Biology also has pace layers.
Biology also has pace layers. All animal cells are remarkably similar. But at the macro scale the animals that are made up of cells are wildly diverse. A boring lower level give...
Topic: pace layer
49 chunks · 39 episodes
Topic summary
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A short read on the topic's time range, peak episode, and strongest associations. Use it as the quick orientation before drilling into examples.
- pace layer appears in 49 chunks across 39 episodes, from 2023-10-09 to 2026-03-30.
- Its densest episode is Bits and Bobs 3/9/26 (2026-03-09), with 3 observations on this topic.
- Semantically it travels with lower pace, llms, and critical mass, while by chunk count it sits between infinitely patient and vast majority; its yearly rank moved from #13 in 2023 to #23 in 2026.
Over time
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Observations
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The primary evidence view for this topic. Sort it chronologically when you want concrete examples behind the larger pattern.
A fast pace layer can be sublimated into a lower pace layer once the best practices are conclusively discovered.
A fast pace layer can be sublimated into a lower pace layer once the best practices are conclusively discovered. At that point, no one bothers trying much different at...
Maybe we'll see a new explosion of innovation at a higher pace layer because of the great LLM freeze.
Maybe we'll see a new explosion of innovation at a higher pace layer because of the great LLM freeze. The "Javascript Industrial Complex" has led to an extraordinary amount of "innovation" in the client layers for the ...
Two pace layers intermixed will be chaotic and slow.
Two pace layers intermixed will be chaotic and slow. If you have two pace layers intermixed, they fight each other in an eddy current and neither can run at their f...
LLMs have a codex of lots of examples of React apps embedded within them.
...orce-fed AI-generated and auto-ground-truthed examples. This codex is at a slow pace layer; it takes months for the LLMs to be trained and then deployed. It's also indirect. In a world of infinite software you'll want a tiered system, with ...
The capabilities of models keep improving, which is disorienting for people creating apps on top.
...current app to the current model. We're used to the lower layers being a slower pace layer. But now they can go at a faster pace layer, and they lap your app and swamp you.
Platform features that require coordination often can't be "solved" in userland.
...of what the platform creators made. It's easier to change, and thus is a higher pace layer. Subsuming functionality into the platform is expensive and should only be done when there's some benefit to doing it in the platform. An overly-larg...
Innovation moves up pace layers over time.
Innovation moves up pace layers over time. As a given pace layer gets to the late-stage, where the momentum has coalesced around the obvious winners, competition moves up the stack...
It's possible for a model to over-fit to a specific framework, like React.
...to use with the latest Tailwind version. RL improvements in models are at a low pace layer; it might take a year or more for the model to catch up to how Tailwind is now written. There was always some hysteresis in developer ecosystems. It ...
Just because you can heal it doesn't mean you should.
Just because you can heal it doesn't mean you should. Healing at the wrong pace layer is harmful because it hides the brokenness below. If it's broken below in a fundamental way making it look harmonious on top is bad.
The skills to build at different pace layers are just different.
The skills to build at different pace layers are just different. For example, the skill to make a good browser is very different from the skill to make a great web page. So being great (cultura...
When analyzing the market dynamics of AI, it's important to separate the model layer from the application layer.
...ual end users use. These are two extremely different layers. They are different pace layers. The competitive dynamics are different. They require very different skills to succeed in each. Lots of people are mistakenly analyzing them as thou...
Leaders should engage in the higher level requirements, risks, and concepts, not on details.
...ments, risks, and concepts, not on details. All of the details emerge in higher pace layers built on top of those lower pace layers of concepts, requirements, etc. When a leader dives into a detail, the likelihood the right solution is disc...
Most companies live in one pace layer.
Most companies live in one pace layer. If you cross multiple pace layers it's orders of magnitude more challenging, but also an order of magnitude more value that can be created.
Games are challenging to develop: you have a large number of teams collaborating on a single artifact.
...er fidelity and real, into a roaring bonfire. The "fun" is found at the highest pace layer. If you had strict layering, you'd spend all your time on the lower layers before discovering if the higher layers were any fun. If you had tight cou...
There are different pace layers for getting results out of LLMs.
There are different pace layers for getting results out of LLMs. Slowest: train a new foundation model from scratch. Also extremely capital intensive! Medium: fine-tune an existing...
One of the best use cases for LLMs: they can compile English to code.
... to code. The implications of this are significant. English is at a much higher pace layer than traditional code, which allows moving more quickly and experimenting with much higher leverage. It used to be that taking an English language de...
Prototypes should be at the highest pace layer.
Prototypes should be at the highest pace layer. The most important thing for a prototype is adaptability; finding the fun. Ideally prototyping in a team should all happen on the same pace layer. I...
Lower pace layers are often very hard to change.
Lower pace layers are often very hard to change. But every so often an opportunity pops up when things have been thrown into chaos by a new disruptive force that scra...
Every time you see a calendar widget, it should show your personal availability on it.
...ng this feature. Why don't browsers add it as a feature? Browsers are too low a pace layer. It's not clear how to make a one-size fits all widget for this kind of thing that is generally useful. This kind of functionality should be built in...