Notices by Ana Hevesi (anthrocypher@hachyderm.io)

This book having been published in 1998, during the early rise of the internet, is EXTREMELY relevant IMO https://hachyderm.io/@anthrocypher/112711544072548560

Just because large scale social media has trained us out of creating the internet we need doesn't mean we can't have it.

Once upon a time, people designed and curated digital spaces according to their goals and values. We can still do that, and we can use it to meet our missions.

https://www.uploop.dev/blog/internet-we-need/

Loved this episode of the @sustainoss podcast, about @ntnsndr’s book Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life.

I’ve been plagued by frustration for so long now that our online spaces don’t provide sufficient tooling for shared negotiation, instead defaulting to blunt mechanisms for shutting things down.

This was a great discussion about how things could be better.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sustain/id1491968393?i=1000647678964

Really excited to attend my first #PyCon.

What should I know?

Seriously cannot thank #PyConUS organizers enough for the robust public health policy.

As someone who can’t afford to fuck around and find out, y’all’s practices are a game changer. ❤️

Online conflict is one of the scariest things about building something that matters in an internet age

but it doesn't have to be.

Pulling from a lot of firsthand experience, I wrote a guide to help leaders make tense moments with extended constituencies more constructive.

https://www.uploop.dev/blog/make-decisions-to-defuse-online-conflict/

Some takeaways:

- Proactive communication about big, difficult changes can stave off conflict all together

- Just because you're facing a difficult moment with your constituents doesn't mean all is lost; this can be an ideal opportunity to build trust

- When things get hot, gather context before you act. Don't ostrich, but don't blaze in and overreact either

- When people believe in your cause enough to donate free labor, make sure they know their work counts in your ecosystem

Conflict is never easy in the first place, but when you throw the internet into the equation, wild shit can happen.

The internet: it’s for beef.

I get why so many leaders want to avoid harnessing the power of extended constituencies all together. But if you want build something that makes a true difference, I don't think you get there at this point in human history without tapping into the power of the internet.

So let's make it less scary.

https://www.uploop.dev/blog/make-decisions-to-defuse-online-conflict/

In an age where gen AI makes it much cheaper to produce code, the ability to read, comprehend, and review code becomes that much more crucial.

Until and unless businesses and executives recognize this, they won’t actually be able to realize the economic upside of AI because they’ll be too busy creating so many fires which need putting out.
https://cute.is/@keith/112191562540684140

Btw, the insight that reviewing code will become more important than producing code was introduced to me via this paper:

“Taking Flight with Copilot: Early insights and opportunities of AI-powered pair-programming tools”

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3582083

My assertion that grappling with the increasing importance of code review is literally a business imperative came to me while reading @grimalkina @KFosterMarks and @CSLee’s excellent work on AI skill threat:

https://www.pluralsight.com/resource-center/guides/new-developer-research-paper

So, why are so many executives and investors overlooking this very basic reality that code produced is code which must be maintained, and that an acceleration of code produced thanks to gen AI means ~more risk~, not just more $$$?

I have friends who are Principal Engineers asking themselves this very question right now.

And in response, I point us to the classic Upton Sinclair quote:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

This Harvard Business School paper from Hoffmann, Nagle, and Zhou on the estimated monetary value of open source is kind of an incredible feat.

$8.8 trillion, btw.

That's the estimated value of open source, according to these researchers' excellent work.

https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/24-038_51f8444f-502c-4139-8bf2-56eb4b65c58a.pdf

The more I write, the more respect I have for people who conjure whole-ass books

@thomasfuchs This thread is some really important public service. Thank you Thomas!

We've arrived at a place where we have to explain why it is our species has gotten this far, and why we shouldn't ignore those dynamics in our extremely short-term focus on this quarter and maybe the next.

It is, frankly, fucking batshit.

But here we are.

I have a core of compatriots who are trying to make our industry more rigorous, visionary, and kind.

And what I’ve realized in recent weeks is we're all out here working to explicate what’s made our species successful from first principles BECAUSE WE HAVE TO.

Turns out psychological safety isn't a "nice to have”. Turns out balancing competition with cooperation is better for long-term outcomes. Turns out when you show up for people, they want to show up for you. Turns out organizations are comprised of humans, squishy and emergent, and org charts and spreadsheets are only lagging indicators of reality.

We have to stop wasting time on ‘community.’

Software that wins builds movements: people learn to succeed in new ways, and work together to become new versions of themselves.

This doesn’t have to be an accident!

I've been at this for 13 years, and part of why I went independent is that most orgs just don’t think in these terms.

It's been such a blast finding the emerging leaders who DO

https://www.uploop.dev/blog/stop-wasting-time-on-community/

@grimalkina I was having a conversation some years back with someone with a neuroscience PhD and a psych background. I acknowledged that I was feeling real insecurity about having recently joined “a really high performing team”.

She says to me “You know who else is high performing? Dogs in dog shows.”

I will never stop thinking about that.