iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Bryan Cantrill @bcantrill.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

The contagion of fear bcantrill.dtrace.org/2026/09/13/t...

bcantrill.dtrace.org

The contagion of fear | The Observation Deck

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Dan McKinley @mcfunley.com · 10/09/2026

Wrote a new talk about how we should all give up on writing prompts by hand

evaluation.club

Prompts aren’t Real

Dispatches from Agentic Product

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Hilary Mason @hilarymason.com · 17/08/2026

Excellent work from 404. Respect for books is such a basic value that signals so many things about people.

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Q McCallum @qethanm.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Important @rebeccaplevin.bsky.social article captures so much of what's wrong with how tech is built + deployed into businesses. Top of my list: when you quantify a situation you don't understand, you wind up with data/systems/models that look neat on-screen but are really a mess on the ground.

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Camille Fournier @skamille.themanagerswrath.com · 14/05/2026

Even though I've made this joke myself I actually really hate the "all developers have to be engineering managers now with agents" No, they all need to be tech leads, not ems. Unless you're having to deal with the agents' interpersonal issues and the PM distracting them and getting them promoted and

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steve o’grady @sogrady.org · 19/04/2026

i’m on vacation this week and am not generally paying attention to social media, but i feel obligated as a member of the technology industry to say that i want absolutely no part of a “Technological Republic.” what a puerile, ahistorical and amoral set of aims. twitter-thread.com/t/2045574398...

twitter-thread.com

Because we get asked a lot. by @PalantirTech(Palantir) | Twitter Thread Reader

Because we get asked a lot. The Technological Republic, in brief. 1. Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible. The engineering elite of Silicon Valley has an affir...

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Cliff @cliff.leaninto.it · 15/04/2026

Who is hiring remote staff+ engineers. Feels like its about time to do something new. github.com/moonpolysoft...

github.com

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École des Bro-Arts @aphyr.woof.group.ap.brid.gy · 07/04/2026

I never imagined that the Turing test would fall within my lifetime. Nor did I imagine that I would feel so disheartened by it. aphyr.com/posts/411-the-future-of-e…

aphyr.com

The Future of Everything is Lies, I Guess

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Alex Rasmussen @alexras.net · 24/03/2026

A recording of my SCaLE talk, “The Tip of the Iceberg”, is now available! It’s an overview of the Iceberg table format, diving into why it exists, how it works, and how to operate it. #databs youtu.be/RErvQrA7VZM?...

youtu.be

The Tip of the Iceberg

YouTube video by Southern California Linux Expo

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Ben Pfaff @benpfaff.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Relational algebra is the most formal kind of mathematics because of all the little bowties ⨝

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Alex Rasmussen @alexras.net · 17/01/2026

“Things good. Also bad. Good time for smart. Also for dumb. For believe things. Also for not believe things. Lights on, but also off. People happy, but also people sad.” Great book.

A tweet advertising Magibook, a service that “turns hard books into easy books”

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Alex Rasmussen @alexras.net · 05/12/2025

You might want to check on your apps. There’s some 🔥 🥒 🔥 spicy unpickling going on …

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John Wiseman @lemonodor.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

I didn't realize atomic bomb tests in Nevada were visible from Los Angeles. www.amusingplanet.com/2016/09/how-...

amusingplanet.com

How The Atomic Tests Looked Like From Los Angeles

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A.L. Goldfuss @ghoulpus.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

🌿 NEW STORY DAY🩸 “Drosera regina” is about a woman whose body behaves like a carnivorous plant, attracting men whether she likes it or not. Read here: www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/dros... Listen here: tinyurl.com/drosera-regina Art by the talented @headfullopuddin.bsky.social

Art by Becca Snow. A woman struggles to keep her head above water as she in ensnared by various objects: a boat, a hammer, a helmet, etc. Sundew stalks surround her head.

The men knew before she did. Before this boy, before sophomore year, before even her twelfth birthday, they had jostled her on the sidewalk and hooted from cars, searching for something just past her skin. But now, with her panties stripped off and the boy’s eyes on her, Jackie felt a strange prickling. A warning pacing behind her ribs. A mouth about to drip.

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sophie alpert @sophiebits.com · 23/08/2025

I keep getting into conversations with engineers where I talk about how desperately I want my database to support materialized views with incremental updates and too often I get a blank stare in response. so I wrote a new post about why you should care! sophiebits.com/2025/08/22/m...

sophiebits.com

Materialized views are obviously useful

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Travis Street @travisstreet.com · 22/06/2025

left: the interview questions right: the actual job

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Alex Rasmussen @alexras.net · 16/04/2025

(Resets the “days since it was DNS” counter to zero)

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Alex Rasmussen @alexras.net · 16/04/2025

I have no plans to hire employees. Bubbles — Bits on Disk’s new Senior Director of Positive Vibes — provides the vibes for free, so I’m making an exception. Welcome to the team, Bubbles! Shoutout to @ragmopandgoose.bsky.social - I’ve never had a better officemate.

Bubbles, a rainbow-colored puppet, Bits on Disk’s new Senior Director of Positive Vibes

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Cohen is a Ghost @skullmandible.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

a discord is not a forum. I don't want to join your product's community; I want to read the solution to my technical problem from two posters who worked it out 4 years ago

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Coda @codahale.com · 28/03/2025

There’s a weird and unexamined tension between the “AI makes it possible for unskilled people to write complex code” and “you need to start learning how to use these tools or you’ll be left behind” lines of rhetoric in a lot of recent AI codegen writing I’m seeing.

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Alex Rasmussen @alexras.net · 27/03/2025

A great retrospective on a tool that saved my ass during my brief stint in engineering leadership. We would all benefit from more people sharing organizational infrastructure like this publicly.

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Camille Fournier @skamille.themanagerswrath.com · 24/02/2025

I continue to believe that the discrepancy in the idea that the silicon valley "elite" read "seeing like a state" but still obsessively believe they can monitor and drive scaled efficiency across millions and billions of people is simply: they didn't actually read it

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greg2hats @cyberbadboy.com · 07/02/2025

Billy corgan high register: it's time for breakfast Billy corgan low register: who wants pancakes

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HYTRADBOI @hytradboi.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

The program is up and tickets are live at www.hytradboi.com/2025/#program. I'll keep updating this thread as the last 10 talks hit camera-ready.

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Dan McKinley @mcfunley.com · 11/01/2025

Wrote about the irrationality of the boss revolt mcfunley.com/on-misery

mcfunley.com

On Misery

Not every fun activity or moral good is a waste of time.

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Alex Rasmussen @alexras.net · 09/01/2025

Love to live in a world where the fact checks need fact checking, but here we all are. This whole thread is worth a read.

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Bryan Boatman @bryanboatman.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

Direct hit on the Sunset Fire in Hollywood. 🎯 Nice work, @lafd.bsky.social #LAFD c/o @nbcla.bsky.social 👨🏼‍🚒

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

For SoCal friends, Here is a list of resources for shelter, animal boarding, free items, and distribution hubs. These places can also use donations (e.g., food, water, masks, and blankets). Please consider donating if you can. For more info, visit Instagram: mutualaidla

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decorative gourd @taco.cat · 08/01/2025

Wow that’s some shit. A policy carve-out to specifically allow users to accuse LGBTQ people of being mentally ill. > “We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality”

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George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

I continue to be deeply moved by this statement to the heavens by President Carter.

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dbsmasher.com @dbsmasher.com · 18/12/2024

I’m just gonna go ahead and advertise this. @aphyr.woof.group.ap.brid.gy class IS a class for all staff+/principal engineer/architect types. If you are on the IC track you will benefit from this class. Do with that information what you will as new year budgets are discussed.

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Camille Fournier @skamille.themanagerswrath.com · 13/12/2024

"It’s tempting to use the term intangible when what we really mean is that such things are hard to quantify in our modern institutional environment with the kinds of measuring tools that are used by modern bureaucratic systems."

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Ryan Bernardoni @dangercart.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

That a dude with a couple cameras and a plate of appetizers can make something worth $82.5 million and a media company looks at that and goes "couldn't we make even more money if we had AI do it?" tells you exactly how stupid these people are

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Annalee @flowerhorne.com · 10/12/2024

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.

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Jay Hulme @jayhulmepoet.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

"Kings hammer mistrust into swords, demand battle songs, and the world deafens with terror of one's neighbour. I turn to words. Their little lamps will outlive my flicker, that of lords, and of this current fear. [...]" - by Rosie Garland - @rosiegarlandwriter.bsky.social

Bede writes a history of the English people
Rosie Garland

Ask, why I carve feathers to the spike of knives
when men are too busy to read. I should be bricking
windows into arrow-slots; should be bending
yew to longbows. The year roars with blood,
the murder of faith, and enemies close, closer.
Kings hammer mistrust into swords, demand
battle songs, and the world deafens with terror
of one's neighbour. I turn to words.
Their little lamps will outlive my flicker,
that of lords, and of this current fear. I grind
gall, vinegar, hone my quill. Feed the dark age with light.

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Chris @chris.blue · 05/12/2024

The more catalogs you create, the stronger I become. -- @kevinjqliu.bsky.social

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Alex Rasmussen @alexras.net · 04/12/2024

I started working on this full-sized 3D-printed Stormbreaker replica in late 2019 as a Halloween costume prop. Almost 5 years later, it’s finally finished and mounted on my office wall. 100+ hours of printing, over 4 feet long, weighs several kg. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.

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Alex Rasmussen @alexras.net · 03/12/2024

The existing integration between Iceberg and Glue is a confusing mess, so it’s heartening to see AWS full-throatedly embrace Iceberg after kicking Lake Formation Managed Tables to the curb earlier in the year. Very interested to see what they’ve done with the Athena and Spark integrations for this.

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Alex Rasmussen @alexras.net · 27/11/2024

Doing some ETL on a legacy data warehouse today.

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Alex Rasmussen @alexras.net · 27/11/2024

There’s a lot of excitement about S3 compare-and-swap support lately, particularly as it concerns Iceberg and the ability for “metastore-less” transactions. Personally, what I’d love to see come out of this is metastore-agnostic support for multi-table transactions. I miss those. #dataBS

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Camille Fournier @skamille.themanagerswrath.com · 26/11/2024

Need a holiday gift for the nerd in your life? How about a copy of my new book, Platform Engineering: A Guide for Technical, Product, and People Leaders! amzn.to/4eUz5zB

amzn.to

Platform Engineering: A Guide for Technical, Product, and People Leaders

Amazon.com: Platform Engineering: A Guide for Technical, Product, and People Leaders eBook : Fournier, Camille, Nowland, Ian: Kindle Store

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Coda @codahale.com · 22/11/2024

Much harder to admit to yourself that screaming at people online is a force which gives you meaning and now that you don’t have anyone to scream at all the old dark thoughts come rushing in like ice cold seawater in a sinking boat and it’s just you and the bone-deep certainty that one day you’ll die

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Christian Minich @christianminich.com · 19/11/2024

SDF just released SDF lint, a sql linter written in rust and intended to be a drop in replacement for sqlfluff. The rust “this python library but fast” continues apace #dataBS open.substack.com/pub/sdfteam/...

open.substack.com

1000X Faster SQL Linting

We introduce SDF lint, a high performance dialect specific SQL linter, written in Rust.

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Alex Rasmussen @alexras.net · 19/11/2024

Bits on Disk’s social media manager insists, quite loudly, that these are still called “tweets”.

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Alex Rasmussen @alexras.net · 15/11/2024

OK fine, _one_ more social media profile.

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