Ludic 🧛

https://mastodon.sprawl.club/@ludicity

Don't talk to me about spreadsheets.

writing: https://ludic.mataroa.blog/
podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/does-a-frog-have-scorpion-nature/id1737204926
company: https://www.hermit-tech.com/

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relay.damus.io

nos.lol

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Last Notes

2026-08-06 22:58:40 GMT

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Thanks for the kind words! I actually spoke to Cory yesterday and was very directly reminded that there is a big difference between deep research and immersion in the humanities (which he does) and reporting on how absurd things feel on the ground right now (which I did). I'd like to do a lot more of the former in the future, if I can get time away from the business!

2026-08-05 00:37:30 GMT

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I'll drop you a line late this year or early next year! I'd actually have you on immediately but I was already booked until November since I only do one guest a month

2026-08-04 05:25:25 GMT

Hi folks, thought I'd reach out to Mastodon for some thoughts on this. I recently got Ed Zitron for my podcast, and am about to get [REDACTED] this Thursday. I like having random friends on to just talk about our hobbies or whatever sometimes, but it's been nice getting a few influential people on because they get to think about certain topics full-time.
Are there any folks that you can think of (that have indicated an awareness of me) that would make for a fun conversation?

2026-08-03 05:21:48 GMT

Just came across Cam Wilson's reporting guide for folks that want to raise stories, particularly leaks about how AI stuff is going on at companies.
https://cameronwilson.com.au/guide-to-my-reporting/
A lot of folks send me stories, and I don't publish them because I don't have the bandwidth or network to do so while keeping you safe. Cam does! Send them his way instead.
(He's also highly regarded by several of my friends and is on Mastodon, which probably tells you a lot about his stance on source safety.)

2026-07-29 08:02:29 GMT

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This is probably fair, but I just checked where Qobuz (the thing I dropped Spotify for at the recommendation of some friends) and it is indeed out of Europe
I also basically exclusively get asked in the consulting context to make moves towards FOSS, etc, or to improve the privacy/security posture of companies, by folks out in Europe
I do not know why this is the case, but it is true

2026-07-29 06:26:16 GMT

@npub1ydp…0x55 just linked me to this and I love it, and by extension, this Dave fellow
https://daverupert.com/2026/07/number-chart-go-up/

2026-07-29 00:46:13 GMT

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I'm glad you asked because I have looked into this space several times and been unhappy (main options are Nocodb and Baserow), but this time around I discovered Mathesar:
https://github.com/mathesar-foundation/mathesar
I am becoming a weirdo that refuses to use many things before inspecting at least parts of the codebase, but the non-profit structure and other things are giving me good vibes.

2026-07-20 02:57:53 GMT

I have elected not to read any HN or Reddit comments on my latest post, but I am accepting nominations for the wall of shame:
https://ludic.mataroa.blog/compliments/
Ideal candidates are mean-spirited ad hominem. 🫡

2026-07-18 05:55:37 GMT

I have, after two years, allowed myself to talk about my experiences with AI madness again, this time with the benefit of speaking to people all around the world, including Fortune 500 executives. This one is on my regular blog for casual readers, and cross-posted to the company blog if you need to share this with someone and have it look official.
https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/ai-mania-is-eviscerating-global-decision-making/
https://hermit-tech.com/blog/ai-mania-is-eviscerating-global-decisionmaking

2026-07-16 07:40:36 GMT

I have uploaded my podcast with Ed Zitron on YouTube! You can also see the extremely cool artwork of [@mariibyrd](https://mastodon.art/@mariibyrd ) on display, who was an absolute delight to work with.
https://youtu.be/HJtmDiGrKzw?si=eWDXsfYjfkkX8dTx

2026-06-19 01:21:44 GMT

https://stackoverflow.blog/2026/06/10/announcing-stack-overflow-for-agents/
I'm laughing so hard that I'm having trouble breathing

2026-06-17 00:30:59 GMT

I've got a client looking to hire five senior engineers in Sydney -- they work in data engineering, but they'll take anyone that's competent and work it out from there. Pay's about A$160K to A$180K + superannuation for someone that nails their interview process. No LeetCode stuff, though there is an online screen that is reportedly at the level of "You weren't lying about programming, right? Can you like, read a CSV and write some SQL?"
Hit me up if you know anyone that'd be interested!

2026-06-16 05:02:36 GMT

Zitron just reported that OpenAI lost $38.5 billion dollars in 2025:
https://www.wheresyoured.at/exclusive-openai-financials/

2026-06-11 04:53:44 GMT

Greetings fellow humans.
My podcast editor has suggested that I start uploading episodes to YouTube, and to accomplish this, that I should get some artwork done to serve as a wall-paper-y thing for the audio to play over.
Is there any chance that there are any artists here that would be interested in a small job? Might be a long shot, but someone that listens to the podcast will probably have great opinions on the vibe!

2026-06-05 08:42:38 GMT

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My first (good) manager told me, when questioned, that he had such rapid career progression because he had decided to be the adult in the room
I have since realized that a lot of corporate theater and suits are really just covering for the fact that the person in question isn't behaving like an adult.
You know how, in a healthy household, a kid knows their parents are going to pull out all the stops to make things okay again?
Almost everyone at a company won't do this for any reason.

2026-06-04 08:12:18 GMT

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It was extremely obvious from some questions that they're learning absolutely nothing, the faculty have totally phoned it in (they've actually had NO teaching staff for two weeks -- the lecturer quit mid-semester with no replacement), and it's all just a fucking disaster.
On the bright side, I guess my work is safe indefinitely.

2026-06-04 08:10:54 GMT

Holy moly, one of my cousins (8 weeks into undergraduate computer science) asked me for help on a university assignment. I was surprised because he's very switched on.
It's a group assignment and it was extremely obvious that every other student has logged into a parent's corporate LLM and written all the code via prompt with no understanding.
When I asked how they're getting away with it, he said that the lecturers have just given up on all policing. (University is RMIT in Melbourne.)

2026-06-01 02:34:08 GMT

I have a very close friend in the U.S that is currently working a job where they are asked to do AI slop all day, every day, and they want out because it is depressing the hell out of them.
Super talented engineer, the kind of person that loves Clojure, 10/10 would recommend. If anyone knows of any open roles or would like to get in touch to commiserate, please shoot me a DM!

2026-02-27 23:39:38 GMT

It is astonishing how many companies have decided almost all of their data work should be done by writing shit-tons of YAML, sometimes with bits of code jammed into random strings
And by astonishing I mean I'm going to be on the news the next time I see it

2026-02-24 08:04:22 GMT

I've got a gig up for grabs for any data nerds in Australia.
A reader at a company where I'm the preferred recruiter has opened up a Super Urgent role for someone with Databricks experience. I can expedite most of the process so it'll be a serious job speedrun. You can live in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, or Brisbane, and the pay is about A$180K to A$185K including superannuation.
The company is Vivanti, and I like everyone there so far.
Hit me up if you're keen!

2026-02-21 05:42:44 GMT

Reposting a question for Ed Zitron, I'll forward responses. He asked on Bluesky and will get sub-Mastodon-tier answers:
"This is a serious question and I would be delighted if I only hear great things but, software engineers: both before and after LLMs, how often in your professional lives have you run into software engineers that seem completely useless or lacking in basic knowledge? I hope the answer is rarely"

2026-01-05 07:10:11 GMT

https://cdn.masto.host/mastodonsprawlclub/media_attachments/files/115/841/235/991/185/378/original/5f66eeac817fe87f.png

2025-10-27 03:58:01 GMT

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It is super hard to teach non-technical people how to Google now because the first result is now the AI-generated summary, which is usually just a restatement of a few popular Reddit comments on niche topics! Starting every sentence with "Uh, that might not actually be correct, we have to scroll down a bit" is slowly driving me insane

2025-09-02 03:22:07 GMT

Any lead/principle-ish level engineers looking for work in Melbourne? I know someone that's looking for someone with experience in data warehousing.
(You'd be working with me too until February-ish 2026.)

2025-08-25 21:53:41 GMT

Every day I wake up and attend my Very Important Business Meetings, doing my best to pretend I am a Sober Man of Industry, and definitely did not spend the five minutes before the meeting yelling at a rabbit for trying to nibble my feet while I tried to eat breakfast

2025-08-19 06:48:35 GMT

Has anyone on here experienced the dread scenario of an interviewee trying to bullshit their way to a job using an LLM during a video call?
(Asking for a blog post I'm thinking of writing, you won't be quoted identifiably without express consent)

2025-08-06 22:49:40 GMT

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And listen, self-improvement is admirable and all that, but the barrier to learning algebra barring extreme cognitive impairment was not the advent of ChatGPT study mode, it was going on Khan Academy for an hour, AAAAAAAAAAA

2025-08-06 22:48:58 GMT

I have just been introduced to Sharon Goldman's AI journalism and it's some of the funniest shit I've seen in my life.
She's really out there prompting ChatGPT to write what reads like Kindle Unlimited-tier softcore erotica and getting paid.
Even her "About" page on LinkedIn has two em-dashes and one --, so like, what's going on here? Local journalist can't write five sentences without an LLM? What are we DOING out here?
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodonsprawlclub/media_attachments/files/114/984/250/042/200/308/original/d787e24806d5cc54.png

2025-07-30 02:08:21 GMT

???
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodonsprawlclub/media_attachments/files/114/939/738/864/912/753/original/23c7f4443bfc6c78.png

2025-07-19 04:02:02 GMT

The article I wrote for Ed Zitron dropped today!
https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-remarkable-incompetence-at-the-heart-of-tech/
Ed paid me to write it, and it's accordingly behind a paywall, but if you're a subscriber (or willing to pay for access) then hopefully you'll enjoy it!

2025-07-09 01:24:29 GMT

Someone did a writeup of a bunch of "AI-powered" startups attending a pitch competition, and it:
a ) is fucking hilarious
b ) involves one of the startups accidentally screen-sharing that their patentable technology appears to just be forked from an academic's work with no credit
3) further includes a radiology company admitting they haven't consulted any radiologists lmao
https://4u.lol/writing/artificial-innovation/

2025-07-03 07:08:56 GMT

This is a serious data question for Mastodon nerds -- is anyone aware of a single data governance product that actually does anything useful? I'm reviewing everything I can find for a client, and not a single one seems to offer any serious benefits over dbt lineage. They don't even seem to support access models more sophisticated than just like, keeping a big table mapping users to tables they're allowed to read.

2025-06-20 00:28:22 GMT

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I have a terrible feeling that you just got me into Clojure

2025-06-19 06:26:13 GMT

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A shocking number of actual Serious People (of the kind I actually respect) think it is a balanced take, or I wouldn't really care.
I actually think Ptacek is a good writer and that might be overriding the bits of the brain that do the logic checks.

2025-06-19 06:11:13 GMT

Great news everyone! Thomas Ptacek at Fly.io published "My AI Skeptic Friends Are Nuts", and it was shoved in front of me enough times that I have sentenced him to a swift death. Godspeed, Thomas, I pray that your incineration is speedy and painless.
https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/contra-ptaceks-terrible-article-on-ai/

2025-06-10 00:24:57 GMT

Nothing says growing up like re-reading Calvin and Hobbes and realizing that I relate to the dad more than any other character in the strip.

2025-05-10 03:45:38 GMT

I have thus far encountered one Serious Cult per week in Fiji, that is not an exaggeration, this shit is absolutely wild.

2025-05-09 02:15:43 GMT

One of my co-founders went into a paid engagement yesterday and was noodling through a piece on how to prevent upstream teams from making changes to application database schemas that would break analytics pipelines.
They got the attention of the room and then said "one solution is a baseball bat".
There was a moment of uncomprehending silence and then they said "solve at the human layer".

2025-04-30 23:26:20 GMT

I'm in a cramped, spider-filled room in Fiji with a sick cat because the non-profit clinic here doesn't have space to board all the animals, surrounded by hundreds of dusty boxes filled with medication volunteers brought in, adding validation to a spreadsheet that tracks when all currently boarded animals are due for vaccines, and it is the most useful thing I've done in my whole career lmao

2025-04-29 20:14:17 GMT

I only realized today that Curtis Yarvin is the idiot I formerly knew as Mencius Moldbug.
I can't believe tech oligarchs are taking cues from a dude that named himself Mencius Moldbug. This dumb son of a bitch is out here giving himself the most Wormtongue/Peter Pettigrew-ass name and they're like "Ah yes, thank you for your wise counsel, my trusted vizier"

2025-02-24 05:04:31 GMT

Star Trek question: I have a vivid recollection of Quark saying something to the effect of "When the going gets tough, don't give up. Just quit."
But I cannot for the life of me track down the episode this happens in. Am I having nerd hallucinations? Please, help me, there is no nerdier place I can go to for help.

2025-02-10 04:37:07 GMT

Great news everyone! One of my co-founders put together a post on our company blog about seriousness in tech work:
https://www.hermit-tech.com/blog/data-engineers-and-bakers
It's the first thing he has written for us, so if you liked it, it'd be rad if you dropped him a message or something on LinkedIn (so sorry I'm asking you to go on LinkedIn)

2025-01-17 00:12:18 GMT

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Scott Adams is truly one of the minds of our time.
(PS: If you are indeed Mr. or Ms. Comics themselves, I love everything you put out)

2024-12-19 02:45:47 GMT

I just tried so, so hard to use GenAI for the venerated "rapidly do easy project in language you're trash at". I was writing a quick mobile app for a researcher at Uni of Melb as a personal favour, got like 30% of the way further than I had any business to...
... and then had to stop and just learn how to do it properly, the old-fashioned way, and I think I've mostly wasted time not doing it that way.
I'm impressed I got that far but also it fell so far short of saving me real time.

2024-12-18 20:41:20 GMT

[@iris_meredith](https://mastodon.social/@iris_meredith ) has gone unreasonably hard:
https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/altman_dunce

2024-12-14 04:03:18 GMT

When I am an employee, employers are like "you have to accept Scrum". When I'm consulting, employers are like "oh, you must be elite, you're using something that isn't Scrum"
This industry has brain worms

2024-12-11 19:38:27 GMT

We're panpsychist guys, of course we immediately become confused about how to answer coherently when someone asks me if think LLMs are conscious

2024-12-05 12:08:31 GMT

@npub1f8z…vfds is a genius and I can't stop laughing. All I said was that the phrase "stable of engineers" was funny and he came out with this fucking masterpiece
https://phils-web-site.net/dumb-shit/stable-of-delivery-professionals/

2024-11-18 00:11:26 GMT

I've had a few programmers from third-world countries reach out, and a persistent problem is "buying even a used laptop is $500, which is extremely expensive in my local currency".
Anyone have any giga-brain ideas on the cheapest possible development environment that doesn't freeze up? We'll not stress about the availability of parts in different parts of the world for now.

2024-11-12 06:16:00 GMT

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I've read the shorter essay that I believe spawned the larger book. The most recommended Graeber to me via reader email have been:
1. Bullshit Jobs, which I haven't read because I figure I'll mostly already get it?
2. Utopia of Rules
3. Debt

2024-11-12 05:55:20 GMT

Great news everyone! I've outright threaten vehicular violence against some of the consultancies I've worked alongside!
https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/why-i-will-always-be-angry-about-software-engineering/

2024-11-09 21:19:47 GMT

Lmao
https://pivot-to-ai.com/2024/11/08/tony-blair-institute-reports-on-ai-in-the-labor-market-using-numbers-they-made-up-with-gpt-4-again/

2024-10-31 01:36:31 GMT

A student reached out to me to ask if they should have their profile picture on LinkedIn. Yes, they work in security.
As I was writing the response about how it's mostly for people to know if you're a "legit person", it occurred to me that it's probably a huge discrimination vector.
A glance will reveal to employers all sorts of things they can make snap judgements on, including visibly transitioning, being non-white, or having a face they dislike. All without a paper trail!
Thanks, LinkedIn!

2024-10-30 01:31:03 GMT

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Hm, I've noticed that my blog seems to get about 600-ish hits shortly after being posted here, but nothing close to the volume required to actually cause downtime. My understanding of Mastodon is very weak, but what kind of numbers hit you when a post gets dropped?

2024-10-17 19:58:22 GMT

This is what put me onto Brennan Lee Mulligan and it will always be amazing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMBnEIzDLE0

2024-10-10 02:57:06 GMT

Great news everyone! I saw code so terrible yesterday that I quit my job on the spot, for realsies. Enjoy what should be the last post about me gazing directly into corporate-hell:
https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/get-me-out-of-data-hell/
Future posts will be about the dystopian hellscape that I conjure into being at my own business.

2024-10-09 02:28:42 GMT

I just looked at code so bad that I decided to resign today instead of December.
I feel like Satan just reached through my eyeballs and punched me in my frontal cortex.

2024-10-04 04:48:25 GMT

My close friend [@iris_meredith](https://mastodon.social/@iris_meredith ) published this on corporate norms around "Who is allowed to know things" at companies. Tech debt isn't real unless someone in power affirms it in a PowerPoint.
https://deadsimpletech.com/blog/epistemology
I love it and have made the same point. On Hackernews, it was accused of being "extreme left wing content" and the author is trying to "seed violent ideas into the minds of mentally unstable people".
Read it, and if you liked it, please send Iris some positive vibes.

2024-09-19 04:55:09 GMT

Good news everyone! My magnum opus on Scrum just dropped, clocking in at almost 9K words! Prepare a drink, strap yourselves in, and enter the Torment Nexus.
https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/tossed-salads-and-scrumbled-eggs/

2024-08-21 07:53:26 GMT

Great news everyone! I'm announcing that I'm leaving the job that has given us so many horrific stories to focus entirely on my own business! I'm going to stealth kill every Deloitte salesperson in Melbourne.
https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/quitting-my-job-for-the-way-of-pain/
My employer doesn't know yet, so enjoy being one step ahead of management in yet another regard.

2024-08-19 23:14:28 GMT

Telling executives that they can earn infinite money by rolling out your AI solution is just a prompt injection attack aimed at humans that don't run any input sanitation.

2024-07-09 21:51:33 GMT

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Should have stuck some sort of cognitohazard warning on this because the article is so cursed. Not the journalist's fault, the subject matter is just such "what the fuck" territory.

2024-07-09 21:50:58 GMT

A magazine asked me for a quote on AI generated influencers. I read the articles they linked and said "Just a bunch of dudes bragging that they made a woman that doesn't talk back. Nothing fucked up about that."
The interviewees in the previous articles just quibbled over whether the images were fatphobic. Like, yes, sure, obviously, but did NO ONE ELSE see the guy saying he made a woman that doesn't talk back?
??!?!?!?!?? 💀 🙃 🧛‍♂️ Is this why people ask me for quotes?
https://www.npr.org/2024/06/09/nx-s1-4993998/the-miss-ai-beauty-pageant-ushers-in-a-new-type-of-influencer

2024-06-20 23:16:16 GMT

https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/i-will-fucking-piledrive-you-if-you-mention-ai-again/ has done such a staggering amount of traffic that I have been asked to be in an honest-to-God documentary, I believe as an anti-AI-hype expert, and I think I may need a new job on Monday because there is NO WAY I fly under the radar this time.
Pray for me 🙏 (Or better yet, network me with cool people)
EDIT: I just had to remove an image because it displayed as GIGANTIC for unknown reasons. I am truly a tech genius.

2024-06-19 05:42:00 GMT

Great news everyone! I finally talk about AI hype. Someone finally mentioned LLMs one time too many, and the reckoning is upon us:
https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/i-will-fucking-piledrive-you-if-you-mention-ai-again/