March 2026

Hey all,

On March 31st, I'll turn 40 years old. It's a big milestone.

The best part about turning 40 is hearing the same thing from all your older friends: 40 years old is the threshold for when the body stops cooperating. Ailments and problems abound.

I'm not one to dread birthdays, and I don't plan to start now. But I'm curious to see what this over-the-hill curse does to me.

The crazy thing about turning 40 is thinking back at just how fast it seemed to go. And realizing that you're halfway to 80. I know it's a losing battle, but I'm still trying to find a way to make the next 40 years slow down a wee bit.

Happy birthday to me!

-Dann

👖 Pocket-sized microwave

Something always felt odd to me about Havana Syndrome. American service members and government employees, both abroad and here at home, were reporting mysterious ailments, including debilitating headaches, cognitive difficulties, ear pain, dizziness, and a strange sensation of directional pressure or sound. Yet the government refused to even acknowledge it, let alone do anything about it.

Back in March 2022, I shared a 60 Minutes segment on the mystery, lamenting at the time that it had been five years since symptoms were first reported, yet we were no closer to an answer from our government.

I must applaud 60 Minutes for their dedication to this story. This month, a full decade after the first attacks, we finally have an update. It appears that:

• These attacks are apparently coming from a novel "pulsed microwave weapon" from Russia
• The weapon is portable and concealable, small enough to be carried by a person
• Undercover U.S. agents reportedly purchased a miniaturized microwave weapon from a Russian criminal network in 2024
• The fact that it's available on the black market is a terrifying indicator that this technology has leaked out of the Russian government and into the hands of non-state actors

The 60 Minutes story frames this as "a massive CIA cover-up." Basically, we knew it was Russia but weren't in the mood to get into a conflict with Russia. But the damage to American citizens is real and often permanent. The stories are heartbreaking, but I'm just not quite sure what to do with that.

🧨 AI destruction

Claude Code has been a revolution in software development. Anyone who writes code, or works tangentially with code (like me) has been experiencing a renaissance of creating new software. I have agents writing code for me all day, and I’ve written several custom applications: like a platform that helps me organize movie nights with my friends, or that creates social media content for me based on my newsletters, and tracks doctor’s appointments.

It’s mind-blowing, and anyone using this technology is both in awe of the future and also unsure. Is the future going to be custom software for everyone? Will SaaS go away completely?

Personally, I don’t think so.

When the internet first became mainstream, humans suddenly had access to all the information of the world at their fingertips. It was an exciting feeling that was full of optimism: surely people would use this access to information to seek out the truth. It would be the end of misinformation. The world, instead, went an entirely different direction.

Similarly, one could predict that universal access to a tool that creates custom software could be seen as ushering in the death of SaaS. But people forget that the real value of SaaS is outsourcing a problem to someone else.

Someday, our AI agents might be good enough to be that "someone else." In fact, based on our trajectory, we will get there. But I'm predicting that point is still a few generations away, judging by how slow the general population is to adopt new technology.

The real question is whether humanity will last long enough for that threshold to be crossed. That's the real unknown. There are so many things at risk in this new AI world, but I don't think it'll play out exactly like people are predicting today. It'll hurt us in new and surprising ways.

🥳 Calling Captain Fun

It's not often that a wholly original television or movie concept comes around. In 2023, two writers and producers for The Office decided to mash together two genres (mockumentary + candid camera) and came out with the show Jury Duty. It's a fun concept: everyone is an actor in a wild fake scenario except one. I talked about that season a bit back in May 2023.

One big question lingered after that premiere season: can there ever be a follow-up? Can the production team pull off a scheme that big again? We got our answer this month as the first three episodes of Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat aired.

I binged all three episodes and can report that they've outdone themselves. So far, at least, this new season makes the original Jury Duty feel like a test run. Everyone got their sea legs and brought their A game to round two.

Entertainment can be hard. Often, when a new director or creative team has an initial hit, there's a ton of pressure riding on the follow-up. Was it just a one-off fluke, or the beginning of something incredible?

Jury Duty was nominated for three Emmys but didn't win any. I'm already predicting a win (or two) for Company Retreat.

If Company Retreat does win, it would be a story similar to Zach Cregger's. Originally a founding member of The Whitest Kids U' Know sketch group, Cregger released the film Barbarian in 2022. His 2025 follow-up film, Weapons, took everything he learned from that directorial debut and improved upon it. Weapons was fan-freaking-tastic, winning an Oscar for Amy Madigan for her role as Aunt Gladys.

Company Retreat episodes are being released in batches: the first three aired on March 20th. The following two came out a week later (March 27th). And the final three air on April 3rd. They're available on Amazon Prime and are just plain fun.

📝 All GSD, all the time

AI-augmented engineering is extremely powerful, but spec-driven development with AI is an entirely different level. You don't just want to ask AI to write code for you, you want it to ask questions, do research, and make a plan. You want different AI agents to take on all the various roles of an enterprise-level engineering org to create mature applications.

These days, I do nearly all my AI-augmented coding with the Get Shit Done Claude Code plugin. It's perhaps the closest thing to magic that I've ever experienced.

Describe what you want to build. Answer questions. Build a plan. Set milestones. Complete and verify. Test along the way. It's all automated and it just works.

In interviews with people who write code with AI, they describe the ability to tell the computer what they want in plain English, then take their dog for a walk or watch some TV, before coming back to the computer with the work all done. This plugin allows anyone to do exactly that. No exaggeration.

It feels like a cheat code. I haven't felt inspired to make a YouTube video in a while, but this is firing me up. Keep your eyes out for something new from me related to spec-driven AI development soon...

🌓 Late Night Fleming

When I grew up, the late night hosts were Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, David Letterman, and Craig Ferguson. When I was in my 20s, there was a changing of the guard, bringing us the next generation's lineup of Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert (ending May 2026), and James Corden (which ended in 2023).

I wasn't a huge late night talk show fan, but I remember watching this transition with fascination. I knew that the executives in charge of casting these hosts were trying to speak directly to my generation. The hope was to capture a younger audience.

But late night viewership has been steadily declining for the past two decades as the younger generation's habits switched from traditional network TV to social media and short-form video content. Some hosts have been better than others at embracing this new format, but it's all starting to feel a bit stale and the real question is: what comes next?

I've been sitting with this thought ever since this TikTok came across my For You page. She points to comedian Chris Fleming's interview on Jimmy Kimmel as being a glimpse at what might be coming next.

If you don't know Chris Fleming, they're one of the most unique voices in standup comedy today. Just check out their latest HBO comedy special.

Fleming has an energy that makes me feel they're destined for more than just standup comedy, but I've been unsure of exactly where that might be. The personality and character are a bit too extra for traditional scripted film and TV. But this TikTok creator is right: it'd be perfect for late night.

The more interviews I see with Chris Fleming, the more perfect it seems. The timing is perfect, too. Both with Fleming's current popularity surge and the urgency of change in the world of late night.

This is all based on zero inside knowledge and may never come to pass. But I'm on team Give-Chris-Fleming-a-TV-show-STAT and I'm trying to put that energy out into the world.

End note

If you've enjoyed this, I'd love it if you shared it with a friend. You can send them here to sign up.

I send these newsletters once per month, and I'm happy you're along for the ride. I'm trying to make it one of the best things that arrives in your inbox each month, so thoughts and feedback are always appreciated. You can just reply to this email.

Also, if you find anything interesting, send it my way.

Thanks for reading. Until next time,
Dann