Update for the week ending on Friday, Sep 5, 2025

mtlynch.io

• Started August 2025 retro
• Simplified Fastmail instructions for setting up couple’s email domain

Refactoring English

• Published new chapter: “Get to the Point”
• Released a new draft of the book to early access customers
• Renamed “Good vs. Bad Content Marketing” to “Find Customers through Blogging”
  • I also rewrote the content a little bit to move away from “content marketing” and more towards “quality writing.”
• Updated my chapter release script to match little changes I’ve made to the book
• Wrote a script to pull customers from Stripe into my Buttondown mailing list with the proper tags.
• Finished editing my interview
  • Started working on the transcript
• Reordered the chapters based on reader feedback
  • Wrote a convenience script for renaming/renumbering chapters, since I suspect I’ll do it again

PicoShare

PicoShare is a minimalist web-based file sharing tool I’m working on. I’m often frustrated that I can’t just send someone a link directly to a file because every file-sharing service tries to re-encode images/video or wrap their own viewer around other files, so I’m making a simple self-hostable tool that lets you upload files and share them with other people.

• Got annoyed with someone for sending me a low-quality vibecoded PR as an “experiment”
  • At first, I thought they were a non-developer who figured out how to use LLMs to implement a feature, so I was impressed at their effort.
• Discussed whether Docker Secrets offer any security benefit for PicoShare
  • Then, they revealed that they were a developer who just couldn’t be bothered to review the code.
• Fixed my GOPATH to avoid sharing GOPATH with other projects
  • I’m still trying to find a better solution here, because what I do is kind of hacky.

Misc

• Tried to fix my freezer defrost
  • I can’t figure out if I’m using my freezer incorrectly, but this is the second straight fridge where this happens.
  • The defrost cycle happens, but the drain for the melted ice gets clogged with ice, so the water overflows into the fridge.
  • I was able to fix it on my last fridge by pouring hot water down the drain tube, but I powered down and disassembled the back of this freezer, and I couldn’t get the drain to unclog, even poking a 2’ piece of plastic down didn’t hit anything.
  • I bought a 5’ drain cleaning tool to try again.
• Figured out how to prime my Boroux water filters
  • I tried a different sink, and it just worked, after I tried for about an hour on my kitchen sink and kept trying to keep them submerged in water for several days.
• Appealed a user ban on Lobsters, but then it got messy and complicated
  • I thought the ban was over a single somewhat-open-to-interpretation comment, but apparently they had a history of behavior that upset people.