I’m not going to name you publicly, but if you were the speaker who put in the abstract that was so obviously written by ChatGPT it made me groan “Oh, come on” so loud people asked what I was looking at and then they groaned too, you should be almost as embarrassed as the people who accepted it

If you're about to start a sentence with "I shouldn't say this, but" don't say it!

The solution to layoffs is starting your own company. It is not as difficult as people think. You do not need (or want) VC funding. You do not need (or want) a large, complex product or to solve a huge problem. 1/7

Disagreements are not problems. They are opportunities to learn. For example, when I have to prove something that seems intuitively correct to me, I have to drill deeply into things like hard numbers. 1/5

This is heartbreaking. The people causing this are fucking monsters.

To my thinking, "Scrum Master" is not a role. It's a collection of "accountabilities" (to use the makes-me-shudder Scrum Guide terminology) that can be distributed across the team. 1/5

<rant> This is a post about quality. The continued #enshitification of @Amazon set me off. I tried to watch a movie last night. It was filmed in English, but the only version available was dubbed in French with English subtitles. 1/9

Building Ikea furniture this weekend reminded me of two challenging life facts: * If it's not aligned, more force won't help. * If it's aligned, more force won't help. Take that, #996.

One piece of common wisdom that I've come to disagree with is "do the most complicated thing first." In a waterfall world, that's a risk-reduction strategy, but in an incremental development context, it's actually the opposite. 1/7

I've always hated the Apple-style infinitely-long animated web pages where the scroll wheel just moves stuff around on the page rather than scrolling. All that does is add confusion and make me work harder to see actual content. 1/12

I regularly hear about people pushing (and creating PRs) for essentially unreviewed AI-generated work. A "vibe coder" who accepts what the LLM creates without thought is causing more problems than they're worth. It is the responsibility of whoever is using an LLM to write the code to: 1/5

I’ve been thinking about the exuberance (and often hostility) surrounding vibe coding vs other techniques. Vibe coding is not particularly more efficient or productive than other approaches (as many studies show)—it’s just different. 1/11

Yesterday, I posted that the "fail fast" mantra doesn't sit well with me [https://t.ly/fXEzJ]. One thing I don't like about that maxim is the framing. To me, everything we do is an experiment. 1/4

"Fail fast" is not a viable approach to software construction. There's no benefit in constant failure. What we want to do is succeed fast. Do that with small batches and frequent corrections based on feedback. That's not "failure," it's just part of the process. 1/2

Never put security in the hands of amatuers—that includes both product people and "experienced" (but not in security) programmers. On a recent trip to Europe, I made the mistake of logging onto a US web site without using a VPN. 1/5

More and more, I'm seeing AI-generated (or "enhanced") headshots everywhere from LinkedIn to dating sites. To me, at least, that is an immediate no. Relationships, be they employment or personal, are built on trust. An AI-genereated (or even "enhanced") photo is a lie, plain and simple. 1/2

Okay, for the folks who asked: here's the majority AI view, writing up the reasonable, thoughtful view on AI that the vast majority of people in tech hold, that gets overshadowed by the bluster and hype of the tycoons trying to shill their nonsense. anildash.com/2025/10/17/t... Please share!

Remember when i said we're living in the scariest parts of a Gibson novel thanks to a bunch of dudes who misunderstand Gibson's novels? Well now I want to discuss the verified govt accounts spewing rightwing propaganda— possibly via a bot-run troll farm— & why you should block them for your safety.

#NOKINGS New York City, NY

😍 Boston, you are beautiful. #NoKings

Bear in mind that even after the dot-com bubble burst, we were still making websites. In fact, after the outsource-to-foreign-climes madness had worn off, wages were at a premium because a lot of people had left the industry in the interim, and the people who were left could ask for the stars. 1/7

A periodic reminder that a "do you really want to do that" dialog is an abomination. Yes, I want to do that, or I wouldn't have asked the first time! Also, by the time that dialog pops up, I'm already annoyed because it's in the way of me getting back to whatever I was doing before. 1/4

Why is it that the people who seem to have the strongest negative opinions about Mob/Ensemble programming are usually the people who have never experienced it? The thing they imagine has nothing to do with the real thing, but that doesn't stop them from having opinions. 1/2

We all adhere to a *system* of work. That system may or may not be chaotic, but it's a system nonetheless: a collection of components and subsystems that work in concert to achieve a single goal—in our case, to produce a product. 1/10

Cursing is rarely a symbol of low class. It's often a mark of high authenticity. Evidence: Swearing predicts higher rates of honesty and integrity. It signals a willingness to prize candor over courtesy. A little profanity can show that you're being real and you do give a damn.

It’s the Feds making Portland look like a war zone— not the protesters. And honestly, these protesters are brilliant. They’re flipping the whole authoritarian cosplay on its ass!

Let's talk about the cost of a stand-up meeting. Here in the SF-Bay Area, A senior programmer can make $300K/year or more. Starting salaries are more around $175K. Let's average at $250K to make the math easy. Your cost to the company is higher than that. 1/5

Amsterdam!

Last night, I was chatting in the hotel bar with a bunch of conference speakers at Goto-CPH about how evil PR-driven code reviews are (we were all in agreement), and Martin Fowler brought up an interesting point. The best time to review your code is when you use it. 1/11

Two people arguing about a decision (at least past the point where any new information is emerging) is a bad sign. I'd ask myself a few questions: (1) Has the incentive system within your company encouraged competition? 1/11

Leadership is a characteristic of an individual. It is NOT a position to which somebody can be appointed.

A periodic reminder that leadership and management are two entirely different things. Calling a manager a "leader" is an appalling bit of doublespeak. You cannot appoint or assign a leader. 1/6

If you’re canceling subscription services with giant companies with ties to terrible people, you should think about replacing them with a library card. Many library systems give you access to physical media (some of which you can’t find on streaming!) as well as other great stuff.

I want to cut through the "Agenic AI" gatekeeping BS for a moment. Putting the conclusion first: If you know how to build a microservice and make a REST call, you're an "AI-Agent Developer." Congratulations! Everything else is trivia. 1/10

A question for the language nerds among us. I was taught that you hyphenate compounds only when they're used as an adjective. For example, "self-managing teams." Grammarly, however, wants to hyphenate non-ajectival use (e.g., "teams are self-managing"). Is that legit?

I long for the day that this speech feels more like science fiction again.

The last political column I was allowed to write in the @washingtonpost.com was a criticism of Obama. His people took issue with my piece, but we were respectful. Now he is tweeting in support of me. This is how free political speech and respect for debate *actually works*. Or used to work.

Biology Department xkcd.com/3140/

Bluesky, the supposed "left-wing echo chamber," is suspending people for making jokes about Charlie Kirk. I've been skeptical of Bluesky since they went out of their to protect notorious transphobe activist Jessie Singal, but this is a new level of siding with the far right.

This is the person they are suspending people over btw

Ya know. I keep hearing how AI will eliminate "junior devs," but the same tech requires senior devs to fix, validate, and test the generated code. How are we to create senior devs if there are no junior devs? Just askin'.

There is an inherent problem in building an "ecosystem," as compared to an application. My Apple TV is currently useless because the sound (routed: Apple TV→HDMI→TV→HDMI→sound bar) is almost half a second out of sync with the video (which has only one hop). 1/10

Who says that AI doesn't create programming jobs?

<rant> The gatekeeping associated with AI is beginning to annoy me. I have to stay on top of this stuff, so I watch a lot of videos from sources like O'Reilly as well as conference videos. Most of the stuff I watch is useless. 1/5

One of the critical issues surrounding AI chatbots is user trust. We've all experienced some lame support bot providing *no* support at all. 1/10

AI-generated code is here to stay, but there are issues. One thing to consider is the sheer size of AI-generated code. An LLM is not particularly concerned with creating small, elegant solutions. It just puts together things that (mostly) "work" by copying from places like GitHub. 1/8

The attached graphic is an excellent summary of everything that a good Product person does. You will note that "_project_ management," "manage tickets," "compel or browbeat people to build X," and "use Jira" are nowhere to be seen. 1/7

A worthy cause and also an indictment of our society, in which teachers have to beg the public to get basic classroom supplies. Education is essential in any country that wants to succeed in the world economy. We in the US are attacking it on every level. The economic consequences will be dire.

Demanding a certification in a single process (like Scrum) is like demanding that a Michelin 3-star chef be certified in water boiling.The problem with being certified in a single process is that no single process is adequate. 1/2

Learned helplessness happens when you are regularly exposed to punishment for things you have no control over. You learn that punishment is inevitable, no matter what you do. The result is passivity. You don’t bother to try to improve because there’s no point. 1/12