Links #2025-20 - Prompts, a curse, and time

Articles and videos I found last week that I actually read or watched until the end.

• I'd rather read the prompt - claytonwramsey.com

  Amazed as I am by the technology, I find myself using LLMs for all kinds of purposes, but the actual writing of code and prose is something I tend to keep to myself. After all, who knows my thoughts and ideas better than me? In this post, an instructor lists and dispels some common beliefs on why LLMs would be better at writing.

• The Curse of Knowing How, or; Fixing Everything - notashelf.dev

  Knowing how something can be fixed, or even just that it can be fixed, and not seeing it happen can be a curse. This author reached the limit and had to vent. After I learned how much time and effort it takes to actually solve things, I myself keep going back and forth between the extremes: trying to fix everything and trying to fix nothing.

• As an Experienced LLM User, I Actually Don't Use Generative LLMs Often - minimaxir.com

  A fellow LLM fan that finds themselves not generating that much code or prose. This is a type of nuanced take on the usefulness of LLMs that I would like to read more often.

• Build your own ResponseWriter: safer HTTP in Go - anto.pt

  When I need more control over the HTTP Response in Go, I used to use a dummy ResponseRecorder from the httptest package to write to, before copying it to the actual ResponseWriter. But wrapping the ResponseWriter is the right way to do it. I just never realised it was an interface.

• Odin, A Pragmatic C Alternative with a Go Flavour - bitshifters.cc

  Rust and Zig are the most talked about programming languages when it comes to replacing C, but Odin might be interesting too. Here is a quick first look at it. Yet another item that had to be added to my list of things to explore.

• XKCD's "Is It Worth the Time?" Considered Harmful - will-keleher.com

  The decision to automate a a task or not involves a lot more than the raw time that is spent. This post focuses on the learning opportunities that are missed when choosing not to automate, but the comment thread on lobste.rs lists many more benefits of automation. The message is clear: automate all the things.

• Organize your Go middleware without dependencies - www.alexedwards.net

  Many pages are filled on Go forums with answers to the question: which web framework should I use? Many Go developers, myself included, think the right answer to that question is: none of them. However, that does not really help the person asking. This post walks through a simple approach to routing and middleware dependencies.