"People are all doing a thing, and I think there are mistakes they could make with it" to me is a challenge to think about how to better scaffold those people rather than a reason to have contempt for people.

Some thoughts on eating meat, which isn’t really about eating meat. jacobian.org/2026/jun/16/...

It’s a long game for his biggest video yet: ”Mr Beast gives ex-employee all his money (because a judge ordered him to)”

I just think Geno would look a lot prettier if he smiled more

OK, not that anyone asked, but let me just explain why my takes re: Tesla stans are what they are and why they're so pointed. I ended up in conversation with someone who is a pretty big deal in Tesla circles. Had influence with Elon etc. He didn't know the words "Alpitronic Hypercharger" 🧵

Hey if you’re looking to try/retry/find a home on the ActivityPub/mastodon shaped part of the fediverse, I will personally help you get set up, move followers, block assholes, etc I have no interest in debating the merit of bsky-v-mastodon, purely offering help. Reskeets welcome ✨

People who are having success managing (low-stakes, non-production) servers with LLMs — how are you going about it? Are you just pointing Claude (or whatever) at an SSH connection, or are you having the LLM write config management code and then applying that? Or something else?

The “default” working model for open source projects is working in public: you don’t need permission to contribute, you can just show up. When this doesn’t work, people often retreat into working in private. This is a mistake! There is a middle ground: jacobian.org/2025/oct/18/...

Hey #Django fam do I Know anybody at Zest Health? They've got some jobs I'm interested in and are apparently a django shop. Boosts appreciated!

Reading @jacobian.org 's exit from tech rings a bell. We love computers but we hate the tech industry. We love space but we dread the space industry. We love music but we loathe the record industry. We can have nice things, just not under capitalism. (OTOH, excited for him ❤️)

In case anyone’s wondering, `jacobian . bsky . social` isn’t me. Super flattered that I now rank high enough to score an impersonator tho!

A lot of tech people, particularly more junior folks, are looking for jobs right now. A short but important note for them: newcomers should generally ignore career advice from people who've been in the field longer than 10 or 15 years. jacobian.org/2025/mar/13/...

A reminder: doing illegal things is illegal. If somebody gives you an order to do something illegal, it is your obligation to say no. "Just following orders" has never been a defense, legally or ethically.

Worth reviewing: freedom.press/digisec/blog...

Part six of my risk series is up — a final (long) sidebar to the introduction, coming back around the the concept of quantitative risk analysis and giving a more complete explanation of what I see as the pros and cons of that practice: jacobian.org/2025/jan/28/...

> Lots of situations in life are like this, where there’s a loud way to accomplish very little and a quiet way to do some good. And far too often, we reward people for doing the loud ineffective thing. alexgaynor.net/2025/jan/27/...

I'd like to write a version of jacobian.org/2020/may/8/e..., but tailored to management roles. If you have a manager resume that lists specific accomplishments, and you'd be OK with me anonymized bits in a post like that, please email me your resume? jacob at jacobian dot org.

💪❤️🇺🇸 hello former 18f and usds colleagues. reach out and say hi www.propublica.org/tips/federal...

400 individual members of the Django Software Foundation – pretty cool milestone! https://thib.me/400-django-individual-members Now going for 500! 🌈 That’d be a great milestone to reach for the 20-year birthday of #Django in July 2025. Submit a nomination, or 2, or 3 to help make it happen?

Last night someone lit a Tesla on fire at the dealership here in Salem. Golly gee.

Part whatever in my risk series: When you look at a likelihood/impact risk matrix, you might notice that “medium” appears twice – once as high-likelihood/low-impact, and once as low-likelihood/high-impact. These two “mediums” aren’t at all the same! jacobian.org/2025/jan/17/...

Most serious accidents aren't singular events, but instead are the result of a series of small, seemingly-inconsequential missteps. We call this the Swiss Cheese Model, and it's one of the most important concepts in risk management: jacobian.org/2025/jan/16/...

Continuing my risk series with a short sidebar: we usually define Risk as the product of Likelihood and Impact, but some disciplines include a third factor, Exposure. What's up with that? jacobian.org/2025/jan/15/...

I am a former incarcerated firefighter. I served in a California fire camp from 2009 to 2012. Misinformation is afire on the internet, so here are facts about the prison firefighter program, all in one place. A thread.

shotenfreude (n): the pleasure at watching the other team shoot an airball

My favorite new years tradition is reading about all the dumb things people did to their wieners last year defector.com/what-horribl...

I was on the board of a nonprofit that received funding from MacKenzie Scott. Her no strings attached gift was game changing. More philanthropists need to adopt this model instead of capitalist brained ideas of efficiency that are ultimately counterproductive.

No DSF Office Hours this week — we’re all off celebrating various holiday things. See y’all next week!

No DSF Office Hours this week — we’re all off celebrating various holiday things. See y’all next week!

I heard there was a secret ooze that turned four reptiles into dudes, but you don’t really care for turtles do ya

Did my usual Portland/San Francisco trip yesterday, third year in a row doing it in an EV (Ioniq 5). Went super smoothly; the charging infrastructure along I-5 is _noticeably_ better than even just a year ago. New stations with more plugs, no de-rated stations, all just super smooth.

i get why folks like to rate and rank game changer episodes, but for what it's worth, i don't like thinking about the series that way!! i like thinking about it a ~portfolio~ of evidence that will one day lead to my arrest

My conclusion is that the NYPD wanted to try to counteract the PR damage of being publicly outwitted by a random guy on a rental bike with a show of force and, because they’re bad at their jobs, accidentally made him look like the gritty, fuckable anti-hero of a Marvel franchise.

Whoa, Congress passed the EXPLORE act! This is super good news for anyone who uses public lands! It funds long-distance bike routes, protects bolting climbing routes in wilderness areas, expands Ever Kid In A Park, and more. I didn’t think it was gonna happen, yay hooray!

YAY HOORAY, welcome new Steering Council!

100000% agree. Dropout is the best money I spend on entertainment and second place isn’t even remotely close close

Yesterday I wrote some thoughts and insights about my first Django Software Foundation board meeting as a director 🦄 I share it, along with the inevitable screenshot, as an act of transparency 🤗 www.paulox.net/2024/12/11/m... #DSF #Board #FreeSoftware #Community

There are times when I think about how weird the Patreon (or whatever) premium subscription model is. “We’ll give out best fans our worst material” is just really a weird-ass way to run a business

MOM SAYS SHE IS PROUD OF BOTH OF US EQUALLY

OOGA CHACKA

Tomorrow's Wednesday, which means we'll once again have DSF Office Hours at 6 PM UTC (10am US/Pacific). It's an open space to chat about anything DSF-related, ask for help, or just quietly work on DSF stuff with some virtual company. Same link as usual. DM me or any board member if you need it.

Part 2 of my series on risk: so you've identified a risk; what do you do about it? jacobian.org/2024/dec/10/...

Right so after several recent incidents at work it seems like it's time to tap the sign again: Never apologize to me when your cat crashes a video call. Your cat is perfect. I understand that the begging for attention is not charming to you but it is to me and I wish to see your cat. Thank you.

that's a wrap on game changer season 7

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_bo... — something @harihareswara.net shared with me this morning thats really resonating with how I’m feeling about the killing of the UHC CEO.

🏀 Well, we were due for a loss anyway, might as well have been to a fellow Jay. Can’t do much if your opponent is gonna shoot 50% from 3. GG Creighton, y’all are gonna be one hell of a hard out come March.

All jokes aside it's really fucked up to see so many people on here celebrating murder. No one here is the judge of who deserves to live or die. That's the job of the AI algorithm the insurance company designed to maximise profits on your health and no one else