@xandkar.bsky.social
I like languages, distributed systems, and a life examined.
λ🐫🦀
https://xandkar.net/
Latin: xandkarus.bsky.social
λ🐫🦀
https://xandkar.net/
Latin: xandkarus.bsky.social
Pinned
xandkar.bsky.social
@xandkar.bsky.social
· Dec 13
"To doubt everything and to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; each saves us from thinking."
"TigerBeetle ... client does not time out and does not surface network failures to the application"
This is strikingly curious, since a timeout is basically the only practical failure detector type in distributed systems research 🤔
dtornow.substack.com/p/jepsen-and...
This is strikingly curious, since a timeout is basically the only practical failure detector type in distributed systems research 🤔
dtornow.substack.com/p/jepsen-and...
July 9, 2025 at 1:10 PM
"TigerBeetle ... client does not time out and does not surface network failures to the application"
This is strikingly curious, since a timeout is basically the only practical failure detector type in distributed systems research 🤔
dtornow.substack.com/p/jepsen-and...
This is strikingly curious, since a timeout is basically the only practical failure detector type in distributed systems research 🤔
dtornow.substack.com/p/jepsen-and...
The American way is to experiment fast. It may or may not pay off, but lessons will surely be learned along the way. Just don't mistake it for visionary insight.
Shopify doesn't ban using AI tools in their coding interviews: they actually encourage them. From Head of Engineering Farhan Thawar in a live The Pragmatic Engineer podcast recording:
Full: www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-3I...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2Bho9xC...
Full: www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-3I...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2Bho9xC...
July 6, 2025 at 12:52 PM
The American way is to experiment fast. It may or may not pay off, but lessons will surely be learned along the way. Just don't mistake it for visionary insight.
Those 2 times per day when a broken clock is right, the facts they point to aren't wrong, but only the mechanism which caused the pointing. So many seem unable to deconflate that.
July 5, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Those 2 times per day when a broken clock is right, the facts they point to aren't wrong, but only the mechanism which caused the pointing. So many seem unable to deconflate that.
All models are wrong, but some are useful.
All facts are distract, without a model.
All facts are distract, without a model.
June 27, 2025 at 6:24 PM
All models are wrong, but some are useful.
All facts are distract, without a model.
All facts are distract, without a model.
Humans seem to want an external reason to commit to a decision, so that it doesn't feel arbitrary and uncertain.
June 10, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Humans seem to want an external reason to commit to a decision, so that it doesn't feel arbitrary and uncertain.
Driving to NYC! Audiobook for the trip:
June 7, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Driving to NYC! Audiobook for the trip:
I want vitamins, not painkillers.
June 3, 2025 at 1:59 PM
I want vitamins, not painkillers.
LLMs do accelerate, but not uniformly and not always in the desired direction.
Sometimes you find out quickly, but sometimes you waste time trying to find what isn't findable.
Learning to tell the difference is the main skill in their usage.
Sometimes you find out quickly, but sometimes you waste time trying to find what isn't findable.
Learning to tell the difference is the main skill in their usage.
June 3, 2025 at 1:45 PM
LLMs do accelerate, but not uniformly and not always in the desired direction.
Sometimes you find out quickly, but sometimes you waste time trying to find what isn't findable.
Learning to tell the difference is the main skill in their usage.
Sometimes you find out quickly, but sometimes you waste time trying to find what isn't findable.
Learning to tell the difference is the main skill in their usage.
Something I realized about Classics: as change and rate of change of things in the world accelerates, that which holds constant has that much more value in bringing mental clarity.
June 3, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Something I realized about Classics: as change and rate of change of things in the world accelerates, that which holds constant has that much more value in bringing mental clarity.
I'm always looking for friends who are never satisfied with their mental models of the world and are eager to seek out contradictions and consider alternative ways of seeing all things.
June 1, 2025 at 7:31 PM
I'm always looking for friends who are never satisfied with their mental models of the world and are eager to seek out contradictions and consider alternative ways of seeing all things.
There's still an opportunity to come-up with some CLI tool that plays on this "old man yelling at the cloud" meme.
There's this weird background pressure to say "that's awesome", lest you're seen as a backwards, Boomer-Luddite grandpa yelling at the cloud.
May 30, 2025 at 2:57 PM
There's still an opportunity to come-up with some CLI tool that plays on this "old man yelling at the cloud" meme.
"The art of reasoning consists in getting hold of the subject at the right end, of seizing on the few general ideas that illuminate the whole, and of persistently organizing all subsidiary facts round them."
-- Walter Warwick Sawyer
-- Walter Warwick Sawyer
May 30, 2025 at 2:49 PM
"The art of reasoning consists in getting hold of the subject at the right end, of seizing on the few general ideas that illuminate the whole, and of persistently organizing all subsidiary facts round them."
-- Walter Warwick Sawyer
-- Walter Warwick Sawyer
"reason is in fact neither more nor less than an experiment carried out in the imagination"
-- Walter Warwick Sawyer
-- Walter Warwick Sawyer
May 30, 2025 at 2:41 PM
"reason is in fact neither more nor less than an experiment carried out in the imagination"
-- Walter Warwick Sawyer
-- Walter Warwick Sawyer
"You can claim to be a mathematician if, and only if, you feel that you will be able to solve a puzzle that neither you, nor anyone else, has studied before. That is the test of reasoning."
-- Walter Warwick Sawyer
-- Walter Warwick Sawyer
May 30, 2025 at 2:35 PM
"You can claim to be a mathematician if, and only if, you feel that you will be able to solve a puzzle that neither you, nor anyone else, has studied before. That is the test of reasoning."
-- Walter Warwick Sawyer
-- Walter Warwick Sawyer
There's this weird background pressure to say "that's awesome", lest you're seen as a backwards, Boomer-Luddite grandpa yelling at the cloud.
May 30, 2025 at 2:20 PM
There's this weird background pressure to say "that's awesome", lest you're seen as a backwards, Boomer-Luddite grandpa yelling at the cloud.
The incentive to pump sweet, but damaging lies is the most unfortunate side-effect of democracy.
May 29, 2025 at 1:50 PM
The incentive to pump sweet, but damaging lies is the most unfortunate side-effect of democracy.
I'm not just open to different views, I desire and seek them.
Yet no such view is to necessarily supplant another, but to serve as yet another data point towards refining an encompassing, higher level view.
Views aren't reasons, but they have reasons, and are used to reason, so must be understood.
Yet no such view is to necessarily supplant another, but to serve as yet another data point towards refining an encompassing, higher level view.
Views aren't reasons, but they have reasons, and are used to reason, so must be understood.
May 28, 2025 at 11:26 AM
I'm not just open to different views, I desire and seek them.
Yet no such view is to necessarily supplant another, but to serve as yet another data point towards refining an encompassing, higher level view.
Views aren't reasons, but they have reasons, and are used to reason, so must be understood.
Yet no such view is to necessarily supplant another, but to serve as yet another data point towards refining an encompassing, higher level view.
Views aren't reasons, but they have reasons, and are used to reason, so must be understood.
I think the biggest pitfall of human behavior is tendency to imitate the irrelevant.
Like someone? Imitate them totally! Dislike someone? Counter-imitate them totally!
What could possibly go wrong?
Like someone? Imitate them totally! Dislike someone? Counter-imitate them totally!
What could possibly go wrong?
May 16, 2025 at 3:24 PM
I think the biggest pitfall of human behavior is tendency to imitate the irrelevant.
Like someone? Imitate them totally! Dislike someone? Counter-imitate them totally!
What could possibly go wrong?
Like someone? Imitate them totally! Dislike someone? Counter-imitate them totally!
What could possibly go wrong?
Innovation is neither virtue nor vice. Sometimes it's needed, sometimes it's not. The virtue is effectiveness.
May 16, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Innovation is neither virtue nor vice. Sometimes it's needed, sometimes it's not. The virtue is effectiveness.
Common occurrence pair: thoughtful diagnosis, sloppy solution ideas.
May 10, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Common occurrence pair: thoughtful diagnosis, sloppy solution ideas.
Current pollen situation at my desk. Normal reading is between 0 and 20.
I miss the crisp winter air.
I miss the crisp winter air.
May 1, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Current pollen situation at my desk. Normal reading is between 0 and 20.
I miss the crisp winter air.
I miss the crisp winter air.
Life happens too fast.
April 22, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Life happens too fast.
The truth is always in the details, but nobody wants to get lost in details.
April 18, 2025 at 3:08 PM
The truth is always in the details, but nobody wants to get lost in details.
The market pressure to stand-out promotes extreme mindsets that ultimately sabotage the market itself. Moderation really is the key and it starts with enough humility to believe the possibility that you might just be wrong, which takes existential courage, not servility (as it at first may seem).
April 17, 2025 at 3:38 PM
The market pressure to stand-out promotes extreme mindsets that ultimately sabotage the market itself. Moderation really is the key and it starts with enough humility to believe the possibility that you might just be wrong, which takes existential courage, not servility (as it at first may seem).
Module signatures are just the most beautiful thing in OCaml. Perhaps even in all of programming languages.
April 17, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Module signatures are just the most beautiful thing in OCaml. Perhaps even in all of programming languages.