Adding to my reply in a good thread (check it out!) I do think AI can be valuable for creative work, but only if we use it to strengthen the actual work we're doing, not bypass it. I always find writing humbling, because my ideas feel far better & more powerful *before* I try to lay them out.

There's a % of the comments from people fully aware this is a direct cover of a Beatles song (odd lyrics exactly as written) and a % fully sure it's a bizarre Japanese cultural phenomenon, baffled by "the west" but none of them seem aware the other view exists, and I can't tell what the %s are

I, a philosopher, hate to break it to that guy but all concepts are in fact made up, socially constructed, artificial, etc.

Working on AI-driven projects is messed up in ways I'd have never imagined. I go from celebrating amazingly valuable tools we've built & released in mere months, centering people learning, avoiding waste at scale — to checking my novelist spouse has joined the class action suit against Anthropic

"About the Author" heading

Great piece (and a quick read)! Two complementary ideas often in my head: Compassion > empathy. I.e. feeling [what I think is] your pain is... okay but what matters is that I'm clear-headed enough to hear what you need & hope for (especially clarity, control, growth) and _do something_ about it.

I have a December gift for you all 🎁 I am finally able to open up a general call for ADVANCE READERS for my book: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SOFTWARE TEAMS (coming 2026). I cannot tell you how much it means to me to share this! Indicate your interest here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Fixing/renovating the bathroom, and putting on my UX hat... OMG why does no one ask these questions by default? • Turn on the (cold at first) water. Where does it go? Is it VERY obvious? • Finish shower, get a towel. Where did water drip? • Drop the handheld sprayer: will it hit the floor? Then—

I've confirmed my spouse's first book was used in Anthropic's training material

Master of Literal Puppets Take Five, Literally

Big projects are faster to do on your own, but if you want buy-in from others (e.g. culture, strategy, reorg, pivot, brand change), you need to work with others, so that there is buy-in at the end. (1/3)

this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like

Oops! Paid attention to politics during the workday and now I can’t concentrate because of the overwhelming feeling that this is all such a goddamn mess and I don’t know which details to engage with if any

A product that (almost) everyone uses from mid-sized tech companies and up but I rarely hear talked about: Grafana In The Pragmatic Engineer 2025 survey, it had more mentions than Cursor, and dominates as the answer to "how do you turn information into graphs" This is Grafana:

Good read, because I agree with many of these points, and because if you're building AI- powered products today (which we are), you are pitching to people who: • have been force-fed a LOT of hype on what gen AI can do & its goals • are already disillusioned on many of those promises • ->

Philips instructions, not assuming you have a chemistry degree, but that you have AI at your fingertips.

that's why a classic rule for interface design is: The User Is Drunk (as a substitute for every other incapacitating and distracting life factor)

I don't often use Strava on my phone; but now I've hit some great bugs in it. I apparently forgot to properly end a run in London; then (weeks later) chose a suggested route here in the mountains in France, and it thinks I just ... jumped? And it gets better

1. We interrupt this programming for some LEGITIMATELY GOOD NEWS Violent crime in Baltimore has PLUMMETED to historic lows How did the city do it? Baltimore adopted a comprehensive set of "woke" policies, treating violence as a public health issue

"Unfortunately the kidnappers were posing as ICE agents" "How terrible! How did they do that?" "Wore masks, had no badges or ID or marked vehicle... just said they were ICE"

If you need a moment to refocus on something healthy: may I suggest this more-likely alt-history of velociraptor + human coexistence?

🏳️‍🌈 Pride began with the bravery to be seen. We honor the courage of those who stood up at Stonewall—and stand with the LGBTQIA+ community today and every day. #PrideMonth

I'd actually love to see more systems designed for disengagement - where I can achieve my goals with the least work with the system, leaving me more for time & energy for what I choose (cf. the great Kathy Sierra & my own attention theft piece & also any number of detachment disciplines)

Still relatively early in my career — Google released their search autocomplete feature, amazing at the time. People were asking on Slashdot how they did it; I raced through their (frontend) code and wrote up my best guesses; and Joel Spolsky quoted me & linked my reply from a blog post.

Periodic reminder for those who forget or struggle with remembering to add alt text: Bluesky has a setting that will remind you to add alt text before posting any images. Go to "Settings," then "Accessibility." Select the checkbox for "Require alt text before posting."

one of my beefs with "write what you know" is that I've never seen it used as a way to encourage someone to go learn something new

Been wanting to post about ethics & AI for a while. It's complex, and I always feel like I need to learn more, but here's my current take; thoughts & disagreement welcome. I'm a software engineering manager (+ parent, US citizen, French resident), not philosopher, ethicist, regulation expert, etc.

It took me way too long to realize that explaining why X isn't a real risk doesn't help people fighting anxiety ... that said, I still feel pretty useless, trying to help. I need to read more here (advice welcome)

Well, there's a profoundly terrible idea

It's cruel to just post these kinds of looming mortality numbers with no trigger warning or anything Java was *brand new* when I started college, and that was 15 or 20 years ago, max

Staring at an email asking me to confirm the details of an urgent change, with a disastrous error I need to correct before they go ahead. Gmail, helping me:

Did you know Bluesky has a setting that will remind you to add alt text before posting any images? Global Accessibility Awareness Day is a great day to help you get that set up. Go to "Settings," then "Accessibility." Select the checkbox for "Require alt text before posting." #GAAD #GAAD2025

I cannot express enough how much I appreciate people who make distant & abstract science real like this.

I mean, imagine a society where 200 years ago, people saw that when you get sick, sometimes you get immunity... and realized you could get just a LITTLE sick & still get the natural immunity. But later, experts are so good a triggering the immunity that others decide it's better to get fully sick.

On this Mother’s Day—a parenting principle for all Fathers: “Give the lecture tired. You are not the top priority.”

One very cool thing about alt-text-only photos & videos is that you can capture & post with impunity — someone else's kid? Go for it. A stranger's maybe-embarrassing public argument? No problem. No need to frame shots, move passersby, wait for light. Plus you can live a moment & THEN capture it.

The idea of the world being "disenchanted" once science and "rationality" take hold has never sat well with me. You want to tell me that people who lived in a time when demons were considered a legit cause of disease somehow felt more mystical about life? I don't buy it.

Re LLMs writing term papers: the other day I saw someone say that using LLMs to write is like bringing a forklift to the gym. It's not that the weights need to go up; it's that you need to do the lifting. The doing of the work is the result, not the paper being done or the weights having moved.

Dad joke triumph, cooking with the 12-year-old: She was grating parmesan cheese and having a tough time close to the rind. "How am I supposed to grate this?" she asked. I leaned in close and gave her a huge grin. "You're doing grate!" There was some shouting, yes, but the smile was real

During covid lockdown days, I was out walking, totally alone, listening to odd music, and the clouds were just *amazing* — I climbed up on a high wall just to get a better view. Then, the owner of the house behind the wall pulled up & parked their car, and I instantly forgot all human language.

When you professionalise, you narrow the operation of an entity to just that one thing. In a human context, that means your only job is to make size 21b fussplocker wheels or whatever. It is not your job to know or care that the only use for them is in a torture tool or a nuke.

I want to write up more about the ethical issues; LLMs for content creation, or to (directly) answer your questions are both not-great uses (partly ethical reasons). But there are many more options than "ask an LLM directly", and the most valuable ones in my opinion use LLMs as a connecting layer.

My mom's visiting us here in France, from the US! Today we spent an hour or so taking the first steps to her getting reimbursed for some medical care she got here in Europe. Some phone calls, then finding & filling out forms to be mailed (no online submission possible) to Medicare, to be rejected—

Is your company hiring developers, designers, or data professionals? Please post your job openings on Diversify Tech to connect with 20K members from underrepresented tech communities: jobs.diversifytech.com/post?from=Veni I'd appreciate it if you could share with your recruiters! 💜

There's a huge PR lesson here. Maybe Target execs thought they were just participating in a shifting cultural debate, where "DEI" is code for "far left" whatever. But it's VERY meaningful to be against diversity, against equity, against inclusion. They can't even plausibly walk that back.

I was telling a great hydra joke, but a heckler cut me off— now I have two great hydra jokes.

Perfect example of a decision-making style that makes you trivial to manipulate. "If you can frame it in a way that feels like common sense, I'll agree"... ouch. How about: • check the problem you're attempting to fix: ARE there many votes by non-citizens being found? (No) • predict the results ->

✨ Metaphors for Gen AI that are more technically accurate than "like a person" ✨ Some thought "ghosts" are created when emotions — anguish, rage, despair — are so strong, they leave an imprint on the world, looping It turns out boring experiences leave ghosts, too, and we can mix them for playback

The poets say the violet is blue And red, red is the rose, But