2026-01-07 11:05:06
It has been an unbelievable nine years since I launched the Kickstarter for Micro.blog. Even after I finally published the book online, a few things still nagged at me about the structure and text. I had hoped in the last couple of years to address them.
Actually running Micro.blog and improving it is my priority, though. We deploy changes multiple times a week, fixing bugs and adding features. Maintaining the apps across iOS, Android, and Mac.
Over the holidays and the new year, I went back to the book draft and gave it a fresh look. I updated a bunch of things, improving the flow of a few sections, adding a new chapter about Bluesky and the AT Protocol, fixing typos and diagrams.
The book clearly grew out of control, filled with my thoughts and essays, at times losing focus. I could never decide if it was a history of the open web, a technical write-up of new protocols, or a call to action, so it is all three. In some sections, I think it works well. In others, it takes too long to get to the point, detouring into my own feelings.
As much as I wish I could continue to rework several parts of the book, I have to call it. I don’t plan on making any more text changes. You can read it online or download the latest ePub. It’s as done as it can be with the time I have.
Thank you. I hope the book is a unique snapshot of where we are with blogging and social media. Many of the threads of the open social web that began years ago have been followed to a stopping point. Now we get to see what comes next.
2026-01-07 01:25:34
I mentioned this on our bonus episode of Core Intuition last month, but I don’t think I’ve blogged about it… Sometimes AI will come up with something and I’ll think, “Damn, that is better than what I would have written myself.” Annoying! My only fix is to edit nearly everything to make it my own.
2026-01-07 01:02:30
I wrote most of my book years ago, so this is the first time I’ve actually run it through AI to get some feedback on structure, redundancies to trim, and grammar problems. It’s valuable, but it’s also leaving me with doubt that I didn’t have before.
Let’s say I let AI come up with a bridge paragraph that helps tie something together. Just a few sentences. Is it still my work? Am I contributing in a small way to the slop of the web?
For a blog post, this wouldn’t bother me. There is something about a “book” that gives me pause, even though it’s 50k of my own words. The tiny part that AI helped with would barely register.
I expect artists will go through the same dilemma. Art that is 95% human, 5% robot. Or podcasters that let AI edit each episode. You might think editing doesn’t matter, but there is a craft to it and how it shapes the pacing of a show.
This balance of how much of creative work we give up will be different for everyone. There will be purists for which nothing short of 100% human will be acceptable. I get that, and perhaps for some things I agree. For programming, I would go in the opposite direction, fine if AI writes more and more code.
Books and blogs are different than programming for me. I want the human voice. When I read other people’s blogs, I want to feel a connection to the authors. I want my own book to be genuine, and I think it is, even if there are bits here and there where a robot pointed me in the right direction.
2026-01-06 23:35:01
When I experimented with not federating my posts for a few months, I also accidentally muted everything from Mastodon. Now that I’m seeing everything again, I’m not sure my life is better. Perhaps there should be a preference to temporary hide external posts — Mastodon, Bluesky, Tumblr, etc.
2026-01-06 11:26:53
Sean Heber blogs about the continued devaluation of software, comparing it to Zork in the 1980s.
In 2026 there is going to be more software than ever, much of at least AI-assisted if not outright slop, and so more competition. More indie developers, but maybe fewer successful ones.
2026-01-06 10:17:40
Intrigued by the upcoming LEGO smart bricks. It’s crazy what is possible now. I ordered a few widgets from SparkFun the other day to experiment with… So tiny and powerful.