Nobody knows what it will look like in 2 years

Nobody knows what programming will look like in two years by Charles Humble (published Feb 18, 2026, on LeadDev.com) is an honest, refreshing take from a programmer wrestling with the uncertainty of the future of programming. He looks at historical trends of new technologies (terminals) replacing old ones (punchcards) and grapples with what programming skills are still relevant. The article connects nicely with what I was exploring in 10 principles of the cyborg technical writer. Read more »

Good shot, GUS!!!! How to win at pickup basketball even if you're not all that great

Combining praise with names can have a powerful effect on performance. On the pickup basketball court, the effect can be transformative, making everyone play their best. But it also creates a transformative effect for the one doing the praising, perhaps because it prompts your mind to filter to see more of the good. Read more »

10 principles of the cyborg technical writer -- brief notes and bullet points on how to use AI to augment your role

In my post The Emerging Picture of a Changed Profession: Cyborg Technical Writers — Augmented, Not Replaced, by AI, I mentioned an upcoming presentation I'm giving to students and faculty. I argue that the future of the profession is the cyborg model, where machines augment our capabilities rather than replace us. In this post, I share notes about what skills a tech writer would need to learn to thrive in this world of augmentation. Read more »

World Brain: No Experts podcast - Three tech writers and a photographer walk into a bar (with Tom Johnson and Floyd Jones)

I recently appeared as a guest on the World Brain: No Experts podcast, episode 5, titled 'Three tech writers and a photographer walk into a bar (with Tom Johnson and Floyd Jones).' We chat about a range of AI-related topics in a fun, conversational way. The podcast tries to answer the question of whether AI is a rough beast, benevolent angel, or boring super appliance. But we also get into capitalism, cognition + judgement, automation reality, the slow movement, and more. Read more »

The Emerging Picture of a Changed Profession: Cyborg Technical Writers — Augmented, Not Replaced, by AI

I'm giving a presentation at Louisiana Tech University on March 30, 2026, on what I'm calling the cyborg model of technical writing. The tldr is that I feel the emerging model for tech writing isn't one in which AI replaces tech writers; instead, it's one in which AI augments tech writers. Tech writers interact with AI in a continuous back-and-forth, iterative process, representing the cyborg model. Read more »

Using curiosity to decenter

Although I don't write much about psychology, I've recently become fascinated by a technique I learned, similar to cognitive decentering but with a slight variation. The technique works quite well, though I'm still refining it and understanding it. So this is a brief sketch of the idea. At a future point, I might unpack this in a more researched way, but for now, this is the napkin sketch. Read more »

AI Book Club recording, notes, and transcript for Sarah Wynn-Williams's Careless People

This is a recording of our AI Book Club discussion of Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams, held February 15, 2026. Our discussion touches on a variety of topics, including whether criticisms of the author's complicity are fair, the ethical dilemmas we face working in tech, whether the parallels between social media and AI hold up, the Streisand effect of Meta's attempt to suppress the book, and more. This post also includes discussion questions, key themes, and a full transcript. Read more »

Bakhtin and model collapse: How to use AI with expressive writing without generating AI slop

In this post, I explore ways to use AI to improve the quality of expressive writing without resulting in AI slop, and without robbing writers of the value of the writing process itself. I use Bakhtin and heteroglossia to argue that incorporating diverse voices into writing (with research help from AI) can help give writing a sense of liveliness and human soul. Read more »