Posts tagged: ai

Brilliantly said. Vibe coding is legacy code. It’s code that we forget exists. Code that no one touches, you replace it. If you touch it you are more likely to break it.

The worst possible situation is to have a non-programmer vibe code a large project that they intend to maintain. This would be the equivalent of giving a credit card to a child without first explaining the concept of debt.

As you can imagine, the first phase is ecstatic. I can wave this little piece of plastic in stores and take whatever I want! …

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# The Death of the User Interface > **TL;DR:** We're witnessing the end of graphical user interfaces. AI agents like Claude Code are eliminating the need for windows, menus, and clicks, replacing them with natural language. The computer is finally learning to speak human, not the other way around. --- ## 🔮 A Personal Revelation Last week, I realized something profound: **I haven't opened Finder in months.** Not once. Where I once clicked through nested folders, dragged and dropped files, and navigated hierarchical menus, I now simply tell Claude Code exactly what I need: - _"Find all the test files modified in the last week"_ - _"Move the old backups to archive"_ The commands execute instantly, precisely, without me ever seeing a window, icon, or folder. > This isn't just about convenience. It's a fundamental shift in how humans interact with computers, and it signals the beginning of the end for user interfaces as we know them. --- ## 🚴 → 🚀 The Bicycle That Became a Teleporter In 1990, Steve Jobs famously described computers as "bicycles for the mind," drawing from a Scientific American study showing that humans on bicycles were the most efficient locomotors on Earth. The metaphor was perfect for its time: computers amplified human cognitive abilities just as bicycles amplified our physical capabilities. But bicycles still require you to: - **Pedal** the mechanism - **Steer** the direction - **Navigate** the terrain - **Learn** the balance Traditional user interfaces work the same way. They're tools that amplify our abilities, but only after we learn their language, their layouts, their logic. > **What we have now with AI agents isn't a bicycle anymore. It's a teleporter.** You simply state your destination, and you arrive. --- ## 📜 From Xerox PARC to Natural Language: A 50-Year Arc ### The Timeline of Interface Evolution **1964** → Douglas Engelbart invents the computer mouse at Stanford Research Institute **1973** → Xerox PARC develops the Alto, the first computer with a GUI **1979** → Steve Jobs sees the Alto, immediately grasps its revolutionary potential **1984** → Macintosh launches, bringing GUI to the masses **2024** → AI agents begin replacing graphical interfaces entirely That language dominated for five decades. Windows, Mac OS, and even modern web applications all speak variations of it: _point, click, drag, drop, menu, submenu, dialog box, button._ We became so fluent in this language that we forgot it was a language at all. ### The Abstraction Layer Pattern Every abstraction layer in computing eventually gets replaced by a higher-level one: | **Era** | **From** | **To** | | ------- | ------------------- | ---------------------------------- | | 1950s | Machine code | → Assembly language | | 1960s | Assembly | → High-level programming languages | | 1980s | Command line | → Graphical user interfaces | | 2000s | Native apps | → Web applications | | 2020s | **User interfaces** | **→ Conversational AI agents** | > Each transition follows the same pattern: what once required specialized knowledge becomes accessible through more natural, intuitive interaction. --- ## 👻 The Invisible Operating System Traditional operating systems: Windows, macOS, Linux, are abstractions over hardware. Web applications are abstractions over REST APIs. Both require user interfaces because they need to translate between human intent and machine execution. **AI agents represent something fundamentally different:** they're abstractions that understand human intent directly. No translation required. ### Consider the Mental Journey of a Simple Task 🖱️ Traditional UI Approach 1. Open Finder/Explorer _(remember where it is)_ 2. Navigate to directory _(remember the path)_ 3. Scan through files _(parse visual information)_ 4. Select multiple files _(remember shortcuts)_ 5. Right-click for menu _(know this exists)_ 6. Choose "Move to..." _(understand terminology)_ 7. Navigate to destination _(remember another path)_ 8. Confirm operation _(hope you got it right)_ 🗣️ AI Agent Approach 1. "Move all PDF files from Downloads to Documents/Reports" **Done.** > The difference isn't just efficiency, it's cognitive load. With traditional interfaces, you're translating your intent into the computer's language. With AI agents, the computer learns your language instead. --- ## 🧠 The Mental Load Revolution Every interface element, every button, menu, icon, and widget, is a **tiny cognitive tax**. Even the most intuitive interface requires you to: - ✓ Understand its visual language - ✓ Remember its organizational structure - ✓ Learn its interaction patterns - ✓ Maintain mental models of its state This is what UX designers call **"extraneous cognitive load"**. Mental effort spent on using the tool rather than accomplishing the task. > When you tell Claude Code to "set up a new Python project with pytest and black pre-configured," you're expressing pure intent. The mental energy you would have spent on navigation can be redirected to actual problem-solving. --- ## ⚡ The Present: Early Adopters and Edge Cases We're living through the transition right now. ### What's Happening in 2024 - **AIOS** → Embedding LLMs directly into operating systems - **Claude Code** → Replacing entire categories of developer tools - **Cursor & Copilot** → Making IDEs conversational - **Warp Agent Mode** → LLMs in the terminal for multi-step workflows ### What I No Longer Do I see it in my own work every day. I no longer: ❌ Browse through file explorers ❌ Click through git GUIs ❌ Navigate package manager interfaces ❌ Hunt through documentation sites ❌ Configure tools through preference panes Instead, I describe what I want, and it happens. **The interface hasn't been simplified, it's been eliminated.** --- ## 🍎 The Future Steve Jobs Glimpsed > "Ultimately computers are going to be a tool for communication. Not computation, not productivity. Communication." > > — Steve Jobs, 1983 International Design Conference At that conference in Aspen, a 28-year-old Jobs made predictions that seemed like science fiction: - Portable computers with wireless connections - Instant access to remote databases - Devices as primary means of communication He was right about all of it, but even his vision was constrained by the paradigm of his time. He imagined better interfaces, more intuitive interactions, simpler designs. **He couldn't imagine no interface at all.** Yet in that quote above, Jobs understood something fundamental: the real revolution would come when computers could understand us as naturally as we understand each other. > That future is arriving. The question isn't whether AI will replace user interfaces, but how quickly and how completely. --- ## 🔄 The Last Interface There's an irony in writing about the death of user interfaces, or rather, there **was**. This article itself is proof of the transition: generated through conversation with Claude Code, shaped by human intent rather than human interface manipulation. I provided the ideas and direction; the AI handled the execution. **The future isn't coming, it's already here, manifesting through the very words you're reading.** Soon, articles like this won't be "written" in the traditional sense. They'll be conversed into existence, with AI agents handling not just the typing but the research, fact-checking, formatting, and publishing. The tool will disappear into the task. ### The Holdouts and the Inevitable Some will mourn this loss. There's something satisfying about direct manipulation, about seeing and controlling every step. Just as some still prefer command lines to GUIs, some will always prefer clicking to conversing. But for most of us, the appeal of **zero cognitive load** will be irresistible. > Why learn an interface when you can just say what you want? > Why navigate when you can simply arrive? --- ## 🎯 Conclusion: After the Interface We stand at an inflection point. For fifty years, ever since Xerox PARC invented the GUI, we've been refining the same basic paradigm: **humans learning to speak computer**. Now, **computers are learning to speak human**. The death of the user interface doesn't mean the death of design or user experience. If anything, it makes them more important. When the interface disappears, what remains is pure interaction design: understanding human intent, anticipating needs, handling edge cases gracefully. The challenge shifts from: - ❌ _"How do we make this button more obvious?"_ - ✅ **"How do we understand what the user really wants?"** > Steve Jobs gave us bicycles for the mind. > AI agents are giving us something else entirely: **minds that understand our minds.** > No pedaling required. **The user interface is dying, and that's the most user-friendly thing that could possibly happen.** --- _What do you think? Are we witnessing the end of user interfaces, or just another evolution? How has AI changed your own relationship with traditional software interfaces?_

This is an insane level of agentic llm use, the author claims to not even use his filesystem anymore, its too cumbersome to find where downloads and documents are and way too easy to ask an agent to move all pdf’s from downloads to documents.

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Damn this VAnessa is hitting my feed with hard topics, I’m not sure whether to subscribe or to block. These top websites only feel worse every day, when I post on twitter and I get 4 likes by accounts that were created 5 minutes ago with racy profile pics it feels obvious. I wonder how larger accounts deal with it. Now that llms have made making these bots mimic humans easy It really makes you want out. I’ve really become a curmudgeon and leaning on rss over the past year, I dont like it, but idk what to do.

This is a crazy theory I did not realize was out there, but damn power just keeps costing more and more. She does not mention it here, but there are many sources of power for the grid that cost vastly different amounts to produce, generally “clean energy” solutions are harder and more expensive to bring online and don’t just turn on and off at the flick of a switch. Anyways, how are the power companies divying this power out to users, do some get preferred rates or supply? My rates just went up for the summer period “temporarily”. Our infrastructure is aging hard to upgrade and needs something done to it. Who’s really going to pay for it, these AI companies are throwing big numbers but do they have any real money? Do they have any real revenue after building out massive data centers filling them with the most expensive hardware? These guys are burning cash like crazy.

Justin has such great feeds on his site, I love how the main feeds are so prominant just to the left of the article you are reading. slops in particular feels like a great category. Saving this chat for later, or found it particularly interesting, but don’t really want to make a post about it.

Fantastic write up on their experience in ai, opinions on ai being a hoax with a veil of reasonable usefulness. Arguing that most people do not understand enough to see the difference, and thought leaders see where it is now, see where it was yesterday, it must be going to general intelligence tomorrow and you all will loose your jobs without this. I appreciate the satirical language here.

Woof, ai is sucking the soul from everything, being forced onto teachers who don’t want or care about it and are simply sharing ai-slop to their kids without giving it much thought. remember that it is rude to share ai-slop with others that you have not vetted, It’s next level to turn this into teaching material for children who are forced into your classroom and have no choice about the matter, you should be ashamed.

Steve is such a great listen, the neurospicy 🌶️ rambles this episode goes on is so relatable. I feel like I really missed out on some great takes on intellij vs neovim, but got some really great knowledge about vector db’s, embedding, text compression, similarities to vector algegra like infinite craft.

Just popped open infinitecraft and I’ve definitely played this with my kids before, super fun, just could not remember the name of this one. I do remember an android one as well that is alchemist or something like that, which we have also played a lot.

Interesting how confidently he says we can easily go to the top. really makes you wonder what we the normies are leaving on the table by using these general purpose models and what could be achieved with really tuned in models. Could I make an automatic blog tagger more accurately, maybe smaller, maybe tuned so well it runs fine on cpu?

the racked up 4 framework mainboards sound wild. connected with usb4 and 5gig ethernet. they said they can run big models quantized down from 600Gb to within the 512GB limit they have. This seems wild to bring this level of capability to such a low price point. It will be really cool to start to see demos come out.

Damn prime makes an interesting point near then end of this video. He’s seen a bunch of people able to just throw down charts and shit at their company and end up being “the coding guy” cause they proompted something once. In a way I can relate, I got into software in a similar way, but at a time that it took a lot more hard work, understanding , and copy past from the right stack overflow. Based on some of the people around me at the time I can only imagine how some people must feel like they got pushed into it without wanting it, and now are building something they don’t know anything about with no care about it or care to build any expertise. Is the future proompted charts from enterprise chatgpt or do we only continue growing more need for software from here.

Don’t stop learning! Stop trying because you have a doomer outlook on ai, llms, industry and think they are taking over. If you have no hope for the future, if you stop now you are cementing in that you will be no good and the ai will be better. Many, maybe most of us in this industry go here by hard work, long nights of learning, trying to solve problems that our job had. If llms take over then the world is going to be a whole lot different, it will be a world you cannot predict or plan for. For now put your head down and succeed in the world we have today.

TEEJ has some great thoughts on this whole sentiment, put this on for you morning walk or whatever you do.

interesting UI for RAG based workflows, i.e. chatting with your documents. It looks like it can run a number of models, feels like ollama with RAG and a nice web ui.

Looks like a great start to a rules file for fastapi.

I have never heard anyone say this. It feels weird to me. The other early return, find and handle errors early all make sense to me, but happy path last is new to me.

Really interesting way to generate a rules file for agentic workflows based on your current repo. John uses gitingest here, looks like a fantastic tool, but probably not useful for most private repos. I’m sure you can replicate the same thing in a private repo wtih a small amount of effort the few times you need to do it. gitingest looks like a great way to pull in some extra context for some open source dependencies that you have though.

Gitingest has a python package on pypi that you can run with uvx, and it accepts the same arguments as the web version, right in your terminal

Replace hub with ingest in any github and get a prompt friendly codebase ready to feed into any llm. It combines the entire codebase, based on a gitignore style glob that you pass in, into a single TXT file.

Holy shit these AGI models are incredibly expensive to run, require lots of wild hardware that there is not enough to go around, and requires shit tons of power to run.

Now more than ever is time to distinguish yourself with deep expertise, jack of all trades is being eaten by ai. People with deep expertise are getting a jack of all trades bump from ai, not o3, just the regular stuff.

This was an eye opening video into agentic editing workflows.

Dfferent ai tools use different rules files, windsurf uses .windsurfrules.

Test out your rules file by having it say something at the beginning of the output to verify that the rules are being applied correctly.

He suggests to use this key rule for debugging purposes, otherwise you are guessing to what rules if any it is following.