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Simon Späti 🏔️

@ssp.sh
5.8K followers 1.2K following 5.5K posts

Dad. Technical Author, Data Engineer. Data practitioner (20y) • Writing at ssp.sh since 2015. Focused on the craft of data engineering & storytelling. 📚 vault.ssp.sh • 📖 @dedp.online ❯ #dataengineering, #opensource, #writing, #obsidian, #neovim

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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 6h
I just did the "make it faster" prompt on my Neomd email client, as I had a slow internet connection today.
A table lists actions in an email client, showing performance metrics for before and after optimizations, with various numeric values.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 29/09/2026
Seventeen years of note-taking, and the hardest part was never writing the note. It was finding it again two years later. www.ssp.sh/blog/proces...
ssp.sh
The Process of Smart Note-Taking
Seventeen years of note-taking distilled: use connected links instead of folders, keep your notes in plain text Markdown, and publish your second brain to learn in public.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 28/09/2026
Writing code by hand might be dead, but the problem isn't AI code; it's that nobody knows anything anymore.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 27/09/2026
Picasso would not have bothered to start a painting if he knew the outcome. That line stuck with me while sitting near a beach in Italy, writing without knowing where it leads. www.ssp.sh/blog/on-cre...
ssp.sh
The Act and the Outcome of Creation
A reflection on why we create: for joy, for flow, for others, and for the self. On creation as a gift with no strings attached and success beyond outcomes.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 26/09/2026
4 things I learned over the years with AI: 1. If consumed by a human, it should also be written by one 2. It's hard to finish an idea that's not yours 3. If you start writing today, there's no way to know if you can write without AI 4. AI won't replace human writing (as writing is thinking) You?
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Reposted by Simon Späti 🏔️
Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 25/09/2026
If you want to be a data engineer, learn these concepts. de-concepts.ssp.sh
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 25/09/2026
Proud of what I have achieved with writing online. It's hard to consolidate writing in a form that makes sense and not being irrelevant after a week. Especially these days.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 25/09/2026
> Own your own website, buy a domain, and start with a static website, or if you can’t, use Substack or others, but link it to your own domain, so later you can move and keep all the links and traffic via the domain. Once you have your domain, reshare everywhere else on each social media.
ssp.sh
Why you Should have your own Website (and Syndicate Everywhere)
Own your own website, buy a domain, and start with a static website, or if you can't, use Substack or others, but link it to your own domain, so later you can move and keep all...
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 25/09/2026
If you want to be a data engineer, learn these concepts. de-concepts.ssp.sh
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 24/09/2026
Nothing to see here, just me traversing my little universe at ssp.sh.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 24/09/2026
Writing code by hand might be dead, but it certainly helps.
ssp.sh
Writing Code by Hand Might Be Dead, but it Certainly Helps
That's my answer to "is writing code dead?" as of 2026-09-24.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 24/09/2026
Engineers care about two things in production, says Ciro Greco from Bauplan: downstream consumers never see corrupted data, and nobody debugs failures under pressure. His answer is git for data. No job writes to production tables directly. www.ssp.sh/brain/git-f...
ssp.sh
Git for Data
Git like versioning on top of object storage/Data Lakes and databases.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 23/09/2026
Here are three things I learned writing with AI as a full-time author: 1. If consumed by a human, it should also be written by one 2. If you start writing today, there's no way to know if you can write without AI 3. AI won't replace human writing (and thinking)
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 23/09/2026
A smarter cd. zoxide remembers the directories you use most and jumps there in a few keystrokes. Works on all major shells. The trick I added: seed it with folders I never cd into, so fuzzy finding in yazi has everything available. www.ssp.sh/brain/zoxide
ssp.sh
Zoxide
A smarter cd command. Supports all major shells.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 22/09/2026
If you can show you have written before using AI, people can trust you more easily than if you start today. If you haven't: > There's no way for readers to know if you can write without AI, whereas if you have written long enough, people know.
ssp.sh
Writing with AI: What's the Best Approach?
To me, AI writing always results in this: And if it's read by a human, it should also be written by a human.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 22/09/2026
You can drop DuckDB into a static webpage with one script tag. www.ssp.sh/brain/run-d...
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 21/09/2026
Vim has thousands of shortcuts. Nobody memorizes them. You learn a grammar of verbs and objects and compose the rest. What if data engineering had the same? That is the idea behind expressions in Ibis and xorq. A grammar with four parts of speech. www.ssp.sh/blog/gramma...
ssp.sh
The Grammar of Data: Define Once, Run Anywhere with Cross-Engine Expressions
Learn how declarative expressions with Ibis and xorq let you define data transformations once and execute them across any engine — DuckDB, Postgres, DataFusion — with full lineage and reproducibility.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 19/09/2026
I've written up Part 3 of my year using Omarchy: why Quattro took off, my favorite parts, and how it compares to my previous Omarchy versions. There are lots of videos and illustrations if you want to see it in action too. I hope you enjoy it, let me know what you think. www.ssp.sh/blog/omarch...
ssp.sh
Omarchy Quattro: One Year In — Part 3
Omarchy Quattro isn't a better macOS or Windows, it's a new kind of OS. My take after a year full time: plugin marketplace, unified menus, and the hype.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 19/09/2026
Learn for life was the first slogan on my blog. It is still my principle number one. www.ssp.sh/brain/learn...
ssp.sh
Learn for Life
Learn for life was my earliest Mantra and slogan in my blog. It has stayed with me to this day; it's My Principles number Anthony de Mello says in Awareness (Anthony de Mello, J.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 18/09/2026
People keep asking me how to get started with data engineering. I finally wrote it down in a dedicated place. www.ssp.sh/brain/getti...
ssp.sh
How to Get Started with Data Engineering
Whether you work in a different field or are curious about what Data Engineering is, this is the right place to start as a data engineer.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 17/09/2026
Swiss German is my mother tongue. High German is what I had to write in at school. English is what I chose. www.ssp.sh/brain/writi...
ssp.sh
Writing in a Foreign Language: How English Gave Me My Voice
This is how I found My Writing Voice and style. I initially read a lot of English books because I didn't know the language well when I was in CPH and was learning it.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 16/09/2026
You can actually just 𝚋̶𝚞̶𝚒̶𝚕̶𝚍̶prompt things. Here, I have a custom feedback page loading my book with reactions or comments on each paragraph. This is WIP and just testing the waters, but something like this is what I always wanted to get high-level feedback from multiple readers on parts of my book.
A draft document outlines data engineering concepts with a sidebar for navigation and comments, featuring structured feedback icons.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 16/09/2026
AI is the best and worst thing that has happened to open source, at the same time. www.ssp.sh/brain/open-...
ssp.sh
Open Source (OSS): Advantages, Challenges, and AI
Open source software refers to software projects shared online on GitHub, Codeberg, Tangled, or other GitHub Alternatives, usually with a git repository.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 15/09/2026
Ever wondered how to expand an Obsidian-style second brain to a company-wide brain? Wonder no more 🙂. I explore how to make a second brain multi-user-able, keep it consistent, and keep it up to date with agents securely. www.ssp.sh/blog/from-o...
A stack of blue paper is displayed, accompanied by the text “From Obsidian to a Company brain,” suggesting a transition in knowledge management.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 14/09/2026
🔥 New services page. After having the old one for two years and not really updating it, I added more clients, a better description of my services, and some more stats. services.ssp.sh Wdyt?
new service page
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 14/09/2026
Fifteen years of data engineering built Airflow, Dagster, Prefect and Kestra. This year we started building them again, for AI agents. For a while, new AI orchestrators appeared almost daily. www.ssp.sh/brain/are-w...
ssp.sh
Are We Reinventing the Tools of Data Engineering for AI?
With data engineering and 15 years of building Data Orchestration tools like Airflow, Dagster, Prefect, and Kestra, we are now doing the same for AI agents.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 14/09/2026
Code is consumed by a computer. Writing is consumed by a human. That difference decides where AI belongs. www.ssp.sh/brain/the-d...
ssp.sh
The Differences between Writing and Coding
AI Writing differs from coding because it's consumed by different stakeholders. One is a computer running the code; the other is a real human being.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 13/09/2026
Switzerland in its full beauty. #switzerlandisfake
Clear blue lake reflects mountains, surrounded by greenery and rocky shores, with boats floating in the distance, showcasing Switzerland's beauty.A child walks along a pier towards mountains and a lake, surrounded by lush greenery and clear blue skies, embodying Switzerland's beauty.A clear lake shoreline with rocks in the foreground, set against majestic mountains under a blue sky, showcasing Switzerland's natural beauty.Pine branches frame a serene lake scene with mountains and a village in the background, showcasing Switzerland's natural beauty.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 13/09/2026
I've landed on the front page of Hacker News 19 times, one of the most visited tech sites. Already 7 times this year, and 9 times in 2025 as well. It still amazes me. Meanwhile, I've collected more than 10k upvotes on Reddit. On Google Search, I've had ~1 million impressions in the past 28 days.
A digital display shows recent highlights from Hacker News and Reddit, featuring popular tech-related blog posts and discussions.
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Reposted by Simon Späti 🏔️
Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 11/09/2025
Today's Office. New machine, same OS. Tuxedo Laptop, 128 GB RAM 🤯. Very smooth. #Omarchy
TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14, Today's Office. Left: Old Lenovo. No MacBook 😉. Running Windows in frameless app, editing MS Word.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 11/09/2026
I just saw a question on Reddit: How do I replicate Google Docs in Obsidian? I use a Git repo with GitHub & HackMD. HackMD acts as the GDocs for collaboration. Git lets me push and pull between my personal, private Obsidian and the collaborative HackMD. Works great if there aren't too many changes.
ssp.sh
HackMD: Collaborative Markdown (Google Docs for Obsidian)
Markdown is awesome, the only disadvantage is it's not collaborative. HackMD seems to solve this.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 11/09/2026
It's Friday, let's fight. That's how the story of my guest's writing started. Today, he is one of the most prolific writers out there, and he publishes every Friday with that tagline. Benn uses analogies in his writing (discovered through giving presentations) & deadlines to get something shipped.
ssp.sh
If You Always Enjoy It, You're Not Pushing It Hard Enough—Benn Stancil (Show Your Workflow #1)
Benn about his writing-process and how to come up with storytelling, inspired by his presentation-style
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 10/09/2026
The Process of Smart Note-Taking. This showcases how I take notes, make connections, and distill them into blogs. It's what I've learned over the years, heavily inspired by Smart Notes and the Zettelkasten philosophy. But tailored to how my brain & writing work with Obsidian. youtu.be/RXuF0jnJAgE
A visually organized digital interface on note-taking, highlighting connections, brainstorming, and ideas inspired by the Zettelkasten method.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 09/09/2026
I added converted Callouts to Marginal Notes on my blog and second brain. Before: Callouts inline, TOC on the right. After: Callouts notes on the right side, TOC moved to the left. It's amazing how much vertical space you can save, too, and it looks so beautiful, IMO.
A blog layout showcases a writing process with notes and a table of contents, emphasizing organization and vertical space efficiency.A digital workspace showcases notes with highlighted sections, outlining writing processes and storytelling goals on a blog interface.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 09/09/2026
Defining your analytics solution end-to-end in one sentence would be a dream for most data teams. If we use a grammar that helps apply all steps of the data lifecycle, we can define, manifest, test, and run a full ETL workload with one expression. I tried exactly this.
A structured framework outlines five grammar parts for defining an analytics solution, emphasizing execution and transformation of data.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 08/09/2026
> Writings are for humans to read mostly, so they should be written by a human. Code is mostly a tool to achieve something, read by a computer, so it's less relevant to write by hand unless you work in a team or need strong maintainability.
ssp.sh
If Consumed by a Human, Should Be Written by Human
I like Naval's take, as elaborated above, which says it all depends on who the customer is. Also, I pondered on the question of Should I Change My Writing because of AI?
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 08/09/2026
If you use RSS feeds, you can follow the latest updates on my second brain more easily. I updated the RSS feed to show full notes (not only summaries) with all images and links. You'll also see updated notes, since before you only saw newly added notes. See the before-and-after view in the images.
A digital interface displays notes on data engineering topics, dates, and sources, highlighting recent updates and comprehensive RSS feed changes.The diagram illustrates the data engineering lifecycle, outlining stages from generation to serving, highlighting key components and undercurrents.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 07/09/2026
I added most of the ramen I've eaten to the gallery below my homemade ramen recipe. IMO, best food. What's yours? If you want to get hungry, check them out 😉. www.ssp.sh/brain/home-m...
All eaten Ramen over time.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 07/09/2026
Is this how AI-scraping looks like? I got like ~4.5k total visits/h, 4-5 visits on each of my pages (notes & blogs). The source is unknown. 437 agents simultaneously on my `posts`, scraping every page? 🤔 I guess I need to ask the next versions of each LLM and see whether they use my knowledge.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 04/09/2026
Lately there's been a lot of talk about context and how agents can profit from and curate it. I've always wondered how they differ from a semantic layer and what we gain from it. Ontology is another term I've heard more lately; I was curious whether it's connected. That's why I wrote about it.
motherduck.com
Context, Semantics, and Ontology: A Primer for the Agentic Era | MotherDuck
A primer on the context layer, semantic layer, and ontology: what each term means, how they fit together, and why AI agents still need a human to decide what's true. | Reading time: 19 min read
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 03/09/2026
Happy birthday to me 🎂, 40 years of age. www.ssp.sh/memories/202...
ssp.sh
40 years of age.
Today is my 40th birthday; happy birthday to me 🙂. With every milestone birthday, it’s time to look back on the years before. In doing that, I’m thankful for where life took me and what I was able to ...
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 28/08/2026
A little bit of an announcement! If you like writing, or the process of it, and how to come up with stories, please follow along with a new series I'm starting. The first interview is in the books, and I'm distilling it now into a blog, interview-style. www.ssp.sh/blog/writing...
ssp.sh
Writing really is an Emotional Rollercoaster
[[Writing]] has become my passion over time; I have built a whole company based on technical writing services (even though most say that’s impossible). After doing it for 11 years publicly (much longe...
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 27/08/2026
Oh no, what happened 🍷#todaysoffice
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 27/08/2026
I really love an easy way to publish my thoughts, notes & blogs. Here's my workflow, from an Obsidian MD file to a second brain note with one command. No conversion/formatting, no copying from a note-taking tool to email or Substack. The original always lives in Obsidian; the rest is automated.
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 26/08/2026
It's so hard to finish an idea that is not yours (and suggested by AI). Some commented that it's also hard to finish an idea that is theirs—read the comments on HN now 😉.
Keep AI Out of Your (Obsidian) Vault on HN
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 26/08/2026
News acquisition ongoing: @ducklabs.com joins AWS. @duckdb.org and the Foundation stays as is; only the team moves to AWS: > We are not acquiring the DuckDB project, which will remain free and open source under the independent DuckDB Foundation and available under the MIT license as it does today.
Recent data engineering acquisitions Acquisitions from 2022-2026
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 26/08/2026
Testing the open-source DWH engine Exasol, running locally and integrated with MCP. I built a little demo sales app to run some dbt runs and analyze the data. What requirements would you have for data analysis? For me: 1. one-command setup 2. built-in DWH features 3. easy to scale up What else?
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 25/08/2026
Uploaded some pictures of my mechanical keyboards, including the build process and sound tests. Check out the overview at: www.ssp.sh/brain/my-mec....
ssp.sh
My Mechanical Keyboards
My KBDFans DZ65RGB: Custom build, see full built My Kinesis Advantages 2: Ergonomic (Find How I Lubed and Dampered the keyboard)
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 25/08/2026
I've been using this prompt for 2-3 years with all models, with a more or less exact outcome I want. What's yours?
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Simon Späti 🏔️ @ssp.sh · 25/08/2026
Apparently, there's a new 'vim motion' plugin for Obsidian that I didn't know about. But beyond that, many still don't know the underlying power of 'vim motions' or 'vim shortcuts'. I'm here once again advocating that you check it out in Obsidian, Sublime, VS Code, whatever text editor you use.
Discussion on the benefits of the Vim Motions plugin for Obsidian, highlighting its impact on workflow and efficiency.
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