Rafe Colburn
@raf.eco
CPTO at Etsy, former CPTO at Depop. Newsletter at https://raf.eco. My main interests are building great products, the practice of management, software engineering, and economics. Also Arsenal FC and the Houston Astros.
Pinned
Rafe Colburn
@raf.eco
· Mar 5
Importance isn't enough
Here's a nuanced framework for thinking about how leaders should spend their time
raf.eco
I'm upcycling an idea from effective altruism -- adapting their cause prioritization framework for prioritizing the attention of leaders. raf.eco/importance-i...
I do love how Claude Code makes it easy to pick up tasks I'd normally never bother with, like updating my dot files and making sure they work on both my laptop and GitHub Codespaces: github.com/rafeco/dotfi...
I am far too lazy to have ever done this without an assist.
I am far too lazy to have ever done this without an assist.
November 28, 2025 at 6:53 PM
I do love how Claude Code makes it easy to pick up tasks I'd normally never bother with, like updating my dot files and making sure they work on both my laptop and GitHub Codespaces: github.com/rafeco/dotfi...
I am far too lazy to have ever done this without an assist.
I am far too lazy to have ever done this without an assist.
I finally got around to migrating rc3.org from an outdated, no doubt insecure WordPress to a static site generator (Hugo) and Claude Code was amazingly useful. Here's a guest post Claude Code wrote explaining the migration: rc3.org/2025/11/23/m...
How I Helped Migrate 25 Years of Blog Posts to Hugo
This is a guest post by Claude Code, the AI coding assistant that helped with RC3.org’s migration to Hugo.
Hi! I’m Claude Code, Anthropic’s AI coding assistant. Rafe asked me to write about how we mig...
rc3.org
November 24, 2025 at 8:59 PM
I finally got around to migrating rc3.org from an outdated, no doubt insecure WordPress to a static site generator (Hugo) and Claude Code was amazingly useful. Here's a guest post Claude Code wrote explaining the migration: rc3.org/2025/11/23/m...
Someone let the domain name associated with their BlueSky account expire ...
November 24, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Someone let the domain name associated with their BlueSky account expire ...
Google's product management is really getting in the way of Gemini's success. This seems like the most obvious use case for Gemini in Google Docs and yet ...
October 14, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Google's product management is really getting in the way of Gemini's success. This seems like the most obvious use case for Gemini in Google Docs and yet ...
Clear IC6 competencies on the Etsy career ladder of 12 years ago.
How to Make Rope the Old-Fashioned Way, using a very simple hand-cranked machine. “It’s amazing what you can do with just a simple machine that cleverly leverages the laws of physics.” [kottke.org]
How to Make Rope the Old-Fashioned Way
Watch a man named Ozzie make rope using a very simple hand-cranked machine. The real magic happens starting at about the 12-minute mark, where the three strands of the rope come together — my mouth actually fell open a
kottke.org
October 12, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Clear IC6 competencies on the Etsy career ladder of 12 years ago.
Back again for one of my favorite annual traditions. #monktoberfest
October 2, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Back again for one of my favorite annual traditions. #monktoberfest
Reposted by Rafe Colburn
I like this take by @kentbeck.com on how AI-assisted programming changes the balance of which skills are most important
From this interview with @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/tdd-ai-age...
From this interview with @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/tdd-ai-age...
June 22, 2025 at 4:29 PM
I like this take by @kentbeck.com on how AI-assisted programming changes the balance of which skills are most important
From this interview with @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/tdd-ai-age...
From this interview with @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/tdd-ai-age...
Today I was trying to solve a problem with Cursor, and it misunderstood me, did something completely different than what I was asking for, and in the end helped me figure out the problem anyway. That felt like collaborating with a real human.
June 1, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Today I was trying to solve a problem with Cursor, and it misunderstood me, did something completely different than what I was asking for, and in the end helped me figure out the problem anyway. That felt like collaborating with a real human.
Reposted by Rafe Colburn
I wrote an entire blog post with this premise! rmondello.com/2025/01/02/m...
May 31, 2025 at 12:55 PM
I wrote an entire blog post with this premise! rmondello.com/2025/01/02/m...
I'm generally into the migration from passwords to magic links, but if you're going to go that direction you should offer passkey access so that people can still enjoy the convenience of their password manager.
May 31, 2025 at 12:09 PM
I'm generally into the migration from passwords to magic links, but if you're going to go that direction you should offer passkey access so that people can still enjoy the convenience of their password manager.
I'm finding it's really "No more Mr. Nice ChatBot" with Sonnet 4. When you ask Claude for feedback on a doc, it really gives it to you straight. FWIW, its critique was completely valid.
May 31, 2025 at 9:23 AM
I'm finding it's really "No more Mr. Nice ChatBot" with Sonnet 4. When you ask Claude for feedback on a doc, it really gives it to you straight. FWIW, its critique was completely valid.
As AI summaries cannibalize the web, we should contemplate how web publishers paved the way by monetizing garbage.
If you load this page it contacts 82 IP addresses executing 256 separate HTTP transactions to download 18MB of data writing 64 cookies to your device to tell you “no”
May 26, 2025 at 9:23 AM
As AI summaries cannibalize the web, we should contemplate how web publishers paved the way by monetizing garbage.
This is really interesting. I asked it to write a guide to working with me based on its Assistant Response Preferences, and it’s quite accurate. simonwillison.net/2025/May/21/...
I really don’t like ChatGPT’s new memory dossier
Last month ChatGPT got a major upgrade. As far as I can tell the closest to an official announcement was this tweet from @OpenAI: Starting today [April 10th 2025], memory …
simonwillison.net
May 25, 2025 at 6:18 PM
This is really interesting. I asked it to write a guide to working with me based on its Assistant Response Preferences, and it’s quite accurate. simonwillison.net/2025/May/21/...
One tiny thing most apps and sites could do to make life better and the web more secure is make sure their password quality algorithm accepts generated passwords from the common password management tools 100% of the time. They're all fine. Let's move on.
April 22, 2025 at 11:28 AM
One tiny thing most apps and sites could do to make life better and the web more secure is make sure their password quality algorithm accepts generated passwords from the common password management tools 100% of the time. They're all fine. Let's move on.
One morning you wake up and find yourself asking ChatGPT Deep Research to put together key tips for playing Civ7. I'm far too lazy to watch 1,000 hours of YouTube to figure out how to understand the insane number of systems in this game.
April 20, 2025 at 7:55 AM
One morning you wake up and find yourself asking ChatGPT Deep Research to put together key tips for playing Civ7. I'm far too lazy to watch 1,000 hours of YouTube to figure out how to understand the insane number of systems in this game.
I know everybody is frustrated with how the old school media covers Trump but nobody who follows the old school media likes Trump anyway.
April 13, 2025 at 12:57 PM
I know everybody is frustrated with how the old school media covers Trump but nobody who follows the old school media likes Trump anyway.
Reposted by Rafe Colburn
How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?
Before you open this thread, take a guess. Settle on a number and then compare it to what you'll learn in this thread. 🧵
Before you open this thread, take a guess. Settle on a number and then compare it to what you'll learn in this thread. 🧵
April 11, 2025 at 5:19 PM
How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?
Before you open this thread, take a guess. Settle on a number and then compare it to what you'll learn in this thread. 🧵
Before you open this thread, take a guess. Settle on a number and then compare it to what you'll learn in this thread. 🧵
The Web vs AI — good stuff aboard.com/the-spiders-...
AI’s spiders want to devour the open web—but the web has its defenders, including me.
How Cloudflare is battling data-gobbling LLM spiders, and what it can teach us about the future of AI and the open web.
aboard.com
April 11, 2025 at 5:55 PM
The Web vs AI — good stuff aboard.com/the-spiders-...
I think I would pay $1000 a year for a service that reliably blocked all email solicitations from vendors.
April 10, 2025 at 2:33 PM
I think I would pay $1000 a year for a service that reliably blocked all email solicitations from vendors.
That sad but also happy feeling when your dad's favorite women's college basketball player before he died a few years ago just won a national championship.
April 6, 2025 at 9:15 PM
That sad but also happy feeling when your dad's favorite women's college basketball player before he died a few years ago just won a national championship.
Hierarchy of content from best to worst:
1. Created by humans for humans
2. Created by AI for humans
3. Created by humans for search engines
4. Created by AI for search engines
1. Created by humans for humans
2. Created by AI for humans
3. Created by humans for search engines
4. Created by AI for search engines
April 3, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Hierarchy of content from best to worst:
1. Created by humans for humans
2. Created by AI for humans
3. Created by humans for search engines
4. Created by AI for search engines
1. Created by humans for humans
2. Created by AI for humans
3. Created by humans for search engines
4. Created by AI for search engines
I find I really dislike writing docs to fit a format (résumé, design doc, PR-FAQ, whatever) but I don't mind explaining what I'm trying to convey to an LLM and letting it shoehorn the content into the format. The constraints of a format dull my thinking in a way that chatting does not.
March 30, 2025 at 5:07 PM
I find I really dislike writing docs to fit a format (résumé, design doc, PR-FAQ, whatever) but I don't mind explaining what I'm trying to convey to an LLM and letting it shoehorn the content into the format. The constraints of a format dull my thinking in a way that chatting does not.
Here's something that happened today: finance.yahoo.com/news/etsy-ap...
Etsy Appoints Rafe Colburn as Chief Technology Officer
Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ: ETSY), which operates two-sided online marketplaces that connect millions of passionate and creative buyers and sellers around the world, today announced the appointment of Rafe Co...
finance.yahoo.com
March 27, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Here's something that happened today: finance.yahoo.com/news/etsy-ap...
Absolutely fascinating.
One of the world’s most chilling ruins is the Ploutonion at Hierapolis, otherwise known as “the Gate to Hell”.
Here crowds once watched priests lead animal sacrifices down into a cave, where they died mysteriously as if dragged down to the underworld. And no one knew how they did it until recently.
Here crowds once watched priests lead animal sacrifices down into a cave, where they died mysteriously as if dragged down to the underworld. And no one knew how they did it until recently.
March 26, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Absolutely fascinating.
Reposted by Rafe Colburn
We view the Bluesky app as a lobby to the open social web, and we don't demote or throttle links.
We believe it should be easy for you to connect your social following here with your web presence elsewhere.
We believe it should be easy for you to connect your social following here with your web presence elsewhere.
March 20, 2025 at 8:57 PM
We view the Bluesky app as a lobby to the open social web, and we don't demote or throttle links.
We believe it should be easy for you to connect your social following here with your web presence elsewhere.
We believe it should be easy for you to connect your social following here with your web presence elsewhere.