rands

Check Your Context

I didn’t much like Wally from the first time I met him. We worked in the same circles, but not on the same projects. I was aware of his work, but not involved or dependent on it. My initial reaction to Wally, “Complains. Nitpicks. Doesn’t act.” I made this judgment in a moment. Months passed,… more

September 3, 2025 1 Comment

The One About Productivity (Again)

In our 92nd episode, we talk about the ongoing battle with productivity tool swirl. Again. Enjoy it now, or download for later. Here’s a handy feed or subscribe via Overcast or iTunes. https://traffic.libsyn.com/rands/theimportantthing0092.mp3

August 29, 2025

Every Single Human. Like. Always.

Your robot experience started simple. You typed a question into a chatbot… just to see. Can it answer that question? I’d be impressed if it did. Your query was simple. A simple knowledge question that with a little effort using legacy tools like Google, you would have discovered yourself, but the robots made it trivial,… more

July 29, 2025 4 Comments

Rands Cheat Sheet, #1

There’s a lot of content hiding in the Rands archives from the past three decades. Over the years, some of that content keeps showing up. I keep forwarding the same links to the same articles; I get asked the same questions at Q&A. I’ve decided to synthesize the advice into a single artifact. My writing… more

July 20, 2025 2 Comments

Welcome to Ghost

One of the more interesting robot-assisted tools I’ve built in the last few months is tracking the various metrics for Rands-related properties. Think social like Mastodon, BlueSky, and Threads. Think blog analytics like new users, session duration, and popular articles. I’ve been plopping this data into a spreadsheet every month for the last two years.… more

July 18, 2025 6 Comments

The One About Founder Mode

In our 91st episode, we talked about Founder Mode long after everyone else had moved on. Enjoy it now, or download for later. Here’s a handy feed or subscribe via Overcast or iTunes. https://traffic.libsyn.com/rands/theimportantthing0091.mp3

July 12, 2025

Context, Memory, and Voice

The robots and I were tinkering with the script, and I somehow asked ChatGPT to make three sentences sound like me, but… just a bit. There’s enough writing out there that the robots have a rough idea of my style, but this prompt somehow triggered deep research. The robot did a full analysis of all… more

July 7, 2025 1 Comment

The Big Red W

I was lying on the 22nd floor of The Standard1 I was three martinis up the Hudson and surfing YouTube when the new Superman trailer dropped. This one: This trailer hit me hard. The prior Superman, as we’ll read about in a moment, was a watered-down meh version of the hero. This brand-new take on… more

June 15, 2025 1 Comment

I Live Here Now

I had a dog, his name was Marleau. He was a Boston Terrier, and he just wasn’t that smart. His nickname was “Derpity Doo” because he was was that derpy. We all loved him a lot. One day, we visited my parents, and we brought the Derp along. We got in the house, let him… more

June 3, 2025 2 Comments

Minimum Viable Curiousity

I was in the city a few weeks ago and exclusively used Waymo for the entire trip. My biggest complaint? I needed to walk four minutes to a pick-up spot. Other than that, the car just showed up, traversed San Francisco streets easily, and the cost was reasonable1. Sitting in the back seat watching the… more

May 7, 2025 37 Comments