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John Riccardi

@arcanegrain.dev
42 followers 124 following 91 posts

Lead Crafter at @8thLight Mostly frontend, too many D&D side projects arcanegrain.dev github.com/riccjohn ❤ Brooklyn, NY → Madison, WI ❤

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by John Riccardi
Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
New from 404 Media: when you upload images to Copilot, they're not private. Human contractors are reviewing Copilot users' prompts/images, according to internal docs we got And they're horrified at what they're seeing. Bombarded with requests to make sexual AI images www.404media.co/humans-readi...
404media.co
Humans Are Reading Copilot Prompts — And They're Horrified
Human contractors are reviewing Copilot users’ prompts and uploaded images, according to internal documents obtained by 404 Media. The contractors are also bombarded with users’ requests for sexual AI...
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 22/09/2026
I'm finding that because you can sprint with AI, vibe-coded apps can get so far off track that it takes longer to get them back on track than it did to generate the original application.
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Reposted by John Riccardi
Miranda Heath @mirandaheath.website · 14/08/2026
Such an important and multifaceted topic, thanks for the exploring this, was really nice to chat with you about it! Big recommend for anyone feeling a bit off the more they use AI to code!
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Reposted by John Riccardi
Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
A great deal of AI thought leadership articles can be summed up as "We all agreed we were tired of reading AI slop, but it turns out we don't mind writing it, so we asked AI to explain how it's actually extremely brave of us to do this, rather than just plain lazy and hypocritical"
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
New: An "expert witness" in a $61 million lawsuit over an industrial explosion that killed three people and destroyed 200 homes used ChatGPT to write his report for the court. He prompted ChatGPT to "show how 3M is 0% at fault for the explosion at Watson Grinding" www.404media.co/show-how-3m-...
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 24/06/2026
I'm sure I'm not the only one suddenly inheriting AI projects that are a mess with AI-generated docs that are just not true or are wayy too long. We need to get back to feeling ownership of code. When you generate it, there's no ownership there because you truly did not create it.
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 17/06/2026
Me to devs: DO NOT trust what the LLM wrote Me to LLM reviewer: DO NOT trust what the human wrote in PR description / docs Me to LLM reviewer 2: DO NOT trust the code the LLM wrote
Screenshot from an episode of The Office where Michael, Andy, and Dwight are playing a murder mystery game and are in a 3-way standoff all pointing finger guns at each other.
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 15/06/2026
Trying to track down an annotate data to use in evals might just be the hardest part of AI dev
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 15/06/2026
Going through Anthropic course on implementing a web search tool: Instructor: you'll probably want to only allow them to search certain domains, because if you haven't noticed, a lot of sites on the internet are filled with bad AI-generated articles. Me: AND WHO'S FAULT IS THAT!?
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 10/04/2026
Every time we build with AI's recommendations, we feed the next model's training data. The bias doesn't stay flat. It compounds. I wrote about why that's a problem for technical innovation, and what we can do about it. arcanegrain.dev/blog/ais-com...
arcanegrain.dev
AI's Compounding Disinterest, Pt 1: The Echo Chamber of the Status Quo
AI coding assistants default to what dominated their training data, creating a feedback loop that compounds over time. Here's what that means for technical innovation — and how to break out of it.
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 02/04/2026
plugin idea: a Claude Code plugin that allows you to connect a blood pressure monitor to your computer. When it senses your blood pressure rising, it injects a prompt to claude that says "really think about what you're about to say next, because he's about to throw his laptop into a river."
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 10/03/2026
my approach to testing RAG changes: make a tweak, fire up the app, ask some questions, squint at the results, try to remember if it felt better last time. totally scientific. I just wrote about why that doesn't scale and a better way
arcanegrain.dev
Stop Playing Whac-a-Mole With Your RAG Chatbot
Tired of fixing one RAG answer only to break another? Here's how I replaced manual testing with retrieval evals, recall@k, and a CI gate.
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 02/03/2026
This game is phenomenal!!!
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Reposted by John Riccardi
Jonathan Woodard @woodardj.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
I have a home-rolled chrome plugin that throws up a JS `alert` after infinite scroll has triggered more than ten times. Says “Are you doomscrolling?”
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 27/02/2026
Why can't I ever find what I need in the LangChain docs?!
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 23/02/2026
Hot take: I'm so over hot takes
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 19/02/2026
In the massive influx of people trying to be AI "thought leaders", I think the biggest thing being left out of the conversation is "care". 🧵
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Reposted by John Riccardi
Kim Wexler's Ponytail 🐝💛🎗 @madisonkittay.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Normalize laughing derisively in men's faces when they deserve it.
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 18/02/2026
OpenAI seems to be using a dark pattern where you're unable to delete your account, and then when you talk to the chat bot (bc of course its a chat bot) and you confirm that you've tried the listed steps, it just stops responding. This has happened twice now. #openai #chatgpt
Screenshot of chat window with OpenAI support bot. Bot gives unhelpful support link and says "To delete your account, please follow the steps listed here: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6378407-how-can-i-delete-my-account.

If your question is not fully addressed above, please respond to this message."

User replies "I tried that, but I can't click the "delete" button. It asks me to type the word "DELETE", and I do, but the button is still disabled."

Chat bot stops responding.Dialogue box on OpenAI site with steps for account deletion. User has to type in their email (redacted) and there's one last input with a label that says "To proceed, type 'DELETE' in the input field below." Input field is filled correctly, but submit button is still disabled and says "Locked"
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 17/02/2026
lucumr.pocoo.org
Agent Psychosis: Are We Going Insane?
What’s going on with the AI builder community right now?
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 16/02/2026
Soooooo why is no one talking about how even if AI does all the things people say it does, it's probably not a great idea that we let 2-3 companies all get a cut of the entire world economy and in doing so, all put a reliance on them. That seems kinda bad, ya know?
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 14/02/2026
Your browser tabs are zombies 🧟‍♂️ with one goal: to put you into CONSUME mode just like they are. Declare Tab Bankruptcy™! The only way to stop the infection is to consume less and create more. arcanegrain.dev/blog/the-tab...
arcanegrain.dev
The Tab Horde is at the Gates (And They're Hungry for Your Focus)
Stop being a human cache for other people's content. It's time to declare tab bankruptcy, kill the unread horde, and rediscover the power of creation.
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Reposted by John Riccardi
WeRateDogs @weratedogs.com · 10/02/2026
we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad
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Reposted by John Riccardi
evy kwong @evystadium.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
guys please don’t fall for the cute doggo ring super bowl commercial. they’re literally creating a tool that turns all ring cameras in a neighborhood into a surveillance dragnet
404media.co
With Ring, American Consumers Built a Surveillance Dragnet
Ring's 'Search Party' is dystopian surveillance accelerationism.
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 09/02/2026
Join the club, AI - I too am experiencing tension between context size and attention focus.
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Reposted by John Riccardi
Cat Hicks @grimalkina.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Just read another big tech post about the future of software engineering. Lots of people quoted: not a single woman quoted.
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 09/02/2026
Since the early days of the space program, astronauts have quarantined before missions because any illness could be disastrous. It’s eminently logical — not “extreme” — for athletes who’ve trained their WHOLE LIVES for one event to take similar precautions in order to stay in peak physical condition
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Reposted by John Riccardi
Mar Hicks @histoftech.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition. Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology
She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.
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Reposted by John Riccardi
Erika Hall @erikahall.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
and we have a winner for our 2026 tagline
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Rebane @rebane2001.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
xikipedia app/pwa progress update made some navbar icons (im not a designer but i think they look neat) also installing the app, full-offline mode, cache, updates, and locally stored settings are all implemented in dev
xikipedia's desktop sidebar, showing the logo, settings, profiles, stats, and installxikipedia's mobile navbar, showing the icons for settings, profiles, stats, and install
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Reposted by John Riccardi
Cat Hicks @grimalkina.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
I've been in SF for four days and on each day I've had multiple conversations where people (self included) express deep feelings, fear, wonder and worry about their skills being replaced or (this is less named explicitly but an assumed driver I think) no longer valued by others. Big threats to feel
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Reposted by John Riccardi
usrbinkat.io @usrbinkat.io · 06/02/2026
The president is cartoonish levels of guilty in the most infamous human trafficking club. The president is kidnapping people in broad daylight using unidentified masked secret police. These two things are related.
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 05/02/2026
LangChain's RunnableSequence "magic" was hurting my brain until I realized you can just ... write it explicitly with regular functions instead. I wrote up how to stop letting LangChain do mysterious things to your data, or at least understand it. arcanegrain.dev/blog/langcha...
arcanegrain.dev
LangChain Confusion
Confused by LangChain's RunnableSequence magic? Learn how to write explicit, readable chains that reveal exactly how data flows through your pipeline.
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Reposted by John Riccardi
Rebane @rebane2001.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
i made a version of wikipedia you can doomscroll xikipedia.org
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 04/02/2026
Welp, now that Claude is having issues, can we talk about how having all companies use a single (ok, maybe 3?) product is a bad idea?
Screenshot of the Claude status page, showing "Elevated errors on Claude models" and partial outages in claude.ai, platform.claude.com, Claude API, and Claude Code.
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Reposted by John Riccardi
Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Definitely seems like they destroyed the country on purpose.
Jeffrey Epstein emailing Peter Thiel: Finding things on their way to collapse was much easier than finding the next bargain. ... Return to tribalism. Counter to globalization. Amazing new alliances.
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Reposted by John Riccardi
Jim Remsik @jremsikjr.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
On our road trip from New Orleans we’re making a list of subscriptions we are cancelling upon our arrival home. www.resistandunsubscribe.com
resistandunsubscribe.com
Resist and Unsubscribe
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 30/01/2026
Oops I made a mistake in my blog post and said you could control the model claude uses for skills. You can't! Here's the diff where I fixed it in case you're interested github.com/riccjohn/blo...
github.com
Fix mistake when talking about skills v agents by riccjohn · Pull Request #33 · riccjohn/blog
Contribute to riccjohn/blog development by creating an account on GitHub.
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 30/01/2026
"The developers who thrive won’t be those who generate the most code. They’ll be those who know which code to generate, when to question the output, and how to maintain comprehension even as their hands leave the keyboard."
addyo.substack.com
The 80% Problem in Agentic Coding
Managing comprehension debt when leaning on AI to code
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 30/01/2026
"One reason vibe coding is so addictive is that you are always *almost* there but not 100% there. The agent implements an amazing feature and got maybe 10% of the thing wrong, and you are like "hey I can fix this if i just prompt it for 5 more mins" And that was 5 hrs ago" x.com/stuffyokodra...
x.com
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 30/01/2026
IMO, we're not talking enough about how the skill to review code vs write code is very different. The amount of code that AI outputs only widens this gap. Not only is the skill different, but the personality type for a copy editor or proofreader vs a writer is extremely different.
addyo.substack.com
The 80% Problem in Agentic Coding
Managing comprehension debt when leaning on AI to code
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Reposted by John Riccardi
Jim Remsik @jremsikjr.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Mood
Dog Friendly 
People Tolerant
peppspub.com
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 29/01/2026
A few thoughts on how I used this project as a way to learn 🧵 bsky.app/profile/arca... I love toy projects for learning new tech because they reveal the "why" behind the "what." I build the absolute MVP with the fewest libraries possible to feel the pain that leads to professional tools. 1/4
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 28/01/2026
I created a little RAG chatbot connected to some old school D&D rules (Old School Essentials / BX). It runs completely offline using llama3. I ran into some interesting issues, so I've been trying to document as I go in case I turn it into a tutorial.
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Luke Diaz @lukediaz.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Flock ignored multiple requests to take down their cameras after the City of Verona did not renew the contract. So this is where we are at. You can't trust Flock. Dane County needs to take their Flock cameras down.
A Flock camera with a black bag over it.
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 26/01/2026
I'm starting to feel more and more like half the AI terms thrown around are just the same thing re-marketed 😐
Screenshot from Gemini where user asks "is NotebookLM basically an AI chatbot + RAG?" and Gemini responds "You’re spot on technically, but in 2026, the industry has started calling tools like NotebookLM a "Cognitive Engine" or "AI-First Notebook" because it does more than just chat with your files."
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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 24/01/2026
As tens of thousands across America protest the violence that ICE sows with impunity, federal agents shot and killed another person in Minneapolis today.

ICE terrorizes our cities. ICE puts us all in danger. Abolish ICE.
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 24/01/2026
Btw, the Claude Code "Pro" pricing is definitely not usable for everyday dev. I hit my limit in an hour with a toy project.
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John Riccardi @arcanegrain.dev · 24/01/2026
I started building a little "Grimoire Oracle" - a toy project that uses LangChain to hook up a local LLM to the Old School Essentials (B/X Dungeons & Dragons) rules as a chatbot with RAG. I'm still having issues but it's something fun to learn on. github.com/riccjohn/gri...
github.com
GitHub - riccjohn/grimoire-oracle: An Oracle for OSE powered by Langchain and a local LLM. Toy project I'm using to learn Langchain, etc.
An Oracle for OSE powered by Langchain and a local LLM. Toy project I'm using to learn Langchain, etc. - riccjohn/grimoire-oracle
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