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Ian ✨

@ianmdawson.bsky.social
119 followers 38 following 53 posts

I program computers and I dance Balboa, Collegiate Shag, and Lindy Hop.

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Reposted by Ian ✨
EMILY WILSON @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
There is a lot to say about the Nolan Odyssey movie. But one point that I think has not been emphasized enough is: this is a film about living in LA, as Nolan, my erstwhile British compatriot and age mate, has done for years. I gather it’s a strange place.
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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 13/03/2026
There are (sort of) two kinds of coders: those who see it as just a well-paying, stable job, and those who do it on nights and weekends because they love it, and it’s part of their identity. *Both* are under attack from bosses trying to put them out of work... www.anildash.com/2026/03/13/c... ...
anildash.com
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Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
I recently commented at work that it’s now faster to build a feature than it is to get time on people’s calendars to discuss it. I’m slowly facing the reality that almost all of professional software development has to be reimagined in a world where execution is essentially free. Wild times!
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Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
After several outages due to junior engineers pushing AI-generated code, Amazon is requiring senior engineers to sign off on them going forward. History has taught us bugs scale linearly with lines of code. So if you ship 2x or 10x the amount of code, you will have that much of an increase in bugs.
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Ian ✨ @ianmdawson.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
how could we not end this? www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
Senate Vote Count: Iran War Powers Resolution
The Senate rejected on a measure to rein in the use of military force in Iran.
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Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
It seems my intuition was right that OpenAI seems to be relying on contract terms (aka Hegseth pinky swearing) to enforce the U.S. military doesn't use ChatGPT for weapons and domestic spying while Anthropic actually built safeguards into the model.
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Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
A data scientist at Cash App quite her job after Block laid off 40% of her coworkers and offered those remaining, retention packages equivalent to a 75% pay increase. She said it’s dystopian to be forced to use AI tools that hasten the disappearance of the jobs we depend on for our livelihood.
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Simon Willison @simonwillison.net · 04/03/2026
I started a new chapter of my Agentic Engineering Patternw guide about anti-patterns - things NOT to do So far I only have one: Inflicting unreviewed code on collaborators, aka dumping a thousand line PR without even making sure it works first simonwillison.net/guides/agent...
simonwillison.net
Anti-patterns: things to avoid - Agentic Engineering Patterns
Anti-patterns: things to avoid - Agentic Engineering Patterns
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🌊⭐- Den 🌠 @herosaa.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Frozen in time #SightseerAU #RenewMonkieKid #LMKFanart
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Travis @coloradotravis.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
This really is all a lot worse than I thought it would be, and I was quite pessimistic.
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MisterJayEm @misterjayem.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
But we were assured* that robo cars were so much safer!! *by people who would profit from the implementation of robo cars
fortune.com
By Tesla's own math, it reveals that its robotaxis are 4x worse at driving than humans, with redactions hiding even more details | Fortune
By NHTSA standards, the Tesla Robotaxis are 8x worse than human drivers.
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Allen Holub @allenholub.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
In my experience, the vast majority of waste in a software shop is time spent building things nobody wants on top of overly complex architectures that solve problems we don't have. Focus on that. Put solving your customer's actual (not imagined) problems first. 1/3
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Kasey Feral Smith @kaseysmith.net · 01/03/2026
For this week's #BlueSkyArtShow
A pile of 15 pearls photographed on a white ground. Each pearl had a rough rendition of Vermeer's Girl With A Pearl Earring on it
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Ian ✨ @ianmdawson.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
Shouldn’t this also be illegal?
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The Economist @economist.com · 01/03/2026
While tariff lawsuits play out, uncertainty will persist, and so will the economic drag of all the trade-warmongering
econ.st
America’s trade chaos is just beginning
Tariff wrangling will stretch through the rest of Donald Trump’s term, and beyond
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Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
So both OpenAI and Anthropic say the U.S. military can’t use their AI models to kill or spy. However, OpenAI now has a Pentagon deal while Anthropic is banned from government contracts. So one of these companies is lying given the very different outcomes.
cnn.com
OpenAI strikes deal with Pentagon hours after Trump admin bans Anthropic | CNN Business
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced late Friday that the company had signed a deal with the Pentagon for its AI tools to be used in the military’s classified systems, but with seemingly similar guardrails...
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Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Truly shocking behavior for a winner of the FIFA Peace Prize.
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Ian ✨ @ianmdawson.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Get this guy out of power
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AmyMarie @amymarie3456.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Cybertruck is more explosive than the Ford Pinto the data proves it fuelarc.com/evs/its-offi...
fuelarc.com
It's Official: the Cybertruck is More Explosive than the Ford Pinto - FuelArc News
We now have a full year of data for the Cybertruck, and a strange preponderance of headlines about Cybertrucks exploding into flames, including several fatalities. That’s more than enough data to comp...
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Annette @ladywaterood.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
EXCELLENT ground.news/article/fran...
ground.news
France moves to bar US Ambassador Charles Kushner from direct government access
PARIS (AP) — France's top diplomat Monday requested that U.S. Ambassador Charles Kushner no longer be allowed direct access to members of the French government…
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Kayla B @queenofthesouth.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
The number of Americans who can’t comprehend the fact that voting is a constitutionally protected right and the at the other things that require a photo ID and proof of citizenship or legal residency are not is just baffling
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Ed @edrabbit.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Monument Valley night photograph from a few years ago that I don't think I ever posted
a black and white photograph of sand dunes in the foreground with Chimney Rock in silhouette against a night sky filled with stars and the Milky Way. Shot in Monument Valley by edrabbit
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Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
AI coding tools after you tell them “make no mistakes.”
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Ian ✨ @ianmdawson.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
The new iOS design system Liquid Glass is so confusing. Like… why did they use the old “active flashlight” icon for the inactive state here??
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Ian ✨ @ianmdawson.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
What could go wrong? (This seems like a terrible idea)
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Ian Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 20/02/2026
Yeah man it all sounds pretty fucking stupid when you put it like that, doesn't it
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Ryan Mac 🙃 @rmac.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
That Jeff Bezos's Amazon gave Brett Ratner, someone photographed with Jeffrey Epstein and in the Epstein Files, $75 million to make a doc about Melania Trump, while he chooses to destroy The Washington Post, says about all you need to know.
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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 05/01/2026
Schumer is so profoundly unfit for the moment that it’s impossible to overstate.
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Mr. Buddy @alexfirer.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
America's 250th is off to a strong start with a best of retread of our greatest hits. Regime change in South America over oil is just one of the many surprises we're getting, along with maybe some bombs dropped, and a potential war with England.
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Ian ✨ @ianmdawson.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
This is an appalling overreach by a lame duck president. What the hell: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/w...
nytimes.com
What We Know About the U.S. Operation in Venezuela
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Simon Willison @simonwillison.net · 18/12/2025
I see a lot of complaints about untested AI slop in pull requests. Submitting those is a dereliction of duty as a software engineer: Your job is to deliver code you have proven to work simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/18/...
simonwillison.net
Your job is to deliver code you have proven to work
In all of the debates about the value of AI-assistance in software development there’s one depressing anecdote that I keep on seeing: the junior engineer, empowered by some class of …
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Ian ✨ @ianmdawson.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
Some power seems to be back in parts of western SF at least
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511 SF Bay @511.org · 21/12/2025
ONGOING: SF Muni J and N Lines Remain Switching Back at Church/Duboce. K, L and M Lines Remain Switching Back at Castro. Trains Not Stopping at the Muni Metro/Market Street Subway. Embarcadero through Van Ness Stations are Closed. Due to Power Outage. goo.gl/TU4ZDK
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Ian ✨ @ianmdawson.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
SF power outage getting worse:
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St. John Barned-Smith @stjbs.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
San Francisco PG&E outages leave 40,000 customers without power www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/p...
sfchronicle.com
San Francisco PG&E outages leave 40,000 customers without power
As of 2 p.m., the utility estimated power would be restored between 3:30 p.m. and 3:45 p.m.
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Ian ✨ @ianmdawson.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Developers beware of Etsy, we just had our API integration revoked because we were posting test items to our test store from two countries. No recourse for us at all 😮
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Bruno J. Navarro @brunojnavarro.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
A data broker owned by major US airlines, including American Airlines, United, and Delta, is selling access to five billion plane ticketing records to the government for warrantless searching and monitoring of peoples’ movements, including by the FBI, Secret Service, ICE and other agencies
404media.co
Airlines Sell 5 Billion Plane Ticket Records to the Government For Warrantless Searching
New documents obtained by 404 Media show how a data broker owned by American Airlines, United, Delta, and many other airlines is selling masses of passenger data to the U.S. government.
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
'Ejection seat' by Cornelia Konrads, contemporary German artist, known for her land art and site-specific art installations #womensart #Saturday
Photo of an outdoor installation in the form of a giant wooden catapult as if about to project a seat in a park
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Zach Liscow @zliscow.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
🚨NEW RESULTS (w/ Slattery & Nober) - When gov't engineers retire, highway projects cost more: the engineers pay for themselves 6 times over - Improving gov’t engineer quality from the 25th to 75th percentile reduces costs by 14%, equal to 3x avg. engineer pay Paper: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
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Ian ✨ @ianmdawson.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Hell yes
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Athul K. Acharya @athul.acharya.cc · 09/09/2025
"Harvard can't use race as a factor in admissions, but ICE can use race as a factor in detentions" is a retrenchment essentially to a pre-Civil War understanding of the Constitution. It's vanishingly few steps removed from "Latinos have no rights which the white man is bound to respect."
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Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Marvel Studios leaving Georgia and taking all its productions to the UK because they don’t have to pay for employees’ health insurance there due to universal healthcare is a valuable lesson for America. We’ll ignore it but the lesson still stands. Universal healthcare creates jobs.
usatoday.com
Is Marvel leaving Georgia? Production shifts to UK spark industry shakeup
Marvel’s blockbuster era in Georgia may be ending, as the studio pivots overseas for its next wave of superhero films.
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Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
It’s been a month since I wrote this and I want to reiterate that as bad as things look now, Americans don’t understand how bad things are going to get.
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Ian ✨ @ianmdawson.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Exactly
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Princess Vimentin PhD | Cancer Biologist @princess-vimentin.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
Americans voted for affordable prices & a better country. Instead- Kennedy fired the panel of the real ACIP experts that make vaccine recommendations. Cancer & other research grants are cut. FDA has restricted Covid shots. We have measles & whooping cough outbreaks. 🧪 www.ft.com/content/9af0...
ft.com
Americans face biggest increase in health insurance costs in 15 years
Rising premiums add to pressure on households already feeling the pinch from the high price of goods
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 06/09/2025
No, employment for US natives is not soaring. The claims you've seen on this from the US Administration are from people not competent to interpret the statistics. "The apparent boom in native-born employment is just a statistical artifact". My @piie.com colleague @jedkolko.bsky.social explains—>
jedkolko.substack.com
No, Native-Born Employment Has Not Soared
A newly viral chart showing native-born employment levels is a multiple-count data felony. Focus instead on the native-born unemployment rate.
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Ritchie Torres @ritchietorres.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
About half of all imports consist of inputs for American manufacturing. Taxing those foreign components means fewer goods will be made in America.
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Rian Nejar 🦋 @riannejar.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Clear windows that collect Solar Energy [via Nanjing Uni] 🧪🥼🌞🔋🔲 Solar energy is guided by Cholesteric Liquid Crystal layer coatings on a standard window glass toward photovoltaic cells along edges. photonix.springeropen.com/articles/10.... #clear #colorless #windows #solar #energy #capture
photonix.springeropen.com
Colorless and unidirectional diffractive-type solar concentrators compatible with existing windows - PhotoniX
Solar concentrators laterally converge solar energy to the side of architectural glass and are attractive candidates for building-integrated photovoltaics. Present available luminescent-type and scatt...
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Large Johnson @flytyingguy.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
As someone who markets recruiting and HR software I can tell you that businesses are already operating as if we are mid-recession.
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The Editorial Board @editorialboard.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
3,000 bucks seems too low to me.
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