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jcutrell

608 karma · joined February 8, 2013

Email me at jonathan.cutrell[at]gmail. Twitter - @jcutrell

Host of Developer Tea. Co-founder of Spec. Engineer with the head of an economist and the heart of a teacher.

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jcutrell··on Livenerf: Has Opus 5.5 been nerfed yet?
As a hiring manager I now have a rational reason to prefer people willing to use profanity. Thank you.
jcutrell··on Open Memory Protocol – One Memory Store for Claude, ChatGPT, Curso
My problem with all of these kinds of things is that memory architecture is the whole point.

If all I needed was common memory space I'd just use symlinks and cloud sync, Obsidian or whatever.

But the context shaping is what makes memory useful in the first place, so just doing one stop shop memory is IMO about as useful as plain old markdown...

jcutrell··on Statement on US government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5
Silly or not, precedent matters and labeling it silly is rhetorical. The impact is going to be critically important.
jcutrell··on Using Claude Code: The unreasonable effectiveness of HTML
This really is the perfect time for something like MDX to shine.
jcutrell··on Ruflo: Multi-agent AI orchestration for Claude Code
With products coming out like this, many claim to do basically the same thing.

How is this better than Claude Code's built in agent orchestrator? Do I need 100 agent types? How do I know the trained agents here are somehow better? Specialization doesn't equate to "better" in every case.

I want to see the light but at this point it feels like these kinds of projects need a better way to benchmark how they are improving on the available state of the art.

It feels like in 2018, a new browser state management tool emerging. Why does this exist?

jcutrell··on Gemma 4 on iPhone
This is what Apple promised a long time ago, and just couldn't quite connect on delivery.
jcutrell··on GLP-1 therapeutics: Their emerging role in alcohol and substance use disorders
I'm considering starting Tirz, but really want to go to retatrutide. Curious if you have a recommendation.
jcutrell··on How far can you go by train in 5 hours? (interactive map)
This could be modeled with stdev
jcutrell··on AGENTS.md – Open format for guiding coding agents
Aside from it being "instructions for agents", I'm not sure I understand how this isn't just a markdown file that more or less reads like a readme that targets more junior engineers.
jcutrell··on Obsidian Bases
I am curious about how this compares to dataview. As a dataview user, I'm not immediately seeing something bases does that dataview doesn't, but I am not a power user.
jcutrell··on Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2025)
Garner Health | Data Engineer II | Full-time | NYC Onsite / Hybrid (4 days/week) | https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/garnerhealth/jobs/552040000... Garner Health (https://getgarner.com) is revolutionizing healthcare economics through advanced doctor performance analytics and innovative incentive models. Our platform is reshaping how organizations access high-quality, affordable care, powering decisions at leading healthcare systems and enterprise clients. We’ve doubled revenue annually for 5 years running, making us the fastest-growing company in our space. We’re hiring a Data Engineer II to play a pivotal role in building our enterprise-grade data platform from the ground up, ensuring secure data access across our rapidly scaling organization.

Stack: AWS, Snowflake, Argo, dbt, Terraform, Airbyte, JetStreamWork style: Hybrid in NYC. In-office up to 3 days per week.Target compensation: $120,000 - $160,000 + equity

Apply here: https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/garnerhealth/jobs/552040000... or email Jonathan.Cutrell [at] getgarner [dot] com

jcutrell··on Show HN: My AI Native Resume
I really like this idea, I think it represents an interesting intentional step to get out in front of what hiring managers might do anyway.

I am working on building profiles for people I work with, and really my goal is to end at something like this for them.

jcutrell··on Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting
Sadly it will be praised as "tough" by many.
jcutrell··on Ask for no, don't ask for yes (2022)
I'll add to the conversation another interesting technique from Chris Voss, which is to use no-oriented questions.

People like to say no. (I'm not sure what this cognitive bias is, but anecdotally I agree.)

So, if you can frame your requests in a way that "no is permission", it will often get a red light a bit easier.

Example: replace "Is this a good idea?" with "is this a bad idea?"

Now, of course "not a bad idea" is not the same thing as "good idea", but it's a lot more likely. Even reading that, I imagine most people would respond more intuitively, because it helps us avoid a commitment we don't necessarily want to adopt.

jcutrell··on Track your devices via Apple FindMy network in Go/TinyGo
I think there is some positive effect potential for Apple to let this slide. The broader this network is, the more adoption it receives. P2P as a super-structure has always been a bigger than vendor problem; adoption by any means is likely an allowable tradeoff, especially since Apple doesn't have to do the work here.

Eventually they will capitalize more on the mesh density, rather than crushing the adoption now.

jcutrell··on "Twelfth Night Till Candlemas" – a 40-year book-quest and its remarkable ending
I suspect that, given a reasonable prompt, it would absolutely discard certain phrases or concepts for others. I think it may find it difficult to cross check and synthesize, but "term families" are sort of a core idea of using multi-dimensional embedding. Related terms have low square distances in embeddings. I'm not super well versed on LLMs but I do believe this would be represented in the models.
jcutrell··on I automated my job application process
I've been in the industry for something like 15 years. I've been using LLMs to help me create the stuff I always wanted but never had time to make myself. This is how LLMs can be used by seniors to great effect - not just to cut time off tasks.
jcutrell··on I automated my job application process
Remember - the vast majority of candidates who take the time to do right by your process get zero reward for their effort. You get a reward in the end, so it feels imbalanced. This is true for VERY good candidates, as well.
jcutrell··on Sora is here
Not downplaying the amazing progress, but even the video showcases have some weird uncanny valley effects. The winged horse one in particular - the wings and legs morph, the wing on the left disappears and reappears through the tail.

This stuff is a little ways off, but still some amazing effects here. I think it will be a little bit before it is sufficient for production use in any real commercial situation. There's something unsettling about all of the videos generated here.

jcutrell··on Ask HN: How can I grow as an engineer without good seniors to learn from?
Use ChatGPT / Claude differently. Instead of prompting it to help you code, prompt it to coach you as a junior engineer, and to stay broad. Focus on principles, etc. Remind you of different pros and cons, and discuss things thoroughly with you. Explore alternatives, etc.

This kind of prompting changes the conversation entirely.

jcutrell··on Show HN: I made a tiny device for automatically recording digital pianos
Instant purchase.

I assume I can just drop this guy in between my midi controller and my primary interface since it has MIDI I/O, yeah? Does it pass through?

jcutrell··on Ask HN: What was your most humbling learning moment?
Wife and I worked with a realtor that did an awful job. We did not read the contract carefully enough, and through some uncovered issue there was not a way we could terminate the agreement. They told us they would terminate for $2k for the work they had done up to that point.

I call this kind of money "tuition."

jcutrell··on How to Turn Off AI Overview in Google and Set "Web" as Default
AI Overview has been embarrassingly bad and wrong on many things. Often making clearly incomprehensible assertions, sometimes with numbers that disagree within the course of a single sentence.
jcutrell··on Sleep does not help brain wash out toxins, study suggests
I'm curious - do you have a physical sensation when this happens to you? Is there any evidence to support this claim? I ask because I often feel similar to brushing my teeth when I meditate, it's hard to explain though.
jcutrell··on Popover API
How is anchor different from relative?
jcutrell··on How Bad Are Ultraprocessed Foods, Really?
In other words it's not necessarily about some scary sleuth carcinogen or some oil that's gonna wipe out your cardiac health... it's about calories and the body's response to too many of them, and the ancillary "ratio" of calories to nutrition being too high.
jcutrell··on How Bad Are Ultraprocessed Foods, Really?
I take umbrage with "frozen meals." Very often a frozen meal has straight up whole vegetables or pieces of meat. Freezing is one of the best ways to retain nutrition of vegetables etc as well.

Totally different than white bread or hot dogs.

jcutrell··on Airlines required to refund passengers for canceled, delayed flights
Wouldn't this likely just result in increased airfare across the board?
jcutrell··on Jonathan Haidt blames teenage depression, anxiety on smartphones, social media
The social media I use today is primarily content oriented (reddit for entertainment, HN for eng news, occasional tiktok for funny videos with my wife). I left Facebook behind about 10 years ago, and left Twitter when it was morphed into whatever it is now.

As a parent of two children, we will hold off on social networking media for a long time most likely. Content can be valuable, and our children largely use their devices for content interests (YouTube) and creation (various apps and games like Minecraft).

I would love to see studies that better explain the effects of these habits as they relate to the "networking" part of social networks and media. I'd argue right now that my LinkedIn consumption is probably more harmful than my TikTok consumption, in terms of depression.

jcutrell··on Infected blood scandal: Children were used as 'guinea pigs' in clinical trials
How isn't this categorized as manslaughter?
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