Avner Shanan

Weeknotes: Week of 5/10/26

What’s New

Had a couple weeks of complete WFH while things are getting moved around at the office. There’s still construction going on, but our temporary space (until ~October) was ready this week so we had a mini RTO. It’s tighter and louder than our previous space, which was expected, but I have a spot next to a window and we’re on the 30th floor, so the view is very nice. Way more engineers are using their headphones now, and even the folks on our team in Austin have commented on the increased noise level. I’ve been managing it well so far. It’s temporary, and the space we’ll be moving to in October will be better than the one we left a few weeks ago.

Reading

What I’ve been reading (books, articles, zines, etc.)

• Had the opportunity to help out Mastodon pillar Stefan Bohacek by test printing the zine he made, which I am including here because now I’ve read it :)
• Not sure if it quite belongs here, but I’m “reading” the Lonely Planet guide to Japan, where we will be traveling in November.
• Pediatric longitudinal study confirms the obvious: kids can get Long COVID
  • Via Violet Blue’s excellent newsletter Threat Model
• I don’t write like ChatGPT. ChatGPT writes like me.
  • Interesting perspective on “AI” detection from a Kenyan writer. I’m a bit surprised he doesn’t mention that OpenAI has used (poorly treated) Kenyan laborers as part of their LLM training strategy for years¹. Mekke Okereke has a good thread on this (probably more than one), but I haven’t been able to find it yet.
• The Boring Internet—Essay and tribute to the awkward protocols that underlie the Internet. If you never stopped loving RSS, this is worth your while.

Other Things Besides Reading

Other kinds of media (TV, movies, video games, etc.)

• We just started playing Expedition 33. It’s a wild concept with an interesting story and some complicated systems. We’re not too far into it but I’m enjoying it quite a bit so far. The combat reminds me a lot of Legend of the Dragoon, which I never finished but absolutely loved. I do wish it was a little more clear when/if going backwards would be possible, but I think we’re starting to figure things out.
• It’s Gonna Be May
  • 
  • Shot: NSync Maypole Dance?!
  • And Chaser:
    • A linguistic deep dive on “It’s Gonna Be May”
    • Via @mayintoronto

Caught My Eye

Things that looked interesting but I haven’t had a chance to dig into them yet

• DAIR has a Luddite Lab
• Apparently there’s a connection between our abs and our brains and it helps keep our brains clean (link)