Avoid “Never Do X”—Use Positive Constraints for AI
Interesting paper on why AI ignores “never do X” type instructions, and what to use instead. https://t.co/yh7O6Yx8Qy
We Can't Predict AI Agent Behavior, Even Experts Admit
Everyone confidently explaining what agents “want,” “prefer,” or how they’ll behave is mostly making it up. The reality is that no one really knows. Including the people training the models and building the agents. If model behavior was predictable, the whole “don’t...
Grant Is the Proper Term for Permission on Entities
Randomly remembered the time when Grant Henke worked on AuthZ for Apache Kafka and tried to come up with a term for "giving a user permission to perform action on an entity". Grant, it is called "grant". As in: "GRANT...
Scary Tasks Are Signals You Must Act Now
The biggest lesson that I have to keep reminding myself: If there's something you know you should do, but it scares you, it means you REALLY HAVE TO DO IT ASAP. True for everything from hitting "publish", checking the bank balance, scheduling...
Metadata Is the Database; Data only Works Through It
Metadata is the database. Data is just the thing metadata lets you find, interpret, route, lock, replicate, and recover.
Codex's Context Window Shrinks, Only Checks First Task
Is it just me, or did Codex... - Did the context window get smaller this week? Anyone else getting lot more compactions? - Consistently makes a list of tasks, then checks only the first one, despite implementing all tasks? I never ...
Simple Fixes Like Quantization Beat Proprietary Hype
Once again I learn that: - Everyone is aware of pgvector limitations (filters, perf when doesn't fit in memory) - Vendors use this to advocate for proprietary alternatives - Almost no one talks about the simple solutions: Quantization / halfvec, partitions, partial indexes.
Postgres for Production AI Agents – Talk at 1 Pm
My @postgresconf talk on “Postgres for Production AI Agents” is at 1pm in San Pedro room (level C). Hope to see you there :)
Stress Relief: Listen to Soothing Cat Purrs
Having a stressful day? Perhaps you are in want of some purrs. (turn on sound for quality purring from an authentic American Shorthair). https://t.co/JHOyLkgLZJ
Agents Don’t Need Instant Spin‑up; Seconds Don’t Matter
I keep hearing "agents can't wait". Sandboxes and DBs must spin up as fast as possible. But I don't understand why. Agents typically work in the background. Few extra seconds won't matter. And I see Codex use Docker, waiting for...
Founding Nile, Life Lessons, and Postgres Conference Essentials
Had such a great time chatting with Claire on TalkingPostgres. We covered everything from my motivation for founding Nile, life lessons learned during different states in my career and the most important things in a Postgres conference.
CEOs Must Use Their Own Products to Spot Friction
Azure aside, every CEO should use his own products occasionally. You can endlessly debate product priorities, dollars and roadmap. But *feeling* how the product is full of friction brings instant clarity.
Skill‑training Games Market Is Crowded, More than You Think
I wanted to tell someone about @trywilco, but I forgot the name. So I searched for “Israeli company building skills training as games”. I got 8 different companies in just the first few results. Man, I had no idea how many companies...
Even with AI, Podcasts Retain Unique Value
Pretty amazing. In a world that I can ask AI to tell me about anything and do any research, podcasts still hold so much value.
Postgres Powers Full AI Agents without Extra ETL
Postgres has everything you need to build production AI agents, but most teams are only using a fraction of its capabilities. At @PostgresConf in San Jose on April 22, I'm walking through building an issue triage agent on Postgres, from...