iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 08/06/2025

I've started making wood sculpture recently, and I really, really like it. This is my first piece. I have many, many more to come, I think. My head is swimming with ideas and shapes.

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 11/03/2025

Feels like it's extremely common to encounter something like A: "I want xyz" B: "Ok, but reality prevents that because abc" A: "But I want xyz" I wonder what the most effective ways to engage with someone in this mode are, and how to guide them out of it

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 03/02/2025

is post-vacation emotional hangover a thing? Just kinda feeling detached and confused, not energized or anything

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 28/01/2025

I am pretty sure that a huge part of parenting well is helping your children learn how to fully see and feel their feelings, and express those feelings in a way that is healthy and not abusive to those around them.

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Jess Martin @jessmart.in · 16/01/2025

Ok, second time in two days I've shared with folks, so probably need to broadcast more broadly: If you are using Cursor's Composer feature, switch to "agent" mode. It's a straight-up upgrade over "normal", better in every way. Click "agent" and the prompt will change to "Ask agent to do anything"

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 16/01/2025

@kaidav.is hey am I remembering right that you have some piece you often link to for explaining the concept of expected value?

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 13/01/2025

What would it mean to mark time not by seconds and minutes and hours but by books read, glances shared, fits of laughter, tears shed?

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John McBride @johncodes.com · 11/01/2025

what is an AI agent? Spent some time this morning thinking about "agents": what are they? how do they work? are they the silver bullet for all problems in software? I dive really deep on this one: no framework, just JSON to understand how agents work. johncodes.com/archive/2025...

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 09/01/2025

Reminder that some people want everything to be part of the "culture war", but you don't have to participate. That path is toxic to everyone who walks it. You can opt out.

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 09/01/2025

@simonwillison.net Hey Simon, just wanted to say how much I appreciate your commentary, notes, etc. on LLMs and related tools. I feel like you've developed as a very trustable voice in that space, and your signal to noise ratio stays very very high, which is so nice. Thanks for what you do!

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 07/01/2025

@visakanv.com writing some stuff and I wanted this in my notebook This is very dear to me. Thank you for sending it into the world. Also LOL at the monsters

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 02/01/2025

This is a great thread with some excellent picks

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Nick Rempel @nrempel.com · 31/12/2024

I know all about the AI dev tool landscape. I use Cursor every day. But what about design? What AI design tools out there can level me up? Is there a Cursor equivalent for design?

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Brittany Ellich @brittanyellich.com · 30/12/2024

I'm always amazed at what functionality is built into Chrome's DevTools. I really need to just watch a video or do a course on it already. Does anyone have one in particular they know of and like already?

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 28/12/2024

I made some Christmas ornaments for family this year. Soldered brass.

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 24/12/2024

Long exposure pictures with the iPhone are pretty good

Ranger, my yellow lab, at night, looking very handsome.

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 24/12/2024

I made challah bread. It turned out pretty good I think!

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 20/12/2024

@johnrudolphdrexler.com @wking.dev This thread probably has some stuff of interest to y'all news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4244... This especially John: boardgamelab.app probably you're already familiar with this stuff, but in case not!

news.ycombinator.com

Boardgame.io: an engine for creating turn-based games using JavaScript | Hacker News

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 18/12/2024

If you were just now thinking "man, I wish I could listen to Travis and @gen.co talk about indoor air quality for an hour and seventeen minutes", then boy howdy do I have good news! share.transistor.fm/s/c2f1ca5e

share.transistor.fm

6: Christian Genco | Everything is Interesting | Episode 6

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 17/12/2024

babe wake up, new Ciechanowski post just dropped (for anyone who isn't familiar, Bartosz Ciechanowski puts together *INCREDIBLE* articles that are well worth your time)

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 15/12/2024

Annals of nominative determinism: an artist with the last name Sketch

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 14/12/2024

Make more of what you want to see in the world Which inspires others who want the same to make more of it 🔁

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 13/12/2024

It’s gross and weirds me out to see people celebrating murder. I think doing so is bad and leads to bad things.

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 13/12/2024

I'm away from home for a few days and drinking coffee out of a regular mug instead of an insulated one with a lid. It goes cold so fast! How do people live like this???

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Andrew Schmelyun @aschmelyun.com · 13/12/2024

This is powered by JavaScript btw

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 11/12/2024

@joe.codes happy birthday Joe! I think you’re a cool dude and you make the world a better, more fun, and more interesting place. Glad you’re you.

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 10/12/2024

co-sign Also in a lot of cases, stopping to think “I wonder why the system is this way?” And then actually exploring to find out why, or at least try to imagine why it could be that way. Sometimes Chesterton’s fence has a good reason for being there

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 05/12/2024

IMO this is a very powerful framing "And now I mostly focus on what my past me needed to hear, to find others like me on this path" I suspect it works regardless of what path you're on!

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 05/12/2024

This is a really great article from @simonwillison.net on why "just store UTC" isn't always the right choice: simonwillison.net/2024/Nov/27/... He very clearly lays out examples of how that can break down. Time is hard!

simonwillison.net

Storing times for human events

I’ve worked on various event websites in the past, and one of the unintuitively difficult problems that inevitably comes up is the best way to store the time that an …

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Anna Gát @annagat.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

Anybody interested in reading Democracy in America together? Online, 6 monthly sessions. FREE! Sign up below: forms.gle/coHnpkV9kuzp...

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 24/10/2024

Important distinction: taking things sincerely as opposed to seriously. You can be sincere, while not being serious. Allow yourself to be silly/playful/joking!

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 04/12/2024

TIL: Sometimes you have to run e.g. `export TERM=xterm` when you ssh into a server to get backspace (and other keys?) to work properly. You can add this to your ssh config for that server and never think about it again. Little TIL writeup: travisnorthcutt.com/til/ssh-term...

travisnorthcutt.com

Making backspace work on remote servers

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 04/12/2024

Any other Florence fans around? 👀

Spotify wrapped screenshot

Florence + The Machine is top artist

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 03/12/2024

I had a funny interaction last week: We were in Santa Fe, NM for thanksgiving. I went into a bookstore (as I always do when traveling) and picked up a copy of Writing Down the Bones (www.amazon.com/Writing-Down...) A lady standing nearby commented that it's really good... 🧵

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 03/12/2024

Pleasant, unexpected interactions with strangers continue to be one of my life’s greatest joys

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 30/11/2024

Mine rotates but here’s the one it was on when I saw this

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 28/11/2024

Fueling it with caffeine, the elixir of the gods, obviously

News article titled “If You Usually Drink Coffee On An Empty Stomach, Experts Say This Is What It's Doing To Your Body”

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Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

My new, very brief article is about economic growth — highlighting nine countries in Africa where incomes have more than doubled since 1990.

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 26/11/2024

This is a great thorough write up of how to set up and maintain your own dotfiles repository; highly recommended. The only thing I'd add is consider using an off the shelf tool; searching for "dotfiles manager" turns up plenty. @atuin.sh is adding support as well: docs.atuin.sh/guide/dotfil...

docs.atuin.sh

Syncing dotfiles

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 24/11/2024

Unpopular holiday opinion: turkey is rubbish and ham is the superior holiday meat.

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Sam Rose @samwho.dev · 21/11/2024

Before I cold email them, I don’t suppose I have anyone in my network that could connect me with someone at the UK’s Centre for Computing History at Bletchley Park, do I? Would like to propose partnering with them in some way in my Turing Machines post. 🙏

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Travis Northcutt @travisnorthcutt.com · 22/11/2024

I googled “top manufacturer of toilets” this morning Heck of a start to a Friday!

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