Cover image for The Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect

The Gell-Mann amnesia effect and Tech today

The Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect It describes how someone reads an article in their area of expertise, finds it full of errors and oversimplifications, but then turns the page and takes the next article, on a subject they know nothing about, at face value. I only learned this term recently, although I’ve always kinda knew and understood the concept. And with all the content LinkedIn and YouTube have been force feeding me, I’ve been thinking about how this idea extends beyond just “reading the news” to our skills and expertise. ...

July 11, 2025 · 3 min · 512 words
Cover image for The Quest for the Holy Coding Grail

The Quest for the Holy Coding Grail (are LLMs the first step in replacing programming languages?)

Introduction So very many years back when I was but a fledgling coder, armed with BASIC skills and deep into a Turbo Pascal with Objects book, I remember a conversation with my dad. Frustrated by the level of specificity needed to communicate with a machine, I asked, “Why has no-one made a programming language where I can just tell it ‘build this game for me’?” My dad, in his infinite wisdom, mused that cracking that puzzle – creating a natural language programming language – was a feat yet to be achieved. “Whoever manages to do that,” he predicted, “will make a fortune.” ...

June 2, 2023 · 7 min · 1363 words
Cover image for Why AI, No Code & Low Code WON'T Replace Junior and Mid-Level Devs

Why AI, No Code & Low Code WON'T Replace Junior and Mid-Level Devs (Yet)

I originally started writing this post at the end of 2022 but never finished it. Originally titled “Why LowCode/NoCode both excites and terrifies me!”, with the buzz around ChatGPT over the last months, I decided to 1) finish the post, and 2) update it to include AI tools like CoPilot and ChatGPT. So here, finally, is the update. Also a little different to my usual style. I didn’t like it. ...

March 17, 2023 · 6 min · 1113 words