Neuromancer has become more than just an influential novel; it’s now the blueprint for the entire Cyberpunk genre. Even if you’ve never read it, you’ve felt its impact in nearly every major sci-fi film, TV show, anime, and video game of the past 40 years. Gibson didn’t invent cyberpunk, but he defined it. He created the lexicon—cyberspace, matrix, sprawl—that shaped how we imagine our digital future. Reading Neuromancer for the very first time in 2025 ...
What doesn't change
Everyone’s either panicking that AI will replace them or assuming they don’t need to learn anything anymore. Both miss the point entirely. AI amplifies what you already know. If you understand distributed systems, you’ll use AI to build better ones. If you don’t, you’ll use AI to create distributed disasters. The difference? When that AI-generated code breaks in production — and it will — you need to know why. When it doesn’t scale — and it won’t — you need to understand the bottlenecks. When it creates race conditions, memory leaks, or architectural nightmares, GitHub Copilot won’t save you. Your fundamentals will. ...
Maintaining curiosity
I believe what’s important isn’t the specific technology itself, but rather maintaining curiosity that always looks toward new alternatives and making technical decisions based on your own judgment rather than simply delegating your choices to popular opinion. In Praise of the Contrarian Stack
I'm speaking at DevMarche Summer AI Afternoon
On Thursday, I will be conducting an MCP Server session at the Summer AI Afternoon event organized by DevMarche in collaboration with DevRomagna, the neighbouring development communities. There are more than 50 people signed up already, and I’m so looking forward to meeting old and new friends down South.
Cloudflare to introduce pay-per-crawl for AI bots
The biggest news in tech this week (which isn’t over yet) is, without a doubt, that Cloudflare is about to introduce a pay-per-crawl model for AI bots—huge in many ways, as let’s not forget that approximately 20% of internet traffic is routed through Cloudflare. I have many thoughts right now, and it will take some time for them to settle. A good analysis and explanation of why this move is needed and is a good first step can be found in yesterday’s article by Dries Buytaert’s, The Web’s Broken Deal with AI Companies, which I recommend everyone read. ...
Sometimes bad weather can feel like a gift
Simon Collison in Another Week in Edale perfectly captures why I enjoy hiking in bad weather, something those in my proximity consider borderline reckless: A calm day is always welcome, but there’s a perverse pleasure in struggling against violent gusts, or enjoying the steady rhythmic crackle of rain on a waterproof hood. Sometimes, bad weather can feel like a gift, exactly what’s needed to stir the senses and awaken the brain. ...
How software became a lifestyle brand
Omer has an intriguing essay up on his blog: choosing software used to be straightforward. does the app do what you need, or not? but now, opening notion or obsidian feels less like launching software and more like putting on your favorite jacket. it says something about you. aligns you with a tribe, becomes part of your identity. software isn’t just functional anymore. it’s quietly turned into a lifestyle brand, a digital prosthetic we use to signal who we are, or who we wish we were. ...
Working on databases from prison
Preston Thorpe: I’m very excited to announce that I have recently joined Turso as a software engineer. For many in the field, including myself, getting to work on databases and solve unique challenges with such a talented team would be a dream job, but it is that much more special to me because of my unusual and unlikely circumstances. As difficult as it might be to believe, I am currently incarcerated and I landed this job from my cell in state prison. If you don’t know me, let me tell you more about how I got here. ...
The Cure's Acoustic Hits
In 2001, The Cure released Greatest Hits, the compilation with which they ended their contract with Fiction Records. The first edition of the anthology was accompanied by Acoustic Hits, an acoustic reinterpretation of the band’s hits, including Boys Don’t Cry, Friday I’m in Love, A Forest, Just Like Heaven, Lullaby, and Lovesong, one of the simplest and greatest love songs of all time (just listen to the bass line). The bonus disc was not reissued until 2017 and has only recently landed on streaming platforms. ...
I canceled my Bluesky account
I deleted my Bluesky account. I didn’t follow anyone anyway, and I only used it to repost content from my website. Being almost mainstream now, I found Bluesky to have the same dynamics as other mass-adopted social networks: controversies, lots of ego-hunting, vanity fairs, sterile debates, witticisms, and everything else that doesn’t interest me. Having left Twitter a while ago and Facebook a long time before that, I’m left with Mastodon precisely because there are fewer people there, and they are more in my niche; it feels like the pre-mass social media world, like the first Twitter years. Not coincidentally, I’m also receiving more feedback on my content than anywhere else. ...