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Universality and APIs

from Alex MacCaw [alt+shift+b] in programming

From Roman numerals to Indian digits, from hieroglyphics to Latin languages, universality has been the key to unlocking human progress.
7th Dec 2022

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More from Alex MacCaw

The problem with US healthcare is not capitalism

Among the world's rich countries, Americans are the most likely to say their healthcare system needs fundamental change. They are right. They are also wrong about why. The standard diagnosis runs roughly: too much capitalism, too much profit, too many private companies, too little government. The corollary is

24th May 2026 • 2 votes
How to Vibe Code as a Senior Engineer

Over the past few months, I’ve rediscovered my love for building software. Not in the traditional way—writing line after line of code, plumbing together brittle libraries, grinding through boilerplate. Instead, I’ve been vibe coding. Vibe coding is a new way of building software where

20th Jun 2025 • 1 votes
We Won’t Save the Planet by Shrinking

At first, it sounds obvious: if we want to save the planet, we should do less. Fewer people, less consumption, smaller footprints. I believed this too—so much so that I once thought having kids was irresponsible. But the more I looked into it, the less sense it made.

25th Mar 2025 • 73 votes
AGI, agents, and timelines

AGI is coming—whether we’re ready or not. I’ve been convinced of this trajectory since GPT-3’s release, but recent developments have significantly accelerated my timelines. The first major shift was OpenAI’s breakthrough in test-time compute and its newly demonstrated scaling law.

6th Feb 2025 • 74 votes
Pain

I've been staying with my friend Matt Mochary at his house in Hawaii for the last few days. He shared an excellent insight about dealing with pain that I believe everyone should hear. So here it is: We all experience pain caused by others. Perhaps even earlier today

17th Sep 2024 • 92 votes

More in programming

Notes from CoRL 2026

(Tuesday)

23 hours ago • 1 votes
The Codebase Rewrite is Back

The economics of software engineering have fundamentally changed.

yesterday • 1 votes
How OCaml effects simplified my JSON interpreter

How effect handlers removed control-flow plumbing from query-json

yesterday • 1 votes
Unattended reboots with encrypted disks

An introduction to ZKeys: a new service that stores encryption keys off-site and automatically locks access to them if the client machines go offline for a long period of time.

4 days ago • 1 votes
Education Shouldn't Be Held for Ransom

Google told K-12 schools they could turn off AI, but only if they gave up search too. That isn’t integration. It’s holding education for ransom.

a week ago • 1 votes
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