development – Made by Mikal

Talking to people about AI is hard

Post author:mikal
Post published:January 5, 2026
Post category:Machine learning

I am not entirely sure what makes the AI debate so polarizing, although I suspect it has something to do with feeling threatened by a changing landscape. What I can say with certainty is that I find having a nuanced conversation about AI with people often difficult. It seems to me that people fall into two polar opposite camps — those who thing AI is completely great and that we should fire all the programmers and creatives; and those who think that AI is all bad and we should go backwards in time to a place before it existed.

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Getting started with OpenStack development

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 17, 2013
Post category:OpenStack

I just gave my presentation at the Havana Conference about how to get started with OpenStack development. A few people asked for my slide deck, so I am posting it here. The talk was taped, and I am sure some more formal release will happen in the future, but I wanted to get this out there for the people who had asked for it.

Hackathons again

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 25, 2005
Post category:Link

How about a 48 hour hacking session in a house? It forces you to turn of that part of your brain associated with fear of failure, and therefore makes you more creative. Again, this sounds like a cool idea to me. Previous linkage. [icbm: work]

Hackathons

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 23, 2005
Post category:Link

Let your development team spend a day hacking on a feature they care about. Sounds like a great idea to me. I look around at a lot of the developers I know and they're running at 50% efficiency because they feel bored doing what the managers say they should the whole time, and the product suffers as a result. Is your company having trouble with staff churn? It's probably because you don't let your employees become passionate any more. [icbm: home]