Clay weekly context brief for the Blogs category (ISO week 2026-W32). Clay tracks publications from the Blogs feed list. Below are recent items from this category, each with its source and a short description of what the publication covers when one is available in the source feed. Recent publications: 1. In defense of polyfills Source: Lea Verou Link: https://lea.verou.me/blog/2026/polyfills/ If youre a web developer, you may find the title baffling. 2. Feedback Flywheel Source: Martin Fowler Link: https://martinfowler.com/articles/reduce-friction-ai/feedback-flywheel.html Rahul Garg finishes his series on reducing the friction in AI-Assisted Development. 3. Computational Public Space Source: Bret Victor Link: https://dynamicland.org/2024/Computational_Public_Space/ A talk about a values-driven approach to integrating computation into cities. 4. New microblog with TILs Source: Julia Evans Link: https://jvns.ca/blog/2024/11/09/new-microblog/ I added a new section to this site a couple weeks ago called TIL (today I learned). 5. Urgent: Protect Medicaid, submit public comment Source: Richard Stallman Link: https://stallman.org/archives/2026-may-aug.html#30_July_2026_(Urgent:_Protect_Medicaid,_submit_public_comment) US citizens: Protect Medicaid by submitting a public comment by July 31 . See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard. 6. Understanding AT Protocol Source: Rachel Andrew Link: https://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2026/07/30/understanding-at-protocol/ Ive been playing around with AT Protocol. 7. I'm sorry, Dave Source: DHH Link: https://world.hey.com/dhh/i-m-sorry-dave-380ec27d Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey has always been an incredible movie, but its value as a cautionary tale has increased exponentially since AI took off. 8. Being Linux Torvalds Source: Salvatore Sanfilippo Link: http://antirez.com/news/171 (This blog post was adapted from the transcription obtained from my YouTube video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6lxgYeVZqs) When Linus Torvalds developed the first Linux kernel, he had studied the Minix sources, he had studied computer architecture, he had the base knowledge needed, and he was obviously a very brilliant programmer. 9. Accelerating the frontiers of scientific discovery: Googles $40M commitment to the Genesis Mission Source: Demis Hassabis Link: https://deepmind.google/blog/accelerating-the-frontiers-of-scientific-discovery-googles-40m-commitment-to-the-genesis-mission/ Google commits $40M in AI tokens and credits for the Genesis Mission 10. Held Prize call for nominations (+ call for postdocs) Source: Scott Aaronson Link: https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=9940 Here at the National Academy of Sciences, it seems that my first job is to serve on the selection committee for the prestigious Michael and Sheila Held Prize in combinatorial and discrete optimization and related areas. 11. Agentic test processes, LLM benchmarks, and other notes on agentic coding from Galapagos Island Source: Dan Luu Link: https://danluu.com/ai-coding/ I've been using AI fairly heavily since last November and the whole thing is a funny experience . 12. In defense of AI mandates Source: Charity Majors Link: https://charity.wtf/p/in-defense-of-ai-mandates When you need to execute a coordinated change on a tight timeline, a mandate is the best and most honest way to fund it. 13. We should be more tired than the model Source: Vicki Boykis Link: https://vickiboykis.com/2026/05/28/we-should-be-more-tired-than-the-model/ Lately, Ive been feeling like Im losing control over the code I write when I work with agentic code generation. 14. Thank You For Being a Friend Source: Jeff Atwood Link: https://blog.codinghorror.com/thank-you-for-being-a-friend/ It's been one of those months, and by that, I mean one of the 663 months since I was born. This won't be a long post, because I only have two things to say. First, I'm really glad we re-ordered the GMI (Guaranteed 15. Chicago vs New York Pizza is the Wrong Argument Source: Hillel Wayne Link: https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/pizza/ Its April Cools ! 16. On Bombing Iran Source: Tanner Greer Link: https://scholars-stage.org/on-bombing-iran/ THUS WE BOMB Iran. 17. Implementing the transcendental functions in Ivy Source: Rob Pike Link: https://commandcenter.blogspot.com/2026/01/implementing-transcendental-functions.html Towards the end of 2014, in need of pleasant distraction, I began writing, in Go, my second pseudo-APL, called Ivy. 18. My Year in Review 2025 Source: Ines Montani Link: https://ines.io/blog/year-in-review-2025 On my birthday, I want to take the time again to look back at the past year, including travel, talks, writing and various things I did and enjoyed. 19. A concept for future body design. Source: Ray Kurzweil Link: https://www.thekurzweillibrary.com/essay-a-concept-for-future-body-design IMAGE An introduction. 20. Implications of Artificial General Intelligence on National and International Security Source: Yoshua Bengio Link: https://yoshuabengio.org/en/blog/implications-artificial-general-intelligence-national-and-international-security As highlighted in the International Scientific Report on the Safety of Advanced AI, the capabilities of general-purpose AI systems have been steadily increasing over the last decade, with a pronounced acceleration in the last few years. 21. Tether's Troubles in November 2022 Source: Patio11 Link: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2022/11/11/tether-required-recapitalization-again/ Tether's November 2022 attestation, even if believed, strongly suggests it blew up (again) during the recent crypto route. 22. Reasoning about asyncio.Semaphore Source: Guido van Rossum Link: https://neopythonic.blogspot.com/2022/10/reasoning-about-asynciosemaphore.html In Silicon Valley is a very exclusive fast-food restaurant, which is always open. 23. Deep Neural Nets: 33 years ago and 33 years from now Source: Andrej Karpathy Link: http://karpathy.github.io/2022/03/14/lecun1989/ .post-header h1 { font-size: 35px; } .post pre, .post code { background-color: #fcfcfc; font-size: 13px; /* make code smaller for this post... 24. Making the web better. With blocks! Source: Joel Spolsky Link: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2022/01/27/making-the-web-better-with-blocks/ Youve probably seen web editors based on the idea of blocks. Im typing this in WordPress, which has a little + button that brings up a long Read more "Making the web better. With blocks!" 25. April 2021 newsletter Source: Gwern Branwen Link: https://gwern.substack.com/p/april-2021-newsletter with links on AI scaling, particular new East Asian record-breaking work & deep reinforcement learning. 26. This is a test Source: Eric S Raymond Link: http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=8772 This is a test to see if the database server issue that froze this blog is resolved. 27. Battery Day Source: Jessie Frazelle Link: https://blog.jessfraz.com/post/battery-day/ Tesla had its first Battery Day on September 22nd, 2020 1 . 28. Cognitect dev-tools Source: Rich Hickey Link: https://www.cognitect.com/blog/2020/08/20/Cognitect-dev-tools We're excited to release Cognitect dev-tools , a set of free tools that we've created for Clojure developers. 29. nobody knows the future Source: Slava Akhmechet Link: /2020/06/02/future.html Can you recall the experience of waking up for the first time in a new city? 30. Business Requirements are Bullshit Source: Steve Yegge Link: https://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/08/business-requirements-are-bullshit.html Some CEO emailed me the other day. 31. I haven't disappeared... Source: James Gosling Link: http://www.nighthacks.net/roller/jag/entry/i_haven_t_disappeared I've been in the clutches of a product release. 32. The Render Token Source: Brendan Eich Link: https://brendaneich.com/2017/09/the-render-token/ I wrote about OTOY over four years ago, in Today I Saw The Future. 33. Probability, Paradox, and the Reasonable Person Principle Source: Peter Norvig Link: http://nbviewer.ipython.org/url/norvig.com/ipython/Probability.ipynb An IPython notebook tutorial on Probability Paradoxes 34. External import maps, today! Source: Lea Verou Link: https://lea.verou.me/blog/2026/external-import-maps-today/ A few weeks ago, I posted Web dependencies are broken. 35. Alan Turing play in Cambridge MA Source: Martin Fowler Link: https://martinfowler.com/articles/202604-turing.html Last night I saw Central Square Theaters excellent production of Breaking the Code . Its about Alan Turing, who made a monumental contribution to both my profession and the fate of free democracies. Well worth seeing if youre in the Boston area this month. 36. Tweet refs Source: Bret Victor Link: https://worrydream.com/Tweets/ Added refs for tweets. 37. Importing a frontend Javascript library without a build system Source: Julia Evans Link: https://jvns.ca/blog/2024/11/18/how-to-import-a-javascript-library/ I like writing Javascript without a build system and for the millionth time yesterday I ran into a problem where I needed to figure out how to import a Javascript library in my code without using a build system, and it took FOREVER to figure out how to import it because the librarys setup instructions assume that youre using a build system. 38. Urgent: Call on ABC and NBC to stand strong Source: Richard Stallman Link: https://stallman.org/archives/2026-may-aug.html#30_July_2026_(Urgent:_Call_on_ABC_and_NBC_to_stand_strong) US citizens: call on ABC & NBC to stand strong against the fascist's bullying. See the instructions for how to sign this letter campaign without running any nonfree JavaScript code--not trivial, but not hard. 39. Over 15 years of conference speaking Source: Rachel Andrew Link: https://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2026/07/20/over-15-years-of-conference-speaking/ Im not someone who keeps a lot of memorabilia, but I do have a large collection of conference badges. 40. Sitting down with Senra Source: DHH Link: https://world.hey.com/dhh/sitting-down-with-senra-69f5e368 Jason and I have been making the same argument for over a quarter of a century now: Small teams can do incredible things when they embrace their constraints . Sources in this brief: Andrej Karpathy; Brendan Eich; Bret Victor; Charity Majors; DHH; Dan Luu; Demis Hassabis; Eric S Raymond; Guido van Rossum; Gwern Branwen; Hillel Wayne; Ines Montani; James Gosling; Jeff Atwood; Jessie Frazelle; Joel Spolsky; Julia Evans; Lea Verou; Martin Fowler; Patio11; Peter Norvig; Rachel Andrew; Ray Kurzweil; Rich Hickey; Richard Stallman; Rob Pike; Salvatore Sanfilippo; Scott Aaronson; Slava Akhmechet; Steve Yegge; Tanner Greer; Vicki Boykis; Yoshua Bengio. Selected 40 of 785 available items for this weekly brief.