In that, dreadful, terrible moment, every black bloc protestor in the world is useless, but a line of concerned senior citizens, office workers and house-spouses is actually a 'harder' target. And 'the soldiers stood aside' is the sentence in the history book that goes before 'and the regime fell.'

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

In an old ad for board game Scattergories in Spain a player was shown flouncing out while anothet said “OK, we’ll accept ‘octopus’ as a pet”. “Aceptamos pulpo” has now entered the language in the meaning of “that’s a bit of a stretch but let’s go with it just for the sake of argument”.

Have been playing Hades 2 for a bit and I suspect its perfectly tweaked reward cycle is detracting from the quality of the game. I mean, do I want to play because I enjoy playing or because I want to get more of those rewards?

“You’ve got sadness in you, I’ve got sadness in me – and my works of art are places where the two sadnesses can meet, and therefore both of us need to feel less sad.” HBD, Mark Rothko ...

Here's your period reminder that "Luddite" does not mean "hates technology/progress". It means "hates how technology/progress benefit only the bosses while the workers get the shaft".

Here is 28 seconds of sleeping cat with little sleep noises for your calming down needs.

That "We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist" is still getting misattributed to James Baldwin instead of Robert Jones Jr., huh? Damn. Guess Mark Twain was right.

this is, hands down, the best video I've seen on men's influencer content and it's not close either

So I counted how many people were behind Silksong. 106. (And over 1000 people who backed the money) Character artists, background artists, musicians, sound folks, coders. This game was not made by 3 people. Stop pedling this bullshit.

Today is the 5th anniversary of David Graber's death. And with everything happening in the world, his work is now more relevant than ever before.

Blogged: How adding a flex-wrap almost spiraled out of control Or, about the thin line between value and distraction. smallsheds.garden/blog/2025/ho...

For a taste of her topic and writing, here's one of her promo threads for the book, about a ramp in Florence that is almost certainly a disability aid for the Medici, but mostly not recognized as such by historians. (and I doubt the Medici would have admitted it, for reasons in the thread)

was just discussing “AI” with a coworker and realized this: if i had wanted to use english to program complex systems that run nondeterministically, i would’ve gone into law

"The problem with a book is that you never know what it's planning to do to you until you're too far in it." - Nina Burgess in "A Brief History of Seven Killings" by Marlon James

There are only two genders.

My mom and stepdad are from the same diaspora group as Zohran Mamdani’s dad (same like “my stepdad was kicked out of the same town and knows some of his classmates”) and apparently the New York Times doesn’t understand how diaspora works, so I am going to tell you a little about my mom’s people!

On the whole, the Gujarati African diaspora is wealthy, well-educated, and pretty obsessed with integration and respectability politics on account of all the trauma. We’re also very tight-knit, which is helpful because we also have a lot of poverty and refugees.

Blogged: Some of the things I did after being off for a few weeks smallsheds.garden/blog/2025/so... Because I'd like to see testers share more about what they do day-to-day.

Related Torment Nexus: "The Method" (original title: "Corpus Delicti: Ein Prozess") by Juli Zeh from 2009

Jesus Christ as somebody who lives between two gigantic treacherous mountain ranges and is constantly getting news (both from komo 4 and friends of friends; my dad lost a dude a couple years ago himself) about people who have died while lost on said ranges: fuuuuuck

"I would put all projects that propose to substitute a computer system for a human function that involves interpersonal respect, understanding, and love in the same category [of obscene computer applications]." Computer Power and Human Reason, Joseph Weizenbaum, 1976, p. 269

Elizabeth Zagroba shares what it really looks like to be a Quality Lead. See the work behind the title, how to make your impact visible, and what quality means at scale at TestBash Brighton 2025, October 1–2.

Joep Schuurkes shares how his team builds election software used once a year, with no fixes or monitoring. Learn how to ensure quality under tight constraints at TestBash Brighton 2025, October 1–2.

Christopher Chant breaks down what really happens in a conversation. Learn how to respond with clarity and congruence using the Satir model at TestBash Brighton 2025, October 1–2.

‼️ DOWNHILL KICKSTARTER IS LIVE ‼️ You are not the MC in our story. You are the voice in her head. Break the 4th wall, walk between realities, and don't that let power go to your head...or do. It's your game! Play the demo now on Steam. Back us on Kickstarter 👇 www.kickstarter.com/projects/sis...

Am reading Joseph Weizenbaum's 1976 book "Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation". Am 38 pages in and I must say: wow! For some great quotes from the book you'll have to go here: chaos.social/@joeposaurus...

My book, The Quality Coach's Handbook, will be available for purchase on the 31st of May. Pre-register here (you'll be in good company 🙃) leanpub.com/qc

"What I had not realized is that extremely short exposures to a relatively simple computer program could induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people." (p. 7)

are there any recent (past year) articles/reports about how 'no tech' has become a selling point for schools in silicon valley/tech elite circles?

Blogged: How essential are your testers? (and also: how do you know?) smallsheds.garden/blog/2025/ho...

If typing faster were a significant problem in software development, lines of code would be a valuable metric.

Reminds me of this eternal Ted Chiang banger-

Google sees where the ball is going, that ChatGPT (the first and def not the last AI product in their space) threatens its core business model (ads served while people search for answers). It's pulling back resources from a product that is about to be outmoded/doesn't need innovation to stay top dog

Good thread here. Very confusing why, after many years of people underestimating the power of slings, people now insist that they were the equivalent of an ancient sniper rifle. I have a few things to add because there's a lot of weird Hebrew words in 2 Samuel 17 whose meaning is not very clear.

Alright, @sarahebond.bsky.social in her cruelty has made me aware of this remarkably incompetent talk Malcolm Gladwell gave and so I am going to inflict it on all of you by going through all of the mistakes he makes here in the hope that none of you will ever take him seriously again. 1/

The term "Luddite" as a pejorative synonym for "technophobe" was a technocrat PR coup; that's not what Luddites were about. They were a labour movement fighting to give workers control over technologies which were advancing w/o oversight and rapidly automating them out of their jobs. Sound familiar?

Blogged: Five levels of note-taking in meetings smallsheds.garden/blog/2025/fi...

For all the people unfazed by the ethical problems with current AI (problems in the present, not the long-term bullshit): Using AI means outsourcing your skill acquisition and retention to a (tech) company. Are you sure that's a good idea?

"Too often, meetings are maladapted attempts to solve problems." - Kill It with Fire, Marianne Bellotti

Since I haven't seen anyone else here mention them yet @adapalmer.bsky.social Terra Ignota books are very good indeed

The new Keynotes announcement are Elizabeth Zagroba and James Lyndsay! They have a very good idea how to rock you. I’m really looking forward to witnessing it! #AgileTD @agiletdzone.bsky.social @trendigcomp.bsky.social

The Call for Papers is Open—What Will You Share? We’re looking for 25-minute Talks, 105- and 120-minute Workshops, Bonus Sessions, and creative ideas for social activities or active sessions. Do you have something unique to bring to the stage? Submit before March 30. All info here: bit.ly/3PUeZuQ

Blogged: Benchmarking counterstring implementations in TypeScript Where I learn (among other things) that you should avoid reversing strings in Typescript if you can. smallsheds.garden/blog/2025/be...

Join Isabel Evans & Joep Schuurkes on Feb 27 at 14:00 GMT as they navigate the galaxies of systems thinking—unpack models, feedback loops & their impact. Don’t miss The Testing Planet Episode 9 🛸📺  https://www.ministryoftesting.com/news/expand-your-testing-universe-with-systems-thinking

If everyone is in meetings all the time, no one has time to prepare (for) the meeting, so the meetings are less effective, so there are more and longer meetings, so everyone is in meetings all the time. 🎠

Blogged: Optimizing for moments of discovery About the benefits of designing later and testing earlier through working in thin vertical slices and doing just-in-time refinement. smallsheds.garden/blog/2025/op...

🐸 The next Friends of Good Software #FroGSConf Open Space is this Saturday! If FroGS means nothing to you, read frogsconf.nl. If you're already a fan, check that the schedule works for you at bit.ly/frogs-feb2025. I hope you can make some time for it; it's better when you're there. 💚