Nate Bird

I’ve been using Claude Code for a side project recently, and it has significantly improved my productivity as a developer.

Instead of diving straight into code, I now spend more time crafting detailed prompts that describe new features or changes. This approach forces me to articulate in plain language exactly how the application should behave and why. It reminds me of test-driven development, but with prompts guiding the process instead of tests. I’ve started saving these prompts as documentation, creating a clear record of the intended functionality.

While some visual adjustments and refactoring are still necessary, this method of programming has been refreshing. As someone who enjoys building things, I find myself spending less time stuck on technical problems and more time conceptualizing new features. I no longer need deep expertise in languages like Ruby or Swift, nor comprehensive knowledge of libraries and SDKs. I can create simply by knowing what I want to build.

Looking ahead, I can envision Claude Code evolving into an advanced pair programming tool where Claude sits on one side of the screen while my application runs on the other. We could discuss changes conversationally, implement them immediately, and see the results without touching a keyboard. While some developers might resist this approach, I find it exciting and look forward to building new applications in significantly less time.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I enjoyed John Gruber’s post on daringfireball about the advanced features of Apple Intelligence not being demo-able even 9 months after being announced.

I think Apple has been headed on this path for a while due to their change in their OS release cycle. We used to get iOS version X in September and although maybe with a few bugs it was pretty much feature complete. Then we started getting new features in the x.1 or x.2 version. Portrait mode comes to mind but I’m not sure if that was the first.

Then a few years ago a lot of features started shipping in x.4 versions in February/March. I think some sort of hubris has taken hold and Apple has bitten off more than they can chew. While it is nice to get features throughout the year, that also means that those features are 8-9 months away from being ready to ship when they are shown off at WWDC. The farther away the ship date from when it is announced the greater risk of it not shipping at all.

I think Apple has been on this path for a while and it was only a matter of time for when announced features just wouldn’t make a 9-10 months away deadline. Whether they can actually pull of some version of what they showed is yet to be seen but I’m not surprised they missed their publicly announced deadline.

I am thankful for family and friends who love and support me.

I am thankful for a community that supports my kids and provides them opportunities to learn and grow into responsible adults.

I am thankful for free and fair elections where I can vote to continue the messy experiment of democracy.

I am thankful for a career which allows me to create, build, scale, mentor, and learn.

I am thankful for a healthy body to walk, run, hike, play tennis, take care of myself and serve others.

I am thankful for service opportunities to mentor students, give to local non-profit organizations , and teach the benefits of giving.

Nilay, at The Verge, nails why Trump is too inept to be President in his endorsement for Kamala Harris.

Trump simply cannot use the tools of democracy to run the country on our behalf. His brain does not work that way, even when it appears to be working. He is too selfish, too stupid, too cognitively impaired, too fucked in the head by social media — too whatever. He just can’t do it. He will make our collective action problems worse because he doesn’t even know what kind of problems they are. There is a reason he loves dictators and that all his biggest ideas involve forcing people to do things at the barrel of a gun: mass deportations, arresting his critics, sending the military into American cities to quell protests. He is unable to imagine a world where people cooperate for any reason other than the threat of violence, and so violence has become an inextricable part of his movement.

I received my Nomad Tracking Card today. It was easy to setup. Pull it out of the box, open the Find My app, hold the button on the card, then walk through the pairing process on the phone.

This is a Nomad product so the build quality is exceptional. The card feels really solid and is only as thick as two credit cards. I find it amazing that a battery can fit into a card this thin. Aesthetically, the electronics inscription on the front is subtle but looks great.

The specs say the battery life is 5 months and it is rechargeable using MagSafe or Qi wireless chargers. I’m looking forward to trying it out. For me this tracker is much more useful than AirTags. I have an AirTag for my luggage and one for my car keys but this Nomad tracker is much more useful day to day in my wallet.

At $50 it isn’t cheap but because it is easily rechargeable I think it will be worth it.

I’ve been thinking about remote work due to some top-down policy changes made by my employer. These changes along with other headlines have reminded me how much I value working remotely. I have discussed the benefits and challenges of remote work with my wife and colleagues over the past few months. Through these chats I’ve realized that I need to write my thoughts to clarify and detail my opinions about why remote work is important in today’s world.

My thoughts come from 8 years of full-time remote working and reading many books and blog posts on the subject. I feel that I have learned a lot over the years about what works and what doesn’t. The structure of this post lists of the benefits and challenges of remote work and is intended to be a summary. As I publish my thoughts on each item I’ll update this post with links to individual posts.

Individual Benefits

1. Flexibility - When and where to work is the biggest benefit of remote work.
2. Improved Productivity - Fewer distractions allow me to focus and get more done.
3. Work-Life Balance - Seeing my kids off to school in the morning and driving them to activities keeps me involved in their lives.
4. Cost Savings - I’ve saved tens of thousands of dollars over the years by not commuting daily and not eating out regularly.
5. Health and Well-being: Trading time commuting for time exercising is a win both mentally and physically.
6. Personalized Work Space: I’m lucky to have a dedicated room with a large window with natural sunlight in my house. I also have some great posters and decorations to motivate me.

Company Benefits

1. Access to Global Talent: By accessing a broader talent pool, companies can find highly skilled individuals not limited by geographical location.
2. Cost Savings: Reduced need for physical office space, utilities, and related expenses results in significant cost savings.
3. Increased Productivity: Remote workers are more productive due to fewer distractions and personalized work schedules and environments.
4. Employee Satisfaction: Remote work options boost employee satisfaction and retention, as it provides flexibility and a better work-life balance.
5. Diversity and Inclusion: Hiring individuals from different backgrounds and locations promotes diversity and fosters a more inclusive work environment.
6. Business Continuity: Distributed workers help the company be more resilient to disruptions like weather events, health crises, or internet outages.
7. Environmental Impact: Reduced commuting results in fewer carbon emissions and higher employee morale.

Challenges

1. Communication and Collaboration: Traditional office communication and collaboration methods are less effective in remote work environments and may lead to misunderstandings and delays.
2. Isolation and Loneliness: Some remote workers struggle with feelings of isolation and loneliness due to not being physically close to other co-workers.
3. Working Across Time Zones: Finding shared times between various time zones can be challenging and can cause delays in information sharing.
4. Establishing Work-Life Boundaries: Many new remote workers have difficulty establishing clear boundaries between work and personal life, leading to overworking or decreased productivity.
5. Staying Motivated: Without clear guidance remote workers may lack focus and lose motivation to accomplish goals.
6. Not leaving the house: Many workers find they have less reason to leave the house when working remotely.
7. Technology and Infrastructure: Technical issues and cybersecurity threats are more challenging to manage and monitor with workers distributed geographically.
8. Management and Oversight: Many managers struggle to ensure tasks are completed, productivity is maintained, and employees feel supported.
9. Company Cultural: Creating a cohesive company culture and fostering a sense of belonging is difficult when employees are scattered.

This isn’t a comprehensive list but there are some interesting items to delve into deeper and hopefully explain how remote work fits into the modern workplace.

I recently started accessing a Mac Mini from the Screen Sharing app on macOS. The app was recently updated in macOS Sonoma and it’s great! I’ve been connecting to this Mac from my laptop with the Screen Sharing app in full screen mode and the performance is good over my Wi-Fi connection. There are occasional stutters but most of the time I forget it is a screen share. I like using the Mac Mini at my desk but being able to access it from any Mac in the house is even better!

One trick I’ve found is to turn on the Dynamic Resolution setting in System Settings > Displays on the remote Mac. When the Screen Sharing app is in full screen mode it makes the remote screen fit perfectly on the laptop screen. My only gripe is that the setting isn’t sticky so I have to set it again every time I connect.

A couple of notes - I’ve filed a feedback for this feature request. And I’ve also included a screenshot of where to find this setting as it only appears in the Displays settings when the remote Mac has an active Screen Sharing connection.

This TED talk was not what I was expecting. Instead of a flashy demo of the product we got a foundation and principles for building Ai driven devices. I have a lot of questions but here are my initial thoughts.

Video link: youtu.be/gMsQO5u7-…

The good.

First, I thought this was a typo but Humane references “Ai” instead of “AI”. Is there a difference? Is “Ai” not an acronym forArtificial Intelligence? Maybe this is the name of the product. Ai. And the next version could be Aii. It is probably explained somewhere but I haven’t bothered to look.

Second, I like the idea of technology being transparent. I think society as a whole can benefit with more face to face interaction without a screen in between. I also relate to this especially after recently attending my daughters’ piano recital and recording it on my phone but wanting to also just be present and enjoy the moment .

Third, I agree that AI (Ai?) will transform our lives in ways we can’t imagine right now. I think the demo showcasing the translation into French using his own voice and manner of speaking was impressive and much more personal than a generic assistant like Siri or Google Assistant. This also demonstrated the ability for the technology to be less visible and obtrusive during a human to human interaction.

The demo about personalized recommendations was also interesting in that each user will have their own Ai and it will learn and evolve to make better recommendations for the individual. This reinforces Humane’s Ai principles of security, privacy, and trust.

The bad.

Everything above sounds great. However, when I think of how this will fit into my life I don’t see it. What does this replace? My iPhone? My MacBook? My Apple Watch? Or is this something in addition to those things that replaces some of my “compute” experience when I’m around people?

The demos didn’t demonstrate privacy as commands had to be spoken out loud. That is much less private to speak a sentence out load than to silently type it into a message. And while summarizing emails is helpful for prioritizing - it doesn’t reduce the number of emails I need to reply to in a thoughtful manner.

The end.

I feel the truly revolutionary AI powered device will be on the face with glasses. Glasses with an earpiece can take us so much further along the path to replacing a phone while improving our social interactions securely and privately. Maybe it is my lack of imagination but I just can’t see a place in my life for Humane’s Ai based on what was demoed.

Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in his own words is a curated collection of Steve’s speeches, interviews, and emails. It is a free ebook available in a variety of different formats.

I am excited to read this book and mark it up. It is a great way to understand Steve’s way of working, thinking, and writing.

I recently listened to an episode of ATP where they discussed how Gmail works differently than a regular IMAP email account.

In Gmail, messages are labeled. You can set as many labels as you want on a message and those labels are a way of filtering messages later. This has the advantage over a folder structure where the message can only exist in one folder at a time.

I’ve used Gmail since it was an invite only beta. I used labels a lot to categorize my messages. But when the iPhone came out I started using Mail.app and pretty much stopped using labels. Almost 15 years later, I’ve realized that I don’t miss labeled messages and that I almost never go back to look at old messages in the folders/labels. In fact, I rarely look for messages older than a few months and a quick search in my archive turns anything up almost instantly.

Everyone has their way of organizing and my way is to have three buckets for incoming messages:

1. Inbox
2. Archive
3. Deleted

For outgoing messages I have:

1. Drafts
2. Sent

I don’t use any other folder structure than those. Search is so good these days that I don’t manually dig for messages anymore.

I hope you don’t either.

Update: It is worth noting that I separate my roles with separate email accounts. For instance, my work email is completely separate from my personal email. I’ve found this helps me separate my roles logically instead of funneling everything into a single email account and then dividing it up with folders/labels.

Lately I’ve had a few discussions about mobile applications technologies. There are many options available, native Swift and Kotlin, and multi-platform React.js, Flutter, and Kotlin Multiplatform. Personally, I am adamant about using the tools and languages that are native to the platform. There are tradeoffs with any choice but for me it comes down to caring and the effects this choice has on the culture and team.

What do I mean by caring? Sure, everyone on any team wants to create a quality app. But for me caring goes far beyond passing requirements. For me, coding is a form of art - like writing a story or poem. It has structure and form. It can be beautiful, clean, and elegant. And I’m not talking about GUI – I’m talking about the code! One of the reasons I love writing Ruby code is that it is easier to reach that goal. Caring about how the code looks and is organized may seem over the top but guess what? It matters. Ruby attracted people who had those same values and it created a wonderful community. I’ve found a similar community in iOS and Swift projects - partly because they are all heavy Apple users – but there is a connection in those groups about creating something that isn’t just beautiful on the outside but is elegant, understandable, and maintainable under the covers too.

Continuing with the art analogy, if an artist is creating a poster to frame and hang on the wall what kind of paper and drawing tools would they use? A torn out large lined sheet of notebook paper and a broken pencil?!? No! They would use a heavy feathered card stock with a fountain pen or quality brushes or markers. They care about the medium and the tools because they care to create something that doesn’t simply pass the requirements.

When we choose to use the lowest common denominator languages and tools to save on “resources” then we shouldn’t expect to build a team that cares deeply about the app. We get out what we put in. The app will be fine but not great. And it will never be an insanely great app.