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Lowered Techspectations

@loweredtech.bsky.social
66 followers 92 following 68 posts

Helping you deal with working in tech. Featuring advice columnist Zen Paycheck and comics by @theorangefedora.bsky.social Biweekly newsletter here: buttondown.com/LoweredTechspectatio…

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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
At tech companies, meetings are the bane of your existence. It is a very small minority which have a clear agenda, start and end on time, and stay on topic. What if someone crashed your one-on-one, or your skip level? UGH. That's what this week's Lowered Techspectations newsletter is about.
Two panel snippet of a comic where Frank and Noah are meeting.
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
This week marks one year since we launched Lowered Techspectations at @smallpressexpo.bsky.social 2025! It's been a fun ride and we're still going strong :)
colorful cover art for Lowered Techspectations showing some familiar characters including Dogboss, Liz and Barb.
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
On this week's Lowered Techspectations, dangerous acronyms 😱 🤡
Two panel snippet of a cartoon where a man wonders what does "ICP" mean?
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
A perfect metaphor for AI that doesn't rely on drawing robots!! Bravo @andertoon.bsky.social ! nickanderson.substack.com/p/brave-new-...
nickanderson.substack.com
Brave New World
Progressive editorial cartoons, musings and sketches from a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist.
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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 09/09/2026
I will say it is funny watching OpenAI boast about solving a complex math problem using millions of dollars of compute (and someone else’s work) all while remaining unable to solve the most obvious math problem (how to make their services profitable)
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Melanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Hey @ericlipton.nytimes.com 👋 AI is not “evolving” on its own. *People* are choosing how to build it. *People* are choosing how to train it. *People* are choosing how to run it. Maybe the problem is that they are the *wrong people* to make these choices.
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This sprint Lowered Techspectations is on hiatus, OOO, PTO, whatever you wanna call it. Sometimes you just need a break from the... expectations.
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Excellent comic about AI avatars (profiles) on Facebook, designed to appeal to particular customers but which are exceedingly problematic. Cheers to @whittaylor.bsky.social. Read: www.patreon.com/CrucialComix...
patreon.com
New Comic: Off Script | Crucial Comix
Grappling with AI and Digital Blackface  About the artist: Whit Taylor is a cartoonist, writer, editor, and public health educator from New
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theorangefedora.bsky.social @theorangefedora.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Come check out my art studio if you're in the area! There will be food trucks and a new art gallery show opening. Lots to see! Saturday the 22nd from 5-7:30.
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Today's Lowered Techspectations newsletter shows what goes wrong when everyone is prompting but no one is reading the output. Know the feeling? #techworkers #aislop
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Mark Runyon @runyon.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Duplicate. Close This. #Stackoverflow #ProgrammerHumor
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Wait wait don't tell Dogboss! #overpaid.lol #chiefexecutivereplacementengine
screenshot of overpaid.lol website - "introducing the world's first chief executive replacement engine"
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Don't you hate it when you get assigned 'action items' from meetings you weren't even in?? Check out this week's newsletter!
comic panel of Flora shrugging and grimacing while saying "That's great, hackathons are always fun!"
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Let's give AI agents credit cards to buy API stuff, what could possibly go wrong??
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Strategent (the company where Lowered Techspecations takes place) conducts twice-annual biennial Employee Engagement Surveys, and then tries to act on the results.
Three panel cartoon of Dogboss asking for feedback from his employees, and berating them with "Don't all speak at once!"
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Wait til you see what I hallucinated.
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Wait, you draw all these comics by hand? Yes, @theorangefedora.bsky.social does. The latest newsletter dropped today.
Photo of the artist in front of paper comics pages
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Allan “Ransomware Sommelier” Liska @ransomwaresommelier.com · 06/07/2026
What kind of sociopath has EVER looked at a PDF document and said to themselves, "This could be a podcast?"
A screenshot from Adobe Acrobat showing the toolbar which includes the following options:
Edit a PDF
Generated Podcast [New]
Create PDF Space
Export a PDF
Create a PDF
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
This!!
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
This week's newsletter, Frank tokenmaxxes all the vibes. buttondown.com/LoweredTechs... #tokenmaxxing#vibecoding
buttondown.com
Vibe coding without the vibes
Twist my arm and give me a Mac Mini
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Congratulations to Barb on earning Employee of the month at Strategent, again! She's gotten us out of so many scrapes, we truly CANNOT fire her. 😅
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Lol Dogboss has never ever sounded like this...
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
The alpha plane has had to make some serious pivots along the way.
two comics panels showing the robot team in the alpha plane, starting off with the goal of building a replicant style robot, then ending up with a smoke detector.
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Time=care
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Great article on the miserable 'it's inevitable' language coming from AI boosters, written by Mike Monteiro of Mule Design.
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evacide @evacide.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Describing the current state of San Francisco to a writer friend: Me: You cannot satirize this place. It is beyond satire. Them *eyes glowing, voice echoing*: Challenge accepted.
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
This week's Lowered Techspectations newsletter - can AI replace engineers?????? buttondown.com/LoweredTechs...
buttondown.com
A token engineer
Frank complains to Dogboss
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Dogboss is distancing himself from the Ferrari situation.
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Tech support isn't what it used to be.
A woman kneels on the floor in front of the toilet with her hair pulled back. Towards her phone, she says "Ok, honey, I'm going to try 'clearing my cookies'".
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
In this week's Lowered Techspectations newsletter, Darlington's teammates go looking for him. buttondown.com/LoweredTechs... #workingintech
buttondown.com
No return
Two-way portals cost extra
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
We're thought-leading on LinkedIn! Follow Strategent or Dogboss Hound for the latest jargon and highest ROI
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Darlington, a brave speech engineer at Strategent, volunteered to try the new portal to another dimension. In today's newsletter you find out where he went. buttondown.com/LoweredTechs...
Profile of Darlington, with a short bio and a drawing of him. He has a pig head and 1950's Dad glasses. He's "great at building speech recognition models, bad at communication"
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Guess who joined LinkedIn?
Screenshot of a linkedin invite from Dogboss Hound, CEO of Strategent
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kwisatz haderade (#FreeSkylar) @booksandbows.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
seems like a great technology to build literally everything on
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Claude Code deletes developers' production setup, including its database and snapshots

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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Needing some strength on a Monday? Zen Paycheck recommends: The Pretender by Jackson Browne on #SoundCloud on.soundcloud.com/XX6xLCOIPfgX... #mondays #worklifegrind
soundcloud.com
The Pretender
Jackson Browne is not only a pivotal figure in the artistic history of Elektra/Asylum – remaining with the label for a remarkable 30 years – but the very existence of Asylum Records was a direct resul
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Alex Blechman @alexblechman.bsky.social · 16/05/2023
Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
When you can't decide what to put on the roadmap, just open a portal to another spectral plane, where someone is surely getting more done! Then you can spiel-merchant about it in this week's Lowered Techspectations newsletter. buttondown.com/LoweredTechs...
buttondown.com
All Hands Meeting, continued
Pay no attention to the disappearing engineer
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
This week's post is a guest article written by Deryn Walker about AI and it's human imact. buttondown.com/LoweredTechs...
buttondown.com
It's time to get serious
A guest post essay by Deryn Walker
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Chef's kiss comic by @mattielubchansky.com www.patreon.com/posts/averag...
patreon.com
the average | Mattie Lubchansky
Get more from Mattie Lubchansky on Patreon
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
"I'm so proud of how our ELT passed the 'do you get the SF billboard' pop quiz at our last board meeting." – Dogboss, CEO of Strategent www.npr.org/2026/03/18/n...
npr.org
Do you understand this billboard? If not, that's the whole point
San Francisco's streets are plastered with cryptic ads from AI startups. The strategy is intentional — but it's not without cost.
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Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · 16/07/2025
chatgpt is much like an improv comedy group 1) you are the audience, giving it prompts 2) it produces things roughly shaped like your prompt 3) it is trained to respond with Yes, And 4) it has the factual accuracy of improv 5) it does not understand comedy
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Strategent's All Hands meeting really opened up some alternate realities! buttondown.com/LoweredTechs...
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Isn't there always that ONE GUY?? Read this week's Lowered Techspectations to get the goss. buttondown.com/LoweredTechs...
Cartoon panel of two women in a conference room, one is saying "Hey Liz, now that it's just us, I can tell you about that guy in the meeting."
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
This week's Lowered Techspectations newsletter we catch up with Strategent's quarterly planning process ... buttondown.com/LoweredTechs...
buttondown.com
Quarterly planning - it's crunch time
You can kiss your PTO goodbye.
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
This week's Lowered Techspectations is a double feature - one comic and one advice column! Check it out: buttondown.com/LoweredTechs...
Two panels of a longer comic titled "Robot team steerco". We see a team gathered in a conference room, and then a close up of one nervous-looking product manager saying "so, we made some pivots..."
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Providing tech support is a messy job sometimes. 🤢
Cartoon of an older woman kneeling in front of the toilet with her hair pulled back. She's on the phone, saying, "OK honey, I'm going to try "clearing my cookies"."
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theorangefedora.bsky.social @theorangefedora.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Today the @latimes.com published a piece I created with @emenez2.bsky.social! I'm so pleased with how it turned out. Many thanks to editor Philip Gray. Op-comic: What I learned from a banjo (and a frog) www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
latimes.com
Op-comic: What I learned from a banjo (and a frog)
When I felt too low to make friends, an instrument challenged me and showed me how to take risks.
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
This sprint's newsletter is a double feature! Read the latest from the AI-powered Replicant team, and an advice column for a new hire. buttondown.com/LoweredTechs...
Colorful promo graphic for Lowered Techspectations with some of the characters in Zoom-style squares.
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Lowered Techspectations @loweredtech.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Quarterly planning, second try. buttondown.com/LoweredTechs...
buttondown.com
Quarterly planning - the second attempt
Why have priorities when you could have buzzwords?
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