Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 21/01/2026When Gemini 3 came out I said it's the greatest model of all time. I loved it. But it didn't work for others. This week I'm seriously trying GPT-5.2 and already said it might be better than G3. Today, GPT-5.2 let me down and I wonder... am I... the boy who cried GOAT? 8310
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 21/01/2026Is it safe to mention AI here now or will people call me a dumbass? No snark, genuine question. Main thing on my mind right now is how programming is changing and I love to talk about it. But I don't have the energy to fight over it. 35820
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 12/07/2025Arriving with the sound of two thousand angry tambourines, here it is: New issue of Joy & Curiosity! registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/joy-and-cu... 1140
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 06/07/2025Oh my god, Marty, would you look at that! What is it, Barbara? Are you okay? Marty, it's... it's... two made-up names and... a new issue of Joy & Curiosity! registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/joy-and-cu... 080
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 28/06/2025Look, look, look! It's back! The two week break is over. A new Joy & Curiosity. Read it here (if you're not subscribed — wow): registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/joy-and-cu... 2120
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 21/06/2025Extending the summer break: no newsletter this weekend. 090
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 13/06/2025CARO: Robert Moses, who replaced corruption in New York City, was worse than corruption for the democratic processes. In the postwar era many forces were coming together to destroy those processes in New York. But he was the most import— THORSTEN, CARO'S FRIEND: fuck him up bob 040
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 10/06/2025Amp now supports subagents. They're very powerful and I wonder whether they will change a lot of things. So I wrote about them: ampcode.com/agents-for-t... 381
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 08/06/2025Drums being drummed on, rattles, cymbals— A group of people shouting hey, hey, hey— Something's falling out of the sky, thrown out of a plane, what is it? The group of people is pointing towards it. "Hey, it's a new Register Spill!" registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/joy-and-cu... 080
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 03/06/2025Municipal office in my town let me know that my new personal ID is ready. The Reply-To here translates to: "Please use email from attachment" Welcome to small-town Germany 140
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 01/06/2025Yesterday I told my wife "you have to watch this" and showed her the Dyson keynote with the PencilVac and the FluffyCones and said stuff like "look! double lasers!" and "haha, no, wait, the best is yet to come" Today I'm wondering whether she looks at me the same. 0130
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 31/05/2025Wait, what is tha— Someone slipped something under the door. It's... Look, it's a new Register Spill! (Special Saturday Morning Delivery with Special Jujutsu Intro) registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/joy-and-cu... 1172
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 26/05/2025Small personal update: Heard the idiom “all hat, no cattle” for the first time today and, starting now, I’m going to try to use it as much as possible. 1241
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 25/05/2025Someone on LinkedIn took my post on How to Build an Agent, shortened it, removed all the code, simplified, and posted it there, on LinkedIn. If you were to tell me that it's all AI generated — the post itself, the comments, the job titles of the commentators — I'd believe you. 1130
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 24/05/2025The pleasant hum of a harddrive, the soothing whirring of a dust-covered fan. Suddenly: the sound of the floppy drive ejecting something. A whirr, a click — a snap! That's... that's not a floppy disk? No! It's a new Register Spill! Read it here: registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/joy-and-cu... 2251
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 20/05/2025Sometimes a great outcome of a day of programming is knowing what *not* to do now. (At least that's what I'm telling myself right now.) 2130
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 20/05/2025Do I know a sound designer on here who can create sounds for software? 231
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 19/05/2025"where are you going to put the ads?" "i don't think you understand what i'm going for" 180
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 19/05/2025I have this feeling that all the big labs are RLing the models to get better at zero-shotting complete apps and I'm really wondering whether that's the right solution. I personally like working in tandem with an assistant — it goes for a bit, I check, I ask for changes, etc 2120
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 17/05/2025No newsletter this week, I'm completely off this weekend 1240
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 15/05/2025Wrote down how Amp — the agentic coding tool we've been working on for the last months — has changed programming for me. Read it here: ampcode.com/how-i-use-amp Yes, I barely type code by hand anymore. 8282
Reposted by Thorsten BallMaria Antoniak @mariaa.bsky.social · 14/05/2025My most common prompt critique is “this doesn’t make sense.” Sometimes people write instructions that are impossible to follow and then report that the model can’t do a task. Not really news to anyone, but liberal arts (writing, philosophy, logic, critique) training is good for this kind of thing. 2323
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 13/05/2025Whenever someone with barefoot shoes walks into the gym I know that in 5min I will see some amazing yet weird feats of strength. 2100
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 12/05/2025Gave a talk, got this hat. (Not pictured: questions about this hat I will get from all the non-tech people that live around me.) 2180
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 12/05/2025So, there really isn't a calendar application yet into which I can drop a screenshot and it turns it into a calendar entry? Seems trivial to build nowadays, no? 440
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 11/05/2025Crash, boom, pang, meep meep — wait, what's that? It's... pretzels filled with peanut butte— No! It's a new Joy & Curiosity after all. registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/joy-and-cu... 1120
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 09/05/2025So I guess it's international law that whenever you build a hotel you have to invite The Guy and tell him: "we love your work, we've seen what you've done in the other hotels, please master, design us a new set of shower controls that the world hasn't seen before" 2151
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 06/05/2025Wrote down how I changed my view on AI. Read it here: registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/theres-bea... 1172
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 03/05/2025Meep meep, watch out, wait, no, step aside— oops, sorry about that! Well, here it is: a new Joy & Curiosity! registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/joy-and-cu... 080
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 29/04/2025I'll be in SF next week. Arriving Sunday, leaving Friday. It's going to be a busy, busy week, but hey, if someone wants to have a coffee, let me know! 040
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 29/04/2025In case you're stuck writing something and can't get it out the door: Know that most things should be half as long. 0131
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 28/04/2025Another entry for the They're Just Like Us log: Agent in Amp started removing now-obsolete properties, gets tired after 3 lines, decides to use ripgrep to do the rest of the replacements. 1253
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 28/04/2025Fastmail should be studied for how they evolved their UI over the years. It's all very considered and tasteful, in my opinion. Sticks out by how much it doesn't stick out and doesn't go with trends. 2182
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 26/04/2025The noise of someone kicking in a door. A chair falling over. Feet shuffling on the floor. Then, silence. But suddenly: a joyous scream. There it is, there it is. A new Joy & Curiosity! registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/joy-and-cu...registerspill.thorstenball.comJoy & Curiosity #37Interesting & joyful things from the previous week 1131
Reposted by Thorsten BallRuss Cox @swtch.com · 25/04/2025Another fun magic trick! Differential Coverage for Debugging research.swtch.com/diffcoverresearch.swtch.comresearch!rsc: Differential Coverage for Debugging 49327
Reposted by Thorsten Ballcodehakase @codehakase.com · 25/04/2025My notes from reading @thorstenball.com's article on building ai agents. codehakase.com/blog/2025-04...codehakase.comNotes on building a coding agent | Francis SundayMy personal reflections on Thorsten's Ampcode article, which reveals how building AI coding agents can be more about leveraging powerful models than complex, custom code. 051
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 24/04/2025If you're a tax accountant in Germany and know what the following words mean Carta, Gumroad, LemonSqueezy, Contractor, ISO, NSO, stock option, exercise window, Deel, Remote, Merchant of Record, Delaware company you can make a lot of money. Sadly, I don't think you exist. 6326
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 24/04/2025me, having written: writing is beautiful, writing *is* thinking, the noblest pursuit me, trying to write: writing fucking sucks, whoever invented the written word is a dumbass, it's all garbage anyway. talking, now that's something 2240
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 23/04/2025With every emoji you put into an announcement message, the information I retain goes down by 10%. 4150
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 20/04/2025Is it a plane? Is it a bird? Is it maybe a small bird? Or a beetle? Maybe it's a beetle? Or a mosquito? Man, I hope it's not a mos— No! It's a new Joy & Curiosity! registerspill.thorstenball.com/p/joy-and-cu... 1181
Thorsten Ball @thorstenball.com · 19/04/2025I like the cut of your jib, Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 03-25 120