Mark Conrad

Christian|Husband|Father|Software Engineer @Lotame

[Mark Conrad @markaconrad]

@kamikazecash If it were only the presentation, then it's fine. It's when the aggressive sales person won't take no for an answer comes to the table ..

[Mark Conrad @markaconrad]

@problogger Those are pretty awesome

[Mark Conrad @markaconrad]

Do you remember when you joined X? I do! #MyXAnniversary

[Spike Cohen @RealSpikeCohen]

This man's name is Rick Rescorla.

22 years ago today, Rick disobeyed orders, and saved 2700 lives.

Rick was the head of security for Morgan Stanley in the South Tower of the World Trade Center. He warned that the Towers' basements were vulnerable to attack.

His warnings fell on deaf ears.

Then the 1993 attack happened, and people started listening to him.

After that attack, Rick implemented regular evacuation drills, using his megaphone to direct the thousands of employees out of their offices, down the stairwells, and out of the building to safety.

Born in Cornwall, Rick would sing Welsh and Cornish songs from his megaphone, as he directed the employees out of the building.

He would routinely tell all of the employees: in an emergency, no matter what chaos is happening around you, no matter what anyone tells you, leave your offices, go down the stairwells, and leave the building.

Rick told his wife Susan that he suspected another attack on the World Trade Center would happen, this time by air.

And 22 years ago today, on September 11, 2001, that attack happened.

When the first plane hit the North Tower, the Port Authority announced over the South Tower's speaker system "Please do not leave the building. This area is secure."

Rick ignored them.

"The dumb sons of b------s told me not to evacuate," he said to his best friend Dan. "They said it's just Building One. I told them I'm getting my people the f--k out of here."

And so Rick picked up his megaphone as he had done so many times before, told his employees not to listen to the orders, and directed them out of the building.

His Cornish songs helped keep their nerves calm as they evacuated, even after the second plane hit their Tower.

Once he had successfully evacuated his employees, Rick went back to look for survivors.

But first, he called his wife Susan.

"Stop crying. I have to get these people out safely. If something should happen to me, I want you to know I've never been happier. You made my life."

Rick rushed back to the South Tower.

That was the last time anyone saw him alive.

All but 6 of the more than 2700 Morgan Stanley employees survived.

Had they obeyed the Port Authority, they would all be dead.

Thankfully, they listened to Rick instead.

Rest in Peace, Rick. Thank you for your service.

[Prof Francois Balloux @BallouxFrancois]

Please feel free to make a case why school closures, not allowing kids to play outside, and convincing them they'd kill their teachers and relatives if they breathed on them were all worth it. But pretending all those things didn't happen is just stupid, revisionist bilge.

[Benji Backer @BenjiBacker]

The truth about wildfires 🧵

[Mark Conrad @markaconrad]

@mipsytipsy As someone who ironically has written device drivers professionally and now mostly front end (aka web dev), I totally agree.

[Mark Conrad @markaconrad]

"...But the real innovation is using slack to fix the problems that caused the need for slack in the first place." https://t.co/KcDqXmU214

[Susie Dent @susie_dent]

Word of the day is ‘circumbendibus’ (17th century): anything that deliberately goes round and round without ever getting to the point.

[Carl Vellotti 🥞 @carlvellotti]

Remember this – to your users, your product is one of dozens they use daily.

One takeaway: This is why your product must be as frictionless as possible.

What are others?

[Mark Conrad @markaconrad]

Midjourney AI Imagining Different Historical Variations of Spider-Man via https://t.co/j6PIXUjNfs https://t.co/jFhUMn9kN7

[jack @jack24dd30]

Midjourney AI imagining different historical variations of Spider-Man:

1. Roman Legionary Spider-Man

[Jessica Kerr @jessitron]

Slack in software teams is: letting people do the work they can’t justify.
This makes development more predictable, production more resilient to problems, and the whole company resilient to changing expectations in the world.

https://t.co/5HttJupHci

[Joe Lonsdale @JTLonsdale]

It’s been a mystery why Roman concrete often lasted thousands of years, but ours decays in mere decades.

Turns out they incorporated chemicals in a process that induces self-healing; scientists at MIT just figured this all out - in 2022.

Extraordinary.

https://t.co/cOPyln0ifd

[Mark Conrad @markaconrad]

Merry Christmas!

[Jessica Kerr @jessitron]

Story points and velocity: the spherical cow of software

https://t.co/kgxid0nm8h

[Mark Conrad @markaconrad]

@eikonne I have found that starting meetings 5 after (10:05, 10:35) does help somewhat because I totally agree

[Gummi @gummibear737]

Gummi Bear's Top Ten Reasons Republicans think the 2020 Election was Stolen

Let's not forget that Democrats went into the 2020 Elections with more suspicions

Read the full article on substack

This tweet thread contains just the Top 10 List

1/4
https://t.co/cc9maabH2h

[Mark Conrad @markaconrad]

"Thinking is more expensive than typing."

[Jason Swett @JasonSwett]

I once stared at a piece of code for 15 minutes trying to figure out what "par" meant.

Eventually I realized it was "parent".

Someone saved 50ms by not typing "ent". The savings was paid for by 15 mins of frustration.

Don't abbreviate. Thinking is more expensive than typing.

[Mark Conrad @markaconrad]

I thought this was a good reminder https://t.co/dY9eb6RxSE

[Mark Conrad @markaconrad]

Sometimes you should just solve the problem and stop talking about it https://t.co/RM8ne45snW