iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Paul Eggleston @pauleggleston.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Reposted by Neil Vass

Actor: How would you rate my ability to take direction? Director: Below average. Actor: *bellows* AVERAGE!!!

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Aha! Held down the button on each headphone for several seconds until they went into pairing mode Then they're not connected to anything and patiently waiting And in the Bluetooth menu in my phone, clicked to connect Done! Without standing up. ✨

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I mean, the MacBook lid is closed ... what is going to *do* with the headphones once it connects? Leave it! And I kind of miss the old limited-range Bluetooth days. This is connecting with several metres of distance and multiple brick walls in the way.

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Is there anything I can do to get them connected to my phone that doesn't involve standing up? I currently have my feet up, hot sun and cool drink, I do not want to walk upstairs. The earbuds are Jabra Elite 3 if that helps. Android phone.

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Cat Hicks @grimalkina.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Sat in my sunny garden and wanting to use my Bluetooth earbuds with my phone. But because I used them with my MacBook earlier, when I take them out of the case the MacBook (closed, sleeping, upstairs on the opposite side of the house) connects to them. Google suggests a time machine.

Google AI result: "To stop your headphones from hijacking your Bluetooth connection when your MacBook lid is closed, try manually disconnecting them via the macOS Menu Bar before putting it away."

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Reposted by Neil Vass

So how do you help the authors you want to help? - Preorder - Tell one specific person "you'd like this book" — this converts at a far higher rate than anything! - If you're on a team or in a reading group, suggest it there - Request it at your local library! www.drcathicks.com#book

drcathicks.com

Dr. Cat Hicks

Leading the science of software success

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Reposted by Neil Vass

Cat Hicks @grimalkina.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Can you, as one person, possibly make a difference in whether an unusual, creative, category-breaking book (a book without a marketing department or a budget behind it) succeeds? Yes you can, and I'm going to tell you why it's a hell of a lot more attainable than you think.

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Neil Vass @neil-vass.com · 06/07/2026

Through lockdown and a long stretch after when in-person meetups really weren’t happening, we used @ewebber.bsky.social's “in the Ether” format to turn into a remote-only meetup. This was before I was blogging about the meetup, so many good talks and helpful ideas were lost to history. Until now!

neil-vass.com

Deliver Sessions: The remote years - neil-vass.com

I’ve been a co-organiser of Deliver Sessions meetup (along with Chris Burns and Zoe Rigley) since 2018, and now I do a writeup after each event. Those posts started in 2022 with “an evening of lightni...

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Neil Vass @neil-vass.com · 02/07/2026

Enjoyed that article so much, I decided to buy the whole follow-up book that expands on its ideas.

goodreads.com

Facilitating Software Architecture

The software architect role is evolving. As systems and…

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Neil Vass @neil-vass.com · 01/07/2026

Went to put dinner in, through the open door heard a huge cheer from a beer garden. Nothing from our living room where the kids are watching football. I ran through and said "watch this!", kids impressed to see a goal 10s later. Is the pub using normal TV, and we get that delay on "live" iPlayer?

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Neil Vass @neil-vass.com · 01/07/2026

"Our adoption of the Advice Process opened up the space for anyone to make decisions, but it has also put conversations, the responsibility to seek out expertise, and think about impact at the core." Rereading a good article from Andrew Harmel-Law: martinfowler.com/articles/sca...

martinfowler.com

Scaling the Practice of Architecture, Conversationally

Scaling architecture through a structured series of conversations

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Neil Vass @neil-vass.com · 29/06/2026

Deliver Sessions meetup is next week in Manchester, featuring: Retros by design, not by habit It's not too late to be an apprentice! and When agile goes off script: a facilitator's toolkit for staying on track

Deliver Sessions: Going off script

A meetup for anyone interested in how software teams work well together. Hear talks, discuss them with other attendees.

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Neil Vass @neil-vass.com · 27/06/2026

Interesting thread of organisational dysfunctions! "Permanent urgency" was the first post that caught my eye, lots of the others are relevant too. "Change agents of the status quo": "The energy that might have driven structural change is consumed in the process." mastodon.me.uk/@trondhjort@...

mastodon.me.uk

Cat Hicks @grimalkina.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Reposted by Neil Vass

*Jumanji drumbeats in the distance* Psychology of Software Teams is ALMOST HERE www.drcathicks.com#book

A screenshot of the Amazon listing for the Psychology of Software Teams shows it as a "top new release" in software project management

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Neil Vass @neil-vass.com · 22/06/2026

I'll be at @agilecambridge.bsky.social in October, with an oversized puzzle cube, to help people learn how to solve these and share some ideas on how it relates to designing and evaluating all sorts of algorithms. It'll be fun! Mention my name (10Neil) for a discount on tickets. #AgileCam

Details of the conference: 30 September to 1 October 2026 at Churchill College, Cambridge.

My workshop is "Algorithms IRL: Let's solve a Rubik's Cube!"

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Neil Vass @neil-vass.com · 18/06/2026

The next Deliver Sessions meetup will be in Manchester on 7th July, at Autotrader's lovely new office in Circle Square! Lightning talks, a workshop on workshops, and a chance to meet lots of interesting people. Come along! More details:

Deliver Sessions: Going off script

A meetup for anyone interested in how software teams work well together. Hear talks, discuss them with other attendees.

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Neil Vass @neil-vass.com · 08/06/2026

"Of course, the mighty Internet mostly runs on spit and hope" 😆

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Reposted by Neil Vass

Kevin Powell @kevinpowell.co · 21/05/2026

More and more people I deeply respect and have learned a lot from over the years feel like they are speaking into a void, to the point where they are losing motivation to continue making content, which got me to write my first post on my site in over a year... www.kevinpowell.co/article/tell...

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Neil Vass @neil-vass.com · 21/05/2026

Ooh, haven't seen this before

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Neil Vass @neil-vass.com · 21/05/2026

👀 looking for more info on Michelle Brody's work (from @hannahdellarmi.bsky.social's talk) led me to "The Game of Teams" podcast -- a huge stack of interesting episodes to listen to! www.thegameofteams.com/ep-83-own-yo...

thegameofteams.com

Ep. 83: Own your Armour with Michelle Brody PhD. – The Game of Teams Podcast

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Neil Vass @neil-vass.com · 10/05/2026

Last call! Sign up for Deliver Sessions meetup, come along for an interesting evening of talks this Tuesday: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/deliver-se...

Deliver Sessions: Why Good Teams Get Stuck

A meetup for anyone interested in how software teams work well together. Hear talks, discuss them with other attendees.

010

Reposted by Neil Vass

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 07/05/2026

Talking-head futurism is structurally a grift - you get paid to be confidently directional about an unknowable future, and being wrong has no consequences because nobody audits old predictions.

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Ursula K. Le Guin — Ursula on Writing: A Rant about "Techonolgy"

From A Rant About Technology: "I agree with my reviewer that I don’t write hard science fiction. Maybe I write easy science fiction. Or maybe the hard stuff’s inside, hidden — like bones, as opposed to an exoskeleton.…"

ursulakleguin.com

Ursula K. Le Guin on the presence of technology in her work

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Ursula K. Le Guin — Ursula on Ursula

Examples of what I've liked elsewhere: a guide on how her many novels fit together including quotes like "Please do not try to explain this to me. I will not understand."

ursulakleguin.com

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The Language of the Night - Wikipedia

I'm reading The Language of the Night, and loving it. You know when you happen across _exactly_ the kind of book you were thinking you'd like to read? I've read bits and pieces of Ursula K. Le Guin's thoughts on writing before, always interesting, so it's brilliant to have a whole book of them.

en.wikipedia.org

Nice tool! It looks like the liquid form takes up less space than solid - which is true for water but not for most other materials. Maybe a note on that would be helpful? This might be me overcomplicating things though!

Dr Dan Jones @hookean.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Reposted by Neil Vass

Hi all. Here is a vanilla simple particle model simulator. Would welcome any constructive comments on it and how it could be improved if needed 🙂 #iTeachPhysics #Science 🧪 www.drjonesphysics.com/part-model

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Neil Vass @neil-vass.com · 05/05/2026

One week to go! Will you be in Manchester on 12 May? Come along and say hi. Details and sign up link:

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Reposted by Neil Vass

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 30/04/2026

From a good friend and very experienced engineer. He's cancelled his Claude subscription because he is finding open models now good enough for coding willemvandenende.com/blog/enginee...

willemvandenende.com

My local agentic dev setup today — Willem van den Ende

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Neil Vass @neil-vass.com · 29/04/2026

Heard this years ago, found it again now: fab to read out anywhere you're planning to ask "any questions?" after a talk: "...Pay attention to your mental images as the question is occurring to you. When you picture yourself asking the question, are you mysteriously enormous? Are you made of gold?"

archive.nytimes.com

How to Ask a Proper Question at a Public Event

There is, in fact, such a thing as a bad question.

Harry Bailey @harrybailey.com · 27/04/2026

Reposted by Neil Vass

We need to show a chunky timetable on a webpage. The page is more popular on mobile than desktop. Does anybody know any better options than to overflow the page and hint that the user can swipe to view more? (... plus offering a pdf download)

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Reposted by Neil Vass

katie @supermathskid.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

This Man Was Told By His Doctor To Treat His Depression With A Trip To See Great Clown Pagliacci. His Reply Will Astound You

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Neil Vass @neil-vass.com · 22/04/2026

If you haven't been before: notes from past sessions give you an idea of the kind of thing this meetup covers neil-vass.com/tag/deliver-... Attendees are a mix of people brand-new to tech and people who've worked in it for years, all welcome.

neil-vass.com

deliver-sessions Archives - neil-vass.com

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Neil Vass @neil-vass.com · 22/04/2026

Deliver Sessions meetup has had a relaxed start to the year -- but now we're back, with our first meetup of 2026 on 12 May. @hannahdellarmi.bsky.social will be helping us understand Why Good Teams Get Stuck, and there'll be plenty of friendly attendees to discuss it with. Read details, sign up: