Per Thulin

We are entering a new era of on-device automation. ✨ Watch Gemma 4 E4B navigate and drive an iOS simulator directly using Argent. Local models can handle complex interactions and software navigation autonomously.

My reply to someone considering starting a video game company: The distribution of possible rewards for starting a video game company are generally not very good today. The market is well served, and gaining a foothold requires strong execution on both business and product issues, along with a substantial amount of luck. Plan to burn through seven figures with a not-great chance of making it back. If you do go for it, some bits of advice: Identify your customers clearly before you start. Not just a broad community, but specific people, and imagine them as you make decisions. Initially, build the smallest, most concise game you can imagine anyone paying for. It will still take much longer than you expect. Once something exists, hill-climb the value. Hopefully you will have some elements that clearly bring joy to people, which you can magnify. There will inevitably be tons of things that people find confusing, frustrating, or just boring that you will need to fix.

It’s 2am again, my favourite time, and as always reality is still staring me in the face 🧐

tech debt isn’t real.

I wanted to build a video editor into X like other social apps. I had expected it to take 3 months of engineering time. Today I decided to try prototyping it myself. I one-shotted a full in-browser editor in 15 minutes. It felt like I could replace the entire Adobe software suite by Sunday. Then I asked myself: will videos even be edited manually in 3 months? Chatbots can do reasonably well now. Product development is getting extraordinarily difficult when the world is changing so fast.

If you are a software engineer "experiencing some degree of mental health crisis", now hear this, because I've been coding for 50 years since the days of punched cards and I have a salutary kick in your ass to deliver. Get over yourself. Every previous "programming is obsolete" panic has been a bust, and this one's going to be too. The fundamental problem of mismatch between the intentions in human minds and the specifications that a computer can interpret hasn't gone away just because now you can do a lot of your programming in natural language to an LLM. Systems are still complicated. This shit is still difficult. The need for people who specialize in bridging that gap isn't going to go away. As usual, the answer is: upskill yourself and adapt. If a crusty old fart like me can do it, you can too.

This is why FSD has been basically useless until recently. Seattle has lots of small two way streets. It impressively navigates this and takes cues from the other driver. 👏🏻 FSD 14.2.2.2

Joint Statement: Apple and Google have entered into a multi-year collaboration under which the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be based on Google's Gemini models and cloud technology. These models will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri coming this year. After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google's Al technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and is excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for Apple users. Apple Intelligence will continue to run on Apple devices and Private Cloud Compute, while maintaining Apple's industry-leading privacy standards.