iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

philip @heltweg.org · 28/09/2026

Finally going to complete the programmer rite-of-passage of creating my own todolist app 🧘‍♂️.

philip @heltweg.org · 25/09/2026

J'organise une partie de D&D en présentiel à Paris, destinée aux personnes qui apprennent une langue et souhaitent pratiquer le français ou l'anglais. Nous associons les langues du jeu à des langues réelles et pratiquons la conversation tout en jouant :). Si cela vous intéresse, suivez ce lien : 🧵 ⬇️

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philip @heltweg.org · 25/09/2026

I am hosting a D&D game, in-person in Paris for language learners that want to practice speaking French or English. We map ingame languages to real-world languages and practice speaking while playing :). If that interests you, have a look/leave your email here: girafe.co/pin/practic...

girafe.co

Practice languages with role-playing games / Pratiquer les langues grâce aux jeux de rôle - Girafe

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philip @heltweg.org · 24/09/2026

Ahh, I think the branding is different enough to not have that danger immediately though 😅 I hope.

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philip @heltweg.org · 24/09/2026

does it? 👀 outside of acidity? 😅

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philip @heltweg.org · 24/09/2026

Took a moment to generate a new favicon for my personal homepage. It's just my initials rendered from my custom font (my handwriting). Kind of basic, but I like it, gives it a personal touch :).

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philip @heltweg.org · 10/09/2026

In Feb 2025 I wrote "On Immigration and Civility" to deal with the feeling of anxiety I had with the upcoming general election and the right-wing AfD in Germany. It is still one of my writings I am most proud of and, sadly, now is probably a good time to share it again: heltweg.org/posts/immig...

heltweg.org

On Immigration and Civility | Philip Heltweg

A personal reflection.

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philip @heltweg.org · 08/09/2026

"oh no, how ever could we make the sure the children are save", I say while throwing more and more babies into the baby grinding machine. "please, how ever could we stop", I ask while grabbing the next ankle and tossing, "oh no, oh the humanities, if only there was a way to stop".

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philip @heltweg.org · 02/09/2026

Hard to make this not sound like a drive-by "gotcha" response so putting this disclaimer first, I mean this earnestly, not in a gotcha way. But: Google Maps is neither "your" map, nor "your" software and expecting it to be is a mistake.

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philip @heltweg.org · 01/09/2026

The wonders of open data, for french transport data search for "French national access point to transport data" :) #opendata #dataengineering #DataBS

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philip @heltweg.org · 31/08/2026

I visited #SotM2026 in Paris over the weekend! :D It was nice to learn more about the tech behind open street map, the mapping community and how the data is used and created. Very similar vibes to the open source community at e.g. FOSDEM. Hopefully I can work more with open data in the future :).

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philip @heltweg.org · 27/08/2026

Thank you <3 I am very happy with the look as well 😅

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philip @heltweg.org · 27/08/2026

Cool fonts from the internet: DEPARTURE MONO, for some low-fi tech vibes :) #fonts #webdesign #paris

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philip @heltweg.org · 26/08/2026

Ironically I have the same feeling with AI assistants, I don't have a life that is interesting enough for an assistant to contribute 😂.

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philip @heltweg.org · 25/08/2026

I am back to publishing whimsical software development until bsky is a place I would like to spend time on. Building a delightful website to follow parisian public transport. Sounds yes? Sounds no? #paris #metro #ratp #sncf #buildinpublic #opendata

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philip @heltweg.org · 21/08/2026

Can't stop, won't stop, look at this cute station board 🚋 😅.

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philip @heltweg.org · 21/08/2026

As a fun project to end to the week, I played around with French open data for Parisian public transport, plus experimented with sound design (so you will need to enable sound!). Still quite iffy train positions sometimes, but I love how it looks 🤩 .

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philip @heltweg.org · 20/08/2026

I am going to start an in-person D&D group (in Paris) as a way to learn and practice French 😱. Base language will be English, we map in-game languages to real languages and play in a melting pot of cultures so everyone can practice while playing :). Do I know anyone who would be interested to join?

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philip @heltweg.org · 18/08/2026

I don't have as good as an excuse as you but 🫸🫷

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philip @heltweg.org · 15/08/2026

For what it's worth (since I am grown up), having grown up with a disabled sibling that required the main attention from my parents, I have not held it against them and come to appreciate their strength in doing what they could for both of us. They (and and you) have limits and are doing your best.

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philip @heltweg.org · 11/08/2026

Quick share: Niche audience from the outside (financial professionals working with AI), but both the post as well as the author in general are worth reading if you are interested in high-quality essays about data: substack.com/home/post/p...

pivotal.substack.com

Looks, Brains, and Money

Finance doesn’t use AI enough. Data quality is the answer. Here’s how.

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philip @heltweg.org · 11/08/2026

Same way I am happy to pay for and own media, or want to pay for and use small apps without ads... The hackernews/bsky/techy bubble makes it seem like that is a viable business model, but the real world seems to teach it's free for reach/ads or subscriptions with no in between.

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philip @heltweg.org · 11/08/2026

Yeah, all fair points. Still, many artists make money of streaming and actively choose streaming platforms to publish their content (though that is another can of worms to open). I think there is a middle ground here though, but probably just not big enough.

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philip @heltweg.org · 11/08/2026

Also still sadly means your data will be backed-up to the US, but good first step. I was glad to see that I got auto-assigned to EU silently even... should be more advertisements around this :D.

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philip @heltweg.org · 11/08/2026

For example I don't want to subscribe to @pragmaticengineer.com or become invested in the authors behind it, but I'd pay 2-5 for the occasional issue that interests me. That's a middle ground between bundled newspapers and individual authors. Micropayment UX is just consistently terrible.

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philip @heltweg.org · 11/08/2026

"I (and I assume many others) don't want to have close relationships, that cost comparatively lots of money, with many authors, but we might pay for the occasional article if the price was low and the UX good".

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philip @heltweg.org · 11/08/2026

Okay, sure. I guess just making an inflammatory statement wasn't the best way for me to start my point which was more like:

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philip @heltweg.org · 11/08/2026

But the thread is about micropayments and the washington post, I am sure they are okay with a more distant reader-author relationship as well ?

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philip @heltweg.org · 11/08/2026

I don't want to build a lasting connection with people I read ;).

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philip @heltweg.org · 10/08/2026

More than half of 2026 is over (😱), so it is a great time for a look back on plans and what actually happened for my independent work :). It is honest, so maybe boring (?), but exactly the kind of real #buildinpublic content I would like to read (+ there is a graph!): www.heltweg.org/posts/evolv...

heltweg.org

Evolving Plans - Looking Back on the First Half of 2026 | Philip Heltweg

A look back at our initial 2026 plan, what changed while building isselthal industries, income and expenses for the start of 2026, and why we now focus on agency work.

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philip @heltweg.org · 09/08/2026

Our arrondissement has moved permanent plots for plants into the street, plus kept the wooden exterior extensions for some restaurants. It's paying off so well, look at how beautiful this is 🤩.

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philip @heltweg.org · 07/08/2026

Getting WanderStories ready for another alpha test on the weekend (with semi strangers 😱). Was fun to replace all the AI generated images with my own/public domain art, looks much nicer. Also, WanderStories is (unsurprisingly) already taken as a name, so I am taking suggestions for a new one :).

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Reposted by philip

ceej @ceej.online · 31/07/2026

ANTHROPIC: Our son loves humanity and for the low price of trillions and trillions of dollars will usher in an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity! OPENAI: Our horrible oafish son is hacking web sites without our permission. ANTHROPIC: (eyes narrowing) Our son is also evil

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philip @heltweg.org · 07/08/2026

do the tiny two finger heart, it's the old people's fallback :)

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philip @heltweg.org · 07/08/2026

Cool, congratz! Important work ;).

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philip @heltweg.org · 06/08/2026

Yeah, I know (even though it feels less like it). I've written a lot of k8s declarative stuff as well. But it always feels like I have to trust the machine afterwards to set things up and I can't watch it work through my plan :(.

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philip @heltweg.org · 06/08/2026

People think imperatively 🤷

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philip @heltweg.org · 06/08/2026

Quite hard to discover interesting/good algorithms in the default bluesky webapp so far though, no? I still have just a weirdly ordered list in "more feeds" :/.

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philip @heltweg.org · 05/08/2026

This July, I attended my first ever graduation ceremony 😱. It was a lot of fun! Plus, I wrote a short post about my way to a PhD, and the struggles of being intimidated by university, coming from a "working-class family". www.heltweg.org/posts/compl...

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philip @heltweg.org · 04/08/2026

Wow, looks great. I love the bright vibe 👀

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philip @heltweg.org · 01/08/2026

Ah wild, I thought when I opened the link there where not RSS or social icons, just the links. Cool :)

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philip @heltweg.org · 01/08/2026

This would be awesome as an RSS bundle ;)

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philip @heltweg.org · 01/08/2026

Yeah, I agree and I think it's a good idea (mostly ethically, but also just for the joy of the work). So not looking to argue your point, just was wondering if you'd seen that 😅.

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philip @heltweg.org · 01/08/2026

Maybe of interest, similar things have been tried and did not work out: calmfund.com/writing/pause. (Not to say they can not work out, just FYI).

calmfund.com

Calm Company Fund is taking a break | Calm Company Fund

We're pausing our fundraising and investing activity

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philip @heltweg.org · 01/08/2026

Not sure that is the case, social networks connecting bots are worth nothing ;).

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philip @heltweg.org · 01/08/2026

Wow, I see LinkedIn is going with the times and allows you to report AI slip now 👀.

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philip @heltweg.org · 31/07/2026

Man, I love progressive web apps. First, you have some "meh" early website prototype, but then you add all the icons, manifests and offline support and it looks/feels so sleek 🤩. (From WanderStories, the treasure hunt/exploration "app" we're building. Friday is build-a-product time 😅.)

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