Cynthia Dunlop
@cynthiadunlop.bsky.social
ScyllaDB | P99 CONF | "Writing for Developers: Blogs That Get Read" book (https://github.com/scynthiadunlop/WritingForDevelopersBook)
Pinned
Cynthia Dunlop
@cynthiadunlop.bsky.social
· Dec 12
The book that @sarna.dev and I co-authored on writing engineering blog posts is now published. And it’s flanked by the best imaginable “bookends”: a foreword by @bcantrill.bsky.social and an afterword by @scott.hanselman.com! Details and Amazon/Manning links at bit.ly/3AVPWn9.
Reposted by Cynthia Dunlop
Amazing how fast AI generated text and artifacts went from novel, seems useful, to eye gougingly annoying, definitely you're just wasting my time
September 22, 2026 at 4:19 PM
Amazing how fast AI generated text and artifacts went from novel, seems useful, to eye gougingly annoying, definitely you're just wasting my time
Get the brutal blog post feedback that your colleagues are too busy (or too kind) to share writethatblog.substack.com/p/reviewing-...
Reviewing Your Blog Post with an LLM
A collection of prompts, from quick triage to rigorous reviews
writethatblog.substack.com
September 22, 2026 at 1:23 PM
Get the brutal blog post feedback that your colleagues are too busy (or too kind) to share writethatblog.substack.com/p/reviewing-...
A nice read on writing by Colin Breck blog.colinbreck.com/i-dont-want-...
September 21, 2026 at 8:36 PM
A nice read on writing by Colin Breck blog.colinbreck.com/i-dont-want-...
Such a good read -- 👏👏👏 @charity.wtf charity.wtf/p/confession...
Confessions of an Unrepentant Slop Snob
A framework for thinking about when AI involvement is additive or a violation
charity.wtf
September 14, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Such a good read -- 👏👏👏 @charity.wtf charity.wtf/p/confession...
And hello Japanese translation -- apparently in bookstores now!
September 11, 2026 at 12:54 PM
And hello Japanese translation -- apparently in bookstores now!
Reposted by Cynthia Dunlop
The revolt of the reader
bcantrill.dtrace.org/2026/09/05/t...
bcantrill.dtrace.org/2026/09/05/t...
The revolt of the reader | The Observation Deck
bcantrill.dtrace.org
September 5, 2026 at 9:10 PM
The revolt of the reader
bcantrill.dtrace.org/2026/09/05/t...
bcantrill.dtrace.org/2026/09/05/t...
Need some help getting past the blank page? I beg you, please try this instead of resorting to an LLM first draft. writethatblog.substack.com/p/rubber-duc...
Rubber Ducking Your Blog Post with an LLM
Not quite ready to write? Try talking through some details with your favorite LLM
writethatblog.substack.com
September 2, 2026 at 6:25 PM
Need some help getting past the blank page? I beg you, please try this instead of resorting to an LLM first draft. writethatblog.substack.com/p/rubber-duc...
Reposted by Cynthia Dunlop
Stoked to announce that @max.pangram.com, co-founder and CEO of @pangram.com, will be joining @ahl.bsky.social and me on the next episode of Oxide and Friends to pick up the hot (and important!) topic of AI detection. Join us, Monday, 5p Pacific!
discord.gg/QrcKGTTPrF?e...
discord.gg/QrcKGTTPrF?e...
Join the Oxide Computer Company & Friends Discord Server!
The Oxide Computer Company and friends; home of the Oxide and Friends podcast. | 5012 members
discord.gg
August 31, 2026 at 3:04 AM
Stoked to announce that @max.pangram.com, co-founder and CEO of @pangram.com, will be joining @ahl.bsky.social and me on the next episode of Oxide and Friends to pick up the hot (and important!) topic of AI detection. Join us, Monday, 5p Pacific!
discord.gg/QrcKGTTPrF?e...
discord.gg/QrcKGTTPrF?e...
Reposted by Cynthia Dunlop
My LLM cliché highlighter is up to 38 patterns now tools.simonwillison.net/llm-cliche-h...
![Screenshot of a writing-analysis tool showing paragraphs of text with phrases highlighted in two shades of yellow, brown circular "3" badges, and a black tooltip overlaying the first line reading: "No X, no Y" chains · 3 "no" items. The visible text reads: We r[obscured by tooltip]nd up. No sign-ups, no downloads, no hassle (3) — just paste your text and start writing. Everything runs locally in your browser. The reviewer read the draft twice. Did not flinch, did not blink, did not reach for the red pen (3). That's the whole review, honestly. Don't call it a rewrite — call it a rescue. The improvement is real, and it's not subtle. That loss is worth naming. Sit with that for a moment. The gains were modest, but that's not nothing. You already know the answer, of course. Consistency is the entire game, and the punchline is that nobody wants to hear it. The entire pitch is one sentence long.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kft6lu4trxowqmter2b6vg6z/bafkreieoph5j4vedatyill3ezdtxcq4bjlyvtrxnwvf6ngghts2tfrqvqa)
August 28, 2026 at 10:00 AM
My LLM cliché highlighter is up to 38 patterns now tools.simonwillison.net/llm-cliche-h...
Oh hi, Korean author copies 😻
August 26, 2026 at 1:31 PM
Oh hi, Korean author copies 😻
Reposted by Cynthia Dunlop
If you're passionate about open source and solving problems, we have a #P99CONF speaker for you! @reconditerose.bsky.social will be presenting at our free and virtual conference on October 21-22, so we sat down to learn a little more about her. p99conf.io/2026/08/19/s...
#ScyllaDB
#ScyllaDB
P99 CONF Speaker Spotlight: Madelyn Olson
Get to know Madelyn Olson, Principal Software Engineer at AWS — and Valkey co-creator/maintainer — in anticipation of her P99 CONF talk: “”The Vertical Scaling Wall, and How Valkey Gets Over It.”…
p99conf.io
August 20, 2026 at 7:19 PM
If you're passionate about open source and solving problems, we have a #P99CONF speaker for you! @reconditerose.bsky.social will be presenting at our free and virtual conference on October 21-22, so we sat down to learn a little more about her. p99conf.io/2026/08/19/s...
#ScyllaDB
#ScyllaDB
P99 CONF talk details are up on the site now 👀
August 18, 2026 at 7:03 PM
P99 CONF talk details are up on the site now 👀
Oh nice, @gruber.foo on @simonwillison.net on techncal blogging
August 10, 2026 at 6:16 PM
Oh nice, @gruber.foo on @simonwillison.net on techncal blogging
Waaaay back in January, @simonwillison.net was kind enough to share his thoughts on technical blogging with me. ICYMI... writethatblog.substack.com/p/simon-will...
Simon Willison on Technical Blogging
"It turns out having an established blog gives you a surprising amount of influence in a field"
writethatblog.substack.com
August 7, 2026 at 3:20 PM
Waaaay back in January, @simonwillison.net was kind enough to share his thoughts on technical blogging with me. ICYMI... writethatblog.substack.com/p/simon-will...
New batch of interesting engineering blog posts on writethat.blog, courtesy of
@sarna.dev
- Tailscale didn’t stop the Hugging Face intrusion //
@apenwarr.ca - @tailscale.com
- Watching Go’s new garbage collector move through the heap // @eatonphil.bsky.social - @theconsensus.dev
@sarna.dev
- Tailscale didn’t stop the Hugging Face intrusion //
@apenwarr.ca - @tailscale.com
- Watching Go’s new garbage collector move through the heap // @eatonphil.bsky.social - @theconsensus.dev
August 6, 2026 at 2:23 PM
New batch of interesting engineering blog posts on writethat.blog, courtesy of
@sarna.dev
- Tailscale didn’t stop the Hugging Face intrusion //
@apenwarr.ca - @tailscale.com
- Watching Go’s new garbage collector move through the heap // @eatonphil.bsky.social - @theconsensus.dev
@sarna.dev
- Tailscale didn’t stop the Hugging Face intrusion //
@apenwarr.ca - @tailscale.com
- Watching Go’s new garbage collector move through the heap // @eatonphil.bsky.social - @theconsensus.dev
Good read on writing in the NY Times today: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/o...
August 5, 2026 at 10:46 PM
Good read on writing in the NY Times today: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/o...
Reposted by Cynthia Dunlop
One of the easiest ways to stand out when writing or creating videos or posting:
DONT. USE. AI.
Suddenly you sound distinctively different from 80%+ ppl who do and output the same verbose + nicely formatted stuff that feels all the same (+ most ppl stop paying attention midway)
DONT. USE. AI.
Suddenly you sound distinctively different from 80%+ ppl who do and output the same verbose + nicely formatted stuff that feels all the same (+ most ppl stop paying attention midway)
August 2, 2026 at 7:41 PM
One of the easiest ways to stand out when writing or creating videos or posting:
DONT. USE. AI.
Suddenly you sound distinctively different from 80%+ ppl who do and output the same verbose + nicely formatted stuff that feels all the same (+ most ppl stop paying attention midway)
DONT. USE. AI.
Suddenly you sound distinctively different from 80%+ ppl who do and output the same verbose + nicely formatted stuff that feels all the same (+ most ppl stop paying attention midway)
Perhaps a fitting P99 CONF flashback for this week: a panel discussion with Jarred Sumner, Glauber Costa (Turso), and Carl Lerche (Tokio) www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf1b...
P99 CONF: Rust vs Zig for High-Performance Systems Programming
YouTube video by ScyllaDB
www.youtube.com
July 10, 2026 at 3:24 PM
Perhaps a fitting P99 CONF flashback for this week: a panel discussion with Jarred Sumner, Glauber Costa (Turso), and Carl Lerche (Tokio) www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf1b...
PSA: I just stumbled on this archive of historic US National Parks brochures. Lots of fun stuff there! ⛰️ npshistory.com
July 8, 2026 at 7:31 PM
PSA: I just stumbled on this archive of historic US National Parks brochures. Lots of fun stuff there! ⛰️ npshistory.com
A new batch of engineering blog post picks on writethat.blog - courtesy of @sarna.dev
- I ported K8s to the browser > @samwho.dev , @ngrok.com
- Performance has layers > Steve Karam, @oxide.computer
- Weekend trivia: your process’s memory is a file > @lcamtuf.coredump.cx
- I ported K8s to the browser > @samwho.dev , @ngrok.com
- Performance has layers > Steve Karam, @oxide.computer
- Weekend trivia: your process’s memory is a file > @lcamtuf.coredump.cx
July 7, 2026 at 1:07 PM
A new batch of engineering blog post picks on writethat.blog - courtesy of @sarna.dev
- I ported K8s to the browser > @samwho.dev , @ngrok.com
- Performance has layers > Steve Karam, @oxide.computer
- Weekend trivia: your process’s memory is a file > @lcamtuf.coredump.cx
- I ported K8s to the browser > @samwho.dev , @ngrok.com
- Performance has layers > Steve Karam, @oxide.computer
- Weekend trivia: your process’s memory is a file > @lcamtuf.coredump.cx
Reposted by Cynthia Dunlop
How Developers React to AI-Scented Blog Posts
writethatblog.substack.com/p/dev-reacti...
writethatblog.substack.com/p/dev-reacti...
Report: How Developers React to AI-Scented Blog Posts
98% of readers prefer imperfect-yet-authentic human writing; most will stop reading, block you, and downvote you if they suspect AI
writethatblog.substack.com
July 3, 2026 at 3:27 PM
How Developers React to AI-Scented Blog Posts
writethatblog.substack.com/p/dev-reacti...
writethatblog.substack.com/p/dev-reacti...
"Docs for Developers" meets "Writing for Developers"
June 25, 2026 at 9:10 PM
"Docs for Developers" meets "Writing for Developers"
(Some) writers appreciate LLM writing assistance but readers hate it. Survey says… writethatblog.substack.com/p/dev-reacti...
If readers suspect AI, they not only stop reading, but also downvote/avoid the author.
If readers suspect AI, they not only stop reading, but also downvote/avoid the author.
June 16, 2026 at 1:33 PM
(Some) writers appreciate LLM writing assistance but readers hate it. Survey says… writethatblog.substack.com/p/dev-reacti...
If readers suspect AI, they not only stop reading, but also downvote/avoid the author.
If readers suspect AI, they not only stop reading, but also downvote/avoid the author.
A refreshing look at how you can use LLMs as a writing tool without "sounding like AI" -- and also learn nitpicky English grammar nuances in the process. @vincent.bernat.ch, I think your original voice (first draft) is totally clear though!
Blogging with an LLM assistant: vincent.bernat.ch/en/blog/2026... (grammar, copyediting, translation). This specific post is *not* modified by an LLM.
Blogging with an LLM assistant
As a non-native English writer, I rely on LLMs for grammar, copyediting, and translation, despite hating AI slop.
vincent.bernat.ch
June 15, 2026 at 11:53 PM
A refreshing look at how you can use LLMs as a writing tool without "sounding like AI" -- and also learn nitpicky English grammar nuances in the process. @vincent.bernat.ch, I think your original voice (first draft) is totally clear though!
It seems LLMs are helping many previous non-writers share... something...which I like. But it's just sooo painful to read. writethatblog.substack.com/p/report-llm...
June 10, 2026 at 1:22 PM
It seems LLMs are helping many previous non-writers share... something...which I like. But it's just sooo painful to read. writethatblog.substack.com/p/report-llm...