Max Forbes

GitHub - leeoniya/uPlot: 📈 A small, fast chart for time series, lines, areas, ohlc & bars 📈 A small, fast chart for time series, lines, areas, ohlc & bars - leeoniya/uPlot

Thank you!! I used uPlot (github.com/leeoniya/uPlot), immediately in ways it's not quite intended, but still worked well

median says hi too

i bet u did not know this

Talk to Me Human (my game) is done, out, released on Steam. I went unhinged with the bonus challenges in the second half to keep myself entertained. Spent so much time laughing hysterically in a room alone playtesting it

you CANNOT convince Vincent he's in actual danger

The PhD Metagame: Your Advisor Has Five Impossible Jobs - Maxwell Forbes Manager, PI, PM, Tech Lead, and Teacher.

So ya I write more on da PhD Metagame blog
maxwellforbes.com/posts/your-a...

Your PhD advisor has at least five jobs. They’re probably really good at some and maybe bad at one or two.

It surprised me how close (though abstract) the analogies are to traditional roles from industry. Except teacher, of course.

article also features shoutouts to friends @greg.technology @itseieio.bsky.social and @brianmoore.com

🧶✏️👩🏽‍💻 The internet’s hidden creative renaissance (and how to find it) The indie web means the return of gifs, funky cursors, and personal websites

I was interviewed for this piece in New_ Public about the indie web by Alexandra Ciufudean!

newpublic.substack.com/p/the-handma...

Knowing What's Important - Maxwell Forbes An emergent skill of mastering any craft—using software, cooking, even playing a game—is knowing what's actually...

Been musing on this a bit, here's a blog post with examples I've collected so far. More suggestions welcome!

maxwellforbes.com/posts/knowin...

An emergent skill of mastering any craft—using software, cooking, even playing a game—is knowing what's actually important. An expert builds a precise workflow using a tiny fraction of the available control plane. At a deeper level, they know on which aspects to focus, and which to ignore.

Talk to Me Human The talking your way out of it simulator

Here’s the link. Try the free demo if you’re still undecided!

"I've never played a game that had me dying laughing like that!" — real unsolicited feedback (!)

talktomehuman.com

Hello, last chance for 50% off Talk to Me Human! Early access ($4.99) — which includes the complete game — is ending. I’m releasing the full version soon on Steam and web, and the price will bump to $9.99.

a fictional cover for a hypothetical book by Samin Nosrat called Bitter Dank Umami Sweet, similar in style to the cover of Salt Fat Acid Heat

My dream for Samin Nosrat's next book: Bitter Dank Umami Sweet.

I have saved this stupid idea for literally years.

The PhD Metagame: The Cursed Word "Interesting" - Maxwell Forbes People calling ideas "interesting" was perhaps the greatest challenge I regularly faced in communicating about research.

The most cursed word in talking about research is “interesting.”
maxwellforbes.com/posts/intere...

It means anything from "I don't understand" to "that's been done before" "this should be our focus for 6 months"

ye olde oversized spinning conical gradient

unabashedly into my new 404 page

Weatherspread Remember the weather. Check the spread.

weatherspread.com

Thanks for checking it out!

There’s lots more we’d like to build, but we’re releasing it now to get feedback. It’s free and there’s no ads, so if you’re interested and would like to support us, there’s a box to give your email. In the future, we may consider a premium app version or an patreon-like support option.

We’ve also added tourism stats, and synced it to weather data. This has been particularly eye-opening. It lets us see when a country experiences over-tourism (e.g., Croatia and Austria) relative to its population.

So historical data is your best bet.

We’ve observed that the last few years is a much better indicator of what the weather will be like than most data sources which aggregate from 1900 or even 1950.

I’m pleased to announce the release of Weatherspread, a web app for visualizing recent weather and tourism data!

I built this app with friends Tristan and Shelby to aid in planning travel and events. Usually you plan things far enough out (say, 3-6 months) that there’s no reliable forecast.

complete blog post is now live! more tips, and reframed into 2-step process: (1) get accepted by page 1, (2) avoid rejection with the rest. download both PDFs too.

maxwellforbes.com/posts/how-to...

works in footnotes too

yes this is probably overall a bad idea

Exciting to zero people but me, I randomly tried putting an image in a sidenote and it JUST WORKED

if it hadn't I would have assumed no quantity of toil would have fixed it

compare vs slop from the day before "Hit Indie ggame" :-(

four gpt-4o redesigns of my game, in styles "beautiful" / "stylized" / "cell-shaded" / "cyberpunk." it's like having an amazing but stochastic concept artist.

it makes the need for *art direction* so obvious — by allowing any style, what choices do you make to achieve a vision?

Córdoba, Spain (8/100)

Granada (7/100)

Nerja (6/100) ft. Beach Gato

Málaga (5/100)