John Riccardi
@arcanegraindev.bsky.social
Lead Crafter at @8thLight
Mostly frontend, too many D&D side projects - TTRPG stuff here @arcanegrain.dev
https://arcanegrain.dev/
❤ Madison, WI ❤
Mostly frontend, too many D&D side projects - TTRPG stuff here @arcanegrain.dev
https://arcanegrain.dev/
❤ Madison, WI ❤
Pinned
John Riccardi
@arcanegraindev.bsky.social
· May 28
TDD: The Missing Protocol for Effective AI Assisted Software Development | 8th Light
Test Driven Development (TDD) provides a powerful framework for improving AI-assisted coding. Learn how writing tests first gives AI the clarity it needs to generate robust, reliable code—and boosts c...
8thlight.com
Decided to expand on some of my posts here and turn it into a blog post!
8thlight.com/insights/tdd...
8thlight.com/insights/tdd...
Reposted by John Riccardi
i switched back to writing code by hand in my hobby project for an interesting reason... it's really psychological but when the AI gets stuck (e.g. the problem is too tricky to debug without good tools and atm it requires a human, or something got too messy), i get a mental freeze digging into code
November 23, 2025 at 3:57 PM
i switched back to writing code by hand in my hobby project for an interesting reason... it's really psychological but when the AI gets stuck (e.g. the problem is too tricky to debug without good tools and atm it requires a human, or something got too messy), i get a mental freeze digging into code
Reposted by John Riccardi
"It's really good at summarising code I don't understand".
But, weirdly, it's pretty bad at summarising code I *do* understand.
But, weirdly, it's pretty bad at summarising code I *do* understand.
November 24, 2025 at 7:33 AM
"It's really good at summarising code I don't understand".
But, weirdly, it's pretty bad at summarising code I *do* understand.
But, weirdly, it's pretty bad at summarising code I *do* understand.
Reposted by John Riccardi
Reposted by John Riccardi
"fearing or regulating it, or opposing technological progress, would hasten the coming of the Antichrist, Thiel said"
what the fuck
what the fuck
New argument against AI regulation just dropped. Checkmate, atheists.
www.wsj.com/tech/peter-t...
www.wsj.com/tech/peter-t...
September 24, 2025 at 2:04 PM
"fearing or regulating it, or opposing technological progress, would hasten the coming of the Antichrist, Thiel said"
what the fuck
what the fuck
Reposted by John Riccardi
Reposted by John Riccardi
QA by inspection is a mugs game, anyone who has been in operations will tell you this. It loses efficacy after about 30 minutes, your brain will "fill in" what it is expecting to see and miss the error.
March 28, 2025 at 5:27 PM
QA by inspection is a mugs game, anyone who has been in operations will tell you this. It loses efficacy after about 30 minutes, your brain will "fill in" what it is expecting to see and miss the error.
I'm starting to feel like the reliance on "you have to review all the AI generated code, of course!" as a way to mitigate the issues with AI is not really said in good faith. It's a CYA clause.
1/?
1/?
September 16, 2025 at 8:26 PM
I'm starting to feel like the reliance on "you have to review all the AI generated code, of course!" as a way to mitigate the issues with AI is not really said in good faith. It's a CYA clause.
1/?
1/?
Reposted by John Riccardi
Hi authors! Please remember to file a claim!
AI advocates have warned that if every author in the class action filed a claim, it would "financially ruin" the entire industry.
Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action
Advocates fear such settlements will “financially ruin” the AI industry.
arstechnica.com
August 27, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Hi authors! Please remember to file a claim!
Reposted by John Riccardi
This is completely insane and a sign of how washed A.I. truly is. Why do you have to threaten people to use this if it's so good
CEO Brian Armstrong mandated that all Coinbase engineers set up their GitHub Copilot or Cursor accounts within a week.
Coinbase CEO explains why he fired engineers who didn’t try AI immediately | TechCrunch
CEO Brian Armstrong mandated that all Coinbase engineers set up their GitHub Copilot or Cursor accounts within a week.
techcrunch.com
August 24, 2025 at 12:47 PM
This is completely insane and a sign of how washed A.I. truly is. Why do you have to threaten people to use this if it's so good
zed.dev/blog/dialing...
A few thoughts about this post.
1. I completely agree with the take that we really need a realistic view of what these tools (that's right, they're TOOLS) can and more importantly, cannot do.
1/?
A few thoughts about this post.
1. I completely agree with the take that we really need a realistic view of what these tools (that's right, they're TOOLS) can and more importantly, cannot do.
1/?
Why I'm Dialing Back My LLM Usage - Zed Blog
From the Zed Blog: Alberto Fortin shares his honest reflection on the reality of using LLMs in production code and why he's taking a more measured approach.
zed.dev
July 9, 2025 at 8:53 PM
zed.dev/blog/dialing...
A few thoughts about this post.
1. I completely agree with the take that we really need a realistic view of what these tools (that's right, they're TOOLS) can and more importantly, cannot do.
1/?
A few thoughts about this post.
1. I completely agree with the take that we really need a realistic view of what these tools (that's right, they're TOOLS) can and more importantly, cannot do.
1/?
www.honest-broker.com/p/the-force-...
"The AI business model would collapse overnight if they needed consumer opt-in."
"The AI business model would collapse overnight if they needed consumer opt-in."
July 6, 2025 at 3:07 PM
www.honest-broker.com/p/the-force-...
"The AI business model would collapse overnight if they needed consumer opt-in."
"The AI business model would collapse overnight if they needed consumer opt-in."
Need a little index card sized character sheet for OSE? Here ya go! 🧙🏼♀️ arcanegrain.dev/downloads/
Arcane Grain
John Riccardi | Lead Software Engineer specializing in React, TypeScript, and frontend development.
arcanegrain.dev
July 6, 2025 at 3:09 AM
Need a little index card sized character sheet for OSE? Here ya go! 🧙🏼♀️ arcanegrain.dev/downloads/
Reposted by John Riccardi
Me: Let's do something productive!
Brain: Yeah... No...
Brain: Yeah... No...
June 26, 2025 at 2:41 AM
Me: Let's do something productive!
Brain: Yeah... No...
Brain: Yeah... No...
Reposted by John Riccardi
Has anyone been hiring junior engineers lately? Or are there any junior engineers that have recently (last 6-12 months) got hired at their first job? I'd be curious to chat a bit about your experience if you'd be willing to share!
June 22, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Has anyone been hiring junior engineers lately? Or are there any junior engineers that have recently (last 6-12 months) got hired at their first job? I'd be curious to chat a bit about your experience if you'd be willing to share!
Someone put up a @meshtastic.org node on a weather balloon today and I was able to see nodes all the way in Michigan from Madison!
June 18, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Someone put up a @meshtastic.org node on a weather balloon today and I was able to see nodes all the way in Michigan from Madison!
Reposted by John Riccardi
California Cops Investigate ‘Immigration Protest’ With AI-Camera System
🔗 www.404media.co/california-c...
🔗 www.404media.co/california-c...
California Cops Investigate ‘Immigration Protest’ With AI-Camera System
New data obtained by 404 Media also shows California cops are illegally sharing Flock automatic license plate reader (ALPR) data with other agencies out of state, who in turn are performing searches f...
www.404media.co
June 17, 2025 at 8:33 PM
California Cops Investigate ‘Immigration Protest’ With AI-Camera System
🔗 www.404media.co/california-c...
🔗 www.404media.co/california-c...
I bet someone's in trouble today at The Atlantic 😬
June 18, 2025 at 1:00 AM
I bet someone's in trouble today at The Atlantic 😬
From
blog.singleton.io/posts/2025-0...
> For complex problems, the bottleneck isn’t the AI’s capability to spot issues - it’s our ability to frame the problem in a way that enables their reasoning. This feels like a fundamentally new skill we’re all learning.
1/?
blog.singleton.io/posts/2025-0...
> For complex problems, the bottleneck isn’t the AI’s capability to spot issues - it’s our ability to frame the problem in a way that enables their reasoning. This feels like a fundamentally new skill we’re all learning.
1/?
Coding agents have crossed a chasm
Coding agents have crossed a chasm Somewhere in the last few months, something fundamental shifted for me with autonomous AI coding agents. They’ve gone from a “hey this is pretty neat” curiosity to s...
blog.singleton.io
June 16, 2025 at 9:36 PM
From
blog.singleton.io/posts/2025-0...
> For complex problems, the bottleneck isn’t the AI’s capability to spot issues - it’s our ability to frame the problem in a way that enables their reasoning. This feels like a fundamentally new skill we’re all learning.
1/?
blog.singleton.io/posts/2025-0...
> For complex problems, the bottleneck isn’t the AI’s capability to spot issues - it’s our ability to frame the problem in a way that enables their reasoning. This feels like a fundamentally new skill we’re all learning.
1/?
One thing I'm finding with devs who use AI a lot is they always say "You should always check the generated code before committing", but ... do you? We _should_ be writing tests, but do you? Double-checking generated code is one of the first invisible best-practices.
1/?
1/?
June 16, 2025 at 4:02 PM
One thing I'm finding with devs who use AI a lot is they always say "You should always check the generated code before committing", but ... do you? We _should_ be writing tests, but do you? Double-checking generated code is one of the first invisible best-practices.
1/?
1/?
How do y'all keep your frontend types in sync with the data coming from API's (both internal / external).
I'd love to just consume types from an API's OpenApi spec, but I know that's not always feasible (especially at a large enterprise like the place I'm currently at).
I'd love to just consume types from an API's OpenApi spec, but I know that's not always feasible (especially at a large enterprise like the place I'm currently at).
June 12, 2025 at 3:39 PM
How do y'all keep your frontend types in sync with the data coming from API's (both internal / external).
I'd love to just consume types from an API's OpenApi spec, but I know that's not always feasible (especially at a large enterprise like the place I'm currently at).
I'd love to just consume types from an API's OpenApi spec, but I know that's not always feasible (especially at a large enterprise like the place I'm currently at).
Just got my first @meshtastic.org nodes and there are so many to connect to here!!
June 10, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Just got my first @meshtastic.org nodes and there are so many to connect to here!!
Reposted by John Riccardi
Wow, this is AMAZING.
Wow... this really doesn't work.
- Me every time I use A.I. to generate code.
Wow... this really doesn't work.
- Me every time I use A.I. to generate code.
June 5, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Wow, this is AMAZING.
Wow... this really doesn't work.
- Me every time I use A.I. to generate code.
Wow... this really doesn't work.
- Me every time I use A.I. to generate code.