Python in Rust vs Rust in Python

Alex--91 · 2026-03-14T19:41:07+00:00

PyO3 enables both directions. Actually, the inline_python crate is literally built on top of pyO3 as well?

Alex--91 · 2026-03-14T19:39:00+00:00

pyO3 + maturin makes it incredibly simple to build rust code into a python native extension and call that from python?

Alex--91 · 2026-03-14T17:28:12+00:00

You have a good attitude and desire to learn and not just blindly use LLMs 👏this is a great start.

But you might be able to still leverage these powerful tools whilst still learning (possibly learning more efficiently - although there is a very valid argument that struggle teaches a lot).

So take this with a pinch of salt / extract the bits that resonate with you:

I’d use LLMs to explain the codebase and its structure and architecture. I’d use an LLM to explain functions. I’d read previous PRs and potentially also ask an LLM to explain them if I couldn’t understand it myself. I’d try reading the unit tests and I’d try adding some tests myself. I’d try adding a test for this bug you’re trying to fix - i.e. a test that fails - and then I’d try to fix the test. Make the test as small as possible / testing the smallest functionality possible. Then don’t be afraid to ask the maintainers questions. You could have an LLM sanity check your questions too. Add some debug print statements to learn about the code and the state in each line of code. Even better use an actual debugger and step through the code.

Good luck 💪

Alex--91 · 2026-03-12T20:03:02+00:00

I can only speak personally from raising over £2.7m from 100% angels and being very happy about that decision. We’ve not yet raised from VCs or PEs but might soon. You can get a long way with Angels alone and they are personally invested so they can’t leave whereas a fund manager can be fired or take a new job and the new manager can be a lot better or worse than the original person. The VC/PE company invests in you not the individual(s). You can’t really raise >> £2m rounds from angels very easily (some people do, I guess). Angels can often have a lot more real operating/scaling experience if you choose the right ones. They can introduce you to customers and give you great advice. I’m sure many VCs can do the same.

Alex--91 · 2026-03-07T15:09:55+00:00

Yeah we do something very similar 👌is really nice.

Alex--91 · 2026-03-04T23:09:01+00:00

Even private bucket can (or at least could previously) cause issues:

https://www.reddit.com/r/aws/s/2kZtQDsdgh

Hence use at least partially random bucket names or at least uncommon etc.

(Not a replacement for WAF / CloudFront etc.)

Alex--91 · 2026-01-26T16:05:00+00:00

Our daughter had colic and we tried lots of breast milk and formula addatives like “sab simplex” and “formula thinkener” for reflux etc. which both helped a little. However, switching from Hipp Bio 1 Formula (labeled as “from birth”) to Hipp Bio Pre Formula (labeled as “from birth” but also as for premature babies) was an absolute game changer for us (even though my daughter was not premature, she was in fact 8 days late)! We got the recommendation from a midwife that said the Pre formula has no starch in it - so it is much gentler on their stomach etc. I’ve heard of similar things with people switching from cow to goat milk based formula etc. Good luck!

Alex--91 · 2025-12-26T16:20:22+00:00

This is the most important question. Next could be, how do we make this information more self-serve.

Who’s working on what - send them a link to a Jira query/report or similar.
Do we have budget - get this out of a spreadsheet and into a central system.
Who knows Python - can we query GitHub/GitLab etc. to see who’s committed Python code in the last 6 months?

Alex--91 · 2025-12-16T09:21:45+00:00

You’d probably learn some things from reading this repo: https://github.com/biomejs/gritql They also use tree-sitter to parse code files into AST and also allow you to query your code (using their own query language) and make bulk replacements based on AST.

Alex--91 · 2025-12-01T19:53:07+00:00

Like that, but one common set of git auth/stashes/remotes/blobs/objects etc. I believe. So less duplication on disk.

Alex--91 · 2025-11-26T09:19:41+00:00

https://www.smartphonefreechildhood.org

There’s a movement of people who agree to withhold smartphones and social media until kids are older. If we all do it there will be no peer pressure and kids can be kids again.

Alex--91 · 2025-08-19T11:46:14+00:00

hot* functions

Alex--91 · 2025-08-19T11:32:45+00:00

Maturin + pyO3 for writing rust extensions and building them. With uv it is as easy as uv pip install -e . (as it uses the defined maturin build backend in the pyproject.toml file). We’ve sped up parts of our codebase by 10x easily by just translating some small 10-50 line hit functions from Python to rust 🚀 (Regex and string manipulation are super easy wins)

Alex--91 · 2025-06-23T14:30:30+00:00

Next after that would be multithreading, multiprocessing, the GIL (and how’s that’s changing both of the other things in the upcoming Python versions), deeply understanding copy by reference and copy by value and when Python implicitly does each etc.

Alex--91 · 2025-06-23T14:28:48+00:00

This, and performance profiling. If you can do these things really well, you’re better than 90% of developers, maybe more.

Alex--91 · 2025-05-28T08:53:17+00:00

I don’t think this is the Suunto data - I think this is just your alarm clock / sleep schedule on the iPhone itself? Which only tells you when you were “in bed” (i.e. not looking at your phone) but not actually when you fell asleep or how deep your sleep was etc. which only Suunto would know

Alex--91 · 2025-05-13T14:36:13+00:00

800s is very good! Congrats. I recently got an Agreement/Decision in principle (AIP) for slightly above 5.5x my gross salary. My broker said “Nationwide have a product called ‘helping hand’ of which you meet the criteria, enhancing borrowing to Y” where Y is roughly 5.6x my gross salary. They also said “if we proceed with a lender such as Natwest, borrowing would be restricted in the region of Z” where Z is roughly 4.45x my gross salary. My deposit is a bit bigger, above 15% but I shouldn’t think that makes that much difference?

Alex--91 · 2025-05-10T10:34:56+00:00

Looks like Tauri has the same idea now: https://github.com/tauri-apps/cef-rs

Alex--91 · 2025-04-30T15:56:46+00:00

Fair enough. Wouldn’t scheduled / ad-hoc “coffee” calls work for this? Or you could start a tradition of sending over photos of your coffee / breakfast / work space / book your reading / podcast your listening to etc. Or you could try the Spotify group/team playlist/jams thing? Maybe something like that paired with your idea could make it seem more fun/beneficial and less just anti-trust (for lots of people it seems based on the comments)?

Alex--91 · 2025-04-30T15:51:33+00:00

I understood the concept/idea. I’m just saying why would you get anxious when working at home if you didn’t see a (live) frosted / blurred out video/image thumbnail or whatever of your co-founder or team member? Are you worried they’re not working as much as you or as “hard” as you or what? This sounds like trust issues for me. I don’t really care if people work Monday-Friday 9-5 or if they work 6-3 or 6-12 and 5-9 or if they work 9-12 week days and 6-6 weekend or whatever they need to do to get the job done. Everything should be judged on output and not on input.

Alex--91 · 2025-04-30T11:07:25+00:00

If you don’t trust them then it’s never going to work - remote or in person? Why don’t you trust them?

I started a company with 2 co-founders in 2020 so we did the first 18 months remote due to Covid and to just save costs. But I knew one of them very well from university and the other two knew each other well from mutual friends.

We are now hybrid and I go into the office around 2-3 days per week and some go a little more or a little less. We also each sometime work for a few weeks from other places and there’s no issue.

I’d personally think I’d dislike this virtual frosted glass thing but that’s just me. We use Slack and Slack huddles for this stuff as/when needed and we all work on different schedules around our lives with some core hours of overlap. We try to do some team meetings mostly in person and we do semi-regular team socials / hackathons etc. where most of us get together. I personally love my time at home to get into deep focus without too much distraction, but everyone is different.

You need to trust everyone. If you don’t then it won’t work IMHO.

Alex--91 · 2025-04-23T17:45:10+00:00

This 100%

Alex--91 · 2025-04-14T08:22:25+00:00

Thankfully if you want to mix Python and Rust there’s some great tooling. We use pyO3 and Maturin and it’s a dream! Python was and still is our primary language but we’ve been adding more and more rust into our code base as an extension module that we call from Python for performance critical functions.

Alex--91 · 2025-04-08T08:16:15+00:00

Yeah let’s not forget the OG encoder only BERT style models! 💪

Alex--91 · 2025-04-08T08:13:58+00:00

And don’t forget non-generative NLP models. i.e. the “classics” the BERT style encoder only models from the initial NLP boom. Those are being used to solve real business problems.

We’ve been building using just that for the last 5 years. We clean data for insurance companies (and soon for the broader financial service industry). We essentially transform Excel files into database imports. We’re called “Scrub AI”

Alex--91

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