iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 29/09/2026

Who tf decided incompetence is ok if it’s cute? Oh right, manosphere tech bros. Anthropomorphizing the chatbots wasn’t enough, now they have to kindchenschematize the AI agents? Defenestrate the lot

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 29/09/2026

the only sane response to this idea, honestly

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 29/09/2026

Yeah this page cites two of my all time favorite sources, Tidy Data and Data Organization in Spreadsheets. And it cites a Carpentries lesson (on Tidy Data, but still)! I’ll def check out that fourth citation tho

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 29/09/2026

Excellent read, thank you! Fortunately my particular use case is far simpler - modeling data relationally and then stuffing each table into a tab with xlookups serving as foreign keys. So relational database IN excel. But spreadsheets AS graph databases is genius, love modeling things as graphs!

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 29/09/2026

*firsts -> first. I don't want an edit button, really. Only sometimes. Reply post of shame must suffice.

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 29/09/2026

If this (blog post) actually ever happens, I will need an Excel Wizard as a co-author. Because I am not proficient in Excel. I do the database & design stuff, someone else does the Excel stuff. Apply at your own peril.

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 29/09/2026

It is a known fact that you should not try to build a database in Excel. But, people are going to do it anyways. (Right now, I, somehow, am people). So if you're going to do it anyways, I want to help you do it safely. With appropriate constraints. And an exit strategy.

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 29/09/2026

Cursed blog post now living in my mental drafts: "So you want to build a database in Excel" I have a lot of other blog posts to write firsts. Nothing about this is written down. But... it's gonna live rent-free in my head for a while. So we shall see. Maybe by spooky season next year...

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 29/09/2026

This isn't new-age AI billionaire so smart he can't remember basic things anymore bullshit. This is just typical old man with a wife bullshit. Take away his wife, his assistant, see how long he can live with it. How many women out there remember their husband's social security number, etc for them?

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 29/09/2026

JH: "There's a lot of skills that don't matter... I actually don't know my address [or my phone number]" Interviewer: "I don't really believe that to be true" JH: "It's completely true.... I can live with it." The question I wish the interviewer had followed up with: "Does your wife?"

Jensen Huang interview in which he claims he doesn't know his own address, and so children forgetting how to basic math is ok

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 28/09/2026

Guess what just got delivered from @bookshop.org … My copy of Ontology Pipelines by @jtalisman.bsky.social! Can’t wait to dive in 🥳

Bella (my dog) looking at my new book, Ontology Pipelines by Jessica Talisman

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Reposted by Jenna Jordan

Abigail Goben @hedgielib.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

"Can you come and talk to them about AI usage and the risks?" -- it was a request from an *extremely* frustrated faculty colleague. And so I put together this framework. The ACToRS in AI Framework hedgehoglibrarian.com/2026/09/22/t...

hedgehoglibrarian.com

The ACToRS in AI Framework

About a year ago I was invited to give a lecture designed to spark critical thinking in graduate students when considering using generative AI and other tools that had started applying the “a…

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 19/09/2026

...and signals that tell you whether a dbt project is the right investment for your team in the first place. I hope it helps you get started on your dbt journey - and please send it to any friends or colleagues who are interested in starting their own dbt journey!

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 19/09/2026

This series is about bringing dbt into organizations where new tech usually moves slowly and carefully, like government, academia, and nonprofits. This post covers what you need to have in place before you ever run 'dbt init'...

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 19/09/2026

Last week I introduced a new series for @ratiopbc.com's blog about how to build your organization's first #dbt project. This week I'm publishing part 1 of the series... "Prerequisites for starting a dbt project" Check it out here: ratiopbc.com/blog/2026-09...

ratiopbc.com

Ratio PBC | Part 1: Prerequisites for starting a dbt project

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Reposted by Jenna Jordan

404 Media @404media.co · 18/09/2026

It’s easy to see why the AI companies wanted to hide this from the public. The statements are some of the most damning indictments of the ways LLMs were trained, how they work, and the immediate threat they pose to human labor. @jasonkoebler.bsky.social reports. www.404media.co/doom-loop-op...

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 10/09/2026

Woooooo! Very much looking forward to your feedback on the series!

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 10/09/2026

...(cont)... 👉 How to sell your dbt project to your boss (and everyone else) 👉 How to scale your project and team We will release one post a week so stay tuned for the rest of the series! But for today, please check out the introduction: ratiopbc.com/blog/2026-09...

ratiopbc.com

Ratio PBC | Intro: How to build your organization’s first dbt project

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 10/09/2026

This series will help you figure out: 👉 Where to start and how to create your first dbt project 👉 What goes into a dbt project and how to organize it 👉 The best way to get from raw data chaos to clean data product and what the migration actually looks like ...(cont)...

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 10/09/2026

This introductory post tells you what to expect from our series about bringing dbt into organizations where new tech usually moves slowly and carefully, like government, academia, and nonprofits. And if you're still learning what exactly dbt is, we've got you covered too.

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 10/09/2026

Today we are officially (re)launching @ratiopbc.com's blog... along with a revamped website! I have the honor of publishing the first blog post, which is in fact the first of a whole series about how to build your organization's first #dbt project. ratiopbc.com/blog/2026-09...

ratiopbc.com

Ratio PBC | Intro: How to build your organization’s first dbt project

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 10/09/2026

@joellab.es will you be in Vegas this year?

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 09/09/2026

Tomorrow we'll be publishing the first post to introduce the series on @ratiopbc.com's brand new blog, so stay tuned! And if you want to help contribute to a later post in this dbt trailguide series... attend our peer exchange session next Friday 😉

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 09/09/2026

...coming up with socio-technical solutions together and contributing to a trailguide for other dbt pioneers to learn from. Speaking of writing a trailguide for creating your organization's first dbt project... that's exactly what I've been working on for the past few months.

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 09/09/2026

This session is for all of my fellow dbt pioneers in the government & nonprofit space (or similarly slow-moving organizations). We're going to be working through the problems you are facing (or will be facing, or have already faced) as you start your organization's first dbt project...

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 09/09/2026

...and Eric Guroff and I will be facilitating a peer exchange on Friday (the final day!) at 11am PT: "Building dbt projects in rough terrain: creating a trailguide for dbt pioneers" Find it in the agenda here: www.getdbt.com/dbt-summit/a...

getdbt.com

Building dbt projects in rough terrain: creating a trailguide for dbt pioneers | dbt Summit

Not all of us work at organizations that live on the cutting edge, and while dbt may now be a decade old there are plenty of organizations that are just startin

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 09/09/2026

I can't believe it's already here - next week is #dbtSummit, y'all! I can't wait to see everyone in person again, geek out about everything dbt, and hang out with the coolest data nerds around. In case you haven't heard, peer exchanges are a can't-miss for in-person Summit attendees...

dbt Summit 26
We're speaking
Jenna Jordan
Eric Guroff
September 15-18
Las Vegas

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 03/09/2026

I have no idea if you’ve read any of these but: Infomocracy by Malka Older Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 30/08/2026

Say it louder for the folks in the back

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 20/08/2026

I originally misread this as "protecting joy", and tbh I think that's the version I'm going to stick with.

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 19/08/2026

Oh yeah and I remember hating Odysseus when I read the book in high school, I fully stand by that, and Anne Hathaway was the best part of the movie, they should have let her rage even more. And that final scene with Athena? Needed way more of that. *Men*. Eugh.

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 19/08/2026

And don’t even get me started on the storm at sea scene. I had to physically cover my eyes. Was it glorious and beautiful and amazing? I have no idea because I physically could not watch it due to the light flashes. It was, again, physically painful. I had to cover my eyes with my hands. Just WTF

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 19/08/2026

So give Christopher Nolan an anti-award for sound, please. Why do you want your audience to be in pain? And I couldn’t understand significant chunks of the dialogue. I needed subtitles. Because the sound balancing was so bad. Deliberate choice to inflict pain on your audience? *Men*, eugh.

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 19/08/2026

Whomever was in charge of sound balancing and just sound in general for this movie deserves the opposite of an award. This was the first time I’ve seen a Christopher Nolan movie in theaters. My friends informed me they are all like this. That this is a deliberate choice on his part.

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 19/08/2026

I went to see The Odyssey last night with friends. I was warned it would be loud, so I bought fancy earplugs in prep. I took a preemptive excedrin just case. I asked the theater if they could check the volume and lower it. Y’all, this movie was a painful experience on multiple levels.

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 01/08/2026

And here’s another selling point for us data nerds - this book does an excellent job of illustrating sensemaking (over and over again, under increasingly extreme and absurd conditions) as explained by @cedricchin.bsky.social in this excellent blog post: commoncog.com/how-experts-...

commoncog.com

How Experts Sensemake

Two decades ago, the US military funded some research into how humans sensemake. This piece is about that theory — the best theory of sensemaking that we have — why it matters for expertise, and how y...

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 30/07/2026

Here’s one to get you started. I just read it, it’s not that long, the author is a software developer, and this book is fantastic: bsky.app/profile/jenn...

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 30/07/2026

Reading fiction is good for you, it’s not just entertainment. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Reading fiction: the benefits are numerous

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 30/07/2026

Still advocating for a fiction section 👀

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 23/07/2026

I didn’t even know that A Shop For Killers was getting a season 2, though of course I’ve been waiting and hoping for one for 2 years since it ended on a cliffhanger. Hopefully this season we get more of one of my favorite actors, Lee Dong-Wook. Oh and here’s day 1 of my weaving project

Circular frame with white warp strings and teal roving wool woven to look like bubbles in the middle

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 23/07/2026

Today was a great day. I saw Renee Christine play live, I had a delicious arepa from a local restaurant that won a Michelin bib gourmand for dinner, I started my first weaving project (a 30 day kit from a local artist)… AND I just found out that A Shop For Killers season 2 premiers today!!

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 22/07/2026

My Hario Switch arrived this week, which means that I am now in my coffee pour over era. Previously the only method I had to make coffee was my trusty moka pot, but now I have the combined powers of immersion and percolation (and a hybrid of the two!) Technically I could also use it to make tea!

My tea/coffee setup: my new hario switch glass set on my scale, next to my celadon gongfu tea set, a clay tea pot, matcha whisk, and gooseneck kettle. And the rest of my kitchen behind it.

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 22/07/2026

Ooooh nice, I’ve seen the promos for that and it’s on my list. I’ve finally started Fangs of Fortune, with full knowledge it will emotionally devastate me by the end. Then will probably watch The Eternal Fragrance. Veil of Shadows had a strong impact on me 😅

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Jenna Jordan @jennajordan.me · 22/07/2026

Also, I had a follow up question from a small throwaway comment in last week's newsletter... what have you been binge-watching recently? 👀

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