Blog #0193: Learning and Dreaming
2026-03-06
• Matthew Sinclair
Cross-entropy loss, the Adam optimizer, and autoregressive generation — training a GPT in Elixir
Blog Posts
Blog #0192: How Tokens Talk to Each Other
2026-03-05
• Matthew Sinclair
Self-attention, multi-head projections, and KV caching — the core of the transformer
Blog #0191: From Letters to Logits
2026-03-04
• Matthew Sinclair
From tokenization through linear algebra to the GPT model, all in pure Elixir
Blog #0190: What If Numbers Could Remember?
2026-03-03
• Matthew Sinclair
Building autograd from scratch in Elixir — every number remembers where it came from
Blog #0189: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of the Highlander Rule
2026-03-02
• Matthew Sinclair
A simple rule with a pithy name turns out to be surprisingly effective at keeping agentic coding on the rails
Blog #0188: On Knowing What Code to Throw Away
2026-03-01
• Matthew Sinclair
Agentic coding has inverted the job — from knowing what to write, to knowing what to throw away
Blog #0187: A Few Things I've Been Working On
2026-02-02
• Matthew Sinclair
A catch-up on Laksa, Prolix, and what's been keeping me busy
Blog #0186: What We Let Machines Do
2026-02-02
• Matthew Sinclair
A framework for thinking about AI autonomy - from analysis to embodied behaviour
Blog #0185: (Almost) 52 Things I Learned in 2025
2026-01-15
• Matthew Sinclair
A big list of 52+ things that I learned each week in 2025
Introducing Utilz: A Simple Script Framework for macOS
2025-11-13
• Matthew Sinclair
A simple bash framework for organizing personal automation scripts across machines
RLWRAP and Elixir: A Pragmatic Approach to CLI Readline Support
2025-08-12
• Matthew Sinclair
How to add professional readline features to your Elixir CLI without losing your mind
The CTO Review: Using Socratic Dialog with AI for Better Technical Decisions
2025-08-11
• Matthew Sinclair
How a structured conversation between personas can transform your technical design process
Why Elixir? A Rebuttal to Common Misconceptions
2025-07-08
• Matthew Sinclair
Why Elixir is not just a good platform for modern development, but a great one - addressing common misconceptions
Making Emacs Appear in macOS Finder's Open With Menu for Markdown Files
2025-06-13
• Matthew Sinclair
How to fix the issue where Emacs doesn't appear in Finder's Open With menu for markdown files on macOS
Kids and Smartphones
2025-04-28
• Matthew Sinclair
Why the problem with kids and smartphones is software, not hardware
Why LLM-Powered Programming is More Mech Suit Than Artificial Human
2025-04-21
• Matthew Sinclair
How LLM-powered programming tools amplify developer capabilities rather than replace them
What if we taxed advertising?
2025-04-08
• Matthew Sinclair
What if, rather than banning advertising outright, we taxed it instead?
Introducing Nether (ØNTHR)
2025-04-01
• Matthew Sinclair
Introducing Nether (ØNTHR) — The World's First Perfect Stablecoin
I'm a software engineer ~ what next? Mid-Series Update and Next Steps
2025-03-17
• Matthew Sinclair
Mid-Series Update and Next Steps for the 'I'm a software engineer ~ what next?' podcast
ChatGPT, Claude, DeepSeek vs Creativity (part 3)
2025-01-29
• Matthew Sinclair
Part 3 in the ongoing discussion about the 'creativity' of LLMs
Blog #0173: 52+ Things I Learned in 2024
2024-12-27
• Matthew Sinclair
A big list of 52+ things that I learned each week in 2024
Blog 0172: After 3 months gardening leave and a 2,300 mile trip around the UK, Quantum Fax Machine Reading Lists are back!
2024-11-13
• Matthew Sinclair
I drove >2,300 miles around the UK from London to Land's End to John o'Groats and back to London in a VW Californian camper and lived to tell the tale.
Blog #0171: 20240619 Blog 0171 Will LLMs Ever Completely Take Over Coding from Human Software Engineers?
2024-06-19
• Matthew Sinclair
Writing software is 20% syntax and 80% wisdom. Which bit do you think LLMs are good at?
Blog #0170: Podcast: Imagine This...
2024-06-03
• Matthew Sinclair
When AI comes for Knowledge Workers
Blog #0169: ChatGPT vs Claude vs Creativity (part 2)
2024-03-13
• Matthew Sinclair
How creative are ChatGPT and Claude? I made them (re)take the “Divergent Association Task” to find out. The results are (again) surprising.
Blog #0168: FinovateEurope 2024 Summary Insights Demos
2024-02-28
• Matthew Sinclair
I went to Finovate and listened to 35 fintech demos so you didn't have to
Blog #0167: A few thoughts on the Apple Vision Pro after a 20 min test drive
2024-02-23
• Matthew Sinclair
I wore an AVP on my head for 20 mins and lived to tell the tale
Blog #166: Six Simple Questions to Ask to Ensure You Are Building a Great Product
2024-02-22
• Matthew Sinclair
An intentionally simple framework to help early discussions about what to build
Blog #165: Broad work vs deep work
2024-02-08
• Matthew Sinclair
Finding a balance between remote and in-person work
Blog #164: Three Reading Lists (2023)
2024-02-07
• Matthew Sinclair
Announcing three new reading lists for 2024.
Blog #163: Elixir Reading List (2023)
2024-01-16
• Matthew Sinclair
A review of all of the interesting things that happened in the Elixir ecosystem in 2023.
Blog #162: Machine Learning Review December 2023
2024-01-15
• Matthew Sinclair
A review of all of the interesting things that happened in machine intelligence in December 2023.
Blog #161: Machine Learning Review November 2023
2024-01-14
• Matthew Sinclair
A review of all of the interesting things that happened in machine intelligence in November 2023.
Blog #160: Machine Learning Review October 2023
2024-01-13
• Matthew Sinclair
A review of all of the interesting things that happened in machine intelligence in October 2023.
Blog #159: Machine Learning Review September 2023
2024-01-12
• Matthew Sinclair
A review of all of the interesting things that happened in machine intelligence in September 2023.
Blog #158: Machine Learning Review August 2023
2024-01-11
• Matthew Sinclair
A review of all of the interesting things that happened in machine intelligence in August 2023.
Blog #157: Machine Learning Review July 2023
2024-01-10
• Matthew Sinclair
A review of all of the interesting things that happened in machine intelligence in July 2023.
Blog #156: Machine Learning Review June 2023
2024-01-09
• Matthew Sinclair
A review of all of the interesting things that happened in machine intelligence in June 2023.
Blog #155: Machine Learning Review May 2023
2024-01-08
• Matthew Sinclair
A review of all of the interesting things that happened in machine intelligence in May 2023.
Blog #154: Machine Learning Review April 2023
2024-01-07
• Matthew Sinclair
A review of all of the interesting things that happened in machine intelligence in April 2023.
Blog #153: Machine Learning Review March 2023
2024-01-06
• Matthew Sinclair
A review of all of the interesting things that happened in machine intelligence in March 2023.
Blog #152: Machine Learning Review February 2023
2024-01-05
• Matthew Sinclair
A review of all of the interesting things that happened in machine intelligence in February 2023.
Blog #151: Machine Learning Review January 2023
2024-01-04
• Matthew Sinclair
A review of all of the interesting things that happened in machine intelligence in January 2023.
Blog #150: Looking back month-by-month at everything that happened in machine learning in 2023
2024-01-03
• Matthew Sinclair
Looking back at everything I learned in machine learning in 2023
Blog #0149: 52+ Things I Learned in 2023
2024-01-02
• Matthew Sinclair
A big list of 52+ things that I learned each week in 2023