Weeknote #66 (20251221-20260103)

meta

As promised/threatened/expected, this weeknote is actually going to cover two weeks — I was off 20 Dec to 4 Jan, and there’s nothing like a good long end-of-year work hiatus to completely disconnect you from the regular rhythms of things…

did

• We did the normal Christmas-y stuff; this was a lighter year as far as gifts went, and that’s fine
• The Sunday after Christmas, we made a trip over the coast, partially so Mx19 could see the ocean while they’re home, and partially so I and they could get some fresh oysters — I bought some locally that I tried to serve for Christmas dinner, and they were so bad (and I suck at shucking, I discovered)
• NYE was our typical stay-at-home-and-yell-at-fireworks-shooters evening, and it was fine
• I didn’t get a whole lot of fuckall else done with my time off, and that too is fine
• Two weeks of time off apparently leads to some serious Sunday ennui; it actually started as I was trying to fall asleep Saturday night sigh

read

One of my goals for the break was to make a big dent in my backlog of “to read” bookmarks. The size of this section is a statement about my success in that — I went from around 250 links in my backlog to (as of the time of writing) 196. Pretty pleased about that.

I also wanted to try to climb back on the “reading books” horse, which I got thrown from about halfway through 2025. I picked back up my in-progress read of John Ousterhout’s A Philosophy of Software Design, and I’m happy to say it is my first finished book of 2026. I’m trying StoryGraph’s “January Reading Challenge”; if you’re on StoryGraph (or you’re looking for an alternative to Goodreads), follow my profile there, maybe

And now, some links you might be interested in, in roughly the same order that I read them:

• “The Grand AI Disconnect” — It’s pretty interesting to see some of the generic GenAI disillusionment (which feels like a somewhat minority opinion, in my corner of the tech world) getting reflected in a general/political outlets:

  As this Politico piece from a couple days ago points out, something like 80% of Americans think AI should be robustly regulated and fewer than 20% of Americans think AI will have a positive impact on America over the next 20 years. These are shocking numbers, to put it mildly. AI is running only slightly ahead of child molesters in the public imagination.

• “I’ve got a feeling / This year’s for me and you” — A lovely reflection on hope and the classic Pogue’s song, relly enjoyed this one

• “A 2026 checklist” — This one reminded me, in a positive way, of the famous list of “Woody Guthrie’s ‘New Year Rulin’s’” — I need to think about my daily and weekly goals still…

• “52 Things I Learned in 2025” — Posting this one mainly to say that #8 has absolutely massive Spiders Georg energy

• “Why Don’t People Return Their Shopping Carts? A (Somewhat) Scientific Investigation” — as somebody who returns not only their cart, but also other carts abandoned in parking lots, I was very happy to see this one (via the newsletter of Ben Cotton’s FunnelFiasco, which is worth your time)

• “Maybe the Default Settings Are Too High” — reflective piece on consumption speed versus enjoyment, which is something I maybe need to reflect on. It also reminded me of one of my favorite aphorisms, “slow is smooth, smooth is fast”

• “Package managers keep using git as a database, it never works out” — a reminder that, unlike Route53, git is not a database

• “Writing Code Is Fun” — unsurprisingly, I endorse pretty much everything in this, especially:

  I traded happiness for the illusion of speed

• “Two Nights Playing With Fire At Patrick Mahomes And Travis Kelce’s Steakhouse” — look, you’re either the type of person who is gonna snort-laugh at this level of snark, or you’re not; if you are, you should take a look at this one:

  You could not bring a truffle pig within a mile of this place; it would die instantly from a seizure.

• “The Colonization of Confidence” — this is a long read, relatively speaking, and it takes a bit for it to let you know where it’s going — but that said, it’s fantastic, so refill your beverage, settle back, and enjoy the ride

• “A unified theory of fucks” — good things to keep in mind as we enter a new year:

  I used to tell this story, about my theory of fucks. The theory goes like so: you are born with so many fucks to give. However many you’ve got is all there is; they are like eggs, that way. Some of us are born with quite a lot, some with less, but none of us knows how many we have.

watched

Couple fun videos:

• M83 doing their classic “Graveyard Girl”, live on KCRW
• A little documentary about “Swiftie Dads”, dads taking their daughters to see Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour — if you’re a parent, this doesn’t make you smile and/or tear up… (via the always worth a follow kottke.org)

Television wise, over the break:

• TheWife, Mx19, and I binged all the way through S2 of Man on the Inside — not quite as good as the first season, but still solid
• TheWife and I continue to grind through Criminal Minds, all the way through S12, into S13

cooked

• Tuesday the 23rd: cronchy tacos
• Wednedsay the 24rd: short rib onion soup
• Thursday the 25th: hand-cut reverse-seared steaks, bleu cheese sauce, roasted garlic potato mash, balsamic Brussels
• Sunday the 28th: posole rojo (started on Saturday the 28th)
• Wednesday the 31st: Chicago-style deep dish pizza, by TheWife and Mx19
• Thursday the 1st: osso buco, with pan sauce, over potato mash