iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Robert Brewer

Josh Hadro @hadro.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

You: "OCR is a solved problem" Me:

A screenshot of a page from The New Hampshire gazette, September 23, 1800, with text going in every possible direction, and brackets, and numbers

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

When fascists win, centrists get to feel good about themselves because they are kinder and more tolerant than those people. When progressives win, centrists find themselves cruel and narrow minded by comparison, and can't bear that feeling.

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Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Part of research is wandering in the literature and making unexpected connections, finding the questions you didn’t know to ask. I don’t see a good way to do that while relying mainly on LLMs to do literature searches.

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lizardbreath 🦎🪦🎃 @spindlypete.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

anybody who's ever had a plum tree knows it's more like, please eat the fucking plums in the god damn icebox

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Rev. Prof. Matthew J. M. Coomber @mjmcoomber.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Never mistake a Christian honoring the command, “love your neighbor as yourself,” for neutrality

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JK @miniver.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Hiring tip: If you want very smart people, the best inducement you can offer is colleagues smarter than they are.

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Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

WA state folks, actual good news for once!

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Robert Brewer @manchufu.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Why am I so tired of rhetorical questions?

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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

The sole, solitary, unitary reason the Bay Area became the center of the US startup world is because at the time today's current startup model formed, California was the only state that completely banned noncompete agreements in all forms of employment, period.

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Robert Brewer @manchufu.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

If you're on the spectrum you do NOT need to feel obligated to be the one to persuade all your allistic friends and family to adopt your political beliefs. If that's your strength, feel free, but if not, find other ways to contribute. (Someone please offer other ways to contribute)

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Existential Comics @existentialcomics.com · 09/07/2026

A scientist, a philosopher, and a poet walk into a bar. They all drink heavily to try to forget the state that society is in.

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Robert Brewer @manchufu.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

We need to get private money out of elections so our representatives are forced to do what the majority wants if they want to be reelected. Unless the majority is wrong. Then we need to elect a billionaire who agrees with me.

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Robert Brewer @manchufu.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

So tired of stories about the Pool. Just frickin move the goalposts already.

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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Your periodic reminder that people are *more* abusive online when they're using their "real names" than when they're using a persistent pseudonym and this effect has been replicated in literally every study that has ever been done

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olive consumer's floating skull @machete.gay · 31/05/2026

It is a thing that takes on the guise of man, speaks in our language in ways foul and wrong to those with eyes to see, and beguiles the weak of mind and will with shallow praise. There's a word for that, you know.

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

there are few things more demeaning that being subjected to the "judgment" of a machine

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dorian @doriantaylor.com · 08/05/2026

i liked what he said about "you should write software that reflects your current understanding even if that understanding is partial" and then "refactor the software later on to reflect what you've learned and how you come to understand it" code as a reflection of your understanding, who'd a thunk

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kottke.org @kottke.org · 01/05/2026

The Secret to Success Is ‘Monotasking’. “We find that in real‑world work, the more switches in attention a person makes, the lower is their end‑of‑day assessed productivity.” [theatlantic.com]

theatlantic.com

The Secret to Success Is ‘Monotasking’

In a world full of distractions, getting your brain to focus on one thing at a time requires radical measures.

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Alan Au @alanau.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

As I like to quip, "you don't always get what you pay for, but you definitely don't get what you don't pay for." If the price is low, ask yourself why that is.

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Robert Brewer @manchufu.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

My current low bar for "high impact" is "knows the runtime is not the code" :/

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Eric Haywood @erichaywood.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

U.S. foreign policy:

Principal Skinner: “Are we the evildoers? No. It is Jesus who is wrong.

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dorian @doriantaylor.com · 03/04/2026

moreover the bot can (and does) bang away on representations of code against linters, compilers, unit tests, because code is relatively cheap to systematically verify* that it exhibits the behaviour you want (* positively—it's mathematically impossible in general to prove code *won't* do something)

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

this is your website on vibe coding.

IT'S HAPPENING.

GITHUB, THE FIRST ENTERPRISE CLOUD SOLUTION TO REACH ZERO NINES RELIABILITY.

Screenshot shows 95 incidents in 90 days, with 89.91% uptime.

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srrrse @without.boats · 01/04/2026

I really do hate how in silicon valley believing surprising or counterintuitive things has become culturally valorized. Actually beliefs that sound wrong are usually wrong, and if you hold some you’d better have good evidence you aren’t just subject to confirmation bias.

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

When we build, we want to be right. When we learn, we want to be wrong. When we try to do both at the same time, we become indifferent to whether we are right or wrong, and end up achieving neither.

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Cocktails are rimmed with a circle of salt in order to keep the spirits trapped inside

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Emma Evans @trance.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

What the average person thinks HR is supposed to do for them at a job is what unions are actually for.

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Sen. Adam Schiff @schiff.senate.gov · 18/03/2026

Senate Republicans and Trump want to make it harder for you to vote. We're pushing back. Tune in as I hold the Senate floor to BLOCK the SAVE Act and protect our most sacred constitutional right. The right to vote. Watch: youtube.com/live/DFaiTeG...

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Robert Brewer @manchufu.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

yes. and also: there are some people who, when you point out to them that they probably didn't mean what they just said, will absolutely start meaning it out of spite.

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Reposted by Robert Brewer

Karen VH @designinginward.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

in almost every scenario in enterprise software, the best design choice to support an understandable and efficient user experience would be to remove at least half of the features and options.

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Robert Brewer @manchufu.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Choose context. Choose deliberation. Choose understanding. Choose humans.

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srrrse @without.boats · 16/02/2026

also true of programming languages

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

If it's not working, you don't have to trouble your brain; Best Practices are interoperable so you can always find a coach/consultant/course that will help you Practice them More Better. Of course, just like metrics, the usefulness of a practice is inversely proportional to its universality.

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The Onion @theonion.com · 08/02/2026

Study: Majority Of Humans Happiest When Rest Of Family Still Asleep theonion.com/study-majority-of-huma…

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G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 25/01/2026

YouGov is out with a new poll after ICE killed another person in Minnesota today. Abolishing ICE is now +5 among all adults, and **+12 among independents** substack.com/@gelliottmor...

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Rick Brannan @rickbrannan.com · 23/01/2026

People in Minnesota are _literally_ living out the parable of the sheep and the goats. Let the reader understand.

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Yvonne Lam @yvonnezlam.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

I have a wild theory that a lot of people are extremely hostile to any sign of systems thinking because it implicitly pushes the conversation to problem space from solution space.

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Steven (with a PH) @sjksalisbury.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Seems unfair that you only get to use the bouncy slide to get off a plane when things have gone wrong. The bouncy slide should be a treat they give to the best passengers who did the flight correctly.

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Robert Brewer @manchufu.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

Now those who sowed the wind are reaping the whirlwind.

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Robert Brewer @manchufu.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

For we are all bound to appear before the step of the Anointed, in order that each could carry away the things they exacted via their body, whether admirable or mean.

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Reposted by Robert Brewer

Aaron Bossig @aaronbossig.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

When you accept a low-quality solution, it’s a strong sign that the work had no value in the first place. This is the production equivalent of a meeting that could have been an email.

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Amy Hoy @amyhoy.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

“any way you want” means “i am delegating the most difficult part of product-making to you, the customer”

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Robert Brewer @manchufu.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Oh, so just like "Bible study"

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Matthew Sweet @drmatthewsweet.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

So much truth. And controversial view: for me one of the key differences between radio programmes and podcasts is that radio programmes rarely make me shout GET THE FUCK ON WITH IT I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU SAID EARLIER IN THE PUB I WASN’T THERE

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Robert Brewer @manchufu.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Movie you’ve watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Stars (Wars nor Trek), LOTR, or Marvel, Disney Animated or Pixar.

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dorian @doriantaylor.com · 03/12/2025

the other question is: why are we being asked to estimate the effort it takes to do something (hard, labour-intensive, unreliable) without any insight into what it's worth to the stakeholders? if you know what the outcome of the effort is *worth*, estimating becomes super easy

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

I enjoy the "we're more productive in-office" takes from people whose best idea for running distributed teams is the weekly status meeting where everyone sits zoned out on mute for an hour aside from the 30 seconds where they give their own update to an indifferent audience

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