Evan Arnold

Evan Arnold

@evdevdev.bsky.social

Hacking on something new, liking using Rails. Formerly founder at LayerUp (rip), co-founder at Yard Stick PBC (thriving), CTO/Head of Product at Snapdocs (unicorn). Shitposting about Chicago with love.

116 followers353 following45 posts

Evan Arnold reposted

Replying to @stevevance.net

This coach house was built in 2023 by the couple who own the property to have a place for their mother in law to live in and help take care of their newborn child. The “granny flat” is real.

Of course, this isn't the main plot, but I find it fascinating how the `stonks` guy has been sitting on the meme bench for this round of stock drama. Does he have a new hobby? Is he contemplating the terribly short half life of memes? I wish I knew!

I just setup Quickbooks for my freelancing business, and I am shocked at my own feelings about it. My intuition keeps repeating, "This is pre-AI software." Very quickly, stuff like this is going to feel as dated as a DOS terminal.

Like, I just kept dropping screenshots of Quickbooks into Claude and asking, "Okay, which category should I use?" Essentially, I had Claude balance my books. This should be a native function.

Just spent a delightful few minutes reading all the little labels on this map.

Robert Loerzel@robertloerzel.bsky.social

Governor JB Pritzker jokingly (?) declared that Lake Michigan is being renamed Lake Illinois. The Newberry Library has a French map from 1718 that calls it “Lac des Illinois.”

This is great to read/watch and all, but it does leave me with one huge question: When did Ezra Klein start to dress like a magician? Specifically, the sort of late 90s magician who you'd find in a bar doing cigarette tricks?

Kara Swisher@karaswisher.bsky.social

This by Ezra Klein is really spot on: “You never want a power grab to look like a power grab.” It looks like a power grab. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/o...

😍😍😍 "....this method of soliciting neighborhood input has failed to accurately represent the attitudes of the full community, especially among the demographic who’s going to be impacted by these decisions for the longest amount of time.” blockclubchicago.org/2025/01/17/s...

blockclubchicago.orgSterling Bay's Marcey Street Project Likely Heading To Full Council For Vote — Without Alderman's SupportSterling Bay’s 600-unit project could advance under the city’s Connected Communities Ordinance, bypassing aldermanic prerogative.

The Chicago public school calendar is straight up ridiculous. It’s like they asked a fifth grader who hates geography to decide on the frequency and duration of their holidays

For people consuming OpenAI on a #rails app, are you using any wrapper gem? Or just composing with HTTParty? Keep wanting to use the former, but then discover the later is just way way more ergonomic.

Spent a good hour today pouring over the AT Protocol white paper, and for the first time, I'm really pumped about something decentralized. (Somehow just never clicked before.)

So far, I'm loving the ergonomics of Rails 8 + Sqlite in production. I have a vague anxiety that I'll only learn about its shortfalls in a moment of crisis, but maybe that's always the case?

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