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Duncan Davidson

@duncan.dev
382 followers 354 following 129 posts

Software developer and engineering leader. Ex-[Shopify, Microsoft for Startups, Wunderlist, JavaSoft,...]

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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 19/10/2025
I’m really happy to see the RubyGems repository transferred to the Ruby organization. This is probably 20 years overdue. www.ruby-lang.org/en/news/2025...
ruby-lang.org
The Transition of RubyGems Repository Ownership
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 06/10/2025
There is no seahorse emoji. But GPT-5, Claude, and most other LLMs are absolutely convinced there is—and will confidently try to give you one if you ask.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 01/10/2025
I like the slight change in attitude that Sonnet 4.5 has. When it was reviewing my latest link blog post and adding in the confidence it had in its answers (in my preference prompt), it replied: “Confidence level: Pretty high - I write and edit regularly, though of course taste varies.” 🤣
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 10/09/2025
Really cool to see that @flox.dev keeps expanding where Nix and reproducible environments can go.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 08/09/2025
I really like how Reeder renders the `external_url` property in JSON feed and finally got off my butt and implemented a JSON feed for my site. Yay for the open web!
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 01/09/2025
KPop Demon Hunters is on heavy rotation in the house these days, which means those damn catchy tunes are ear-wormed into my brain. Solution: Headphones and a thorough metal cleanse followed up by some good beats. Today’s treatment is the new Linkin Park followed up by some Chemical Brothers.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 19/08/2025
Reminder: the ‘Rona is still out there even in the summertime on the beach where I’ve been. This time pretty mild so far, thankfully.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 27/07/2025
Microsoft lays off ~15,000 people in a year where it reports record profits. Satya Nadella sends a memo framing the pain as necessary and leadership as embracing it early. Om Malik took a closer look: om.co/2025…
om.co
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 16/06/2025
Almost four and a half years ago in early 2021, I went to work at Shopify. It was one of the best jobs I’ve had. But every tour of duty comes to a close. I’m going to take a few months this summer to really reflect on what I want to take forward with me. duncan.dev/post/free-ag...
duncan.dev
A free agent again, for now
After over 4 years at Shopify, I’m a free agent again. The AI revolution feels like 1997’s web all over again. It’s time to step back and reflect on what I’ve learned and what’s next.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 14/06/2025
I've found that leaning into Daniel Kahneman’s "Thinking fast and slow" has really improved the way I work with LLMs. It’s all about the mindset you arrive with. duncan.dev/post/ai-thin...
duncan.dev
AI thinks fast, so think slow
It’s useful to treat LLM outputs as System 1 thinking (fast, reflexive, pattern-matching) while you provide System 2 oversight (deliberate, logical). This framework helps maintain thoughtful human jud...
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 13/06/2025
Claude can create 50 API designs in minutes. ChatGPT can write endless variations. The new superpower isn’t generating work — it’s knowing what to reject. duncan.dev/post/art-of-...
duncan.dev
The art of saying no
Claude can create 50 API designs in minutes. ChatGPT can write endless variations. The new superpower isn’t generating work — it’s knowing what to reject. Curation is becoming the primary creative act...
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 11/06/2025
I picked up a new MacBook Pro on recent travels and the model I wanted at the Apple Store had a nano-texture screen. And oh boy, yah. Me like. It’s gooooood.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 26/05/2025
This used to be a Walgreens that i shopped at. Now, i want to shoot a movie here with some sort od fitting plot line of emptiness and a state of being discarded.
Empty store interior that was used for decades as a drug store and is now empty
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 26/05/2025
Setting up a new personal laptop and digging into @flox.dev to set things up. We’ve been using Nix a lot more at work, but I really like the layer on top of Nix that Flox gives.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 22/05/2025
Happy to see the Shopify logo up in the Anthropic presentation!
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Reposted by Duncan Davidson
BWJones @bwjones.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
James Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev In SLC, UT bryanwjones.com/2025/05/jame...
A black and white photograph of a brilliant renaissance man, and all around good human being, James Duncan Davidson looking into the camera.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 21/05/2025
I wish I’d been in an A seat for this approach. Still, it always brings a smile to my face to see the Bay Area out the window.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 21/05/2025
What’s up?
Escalator at Munich airport.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 20/05/2025
Thanks @craigmod.com craigmod.com/books/other_...
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 07/05/2025
I’m totally stoked about this: zed.dev/agentic. Yes, Cursor and Windsurf and even using Copilot in VScode are good. But, I’ve got a soft spot for @zed.dev and I’m so happy to see their new agent mode ship. Great agent in a super fast editor. 🎉
zed.dev
Zed — Agentic Editing
Collaborate with agents at 120fps in a natively multiplayer IDE.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 23/04/2025
You know what I really dislike about GraphQL? All requests look the same in HTTP logs. I really miss not having that when I’m trying to figure out why something something that somebody is doing in their app is blowing up our SaaS provider. (intentionally left vague to protect the guilty)
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 25/03/2025
I think the lesson I’m taking away is that I should accept more invitations to group chats that I don’t recognize. 😳
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 08/03/2025
Woke up. Packed. Checked out. Got car to airport. Checked in. Flight delayed. Flight delayed. Flight cancelled. One hour in line. Flight rebooked. Lunch. Connecting flight disappears. Rebooked. Connecting flight disappears. Talk to support with two airlines.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 05/03/2025
Oh hai, Toronto. You look… welcoming.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 05/03/2025
Let’s go
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 18/02/2025
Long day.
Duncan Davidson looking out the window of an airplane wearing a mask.
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Reposted by Duncan Davidson
David Hobby @davidhobby.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Love this: “Instead of buying new clothes, take that money and go travel. Because people there haven’t seen your old clothes yet.”
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 10/02/2025
Dammit. I love em dashes — I wonder what this means about me.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 05/02/2025
OH one of the devs on my teams: “So, I lost some uranium in my house and was looking for it...” ☢️ 🫠
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 03/02/2025
Breathe, my friends. Breathe. Don’t forget to breathe.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 02/02/2025
My driver from the airport today in Toronto: “Last year, I was excited to see Trump win. I wanted to see him get in and shake things up. But now, now, I think we’ve got idiots on both sides and I’m worried there’s going to be a recession and people are going to go hungry because of it.”
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 02/02/2025
So, we’re on approach on a 777 and the ceiling is low. Something about how the pilot is flying feels like he’s on edge. I start thinking “pilot is gonna do it. He’s gonna hit the TO/GA switch”. Not five seconds later, thrust comes up and we’re zooming up.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 02/02/2025
In retrospect, “guy who has long wanted to build payment services and mint crypto currencies to replace USD manages to get access to government payment mechanisms” wasn’t on my bingo card just yet. I guess I assumed it would be harder than that.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 02/02/2025
Fuck it. It’s an “imma gonna put sugar in my coffee” kind of morning after reading up on the news.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 02/02/2025
Somebody wants to come along.
A puppy sitting on a suitcase
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 27/01/2025
With the big scale solutions costing so much capital, and in this case precipitated by embargo, Deepseek was inevitable. Simon Sinofksy writes: hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com/p/228-deepse...
hardcoresoftware.learningbyshipping.com
228. DeepSeek Has Been Inevitable and Here's Why (History Tells Us)
DeepSeek was certain to happen. The only unknown was who was going to do it. The choices were a startup or someone outside the current center of US AI leadership and innovation.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 23/01/2025
Reading Avery’s @tailscale.com post from earlier this month injected some optimism into my day. The c10k problem is now the c10000k problem. It’s a thought-provoking piece showing how we can do more than ever, with less than ever. Are we keeping up with our tools? tailscale.com/blog/living-...
tailscale.com
Living in the future, by the numbers
Instead of making the traditional New Year predictions, let’s talk instead about the beautiful technological future we live in: the one that exists right now but we don’t always notice.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 22/01/2025
Same! I was quite surprised to find out that the diagram wasn’t from the original work, but something that came 60 years later.
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Reposted by Duncan Davidson
Sarah Drasner @sarahedo.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
beautiful. resonant. theoatmeal.com/comics/150_c...
Says "everything is on fire", a cartoon in The Oatmeal with houses that are on fire, fire coming through the windows
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 20/01/2025
duncan.dev/power-reveals
duncan.dev
Power reveals
Power corrupts is a popular quote, but a friend of mine reminded me that the ancient Greeks had a different take: Power reveal’s a person’s character.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 16/01/2025
Congrats to Blue Origin for making it to orbit!
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 10/01/2025
So much has happened already in 10 days of 2025 and my head is spinning, but I’m still pretty happy about settling into my refreshed terminal setup with Ghostty, Berkeley Mono, and Starship.
Screenshot of a terminal window.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 09/01/2025
Thinking a lot about LA and the people I know there. I hope y’all are (and stay) safe.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 06/01/2025
I’d like to declare Slack bankruptcy, please.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 01/01/2025
I half expected @craigmod.com’s byline on this... 🤣
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 29/12/2024
Well this was a gentle reminder to check my filming position even if I’m using my iPhone and shooting something non serious. That print bed came out fast and really said hello.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 27/12/2024
You’d think that boring things like terminal emulators have long been perfected, but they haven’t. Mitchell's Ghostty is a welcome addition to the ecosystem. Check it out at ghostty.org
ghostty.org
Ghostty
Ghostty is a fast, feature-rich, and cross-platform terminal emulator that uses platform-native UI and GPU acceleration.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 26/12/2024
My kid and his pal at school are arguing on the phone about why the ^2 in e=mc^2 is called “squared.” The trash talking mixed in with science geekery as they argue is next level. I can’t decide if I’m shocked, in awe, or just proud.
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Duncan Davidson @duncan.dev · 25/12/2024
I will never not be amazed by this real world effect.
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