Breaking Change

Justin Searls
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Jul 13, 2025 • 2h 18min

v39.0.1 - Dave Mosher: Use AI in Anger

Welcome to the first episode of 🔥Hotfix🔥! Breaking Change's first show-within-a-show, wherein I let somebody else talk for once. Each episode will show up as a patch release in the Breaking Change feed and feature guests with Hot takes about a relevant issue and a clear fix in mind for what we can do about it. That first guest is a long-time collaborator and top 5 all-time colleague of mine named Dave Mosher, who's here to drop some truth bombs labeled "agentic coding" on the unsuspecting populace. My secret mission on each of these is to lean into the show's E-for-explicit tag and try to get the guest to say something that could get them fired. I failed this time, but in fairness to me, Dave is Canadian. We'd love to get your feedback to podcast@searls.co — I'll read it all and flag relevant questions and comments for the next Breaking Change. You can follow Dave Mosher online at: GitHub Twitter/X Dave's personal blog The Test Double blog A handful of things we mentioned: Full-breadth Developers The "Double Loop" model to agentic coding Simon Willison's blog Claude Code
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Jun 30, 2025 • 2h 43min

v39 - Broken Home

I have returned to the nation of freedom and tariffs and all my shit has stopped working! Which shit? Why? What did I buy now? Listen and find out. Remember, listeners who write in to podcast@searls.co will be spared on judgment day. Website stuff follows: Hirome Ichiba in Kochi City Japan's ocean whirlpool (渦) boats Indigo La End POSSE Party Tessie Tesla app Aaron's puns, ranked We finally may be able to rid the world of mosquitoes. But should we? (Archive link) Supreme Court allows Texas online porn age verification law Microsoft changes Windows in attempt to prevent next CrowdStrike-style catastrophe As AI Infiltrates Call Centers, Human Workers Are Being Mistaken for Bots AI and the Rise of Judgement Over Technical Skill What Google Translate Can Tell Us About Vibecoding The Meta AI app is a privacy disaster MCP: An (Accidentally) Universal Plugin System The DMA forced apple to make a B2B price-to-features chart Apple Vision Series and Smart Glasses Roadmap (2025–2028) Sky app RIP Slide Over Street Fighter Movie: Jason Momoa cast as Blanka, 50 Cent as Balrog 30-minute Outer Worlds 2 deep dive Kojima uses Western actors b/c of our craggy, ugly fucking skin Comcast says all its new plans have unlimited data Pig movie Moana 2 (but really Lava) Witcher 4 + Unreal Engine 5 demo Death Stranding 2 is better as a video review Andor Season 2 Wrexham S4 Philips EP4444 coffee thing
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Jun 6, 2025 • 2h 51min

v38 - Searls HQ2

Spoiler alert: I'm in the same country as I was for v37, but this time from a different nondescript business hotel. Also: I have good personal news! And, as usual, bad news news. I don't get to pick the headlines though, I just read them. This episode comes with a homework assignment. First, watch Apple's keynote at 10 AM pacific on June 9th. Second, e-mail podcast@searls.co with all your takes. I'd love your help by informing me where my head should be at when I show up on the Changelog next week. And now, fewer links than usual: The movie 父と僕の終わらない歌 Fukushima The Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster Memorial Museum Utsunomiya Fukui I got spicy about LLM neophytes Aaron's puns, ranked Entry-level tech hiring is down 50% AI Role in College Brings Education Closer to a Crisis Point Veo 3 marks the beginning of the end times (watch this supercut) If you're having an affair, don't use Claude Apple's turning it up to 26 My theory on what 2027's "all-glass" iPhone is really all about Nobody uses semicolons; they're pointless
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May 22, 2025 • 2h 35min

v37 - Whose bone is this?

Coming to you LIVE from a third straight week of Japanese business hotels comes me, Justin, in his enduring quest to figure out how to exchange currency for real estate in the land of the rising fun. [Programming note: apologies, as the audio quality at the beginning of the podcast suffered because I fucked up and left the hotel room's air conditioner on (I caught it and fixed it from the pun section onward)] Had a few great e-mails to read through this week, but now I'm fresh out again! Before you listen, why not write in a review of this episode? podcast@searls.co and tell me about how amazing it will be before it lets you down like your best friend and/or workplace mentor and/or parent figure. Href time: Craigmod's Kissa by Kissa book @koic works on RuboCop and inspired this issue of my Searls of Wisdom newsletter In Japan, you're not a BDFL, you're a 優しい終身の独裁者 Speaking of newsletters, this month's took me way too damn long All the prefectures I've been to so far (36 as of v37) The US Embassy in Japan's 10" x 10" bag limit Aaron's puns, ranked CRISPR babies! (Archive) GTA 6's trailer SteamOS is one step closer to being real Fortnite is back on iOS CarPlay Ultra is nice, but will it scale? visionOS 3 will let us scroll with our eyeballs Apple is considering an AI-based search tool for iOS Rumor: iOS 19 will let developers invoke its on-board local models Sam + Jony, sitting in a tree / pile of cash ChatGPT Diminishes Idea Diversity in Brainstorming, Study Finds Microsoft Engineers forced to dig their own AI graves muscle-mem solves a huge issue with "agentic" programs Naturalizing relevance realization: why agency and cognition are fundamentally not computational Chicago Sun-Times Prints Summer Reading List Full of Fake Books mid college towns are screwed (News+) The Quiet Collapse of Surveys: Fewer Humans (and More AI Agents) Are Answering Survey Questions The Nomad Universal Cable Junglia Okinawa opens in July and this ad is absolutely bonkers Saw the Yakult Swallows with Tatsuhiko Miyagawa from Rebuild.fm Loved World Order's new single until the guy got milkshake duck'd 5 minutes later This Workforce AI promo video is peak smug AI hustler shit The Bechdel Test (not to be confused with the Becky Test)
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Apr 30, 2025 • 2h 24min

v36 - Hedgelord

I'm going away on a trip for an unexpectedly long time, and you'll never guess why! (You might guess why.) Anyway, here's something to remember me by. If you've ever been worried about whether something you cared about would work out okay, email podcast@searls.co and tell me about it so that I can share your story with a bunch of strangers on the Internet. Video of this edition of the show is up on YouTube. References available upon request: Nobody knows how to turn on Vision Pro I released a new gem called searls-auth Aaron's puns, ranked CodeWeavers' founder's gracious post, Whisky's Legacy, and the Spirit it Leaves Behind DeX for iPhones? Finally! A menu bar for iPads? Finally! Backblaze: the only subsidized startup pricing schemes left are the fraudulent ones! Russia moves to seize World of Tanks developer over Ukraine support Amazon To Display Tariff Costs For Consumers, Report Says (Update: They Won't) Meta's Digital Companions want to have sex with you (News+) OpenAI's chat bot will tell you that you're really good at sex But they're fixing it But Reddit fixed it better Someone made an AI better by having it argue with itself, just like humans do Coding competitions are dead and gone forever The Coravin Pivot wine preservation system is great So is this pool skimmer robot that I talked about last week but forgot about and am talking about again A book! Landed: Japan. Everything you may not need to know about buying real estate
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Apr 20, 2025 • 2h 35min

v35 - GPT Casserole

Your favorite podcast about nothing continues to find things to talk about. Whatever you do, DO NOT e-mail me at podcast@searls.co or else I will read it on air and tell everyone how smart you sound and how good you look. Video of this edition of the show is up on YouTube. Links to follow: Loving my Tariffmas gifts: external SSD array and pool skimmer, especially My first taste of GitHub Copilot's Agent mode Me putting Agent mode to the test in a fun little screencast Aaron's puns, ranked Videogame consoles like the Switch 2 are NOT exempt from tariffs Digital Foundry's technical analysis of Mario Kart World The stunning Marathon cinematic trailer Star Wars Zero Company is the X-Com game I want Almost 19% of Japanese people in their 20s have spent so much money on gacha they struggled with covering living expenses, survey reveals A bunch of Vision hardware leaks and rumors: 1, 2, 3, 4 People at Apple were calling the AI/ML group AIMLess, lol React Native might not be as popular as you think Boarding passes and check-in could be scrapped in air travel shake-up Incredible plot to print every single possible ticket to win the Texas lotto A Lack of Intelligence, Not Training, May Be Why People Struggle With Computers AI models still struggle to debug software, Microsoft study shows LLM bots + Next.js bankrupting people who design their sites badly Apps are being paid to install frameworks that sell users' bandwidth to proxy providers for AI scrapers OpenAI o3 and o4-mini announced (they also hallucinate more) GPT 4.1 is better at coding Codex CLI is OpenAI's answer to Claude Code Extremely long read: OpenAI is a Systemic Risk to the Tech Industry GPS magnetic quantum is 50x more accurate and unjammable The Gorge is good but takes a sharp left turn into horror town I went to Epic Universe and have opinions
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Apr 6, 2025 • 3h 10min

v34 - Bait and Switch 2

Nothing like a peaceful Sunday morning at the end of an exhausting, historically-volatile week to pour a hot cup of coffee and spew absolutely scalding takes in all directions. If you get burned, don't say I didn't warn you. Read the message on the lid. We've done 34 of these now and my mailbag is getting full of old e-mails that don't make sense anymore. Please email new stuff to me at podcast@searls.co and we, like civilization, will start fresh next time! Video of this edition of the show is up on YouTube. You can read more about things on other websites below: My "new" podcast, Merge Commits Announcing TLDR 1.0 Late to the party on this: it's good that Siri is bubbling up to Craig, finally Aaron's puns, ranked Ethically sourced "spare" human bodies could revolutionize medicine OpenAI releases 4o Image Generation ChatGPT Users Are Creating Studio Ghibli-Style AI Images How OpenAI's Ghibli Frenzy Took a Dark Turn Real Fast (Archive) An image of an archeologist adventurer who wears a hat and uses a bullwhip Go to Truant Studio for all your branding and advertising needs Anthropic released their research into how LLMs "think" The 500 million worker problem India's domestic stock bubble Remember 15 years ago when we cared who would buy TikTok? Amazon might, still Eddie Burback's "No Phone" video College students are worse now, says professor, as always Ubisoft reportedly has lawyers ready to fight Assassin's Creed Shadows harassment Nintendo just carried out a major test of its reach in a post-Twitter world The Nintendo Switch 2 Direct Virtual Game Cards By "anti-scalping", they meant "for Japan" Third-party developers say Switch 2's horsepower makes them 'extremely happy' Switch backwards compatibility is emulation Nintendo delays US preorders because tariffs Saturday Night film Titanic Still playing Avowed Not playing Inzoi How to change the oil on a Tesla Roguelike/Starfoxlike, Whisker Squadron: Survivor How SNL manages cue cards
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Mar 15, 2025 • 2h 58min

v33 - Apathetic Intelligence

I hope you ordered your podcast spicy, because this version is a slow heat, but it builds. I was pretty fired up by the end of this one. If I crossed a line here, please report it to HR at podcast@searls.co and they will conduct an investigation. Video of this edition of the show is up on YouTube. I tossed this bouquet of URLs in the air but no one caught them: Tailwind 4 Upgrades Aaron's puns, ranked There's a new cringey Star Fox-like coming Shenmue 1 & 2 mixed up the axial tilt Secret Agent Wizard Boy and the International Crime Syndicate The history of 3DFX The first portable Xbox could hit shelves this year Steam Decard VR thing could also be coming Tim Sweeney's been Elon-pilled Is Tesla Cooked? Cybertruck panels are flying every which way SpaceX's Starship is fucked, apparently Why LLMs aren't like Einstein LLM refuses to code No one knows what the hell an agent is crmne/ruby_llm is a new Ruby gem for interacting with LLMs Vision Pro let this guy see in 3D iOS 19 will overhaul the system UI Live translation is coming to iOS 19 (sort of) RCS is getting End-to-End Encryption Between Android and iOS Leaked Apple meeting shows how dire the Siri situation really is iPhone 17 Ultra may be coming Google bricked Chromecast Mozilla bricked Firefoxes Microsoft bricked a bazillion PCs Meta is run by a human brick China bricked the field of public health Stay tuned to Changelog next week - I'll be on it! Shogun - where the Japanese speak period-appropriate Japanese and the Portugese speak modern British English Avowed - the best damn game I've played in a long-ass time There's a new Vision Pro strap-on in town Star Trek Enterprise was good, actually Allstate's human engineers screwed up so the LLMs wouldn't have to AI Snipd is a podcast player
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Mar 3, 2025 • 2h 11min

v32 - Large Lemon Model

Turns out I'd accidentally been letting some of your e-mail get filtered as junk mail. I want to be clear that I don't think you're junk, Apple does. Write in with your feelings to podcast@searls.co and I'll read it, assuming I get it. Video of this edition of the show is up on YouTube. Without further ado, links! POSSE Party Aaron's puns, ranked Don't invite anyone you like to a measles party Sorry vegans, plants can feel pain Reddit will add a paywall Junior developers know how to code even less than usual GPT 4.5 is a lemon 🍋 Insecure code is how you get Nazis Ben AI shows off how the hustle bros are thriving with AI This is the video I'd share with friends and family to explain AI Mostly non-AI reasons the job market is frozen Hacking your Eight Sleep to frustrate fascism Apple pulls encryption from island that famously likes surveilling people A Vision Pro app is coming to iPhone Apple debuts iPhone 16e Is Apple's first cell modem maybe better than we expected? In 18.4, Apple Maps finally adds a language setting Spatial AI assistants with Sidekick for Vision Pro Shoresy is back for Season 4 Avowed is a good game
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Feb 16, 2025 • 2h 58min

v31 - Full Searls Driving

Update: This is the first version of Breaking Change available in 4K video. Check it out on YouTube. The one where Justin picks the perfect time to buy his first Tesla vehicle. Sometimes the things I say and do make people feel things. Share those feelings with me at this e-mail address: podcast@searls.co. Whatever you're feeling, I'll read it and do my best to acknowledge it. I also may read it on air. Unless you ask me not to, in which case I won't. Okay, so anyway, there are links to be lunked: The RuboCop pull request I referenced having talked about in this month's newsletter The Space Black Firanto paint I tried to use to heal my M4 MacBook Pro The little travel router that I'm using strictly for my Vision Pro Sponsored content: you too can have bad timing when you buy a new Tesla with my link and get $2500 off, apparently. Aaron's puns, ranked The ESA announces new "iicon" event after running E3 into the ground Apple finally lets you migrate purchases to a different Apple ID Prediction: iOS 19 features a new UI toolkit that looks a lot like visionOS and this new Invites app Google eliminates the woker half of its holidays calendar TikTok is so back, baby Netflix is connected to the Apple TV app! (lol, psyche!) What the WikTok story can teach us about programmers' future job prospects. (Not much) Gaudy Jeep ads are ruining Stellantis's terrible reputation Godzilla Minus One: Two is coming Even Disney is worried about the high cost of Disney A major visionOS 2.4 update is around the corner (Archive link) A youtube essay about "work games" Tape to Tape is hockey videogaming at its finest Yakuza: Like a Dragon's business management minigame is all I need. I also needed Alien: Romulus, though

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