sample bias seems ancient. Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a woman?” comes to mind . . .

A small girl wearing a rabbit costume and blue coat carries a book as she walks to school. Her mother (head out of shot) wheels her baby brother along in a pushchair. The baby says "Peter Rabbit may be the 'Hero' of the story, but surely the obedient, widowed Mrs Rabbit is a more effective symbol of the oppression inherent within Mister McGregor's regime" The girls looks furious and snaps "Mum!! He's critiquing my world book day costume from a marxist perspective again!"

A cartoon reminder that tomorrow is World Book Day (In the UK anyway). Originally for the @theguardian.com

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This sums up the tech writing edict "Know thy audience"

I’m convinced now tech writers increasingly need more technical expertise so they can spot the plausible but very wrong assertions of LLMs/AI agents.

Reviewing PRs generated by AI can be the worst when no one can answer why certain assertions are made. It can take more expertise to debunk.

Dear article writers, bloggers, and thought leaders: before you ask a diffusion model to barf up a banner image, please just go on one of these archives and pick something nice.

Love this take on using AI strategically to support tasks and learning. 😍

Bibliotherapist

Git diagram slop with the nonsensical words "Bugfixes from rel, branch may be continvoucly [made-up word in bold] morged [made-up word] back into develop

You might be continvoucing someone else, but not me.

#unmorged

Your ability to deeply understand a problem, explore new approaches & iterate all gets kneecapped when you outsource the first draft to AI. Even if you're reviewing/refining the AI output, it doesn't matter; you're not well-equipped to do so because you haven't spent time thinking about the problem.

Legit reason and helpful perspective that just might help me write more myself.

it’s important to keep caring about how things work and how they’re built

It's been nice to see people using library.wizardzines.com to view their zine collections (over a thousand people have used it so far!)

I think we're going to add a feature to merge accounts if you used more than one email to buy zines

It’s interesting this example is a diagram from a well-known flow.

I’ve tried using AI to help depict a newer product flow and it was taking more time than any saved. The mental models broken were either very off or subtle.

I don’t know who needs to hear this but listening to an audio book absolutely counts as “reading” a book.

In fact, I’d argue that listening to an author read their own work aloud is an exceptionally magical and even holy experience.

I love it so much. Especially as my eyesight gets worse.

We could not do this without AI. We once had large teams covering these counties. That’s no longer feasible. Because we want reporters gathering information, these jobs are 100 percent reporting. We have an AI rewrite specialist who turns their material into drafts. We fact-check everything. Editors review it. Reporters get the final say. Humans — not AI — control every step. By removing writing from reporters’ workloads, we’ve effectively freed up an extra workday for them each week. They’re spending it on the street — doing in-person interviews, meeting sources for coffee. That’s where real stories emerge, and they’re returning with more ideas than we can handle.

Thinking about the many decisions that get made when you turn your notes into a draft and what that looks like when the bot is making all of those decisions, even if you get the "final say" after the decisions have been made. www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...

also: if you want to be on Web Dev Challenge, there’s a casting call! codetv.link/wdc/casting-call

also please nominate great devs that haven’t been on the show. it’s important to me that the show includes real representation of industry devs in addition to bringing on recognizable community folks

Title: A personalised Valentine's card for bibliophiles Image: A cartoon heart with arms, legs and a smiling face. With an empty speech bubble above. Five options for text to cut out and put in the bubble: I love you more than my books! I love you as much as my books! I love you almost as much as my books! I love you! No more questions! I love books!

A valentine's card for bibliophiles.
For @theguardian.com books.
Download a printable version here:
www.tomgauld.com/valentine

I love that explaining something can translate something that you discover as well as your students.