Allen Pike

Building product at Forestwalk Labs in Vancouver. Previously founded Steamclock. I also host It Shipped That Way, and write monthly about what I’m learning.

Public Key

npub18af42jfjzvnr04gz9dmp90zs6nu5mw30r3gg0szfcep94a9lkxcquklw7w

NIP-05 Address

apike@mastodon-social.mostr.pub

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nprofile1qqsr7564fyepxf3h65pzkasjh3gdf72dhgh3c5y8cpyuvsj67jlmrvqug2tw8

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npub18af42jfjzvnr04gz9dmp90zs6nu5mw30r3gg0szfcep94a9lkxcquklw7w

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Last Notes

2025-01-02 22:00:21

It's a new year, and you know what that means: time to confirm your website is still readable in Netscape® Navigator 4
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/761/007/686/173/786/original/2aa513e76d07a379.png

2024-12-13 17:37:46

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@nprofile…md38 @nprofile…t230 Must be – love it! @nprofile…mcdu

2024-12-04 21:28:56

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@nprofile…lv6z Love it, insta-bought.

2024-11-15 22:23:40

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@nprofile…xv9q Depends if you're trying to evoke yourself doing it, or evoke that reaction from an unsuspecting victim

2024-11-15 22:16:24

A friend said iOS Image Playgrounds are an upgrade over Memoji, which is true. I wanted to convey “🤔 hmm”, and that is indeed the feeling evoked
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/489/279/436/933/640/original/039a0d1c2de1618c.png
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/489/279/725/587/784/original/d6538cea2ea32f82.jpeg

2024-08-16 20:24:27

A little intro to what I'm working on now. 🌳 https://allenpike.com/2024/forestwalk-labs

2024-06-30 06:40:31

Feeding the Baby: On doing what it takes to make a new business work.
https://allenpike.com/2024/feeding-the-baby-2

2024-05-09 20:51:28

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@npub1c35…9pmh Interesting that they're using copyright to try and enforce what seems like a trademark issue.

2024-03-01 05:38:58

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@npub1sy6…5dxr This is ridiculous, I love it. The idea of using it without the light seal is really appealing. 🤔

2024-02-19 00:53:41

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@npub1c35…9pmh Right? Every time you rewatch it, you can follow another detail (say, the sort of shovel-camera-pole thing) and track nonsensical aspects of it. It's wild how many of these errors don't stick out on first viewing.

2024-02-16 05:13:16

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I see, they're digging up a chair – oh okay, another chair, but it's kind of... oh... oh no
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/939/445/805/321/993/original/bb3f97a610f4e33c.mp4

2024-02-16 05:11:22

I love the failure examples from OpenAI's new Sora video-generation model.
Like, it knows what a spilled drink looks like – but isn't exactly sure how a drink goes about spilling.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/939/438/331/526/666/original/677bbf8924cdec01.mp4

2024-01-19 13:39:59

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@npub1dvd…h0ph We had these in the 80s/90s

2024-01-14 03:32:19

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@npub1dvd…h0ph I was always pretty resistance to brown rice, until I got a Zojirushi. The cycle is bloody long but I like how soft it gets once it’s done being irradiated or whatever happens in there for two hours

2024-01-11 23:23:52

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@npub1dvd…h0ph You caught a dace! I hope you have some space!

2024-01-10 20:28:45

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@npub1f6a…pnql Oh for sure – but I expected the design to allow the GPT a hard-coded boilerplate first message so it can explain or ask a question. "What problem are you seeing with your car?” or “What is your character's name?” Most API-powered chat apps seem to have a static “initial message” like that.

2024-01-10 18:45:02

@npub1f6a…pnql I’m curious what your take is on the design of GPTs, and whether the "bot can't speak first" constraint signals a grander plan on OpenAI's part: https://allenpike.com/2024/chatbot-to-everything-engine

2024-01-02 21:46:23

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@npub1a4c…t2kf Interesting, thanks.
It seems as if a tool like Docs or Bear or Notion that used Markdown for formatting and allowed line comments could exist and be useful. Even soliciting line comments on a github PR seems like it might be slightly less bad than round-tripping Markdown through Google Docs 🤔

2024-01-02 18:24:47

@npub1a4c…t2kf When you send out blog drafts for feedback, have you devised a less-bad workflow than sending readers a Google Doc with Markdown pasted into it?

2023-12-19 17:20:28

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@npub15ml…2w4s As an elder millennial, I used love putting this album on at Christmas. (My wife did not love it, haha)

2023-11-30 06:40:12

You Should Have a Research Question: Going deeper on your curiosity for fun and profit.
https://allenpike.com/2023/have-a-research-question

2023-10-19 19:36:44

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@npub1a4c…t2kf That makes sense. I suppose there’s some sampling bias, in that people who are inherently skeptical of acquirers’ promises are less likely to be acquired in the first place.

2023-10-19 18:54:56

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@npub1a4c…t2kf I wonder if an acquired founder could ever get signoff on instead making the dynamic clear. For example, “In our discussions about this acquisition, $CEO has promised that our product will never need to compromise on $Value. Of course, in any acquisition the acquirer has the power to one day change their mind, but she made a promise, and I believe her.”

2023-10-19 02:51:46

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@npub1a4c…t2kf Totally. EVs make the short-overhang goal more reasonable, but make the long-hood goal more ridiculous. Some EVs give up tons of interior space and parking maneuverability just because “long hood good”

2023-09-26 17:43:11

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@npub1sdu…w074 It feels weird to me too. It's as if they prototyped a whole Stacks watch face and liked it, then decided all faces could benefit from stacks so they made the Stacks face accessible under all the others.

2023-08-18 18:37:32

Heavier vehicles are more dangerous to other road users, wear on public roads, and create more tire pollution. Countries should follow Norway's lead and tax new vehicle sales by the kg. Use the proceeds to fund EV rebates, clean energy, public transit, whatever.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/08/dont-supersize-me-the-case-for-small-electric-cars-instead-of-big-suvs/

2023-06-30 23:22:53

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@npub1jx7…0jmm They should get the Dropbox people to help with that

2023-06-06 20:29:52

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@npub1eee…e209 Headsets historically have had poor effective resolution when used for text, compared to a desktop display. Word is that Vision Pro’s clarity is much better, but the text size was quite large in the keynote videos.
Did you get a sense of how competitive it is compared to, say, 2 Studio Displays on a Mac, in terms of screen real estate for text?

2023-06-02 17:57:37

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@npub1xzm…eykm Right now "Mark as Clickbait” just affects feed ranking – clickbait and clicks on it can be de-emphasized – but apparently they're preparing to use an LLM to replace very clickbaity headlines with titles that actually represent the article. https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/2/23745927/artifact-fix-clickbait-headlines-rewriting-ai

2023-06-01 05:56:47

How Leaders Manage Time & Attention: The most interesting things I learned talking to 25 leaders about the tools and approaches they use to do their work.
https://allenpike.com/2023/how-leaders-manage-time-attention-tasks

2023-05-24 22:46:29

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@npub1a4c…t2kf I think most people want precision and subtlety around the concepts they're pursuing a rigorous understanding of, but prefer confidence and legibility for topics they're only shallowly interested in.
Since many people find trying to build a rigorous understanding of everything around them exhausting or at least somewhat unpleasant, you see a bias toward confident oversimplifications. Gell-Mann amnesia kind of depends on this dynamic.