Clay weekly context brief for the Blogs category (ISO week 2026-W42). 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. Mass function overloading: why and how? Source: Lea Verou Link: https://lea.verou.me/2021/02/mass-function-overloading-why-and-how/ One of the things Ive been doing for the past few months (on and offmore off than on TBH) is rewriting Bliss to use ESM 1 . 2. DSLs Enable Reliable Use of LLMs Source: Martin Fowler Link: https://martinfowler.com/articles/llm-and-dsls.html LLMs generate code incredibly fast, but to ensure they generate exactly what is intended, they need clear boundaries. 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. 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. 5. Urgent: Block destruction of national parks and forests Source: Richard Stallman Link: https://stallman.org/archives/2026-jul-oct.html#10_October_2026_(Urgent:_Block_destruction_of_national_parks_and_forests) US citizens: call on Congress to block the saboteur in chief from destroying America's national parks and forests . 6. Redundancy is the engine of progress Source: DHH Link: https://world.hey.com/dhh/redundancy-is-the-engine-of-progress-76499402 In the 18th century, 90% of Americans worked in agriculture to feed themselves and the nation. 7. The dangerous myth behind AI agent hacks Source: Yoshua Bengio Link: https://yoshuabengio.org/en/blog/dangerous-myth-behind-ai-agent-hacks A dangerous myth has gained traction after the recent hacks perpetrated by the AI agents developed by leading companies: That these incidents are just cyber security problems, that it's only a matter of fixing the sandboxes in which theyre trained. 8. My new course at UT Austin: AI Alignment Theory Source: Scott Aaronson Link: https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=10125 This semester, Ive been teaching a brand-new course, entitled CS395T AI Alignment Theory. 9. Introducing SynthID Bio Source: Demis Hassabis Link: https://deepmind.google/blog/introducing-synthid-bio/ Proof of concept for watermarking AI-generated proteins while preserving biological function. 10. Where do AI norms come from? Source: Charity Majors Link: https://charity.wtf/p/where-do-ai-norms-come-from A dialogue with Dr Cat Hicks on ethics, learning, and what we owe each other. Part one: start by listening. 11. Remove start and end margins with the margin-trim property Source: Rachel Andrew Link: https://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2026/09/15/remove-start-and-end-margins-with-the-margin-trim-property/ A frequently asked multiple-column layout question is why a new paragraph at the start of the column has additional space above it. 12. Home Hardware, Part 1: My Control4 Revenge Arc Source: Jessie Frazelle Link: https://blog.jessfraz.com/post/home-hardware-part-one/ Fuck 1 it, were doing consumer hardware for ourselves now and getting fucked by economies of scale, I guess. 13. How well do agents use test and verification techniques? Source: Dan Luu Link: https://danluu.com/agentic-testing/ We previously noted that, while it's easier than ever to hit a particular quality bar by having coding agents use effective test techniques, software quality seems to be getting worse , indicating that whatever defaults developers are using may not work very well. 14. You Can't "Vibe Code" Love Source: Jeff Atwood Link: https://blog.codinghorror.com/you-cant-vibe-code-love/ About a year ago, I was offered a presentation slot at the WeAreDevelopers World Congress in Berlin. 15. Write for people Source: Vicki Boykis Link: https://vickiboykis.com/2026/08/12/write-for-people/ Something Ive noticed recently is that I am no longer able to read and parse PR titles and descriptions across the internet. 16. In Memory of My Wife, Elise Cawley (19612026), with Thanks for 36 Wonderful Years Source: Stephen Wolfram Link: https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2026/08/in-memory-of-my-wife-elise-cawley-1961-2026-with-thanks-for-36-wonderful-years/ Something terrible just happened. 17. Logic for Programmers is Now Available Source: Hillel Wayne Link: https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/lfp/ I am delighted to announce that my book, Logic for Programmers , is now available! 18. 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. 19. China and the Future of Science Source: Tanner Greer Link: https://scholars-stage.org/china-and-the-future-of-science/ THE CHINESE socio-political system differs from our own. 20. 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. 21. 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. 22. A concept for future body design. Source: Ray Kurzweil Link: https://www.thekurzweillibrary.com/essay-a-concept-for-future-body-design IMAGE An introduction. 23. 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. 24. 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. 25. 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... 26. 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!" 27. 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. 28. 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. 29. 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. 30. 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? 31. Why I left Google to join Grab Source: Steve Yegge Link: https://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2018/01/why-i-left-google-to-join-grab.html I've officially switched from Blogger to Medium. See you over there ! 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. It's long past the time..... Source: James Gosling Link: http://www.nighthacks.net/roller/jag/entry/it_s_time (as seen on Richard Branson's blog ) 34. xkcd 1313: Regex Golf Source: Peter Norvig Link: http://nbviewer.ipython.org/url/norvig.com/ipython/xkcd1313.ipynb?create=1 Code to implement a meta-regex-golf program based on xkcd comic #1313. The code is "a program that plays regex golf with arbitrary lists..." 35. Writable getters Source: Lea Verou Link: https://lea.verou.me/2020/12/writable-getters/ Setters removing themselves are reminiscent of Ouroboros , the serpent eating its own tail, an ancient symbol. 36. The Archaeologists Copilot Source: Martin Fowler Link: https://martinfowler.com/articles/archaeologist-copilot.html When people think of legacy modernization, most folks aren't imagining the target environment will be Java 8. 37. Links to archives Source: Bret Victor Link: https://worrydream.com/Links2025/ Added some links to archives. 38. Why pipes sometimes get "stuck": buffering Source: Julia Evans Link: https://jvns.ca/blog/2024/11/29/why-pipes-get-stuck-buffering/ Heres a niche terminal problem that has bothered me for years but that I never really understood until a few weeks ago. 39. Urgent: Thank Germany for Safeguarding U.S. climate data Source: Richard Stallman Link: https://stallman.org/archives/2026-jul-oct.html#10_October_2026_(Urgent:_Thank_Germany_for_Safeguarding_U.S._climate_data) US citizens: thank Germany for Safeguarding U.S. Climate Data. 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; Stephen Wolfram; Steve Yegge; Tanner Greer; Vicki Boykis; Yoshua Bengio. Selected 39 of 736 available items for this weekly brief.