diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 8b35464c..9497c8b9 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,5 +1,19 @@
 # Example application code for the "Architecture Patterns with Python" book
 
+>## Downstream Fixes
+>
+>I, [evokateur](https://github.com/evokateur), will push fixes (mostly having to do
+>with SqlAlchemy 2.0) that make the tests pass in chapter branches here.
+>
+>I will keep the version of Python at 3.8. This will be good for sanity checks as I'm
+>[coding along](https://github.com/evokateur/python-architecture) in 3.12
+>
+>### Tests Passing Branches
+>
+> - [chapter_02_repository](https://github.com/evokateur/python-architecture-code/tree/chapter_02_repository) (works with SqlAlchemy 2.0)
+> - [chapter_04_service_layer](https://github.com/evokateur/python-architecture-code/tree/chapter_04_service_layer) (ditto)
+> - [master](https://github.com/evokateur/python-architecture-code) (SqlAlchemy pinned to <2 upstream, aha.)
+
 ## Chapters
 
 Each chapter has its own branch which contains all the commits for that chapter,
@@ -7,20 +21,17 @@ so it has the state that corresponds to the _end_ of that chapter.
 If you want to try and code along with a chapter,
 you'll want to check out the branch for the previous chapter.
 
-https://github.com/cosmicpython/code/branches/all
-
+<https://github.com/cosmicpython/code/branches/all>
 
 ## Exercises
 
 Branches for the exercises follow the convention `{chapter_name}_exercise`,
-eg https://github.com/cosmicpython/code/tree/chapter_04_service_layer_exercise
-
+eg <https://github.com/cosmicpython/code/tree/chapter_04_service_layer_exercise>
 
 ## Requirements
 
-* docker with docker-compose
-* for chapters 1 and 2, and optionally for the rest: a local python3.8 virtualenv
-
+- docker with docker-compose
+- for chapters 1 and 2, and optionally for the rest: a local python3.8 virtualenv
 
 ## Building the containers
 
@@ -33,11 +44,21 @@ make up
 make all # builds, brings containers up, runs tests
 ```
 
-## Creating a local virtualenv (optional)
+## Creating a local virtualenv (~optional~ recommended)
 
 ```sh
 python3.8 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate # or however you like to create virtualenvs
+```
 
+>_(I like to do it like this)_
+>
+>```
+>pyenv shell 3.8
+>python -m venv .venv
+>source .venv/bin/activate
+>```
+
+```
 # for chapter 1
 pip install pytest 
 
@@ -54,7 +75,6 @@ pip install -e src/
 
 <!-- TODO: use a make pipinstall command -->
 
-
 ## Running the tests
 
 ```sh
@@ -73,4 +93,3 @@ pytest tests/e2e
 ## Makefile
 
 There are more useful commands in the makefile, have a look and try them out.
-