Alison and her computer-book

just a technologist trying to use powers for good. climate change, progressive politics, urban planning, music 🎵 and houseplants 🪴

[Alison and her computer-book @arowla]

Parents, since your house is now a school 🏫, do yourself a favor and get a good manual pencil ✏️ sharpener. This one just arrived, and I am already in love ♥️ with it. As a bonus, sharpening 40 pencils is a surprisingly soothing🧘‍♀️activity.

[Alison and her computer-book @arowla]

I just wrote my first note on Substack
https://t.co/uMZK6fMY8L

[Allen Holub. https://linkedIn.com/in/allenholub @allenholub]

LLM tech is, despite the hype, not intelligence of any sort, and even if you accept that label, it's not emotional intelligence. 2/2

[Alison and her computer-book @arowla]

@troutgirl It’s still a struggle TBH, and it takes discipline to call the kid back to clean up their mess. But Kid 1 sure does notice when Kid 2, or even Mom or Dad, doesn’t clean up after themself!

[Alison and her computer-book @arowla]

@troutgirl I didn’t learn to do jack shit that was practical at their age beyond maybe sewing. And had zero freedom. I could barely function in the world when I got my driver’s license at 19. Never wanted that for my kids, and we’ve arranged our lives so they can have appropriate freedoms.

[Alison and her computer-book @arowla]

@troutgirl We want her to be capable and independent, and for us it’s also a necessity of being a two-worker household with three kids and a dog. Mommy and daddy aren’t gonna do everything! Her nine year old sister has a way to go to catch up, but she’s training on more complex chores now.

[Alison and her computer-book @arowla]

@jwittkoski I think ours was just a cable, as well.

[Alison and her computer-book @arowla]

@rebeccamakkai It me. I can never summon the focus to listen well enough to understand the plot of any action/spy/thriller movie. And subsequently get bored. And fall asleep once the action really starts.

Yet somehow I watched every episode of The Americans? 🤔 I’ll have to mull that one over

[Alison and her computer-book @arowla]

@troutgirl Imma need a presidential seal emoji for my Venmo note

[Alison and her computer-book @arowla]

@allenholub Especially interesting given that their tools have made some of the most impressive UX progress I’ve ever seen. Almost makes me want to go work for them to see how they stay nimble.

And I say that as somebody who strongly disliked JIRA and Confluence for a long, long time.

[Alison and her computer-book @arowla]

@diefortheflower @baddestmamajama Exactly. In my anecdotal first-hand experience, the bigger the wedding, the quicker the divorce.

[Alison and her computer-book @arowla]

@mnolangray Baltimore, MD

[Palmer Report @PalmerReport]

One of the biggest arguments for everyone going to college is that when kids raised in right wing households get to college and are faced with the real world (diversity, etc), they finally learn how to function as normal humans in society.

[Alison and her computer-book @arowla]

@CheapoCrappy Not my cup of tea, but honestly kind of masterfully coherent for such maximalist design.

[Alison and her computer-book @arowla]

Talking to ChatGPT is like talking to a very fallible yet inveterate people-pleaser.

[Jamu Kakar @jkakar]

@mipsytipsy The part of "full stack engineer" I love is the baked in attitude of "I will go solve problems wherever they exist".

[Charity Majors @mipsytipsy]

You don't have to be GREAT at everything. But being good enough that you can submit a PR instead of having to get on another team's roadmap is a game changer.

[Alison and her computer-book @arowla]

@troutgirl Baltimore is great. One of my favorite cities. The aquarium, the art museum, the zoo and conservatory, the food in Little Italy, the salt water. 💕