AlliHat now can talk to ChatGPT and Gemini.

Still needs to use an API token you provide it. Or use the local Apple model which does a great job for small tasks like summarization of an article.

Photo by Tim McErston

Some asshole made an illegal right turn onto Lake Shore Drive in Chicago yesterday.

There was a line of traffic cones specifically to prevent this. He ran right over them and dragged one cone into the middle of a southbound lane of cars waiting to exit.

Now the lane was stuck.

Some folks just honked. Because they couldn’t imagine why they weren’t moving. So honking was their solution.

The more interesting folks were the ones who saw the problem and decided the solution was to merge back into the flow of Lake Shore Drive traffic. Which is going something like 60 mph. Yes, it’s posted 40. No one goes 40.

So these people were narrowly avoiding an accident because no one wanted to get out of their car and move the friggin cone.

Why?

You could chalk it up to laziness. But I think there’s something deeper going on. Most tweens say it out loud.

“I’d rather die...

I have a bad habit. Pasta. Not that kind. Copypasta. 🤪

Whenever I’m reading something online (an article, a GitHub issue, a dense doc), I end up copying chunks of text, opening a new tab, pasting it into Claude, and asking my question. Then I go back to the original tab. Then I need something else about this article or website. Go back again to Claude. On and on.

It’s a terrible way to work. But I kept doing it anyway because the alternative didn’t exist. Yes, there’s an extension for Chrome. But us Safari users? Nada.

So I built it.

It’s called AlliHat. It’s a Safari extension that puts Claude right in a sidebar next to whatever page you’re on.

Open it, and it already sees what you’re reading. Ask it anything: summarize this, explain that, what sources is this blocked article talking about. Without leaving the page. No copypasta.

Even writing this, it was handy to pop open...

I know a lot of folks are worried about their jobs and AI. Another worry folks have is that AI is making them dumber. The things that felt good before: solving puzzling work problems, thinking hard about a project, etc. have vaporized when Claude can do it for you.

It’s easy to fall into this trap. But here’s the thing, this isn’t an unknown place.

So these researchers (Adcock, et al.) wanted to see how your brain reacts to different sized rewards tied to what you’re supposed to learn. They had people do a memory task where scenes were worth either high money ($5) or low money ($0.10) if remembered the next day.

And here’s the thing, this turned out exactly like you think it turns out. The folks in the high money group significantly remembered more 24 hours later. Under an fMRI machine, they could even see the parts of the brain acting stronger before the participants saw what...

Have you given up on your New Year’s resolutions yet?

It’s January. The gym is packed. It’s impossible to even get to a locker through a sea of people in the locker room. Someone was lamenting on Facebook that our gym was too crowded. They were reassured: just give it a couple weeks. The New Year’s resolution crowd will be gone. They’ll give up.

Every morning my daughter and I pull a page from The Worst Case Scenario™ calendar. Yesterday’s was: what to do if the subway power goes out. Tip 1: cover up your belongings.

I get it. It’s dark. You’re blind. It’s a weakness.

But it also reminds me of a movie many of us watch every December: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

There’s the classic scene where Clark Griswold is trying for the umpteenth time to get his outside Christmas lights to turn on. Little does he realize, because he’s an idiot, that the lights are controlled by...

My project was just cancelled. Deprioritized. The stuff I’ve been excited about and working on, right into the trash. How would you feel about that?

Photo by Steve Johnson

My daughter was struggling with some homework last night. There was a concept that was brand new to her and she wasn’t getting it on the first pass. I wanted to show her she could easily write down a couple tests to check if her thinking was right or wrong.

I reached for her notebook. That was her science notebook.

Ok, math notebook then. That was waiting for a grade at school.

Scrap paper? Nothing.

When we finally found something I could use, I realized: The math isn’t what’s tripping her up.

I’d like to get a pair of boots this winter. I have some ginormous, waterproof monsters, but those are a bit awkward as everyday shoes. Yeah I’m comfy in a snow drift, but I’ve also had my car stuck in Forward with a...

You know what the happiest animal on Earth is? It’s a goldfish. You know why? Got a ten second memory. Be a goldfish, Sam.

Jason Sudeikis uses that line at a couple pivotal moments in the first season of Ted Lasso. The lesson: goldfish have a ridiculously short memory. And we all need shorter memories to get through life and face the next challenge.

The problem is Ted Lasso is wrong.

2025 didn’t end great for me. All in all, I’m ok. I’m healthy and have many things I’m thankful for. But I totally ran out of steam on some personal projects and goals that mean a lot to me.

There are excuses I could throw at it. Like the 60 days notice my father and all the residents of his senior community received that their entire building was being shut down. That was a fun project. Also had some very sad stuff happen at the end of the year that continues being sad.

I didn’t accomplish the...

Delivering a presentation? No one is reading your fucking slides.

Running a Zoom meeting with a captive audience to show off how your department is doing? No one is reading your fucking slides.

Wrote a story in Google Slides about how great revenue and churn are because of your team’s heroic efforts to become the greatest thing on the planet? No one is reading your fucking slides.

You even have a doc or notecards next to you with bullet points for your presentation. Jesus. You aren’t reading your fucking slides.

And look, it’s not totally your fault. A lot of these presentations happen over Zoom. While you’re talking, everyone is doing literally anything else besides reading your fucking slides.

Here’s the secret though. This isn’t a tragedy. It’s normal. They’re distracted. Don’t fight this. Embrace it. In every modern meeting, everyone has a little modern Lite-Brite firing new...

Everything I make is garbage

I think people want new things too much. Open up Amazon or McMaster and buy the solution. Email a VC, get a mil, and spend 3–6 months making a brand new thing from scratch.

And then everyone’s unhappy when it actually takes longer. Or isn’t the thing they wanted in the first place.

Turns out they realize they don’t even know what they want.

My daughter wanted to be a cowgirl this Halloween. She’s 11. It’s getting harder and harder to do things with her. Natural of course. She has friends. Wants us around less. The whole independence rite of passage.

So there’s some stakes to trying to figure out how to naturally fit into her vision of Halloween. How can I lean into what she wants? All casual like :)

And I struggled. What on earth can I be? A cow was too obvious. A horse too weird. My brain for a second started to freeze up.

But I went...