iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Amen! Also, Coming to America is completely underrated. The barbershop scene where Eddie Murphy and Arsenio play all the characters? James Earl Jones and Angela Bassett? Epic.

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Let’s just say that sometimes I wish I hadn’t taken all those classes on authoritarian regimes for my Political Science degree. It’s like watching a slow-moving car crash … if most other people didn’t know cars could crash.

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Beware the Law of Unintended Consequences, though! There’s an Asimov short story where humanity keeps rolling these dice over and over until they encounter a dimension with a hostile alien species. RIP Humanity.

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bitdrift @bitdrift.io · 22/09/2026

Hear @randyshoup.bsky.social talk growing up in Silicon Valley, going to Xerox PARC with his dad, working at Oracle, Tumbleweed, two stints at eBay, and more in our latest episode of Beyond the Noise Plus, his hot takes on the impact of AI on eng jobs. Listen here👇 bitdrift.io/podcast/beyo...

bitdrift.io

beyond the noise - Randy Shoup: He Grew Up Inside Xerox PARC, Then Built eBay's First Real-Time Search Engine

Randy Shoup joins Matt Klein to discuss growing up around Xerox PARC, building eBay's first real-time search engine, running App Engine at Google, and what the AI boom means for engineers and technica...

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YOW! Conferences @yowconf.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Doubled engineering productivity & it still wasn't enough? @randyshoup.bsky.social takes an honest look at the gap between improving how teams work & changing how an org works 🎟 Bring the team to #YOW26! 📍 MEL 3-4 Dec yowcon.com/melbourne-20... 📍 BNE 7-8 Dec yowcon.com/brisbane-2026/

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

LOTR, obviously. Anne McCaffery’s Dragonriders of Pern series is excellent young adult fantasy. The only trouble is that the first half of the first book Dragonflight is terrible writing. Once past that, he’ll be good. Ender’s Game is a classic, and perfect for that age. Not fantasy, though.

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

You’re demonstrating rational confidence in your ability to give a successful talk, no doubt based on a history of giving successful talks. As someone wise once said to me, “No one knows the talk you were *planning* to give — only the one you actually gave!” It’s finished when you decide it is.

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Today is my yearly reminder to myself that both of my grandfathers and every one of their male siblings went overseas to fight fascism. First generation immigrant farmers all, none of them had ever left the country before, nor ever considered that possible. Almost half never came back.

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. My daily breakfast in California is huevos rancheros con pan tostado y café. La mejor cocina del mundo.

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kourge the jafnhár 🏳️‍🌈 @kourge.net · 12/05/2026

enough. i’m tired of github actions. it’s time for github consequences

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

A couple billion years of variation and selection pays off!

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ULTRA💀BLAST @ultrakillblast.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Happy Mother's Day

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Mariana Z @mariana057.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

I’m thinking of opening a fitness center for Star Trek fans. I’d call it “He’s dead Gym.”

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

The problem with the Iliad in tech is that we only know different meanings for * Trojan * AJAX * Artemis * Apollo * Athena …

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

The joy and curse of a liberal arts education in tech: In the 90s, I convinced our team to codename our product Odysseus. It was quite a long shot that we’d ever get it done, so it seemed apropos. X: “Didn’t Odysseus die before making it home?” Me: “Yup” X: (We did get it done)

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Didn’t Sting write a song about this?

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

I’d love to be able to tell you otherwise, but with the exception of the city of SF and the city of Oakland, it’s a car culture. And until the last 15 years or so, the only serious large scale distributed systems work happened in the Valley. I used to live in SF and commute 106 miles a day to eBay.

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

So glad you enjoyed that episode. That was a lot of fun. Silicon Valley is a special place, but talent is evenly distributed; opportunity is not. There are (some kinds of) opportunities that are primarily available here, and I’ll be the first to say that no one wants a SPOF.

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

TBH, I think you really took two (!) weeks off because you’re having to go back so far for true “this rock solid thing failed” content. “Why did that loud guy and that sensible guy stop podcasting, Dad?” “Engineering rigor, son. That’s what finally got ’em in the end.”

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Which part will require a two year investigation this week? Find out in the next Oxide and Friends!

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Very well written. Love the framing of “productive struggle”, and that it’s our job as leaders to provide those growth opportunities. Makes me think of Outliers and “deliberate practice”. You grow from doing the things that stretch you, not from the same things over and over.

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Justin Abrahms @justin.abrah.ms · 27/02/2026

Wrote up the full story of how we went from 150 flaky tests to 2 at Thrive Market.. and what happened when we deleted them (nothing broke).

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

“My degree is in math, not arithmetic” — me, more times than I can count

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

It is hard to lose a father. All the words not spoken now never can be. But I can say from personal experience that your father had excellent taste in pubs! I’ll raise a pint a continent away in his memory.

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

🤦 Mansplaining achievement unlocked for the day, then!

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Google “laszlo bock google interview questions” to start. Probably some citations behind the news articles?

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Google famously used to evaluate engineering candidates with “brain teasers” like “how many ping pong balks can fit in a school bus?”. Then they did the math and found that didn’t correlate at all with success. Is that what you’re looking for?

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Except that the pedant is wrong about this — it is a half twist. The strip can’t be one-sided with a full twist.

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Ashley married well. That’s all I have to say. If I didn’t already have plans with my brother and his family, I’d be there with bells on.

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Gateau Basque! One of my favorites from the long-closed Piperade in SF. What time should I be there?

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Maybe not exactly what you’re looking for, but a lot of the patterns will be in Sam Newman’s upcoming book: www.oreilly.com/library/view..., and possibly also in martinfowler.com/books/patter... ?

oreilly.com

Building Resilient Distributed Systems

Struggling with system failures despite multiple safeguards? In the world of software development, distributed systems have proven essential yet remain complex. If you're tired of... - Selection from ...

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

You are a gentleman and a scholar, @rgarner.bsky.social. It was my distinct pleasure to meet you in person this evening. May it not be the last time, my friend.

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

We haven't met, but you certainly know your whisky. Glendronach is a personal favorite!

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Daniel Bryant @danielbryantuk.com · 27/10/2025

With hiring for DevRel roles increasing and junior folks often having limited in-person presentation experience (thanks to the Covid-era), I highly recommend reading Randy's advice!

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Part 5: Taking Questions (medium.com/@randyshoup/...) * The Good Questions * "Good Point" * "I Don't Know" * "I Don't Have an Opinion" * The Annoying Questions * The Dissertation * The Context-Dependent * Huh? * The Multi-Parter * The Gotcha * The Troll /end

medium.com

Speaking about Speaking, Part 5 — Taking Questions

This is the fifth in my series of posts on giving technical conference talks. We have discussed preparing yourself, organizing the content…

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Part 4: Giving the Talk (medium.com/@randyshoup/...) * Make Connections * Pick Up the Pace * Pause for Emphasis * Be Straightforward * Be Honest Without Being Insulting * "Does This Make Sense?" * Audience Participation * Hands Free * Refer Back

medium.com

Speaking about Speaking, Part 4 — Giving the Talk

This is the fourth in my series of posts on giving technical conference talks. We have discussed preparing yourself, organizing your…

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Chatting today with fellow QCon organizer @danielbryantuk.com, we discussed how we prepare for talks, and I have *thoughts*, in the form of a 5-part blog series: Part 1: Preparing Yourself (medium.com/@randyshoup/...) * Sleep * Practice * Timing * Clothes * Psyching yourself up

medium.com

Speaking about Speaking, Part 1 — Preparing Yourself

Here are some things I’ve learned about preparing myself to give a talk. After a few talks this past week, with a few more upcoming, I…

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

I am a practiced speaker exactly because I have … practiced speaking! (I started competing in policy debate in 1982, my first year of high school. So it’s been 43 years. But I also used to regularly throw up from anxiety before debate rounds, and I still get nervous before a talk.)

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Speaking in public is a skill like any other, and it absolutely comes with practice. But it does not come naturally to most humans. Public speaking is typically people’s number one fear, even over death. Seinfeld joked that people at a funeral would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy!

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

So far at least, right? … Uh oh, is this mic still hot?

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

As evidenced by you and me, amirite?

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Randy Shoup @randyshoup.bsky.social · 12/10/2025

If not now, when? If not you, who?

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