Tom Leidy
@tomleidy.bsky.social
interests: facets of creation; language, art, emotion, thoughts, systems, science, and technology. communication and community.
longing for the San Francisco that exists in my mind and heart (from before the pandemic).
longing for the San Francisco that exists in my mind and heart (from before the pandemic).
Hah, I was using a dictionary to store information about words in a line of text (basically: { word: data }).
If the word occurred twice with different information each time? Whoops.
Not sure when I implemented that but I definitely was misguided. Hopefully, I’ll do better next time.
If the word occurred twice with different information each time? Whoops.
Not sure when I implemented that but I definitely was misguided. Hopefully, I’ll do better next time.
December 6, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Hah, I was using a dictionary to store information about words in a line of text (basically: { word: data }).
If the word occurred twice with different information each time? Whoops.
Not sure when I implemented that but I definitely was misguided. Hopefully, I’ll do better next time.
If the word occurred twice with different information each time? Whoops.
Not sure when I implemented that but I definitely was misguided. Hopefully, I’ll do better next time.
I think I really like SvelteKit. I love how sleep integrates ideas into understanding.
October 31, 2025 at 11:59 AM
I think I really like SvelteKit. I love how sleep integrates ideas into understanding.
OK, Apple Music is not what I want in a music player. I think I need to move to the woods and become a hermit. Or back to SF and reconnect with community.
October 24, 2025 at 6:56 PM
OK, Apple Music is not what I want in a music player. I think I need to move to the woods and become a hermit. Or back to SF and reconnect with community.
I feel this article in my bones. Hoping I can find one of those few companies investing in their future. techtrenches.substack.com/p/ai-wont-sa...
AI Won't Save Us From the Talent Crisis We Created
I’ve spent the last 18 months watching teams integrate AI into their workflows.
techtrenches.substack.com
October 12, 2025 at 12:33 PM
I feel this article in my bones. Hoping I can find one of those few companies investing in their future. techtrenches.substack.com/p/ai-wont-sa...
It’s challenging: I grew up on sci-fi. I love science and technology, but also I am so skeptical of technology for its own sake.
I think the fundamental problems we face are not technological. What makes our lives good? What makes our deaths good? And why? Because we al live and die.
I think the fundamental problems we face are not technological. What makes our lives good? What makes our deaths good? And why? Because we al live and die.
September 15, 2025 at 1:16 PM
It’s challenging: I grew up on sci-fi. I love science and technology, but also I am so skeptical of technology for its own sake.
I think the fundamental problems we face are not technological. What makes our lives good? What makes our deaths good? And why? Because we al live and die.
I think the fundamental problems we face are not technological. What makes our lives good? What makes our deaths good? And why? Because we al live and die.
LLM generated code, in its haphazard nature, broke me of my exclusive love for procedural code.
OOP/classes/modules with the data it needs all right there? Much easier to avoid esoteric solutions.
OOP/classes/modules with the data it needs all right there? Much easier to avoid esoteric solutions.
September 15, 2025 at 1:02 PM
LLM generated code, in its haphazard nature, broke me of my exclusive love for procedural code.
OOP/classes/modules with the data it needs all right there? Much easier to avoid esoteric solutions.
OOP/classes/modules with the data it needs all right there? Much easier to avoid esoteric solutions.
OK, so time to practice linked list implementations under time pressure.
September 9, 2025 at 7:15 PM
OK, so time to practice linked list implementations under time pressure.
Tired of fumbling through which is which, I made these tables to understand expansion (for my primary use case) better. Hopefully I’ll remember I left this here. #shell #scripting #shellscripting #bash #expansion
August 28, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Tired of fumbling through which is which, I made these tables to understand expansion (for my primary use case) better. Hopefully I’ll remember I left this here. #shell #scripting #shellscripting #bash #expansion
This is interesting. I’ve personally found LLM to be less than a panacea as much as I’ve seen a lot of people talk about agentic / vibe coding. But I’m a sample size of one and not in command of enterprise cash monies. It’s nice to know I’m not alone though.
Newsletter: My 16,000 word opus - How To Argue With An AI Booster, a comprehensive guide to arguing with AI boosters, addressing both their bad faith debate style and their specific (and flimsy) arguments as to why generative AI is the future.
www.wheresyoured.at/how-to-argue...
www.wheresyoured.at/how-to-argue...
How To Argue With An AI Booster
Editor's Note: For those of you reading via email, I recommend opening this in a browser so you can use the Table of Contents. This is my longest newsletter - a 16,000-word-long opus - and if you like...
www.wheresyoured.at
August 26, 2025 at 8:16 PM
This is interesting. I’ve personally found LLM to be less than a panacea as much as I’ve seen a lot of people talk about agentic / vibe coding. But I’m a sample size of one and not in command of enterprise cash monies. It’s nice to know I’m not alone though.
I keep forgetting what I want to post. It was something I was really excited about, I’m certain.
August 18, 2025 at 2:33 AM
I keep forgetting what I want to post. It was something I was really excited about, I’m certain.
I’m amazed at how many websites are getting comfortable with adding more dialogs/modals/messages to click away. Google Sheets is the latest one for me.
I’m not nostalgic enough to go install DOS and eschew the rest of the world for who knows what, but I sometimes have that atavistic longing.
I’m not nostalgic enough to go install DOS and eschew the rest of the world for who knows what, but I sometimes have that atavistic longing.
August 1, 2025 at 7:40 PM
I’m amazed at how many websites are getting comfortable with adding more dialogs/modals/messages to click away. Google Sheets is the latest one for me.
I’m not nostalgic enough to go install DOS and eschew the rest of the world for who knows what, but I sometimes have that atavistic longing.
I’m not nostalgic enough to go install DOS and eschew the rest of the world for who knows what, but I sometimes have that atavistic longing.
OK, learning C. Again.
The 1st time I thought pointers were easy.
The 2nd, "I remember this!"
The 3rd, "did I ever understand these at all?"
I listened to and read explanations and got more confused.
Turned out explanation was too much.
Concise syntax reminders? Got it. #cheatsheet #C
The 1st time I thought pointers were easy.
The 2nd, "I remember this!"
The 3rd, "did I ever understand these at all?"
I listened to and read explanations and got more confused.
Turned out explanation was too much.
Concise syntax reminders? Got it. #cheatsheet #C
July 31, 2025 at 8:05 PM
OK, learning C. Again.
The 1st time I thought pointers were easy.
The 2nd, "I remember this!"
The 3rd, "did I ever understand these at all?"
I listened to and read explanations and got more confused.
Turned out explanation was too much.
Concise syntax reminders? Got it. #cheatsheet #C
The 1st time I thought pointers were easy.
The 2nd, "I remember this!"
The 3rd, "did I ever understand these at all?"
I listened to and read explanations and got more confused.
Turned out explanation was too much.
Concise syntax reminders? Got it. #cheatsheet #C
I need to figure out why Ubuntu’s Python 3.13 does traceback highlighting of just the filename and macOS does the whole path so I can switch the latter to the former. If I don’t know what my current directory is, I’ve got bigger problems…
So apparently I needed to update python on my main computer. And learned that 3.13 highlights the filename in error output! I’m going to get so much good use out of that… I mean, what, errors? Me? Never, pshaw
July 31, 2025 at 1:40 AM
I need to figure out why Ubuntu’s Python 3.13 does traceback highlighting of just the filename and macOS does the whole path so I can switch the latter to the former. If I don’t know what my current directory is, I’ve got bigger problems…
Septum piercing in or out for job interviews? Hah. I’ve been told to take it out by friends, so I do. I look kind of bland on interviews without it (I am not bland).
July 24, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Septum piercing in or out for job interviews? Hah. I’ve been told to take it out by friends, so I do. I look kind of bland on interviews without it (I am not bland).
So apparently I needed to update python on my main computer. And learned that 3.13 highlights the filename in error output! I’m going to get so much good use out of that… I mean, what, errors? Me? Never, pshaw
July 23, 2025 at 8:26 PM
So apparently I needed to update python on my main computer. And learned that 3.13 highlights the filename in error output! I’m going to get so much good use out of that… I mean, what, errors? Me? Never, pshaw
I wrote a Python script to clean up some markdown files… Before learning that Prettier already did what I needed and does it better.
I just found that script in my pre-commit hook for a specific repo.
At least I know about Prettier now.
I just found that script in my pre-commit hook for a specific repo.
At least I know about Prettier now.
July 23, 2025 at 2:36 PM
I wrote a Python script to clean up some markdown files… Before learning that Prettier already did what I needed and does it better.
I just found that script in my pre-commit hook for a specific repo.
At least I know about Prettier now.
I just found that script in my pre-commit hook for a specific repo.
At least I know about Prettier now.
I do love the take home challenges I’ve had so far. I’ve learned so much each time.
July 10, 2025 at 8:23 PM
I do love the take home challenges I’ve had so far. I’ve learned so much each time.
I had something I wanted to post some days ago and I forgot what it was.
June 28, 2025 at 7:46 PM
I had something I wanted to post some days ago and I forgot what it was.
Trusted ChatGPT a little too much last night while trying to setup a joplin-desktop server on my Ubuntu box.
Didn’t get any warning about "snap remove" erasing all personal data associated with that snap
And then when I was upset, it didn’t know to tell me about about snap saved or restore.
Didn’t get any warning about "snap remove" erasing all personal data associated with that snap
And then when I was upset, it didn’t know to tell me about about snap saved or restore.
June 20, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Trusted ChatGPT a little too much last night while trying to setup a joplin-desktop server on my Ubuntu box.
Didn’t get any warning about "snap remove" erasing all personal data associated with that snap
And then when I was upset, it didn’t know to tell me about about snap saved or restore.
Didn’t get any warning about "snap remove" erasing all personal data associated with that snap
And then when I was upset, it didn’t know to tell me about about snap saved or restore.
Why have error messages when running in dev mode if they’re going to go away when built?
I probably don’t understand the why, so I can imagine better places for this type of message (build? running the build?).
Currently experiencing this with Electron, and if I understood correctly, Vite.
I probably don’t understand the why, so I can imagine better places for this type of message (build? running the build?).
Currently experiencing this with Electron, and if I understood correctly, Vite.
May 11, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Why have error messages when running in dev mode if they’re going to go away when built?
I probably don’t understand the why, so I can imagine better places for this type of message (build? running the build?).
Currently experiencing this with Electron, and if I understood correctly, Vite.
I probably don’t understand the why, so I can imagine better places for this type of message (build? running the build?).
Currently experiencing this with Electron, and if I understood correctly, Vite.
I did a coding challenge for an interview pre-screen yesterday, and I couldn’t remember the JS RegExp syntax. I used string methods, but… I figured it out after. This morning, I compared the performance of regex to string methods for parsing JSON.
Anyway, yay regex!
Anyway, yay regex!
![Snippet of JavaScript using Regular Expressions:
start = performance.now(); // timing start
let pattern = /key=([\w]+)/g
let matches = jsonContent.data.matchAll(pattern);
for (const match of matches) {
keyArray.push(match[1]);
}
end = performance.now(); // timing stop](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jdsavsg5zeyohuty64ecxq2c/bafkreieamunt5deddsznn27eryecgyye4b2drgakksg6z55d6c7okunara@jpeg)
![Snippet of JavaScript using string and array methods:
start = performance.now(); // timing start
let jsonContentArray = jsonContent.data.split(', ');
for (let i = 0; i < jsonContentArray.length; i++) {
let key = jsonContentArray[i].split('=');
if (key[0] == 'age') continue;
keyArray.push(key[1]);
}
end = performance.now(); // timing stop](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jdsavsg5zeyohuty64ecxq2c/bafkreibuhrzuggfciqt4te7casqhvvnqikyyw77gsfcpijsugorc7hwn74@jpeg)
May 6, 2025 at 5:15 PM
I did a coding challenge for an interview pre-screen yesterday, and I couldn’t remember the JS RegExp syntax. I used string methods, but… I figured it out after. This morning, I compared the performance of regex to string methods for parsing JSON.
Anyway, yay regex!
Anyway, yay regex!
I can absolutely use AI tools, and they are way faster at generating code… But it’s seldom code I am pleased with.
I still feel I have so much to learn, and using it does not help me do so.
I’m not even sure what it means for copyright of my code.
I still feel I have so much to learn, and using it does not help me do so.
I’m not even sure what it means for copyright of my code.
April 13, 2025 at 1:50 PM
I can absolutely use AI tools, and they are way faster at generating code… But it’s seldom code I am pleased with.
I still feel I have so much to learn, and using it does not help me do so.
I’m not even sure what it means for copyright of my code.
I still feel I have so much to learn, and using it does not help me do so.
I’m not even sure what it means for copyright of my code.
Someday, I will remember that list.sort() in Python sorts in place and returns None. Today is not that day.
April 9, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Someday, I will remember that list.sort() in Python sorts in place and returns None. Today is not that day.
I miss San Francisco for a number of reasons, but I think in the morning, I miss Bernal Hill the most. My favorite way to catch a sunrise.
April 7, 2025 at 12:56 PM
I miss San Francisco for a number of reasons, but I think in the morning, I miss Bernal Hill the most. My favorite way to catch a sunrise.
Sometimes I think about how artistry can be about more than the technical proficiency of doing a thing as an individual. It can also be about celebrating our skills, methods, and language for doing things as groups of collected individuals.
Thought inspired by this scene youtu.be/awuAT2G6kQA
Thought inspired by this scene youtu.be/awuAT2G6kQA
The Orville - Orchestra Scene (Union Symphony)
YouTube video by Nomisuke
www.youtube.com
April 7, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Sometimes I think about how artistry can be about more than the technical proficiency of doing a thing as an individual. It can also be about celebrating our skills, methods, and language for doing things as groups of collected individuals.
Thought inspired by this scene youtu.be/awuAT2G6kQA
Thought inspired by this scene youtu.be/awuAT2G6kQA