Fallthrough

Steve is back! He joins Kris and Matt to discuss the drama around DHH's latest keynote at Rails World and Steve's latest views on AI. Interestingly, Steve believes that he'll sit in opposition to how Kris and Matt see the current situation. We start with Steve giving us the long backstory of Rails and DHH. The trio then dives into a conversation about purity tests, whether you can learn from people you dislike, and why making Linux a viable third option for desktop environments is important. From there they dive into whether the agents that carried out hacks were actually told to do that, whether alignment is about intent or obedience, and whether it's better to be worried about Skynet now or later. Hilariously, during this conversation, Steve's AI personal assistant texts him during the recording, bringing up a deeper conversation about AI personal assistants and how much information we should actually give them. Supporter only content? But of course! This week the panel digs into whether AI agents are basically hammers, why agents make native apps economically viable, Kris' argument that the literacy crisis poses a much larger and more existential risk than AI, the ways in which the pronunciation trend on TikTok is weird classism, and what happens when Jev played the trolley problem. Not a supporter yet? You can fix that today by heading over to https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe where you can sign up to gain access to extra content in our podcasts and higher quality audio-only editions. If you prefer to watch this episode, you can view it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0Rdd1RZx-t4. Thanks for tuning in and happy listening! Table of Contents: Prologue (00:00:00) Chapter 1: A Thing Called RailsConf (00:02:38) Chapter 2: This Is David at DavidConf (00:07:51) Chapter 3: A Purity Spiral (00:11:48) Chapter 6: This Guy Sucks, Therefore He Must Be Wrong (00:14:26) Chapter 7: A Quintessential Purity Test (00:20:09) Chapter 8: A Third Option for the Desktop (00:23:00) Chapter 9: Things Without Time Attached (00:28:15) Chapter 11: I Did This to Get Away From You (00:33:14) Chapter 12: We Told the Thing to Hack and It Hacked (00:35:44) Chapter 13: Remove Your Tie (00:40:46) Chapter 14: Unaligned Humans With Powerful Tools (00:45:45) Chapter 15: Worried About Skynet Now Rather Than Later (00:50:32) Chapter 16: Intelligence Is the Collective (00:53:54) Chapter 19: That's a Lot of Killing You Gotta Do (00:59:40) Chapter 20: Why Rich People Have Personal Assistants (01:02:17) Chapter 21: Science Fiction 18 Months Ago (01:05:31) Chapter 22: Not Where It Will Wind Up (01:10:15) Chapter 24: These Are Just Predictions (01:12:27) Epilogue (01:14:07) Hosts Matthew Sanabria - Host Kris Brandow - Host Steve Klabnik - Host Socials:Website Bluesky Threads X/Twitter LinkedIn Instagram TikTok Changelog Zulip Gophers Slack (00:00) - Prologue (02:38) - Chapter 1: A Thing Called RailsConf (07:51) - Chapter 2: This Is David at DavidConf (11:48) - Chapter 3: A Purity Spiral (14:26) - Chapter 6: This Guy Sucks, Therefore He Must Be Wrong (20:09) - Chapter 7: A Quintessential Purity Test (23:00) - Chapter 8: A Third Option for the Desktop (28:16) - Chapter 9: Things Without Time Attached (33:14) - Chapter 11: I Did This to Get Away From You (35:44) - Chapter 12: We Told the Thing to Hack and It Hacked (40:46) - Chapter 13: Remove Your Tie (45:45) - Chapter 14: Unaligned Humans With Powerful Tools (50:32) - Chapter 15: Worried About Skynet Now Rather Than Later (53:54) - Chapter 16: Intelligence Is the Collective (59:40) - Chapter 19: That's a Lot of Killing You Gotta Do (01:02:17) - Chapter 20: Why Rich People Have Personal Assistants (01:05:31) - Chapter 21: Science Fiction 18 Months Ago (01:10:15) - Chapter 22: Not Where It Will Wind Up (01:12:27) - Chapter 24: These Are Just Predictions (01:14:07) - Epilogue

Another week, another duo episode, but this time around it's Dylan who's joining Kris! He brings a fresh perspective to the AI conversation that Kris and Matt have been engaging in. The big question: is AI going to kill us all? Dylan thinks the odds are "astronomically small" and neither Kris nor him are going to lose sleep over the fear driven hype. The two are asking bigger questions: whether what language models are doing is thinking, why those who build these models in AI labs aren't actually the people who understand them the best, and whether TypeSafe AI's new Jev model is an LLM and what one can do with it. They touch on token maxxing, the increasing flood of AI slop, whether we can truly look at the code we ship, and as always why Kris is unbothered by nearly all of this. We've got supporter content, of course! In this week's content we include a discussion of what one can actually build with TypeSafe AI's Jev, why good and evil aren't useful categories, a candid conversation about policing from two somewhat opposing vantage points, why filling potholes isn't an ideology, and more. Not a supporter yet? Fix that today by heading over to https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe where you'll get not only extra content but also higher quality audio. Sign up today! If you prefer to watch this episode, you can view it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xCtImPOmEzg. No episode of the aftershow this week. We'll have more aftershow episodes soon! In the meantime, catch up on previous episodes at https://break.show. Thanks for tuning in and happy listening! Table of Contents: Prologue (00:00:00) Chapter 1: Hyperbolic Claims Make for Good Headlines (00:01:49) Chapter 2: A Thousand Things Would Need to Happen (00:04:19) Chapter 3: A Glass of Water Sweats Too (00:07:07) Chapter 4: Too Much Science Fiction (00:10:57) Chapter 5: Pilots, Not Aerospace Engineers (00:12:43) Chapter 6: Computers Are Dumb (00:16:32) Chapter 7: Token Maxing Has Gotten Absurd (00:22:25) Chapter 8: Average General Intelligence (00:28:05) Chapter 9: It's Just Jitter (00:29:33) Chapter 10: Jev: Still a Large Language Model (00:32:12) Chapter 12: Slop and Pangram (00:36:36) Chapter 13: My Doomer Take: Shipping Without Looking (00:41:37) Chapter 14: Words on Paper (00:48:34) Chapter 15: Sitting in a Stew (00:52:09) Chapter 16: People in Fear Are Not Rational (00:54:38) Chapter 17: The Deep Weirdos of Tech (00:57:10) Chapter 24: We Don't Have an Educated Populace (00:59:40) Chapter 25: Perpetually Unbothered (01:04:19) Epilogue (01:06:36) Hosts Dylan Bourque - Host Kris Brandow - Host Socials:Website Bluesky Threads X/Twitter LinkedIn Instagram TikTok Changelog Zulip Gophers Slack (00:00) - Prologue (01:49) - Chapter 1: Hyperbolic Claims Make for Good Headlines (04:19) - Chapter 2: A Thousand Things Would Need to Happen (07:07) - Chapter 3: A Glass of Water Sweats Too (10:57) - Chapter 4: Too Much Science Fiction (12:43) - Chapter 5: Pilots, Not Aerospace Engineers (16:32) - Chapter 6: Computers Are Dumb (22:25) - Chapter 7: Token Maxing Has Gotten Absurd (28:05) - Chapter 8: Average General Intelligence (29:33) - Chapter 9: It's Just Jitter (32:12) - Chapter 10: Jev: Still a Large Language Model (36:36) - Chapter 12: Slop and Pangram (41:37) - Chapter 13: My Doomer Take: Shipping Without Looking (48:34) - Chapter 14: Words on Paper (52:09) - Chapter 15: Sitting in a Stew (54:38) - Chapter 16: People in Fear Are Not Rational (57:10) - Chapter 17: The Deep Weirdos of Tech (59:40) - Chapter 24: We Don't Have an Educated Populace (01:04:19) - Chapter 25: Perpetually Unbothered (01:06:36) - Epilogue

Kris and Matthew have some more spicy and it's about the latest AI news cycle: a greater than ten percent chance that AI wipes out humanity inside a decade. Neither of them are worried about it, what does is why everyone else is so worried about it. Kris brings his usual devil's advocate perspective: a 10% chance of extinction is also a 90% chance of non-extinction. He then widens the field of view to the more full argument, which is that AI is the easiest thing for everyone to point at. Matt takes a different direction and takes the argument at face value and walks it forward, ending with him once again reminding everyone that he is a stanch supporter of the second amendment. In the end, the two settle on the wider issue, that we continually use proxies instead of understanding the actual underlying problems and ultimately that we need to build a world with fewer ceilings and more floors. We've got supporter content, of course! This week that includes a more nuanced perspective on what mid 20th century America was actually like when it comes to wealth inequality, whether we are actually living through the worst time in history, why no one has a billion dollars in their checking account, why Gen Z needs to stop telling Millennials to retire, the importance of people having high agency, and more. Not a supporter yet? Fix that today by heading over to https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe where you'll get not only extra content but also higher quality audio. Sign up today! If you prefer to watch this episode, you can view it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/s3Oz6RwkelQ. No episode of the aftershow this week. We'll have more aftershow episodes soon! In the meantime, catch up on previous episodes at https://break.show. Thanks for tuning in and happy listening! Table of Contents: Prologue (00:00:00) Chapter 1: A 10 Percent Chance of Extinction (00:02:12) Chapter 2: Fear Mongering at Its Finest (00:05:25) Chapter 3: A Lack of Imagination (00:07:25) Chapter 4: Doing Real Time Journalism, and Numbers Without Reference Points (00:10:08) Chapter 5: Let's Walk the Path to Extinction (00:18:04) Chapter 6: Technology Already Ruins People's Lives (00:21:50) Chapter 7: AI as the Easy Boogeyman (00:23:44) Chapter 8: When I Hear That, I Feel Nothing (00:29:49) Chapter 10: Scarier Things Than AI, and the Title Readers (00:33:34) Chapter 12: Frontier Labs and the Pressure to Ship (00:40:06) Chapter 13: The Age of Mass Proxying (00:43:21) Chapter 14: Blame the Whole Chain, Not Just the CEO (00:46:55) Chapter 15: A Billionaire Does Not Have One Checking Account [Extended] (00:49:56) Chapter 18: Install Floors, Not Ceilings (00:51:24) Chapter 22: College Is Not for Jobs, and Coalition Building (00:53:51) Chapter 24: Not Zero, but Very Low (00:56:25) Epilogue (01:02:14) Hosts Matthew Sanabria - Host Kris Brandow - Host Socials:Website Bluesky Threads X/Twitter LinkedIn Instagram TikTok Changelog Zulip Gophers Slack (00:00) - Prologue (02:12) - Chapter 1: A 10 Percent Chance of Extinction (05:25) - Chapter 2: Fear Mongering at Its Finest (07:25) - Chapter 3: A Lack of Imagination (10:08) - Chapter 4: Doing Real Time Journalism, and Numbers Without Reference Points (18:04) - Chapter 5: Let's Walk the Path to Extinction (21:50) - Chapter 6: Technology Already Ruins People's Lives (23:44) - Chapter 7: AI as the Easy Boogeyman (29:49) - Chapter 8: When I Hear That, I Feel Nothing (33:34) - Chapter 10: Scarier Things Than AI, and the Title Readers (40:06) - Chapter 12: Frontier Labs and the Pressure to Ship (43:21) - Chapter 13: The Age of Mass Proxying (46:55) - Chapter 14: Blame the Whole Chain, Not Just the CEO (49:56) - Chapter 15: A Billionaire Does Not Have One Checking Account [Extended] (51:24) - Chapter 18: Install Floors, Not Ceilings (53:51) - Chapter 22: College Is Not for Jobs, and Coalition Building (56:25) - Chapter 24: Not Zero, but Very Low (01:02:14) - Epilogue

Kris and Matthew have some feelings about AI they want to discuss. No, not about benchmarks or agents, but about the people using it to write things they should be plenty capable of writing themselves: the five paragraph LinkedIn post, the blog post, the tweet. Both Matt and Kris stumbled upon Pangram from the same source: Bryan Cantrill. The two go from there, discussing the ridiculousness of people writing short form posts fully with AI, to the purity tests that people insist on having, to the literacy crisis. This episode has a ton of spice, especially in the expanded edition. Speaking of the Expanded edition, this episode has one! This week it includes a side project that burned five billion tokens, why there is no correct way to pronounce anything in English, why "don't reinvent the wheel" is some of the dumbest advice our industry repeats, the pushback Mitchell Hashimoto gets, the New York subway fare as a case study in being furious about something you don't understand, and why Kris thinks a decade should be the longest sentence anybody should serve. Not a supporter yet? Fix that today by heading over to https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe where you'll get not only extra content but also higher quality audio. Sign up today! If you prefer to watch this episode, you can view it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/floML9DtF2c. No episode of the aftershow this week. We'll have more aftershow episodes soon! In the meantime, catch up on previous episodes at https://break.show. Thanks for tuning in and happy listening! Show Notes: Kirsten Lowe - Literacy Crisis 101 Table of Contents: Prologue (00:00:00) Chapter 1: Feelings About AI, and the 35 Percent Blog Post (00:01:55) Chapter 2: AI Tells and the Reader Revolt (00:10:18) Chapter 3: Writing Was Never Valued, and Words Are Expensive (00:14:13) Chapter 5: The Literacy Crisis: Reading Without Comprehending (00:18:59) Chapter 7: No Compiler for Your Writing, and Writing Is Thinking (00:25:56) Chapter 10: Taught to Read Wrong, Taught to Hate Writing (00:28:25) Chapter 16: Purity Tests: Wealth Taxes, DHH, and Dirty Money (00:36:10) Chapter 18: Coalitions Over Cancellation (00:41:38) Chapter 19: The Master Branch Rename, and Performative Fixes (00:45:21) Chapter 21: Respect for Each Other, and Making the Wealthy Wealthier (00:49:31) Chapter 22: Forgiveness, and Letting People Change (00:53:45) Chapter 24: Back to Literacy (00:57:12) Epilogue (00:59:43) Hosts Matthew Sanabria - Host Kris Brandow - Host Socials:Website Bluesky Threads X/Twitter LinkedIn Instagram TikTok Changelog Zulip Gophers Slack (00:00) - Prologue (01:55) - Chapter 1: Feelings About AI, and the 35 Percent Blog Post (10:18) - Chapter 2: AI Tells and the Reader Revolt (14:13) - Chapter 3: Writing Was Never Valued, and Words Are Expensive (18:59) - Chapter 5: The Literacy Crisis: Reading Without Comprehending (25:56) - Chapter 7: No Compiler for Your Writing, and Writing Is Thinking (28:25) - Chapter 10: Taught to Read Wrong, Taught to Hate Writing (36:10) - Chapter 16: Purity Tests: Wealth Taxes, DHH, and Dirty Money (41:38) - Chapter 18: Coalitions Over Cancellation (45:21) - Chapter 19: The Master Branch Rename, and Performative Fixes (49:31) - Chapter 21: Respect for Each Other, and Making the Wealthy Wealthier (53:45) - Chapter 22: Forgiveness, and Letting People Change (57:12) - Chapter 24: Back to Literacy (59:43) - Epilogue

Matthew hosts this week, joined by Kris and by Bailey Townsend, an AT Protocol community ambassador who builds tools for the atmosphere. AT Proto is the protocol underneath Bluesky, and this is a conversation about what it actually is beyond a social network. Matthew moved his own account onto a personal data server he runs himself, which is how Bailey first turned up in his replies asking whether he meant to delete his rotation keys. From there the pair expand on what a PDS is: your data, your identity, and your own way of doing authentication. Along the way there is Tangled, Leaflet, Hubble quietly mirroring 24 million repositories, and the reality that it's just a giant, web scale database. We've got supporter content, of course! This week that includes a report from AT Protocol Community Day at the Recurse Center, the difference between a Bluesky feed and a list, Matthew confessing he has never liked a single post, SDKs and notorious OAuth, and why warranty history should be on an open protocol. Not a supporter yet? Fix that today by heading over to https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe where you'll get not only extra content but also higher quality audio. Sign up today! If you prefer to watch this episode, you can view it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/GelJdfqWrtU. No episode of the aftershow this week. We'll have more aftershow episodes soon! In the meantime, catch up on previous episodes at https://break.show. Thanks for tuning in and happy listening! Table of Contents: Prologue (00:00:00) Chapter 1: How Matthew Ended Up Running His Own Server (00:02:19) Chapter 2: What AT Proto Is, and What Bailey Builds On It (00:04:37) Chapter 3: Owning Your Data, and Taking It With You (00:08:17) Chapter 4: Beyond Bluesky: Tangled, Leaflet, and Owning Your Posts (00:11:30) Chapter 5: One Identity, Every App (00:15:09) Chapter 6: Auth for Free, and the Login That Was Never Bluesky (00:18:32) Chapter 7: One Database Everybody Shares (00:22:48) Chapter 8: Apps Come and Go, the Data Stays (00:25:24) Chapter 10: Hubble, a Backup of the Whole Network (00:28:54) Chapter 11: The Best Parts of the Internet, and What Centralizing Cost Us (00:32:18) Chapter 12: Spaces: Private Data Without the Encryption (00:34:24) Chapter 13: How to Get Into AT Proto (00:36:56) Chapter 17: From Markdown Files to Records (00:38:47) Chapter 18: Identity Without Records: The Wedding Site Login (00:40:01) Chapter 19: The Best of Sign In With Facebook, Without Facebook (00:42:06) Chapter 21: Closing Thoughts, and Where to Find Bailey (00:45:31) Epilogue (00:47:46) Hosts Matthew Sanabria - Host Kris Brandow - Host Bailey Townsend - Guest Socials:Website Bluesky Threads X/Twitter LinkedIn Instagram TikTok Changelog Zulip Gophers Slack (00:00) - Prologue (02:19) - Chapter 1: How Matthew Ended Up Running His Own Server (04:37) - Chapter 2: What AT Proto Is, and What Bailey Builds On It (08:17) - Chapter 3: Owning Your Data, and Taking It With You (11:30) - Chapter 4: Beyond Bluesky: Tangled, Leaflet, and Owning Your Posts (15:09) - Chapter 5: One Identity, Every App (18:32) - Chapter 6: Auth for Free, and the Login That Was Never Bluesky (22:48) - Chapter 7: One Database Everybody Shares (25:24) - Chapter 8: Apps Come and Go, the Data Stays (28:54) - Chapter 10: Hubble, a Backup of the Whole Network (32:18) - Chapter 11: The Best Parts of the Internet, and What Centralizing Cost Us (34:24) - Chapter 12: Spaces: Private Data Without the Encryption (36:56) - Chapter 13: How to Get Into AT Proto (38:47) - Chapter 17: From Markdown Files to Records (40:01) - Chapter 18: Identity Without Records: The Wedding Site Login (42:06) - Chapter 19: The Best of Sign In With Facebook, Without Facebook (45:31) - Chapter 21: Closing Thoughts, and Where to Find Bailey (47:46) - Epilogue