Ross's Micro Blog

This was very much inspired by “The Decoherence Trap”, which is a most excellent piece of thinking, writing and design by Kristen Maevyn

https://maevyn.codes/decoherence

Having fun reading and writing today.

LLMs are not just machines. They are machine-building machines! This comes with way more responsibility. And understanding it may change how you use them.

https://rosswintle.uk/2026/10/llms-are-not-like-manufacturing-machines/

I’m pretty proud of some of the writing I’ve done over the years. It’s time to start re-posting some of it where they are still – perhaps more so! – relevant.

In this post I argue that “People might not be dying at the hands of your if statements, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care.”

https://rosswintle.uk/2019/01/not-all-software-development-processes-are-equal/

I’m not really one to make predictions about tech. Mostly because I’m not a regular tech user.

BUT! Of the things I’ve made predictions about – publicly or not – I can only think of 1 that I got wrong.

Years ago, I thought having a camera inside a mobile phone was stupid & no one would want it! 🤦

Catching up on LeadDev. This is something no one could have foreseen, right? 🙄

"The engineers … now spend an average of 16.9 hours a week debugging … just 9.8 hours producing code … largely because 35% of AI-generated code is reaching production before engineering teams have fully comprehended it"

https://leaddev.com/ai/ai-code-causes-real-world-production-outages

#thankYouToday for the string of brilliant managers I’ve had over the years. Iain, Matt, Brian, April, Tony – and ages ago Mark, Dave and Neil.

I’ve been blessed to have these people buffer me from bureaucracy, encourage me, and share their wisdom and knowledge with me. Awesome people.

We are reducing the default level of reasoning to “junior”. If you require a higher level of reasoning you need to upgrade to a “staff” plan.

We look forward to continuing to serve you with intelligence that furthers your business goals.

😉

(Boss, if you read this, this is a joke! I have no intention of changing my employment arrangements)

Dear valued boss

To ensure your ongoing success and value we are changing our pricing and plans.

Ross no longer has a “senior” plan. He is only available in “junior”, “staff” and “VP” plans.

I missed my gratitude yesterday.

I had a flu jab, so it’s #thankYouToday for the marvellous science of vaccines!!

Also in “diagrams” – this from Dave Walker is perfect. 🤩

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:yxmwxaytl64kjolzi64nad4n/post/3mxtycbms4s2l

This – storing the document in the URL hash – is the kind of creative thinking that I love.

If you’ve not seen it, here’s my 2-player “word game” clone that works the same way: https://words.pico.games/

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:53ykobfiwdm2ihatqmwdz24l/post/3mxubutwut22h

I know that asking this question here will probably fill me with confirmation bias, but…

For repeated but important tasks, do regular people (I.e. not me) really prefer sending English language commands to a slow and potentially unpredictable chatbot over learning a well-designed UI?

I’ve not been 100% functioning today. Last night and this morning I had pretty debilitating neck/back/shoulder pain. But I also just feel crap. So maybe it’s partly viral or something?

Anyway. This means that my #thankYouToday must be for my amazing wife who has done all the chores today. ❤️

As well as some daily thankfulness I’m trying to share good things that I have or come across.

Yes, yes, this is a very normal social media thing to do. But I’ve not done it much, despite being someone who bookmarks about 5 cool things every day!

Part of my attempt to recognise & share good stuff!

I’ve also, for some reason, been contemplating water a lot lately. This weird molecule that life depends on so much. There is so much of it and yet it is so precious.

The excellent book “Hidden Systems” made me think more about it today.

https://www.hiddensystems.net/hidden-systems

#thankYouToday for water!

Today I’m grateful (#thankYouToday) for my daughter’s taekwondo class. The instructors are so brilliant and it’s a wonderful community thing as well as good for her.

Here’s my Puzzmo profile link if you want to follow/connect:

https://www.puzzmo.com/user/ki/magicroundabout#follow

Puzzmo is an excellent puzzling app. I’m super happy to be a Puzzmonaut. This looks like a great time to try it out!

(I thought it was independent but it’s owned by Hearst! TIL)

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:p5ode5bkf6vjtt6ahtssuxui/post/3mxrgegqg622d

One more #thankYouToday to make up for that rant.

I got a Nebula subscription for my birthday and it’s been wonderful.

I got it to support Tom Scott and his delightful “England” series. But my whole family are binge-watching Jet Lag, and I’ve enjoyed the chaotic comedy of Abolish Everything too.