I am a huge fan of Richard Feyman’s famous quote:
“What I cannot create, I do not understand”
I think it’s brilliant, and it remains true across many fields (if you’re willing to be a little creative with the definition of ‘create’). It is to this principle that I believe I owe everything I’m truly good at. Some will tell you should avoid reinventing the wheel, but they’re wrong: you should build your own wheel, because it’ll teach you more about how they work than reading a thousand books on them ever will.
— Joshua Barretto, Writing Toy Software is a Joy
Recent articles
- My Lethal Trifecta talk at the Bay Area AI Security Meetup - 9th August 2025
- The surprise deprecation of GPT-4o for ChatGPT consumers - 8th August 2025
- GPT-5: Key characteristics, pricing and model card - 7th August 2025