2025 Week 05 - Weekly Notes

Summary

The second week into the second trump presidency, and it’s been miserable. There’s endless news on that. At home, we are starting to make sure we are prepared for the worst. The tariffs are around the corner, and there’s not much we can do about it.

Notes

The billionaires are pathetic. So are the men’s rights activists

• I knew one day I’d have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn’t expect them to be such losers | Rebecca Shaw | The Guardian
  • Bill Gates Met With Jeffrey Epstein Many Times, Despite His Past - The New York Times - speaking of taint

This is an excellent tracker. Something I will applaud

• POTUS Tracker

Underrated ways to change the world - by Adam Mastroianni

What a wonderful tool

• tldraw computer

PlayerMods - we build custom iPod Classic players – playermods

Skip, the reactive framework

‘Brain rot’ is Oxford word of the year — Top 10 tips to avoid it : r/selfimprovement

The Art of Calling Out Room Dynamics • Leadership Garden

Why am I surprised. Having a teenage son as a blood boy and penis measuring contestant. Geez.

• ‘Don’t Die’ Tech Mogul Bryan Johnson Is in an Actual Penis-Measuring Contest—With His Teenage Son | Vanity Fair

To follow: The Contrarian | Jen Rubin and Norm Eisen | Substack

Fascism Is Rising, But It Does Not Have to Be Our Future | Truthout

The efficient market hypothesis is a fallacy

• Nvidia Stock Plunges 15% As NVDA Heads To Biggest Market Cap Loss Ever

In today’s Elon is a piece of shit

• Europe’s Elon Musk Problem - The Atlantic
• Bill Gates calls Elon Musk’s embrace of far-right politicians abroad ‘insane shit’ | Bill Gates | The Guardian

Tailwind goes v4.0

• Tailwind CSS v4.0 - Tailwind CSS

Notes on the podcast, Coding Agents Cursor + Windsurf Tips - Syntax #871

• Different modes: Chat, Composer, Agent, Inline chat
  • Chat might be going away.
  • I’ve been using chat for creating outlines for presentations and create readmes
  • Composer will create files for you, but you have to use a diff tool first to figure out if you actual want it or not
  • Agent will run tools, run terminal commands, and go through your codebase. I haven’t tried this one yet
• Cursor rules
  • Learn Cursor - Cursor directory for cursor rules
  • Default ways, like libraries to use, which version of libraries
    • E.g. use esm, use typescript, stick to camelcase, use Svelte 5
• Screenshots - you can pass along screenshots to help you, whether that’s the app or an image of a PDF, like tables. You can technically add PDFs as well
• You can give it links to documentation, but this can be hit or miss
• Refactor to separate files rather than refactoring existing files. This might be extremely useful for a large migration.
  • Good for React components to a different one, then maybe refactor the existing file to relabel as deprecated and use a deprecated flag
• Use them to build quick projects. Doesn’t have to be big and fancy. Even a page to help you visualize the new Set rules
  • Which is great to segway to have them help visualize
• Use it to experiment
  • Use it to branch out (git) and try different animations
  • Example: Wes created a fire dispatch tool to send out tweets or alerts when there are paramedics around and having it parse out that information to a stream people can easily consume

How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain • Russell Baylis - Designer

1. An even, diffused lighting environment is best for the eyes
2. When it comes to light brightness, too much is just as problematic as too little
3. Use natural light wherever possible
4. Quality of artificial light matters
5. The best lighting for camera, is not necessarily the best lighting for ergonomics
6. Even the perfect lighting environment will fatigue you — take breaks, and take care of yourself

AI is Creating a Generation of Illiterate Programmers | N’s Blog

We’re not becoming 10x developers with AI.
We’re becoming 10x dependent on AI. There’s a difference. — Namanyay Goel

Maybe look through this for examples

• PostHog - How developers build successful products

Ugh

• President Blames D.E.I. and Biden for Crash Under Trump’s Watch - The New York Times

Readwise has a changelog now!

• Readwise & Reader Changelog - Readwise Docs

From my notebooks monthly newsletter

• P.S. A Conversation about Notebooks with Helen Sword

Molly White revealing the ghostwriters

• Trump’s Project 2025 ghostwriters

100 Devs

New Grey video is up.

• A Major Postgres Upgrade with Zero Downtime

• Why I still like Sublime Text in 2025 | OhDoyleRules

• Effective AI code suggestions: less is more

• Silicon Valley Tech Workers Quietly Protest Their Bosses’ Embrace of Trump - The New York Times

• Monk Mode - by Mario Gabriele - The Generalist

• Time to Value Realization: How Readwise’s Extended Trial Changed My Mind – Product Pickle

  • Transforming How I Read: From Pocket to Readwise Reader - Fernandina Observer

A fun wikipedia based puzzle game

• Redactle | Wikipedia based Puzzle Game

Midlevel staff are often the first targets of corporate downsizing efforts, but Meta’s plan to replace an entire tier of people with AI is a new wrinkle on an old story.

• Mark Zuckerberg Plans to Replace Some Coders With AI, Which Might Prove Tricky

• t3dotgg/stripe-recommendations: I’ve built with Stripe for years. This is how I do it without going mad.

• The Cyber-Cleanse: Take Back Your Digital Footprint - The Opt Out Project

Boo

• EEOC Chair Announces Transgender Bathroom Ban in Private Businesses “A Priority”

• Opinions on the best duty tactical flashlight? Market for something new, I’m leaning towards a fenix or maybe a streamlight. I’m admittedly a novice here, but I’m on nightshift. I’m constantly using it, so reliability is important. Thank you for any input. : r/flashlight

Recommendations

• Questlove’s Fantastic Video Mix of 50 Years of SNL Music. We watched the entire movie as well. Very good watch. Except for the Sinead O’Connor. They did her dirty.
  • Sinéad O’Connor on Saturday Night Live - Wikipedia
• Podcast: From open source to acquired with Ashley Jeffs (Changelog Interviews #625)
• Book: Micaiah Johnson - The Space Between Worlds

Obits

• Mike Hynson, Surfing Star of ‘The Endless Summer,’ Dies at 82 - The New York Times
• Iris Cummings Critchell, 104, Dies; Olympic Swimmer Turned Aviator - The New York Times