0:00

what up nerds I'm

0:02

Jared and this is

0:04

change log news for

0:07

the week of Monday

0:09

March 10th 2025 vibe

0:11

coding is the valley's

0:13

buzz word du jour

0:15

for the uninitiated it's

0:17

like pair programming with

0:19

an AI Where it

0:21

writes all the code

0:23

and your only job

0:25

is to make sure

0:27

it doesn't harsh your

0:29

vibe, dude. Then, when

0:31

it's finished, you post

0:33

a demo to social

0:35

media, declare software engineering dead,

0:37

throw the barely usable final

0:40

product away, and code up

0:42

some more vibes. Okay, let's

0:44

get in to this week's

0:46

news. Everyone is talking about

0:49

MCP. Okay, probably not everyone

0:51

is talking about MCP. but

0:53

it's certainly a burgeoning topic

0:55

amongst the AI engineering crowd.

0:58

So I figured it's at

1:00

least worth a primer here.

1:02

MCP stands for model context

1:04

protocol which was first announced

1:06

by the anthropic team last

1:09

November. It's an open protocol

1:11

to standardize how applications provide

1:13

context to LLLM's. Quote, think

1:15

of MCP like a USBC

1:18

port for AI apps. Just

1:20

as USBC provides a standardized

1:22

way to connect your devices

1:24

to various peripherals and accessories,

1:27

MCP provides a standardized way to

1:29

connect AI models to different data

1:31

sources and tools. End quote. The

1:34

linked X thread lists out a

1:36

bunch of things people are building

1:38

and announcing around MCP. Most of

1:41

which look like demo quality wears,

1:43

but there's certainly some potential here.

1:45

If we're going to have an

1:47

agentic future. We need good ways

1:49

to equip AI agents with the

1:51

context they need to accomplish their

1:53

tasks. MCP might become the way

1:56

we achieve that, or perhaps just

1:58

a step along the way. Stop. algorithms

2:00

dictate how you think. Here's

2:02

Tom Usher. Quote, the creators

2:04

of TikTok, Instagram, etc. have

2:07

gained control over exactly what

2:09

we see. And what we

2:11

see strongly influences how we

2:13

think. They know their feeds

2:15

make us angry. They know the

2:17

negative effects on our mental health,

2:19

particularly that of teens. And they

2:22

know that they have an influence on

2:24

our opinion. With the power to shape,

2:26

what we see comes the power to

2:28

shape what we believe. Whether through

2:30

deliberate manipulation or the slow

2:32

creep of algorithmic recommendations, engagement

2:35

is fueled by outrage and

2:37

outrage breeds extremism. The result

2:39

is a feedback loop that

2:42

isolates users, reinforces beliefs, and

2:44

deprioritizes opposing viewpoint. End quote.

2:47

Being able to form our own opinions

2:49

is more important than ever. Do you

2:51

want to take back control of how

2:53

you think? At the end of

2:55

this post, Tom gives you five

2:57

things you can do. without going

2:59

cold turkey off social media all

3:01

together. Troubleshooting never goes obsolete. In

3:03

an industry where it's too easy

3:06

to invest time in skills that

3:08

don't last, I love when people

3:10

share their expertise on things that

3:12

have stood the test of time.

3:14

Here's curiosity doing just that. Quote,

3:16

realizing that I spend more time troubleshooting

3:18

than I do building or doing

3:20

and that the skill of troubleshooting

3:22

can be honed separately from the

3:25

domain it's applied to. I decided

3:27

to try to figure out how

3:29

to improve my troubleshooting skills, and

3:31

as a result, my effectiveness in

3:33

multiple domains. The way I do

3:35

it, troubleshooting mostly boils down to

3:37

scratching my head, googling the error

3:40

message, and thinking up and testing

3:42

hypotheses to narrow the search space.

3:44

But I frequently catch myself making

3:46

errors I have made before, so

3:48

here's what I try to remember when

3:50

I'm troubleshooting to keep myself on track

3:53

and avoid dead ends. That last

3:55

paragraph is an extreme simplification.

3:57

This essay is brimming with

3:59

specific. High quality advice. Check it

4:01

out, link in the newsletter.

4:03

It's now time for sponsored news.

4:05

New temporal capabilities from Replay

4:08

2025. The biggest event of the

4:10

year for Temporal just wrapped

4:12

up. Replay 2025 in London is

4:14

where teams learn about evolving

4:16

legacy systems, modernizing infrastructure, and building

4:18

scalable, durable software to power

4:20

today's top businesses. Here is what

4:22

they announced. Temporal is open

4:25

source, so you can easily self

4:27

host it. But many teams

4:29

are operating at scale and they

4:31

rely on Temporal Cloud to

4:33

give them an easier, faster, more

4:35

scalable way to run Temporal.

4:37

You can now automate migrations with

4:39

zero downtime. The new tooling

4:42

is in pre -release and they're

4:44

seeking early users. High availability can

4:46

now offer another nine to

4:48

multiple region replication and same region

4:50

replication allowing you to asynchronously

4:52

replicate your workflows to a namespace

4:54

in a secondary or same

4:56

region and will automatically fail over

4:59

if necessary to keep your

5:01

apps online with a 99 .99

5:03

SLA. They also released new and

5:05

updated capabilities to improve your

5:07

DX with Temporal. Temporal Ruby SDK

5:09

is now available in pre -release

5:11

and is that full feature

5:13

parity with the other Temporal SDKs.

5:16

You can now use Ruby

5:18

to write workflows and activities. And

5:20

Temporal Nexus is now generally

5:22

available. Nexus lets you connect Temporal

5:24

applications across and within isolated

5:26

namespaces. Check the link in the

5:28

newsletter for all the announcements

5:30

and thank you to Temporal for

5:33

sponsoring Change Log News. Write

5:35

blogs so LLMs have something

5:37

to read. Why create content in

5:39

the age of AI slop?

5:41

Nikola Duzza has a dystopian answer

5:44

to that question. Quote, LLMs

5:46

are getting better and better but

5:48

they all need some kind

5:50

of input to be trained on.

5:52

And that's where we, content

5:54

creators, come in. The world needs

5:56

human touch for now. The

5:58

AI needs some human touch. The

6:00

LLMs. LMs need to be trained on the good stuff.

6:02

That's why we need to keep

6:04

writing, recording, and creating." This is giving

6:06

me strong matrix vibes. Spoiler alert.

6:09

You know the matrix where the

6:11

machines only reason to keep us

6:13

alive is to harvest us for

6:15

energy. So they create a digital

6:17

world to keep our minds busy

6:19

while they feed on our bodies.

6:21

But maybe I'm the only one

6:23

getting matrix vibes. I do agree

6:25

with Nicola on this point. In

6:27

the sea of generated content, the

6:29

custom, handmade, locally produced content will

6:32

always stand out. It's the human touch

6:34

that will make the difference. Furthermore,

6:36

blogs and writing will highly unlikely

6:38

die. To write is a way

6:40

of getting your thoughts calm, organized

6:42

and composed. Certain humans will always

6:44

need to write, no matter how

6:46

easy it is to generate content

6:48

with AI. In that sense, blogs

6:50

with human touch will always have

6:52

a place. End quote. Always is

6:54

a strong word, but I do

6:56

believe there will be a market

6:58

for human crafted content for the

7:00

foreseeable future, just like there's still

7:02

a market for handcrafted goods hundreds

7:04

of years after the Industrial Revolution.

7:06

Should managers still code? James Staneer

7:08

takes a crack at this age-old

7:10

question. Quote, the short answer is

7:12

that it depends exactly on what

7:14

you mean by coding. I think

7:16

that there is a big difference

7:19

between being in the code and

7:21

writing code. All managers should be

7:23

in the code, but not all managers

7:25

should be writing code." James spends some

7:27

time digging into the nuances of

7:29

the question and how exactly he

7:31

wants his engineering managers to be

7:33

in terms of their relationship with

7:36

the code base. Should they be

7:38

able to write code? Should they be

7:40

able to do code reviews? Should they

7:42

be able to debug and triage

7:44

production issues? Stuff like that. It's

7:46

a good one. Check it out

7:48

in the newsletter. That's the news

7:51

for now, but also scan that

7:53

companion newsletter for even more links

7:55

worth clicking on, such as building

7:57

websites with lots of little HDML

7:59

pages. It is as if

8:01

you were on your phone.

8:04

Her crypt, ferociously secure, positively

8:06

adorable. And, keep your calendar

8:08

in a plain text file.

8:10

Sign up today for $0

8:13

at change law.com/news. This is

8:15

episode number 135, so that

8:17

means it's time, once again,

8:20

for some change log, plus

8:22

plus shout-outs. Shout out to

8:24

our newest members. Yaraslaw, FELIXIX.

8:26

Felix, KED. Alex, G, Matt,

8:29

T, and Scott, S. We appreciate

8:31

you for supporting our work with

8:33

your hard-earned cash. If Change Log

8:35

Plus Plus Plus is news to

8:38

you, that's our membership program. You

8:40

can join to dish the ads.

8:42

Get in on bonus content. Receive

8:44

a free sticker pack in the

8:46

mail. And get shout-outs, like the

8:48

ones you just heard. Change Log

8:50

Plus Plus Plus! It's better. Have

8:52

a great week. Leave us a

8:55

five-star review, if you dig the

8:57

show. And I'll talk to you

8:59

again. real soon.