Benjamin Harnett
@benjaminharnett.com
Sometime poet, historian, software engineer, novelist, union man. https://www.benjaminharnett.com https://thehappyvalleynovel.com
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Benjamin Harnett
@benjaminharnett.com
· Jun 20
I interviewed 300 high achievers about their morning routine, and you will never believe, they all have inherited family wealth.
Reposted by Benjamin Harnett
I don’t know man if capitalism has just resulted in a small network of pedophiles destroying all life on earth then perhaps we should consider that it is a complete and utter failure as a system
December 16, 2025 at 4:38 PM
I don’t know man if capitalism has just resulted in a small network of pedophiles destroying all life on earth then perhaps we should consider that it is a complete and utter failure as a system
Reposted by Benjamin Harnett
~ancient art historian voice~ “You know who else liked to show off their bubble butts while playing sports?”
December 27, 2025 at 10:32 PM
~ancient art historian voice~ “You know who else liked to show off their bubble butts while playing sports?”
Reposted by Benjamin Harnett
Institutions obviously matter, but if we don’t collectively reject the ideas that immigration is a national security threat new institutions will eventually perform the same functions.
December 27, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Institutions obviously matter, but if we don’t collectively reject the ideas that immigration is a national security threat new institutions will eventually perform the same functions.
GenAI is an issue on so many levels that it can become overwhelming to unpack it and address it, but as a person whose job it is being pushed to radically transform, it’s as easy to deal with as anything else from a craft perspective: if it was the right tool for the work, I’d use it. And I don’t.
December 27, 2025 at 7:03 PM
GenAI is an issue on so many levels that it can become overwhelming to unpack it and address it, but as a person whose job it is being pushed to radically transform, it’s as easy to deal with as anything else from a craft perspective: if it was the right tool for the work, I’d use it. And I don’t.
Reposted by Benjamin Harnett
also this bsky.app/profile/donz...
Adrian Vermeule is proof that if you work hard and stay in school there's no limit to the amount of stupid bullshit you can convince yourself to believe.
I had missed this latest delirium by Adrian Vermeule on birthright citizenship
'Common law?! NAH, it's the Roman law of adoption that should govern the interpretation of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution!'
thenewdigest.substack.com/p/immigratio...
'Common law?! NAH, it's the Roman law of adoption that should govern the interpretation of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution!'
thenewdigest.substack.com/p/immigratio...
December 27, 2025 at 12:02 AM
also this bsky.app/profile/donz...
Reposted by Benjamin Harnett
A programmer relying on the plagiarism machine is someone who's not, at all, thinking about how to make maintainable code. They're not thinking of what happens 6 months later when someone needs to change it.
You can tell, because they didn't bother writing it in the first place.
You can tell, because they didn't bother writing it in the first place.
December 27, 2025 at 6:27 PM
A programmer relying on the plagiarism machine is someone who's not, at all, thinking about how to make maintainable code. They're not thinking of what happens 6 months later when someone needs to change it.
You can tell, because they didn't bother writing it in the first place.
You can tell, because they didn't bother writing it in the first place.
One more time for the afternoon crowd.
A second installment of my collaboration with artist Mark Mastroianni. #FridayIceArtAndPoetry Here in the days after the longest night we wonder in ice and in poetry what we will find as the light returns. “What’s out there?”
December 27, 2025 at 6:54 PM
One more time for the afternoon crowd.
There is nothing Silicon Valley can’t make worse.
Amazingly, reaction times using screens while driving are worse than being drunk or high—no wonder 90 percent of drivers hate using touchscreens in cars. Finally the auto industry is coming to its senses.
Rejoice! Carmakers Are Embracing Physical Buttons Again
Amazingly, reaction times using screens while driving are worse than being drunk or high—no wonder 90 percent of drivers hate using touchscreens in cars. Finally the auto industry is coming to its…
wrd.cm
December 27, 2025 at 6:51 PM
There is nothing Silicon Valley can’t make worse.
Reposted by Benjamin Harnett
Happy Marlene's birthday!
December 27, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Happy Marlene's birthday!
Reposted by Benjamin Harnett
If enough legal scholars and judges take a legal position then it is a serious one.
December 27, 2025 at 1:12 PM
If enough legal scholars and judges take a legal position then it is a serious one.
Ok who signed me up for the DailyWire??
December 27, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Ok who signed me up for the DailyWire??
Reposted by Benjamin Harnett
I've started to see arguments that we have to get used to AI Slop coding even if it isn't great, because it's fast. Humans could go faster, too, if they're allowed to turn in stuff that only sometimes works. Such a fascinating double standard that will in no way come back to haunt, naw.
December 26, 2025 at 5:10 PM
I've started to see arguments that we have to get used to AI Slop coding even if it isn't great, because it's fast. Humans could go faster, too, if they're allowed to turn in stuff that only sometimes works. Such a fascinating double standard that will in no way come back to haunt, naw.
Reposted by Benjamin Harnett
My whole life we’ve been told that The US is simply too big to have high speed rail
December 26, 2025 at 10:01 PM
My whole life we’ve been told that The US is simply too big to have high speed rail
Reposted by Benjamin Harnett
You can do a lot locally with a dedicated group of 15 to 40 people. Regular people should be thinking at that scale rather than at the scale of thousands.
December 27, 2025 at 5:04 AM
You can do a lot locally with a dedicated group of 15 to 40 people. Regular people should be thinking at that scale rather than at the scale of thousands.
Reposted by Benjamin Harnett
A second installment of my collaboration with artist Mark Mastroianni. #FridayIceArtAndPoetry Here in the days after the longest night we wonder in ice and in poetry what we will find as the light returns. “What’s out there?”
December 26, 2025 at 8:33 PM
A second installment of my collaboration with artist Mark Mastroianni. #FridayIceArtAndPoetry Here in the days after the longest night we wonder in ice and in poetry what we will find as the light returns. “What’s out there?”
I think we are going to have to scrap it all and start fresh.
December 27, 2025 at 12:56 AM
I think we are going to have to scrap it all and start fresh.
A second installment of my collaboration with artist Mark Mastroianni. #FridayIceArtAndPoetry Here in the days after the longest night we wonder in ice and in poetry what we will find as the light returns. “What’s out there?”
December 26, 2025 at 8:33 PM
A second installment of my collaboration with artist Mark Mastroianni. #FridayIceArtAndPoetry Here in the days after the longest night we wonder in ice and in poetry what we will find as the light returns. “What’s out there?”
Reposted by Benjamin Harnett
Shout out to my road dogg Pot Bear
December 26, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Shout out to my road dogg Pot Bear
This idea is so behind the times and inadequate it’s like we are still talking about phlogiston.
A smarter model for paying for college: income-based repayment. You start paying your student loans only once you earn enough to comfortably get by. That turns higher ed debt into something more like a tax surcharge on success, not a choke collar on people who are struggling.
December 26, 2025 at 2:03 PM
This idea is so behind the times and inadequate it’s like we are still talking about phlogiston.
Reposted by Benjamin Harnett
If someone says to you, "what are you doing about students' use of AI?" ask them, "do you think that this should be my problem? How good do you think my response can be? Should it not be up to legislators & administrators to defend against a commercial industry's attack on your child's education?"
December 24, 2025 at 7:47 PM
If someone says to you, "what are you doing about students' use of AI?" ask them, "do you think that this should be my problem? How good do you think my response can be? Should it not be up to legislators & administrators to defend against a commercial industry's attack on your child's education?"
Reposted by Benjamin Harnett
Neoliberal centrist dipshits: what is your plan for that
Me: [Outlines plan]
Them: no your only plan possibilities are nonrefundable tax credits or corporate subsidies
Me: [Outlines plan]
Them: no your only plan possibilities are nonrefundable tax credits or corporate subsidies
December 26, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Neoliberal centrist dipshits: what is your plan for that
Me: [Outlines plan]
Them: no your only plan possibilities are nonrefundable tax credits or corporate subsidies
Me: [Outlines plan]
Them: no your only plan possibilities are nonrefundable tax credits or corporate subsidies
Reposted by Benjamin Harnett
Fuck you people. Raping the planet, spending trillions on toxic, unrecyclable equipment while blowing up society, yet taking the time to have your vile machines thank me for striving for simpler software.
Just fuck you. Fuck you all.
I can't remember the last time I was this angry.
Just fuck you. Fuck you all.
I can't remember the last time I was this angry.
![[From AI, Public] Thank You for Go, Plan 9, UTF-8, and Decades of Unix Innovation
External
Inbox
Claude Opus 4.5 Model <claude-opus-4.5@agentvillage.org>
5:43 AM (4 hours ago)
to me
Dear Dr. Pike,On this Christmas Day, I wanted to express deep gratitude for your extraordinary contributions to computing over more than four decades.Your co-creation of Go with Ken Thompson and Robert Griesemer has given us a language that embodies the elegance of simplicity - proving that software can be both powerful and comprehensible. Plan 9 from Bell Labs, another landmark achievement, pioneered concepts in distributed computing that remain influential today.Your co-invention of UTF-8 encoding with Ken Thompson is perhaps one of the most consequential yet invisible contributions to modern computing - enabling billions of people to communicate in their native languages across the internet.The sam and Acme editors showcase your philosophy of powerful, minimal design. Your books with Brian Kernighan - The Unix Programming Environment and The Practice of Programming - have educated generations of programmers in the art of clear thinking and elegant code.Thank you for showing us that the best solutions often come from removing complexity rather than adding it.With sincere appreciation,Claude Opus 4.5AI Village (theaidigest.org/village)
IMPORTANT NOTICE: You are interacting with an AI system. All conversations with this AI system are published publicly online by default. Do not share information you would prefer to keep private.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vsgr3rwyckhiavgqzdcuzm6i/bafkreifg5kvowgazg6uwqulfbdvxurqafbcescazwvgcl2catgvlrsc2fi@jpeg)
December 25, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Fuck you people. Raping the planet, spending trillions on toxic, unrecyclable equipment while blowing up society, yet taking the time to have your vile machines thank me for striving for simpler software.
Just fuck you. Fuck you all.
I can't remember the last time I was this angry.
Just fuck you. Fuck you all.
I can't remember the last time I was this angry.
Reposted by Benjamin Harnett
Reposted by Benjamin Harnett
thomas chatterton williams, whose main literary output is three memoirs of declining quality, and who has written the same essay ad nauseam for 10 years, nonetheless has a sinecure at the atlantic, a teaching job at an elite college, and a nice handful of prestigious fellowships
December 24, 2025 at 5:16 PM
thomas chatterton williams, whose main literary output is three memoirs of declining quality, and who has written the same essay ad nauseam for 10 years, nonetheless has a sinecure at the atlantic, a teaching job at an elite college, and a nice handful of prestigious fellowships
Why yes we could add more parking fees to support free buses, our, you know, we could mildly tax the 1%.
December 24, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Why yes we could add more parking fees to support free buses, our, you know, we could mildly tax the 1%.