The Curious Engineer

All blogs / Software / engineering practice

Jacob O'Bryant

obryant.dev

Software engineer, etc etc

Software / engineering practiceLisp / Clojure / SchemeEssays / personal

’20’21’22’23’24’25’26
Posts
249 from 10 Oct 2020 to 23 Oct 2026
Posting
now and then (5 in the last year)
Kind
personal blog
Feed
https://obryant.dev/feed.xml

2026 4

  1. Posts that Hacker News liked
  2. BudgetSWU: my latest pile of code
  3. Platypub: email newsletters for personal blogs
  4. 2x, not 10x: coding with LLMs in 2026

2025 5

  1. Gerrymandering is bad
  2. I was interviewed about entrepreneurship
  3. I'm shutting down The Sample
  4. Yakread's ranking algorithm
  5. Rewriting Yakread

2024 4

  1. Leaving Mormonism
  2. Impressions on Sudbury Schooling
  3. Platypub: back to square one
  4. I am still alive

2023 28

  1. I'm resurrecting the Discourse forum
  2. I got a job
  3. Experimenting with Mastodon
  4. A few planned Yakread updates
  5. Discussion apps > reading apps?
  6. Reneging on the subreddit
  7. Hello Seattle I am a manta ray
  8. Exploring Reddit essays
  9. Complaining about Substack for fun and profit
  10. Try out the Yakread pre-release
  11. How Yakread's RSS recommendation algorithm works
  12. How to deal with short-form posts?
  13. What if I started a nonprofit?
  14. On the mehness of Yakread's acquisition funnel
  15. RSS is great for recommendations
  16. Be indulgent
  17. The world's finest onboarding flow
  18. Into the shell I go
  19. Stuff I read that maybe you'd like too
  20. Help me sponsor your newsletter
  21. How to beat social media's network effects
  22. (Re)introducing Yakread: a smart newsletter reading app
  23. In defense of recommendation
  24. I'm going to delete most of Yakread's features
  25. Funding software innovation
  26. TikTok for reading
  27. You can help unbundle social media
  28. Replies and referrals

2022 59

  1. Advertise your newsletter in Yakread
  2. Cross-platform RSS recommendations on Yakread
  3. How to rebuild social media on top of RSS
  4. Discord is a decent place for forums
  5. What's better, chronological or algorithmic timelines?
  6. Designing the perfect timeline
  7. Substack can fix their lock-in if they want to
  8. Healthy, low-prep information meals
  9. Introducing Yakread: a simple reader app for the unbundled web
  10. Discord could almost replace Twitter
  11. Last post! Merging with TFOS newsletter next week
  12. Join the tools-for-online-speech community
  13. Stuff I read: 17 October 2022
  14. It's Working [Anakin emoji]
  15. Stuff I read: 10 October 2022
  16. Why to not be a startup founder
  17. Cross-platform recommendations
  18. Yakread sharing notes
  19. Stuff I read: 3 October 2022
  20. Queuey queues for chewy chewing
  21. Stuff I read: 26 September 2022
  22. Moar Discovery
  23. Stuff I read: 19 September 2022
  24. Merging Findka Essays
  25. The Sample algorithm update; upcoming Yakread features
  26. What's your favorite email provider?
  27. Stuff I read
  28. Sharing and notifications in Yakread
  29. Test post
  30. Read your tweets and books in Yakread
  31. Yakread is live
  32. The time of Yakread is at hand
  33. Flexible themes in Platypub
  34. Newsletter directories, subscriber import integrations, and you
  35. Some publisher console updates
  36. Demo: submitting a newsletter to The Sample (silent movie)
  37. Onboarding flow
  38. Reader app, automation, more about Substack recommendations
  39. I can't believe I'm about to build another dumb web app
  40. Tech and democracy
  41. Announcements for 4 July 2022
  42. Substack recommendations, paid acquisition, consulting
  43. The Sample updates for 20 June 2022
  44. Just published "We need better tools for online speech"
  45. We need better tools for online speech
  46. Publisher report for 7 June 2022
  47. Now you can read your bookmarks with The Sample
  48. The Sample publisher report (14 Mar)
  49. The Sample publisher report (7 Mar)
  50. The Sample publisher report (28 Feb)
  51. The Sample publisher report (21 Feb)
  52. The Sample publisher report
  53. Return of the Biff
  54. The Sample publisher report
  55. The Sample publisher report
  56. The Sample publisher report
  57. The Sample publisher report
  58. The Sample publisher report
  59. The one where Substack gives me an aneurysm

2021 49

  1. The Sample publisher report
  2. Building for the open web
  3. The Sample publisher report
  4. A mental model for decentralization
  5. The messy future of social media
  6. newsletter draft
  7. Pass the JELO
  8. The Future of Future of Discovery + Software Invention
  9. How The Sample drives thousands of newsletter subscriptions
  10. Why I changed my mind about advertising
  11. Curating the Curators
  12. Why did The Sample send me this newsletter?
  13. The Findka API
  14. The Sample Roadmap
  15. The Future of Discovery
  16. The Substack Narrative
  17. Synthesis of Show HN: The Sample
  18. Findka Essays is back online
  19. Why I'm excited about newsletters
  20. App idea: casual curated newsletters
  21. What I'm trying to do
  22. Protocol-based social networking, today
  23. Started learning recorder recently
  24. Newsletter platforms: please support 1-click subscribe
  25. The recommender system you've always wanted
  26. Roots and Branches: Centralization and the Role of Software Startups
  27. Some thoughts on newsletter advertising
  28. The pros and cons of algorithmic curation
  29. An algorithm for driving newsletter traffic
  30. API-only businesses
  31. Adapters first, then protocols
  32. Merging The Sample with Findka Essays, sort of
  33. The Last Marketplace
  34. Filter bubbles vs. divisiveness
  35. Findka Essays status update
  36. We need user-centric data
  37. The Sample: solving discovery for newsletters
  38. Get more newsletter subscribers with Findka XP
  39. What I wish I could've done instead of college
  40. What I wish I could've done instead of college
  41. Fancy form posts in Biff
  42. Marketing Findka etc.
  43. An open-source discussion aggregator
  44. Move fast, but understand the problem first
  45. A job board for people who aren't looking for jobs
  46. Sane political discourse
  47. Use Findka via RSS
  48. A question for people who run newsletters
  49. My home-grown product analytics dashboard

2020 19

  1. Some personal news
  2. Processing RSS feeds with Repl.it
  3. How to get the most out of Findka
  4. Findka product roadmap
  5. A new take on RSS
  6. A new take on RSS
  7. New feature: recommendations on the website
  8. re:Clojure conference talk on Friday
  9. Four software ideals
  10. Findka survey results
  11. Algorithms don't cause filter bubbles, people do
  12. Big release for Biff
  13. How git could help save the open web
  14. Building an essay recommender system in 10 days
  15. Why I don't take notes
  16. Why I don't take notes
  17. A conversation about startups and web dev in Clojure
  18. Just launched Findka Essays
  19. How Git could help save the open web

Undated 81

  1. Join the beta for Findka Essays
  2. Join the beta for Findka Essays
  3. New essay: The trade-offs of being a startup founder
  4. The trade-offs of being a startup founder
  5. A macro I'm proud of
  6. Findka is now a (dank) social network
  7. Meetup on Monday: Intro to Biff
  8. About that Materialize integration...
  9. Materialize integration almost done (knock on wood)
  10. Findka + libpython-clj
  11. Serving Findka's recommendations via libpython-clj
  12. Plans for scaling Findka
  13. Spike in Findka usage; social networking soon
  14. Findka marketing, experimenting with Materialize.io, Biff launch prep
  15. Biff docs done; new Findka features
  16. Tic Tac Toe with Biff and next steps for Findka
  17. Findka: project management, new UI, on-demand recommendations
  18. Migrating to Biff
  19. Migrating to Biff, a self-hosted Firebase alternative for Clojure
  20. Yet another Component alternative
  21. What could you do with a general-purpose recommender system?
  22. Growth for Findka and simplified query subscriptions for Crux
  23. Sneak peek: Biff, a Clojurey alternative to Firebase
  24. A recommender system in 30 lines of Clojure
  25. Jacob O'Bryant's Newsletter
  26. How to edit S-expressions in Vim without plugins
  27. Just finished Mystery Cows, an app for learning ClojureScript
  28. Stubbing out ClojureScript + React
  29. A chatroom for Mystery Cows, thou pribbling clack-dish
  30. Just released: trident.firestore
  31. Clojure and Firestore and Cloud Functions, oh my
  32. Recommender system economics, reactive queries, and thoughts on Pioneer
  33. Firebase Authentication With Clojure
  34. jacobobryant.com update
  35. Landing Pages With Clojure and Firebase
  36. jacobobryant.com update
  37. The Solo Hacker's Guide To Clojure
  38. jacobobryant.com update
  39. Findka progress update
  40. jacobobryant.com update
  41. jacobobryant.com update
  42. Startup Validation for Hackers
  43. Lagukan progress update
  44. Findka architecture: Airtable and Fulcro
  45. Update
  46. Update on jacobobryant.com
  47. AWS Battles
  48. New post on jacobobryant.com
  49. What I've Learned Since Quitting My Job
  50. New post on jacobobryant.com
  51. New post on jacobobryant.com
  52. First Steps With Clojure
  53. The Rationality of Faith
  54. jacobobryant.com update
  55. Growing a Framework, or, Clojure Made Easy
  56. Building a CRUD app with Datomic Cloud Ions
  57. What I'm Doing With My Life
  58. Programmers and Musicians
  59. The Future of Work and Education
  60. Love, Ambition and Suffering
  61. Should you work hard?
  62. Grad school
  63. Production and Learning
  64. Understanding Clojure
  65. What is Computer Science All About?
  66. A Brief History of Agile
  67. Better Goals and Plans
  68. Structure vs. Flexibility
  69. How to Build the Next Tech Empire
  70. Living the Dream
  71. Relationships
  72. How to Improve CS Education at BYU
  73. Big Ideas (rough draft)
  74. Education
  75. I Heart Dropbox
  76. Review: The Wise Men
  77. Nearer, Dear Savior, To Thee
  78. Money Management
  79. Child Labor
  80. Clarinet Ergonomics
  81. Sucky Software