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Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · 9h

Infrastructure is like crochet hooks.

If we only ever buy the hooks we are absolutely sure we need, each project can require a lot of work to get started. We might give up rather than go to the store for just the one idea.

When we invest in a set of typical hooks, we end up making way more things.

Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · 12h

One challenge I am finding on this campaign: I have great political metaphors that work for very niche audiences.

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Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · 11h

The flow of money represents the wants and needs of everyone in an economy.

The problem with having billionaires is the same problem as trying to add huge numbers to tiny numbers using floating point.

Except that in this case the “tiny numbers” that get lost are “normal people’s wants and needs”.

Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · 12h

One challenge I am finding on this campaign: I have great political metaphors that work for very niche audiences.

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Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · 12h

One challenge I am finding on this campaign: I have great political metaphors that work for very niche audiences.

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Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · Sep 9

I’ve been promoting @cjsprigman.bsky.social’s proposal to limit jurisdiction by creating exceptions, because it is something that legislators could start trying to put into every bill today.

But I’m also running for Congress because I don’t trust the Democratic Rep I’ve got to even try.

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Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · Sep 9

The introduction of machines actually did hurt workers, though, and the recent moves to automate manufacturing have decimated the American middle class.

Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · Sep 3

Yeah, we don’t have a responsibility to robots the way we do to our neighbors. Doing things for robots doesn’t make their life better, because they don’t have one.

That makes taxing automation more useful, tho. Otherwise it is just using public services to take our money & hand it to billionaires.

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Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · Sep 3

They most certainly do: andthewest.stanford.edu/2025/thirsty...

Thirsty for power and water, AI-crunching data centers sprout across the West

With promises of jobs and hopes for tax breaks, server farms are reshaping local grids, plumbing, and politics. Are they a boon for communities, or a burden?

andthewest.stanford.edu

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Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · Sep 1

(If you would like to dream along with me today: secure.actblue.com/donate/bab-b...)

Donate to Beth Andres-Beck

Show your support with a contribution.

secure.actblue.com

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Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · Sep 1

When I was poor sometimes my friends & I would buy a lottery ticket. We didn’t think it was a good deal: we knew the odds. But for $2 we could have an entire afternoon of hope, dreaming of a better world that was even remotely possible.

Anyway, I’ve been donating to other people’s primaries lately.

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Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · Aug 31

“It is our fingers on the keyboard” is one of the important lessons for programmers.

We are accountable to our users and coworkers for the code we write. When we are told to do our job badly, we don’t even have to say “no”. We can just not do that.

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Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · Aug 28

“The Aggregate Demand Curve Is Currently Upward-Sloping” remains the most-accurate protests sign I’ve ever marched with

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Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · Aug 27

Measurement is hard!

Companies either do their work in ways that make it less effective but easier to measure, or they have to practice “delegated management” without that visibility.

Robert Austin: Measuring And Managing Performance In Organizations www.dorsethouse.com/books/mmpo.h...

Dorset House Publishing - Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations

www.dorsethouse.com

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Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · Aug 27

That moment when I was excited to tell @martinfowler.com all about this management book I found that explains why functional companies split into Deserts and Forests, only to discover he had cited the same book twenty years ago in his summary of Agile 🤣

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Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · Aug 24

People hate inauthenticity more than they hate almost anything else.

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Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · Aug 22

I will say “pregnant people”, like a normal American. I’ve never had anyone in real life so much as notice.

I suspect what is actually radical about “pregnant people” is the idea that women don’t stop being people just because they are pregnant. Which just isn’t controversial in Massachusetts.

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Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · Aug 17

Eh, our guesses about what will happen next are more accurate when we believe in consciousness than when we don’t.

I do think there are similar properties at scales bigger than the individual. Like the internet talking about itself, or wanting cat pictures.

But we have more agency than we imagine.

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Beth @bethcodes.bsky.social · Aug 17

My favorite part of running so far is connecting with skeptics.

People have a picture in their head of a “trans socialist”. It isn’t usually a curious motorcycle-riding homeowner with a pickup truck who is nearly impossible to offend.

That moment of confusion can be the start of a conversation.

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