select links from 2026-01-12
Color Tools and more ramblings on AI
Hello friends! The start of a new year brings a slew of information! This time and place feels odd because I’ve read like 4-5 different takes that code assistants are good. Heck, even Linus Torvalds is vibe-coding. The thing that feels odd is that if code assistants have gotten good, why isn’t there way, WAY more content out there on my feeds? I would expect an explosion of new projects but the feed is somewhat calm.
I have a few possible explanations. First, I could just be looking in the wrong direction! Second, it seems like the inflection point has been around November so 3 months hasn’t been enough to really move the needle. Third, code assistants enable a type of software that’s difficult to share.
This third point is important because it’s been shared by a few blog posts. In 2019, when tidyverse was on a roll, it was relatively straightforward to write a blogpost - you show a problem, you demonstrate a solution using R and Bob’s your uncle. With code assistants, it’s like…here’s the very specific thing that the code assistant built for me? Here’s the prompt? Here are the skills? Here’s a boring spec that may or may not apply to your use case?
Code assistant work is difficult to share but it unlocks a different kind of software - personal software. Chris Gregori has an excellent blog post about it. Essentially, a code assistant can build any prototype, tool or whatever you want and it will probably work. What if you vibecode the thing for just yourself and not think about distribution? You don’t need to worry about security, authentication and hosting because your app runs locally and is just for you. Better yet, since it’s for you - you can build it however you want! For example, here’s an app. Here’s Tobi Lutke, CEO of Shopify, building an MRI viewer.
What that means is code assistants aren’t just for software engineers anymore. If I need to process documents or have some sort of admin console that the software doesn’t support, i can simply prompt Claude, Copilot or Gemini to build it for me. Sure, you can’t ship it but the disposable, ephemeral aspect is the point! The barrier to building internal tools at companies is going to drop but you are still going to need IT teams to support your core systems and your products because those still require good engineering judgment. They need to persist and they need ownership.
There are so many blog posts, just look at them:
Why Not? by Wes McKinney
whenwords by Drew Breunig (hah look at this issue)
Useful patterns for building HTML tools by Simon Willison
Make the Tool You Wish Existed (with Your LLM) by Brian Gershon
People are seeing the light on coding agents by theahura
Don’t fall into the anti-AI hype by antirez
Colors!
Joey Cherdarchuk - Obumbratta released this color picker tool. It’s incredible - if you’re building dashboards, this is exactly the kind of tool you need to use to check if your dashboards are eligible.
Other links
Natural Seasonal Availability of a Cheeseburger (code)
10 Predictions for Data Infrastructure in 2026 by Ian Cook