Michael Lynch
@mtlynch.io
Bootstrapped founder. Lover of unit tests. One successful exit. ex-@google, ex-@microsoft.
I had a great time returning to the TMPDIR podcast to talk about how developers can improve their writing tmpdir.org/053/
Refactoring English: Writing and Self-Publishing With Michael Lynch
Technical writing for developers with Michael Lynch, author of Refactoring English. We cover structuring a book for reader ROI, cutting aggressively, using AI as a teacher instead of a ghostwriter, an...
tmpdir.org
The first time I saw Michelangelo’s David in person, I wept. Never in my life have I witnessed a more beautiful piece of content. refactoringenglish.com/blog/why-i-s...
Why I Stopped “Creating Content”
Why did we all start talking about content, traffic, distribution, and conversions?
refactoringenglish.com
Today is the last day to buy my book, Refactoring English, at its 40% early access discount. The book is for any software developer who wants to improve their writing, from emails to design docs to blog posts. refactoringenglish.com/early-access/
Launching Rowset: an open-source, self-hostable dataset backend for AI agents. Give trusted agents private, structured data they can create, search, and update through MCP or REST. Use it hosted or run it on your own infrastructure. No lock-in. Your data. Your backend.
If you're a developer who wants to improve your writing, this is the last week to purchase my book, Refactoring English, at a 40% early access discount. refactoringenglish.com/early-access/
Early Access
Effective writing for software developers
refactoringenglish.com
June was the best month of sales for my book since the original Kickstarter launch, and I owe it all to design docs. mtlynch.io/retrospectiv...
June 2026 Retrospective: Refactoring English: Month 19
Do people pay more for a finished book?
mtlynch.io
If you're a developer who wants to improve your writing, this is the last week to purchase my book, Refactoring English, at a 40% early access discount. refactoringenglish.com/early-access/
Early Access
Effective writing for software developers
refactoringenglish.com
Developers hate design docs because they're unpleasant to write and only a few orgs know how to write them well, but they're incredibly valuable in maturing as a developer, so I'm sharing my approach to writing effective design docs.
How to Write an Effective Software Design Document
Best practices for writing a design doc based on my experience working as a developer at Google and Microsoft.
refactoringenglish.com
Software developers are amongst those with the lowest divorce rates (19%) whilst massage therapists are one of the highest (48%) according to data from the American Community Survey. Make of that what you will. flowingdata.com/2026/05/07/d...
Occupations with the highest divorce rates
Some jobs tend towards higher divorce rates and some lower.
flowingdata.com
In my April retrospective, I reveal my double life as a bug bounty hunter and debate whether I should continue cybersecurity research or just focus on my book about helping devs improve their writing mtlynch.io/retrospectiv...
April 2026 Retrospective: Refactoring English: Month 17
Should I focus on my book or chase bug bounties?
mtlynch.io
I bought parts for my last PC on Black Friday 2024. I bought 64 GB of RAM for $209.99. Price today for the same exact sticks: $979.99
Any web #hosting company will rent you space on their servers. At Henhouse Computing Cooperative, you *own* the server. You also get a vote in how the service is run and share of any profits. Now taking beta testers at henhouse.coop.
Henhouse Computing Cooperative | Own Your Data. Own Your Infrastructure.
Member-owned web hosting that puts data sovereignty and privacy first
henhouse.coop
I launched an indie webcomic hosting platform several months ago that offered a free and a $4/mo paid plan. This was purely to cover the cost of the infrastructure. But in seeing it grow, I'm no longer worried about the cost. So yeah Webcomic Studio is now free. webcomic.studio
Webcomic Studio
Read & publish indie comics online
webcomic.studio
With AI-generated writing flooding the Internet, how can you avoid "sounding like AI?" Lean into your personality! Developers sanitize their writing to sound clinical and impersonal. Thienan's post is an excellent example of a blogger who's willing to sound like themselves.
@thienantran.bsky.social · 3mo agoI struggled with making friends after college so I decided to talk to 35 strangers at the gym. Read about it on my blog!!! thienantran.com/talking-to-3...
I wrote a new article! Adding a feature to a closed-source app using LLMs: www.stavros.io/posts/adding...
Adding a feature to a closed-source app - Stavros' Stuff
stavros.io
AI has good suggestions for bad writing but bad suggestions for good writing.
![AI can help you become a good writer, not a great writer
AI can be improve your writing, but it's important to recognize its limitations.
AI can't accurately predict the responses of real readers. AI has seen many examples of good writing, and it does an impressive job at pattern matching your writing to other examples, but you know your readers better than AI does.
As an experiment, I asked an AI agent to offer feedback on a recent essay written by Paul Graham, a popular and influential software writer. Here was the AI assistant's first note:
> “An essay has to tell people something they don't already know” may feel too rigid. [...]
>
> A softer version might be:
>
> - “A good essay usually tells readers something they didn't already fully know.”
> - “An essay has to add something to the reader's understanding.”
The AI's feedback is basically, “You have a strong point of view. Why don't you water it down?”
The feedback for Graham's essay is typical of AI. An AI assistant does not want to adopt bold stances or take risks. AI wants to sound like everyone else.
If Paul Graham let an AI assistant revise all of his writing, he would not be popular or interesting because AI would filter the exact qualities that make Graham stand out.
AI can help you reach the 60th or 70th percentile of writing ability, but not beyond. An AI assistant will never say, “Gosh, that's better than I can write, so I'll leave it alone.” If you show it 90th percentile writing, AI will drag it to the 70th percentile with needless edits.
To grow beyond AI's limitations, you need to follow your intuition. If AI tells you to change something, think carefully about whether the AI assistant “gets” what you're trying to do and whether you agree with its feedback.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5rmuptxnl562svleoywqf7fe/bafkreifhpr5qrx7t6gx6uf573f77nydmwbcrszzh672ef6r6sp3anszocm)
Was talking to @nik.digital earlier and he mentioned he never knew I wrote blog posts outside of the CS stuff. He’d found samwho.dev/blog/having-... and found it funny that I threw my back out waiting for my wife to give birth. 🫠
Having a Baby
During the pregnancy of our first child, I kept a journal. I don’t normally keep journals. I don’t normally feel like I have much to say in them. This was different. The whole experience was new, and ...
samwho.dev
i didn't want to buy an Oura Ring, so i decided to learn vibe coding instead! Sleep Lab - a progressive web app to make use of Garmin's sleep data and measure which tactics actually improve my sleep, starting with mouth tape 😂 github: github.com/chiaracokien... all tips & advice welcome!
github.com
In my March retro, I explain why the next few years will be scary in terms of software security and what the prototype of my family photo sharing app looks like mtlynch.io/retrospectiv...
March 2026 Retrospective: Refactoring English: Month 16
Close to the finish line
mtlynch.io
BREAKING: You checked the weather this morning. And you just told a surveillance company where you sleep. Meet #Webloc, used by ICE, cops & foreign govs to track 500m+ phones. No warrant required. Our @citizenlab.ca investigation + how to protect yourself 🧵/1 citizenlab.ca/research/ana...
We're not prepared for how quickly AI models have progressed at discovering security vulnerabilities mtlynch.io/claude-code-...
Claude Code Found a Linux Vulnerability Hidden for 23 Years
Claude Code has gotten extremely good at finding security vulnerabilities, and this is only the beginning.
mtlynch.io
Glad to see healthcare providers actually facing consequences for their terrible data privacy practices: theshoestring.org/2026/03/24/j...
Judge allows class-action suit against Baystate Health to proceed
Centered on patient data-sharing between Baystate and tech giants Meta and Google, the suit could expose the hospital system to hundreds of millions in liability.
theshoestring.org
@jmduke.com www.jmduke.com/posts/mistre... Yes! Great movie. "There's no adultery when you're eighteen. You should all be touching each other all the time."
Mistress America
> I'm sorry, I know you liked Brooke. He told me that she worships you, she kept talking about how smart you are, how interesting... 
Which Design Doc Did a Human Write?
Can you distinguish between an AI-generated design doc and a human-written one?
refactoringenglish.com
I made my first contribution to Firefox. It's a one-character fix to prevent a crash when reading a particular type of malformed Ogg-Vorbis media file. Surprisingly fast review from Mozilla! Reviewed and merged in under 1h. phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D288636
⚙ D288636 Bug 2023046 - Reject negative time denom in ogg skeleton index r=emilio,#media-playback-reviewers
phabricator.services.mozilla.com
In my February retrospective, I discover most people who purchase my writing book live in countries where English is not the primary language. And I realize I've been using AI coding too much. mtlynch.io/retrospectiv...
February 2026 Retrospective: Refactoring English: Month 15
Where do Refactoring English readers come from?
mtlynch.io
Do you work in fundraising? Do you want a job that isn't evil? Signal is hiring a director of major gifts: jobs.lever.co/signal/68f75...
Signal Messenger - Director of Major Gifts
We are seeking a Director of Major Gifts to join our Development team as a high-impact individual contributor. In this role, you will be the primary engine for high-net-worth and charitable institutio...
jobs.lever.co
I've worked as a developer for 20 years, and writing has always been a key part of my career and technical growth. refactoringenglish.com/chapters/why...
Why Improve Your Writing?
Programming is a technical pursuit, so why should we spend time on a "soft skill" like writing? Isn't that why we have technical writers and product managers?
refactoringenglish.com
Me, two days after discovering I can purchase remote nix builds as a service
