Now

Building

I've spent the last few days completely redoing this website, my personal slice of the internet. The original version was mostly handcoded, while this version is mostly vibecoded. I'd prefer to write this by hand, as I feel more of an intimate connection with this site (these are my words for me, after all), but I really just wanted to get a polished version up before I came up with another thing to procrastinate with.

I'm also continuing to work on GPTees and bookmarks. I have a bunch of other projects I tap into every once in a while, but these are the two most interesting to me at the moment.

I've been talking about building a market making game for years, and while I've started samples of it from time to time, it feels bad giving in completely to AI to write it, though I will probably do that to get a first version published and live to experiment with.

Training

I'm running the SF Marathon on July 26, 2026. I haven't been training as much as I'd like to, but it will be fun! I'm prioritizing doing all of the races that I want to do now while I have the time and interest rather than waiting until I'm sufficiently "trained" for them, because if not now, then when?

I just finished the Escape From Alcatraz triathlon. That was an incredible experience! A little pricey, but truly a once in a lifetime event. That said, I definitely want to race that one again, but perhaps in a few years.

I did the LA Marathon earlier this year, and that was really fun! The first 20 miles weren't so bad. The last 6.2 were impossible — I had to walk! It was my first marathon, and certainly not my last!

Reading

I just finished reading Millions, Billions, Zillions: Defending Yourself in a World of Too Many Numbers by Brian Kernighan. It's an easy and quick read, and I'd recommend it to anyone who isn't strong with numeracy. This was a great read for me to reorient myself with numbers, practice some estimation techniques, and get back into reading more of Kernighan's work. The next book on my list is his Understanding the Digital World: What You Need to Know about Computers, the Internet, Privacy, and Security, Second Edition.

Learning

At long last I am finally learning Greek! I've been listening to the courses from Language Transfer, which are very well done. Mihalis' method really clicks for me, and I highly recommend checking out the website and their app. There are a bunch of languages to learn.

Like almost everyone else in San Francisco, I'm trying to teach myself how to build with AI. Vibecoding has been a game changer for me. It's enabled me to build projects that were out of my reach, and to mow through the backlog of things I've been wanting to build but haven't had the time to allocate to.

Adventures

I visited New Zealand for the first time in February — spectacular! The entire country is so beautiful — especially the South Island and the area around Queenstown — and the people were very kind and friendly to me. I can't wait to go back.

Later this July I'll be flying to Peru to check out Machu Picchu. I'm excited for that! Sadly I'm not doing the multi-day trek, but I'm looking forward to the adventures I was able to squeeze into the short timeframe.

Later this year I have a quick weekend in Alabama/Georgia, and an offsite in New York. That's it for now (so sad!).

Listening to

Masayoshi Takanaka — peak.

The Signals & Threads podcast by Jane Street has been really interesting to listen to. Great to hear their perspective on software development, and also to see how different their practices are compared to whatever gets surfaced up in the mainstream.