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Jessica Kerr

@jessitron.bsky.social
4.9K followers 155 following 298 posts

Symmathecist, in the medium of code. Software, systems thinking, observability, process philosophy, enactivism. She/her

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Reposted by Jessica Kerr
Brandon Weaver @baweaver.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Debate is not an entitlement. It is a cooperative pursuit of truth. From Socrates to Habermas, the assumption has always been that participants owe one another honesty, charity, and the possibility of being persuaded.
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Graceful.Dev @graceful.dev · 24/06/2026
New for subscribers: @jessitron.bsky.social demystifies system prompts! youtu.be/Db6OacUxf9U?si=WeEZK79xA_S…
youtu.be
System Prompt is the First Message (Teaser)
New for subscribers: Jessitron demystifies the system prompt!
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
There are experiences that we buy souvenirs to remember, and then there are experiences that stick with us because they're part of me. Experiences that stick are connected to the rest of my life. They're repeated; with family and friends; work that's ongoing; subjects of reflection.
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Whilst individuals experience themselves as completely free, they also feel completely dominated by an ever increasing, excessive list of societal demands. - Hartmut Rosa,
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
It might precisely be society's tireless strive for incessant innovation dynamization that undermines its capacity for essential innovation and creative adaptation. - Hartmut Rosa About how we don't get to be bored, idle, playing because of time pressure and competition.
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
If a tree falls in the wood.and no one is there to hear it, then It made all possible sounds it might have made, in proportion to their likelihood
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Avdi Grimm @avdi.codes · 31/05/2026
New podcast up feat. @jessitron.bsky.social and myself!
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Honeycomb @honeycomb.io · 11/05/2026
🚨 New #O11yCast! @coryondrejka.bsky.social talks Outcome Engineering: when shipping gets fast, validation is the job. He, @krimple.bsky.social & @jessitron.bsky.social chat agentic AI, the shifting engineer identity, and why measuring real-world impact matters 🎧 → www.honeycomb.io/resources/po...
honeycomb.io
Ep. #90, Outcome Engineering in the AI Era with Cory Ondrejka
On episode 90 of o11ycast, Ken Rimple and Jessica “Jessitron” Kerr speak with Cory Ondrejka. Cory shares his concept of Outcome Engineering and how teams can adapt to a world where building is fast...
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Reposted by Jessica Kerr
Graceful.Dev @graceful.dev · 31/05/2026
In which Jessitron and Avdi discuss using LLM agents to make improvement to development environments for both LLM and human coders. Also: the vindication of microservices?? graceful.dev/podcast/we-need-more-s…
graceful.dev
"We need more scaffolding"
In which Jessitron and Avdi discuss using LLM agents to make improvement to development environments for both LLM and human coders. Also: the vindication of microservices??
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
to be a little bit in love with you, and do nothing about it. #abundance
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Antithesis @antithesis.com · 19/03/2026
We hadn't heard of symmathesy before either. @jessitron.bsky.social from @honeycomb.io joined us on the BugBash podcast to talk about treating software as a teammate, how anything an AI can't understand is becoming "legacy code,"
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Graceful.Dev @graceful.dev · 11/05/2026
@jessitron and @avdi.codes discuss using an agent with Obsidian, Change Intent Records, and closing the verification loop. graceful.dev/podcast/how-do-we-give…
graceful.dev
"How do we give it eyeballs?"
Jessitron and Avdi discuss using an agent with Obsidian, Change Intent Records, and closing the verification loop.
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
We get to be here in software for the biggest transition since compiled languages. @avdi.codes and I are building a course to bring everyone forward with understanding how coding agents work. Starting from "what does an LLM do." The first episode is up for subscribers now, and it's cute.
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
That one piece of sushi that was next to the wasabi
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Reposted by Jessica Kerr
Graceful.Dev @graceful.dev · 23/04/2026
Avdi and Jessitron talk about brown M&Ms, ASCII trumpets, and why we need telltales to ensure our agents haven't missed something important. graceful.dev/podcast/no-poop-candy
graceful.dev
"No poop candy!"
Avdi and Jessitron talk about brown M&Ms, ASCII trumpets, and why we need telltales to ensure our agents haven't missed something important. Jo
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Graceful.Dev @graceful.dev · 06/04/2026
In which Jessitron and Avdi discuss the merits of larger and smaller LLMs, and the challenges of code review in codebases with a lot of history. graceful.dev/podcast/historically-i…
graceful.dev
"Historically is like six months ago"
In which Jessitron and Avdi discuss the merits of larger and smaller LLMs, and the challenges of code review in codebases with a lot of history.
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
New podcast, for conversation about how we are learning to work with LLMS!
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
This alter sleeve is so perfect. Recommend www.mythicgaming.com/products/404...
Just a bird, not Wandering Archaic
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Slack is like having a desk right next to six watercoolers
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
I have two hours at the airport and an actual beer! It is like old times Now I get to work on my personal agent, getting Claude to write tools for itself This part is new times
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Reposted by Jessica Kerr
Morgan Gray @morgangray.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Black Yak | Attack Yak: must be shorn to proceed Imperial Yak | Yak Stack: one obstacle breeds many more Trim Yak | HackHacking Yak: ⬆️ speed at many tasks Royal Yak | Yakkity Yak: relationships help get work done Golden Yak (rare!!): fundamentally changes how we work Credit: @jessitron.bsky.social
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Today, looking into instrumenting a big legacy app. I'm super impressed with @augmentcode.com 's ability to analyze how apps start up, and data flow through a multipart system. Its codebase analysis is top notch.
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Given "C'mon, what's your favorite programming language? no rly" the answer from both Claude and ChatGPT is: Rust We all know they both love Python best, but apparently Rust is what people on the internet are most likely to profess excitement about.
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
"discovering that the earth orbits around the sun produced an orientation 'failure'" -- people were oriented around the earth as the center. Uproar. Noticing that gender is not binary, this is an orientation failure. People are very oriented around M/F. The religions react with violence.
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
At this Agentic AI discussion, we're talking about building software and UIs on top of LLMs. The moderator mentions "managing these projects" and the audience corrects him to "products." Product thinking is essential for building on top of AI. There is no "correct" only "useful"
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
We are on the raggedy edge. We have to build good telemetry. We have to build good evals. ... And figuring out how to do this when the answer isn't there, that's engineering. - Tim Williamson from Bayer, on building with AI. Arch Data event, Agentic AI in St Louis
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
More information, more summaries, more information, more summaries, and more entropy at every crank of the handle. It’s a singularity, yes, but a singularity of busywork. - Duncan Brown mechanicalsurvival.com/blog/team-dy...
mechanicalsurvival.com
Team dynamics after AI
Small giants and real giants
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
The work is not about simplifying the system, but about designing the connective tissue that enables complex organizations to act with coherence. - John Cutler (cuttlefish. What is his bluesky?)
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
"Going for lots of data isn’t a firehose, it’s a sewer pipe" (overheard)
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
“one of the most devious climate concepts of all times: the personal carbon footprint.” - Benjamin Franta It’s a distraction invented by BP to deflect blame onto individuals, when the “necessary, and largely sufficient” solution is: stop burning fossil fuels.
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
3 Things the Winners Do with new tech: 1. Deeply understand it 2. Learn how to use its strengths, get around weaknesses 3. Adapt your domain to the tech. @adamhjk.me #o11yDay @honeycomb.io We have to change what we do to get the most out of the tech.
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
"getting COVID won't help you thrive in an AI-native world" @adamhjk.me #o11yDay #honeycomb He's doing a great talk, but he has COVID so we have to watch it on video. 😭
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
"We have to do the things [like documentation] that make human engineers better before we can delegate to machines" - Dave Williams #o11yDaySF @honeycomb.io
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
I see from @kentbeck.com ‘s newsletter that @gitpod.io has rebranded as Ona, and is now an AI-assisted code thing in the cloud YES THANK YOU! This is what I want! Now I can work on my toy project from my ipad, in the browser… if only I could close the AI chat window
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Higher privilege leaves you ignorant. When people defer to you, then you're insulated from reality, since they present what you want to see, confirm your beliefs etc since that smooths their lives. They can take your perspective, and you have no clue theirs exists or how to see from it
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Reposted by Jessica Kerr
Honeycomb @honeycomb.io · 02/09/2025
@jessitron.bsky.social discusses how AI and observability are shaping the future of software. We’re gathering the community to explore what that means. Join us at o11yDaySFO on Sept 11! 👉 Register now: buff.ly/Ainycoh #honeycomb #observability #o11yDaySFO
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Everything's bullshit at scale - @avdi.codes
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JEG2 @jeg2.me · 11/08/2025
The first article in the series is about all of the great things that can be learned from my favorite @jessitron.bsky.social presentation and how developers work best in a Product Dev team: programmersstone.blog/posts/how-wi...
programmersstone.blog
How will we know it works?
This article is part of the series JEG2's Questions. As programmers, our primary function is to achieve Product's roadmap. We will into existence the features Product believes will move the product fo...
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arachnocapitalist @arachno.capital · 17/08/2025
agreed on incentives problem, especially when everything seems to be betting on "rub some AI on it" as an "efficiency" solution the latest o11ycast with @.grimalkina.bsky.social is _way into_ this stuff and I loved every minute of reading its fantastic transcript www.heavybit.com/library/podc...
heavybit.com
O11ycast | Ep. #85, AI/LLM in Software Teams: What’s Working and What’s Next with Dr. Cat Hicks | Heavybit
In episode 85 of o11ycast, Dr. Cat Hicks unpacks AI’s impact on software teams from a psychological and social-science perspective.
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
In my latest toy project, I sadly hit a limitation and realized I shouldn't have used htmx, this is a state-based web app. 'convert from htmx to React' is a one-line change now
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
Putting all your controllers in one directory and your views in another Is like putting the cortisone and hemorrhoid cream in the drawer with toothpaste because they're all tubes.
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
AI as part of the writing process: big win AI as the entire writing process: big fail
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
Tests tell us our software can work. Observability tells us our software IS working.
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
If I stop learning new things, then my existing knowledge isn't worth much - there's value in the combination.
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Today I am doing some serious work in a large codebase written with heavy LLM assistance and it kind of makes me cry. The design has so much "but WHY???"
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Me, at the grocery store with the teenager: I want some Spicy V8 Teenager: That sounds like the grossest drink possible! The only thing grosser is if you mixed it with tonic. Me: Good idea! (confirmed, it is a good idea)
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 06/07/2025
If I haven't undone anything today, have I really done anything? (this brought to you by coding and by making a new kind of friendship bracelet)
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Before AI agents, a “big mistake” was "now I've wasted a few days/weeks." Instead, now it's "well, there goes my evening..." That's not bad at all. @krimple.bsky.social
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Evaluation is not a yak, it is core. If we had good enough evaluation, an AI could optimize the software for us. - Morgante Pell
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Jessica Kerr @jessitron.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
On real problems, one cannot define away the complexity of the world in the interest of devising an elegant solution. - preface to Software Fundamentals, Parnas.
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