Bits

Far Caspian — "Autofiction" (Live at Leeds Museum):

And this sinks so calcified
Those calluses begin
The last remaining light
Is stretched across your skin

Love this live performance of the recent record. "The Sound of Changing Place" is probably my favorite — the vocal harmonies are beautiful.

Recorded a version of Cold Like Winter on the the OP-XY tonight. I wrote the song more than a decade ago. Something fun about bringing it into the current moment with modern gear. Almost like covering myself.

The Marias — "No One Noticed" (Extended Spanish):

Estás tan dentro de mí
Te sigo pensando
Te sigo esperando
Y estás, oh
Tan lejos de mí, oh
Te sigo pensando
Me canso llorando

The lyrics are from the Spanish outro in this version of the song.

I oscillate between who I am, and who I want to be.

King Krule — "Out Getting Ribs" (Church of Nobody):

And hate runs through my blood
Well my tongue was in love
But my heart was left above
I've got to be leaving now
I thought I'd never be shot down
But girl I'm black and blue
So beaten down for you
Well I'm beaten down in bloom

I genuinely wonder how someone makes a song like this.

Fontaines D.C. — "You Said" (Live from A Night at Montrose, Dublin):

I got into this band last year, especially during M&A diligence — they were on constant rotation. For this show, the band played the entire record front to back and the cinematography is incredible. This was a standout performance for me.

The Voidz — "The Outro" – Secret Show, Live in Venice:

On the back of all the things you gave
If only I was zooming on the moon
I've been in Los Angeles too long I think
Singing songs I never thought I would
Singing in a style I didn't think I'd ever understand
Take it like a California breeze
Grew up on the car horns and city noise
Didn't know the quiet oh oh

I remember walking around my neighborhood and listening to this setlist for months during the pandemic. There's something about these lyrics that hit differently knowing what came next. The LA references, the sense of being somewhere too long, singing in ways you didn't expect — it all feels like the end of an era captured in real time.

Four Tet — Live at Sydney Opera House:

I came to Four Tet pretty late, and this set was my introduction. It's one of those performances I keep coming back to — just put it on and let it run. There's something about the setting, the sound, and the way the whole thing builds that makes it feel less like a DJ set and more like a single long piece of music. A perfect starting point if you've never listened.

Dieter Rams:

Limit everything to the essential but do not remove the poetry.

This is the hardest balance in any craft. Stripping things down is easy — you just cut. But knowing what to protect, the parts that give something its soul, that takes real taste. The best products, the best writing, the best code — they all feel simple, but there's a warmth to them. Something human made it through the editing process.

Mode collapse:

It occurs when the model produces outputs that are less diverse than expected, effectively "collapsing" to generate only a few modes of the data distribution while ignoring others. This phenomenon undermines the goal of generative models to capture the full diversity of the training data.

A few things that stand out to me about this:

• It's not just a model problem — people mode collapse too. You settle into the same patterns, the same solutions, the same responses to situations, and stop exploring the full range of what's possible.
• The most interesting work comes from the edges of the distribution, not the center. When a model (or a person) only produces "safe" outputs, you lose the unexpected ideas that actually move things forward.
• Diversity of input matters. If you only consume the same sources, talk to the same people, and work on the same kinds of problems, you're training yourself toward collapse.

Making Software:

As everything around us has become more complicated our understanding of technology has diminished. It used to be that we needed to understand our tools deeply but today we understand them in a shallow, abstracted way.

What an incredible and beautiful resource.

Arctic Monkeys — "That's Where You're Wrong":

Jealousy in technicolor
Fear by name, love by numbers
Street lamp amber, wanderlust
Powder in a blunderbuss

These four lines are so evocative — "jealousy in technicolor" and "fear by name, love by numbers" pack so much into so few words. There's something cinematic about the imagery too. Alex Turner makes it sound effortless.

Rado True Square by Tej Chauhan.

Winter in Seattle has me missing Los Angeles. Soon.

Back at home and enjoying Pantheon.

Altitude sickness is not fun. It's been a long week in Boulder.

Reminds me of my childhood.

Just came back from a 4.5 mile walk in the rain. I feel alive.

Got a haircut – feels good. 💇‍♂️

Olivia Rodrigo & Feist — "We're Going to Be Friends" (White Stripes cover, Rock Hall 2025):

I wish Feist released a bunch of covers.