Nate Meyvis

I am an itinerant software developer, currently putting down roots at Amazon. My academic background is in math (undergrad) and ancient Greek philosophy (beyond). If you're not sure whether you should email me, you probably should.

I make Zippyflash, a spaced repetition system I've used every day for years. It is ready for alpha users and I'd love to talk to you about it.

Here are my 100 favorite books.

My most significant post is On Actually Reading the Book. I stand by it.

Spaced repetition and Anki

  • Here is how and why I use spaced repetition.
  • Here are notes on spaced repetition and personal dependency management.
  • Here are notes on Anki's data model and database structure.
  • Here are notes on scheduling algorithms and self-experimentation.

Philosophy and academia

Other stuff

  • I co-hosted a poker podcast for 8 years. Here is a FAQ.
  • People ask me about parenting (whether or not they should do so!). Here's what I tell them.

A little more about me

All my posts

On quadratic complexity
5/29/2022
What's happening with data scientists?
10/14/2022
On Conversations with Tyler
5/29/2022
On ranking things
5/29/2022
On studying for your upcoming job: objections and replies
6/24/2022
Reading notes: The Remains of the Day
10/20/2022
A note on 10x engineering
4/5/2023
Listening notes: _Get Ready_
3/22/2023
On recovering
5/29/2022
Why don't people talk about the Shapley value more?
7/14/2022
On the scarcity of context
5/29/2022
Rubber duck text editing
6/13/2022
How I got into programming
5/29/2022
On Anki's database
5/29/2022
On task management
5/29/2022
Notes on a Bryan Cantrill talk
5/29/2022
On winning auctions
5/29/2022
On distributing reading time
5/29/2022
What is America's epic?
10/17/2022
Reading notes: The End of Solitude
9/4/2022
Reading notes: How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big
5/29/2022
On viewquakes
5/31/2022
On reading The Diff
5/29/2022
Notes on parenting
5/29/2022
On improving data-adjacent code
5/29/2022
Reading notes: The Three-Body Problem
7/2/2022
On talking to think better
5/29/2022
On dependencies
5/29/2022
Reading notes: There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather
10/16/2022
Listening notes: The Pragmatic Programmer
6/6/2022
On checklists, again
5/29/2022
15 notes on testing software
5/29/2022
Listening notes: Sold a Story
3/23/2023
Why events?
10/18/2022
On estimating the value of GitHub Copilot
6/27/2022
On Excel, context, and talent
6/24/2022
Listening notes: Jason Strasser on the Risk of Ruin podcast
5/29/2022
Reading notes: The Manager's Path
5/29/2022
New site design
5/29/2022
Nate Meyvis
11/18/2024
Reading notes: The Inner Game of Tennis
5/29/2022
On (non-software) dependency management
5/30/2022
Reading notes: The Tim Tebow CFL Chronicles
5/29/2022
On coordinating intrapersonal skill levels
5/29/2022
On trees and dimensionality
10/30/2022
On accidentally starting a newsletter
7/2/2022
On the death of new music
6/25/2022
Reading notes: Talent
6/3/2022
Books I like more than other people do
5/29/2022
2022 favorites to date
5/29/2022
Notes on Tyler Cowen on relearning the Internet
10/26/2022
Podcasting FAQ
5/29/2022
On learning Vim
5/29/2022
Notes on the Garrett Adelstein - Robbi Jade Lew hand
10/2/2022
The Lawnmower Essay and the Problems of Philosophy
5/29/2022
Reading notes: Crossroads
10/30/2022
Software design
5/29/2022
An argument from Jimmy Koppel
5/29/2022
Reading notes: Of Boys and Men
10/17/2022
Zippyflash is ready for alpha users
12/24/2024
On middlebrow books
5/29/2022
On poker's comparative advantage
6/24/2022
On scarcity and regionality
5/29/2022
On Bryan Caplan's spreadsheets
5/29/2022
Amplifying a point from Dan Gross
10/9/2022
On actually reading the book
5/29/2022
A common trap for people entering programming jobs
6/23/2022
The Ideal of the Open Mind
5/29/2022
A Shapley example
7/27/2022
On using Anki, again
5/29/2022
Reading notes: My Losing Season
3/20/2023
Code review reference
10/12/2022
Reading notes: Super-Infinite
11/4/2022
My information diet
7/1/2022
How academics can find non-academic work
5/29/2022
On linear scans
5/29/2022
Reading notes: The Last Days of Roger Federer
7/8/2022
On long books
5/29/2022
Testing decorated functions in Python web frameworks
4/28/2023
Reading notes: A Widow For One Year
6/19/2022
Reading notes: How to Change
5/29/2022
Listening notes: Kate Grace on The Morning Shakeout
5/29/2022
Listening notes: Russ Roberts and Tyler Cowen on reading
5/29/2022
Viewquake: Decisionmaking is overrated
5/31/2022
Listening notes: Test and Code 191
7/1/2022
The 100 books nearest to my heart
5/29/2022
A quick argument for naming all software prototypes after birds
5/29/2022
Notes on writing a static site generator
6/27/2022
Reading notes: From Front Porch to Back Seat
5/29/2022
Reading notes: The Baseball 100
9/21/2022
Code correctly by conforming to the real world
10/24/2022
On having philosophy in your life
6/12/2022
On editing text
5/29/2022
How to ramp up
12/23/2024
On poker's comparative disadvantage
5/29/2022
Reading notes: The Score Takes Care of Itself
5/29/2022
The tweetstorm as a form
10/17/2022
Reading notes: A Philosophy of Software Design
5/29/2022
On preparing for coding interviews
5/29/2022
On dependencies in small projects
5/29/2022
On using a Kindle
5/29/2022
On productivity
5/29/2022
Skills for academics
5/29/2022
Why my priors about cheating at poker are so high
10/5/2022
Viewquake: interpreting obvious mistakes
6/10/2022
On capturing thoughts
5/29/2022
Software FAQ
5/29/2022
Notes on coding with ChatGPT
4/17/2023
Ancient philosophy and software
2/3/2025
On reading canonical literature
5/29/2022
Viewquake: making meaning after the fact
11/9/2022
Notes on being the Day One chip leader
10/10/2022
12 rules for living
5/29/2022
Reading notes: Patterns of Software
5/29/2022
On using Anki
5/29/2022
On self-experimentation in spaced repetition
5/29/2022
On stop-losses
9/9/2022
Illustrative epistemic mistakes people made with the J4 hand
10/9/2022
On type safety in natural language
6/14/2022
2022 reading review
9/22/2022
Reading notes: Lonesome Dove
8/15/2022