iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 31/08/2026

If you are a product engineer adding "AI" to things, please consider your users and their experience! kirahowe.com/2026/aug/31/...

kirahowe.com

AI "features" and integrations should remove friction, not add it — Kira Howe

My personal space on the internet

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 19/08/2026

TIL that TypeScript declaration emit can fail on types that type-check fine. Turns out the world is just one big mutable state and there's nothing we can do about it.

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 14/08/2026

LLMs are incidental complexity generators

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 11/08/2026

There are increasingly many cool ideas for things to do with AI but so far most of them seem to barely work. Turns out software engineering is just hard. kirahowe.com/2026/aug/8/i...

kirahowe.com

Is it all just vapourware? — Kira Howe

My personal space on the internet

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 09/08/2026

It is always, always a mistake to build a text editor. You will not “not need” the features you think will make it simple enough. Save yourself the time and tokens and skip to the part where you realize you do, in fact, need a real text editor and that you don’t actually want to build one of those.

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 06/02/2026

Everyone's talking about the $20k C compiler that doesn't work but the tone is excitement, not a huge collective eye roll -- what am I missing? This seems like a classic case of real harm and imaginary benefit. This is a well and truly solved problem if there ever was one.

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 01/11/2025

Writing "agents" is like writing a book on good software engineering practices.

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Reposted by Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦

Eugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

What if we did a single run and declared victory

Three panel thing. In the left panel we use error bars. In the second, we take statistical significance as the biggest number but still have error bars. In LLM science, we just have the biggest number

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 17/10/2025

This is one of my favourite conferences I’ve ever been to. Really high quality and genuinely interesting. Plus Berlin is one of the coolest cities in the world! Well worth checking it out if you can: bobkonf.de/2026/en/

bobkonf.de

BOB - BOB 2026

BOB Konferenz, Best of Breed Konferenz für Software-Entwickler und Entscheider in der Softwareentwicklung.

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 09/10/2025

So since they removed launchpad from macOS and you can only launch things from spotlight now, does that mean you can't open an app until spotlight finishes indexing?

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 09/10/2025

The world is being cleaved into people who overuse AI and people who deal with the fallout of people overusing AI. Frustratingly, I don't really like being in either of these camps. Where do we go from here?

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 02/10/2025

I don't want non-deterministic, randomly wrong answers to my vaguely worded spoken-language requests. Do people really want this? I want tools that reliably do one thing well and consistently.

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Reposted by Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦

Bess Hamilton @besshamilton.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

My boss: Can't you get Copilot to validate the info in the spreadsheet? Me: Well, do we want it to be accurate or not? Because either I check it myself or I ask Copilot and then check its output *and* the spreadsheet, so... Boss: What's the point of Copilot then? Me: Exactly.

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 02/09/2025

Just WHY Javascript You're killing me.

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 28/08/2025

Working with AI assistants/LLM-driven development feels like coaching a really dumb, belligerent, and obsequious intern _all day_. It's exhausting and no fun. Super curious how other people are working with these tools for positive outcomes How do you use LLMs in your day to day, if at all?

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 08/08/2025

My trusty robot that will take my job any day now.

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 05/08/2025

Narrator: The machine had not, in fact, found the source of the error.

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 25/07/2025

The frequency with which front-end developers are expected to _completely_ re-architect fundamental aspects of their apps, like state management or data fetching or caching is sheer madness.

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 21/07/2025

📢 Amazing job alert! 📢 Seeq is hiring for a few different engineering roles (some of which may have us working together 😄). I've had a really great experience working here the last few months and happy to chat anytime. If you're interested let me know! apply.workable.com/seeq/

apply.workable.com

Seeq

Seeq is a global leader in advanced analytics for process manufacturing industries. We’re transforming the way companies do business by harnessing the power of unused manufacturing data to generate fa...

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 15/07/2025

LLMs might just be the thing that convinces developers that good docs and well described APIs are worth writing.

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 26/06/2025

Apple really shilling hard for pizza today 😂

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 17/06/2025

how did web apps work at all before Typescript

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 17/06/2025

How long do you spend upgrading JS libraries?

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 30/05/2025

Tim Pratley’s summary of the Scinoj Light conference is excellent, check it out for a great take on the main themes plus overviews of each talk. Thanks to everyone in the community who made this happen and who’s contributing summaries and responses like this clojurecivitas.github.io/conferences/...

clojurecivitas.github.io

The Hallway Track: SciNoj Light #1 Data Analysis Stories – Clojure Civitas

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 28/05/2025

Shared mutable state is a curse. Writing software doesn't have to be terrible. Do not use shared mutable state.

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Reposted by Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦

Gander Social @gandersocial.ca · 22/04/2025

After a long bit of toiling, we're proud to announce the launch of Gander Social—a project to bring a new kind of social to Canadians. Canadian owned and hosted, a feed you control, privacy-first, consent-based, respectful by default. Join the Early Access program: gandersocial.ca

gandersocial.ca

Gander: The Social Media You Want, Built for Canada

Fun, private, and ethical. We're changing the way social media is done around here, all without your data taking an unexpected trip south.

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 17/05/2025

This is the best thing I’ve read in a while.

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 17/05/2025

This is the best thing I’ve read in a while.

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 17/05/2025

Our very first ✨Scinoj Light✨ conference is wrapping up soon, it's been such an inspiring couple of days, so cool to see so many amazing ways people are using Clojure's data stack. Can't wait to go back and watch some of the talks I missed. scicloj.github.io/scinoj-light...

scicloj.github.io

SciNoj Light #1

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 15/05/2025

TIL there's a way to see *all PRs on GitHub* ever. Wild.

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 12/05/2025

Reminder to check out Scicloj's very first miniconf this Friday and Saturday! Free and virtual, this is for anyone interested in working with data in Clojure. The schedule spans many timezones so something should be on no matter where in the world you are! scicloj.github.io/scinoj-light...

scicloj.github.io

SciNoj Light #1

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 10/05/2025

This is a great opportunity for some free mentorship in one of the most exciting Clojure projects. Reach out if you have any interest in bringing Clojure and C++ together for great fun and (maybe someday but probably not) profit 😄

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 06/05/2025

State management is the bane of my existence as a web developer.

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 29/04/2025

If you're wondering what's up in the world of Clojure for data @daslu.bsky.social and I made a recording going over some exciting ongoing community activities. Highlights: ⚒️ Noj is maturing and growing 🗓️ Many meetups thriving with new audiences ✨ Scinoj light, our very first miniconf, is coming up!

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 27/04/2025

This is my favourite part of living in the Maritimes. Where else on the entire planet can you get a beach like this all to yourself on a sunny day?

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 14/04/2025

What percentage of software you have to buy through a sales person is actually vapourware? Honestly feels like 95%. Or am I just too much of a software person? If I can’t see the app do what you say it does first, I just don’t believe you that it does.

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 30/03/2025

Ever been curious about how to make your data science workflow faster, more reliable, and less annoying? Check out Clojure's data science stack. There's a free workshop targeted at people new to Clojure coming up May 10, fill out this survey if you're interested: scicloj.github.io/blog/data-an...

scicloj.github.io

Data analyis with Clojure - free workshop, May 10th - initial survey

Following the maturing of the Noj toolkit for Clojure data science, we are planning a free online workshop for people who are curious to learn the Clojure language for data analysis. Please share this...

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Reposted by Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦

Covie @covie93.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Shout out to Jeffrey Goldberg for reporting on this now instead of waiting two years to put it in a book.

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 20/03/2025

Not my meme but I can’t stop laughing

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 16/03/2025

Ever wanted to live in a place that’s just like America but with better food and boring politics? Come to Canada!

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 15/03/2025

A++ experience at @bobkonf.bsky.social in Berlin. Such an interesting mix of researchers and programmers, and so many interesting topics. Would love to come back!

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Reposted by Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦

BOB Konferenz @bobkonf.de · 14/03/2025

@kirahowe.com teaches "Reproducible data science with Clojure" in her tutorial at #BOBkonf2025!

A seated person with long hair tied back sits in front of a large presentation screen, presenting.

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Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦 @kirahowe.com · 14/03/2025

Fun day at Bobkonf and there’s more exciting workshops to come! The workshop notes are available here for anyone who wants to try it out! kira.quarto.pub/berlin-bike-...

kira.quarto.pub

Reproducible Data Science with Clojure

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Reposted by Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦

Gordon Friedman @gordonfriedman.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Learning about "Reproducible data science with clojure" from @kirahowe.com at @bobkonf.bsky.social

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Reposted by Kira Howe (McLean) 🇨🇦

BOB Konferenz @bobkonf.de · 14/03/2025

And we're off! #BOBkonf2025 starts with Annette Bieniusa's keynote "Local-first Software".

A light-skinned woman with blonde hair and glasses, speaks at BOB conference 2025. A slide with a picture of a light-skinned man with grey hair and a grey beard, are up on the projector.

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